| Show EDI edl editorials TO R WHOSE axis OX IS GORED NOW tile THE baptist deery weekly gives an account odthe of the conversion of three young t 9 ladled inalea and their choir father from the episcopal church to the ba baptist p faithana fait falt hand and the determined opposition of their relatives to fo their baptism the weekly speaks of the terrible responsibility of ot interfering with the religious rights of thebe these persons persona to the ex extent tent of forbidding their connection with a baptist church and andl asks ado do we live in america Is this the land of religious liberty can such tyranny exist in the nineteenth century and in this land of civil and religious liberty or will public opinion demand that everyone every one shall be permitted to enjoy the right to worship god according to the dictates of conscience to which we respond the baptists have joined all other religious bodies in the tho count country in urging 9 congress and the courts to exercise thia this very species of tyranny against which the weetsy weekly now complains it wab was all ali right when used putdown to mormon religious liberty but all ali allm wrong rong if it interferes in the least degree with baptist religious liberty one mightier than any sect or party or government or court has said with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again and the baptists baptista as well as other denominations will find that it holds true with societies and nations advell as well as individuals the weekly should remember that the whole 61 christian fraternity have been rejoicing over the judicial de ciscon against the mormons cormons Mor mons that while religious opinions are free religious acts may be suppressed Is not nob baptism a religious act AERIAL AND GOVERN government telegraphy SOME bome time ago we referred to the achievements of professor loomis of washington D 0 with his sos bos system of aerial telegraphy that gentleman castill is still pursuing his investigations and conducting experiments peri ments the principal field nield of his operations being in west virginia aerial telegraphy is based on the theory theo ry thau thai at certain elevations there is a natural electric current by taking advantage of which wire wires 8 inay may be wholly dispensed with he claims to have telegraphed eleven miles by means meana of kites flown with copper wire when the kites arrived at tho the same altitude or reached the same current communication by means of an apparatus similar to the morse instrument ment was easy and perfect professor loomis says he has recently discovered that the telephone can be used for this method of communication as well as telegraph instruments and of late he has done dona all his talking with his hia as 20 miles milea away by telephone the connection being entirely y aerial he claims to be able by this method to telegraph the oceana ocean this thid however remains to be proven but bis hid experiments are ar exceedingly exceeding y interesting f and aud are tat ditt ritt unlikely to develop an rett ritt new now ulu much superior stem of genera communication ni cation thau than the thi e best now in use connected with this subject is the question of governmental control of the tele telegraph raph which has several times b aten en agitated in this country and which has been put to the tuat teat in europe not however very much to the encouragement of the advocates of the measure on this side of the tiie atlantic A statistical table giving the re and expenditures of europe an telegraphs for the year ending dec 1877 as compiled from official reports report sj shows that of the following named countries there were only bourin four in which the receipts exceeded the expenses viz germany austro hungary belgium denmark 3 spain france norway the netherlands portugal roumania rou Bou mania manla russia sweden and switzerland francey france roumania russia and switzerland 8 wi tz erland ehland being the only ones of the number wherein the receipts were in excess of the expenditures the telegraph in the remainder neing being maintained at a loss during that year this is pretty conclusive evidence that when under the con t troi to of private corporations the t telegraph Is a touch better bettor paying I 1 investment nv estment than thau when juil jua as ai a 9 government overn ment appendage FAMINE AND pestilence JE N BRAZIL aliimau Alnio uan wo we are lying hying iving ina inh day of railroad sand tele tole telegraphs grahs w when h en the chief news of ot the world worl dib dIs ia brought to our doors every day events eventa of vast magnitude trans trana pire about which wo know little or dr the real significance of which does not impress itself upon our minds in the great variety of items presented it ia Is not ilot strange that most of them attract only passing attention at fen ten alon and few remain stamped I 1 tipon upon th the e mind nor that bomp some which aro are of a startling character should be overlooked or glanced at as of trifling importance we make these remarks in view of the terrible calamities in northeastern brazil about which which we gave some particulars a few weeks ago the fearful nat nut nature ure and extent of the tamine famine and pestilence ceara are but little understood too the public have been informed that people veople were dying in that pro inca vinc from efrom hunger and disease but the horrible details have not been given until quite recently and only brief notices of the scourge have appeared in the newspapers the new york kerald of the dinst contains an elaborate account filling nearly seven columns of close blose print w written ritten by a correspondent on the spot describing the fearful sufferings of the the famine stricken people and the awful condition of the smitten teli teri country from this it appears that the region of the famine is 14 that part of brazil known as the is principal principally lyp a rolling plain lain iain about miles in width atch stretching ine ing westward from the coast 1 between the yda yoa nuu enu cr rs francisco rivers and containing about inhabitants the chief locality of the distress is the province of ceara with a 8 population of the capital pi of which is fortaleza the general population of which is about the people in the bertao are mostly very poor asther as there enre eare are nv no manufacturing interests and the land is chiefly owned by jay a few white proprietors the great bulk oi 01 the population being a mixture of blacks whites and indians agriculture and stock calsing are the usual pursuits and these are dependent upon the winter rains for there are no permanent rivers in that district and in the dry season when the grass is withered and the trees leafless holes have to be dug in in the beds of streams for water for the use of man and beast when the winter months are rain rainless leas less the drouth brings extreme distress jor the people are improvident and live jive from hand to mouth one seasons crop being consumed before another can be raised the early of 1877 were dry the grass dried up there were no leaves on the trees the cattle were moaning meaning for water and the people beau to buffer suffer forwood fori for food the large stock owners bommen ing their cattle to save ale vie he meat and hides bides and t ehe the h e peasant 3 1 begged for a morsel of il flesh esh and dif dir dieg bauch gauch such riots as the country coun t ry afforded r ifford ed which were olea ulea ome m e and some of them poisonous then they began to floca flock into the larger jarger villages and towns in the provinces of ceara and rio grande people began to die of hunger as early as may htay the blazing sun scorched up every vestige of vegetation little towns with a normal population of two or three thousand became crowded with from fifteen to twenty thousand thousands while fortaleza had famishing wretches wretch es camped in its vicinity by the close of the the year girls sold themselves for bread men banded together as rob bers bersand bersana and committed depredations provisions of all kinds rose to prices unreachable by the poor poors private chii chiL charity rity failed to imset meet the tremendous demand and the starving emigrants in trying to reach other provinces dropped dead by the way by hundreds the year 1878 opened dry and aud without a ray of hope the country was blasted the cattle cattie destroyed the cotton and sugar business dead no crops no water in the river beds refugee refuge ess eff sr camped around the towns ang no money in the provincial treasury tre re aspry smallpox small email pox added to the famine famine the following letter letten from a government commissioner at granja gradja a little town near the sea coast will give an idea of the situation and his picture will serve to portray the scenes at other places As I 1 pen these lines I 1 am tormented almost deafened by cries imprecations tears groans of a people driven wild and agonized by famine nakedness and disease A thousand at a time timo they they beg a morsel for the love of god for the divine pity that they may save for a moment some child torn by hunger hunget A grave woman pushed about by the people begs bega to save herself from the monster ster that devours her to save the child in her hei womb another cries for broth for her hub hua band baud who is prostrated almost inanimate by that worst of diseases famine another shows heh her bony body with hardly rags to loverher cover her nakedness a horrible sight eight an other for her husband her son her brother all dying together one just juat cried to ne we help me for the five wounds of christl I 1 am fulling fj this one says senor benor enor listen to me who am dying with my children she cries groans curses but what can cad I 1 do there are many there are B s many aias alas thousands who would have help at once and how shall I 1 help thum when I 1 have no re sources right ight days ago the commission bought provisions and arranged money on the faith of the government which had ed ea resources but these have not comei come we can do nothing and the people are cursing ua us they give only onty to their favori favorites tear 21 the crowd bays and then they cry fiercely you have food for us give it at oncel As the months crept on and no rain except useless showers came down the horror intensified the herald writer says then the whole bewildered famine stricken panic wild crowd came rushing down to Forta fortaliza iezzi lezzi and the coast cules culea food for the road naked sick dying arwa frea vu cf c F chey lrea irea arom irwy man for himself children striving vainly to keep up with their parents crying as they roll over the tough i with bleeding feet and skeleton bodies walking crawling begging where noone could give for how could a man support they were famished when they arted started et three four five days they held hold their way rhen nhen they fell by the roadside and groaned and died some borne pitying hand perhaps threw a handful ot earth over them but for the most part baca was too busy with his own safety to care for others bo 80 our human brothers died horrible stories are told of children devouring rats cats doga carrion and refuse while authenticated statements are made madd of infants being boiled belled and eaten bj by their starving parental tai tal one hundred and fifty th thousand people perished small P pox ox attacked the dirty home homeless lessi iessi naked people and they were tumbled into holes dug in the aandy soil froni from a dozen to twenty ina in a pile the arising from the porous ground was nearly unbearable i and strong men died fr from om asphyxia while digging trenches to bury the dead the herald kerald correspondent visited the spot where 20 bodies were thinly covered up mp in these horrible pits and could scarcely I 1 Y bear the scent for five minutes tte ice ut es the natural query will be what did the government of brazil do while the famine was raging we regret to answer much of the time nothing the provincial governments of the afflicted districts did what they could but the general government at first treated the m matter a ater as an exaggeration bul but t after a a time voted a credit of for a million starving peopled and while the great exodus was going goding on there were two government storehouses at fortaleza full of provisions vis visions lons ions in january a new now ministry was formed which found a deficit in the treasury of but at once furnished aid paper money was issued food and clothing supplied emigration made easy and along in july labor provided for the refugees in cleaning streets I 1 working on government storehouses and in building a railroad from fortaleza to pacatuba Pac atuba 35 miles but the evil consequences of supplying food and raiment on the pauper principle were here manil tested after a few weeks relief the people settled into a condition of mendicancy and idleness and would bot not work when able they drew their rations and spent their time in laziness lazio ess esa if work had been made a condition of supplies for he the healthy great public improvements might have haye been made with the money giyen glyen away hway in gre Ice charity and the people would have been the better forit tor for it but at the latest accounts they had increased in flesh but not in healt hand haud to add to the horrors of the situation a disease similar in all respects respect sto to the black plague in europe had broken out being fatal in its attacks after twenty four hours houm the effect of such a famine and pestilence are one province ceara utterly ruined its population reduced from to and the death rate still enormous and probably deaths in other pro Ances not fully tully reported ma awful mortality is said to exceed anything known in the history of the world bearing in its worst period a higher ratio to the population than that ot of the great plague of london or any of the famous of the old world we have refrained from giving many ef the hor bor horrible details related by the jerald ferald JE correspondent and have only alluded to the subject that our reh rei readers udera may obtain some the terrible scourge which has visited one email small district of country in south bouth america W what h at with plague pestilence famine earthquakes warm warn rumors of warb ware and various troubles that are causing commotion in the earth we may well reflect upon the sayings of the savior in regard to the tokens of his comine coming and those who are wise will discern the deigns cf c f the times prepare themselves for the tribulation at hand and take eare care ca re to be watchful and ready read y for ells bis appearing government versus STATES bights EIGHTS TIIE THE national citizen for february is a double sheet full of well on fi af pf oi on the woman suffrage question the minutes of the convention at washington in w which aich the lady jady delegates from utah participated ci are given at great length and a prominent feature is an ad dress dieas by mrs 11 matilda atilda atlida joslyn gage on united states Righta vs states stater rights which ia Is reported in full it is a very able paper and shows among other points that the doctrine of state rights bights was not of southern origin but started in new calhoun i learned its principles s not in south carolina but at yale college in connecticut from professor D dwight wight and in the law office of parsons in massachusetts mrm gage attempts to prove that the united states have created several classes of voter sand band argues from this their right to confer the suffrage upon women we think khe the lady la is a little mistaken in her position aa As chief justice waite walte of the U 8 supreme court decided in the case of minor vs happersett Happer satt the united states ha has no voters 11 but mrs gage claims that teat while this is the theory yet the united states has practically endowed |
