The Open Church from Salina, Kansas • 3

THE OPEN CHURCH 3 turies ago the place was used for a horse market. But earlier still it was the lists where tilts and tournaments were held. In the middle of the cemetery are statues of the reformers, Knox, Melville and Henderson; and there i3 also a statue of Ebenezer Erskine, the founder of the United Presbyterian church. I copied a number of epitaphs of which I give an example in the following: 1809. CMKF CONSTABLE STIRLINGSHIRE.

OUR LIFE IS HUT A WINTER DAV, SOME ONLY BREAKFAST AND AWAY; OTHERS TO DINNER STAY AND ARE WELL FED. THE OLDEST MAN BUT SUPS AND GOES TO BED: LARGE IS HIS DEBT THAT LINGERS OUT THE DAY; HE THAT GOES SOONEST HAS THE LEAST TO PAY. I have just arrived in Glasgow from a tour "Where the rude Trosachs' dread defile Opens on Katrine's lake and isle," or, as it is generally called, the Land of Scott, a reigon consecrated to all time by the deeds of Roderick Dhu, the adventures of the royal James, and the love of the heroic Ellen. In fact every feature of the Trosachs scenery has been seized upon by Scott to give life and character to his poem. Thus, Ellen is made to liken to her impetuous suitor, Roderick Dhu, to the rapid force of the Keltic: "I grant him brave, But wild as Dracklin's thundering wave." The genius of the poet has cast so enduring a halo over many of the Scotch landscapes that they are invested with a glory which even the land of nature has not bestowed upon them.

And yet a more glorious panorama I have never beheld, or again expect to, until "I see the King in His beauty, and the land that is far off." To me the varied effects produced by the atmospheric changes were almost magical, and surely my memory will never let go the "fairy pictures" of Loch Katrine, Ellen's Isle, Loch Lomond, and Loch Vennachar. I do not believe it is within the power of man to adequately describe the pass of the Trosachs, and yet we all aim at the impossible. The coach drawn by four spirited horses and guided by a canny Scot, entered the narrow vale at a good pace. On either side are barriers of rugged mountains, piled up rocks, and hanging copses of rowan, birch, hawthorn and oak all inextricably blended and mingled together with a confusion which seems chaotic, yet with a depth and variety of color, a boldness and variety of form, a general air of savage majesty and overpowering grandeur, which impress the beholder almost painfully, and awaken in him an overpowering sense of awe and mystery. Of all things I wanted to be quiet, and let the inexpressible permeate my being; and I strongly resented the constant chatter of a young couple who were evidently more taken up with themselves than with the wonders around them.

I almost spoke to dress, has been lecturing in the large towns of England upon the subject of negro lynching in America. Her object has been to elicit English sympathy and support for the demand for equal justice for negroes and for whites, and she has been received with much favor, and more particularly by the non-conformist churches. From actual statistics Miss Wells declared that during the past ten years the record of lynchings has increased year by year. In 1882 fifty-two men died by lynching; in 1892 no less than 164 men and 5 women were so treated. In 1893 there were 169 lynchings, of which four were women, and in three cases the persons were burned to death.

Miss Wells gave descriptions of several lynchings, and I am told brought forth the Salina case as that of a respectable young colored man who had merely had a quarrel with a station agent, and yet a howling and devilish mob took Adams out of the sheriff's hands and lynched him, notwithstanding the fact that the court had tried him and duly sentenced him, and that it all happened within 48 hours. It made a bad showing for Salina, though the real facts were not correctly set forth. there can be no valid plea of justification advanced in regard to this, or other lynchings. Anarchy is the logical result of such a condition of things, and it is time that the United States made all who participate in a lynching realize that they are murderers. Miss Wells did not claim that all those persons who had been lynched had been innocent, for black men, like white men, were not immaculate, but she claimed that the condition of things which left to any enemy the power to consign a negro to death without trial, with the most horrible barbarities, should not be tolerated, etc.

There are many far-seeing men who connect the lawlessness in the great railway strike which, at the time of my writing, is attracting the attention of the civilized world, with this matter of lynching. Law is held in contempt, and human life becomes cheap such is the demoralizing effect on the public mind. And such is the sad spectacle we see in Chicago and elsewhere, and the outlook is dark and ominous. From the distance, with nothing but the newspapers to rely upon, it looks almost as if a condition approaching civil war was reigning in the most advanced country in the world. With the torch of the incendiary already applied and men and women ruthlessly shot down, the scene resembles the Commune of Paris more than a labor strike.

May God give wisdom and strength in this hour of trial And yet the inevitable conflict between capital and labor is looked upon with grave apprehension in Great Britain. It is imminent, and all the tendencies are socialistic so far as I can judge. We have days before us that will try the souls of men, and the closing years of the nineteenth century will be memorable beyond all others. Only the application of the teachings of Jesus Christ will give the true remedy, and alas, His church seems to be largely dead to the social problems of the age. These notes are purely random, and hence the privilege I have of jumping from one theme to another.

I have enjoyed visiting several of the old burial places of England and Scotland, and unhesitatingly give the palm to Sterling Cemetery for beauty and interest. Before it was turned into a cemetery cen.