as the sun looked over the eastern mountains, the flag of the confederacy, for the first time in thirty-five years, floated out over a field of battle!

A sound, which was less a cheer than a sob, burst from every throat. There was no word of command or counsel, but, as if in answer to a summons to which there could be no denying, Company A sprang over the ramparts and charged gladly down to death.

Down the green slope-swiftly—unfalteringly, not a man but felt death better than any turning back. A thousand memories of the irrevocable past rose thronging up to each and all. The bullets rained thick among them. Men stumbled-fell-rose-and again. The wounded fired where they dropped, till death found them-and somewhere above all the din and thunder rose the strains of "Dixie." It was the wounded bugler left behind them in the redoubt.

"Look away! Look away! Look away down south to Dixie."

fell

They reached the bottom, and at the sergeant's command went in skirmish order-one half retreating, while the other fired into the ranks of the Chinese, now close behind them; then in their turn passing on up the hill while their comrades kept up the unequal fight; and so came at last to The Boy and the welcome shelter of the rocks. But the dead bodies of twenty of their number marked their course.

They were just in time. Even as they dropped breathless on the summit the main body of Chinese, frantic with rage, came in view on the farther slope of the hill. For five horrible minutes of sickening suspense Company A poured volley after volley into them at point-, blank range, till the baffled foe fled panic-stricken before their deadly aim.

The cowardly Orientals had learned to fear this formidable handful of desperate men now. They turned in fiendish glee to the three wounded soldiers in the redoubt, who were lying in plain view on the top of the powder magazine. All eyes were turned to them-and it was seen that one of them was signalling with a wig-wag flag. Five hundred yel

low devils ran shouting up the hill, and this is what was signaled:

"Save your shots-we will fire powder."

A cheer blew across the valley-Hark! The bugler again! High and clear as the triumphant demons came closer-a hundred and fifty yards-a hundredfifty

"I'se gwine back to Dixie,

I'se gwine back to Dixie!
My heart's turned back to Dixie
I can't stay here no longer——————”
Company A stood bareheaded and
prayed to the God it had scoffed:

"—I hear dem children calling
I see dem sad tears falling,
My heart's turned back to Dixie
And I must go!"

The Boxers swarmed over the wall. An appalling sound as of a thousand thunderbolts-a spurt of flame and firea cloud of dust and smoke that hid the startled sky from the trembling earthand where there had been a green hillside there was now a blackened, desolate heap of torn earth and stones and mangled corpses-while a few mutilated terrified survivors limped down the hill.

Before the smoke had cleared away, The Boy's soldierly eye had seen the opportunity to strengthen his position before the terror and confusion of the enemy subsided. A few brief orders were given, and the men worked as they had never worked before.

Jennings with ten men ran down to the house and brought back water, food, and tools for entrenchment. They divided into squads working five minutes each. They first made a deep shelter for the women, and then threw up a slender ridge of earth from rock to rock; those not working keeping up a steady fire, replied to in increasing volume by the Chinese. And so the weary day wore on. And all that day the Stars and Bars floated over the Boys in Blue!

If, in its brief and stormy past, that flag had ever stood, in part for any injustice or wrong, on this day of days it stood for naught save Love and Honor. Surely, surely, the Angel of Wrath, though he looked with exultation when that flag went down, defeated, in the

dust and smoke of a thousand battles, yet thrilled with pride and tears and joy to see its silken folds flung to the winds again!

Thrice that long, long day a yellow wave swept up the hill to the little rampart; and thrice the dauntless valor of its defenders made the stubborn circle good. And with each wave brave men gave their souls ungrudgingly to God; and the little garrison grew less and less.

The women bound up wounds and gave drink to dying lips; but none complained, none murmured. At each onset The Boy and Ritter fought in the foremost rank; each setting an example of deadly, desperate courage. And ever as the flood rolled backward, writhing in defeat, The Boy looked up to the faded colors that flew defiantly in the sun, as if to invoke the memories of the mighty dead.

They built in corpses, white and yellow, in their meagre wall; they stripped the dead of their cartridge belts, and the wounded and dying loaded fresh rifles for the thinning number that kept the foe at bay. And the longed-for night

came on apace.

The sun was nearly down when Sergeant Jennings got his death wound. He said no word, but with his last strength walked slowly to a low place in the wall and laid his bleeding body in the gap.

It was done so simply and so much as a matter of course that in the pitch to which the men's nerves were strung, it seemed a perfectly natural action, calling for no protest; and when in the next lull The Boy went to him, his gallant soul had gone to its own place.

A dense throng rushed up the hill for a last charge; and the few feeble survivors braced themselves for a final ef

fort. They rolled huge boulders down the hill into the shrieking seething mass; they loaded every gun and emptied them into the frantic mob-but they came on-on though they fell like wheat-and the foremost were over the rampart.

A fierce short struggle clubbed musket against sword and knife; thrusting, striking, stabbing, swaying-then the thunder of horses' feet-the crash of regular volleys-the ringing Anglo-Saxon cheer! Help had come, and the ignoble hosts had fled in fear, while the long-range rifles exacted fearful vengeance from them.

And the rescuers, English and American, looked and wondered, while Union Jack and Old Glory were lowered once and again in reverence to a fallen and discredited flag.

They came to the rampart, over a slope slippery with blood, strewn with corpses, trampled into mire by a thousand feet. Two weeping women knelt beside the prostrate form of the old missionary. Five weary, wounded, powder-blackened soldiers stood grimly at attention. A bare-headed man Covered with blood and dust, saluted with a broken sword, and said:

"Sir-I have the honor to report . . ." The blood gushed to his lips; he turned to where, in the last rays of the sun, the Banner of the Lost Cause waved in triumph over its last battlefield-smiled -and fell. The soldier had carried his report to God!

They buried him as was fitting and proper-his ragged flag around him, his broken sword in his hand. There be many men who sleep so for that flag -many swords that have been broken in its defense-none better, none braver, than these.

At a meeting of the New York Railroad Club, September 18, 1902, the following report was made by a special committee, and the secretary was directed to take the necessary action to carry out the purposes of the report of the committee. The naming of this committee and the committee's report were the result of a request from the Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission for suggestions in connection with the report of that Commission. The report is a high compliment to the Interstate Commerce Commission, and especialy to its inspectors and to Secretary E. A. Moseley, who has direct charge of this work.

Gentlemen: Your committee appointed to act upon the suggestions of Mr. Edward A. Moseley, Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, regarding the report on safety appliances, as made by the Commission, and with the end in view of drawing out ideas and suggestions which will add to the value of information in future reports, is of the opinion that the report is very complete and the committee can suggest nothing to improve it, believing that the Commissioners who gathered together the information are better able than your committee to bring out suggestions.

The report certainly is tabulated in such a way as to call attention to all the defects in the air brakes, couplers, etc. The Commissioners should be commended for the very efficient corps of inspectors which they employ, the inspectors all being practical men, who report only such things as are real defects. The reports which are made to the railroads are always taken up with the railroad inspectors so as to call their attention to the importance of knowing that all defects in couplers, air brakes, sill steps, hand-holds, and in fact everything that relates to the safety of life and limb of trainmen are carefully inspected, and, if defective, repaired before the car is allowed to run in service. The Interstate Commerce Commission's

inspectors have done good work and have done it thoroughly, and they have met with the hearty co-operation of all those in charge of Motive Power and Rolling Stock departments.

Your committee might go on and call attention to the facts as drawn out by the commission's report, but thinks it useless as the report no doubt has been thoroughly read by us all; your committee has, however, drawn up a summary of the defects as outlined in the commission's report, and calls attention to the per cent increase or decrease of defects for the year ending June 30th, 1901, as compared with the nine months ending June 30th, 1900, as follows:

ism makes the best showing, the increase in the number of defects of this class being but 144.44 per cent as compared with 458.18 per cent increase in the total number of cars inspected. The defective visible parts of air brakes makes the poorest showing, which is due to the fact that according to the report of the

Interstate Commerce Commission prior to August 1st, 1900, their inspectors did not devote particular attention to defective air brakes. F. W. BRAZIER, L. T. CANField, W. L. DERR, Committee.

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Labor Organizations of Kansas City, Fellow Citizens:

We do well to celebrate Labor day. It is fitting, indeed, that one day in all the year should be dedicated solely to the interests of labor; that we should turn aside from our accustomed activities and pay tribute to it. In almost every city, village and hamlet, from one end of the republic to the other, countless thousands are rejoicing in a day which, by congressional and legislative act, and by common consent, is set apart in nearly every state in the Union, in the District of Columbia and the territories, in order that we may take note of the interests of that vast army which follows the banner of labor. It is well that we should pay our tribute to this potent influence in building up and making great and strong the republic. No other has done so much in bringing the country to its present position of strength and power-the very greatest among the nations of the earth. It is a fitting time to teach our children that labor is honorable, and that only through it can we possibly hope to achieve the beneficent ends for which society is established or government founded. So long as labor is deemed honorable there need be no concern as to the future. There is peril only when labor is regarded as degrading.

We are essentially a nation of labor

ers, and we have no hospitality for human drones. Indeed, the nation is the rich fruit of labor, for our ancestorsnoble and splendid men and women they were-with their strong right arms carved out of the wilderness this great republic. They felled the forests, founded mighty cities, spanned rivers and knitted together all sections of the country with vast highways of commerce and the telegraph. They have reclaimed the waste places, and on every hand have taught the necessity and the true virtue and dignity of labor.

There are many questions which yitally affect labor, and which have received and are receiving the earnest attention of publicists and economists. It is a gratifying fact that more people are studying labor problems today than ever before, and that those who are disposed to study them are no longer regarded as singular, but as sober thinkers, desirous of promoting justice, elevating the condition of their fellow men and advancing the well being of society. No higher motive than this can actuate men.

We are so bound together as a people that we are necessarily concerned in each other's welfare. Whatever adversely affects any considerable number of our population adversely affects, in a measure, all others, and, conversely, what benefits any considerable number necessarily benefits, in some degree,