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easily traveled and abounds in fine camping grounds. The water is drinkable in all the streams. Aside from the sequoias the largest, oldest, tallest and most valuable forest trees found here. There are forests of pine, fir, cedar and many deciduous trees that are fairly royal. There are many shrubs, wild flowers, ferns and mosses of wonderful luxuriance and beauty. It is a park of birds.

In laying out the boundaries of Sequoia National Park some of the most superb of American scenic country was

unaccountably omitted. Just to the north lies the wonderful valley of the Kings River with its spectacular canyon and picturesque mountains, while directly on the east, over the Great Western Divide, lies the valley of the Kings River, widely celebrated for its beauty. Mount Whitney, on its east bank, is the loftiest mountain in the United States. These two districts are easily reached from the national park, of which they are in effect, though not in administration and protection, a natural part.

JOHN MUIR

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow The winds will blow their own into you as sunshine flows into trees. freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.-J. M.

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"Wild Bill Hickok

By Frank M. Vancil

"No more ring the shout and the boisterous laughter,

That told of the joy of the bold cavalier;

Bill's reputation, and which sent many a clever gunman to the famous Boot Hill for burial. His face was long and of a determined cast, with a long,

Who lived out his time, caring naught silky mustache, dropping over a hardfor hereafter,

Counting death as a favor and not as a crime.

"Gone, gone are the boys and the

nights of disorder,

When none but the coward from glory was barred;

Now the grass decks the grave, wild son of the border, And vandals thy headstone have mockingly marred."

ILLIAM Hickok, or as he was most generally known, "Wild Bill," was a native of Illinois, and served with credit all through the Civil War; and after participating in some fierce hand-to-hand encounters with Confederates, in which he showed remarkable bravery, he drifted West and began to play his picturesque part on the wild frontier. While Tom Smith and others made lasting reputations as marshals in the days of gun fighting their fame was as nothing in comparison with that of Wild Bill Hickok, for the reason that Wild Bill had in him just that dash which ever crowns the hero.

Hickok was a man a little above the medium height, and lithe and muscular in build. He had broad shoulders and a tapering waist, the latter being accentuated by a black coat and a low cut vest, the top button of the latter garment being always open. Tucked inside this vest were the weapons which were the foundation of Wild

set, but not cruel mouth. His nose was aquiline, and this, with his piercing blue eyes, gave his face the indefinable stamp of determination that awed many an ambitious bad man. Long, shining curls of chestnut hue swept down to his shoulders. And when this picturesque figure, under a broadbrimmed hat of white felt, strode down the street in any festive cowtown or mining camp, cowboys and miners pitched their revelry in a low tone, and the bullies who were wise were careful to refrain from "starting anything."

Hickok was a young man when he received a commission as deputy United States Marshal, and was assigned to particularly dangerous duty in Western Nebraska, when that country was a terror to all law-abiding citizens. There had been many murders and strange disappearances of immigrants reported from that section, and it was suspected that a gang of murderers had made a practice of intercepting the wagons of travelers, killing the immigrants and stealing the contents of their outfits.

Wild Bill and a partner undertook to ferret out these criminals. They took up their abode as settlers in a cabin on the banks of the Platte River, near the scene of several disappearances, and they became convinced that the work had been done by a crowd of bad men, known as the McCandless gang. There were a number of McCandless brothers in the gang,

and with two or three outsiders, it made a formidable combination. Wild Bill merely waited for something on which to base a move before arresting the ringleaders of the crowd. He had not long to wait, for McCandless brothers were shrewd and suspicious men, and they suspected that the coming of these two quiet strangers boded no good to them. They were particularly suspicious of the one with the shining curls, who had given evidence of astonishing skill with the revolver. They planned to kill Wild Bill and to prove their suspicions afterward. Accordingly, they moved on Wild Bill's cabin one day when the deputy's partner was away fishing. There were seven in the party, all well armed, and such a thing as defeat never entered their calculations.

Bill heard them coming, and divining their purpose, immediately opened fire. Two of them fell dead outside the cabin door. The others rushed in firing, but Wild Bill stood behind the table, with both revolvers speaking in rapid unison. Two more fell inside the door, and a fifth staggered to the table so desperately wounded as to be clear out of the fight. Bill was seriously wounded, but soon only the old man McCandless was left. This leader of the gang was a desperate and resourceful fighter, however, and he closed. with Hickok in a struggle to a finish. Both had their knives drawn, and they hacked and stabbed each other desperately as they rolled about the cabin floor. When Wild Bill's partner came back from his fishing, he found Bill and old man McCandless locked in deadly embrace in the middle of the floor. The old man was stabbed through the heart, and Wild Ball was all but dead from the loss of blood. Two of the McCandless gang lay groaning, mortally wounded, and the others were just where they had fallen -mute tribute to Wild Bill's deadly aim.

Hickok recovered from his wounds, and his fame from this encounter spread all over the West. He wandered about the frontier, being marshal

of many of the wickedest towns. He was in this capacity forced to kill many persons for the reason that gunfighters from all over the West sought him out for the purpose of slaying him. They had no grudge against him, but merely wished the glory of killing the greatest gunfighter of the day. They took pot shots at him from behind doorways, or fired into the open doors of saloons as Wild Bill stood talking. But always their shots went wild, and always Bill's leaden answers were effective. He was unquestionably the most daring and expert gun-man the Great Plains ever produced-far superior to Buffalo Bill, so extensively advertised.

Bill

An instance of the constant danger to which Wild Bill was exposed was shown in Dodge City, Kansas. was in a saloon, talking to the barkeeper, when a man pretending to be drunk, shambled in to within a few feet of him. Then the fellow straightened up, flashing a revolver which he held within a few feet of Bill's breast, exclaiming, jubilantly: "Now, Wild Bill, I've got you."

Without moving his hand from the bar or his foot from the rail, Wild Bill gazed over the man's shoulder, and said, as if addressing some one in the rear: "Don't shoot him in the back."

Fearful of being shot in the back by one of Wild Bill's friends, the man naturally turned his head an instant, and that instant was sufficient for Bill to draw and shoot him through the heart. As the man fell, Wild Bill replaced his hand upon the bar and calmly went on talking, as if nothing had happened. But for his wonderful quickness of thought, as well as of hand, he would have been shot dead in another instant.

But such daring and eventful characters generally die "with their boots on," and such was the fate of Wild Bill. He followed the rush to the Black Hills and located in Deadwood. Some of his old enemies went also, and camped on his trail. While sitting in a saloon, engaged in a social game of cards, with his back to the door, an

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Twenty Billion Slaves to be Freed

By C. T. Russell

Pastor New York, Washington and Cleveland Temples and the Brooklyn and London Tabernacles

"The creature also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God."-Romans 8:21.

T

HIS text, one of the grandest promises for humanity, does not relate to true Christians, but to mankind in general.

True Christians are already set free, so far as their hearts, their minds, are concerned. Saintly Christians are a rarity to-day as they have always been since the Master declared: "Fear not,. little flock; it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom."Luke 12:32.

Not until these shall be perfected by the glorious change of the Chief Resurrection will the time come for delivering the groaning creation from its bondage. In other words, the world's blessing tarries until the completion of the saintly company gathered out of every nation and denomination during the past nineteen centuries, and called in the Bible "The Church of the Firstborns," "The "The Very Elect," "The Lamb's Wife," "The Body of Christ," and so forth.

Jehovah is a God of order. All His good purposes will be fulfilled in a most orderly manner. Six great days of a thousand years each have already passed over us, according to the Scriptures, and have been periods of darkness under a reign of sin and death. During this time God has allowed our race to experiment with sin and to note its bitter results-to experiment

also in endeavors to recover from sin and its penalty, death, with its concomitants of sickness and sorrow. The long schooling of six thousand years is not to be in vain. The lesson that "the wages of sin is death" is not to be lost. Mankind is not to be left to destruction, but is to be recovered. Earth's billions, lying as unconscious in death as the brute, are nevertheless subjects of Divine interest, sympathy and provision. In the Seventh Thousand-Year Day, earth's great Sabbath, assistance will come to our race.

Broad Foundation for Human Salvation

According to the Divine Program, Christ will then be the great King over all the earth, and the great antitypical Priest, to uplift all the willing and obedient. He will be the Antitype of Melchisedec, who was a priest upon his throne. If the Divine purpose had merely been that the Lord Jesus Christ should do this work alone, there would have been no need of His coming into the world nineteen centuries ago to die; for He could have accomplished the entire work at one time. Now, at the beginning of the seventh thousand years, He could have died for man's sins, thus redeeming all from the curse that came through Adam; and then, risen from the dead and glorified with the Father's power, He could immediately have begun His great work of setting free the prisoners of Sin and Death.

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