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Items of Interest Gathered Here and There
Tate and a
It is interesting and somewhat curious to note the
persistence with which misfortune has dogged the
name of “John” when borne by royal persons, al
though no ill omen seems to attach to it in the
case of ordinary citizens.
For instance, King John of England has always
been regarded, whether altogether justly or not,
as a most infamous prince. John of France was tak
en captive by the Black Prince, and John Balliol of
Scotland was most thoroughly despised by his coun
trymen on account of his fawning attitude toward
the English. Robert 111. of Scotland changed his
name from John, but this did not save him from
hisi destiny. He himself was a cripple and died of
a broken heart, the most tragic fates having over
taken all most dear to him.
John I. of Bohemia was blind. The Pope John
I. was imprisoned by the king of the Goths, and
Pope John X. was driven from Rome by the Duke
of Tuscany. Pope John XI. was imprisoned by
his brother and is supposed to have been poisoned,
a fate similar to that of Pope John XIV. Pope
Jbhn XV. was forced to flee from Rome and died
of fever in Tuscany. John XVI., dubbed the “an
tipope,” after a troubled career, was brutally tor
tured and consigned to a dungeon for the brief re
mainder of his life.
John L of Constantinople was poisoned, John 11.
was killed while hunting wild boar, and John 111.
was dethroned, his eyes put out, and he was left
to die in prison. John L. of Castile was killed by a
fall from his horse.
. This is not by any means a complete list of the
unlucky Johns, but it serves to show the fatality
which seems to cling about the name in so far as
royalty is concerned. —The Chicago Record-Herald.
Congressional Economy.
In the run of the year the average citizen rarely
thinks to inquire whether his benevolent relative,
Uncle Sam, ever has trouble keeping up improve
ments and meeting bills. But there are times when
all of us should understand enough of government
finance to be sympathetic and patient. One of
these periods is just now. Every morning in Wash
ington there is laid upon the desks of representa
tives and senators a statement from the United
States Treasury. Congress approaches its closing
acts in revenue legislation. A presidential cam
paign follows upon its adjournment, and the party
in power has self-existence as well as prudent na
tional finance to consider. As a business body
congress must recognize facts of income and expen
diture as facts, and remember that excessive liber
ality in appropriations may work disaster in a pe
riod when confidence and work are but slowly re
turning to normal condition. In short, congress
must really practice economy this year, for this is
the situation: A year ago the receipts for the fis
cal year ending June 30 exceeded expenditures by
$55,000,000. Today instead of a surplus there is a
deficit for the same period of $46,000,000, and the
fiscal year is not yet run. By the end of June
the deficit of 1908 will probably equal the sur
plus of. 1907. At this writing the expenses of the
government since July 1 last have been about
$540,000,000, compared with $478,000,000 last year.
The increases seem unavoidable, occurring in such
items as, in round numbers, $22,000,000 for the
navy: $17,000,000 for civil and miscellaneous;
$15,000,000 for public works, $12,000,000 for pen
sions, and only $5,000,000 for the army. But grant
ing these increases appropriate there is not a cor
responding increase in income with which to meet
them. Custom receipts for the year have dropped
from about $271,000,000 to $239,000,000; internal
revenue receipts from $216,000,000 to $204,000,000;
while the total shrinkage is the difference between
$533,000,000 and $493,000,000. Now while the gov
ernment is not penniless and a continual borrower,
the treasury’s available cash balance of, say, $250,-
000,000 cannot be unceasingly drawn against with
out thought of the future, and, moreover, congress
is now studying where to save lest in the fall when
The Golden Age for May 7, 1008.
the crops move the government be forced to tighten
the money situation by withdrawing from the banks
some of the $200,000,000 of the $250,000,000 consti
tuting its aforesaid available cash balance. In other
words the government carries as a working balance
but $50,000,000, and its daily business is so great
that this cannot safely be depleted. Because of
such conditions congress is studying prudence, puz
zling over an emergency currency bill, and trying
to cut its coat to its cloth. Wherefore congress will
probably refuse appropriations to projects of the
highest merit simply because they are classed with
undertakings which for reasons economic and polit
ical can better be taken up at another session.—
The Standaid.
The Road to Content.
It is frequently said that a family can live for
much less in England than in America, although
the details are seldom given in support of the state
ment. A committee of representative English work
ing men,' which visited America not long ago, has
reported that there is practically no difference in
the price of food in the two countries, and that
in some parts of England provisions are more ex
pensive than in New York.
Rent is higher here than in Great Britain. But
even with the greater rent the American working
man is better off, for his wages are so much higher
than those paid on the other side that, as the com
mittee has reported, the American can save two dol
lars as easily as the Englishman fifty cents.
The contented workman is the one who saves
fifty cents or two dollars, rather than the one who
complains that his wages are so small that he can
save nothing. The newspapers noted the death the
other day of a man in Scotland who had never
earned more than eight dollars a week, yet had
educated two of his five children well enough for
them to enter the learned professions, and had a
surplus of movable property worth two thousand
dollars.
There is in a New England town a shoe-worker
who, when he was a young man, resolved that he
would save enough out of his wages to be able to
retire and live on his interest at the age of sixty.
He retired at tlie age of fifty-eight, with a home and
a competency; yet he never received more than fif
ten dolars a week.'
It is men of this type the world over who are the
bone and sinew of their respective countries. In
democracies such as England and America they
control in a real sense the national policies. The
cost of living does not trouble them very much, for
they have schooled themselves to adjusting their
immediate wants to the necessity of providing for
a future when they may rest from their labors. —
The Youth’s Companion.
Preachers Who Plagiarize.
The editorial writer who acquires his ideas from
his exchanges and sets them forth as his own is
found in the large majority of our newspaper of
fices, and is commonly regarded as a worker of
commendable industry and discrimination, but when
such a character appears in the pulpit, he is dragged
to the pillory at once. The Rev. Dr. W. E. Barton
has been making an investigation of this matter
and presents his findings in The Advance (Chicago).
The evidence is furnished by the preachers them
selves. One minister on the Pacific Coast- sends to
Dr. Barton “a sermon printed by a minister of an
other denomination, which he has annotated with
references to sermons of Beecher and Talmage, giv
ing volume and page for each quotation.” The let
ter which Dr. Barton received accompanying this
sermon is as follows:
“There does not seem to be any unanimous agree
ment as to what constitutes criminality in this mat
ter. Condemned in one locality we might be ac
quitted in another, or the Supreme Court, if ap
pealed to, might declare us all innocent. What is
the court of last resort on this question 1 ? Evidently
we preachers of the rural communities do not steal
any more than you of the great cities. There is
perhaps more conscience on all moral questions in
the country than in the town. The frontier of
American society is much nearer Wall Street than
the Rocky Mountains.
“Two years ago when earthquake and fire made
San Francisco a ruin, the Brooklyn Eagle published
two pages of sermons which had been preached
about the great calamity. Several of these ser
mons showed their leading ideas and even phras
ing to have been taken from sermons preached by
Beecher and Talmage on the Chicago fire of 1871.
But, strangest of all, this paper had a special from
Oakland, Cal., reporting a sermon by a leading
Methodist preacher of that place, which was an elo
quent description of the earthquake and fire and
the lessons to be drawn from them. Now, this ser
mon, telegraphed across the continent, was pieced
together almost bodily from sermons of Beecher
and Talmage, especially from Beecher's sermons,
down even to the last final appeal for help for the
sufferers! These sermons and the plagiarized ones
are open before me as 1 write and 1 have just com
pared them. I prepared a sermon on this same ca
lamity, and was drawing on Beecher and Talmage
when The Eagle arrived containing the sermons of
the metropolitan divines. What was my surprise
to find that they had been stealing from the same
sources I was using! I then added their produc
tions to those of Beecher and Talmage and stole
some from all of them, but hardly as much from
all as one of them had stolen from Beecher alone!
If such things are done by the city preachers what
may be done by the beginners in the remote rural
districts'?
“But one thing is certain, whether borrowed, stol
en, oi’ evolved altogether out of the inner conscious
ness, no sermon will be vital or accomplish much
in the hearers, which has not first been vital in,
and flames out of, the deepest experience of the
preacher. ”
Another minister writes Dr. Barton that he bor
rows from all sources, even from himself, and ex
plains the latter by saying that his wife detected
him in repeating a sermon that he had first preached
not a long time previously. “But we kept quiet,”
he says, “and the people thought it was a new
sermon.” Another gives this incident:
“A classmate was out candidating and preached
one of Talmage’s sermons. A young man on the
field who was looking forward to the ministry had
read this sermon to the audience a short time be
fore and made a study of it tor them. The people
recognized the sermon and, turned him down? No,
indeed! They called him and lived happily with him
as long as he wanted to stay.” —The Literary Di
gest.
M *
Manicuring an Elephant's Foot.
Accustomed to the dry climate of the Indies,
the elephants imported to temperate and rainy
countries are subject to many diseases of the flesh
and skin to which the veterinary surgeons of nation
al and municipal zoological gardens are compelled
to give the closest watch. The smallest scratch on
the sole of an elephant’s foot is apt to become
serious, unless immediately treated with an antisep
tic, and the horny substance of the fact, not
being exposed to the wear produced by roaming
through the wilderness, grows in captivity as rapidly
as the finger nails of a human being. An illustra
tion in the May number of Popular Mechanics shows
a veterinary surgeon trimming these nails with a
chisel and mallet.
The most difficult of all the virtues to ’cultivate
is the forgiving spirit. Revenge seems to be natu
ral to the human heart; to want to get even with
an enemy is a common sin. It has even been
popular to boast of vindictiveness; it was once
inscribed on a monument to a hero that he had re
paid both friends and enemies more than he had
received. This was not the spirit of Christ. He
taught forgiveness and in that incomparable prayer
which he left as a model for our petitions He
measured our forgiveness by our willingness to for
give.—William J. Bryan.
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