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NORTH GEORGIA TIMES
S- a CARTER, f Proprietors.
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUN¬
DAY SERMON.
Subject; “Tongh Tiling's in the Bible.”
Txxt: “In which are some things hart I
to be understood."—II Peter iii., 16.
The Bible is the most common sense book
in all tbe world. Bat there are many things
in it which require explanation. It all de¬
pends grand on tbe mood in which you come to this
old book. You may take hold of the
handle of the sword or its sharp edge. You
tiplication may employ on its mysteries the rule of mul¬
or subtraction. There are things,
as my text suggests, hard to be understood,
but I shall solve someof them,hoping to leave
upon ail honest-minded people the impression
that if four or five of them can be explained,
perhaps Hard they thing may all be explained. The
the first: Bible says the
world was created in six days, while geology
says it was hundreds of thousands of years
in process of building. “In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth."
“In the beginning.” There you can roll
in ten million years if you want to.
There is no particular date given—no
contest between science and revela¬
tion. Though the world may have been in
process of creation for millions of years,
suddenly and quickly, aud in one week, it
may have been fitted up for man’s residence.
Just as a great mansion may have been
many years in building, and yet in one week
it may be curtained and cnandeliered and
cushioned and upholstered for a bride and
groom.
You are not compelled to believe that the
world was made in our six days. It may not
have been a day of twenty-four hours, the
day spoken of in the first chaDter; it may
have been God’s day, and a thousand years
with Him are as one day. “And the evening
and the morning ware the first day”—God’s
day. the “And second the day”—God's evening and the morning
were day. “And the
evening and the You morning were the sixth day”
—God’s day. and 1 living in the seventh
day. Gospel the redemption, Sa- bath of ths the world, the day of
week, grandest day of ail
the of in thousands wnich each of day may have been
made up years. Can you tell
me how a man c in get his mind and soul into
such a blasphemous twist as to scoff at that
first chapter of Genesis, its verses billows of
light The surging Bible up from sapphire that seas of glory?
Monday, represents and the light was created
on sun was not created
until Thursday. Just think of it! a book
declaring that light was created three days
before the sun shone! Why don’t you
know that heat and electricity emit light
independent of the sun? Besides that, when
the earth was iu process of condensation,
it was surrounded by thick vapors and the
discharge of many volcanoes in the primary
period, hindered and all light this the obscuration may have
the of sun from falling oq
the earth until that Thursday morning.
Besides that, David Brewster and Herschei,
the astronomer, and all the mo tern mi u of
their class, agree in the fact that the sun is
not light, that it is au opaque mass, that it is
only tbe candlestick that holds the light, a
phosphorescent atmosphere floating around it,
changing and changing, so it is not to be at
all wondered at that not until that Thurs¬
day morning its light fell on the earth. Be¬
side that, tins rocks in erystalization emit
light. There is light from a thousand sur¬
faces, the alkalies, for There instance. The metal
ic bases emit light. was a time in the
history of the world when there were
thou ands of miles of liquid granite
flaming with light. Beside that, it has
been found that there are burns t out vol¬
canoes in other worlds which, when they
were in explosion and activity, must have
cast forth an insufferable light, throwing a
glare all over our earth. Besides that, there
are the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora An
chalis. A book on physical science says:
“Captain Bonnycastle, the coming up the Gulf
of St Lawrence on 17th of September,
1836, was aroused by the mate of tne vessel
in great alarm from an unusual appearance.
It was a starlight night when In suddenly direction the
sky became overcast. the of
the high laud of Cornwallis County an in¬
stantaneous and intensely vivid light, re¬
sembling hitherto the gloomy aurora, and shot dark out on
the sea
on tbe lee bow that was so briii
iant it masthead. lighted everything The light distinctly, even tho
to the spread over
whole sea between the two shores, and the
waves, which before had been tranquil, be¬
came agitated. Captain that of Bonnycgstle blazing sheet de¬
scribes tbe scene as a
of awful and most brilliant light—a long and
vivid line of light that showed the face of
the high frowning land abreast. The sky be
came lowering and more intensely obscure.
Long, tortuous lines of light showed
immense numbers of large The fish darting about
as if in consternation. topsail yard
and mizzen boom were lighted by the glare,
as if gaslights had been burned directly be¬
low them, and until just before daybreak,
at 4 o’clock, the most minute objects ware
distinctly visible.” My of hearers, there are
ten thousand sources light besides the
light Another of the hard sun. thing: The story of ths
deluge and Noah’s there ark. must They have say rained that eight from
the account
hundred feet of water each day in order that
it might be fifteen cubits above tbe bills.
They say that the ark could not have been
large enough to contain “two of every
sort,” for there would have been hun¬
dreds of thousands and hundreds of thou¬
sands of creatures. They say that thess
creatures would havt come from all lands
and all zones. They say there was only one
small window in tbe ark. and that would nod
have given the ark fresh from air suffocation. to keep the animals They in¬
side landed say
that the ark finally on a mountain
seventeen thousand feet high. Neither They say ta.y
do not believe the story. do I. There
is no such story in the Bible. I will tell
you what the Bible story is. I mu9t say that
I have changed my mind in regard to some
matters which once were to me very mys
terious. They are no more mysterious. This
is the key to the facta. This is the story of an
eye witness, Noah, his story incorporated
afterward by Moses in the account. Noah
described tbe scene flood just as it appeared to
him. He saw the and he fathomed
its depth. As far as eye could reach
everything horizon, was covered it up, “ from under the ho
rizon to or. as says,
whole heaven." He did not refer to the
Sierra Nevadas or to Mount Wasaington. for
America had not been discovered, or, if it
hod been discovered, he could not have seen
so far off. He L giving the testimony of an
eye witness. God speaks after the manner of
men when he says everything went under,
and Noah speaks after tho manner of men
when he says everythin? is did need go of under. thinking An
eye witness. There no
that the kangaroo leaped the ocean or that
tbe polar bear came down from the ice.
Why did the deluge come! it came for the
purpose of destroying the outrageous inhabit¬
ants of the then thinly probably populated earth,
nearly all the population, launched. What very would near
the ark before it was
have been tbe use of submerging North
and South America, or Europe, or Africa.
w«m they were not inhabited? And
as to the skeptical suggestion that
iu order to have the water as deep as the Bible
states, it must have rained 800 feet everyday, the
I reply, the Bible distinctly declares falling. that Be
most of the flood rose instead of
(ore the account where it says “tbe win-
SPRING PLACE. GA„ THURSDAY. APRIL 18, 1889.
dows of heaven were opened,” it says,
.“all the fountains of the great deep
were broken up.” AU geologists agree
in saying that there are caverns in the earth
filled with water, and they rushed forth, and
all the lakes and rivers forsook their bed.
The fountains of the great deep were broken
up, and then the windows of heaven were
opened. asked It is a strange thing that we should be
to believe in this flood of the Bible,
and when again geologists the tell us that again and again
out? Just dry earth has been drowned
read of tzrenty open floods. your geology Is and you will
it not strange that
infidel scientists wanting us to believe in the
twenty Hoods of geological discoverv,should,
as soon as we believe in one flood of the
Bible, pronounce us non compos mentis?
Well, then, another thing, in regard to
the size of the ark. Instead of being a mud
scow, as some of these skeptics would have
us understand, it was a magniflcent ship
nearly the as large as the Great Eastern, three
times size of an ordinary man-of-war.
At the time in the world when ship¬
building vessel was unknown, God had this
be constructed, which turned out
to almost in the same proportions
as our stanchest modern vessels. After
thousands of years of experimenting in naval
architecture and in ship carpentry, we have
at last got up to Noah’s ark, that ship lead¬
ing all the fleets of the world on all the
oceans. Well, Noah saw the animal crea¬
tion going into this ark. He gave the ac¬
count of an eye wintnes3. They were
the animals from the region where he
lived; for ths most part they were animals
useful to man, and if noxious insects or
poisonous cipline reptiles went in, it was only to dis¬
the patience and to keep alert the
generations after the flood. He saw them
going in. There were a great number of
them, and he gives the account of an eye
witness. They went in two and two of all
flesh.
Years ago I was ou a steamer on the river
Tay, off. and I I came to Perth, Scotland. I got
and saw the most wonderful agricul¬
tural show that I have ever witnessed. There
were horses and cattle such as Rosa Bonheur
never sketched, and there were dogs such as
the loving pencil of Edwin Landseer never
nor tray el, and there were sheep and fowl
and creatures of all sorts. Suppose
that “two and two” of all the
creatures of that agricultural show
were put upon the Tay steamer to bo
transported to Dundee, and the next dav I
should be writing home to America and giv¬
ing an account of the occurrence, I would
have used the same general phraseology that
Noah used in regarl to the embarkation of
the hrute creation In the ark—I would have
said that thev w >nt in two and two of everv
sort. I would not have meant six hundred
thousand. A common sense man myself. I
would suooose that the oeoDle who read the
lotto- wore commou sense people.
“But how could vou get them into the
ark*” ask infidel scientists. “How could
thev he induced to go Into the ark? He
would havn to Dick them out and drive them
in. and coax them in.” Could not the same
God who gave instinct to the animal inspire
that instinct to seek for shelter from the
storm* ordinary However, nothing more than
animal instinct wa3 neces¬
sary. Have you never been in the country
when an August thunder storm was coming
no end heard the cattle moan at the bars to
in* and s°“n the affrighted fowl go noon
the perch at noonday, calling andheard door, the supplicating affrighted
dog and cat at the
entrance? And are yon surprised that in that
age of the wirld, when there were fever
places of shelter for dumb beasts.at the mut
teringanl rumbling and flashing and quak¬
ing and darkening of an approaching deluge,
the animal creation came moaning and
bleating to the sloping embankment reach¬
ing up to t.ha ancient Great Eastern and
passed in? I have owned horses and cattle
and sheep and dogs, but sheep I never had a horse dog
or a cow or a or a
that was so stupid it did not know
enough to come in when it rained.
And then, that one window in the ark which
afforded such poo- ventilation to th9 crea¬
tures there assemble 1—that small window in
the ark which excites so much mirthfulnes3
on the part of infidels. If thev know as
much Hebrew as you could nut ou
vour little finger nail they wo i! 1 have
known that that word translate I win¬
dow there means window course, a
whole range of lights. Those ignorant in¬
fidels do not know a window pane from
twenty windows. So if there is any criticism
of the ark, there seems to be too much win¬
dow for such a long storm. And as to the
other charge that the windows of the
ark must have been kept shut and con¬
sequently all inside I would have perished
from suffocation, have to say that
there are people in Liverpool this house to-day Barnegat who,
all the way from to
lighthouse, under and for two weeks were kept
deck, the hatches battened down be¬
cause of ths storm. Some of yon, in the old
month time sailing vessels, hatches were down kept nearly a
with the because of
some long storm.
Then infidels say that the ark landed on a
mountain seventeen thousand feet high, and
that, of course, as soon as the animals came
forth they would all be frozen in the ice.
That is geographical ignorance! Ararat is
not hilly merely district, the name for a mountain, but for
a and it may have been a bill
one hundred feet high, or five hundred, or a
thousand feet high on which the ark alighted.
Noah measured the depth of water above the
hill, and it is fifteen cubits, or twenty-seven
feet.
Ah! my friends, this story of the ark is no
more incredible than if you should say to me:
“Last summer I was among the hills of New
England, and there came on the most temfto
storm I ever saw, and the whole country was
flooded. Tile waters came up over the hills,
and to save our lives we got in a boat on the
river, and even the dumb creatures wa3 so
affrighted they came moaning boat.” aud bleating,
until we let them in the same
We are not dependent upon the Bible for
the story of the flood, entirety. AU ages and
all literatures have traditions, broken tradi¬
tions, indistinct traditions, but still tradi¬
tions. The old books of ths Persians tell
about the flood at the time of Ahrimen,
who be so washed polluted the earth that it had
to traditions by a Chaldeans great storm.
The of the sav
that there in the great time when flood,and Xisutbrus he was his family King
was a put
and his friends in a large vessel an d all out¬
side of them were destroyed, aud after a
while the birds went forth and they came
back and their claws were tinged with
mud. Lucian and Ovid, celebrated writ¬
ers, who had never sesu the Bible
described a flood in the time of Deu
- calico. He took his friends into a boat, and
the animals came running to him in pairs.
So all lands, and all ages, and all literatures,
seem to have a broken and indistinct tradi
tion of a calamity Noah’s which Moses, grandly, here incor.
porating ueautifully, account, so sc
cords. so accurate,y, so solemnly re¬
My prayer is that the God who created the
world mav create us anew in Christ Jesus; days
and that the God who made fight three
before the sun shone may kindle in our hearts
a iighf expired; that will burn on long the Goi after who the sun
has and that or¬
dered the ark built and kept open
more than one hundred years that the ante¬
diluvians might enter it for shelter, may
graciously incline us to accept the invitation
which this morning rose in mu3io from the
Tnrone, saying; “Come thou and all thy
house into the ark "
Another hard thing to be understood: The
story that the sun and moon stood still to
allow Joshua to complete his viotory. Infi¬
del scientists declare that brain an impossibility, and strength
hit if a man have
enough to make a clock, can he not
start it and stop it, and start it again
and stop it again! If & machinist have
stren gth and brain enough to make a corn
thrasher, can he not start it and stop it, and
start it again and stop it again! It God have
strength and wisdom to make the clock of
the worlds, universe, the great machinery of the
has He not strength enough
and wisdom _ enough to start it and
stop it, and start it again and stop it
again! Or stop one wheel, or stop twenty
wneels, or stop all the wheels! Is tue clock
stronger than the clock-maker! Does the
corn-thresher know more than the machinist!
Is the universe mightier than its God!
But people ask how could the moon have been
seen to stop in the daytime# Well, if you have
never seen the moon in the daytime, it is be¬
cause you have not been a very diligent ob¬
server of the heavens. Beside that, it was
not necessary for the world literally to
stop. By unusual refractions of the sun's
rays the day might have been prolonged.
iSo that, while the earth continued on
its path in the heavens, it figuratively
stopped. Bible You must remember that these
authors used the vernacular of their
own down. day. The just as you and I say the sun went
sun never goes down. We sim¬
ply Besides describe what appears to the human eye.
could have that, the world, our world,
throwing literally stopped without
the universe out of balance.
Our world has two motions—the
oue around the sun and the other on its own
axis. It might have stopped on its own axis,
while at the same time it kept on its path
through of steller the heavens. So there was no need
confusion became our world slack¬
ened its spaed or entirely stopped in its revo¬
lutions on its own axis. That is none of the
business of Jupiter, or Mars, or Mercury,'
or Saturn, or the Dipper. Beside
that, within the memory of min
there have been worlds that were
born and that died. A few yeara ago
astronomers telegraphed, through the
Associated Press, to all the world—the
astronomers from ths city of Washington—
that another world had been discovore 1.
Within a comparatively short space of time
astronomers tell us, thirteen worlds have
burned down. From their observatory
they notice first that the worlds look
like other worlds, then they became a
deep red, showing they were on fire; then
they hecame ashen, showing they were burned
down; then they entirely disappeared, show¬
ing that even the ashes were scattered. Now,
i say, if God can start a world, and swing a
world, and destroy a world, he could stop
one or two of them without a great
deal of exertion, or he could by un¬
usual refraction of the sun’s rays
continue the illumination. But infidel
scientists say it would have been belittling
tor other worlds to stop ou account of such a
battle. revolutionary Why, sirs, what Yorktown was for
lu tim33, and what Gettysburg
was our civil contest, and what Sedau wa 3
in the Frauco-Gerrasn war, and what Wat¬
erloo was iu the Napoleonic destiny—that
was this battle of Joshua against ths five
allied armies of Gibeon. It was that battle
that changed the entire course of
history. It was battle to
Joshua as important as though a battle now
should occur in which England and the Uni¬
ted States and France au l Germany and
Italy and Turkey and Russia should fight for
victory or annihilation. However much any
other world, solar, lunar or stellar, might be
hastened in it errand of light, it would be
excusable if it lingered in the heavens for a
little while and put down its she it of beams
and gazed on such an Armageddon.
In the early part of this century there was
what was called the Dark Day. Some of
these agsd men may perhaps remember it. It
is known in history as the “Dark Day.”
Workmen at noon went to their homes, and
courts and legislatures adjourned. No
astronomers have ever been able to
explain that dark day. Now, if God
can advance the night earlier than its
time, can he not adjourn the night until
after its time? I often used to hear my
father describe a night—I think he said it
was in 1833—when his nsighbor3 aroused
him in great alarm. All the heavenly bodies
seemed to be in motion. People thought our
earth was coming to its destruction.
Tens of thousands of stars shooting. No
astronomers have ever bean able to
explain that star shooting. Now, does not
your could common sense teach you that if God
start and stop teas of thousands of
worlds or meteors, ha could start and stop
two worlds! If God can engineer a train of
ten thousand worlds or meteors, and stop
them without accident or collision, cannot
ns control two carriages of light, and
and by putting down a golden brake stop the sun,
by puttmg dowu a silver brake stoD th 9
moon! Under this explanation, instead of
of being the Bible, skeptical you about will, when this sublime read passage it, feel
like going down you
more on your knee3 before
God as you read: “Sun, stand thou still
above Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley
of Ajalon.”
Then there is the Bible statement that a
whale swallowed Jonah and ejected him
up on the dry ground in three days. If you
will go to the museum at Nantucket, Mass.,
you will find the skeleton of a whale large
enough janitor, to swallow a mau. I said to
the while I was standing iu
the museum: “Why it does not seem
from tbe looks of this skeleton that
that story in the Book of Jonah is so
plied, very improbable, “it does does There it!” “Ob, no,” he re¬
not.” is a cavity in tne
mouth of the commou whale large enough
for a man to live in. There have been
sharks found again and again with an en¬
tire Bible human nothing body in them. Beside that, the
says about a whale. It says;
“The Lord prepared a great fish;” and
there are scientists who tell us
that there ware sea monsters in other days
that made the modern whale seem very in¬
significant. New Testament I know in one place in the
it speaks of the whale as ap¬
pearing tioned, but in the occurrence word I have just men¬
the may just as well be
translated ‘‘sea monster”—any kind of
a sea 533, monster. Procopious says, in the
year a sea monster was slam
which had for fifty years destroyed
ships. I suppose this sea monster that took
oara of Jonah miy have been one o£ the
great sea monsters that could have easily
taken down a proohet, an l ha c mid have
lived there three days if he had kept in
motion so as to keep the gastria juioes from
takiu; hold of him and destroying him,
and at tbe end of three days the monster
would naturally be sick enough to
regurgitate friends, Jonah. Beside that, my
there is one word which explains the
whole thing. It says. “The Lord prepared a
great fish.” If a ship carpenter prepare a
vessel to carry Texan beeves to Glasgow, 1
suppose it can carry Texan beeves; if a shir
carpenter prepare a vessel to carry coal to
one of the northern ports, I suppose it oan
carry coal; if a ship carpenter pre.
pare a vessel to carry passengers to
Liverpool, Liverpool; I suppose it can carry passengers
to and if the Lord prepared a fish
to carry one passenger, I suppose it oould
carry a passenger and the ventilation have
been So all all right. the
be explained strange if things in the Bible
can you wish to
have them explained. And you oan
build them into a beautiful and health¬
ful fire for your hearth, or your can with
them put your immortal interests into con¬
flagration. But you had better decide about
tbe veracity of the Bible very soon. I want
this morning to caution you against putting
off making up your mind about this book.
Ever since 1773 there has been great
discussion as to who was the author
of Junius’s Letters, those letters so full
of sarcasm and vituperation and power.
The whole English nation stirred up with it.
Mora tUan a hundred volumes written to
discuss that question: “Who was Junius?”
“Who wrote the letters of Junius'” Well,
it is au interesting question to discuss, but
still, after all, it makes but little prac¬
tical difference to you and to me who
Junius was, wnether Sir Philip Francis, or
Lord Cdatham, or John Horne Tooke, or
Horace Walpole, or Henry Grattan, or any
one of the forty-four men who were seriously
charged with the authorship. But it is an
absorbing question, it is a practical question,
it is an overwhelming question to you
and to me, the authorship of this
Holy Bible—whether the Lord God of
heaven or earth or & pack of dupes,scoundrels
or impostors. We cannot afford to adjourn
that question a week or a day or an hour,
any more than a sea Captain can afford to
say: have “Wall, tnis is a very dark night. I
light really lost my bearings: there is a
out there. i don’t know whether
it is a lighthouse or a false light on
the shore, I don't know wuat it is; but
I’ll just go to sleep and in the morning I’ll
find out. ' In the morning the vessel might
he on the rocks and the beach strewn vvitn
the white faces of the dead crew. The time
for that sea Captain to find out about the
lighthouse is before he goes to sleep. Oh,
my friends, I want you to understand
that in our deliberations about this Bible wa
are not at calm anchorage, but we are
rapidly with coming toward the coast, coming
all the furnaces ablaze, coming at the
rate of seventy heart throbs a minute, and I
must know whether it is going to be harbor
or I shipwreck.
fact was that so glad to read in the papers of the
the steamship Edam hid come
safely Persian into Monarch, harbor. plowing A week before the
the Narrows, its way toward
a hundred miles out, saw sig¬
nals of distress, bore down upon the vessel
and found it was the stearasnip Edam. She
had lost her propeller. She had two
hundred passengers on board. The raere.ful
ored Captain of the Persian Monarch endeav¬
He fastened to bring her in, but the tow line broke.
it again, but the sea was rough
and the tow line broke again. Then the
night Persian came on and the merciful Captain of
the Monarch "lay to,” think¬
ing in the morning he could give rescue
to the passengers. The morning came, but
during the night the steamship Edam had
disappeared, Persian Monarch and the Captain of the
harbor saying how brought his vessel into
ho sad he felt lie.
canse could nob give complete
resiue to that lost ship. I am glad
that afterward another vessel saw her and
brought her into safety. But when I saw
the story of that steamship Edam, drifting,
drifting, drifting, I do not know where, but
with no rudder, no lighthouse, m harbor, no
help, filel, drifting, I said: “That is a skeptic,that is an iu
where he drifts.” drifting, drifting, not knowing
And then,wheu Ithought of
the Persian Monarch anchored iu harbor, I
said: “That is a Christian,that is a man who
does all he can on the way,crossing the sea to
help others, coming perhaps through a very
rough voyage into the harbor, there safe and
safe forever.” Would God that there might
be some one to-day who would go forth
and bring in these souls that are drifting.
In this assemblage, how many a
score shall I say, or a hundred, or a
thousand !— not quits certain about the truth
of tne Bible, not certain about ary thing.
Drifting, would drifting, drifting. Oh, how I
like to tow them in. I throw you
this cable. Lay hold of that cable of the
Gospel. The harbor Lay hold of it. I invite you all in.
all the shipping. is wide Come enough, in, O large enough wand for
the deep. Drift you erers
on no more, drift no
more. Come into the harbor. See the
glorious lighthouse of the Gospel. “Peace
on earth, good will to men.” Come into the
harbor. God grant that it may be said of
all of you who are now drifting in your un¬
belief as it might have bean said of the pas¬
sengers of the steamship of Edam, and as it was
said ceuturies ago the wrecked co-.i shii:
of Alexandria, “It came to pass that V all
escapel f i ” .
sa “ •
The Nile Criers.
When the inundation approaches the
the capital—usually middle July—the at tbe end of June or
of Nile criers be¬
gin These their work.
criers are men whose business
it is to call out, or rather to reoite be¬
fore the houses of those who wish it,
how much the Nile has risen during the
last twenty-four hours, says London
Tit-Bits.
The Oriental does everything, no
matter what it is, gravely, slowiy, with
much dignity and verbosity, and is
never Even the obarry form of of his time or breath.
his greeting in the
street is a complicated ceremony of
words and motions, whioh usually takes
some minutes this to perform. And in the
same way announcement of the
river’s rise, which seems to us snob a
simple matter, is a most serious uffair.
The day before the crier begins his
talk, bo goes through the streets accom¬
panied chorus, by a and boy, whose part it is to act
as to sing tiie responses at
the proper moment. The crier sings:
“God has looked graciously upon the fields,”
Response:—“Oh I day of glad tidings.”
“To-morrow begins the announcement,”
Response:—“Mby it be followed by suc¬
cess. ”
Before the crier proceeds to give the
information so much desired, he intones
with the boy a lengthy, alternating
chant, in whioh he praises God, implor¬
lievers, ing blessings on the prophet and all be¬
and on the master of the house
and all his children.
Not until this has been carefully gone
through does he prooeed to say the Nile
has risen so many inches.
This ceremony is carried on until tho
month of September, when the river
has reached its oulminating point, and
the crier, as bringer of such good news,
never fails to claim his “baksheesh,” or
drink money—sometimes humbly and
sometimes, too, very imperiously.
Two Apiarian Freaks.
At a meeting of tbe Entomological
Sofciety of France, Mr. H. Lucas exhib¬
ited two specimens of tbe honey-bee,
which were collected near Bordeaux,
and which were remarkable from the
fact that in the one the left eye is small,
while the right developed eye, on the contrary, is
strongly beyond the median and even extends
part of the front.
With the other specimen the exact con¬
trary occurs, and it is the left eye which
is more developed than that of the rig-lit
side, whioh is plainly smaller. On ac¬
count of this extremely remarkable
anomaly, it could be said that these
bees, from this character, belong upon
the one side to the male sex, and upon
the other to the neuter ,—Insect Life.
Vol. IX, New Series. NO. 11.
THE SAMOANS.
Islands That Have Caused an
International Rumpus.
Character of the Natives, and
How They Live.
Charles D. Almy, a traveler of consid¬
erable experience, now a resident of
Grand Rapids, Alich., lias the
following story to tell of the Samoan or
Navigator’s Islands, in the South Pa¬
cific:
Of the Samoan group the Savaii,
Upolu, lutuila and Mauna islands arc of
the greater importance and are distanced
some 3000 miles from Sydney and 5000
from San Francisco. They are scattered
over a space of about 400 miles and in¬
habited by people adhering to the same
customs, believing in the same religion
and governed by the same laws.
Geographically the islands arc volcanic
in nature, usually high and mountainous.
There are several volcanoes, though long
since extinct, which give to its scenery a
picturesqueness like unto the Islands of
Japan with its grand Fusi Amya tower¬
ing majestically 14,000 feet above the
level of the sea. Though its harbors
are open they are well protected by a
coral reef which extends nearly the en
tire circumference of the group. The
rocky foundation is generally covered by
a rich earth in which the bread-fruit, ba
nana, cocoanut, nutmeg, sugar cane, pine¬
apple and other tropical products thrive
to a remarkable degree. Those articles
are the stock in trade of the 40,000 in¬
habitants, who in themselves are worthy
of much more study than is generally ac¬
corded them by the outside world. They
are models in physique. Tall, well pro¬
portioned, clean of limb, graceful in poise
or movement, and except the nose, of
well-defined features, they stand physi¬
cally without a peer in the great human
family. Their nomadic life gives to
their character a dignity often wanting
in more advanced racos. Kind, goner
ous, thoroughly hospitable, they know
but little of what is termed poverty.
Their social system is semi-communistic;
free to borrow, ready to lend. If a
house is to be const! ucted members of
the family or clan contribute their share
gladly; if one is without a home he is
a welcome guest at another’s table as
long as lie wishes to remain. This free¬
dom and want of responsibility has but
little to do with their unprogressivcncss.
Their honesty and sense of duty prevents
the abuse of such a social
system. Theirs is largely a patriarchal
form of government, the sovcrcignship
resting in chiefs of clans and the com
mon consent of a big chief, These ti
tics are not hereditary, but often are be
stowed in acknowledgment of valor or
to win over a powerful leader of another
family. The flowers of manhood arc
kept as body guard , and during peace
are waited upon and lionized by the rest
of tho family. Matting, war imple¬
ments, canoes and native cloth arc manu¬
factured by artisans, and ore tho circu¬
lating medium of the S:\momesc. The
women occupy a higher position in the
family circle than is generally customary
with islanders.
The port of Apia is situated on the
northern coast of Upolu, and since the
intioluction of steamship lines in the
South Pacific is recognized as tho com¬
mercial center of the group. It boasts
of a population of 1500, missionary
chapels, schools and a printing house.
There are several consular dwellings, and
tourists find rather comfortable quarters
at a place ■which tho inhabitants call a
hotel. While the foreigners livo in the
modernly constructed house tho natives,
except a few of the more opulent, still
retain the architectural styles established
by the aboriginal man. These are circu¬
lar in form, of from 30 to 40 feet in di¬
ameter, and arc principally roof. Posts
about four feet high and situated some
four or five feet apart from the foundation.
The roof is thatched, usually of sugar¬
cane leaves, and rises, cone-shaped, £0
feet above tho ground. It is so con¬
structed in four parts that it may be eas¬
ily taken down and shipped to any desti¬
nation without damage to it. The aper¬
tures between the foundation posts serve
as doors and windows during the day
and as walls and protection at night by
dropping curtains of matting. The house
has but one room which serves well the
purpose of drawing-room, sitting-room,
bed-room and kitchen, For sleeping
purposes for the several members of the
family, tents of matting are put up and
•eparatc apartments are a condition and
not a theory. The bed of a Samoancse
is got up with due regard to expense but
at a total disregard to comfort. It con
sists of three or four layers of matting
laid on the hard, smooth ground, on
which none but a native could hope for
rest. The pillow is a piece of thick
bamboo about fivo feet long and support¬
ed by legs three inches high.
The garb of the women differs from
the men’s in that it is a little longer.
This garb worn by both sexes was often
made of plaited work which took months
aud sometimes years to construct, and
when once washed was of no service. In
duties about the house they are particu¬
larly neat; also in personal habits.
Though usually the people go barefooted,
sandals of plaited seaweed are some¬
times worn, particularly when at work
along the shell-lined beach. On stato
occasions the toilet is elaborated by rub¬
bing the body with a highly and not
pleasantly scented oil, often mixed with
tameric, to give tho skin a yellowish
tint. The older custom of doing up tho
liair is still adhered to by those less ad¬
vanced. This is a pompadour extending
straight up from the head from twelve
to eighteeen inches and surrounded by a
band at tho centre, which gives them
the appearance of carrying on their head
a sheaf of wheat. To give the hair an
auburn or reddish hue, which is looked
upon as being the proper caper, it is
bathed daily iu a solution, of which lime
is the chief ingredient. This makes it
crisp and stiff, and helps the better to
keep it in place. In Pang Pango tho
tub is still doing duty for tho mirror.
Both men and women are very fond of
jewelry. They delight in decorating
themselves in strings of shells, which,
considering ther facilities, they succeed
in bringing to a high state of polish.
For amusement the dance takes first
placo. Their dress ball is generally a
daytime affair, and, differing from tho
evening party, iB indulged in by both
sexes. The evening party is for the men
only, though women are always in at¬
tendance, as spectators, only. Tho
dance consists of an irregular series of
evolutions more after tho stylo of “Si¬
mon says thumbs up,” for what tho
leader does so do they all. The music
is produced by men and women pound¬
ing the ground with sticks and clubs and
chanting, regardless of concert or time,
a mournful, soulless dirge.
The custom of, marriage is similar to
that of China; the girl having little, if
anything, to say about tho matter, so
long as her parents are satisfied with tho
would-be son-in-law. The festivities
attending the ceremonies consist of eat¬
ing, drinking and merrymaking and tho
exchanging of presents, the latter always
of the greater moment. If in a few
weeks the parties interested are dissat¬
isfied the wife is at liberty to go home to
her mother, and social circles find in the
act little to excite its curiosity. If tho
bonds have held well for a few years and
then become distasteful the
matter is quietly discussed, and
with an equal distribution of tho
property the- wife leaves the matrimonial
roof, never, while her husband is alive,
to marry another. If her husband was
a chief or of high rank she can, upon his
death and with tho consent of his family,
join fortunes with another. A widow
becomes the lawful property of hor
brother-in-law. Before the introduction
of Christianity polygamy was practiced,
—Chicago Herald.
Parents’ Ages and Children’s Yitality.
In a meeting of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, M. Joseph Korosi,
director of the Budapest statistical
bureau, read a paper on “The Influence
of Parents’ Ages on the Vitality of Chil¬
dren.” This is a subject which has been
hitherto but scantily treated in ethno¬
graphical statistics, but M. Korosi has
collected about 30,000 data, and has
com o to the following conclusions:
Mothers under twenty years of age and
fathers under twenty-four have children
more weakly than parents of riper age.
Their children are more subject to pul¬
monary diseases. The healthiest chil¬
dren are those whose fathers are from
twenty-five to forty years of age, and
whose mothers are from twenty to thirty
years old. M. Korosi says that the best
marriages are those in which the hus¬
band is senior to the wife; but a woman
from thirty to thirty-five years old will
have healthier children if her husband be
somewhat younger than herself. A man.
from thirty to forty years old ought to
take a wife from twenty to thirty. If
the mother be five years older than the
father the vitality of the children be¬
comes impaired.