Newspaper Page Text
iUaliln (tonsAMwiallst.
WEDNESDAY DECEIIBEE 8. 1875.
Matrimony Attain.
Wo have been promised by a gentle
man and lady of this city, who have
made very close calculations, the prob
able cost to a bachelor of good stand
ing in society contemplating matri
mony. A rough draft of these esti
mates has been already shown us. We
think the gentleman’s bill of particu
lars rather too high and that of the
lady too low. When we get their
revised facts and figures before us, it
is our intention to strike a happy me
dium and endeavor, for the good of
mankind, to arrive at something like
accuracy. The statistics we refer to
are r.ot only applicable to the mere act
of getting married, but also include
the “consequential damages.” With
patience we await the details, and their
publication must go very far toward
enlightening the youth of both sexes
who rarely count the cost of embark
ing upon the voyage of life in partner
ship.
There is another phase of matrimony
which lias of late been prominently
brought forward in a divorce suit iD
California, involving tho exact respon
sibility of a man’s promises when a
lover and non-fulfillment as a husband.
When a man is paying his attentions to
one of the fair sex, as a lover and an
accepted one, he is generally very pro
fuse of pledges, which ordinarily vanish
after handing the minister his fee for ty
ing the connubial kuot. The New York
Times puts the case thus: “A man may
say to his intended wife, ‘Marry me
one month hence, and I will give
you a carriage and pair.’ When
tho wedding day arrives he virtually
says : ‘Marry me and I will love, cherish
and protect you.’ In both cases the
consideration is precisely the same.
And yet were the wife to apply to a
court of equity for a decree of specific
performance in the matter of the car
riage aud pair, she would be laughed
out of court; while on tho other hand
the same court would bo ready to de
cree that her husband should love and
cherish her to the extent of a certain
fixed sum per week. The law is in great
part, made up of mysteries which no
man can solve; and the reason why it
makes this sharp distinction between
the promises of lovers and those of
husbands is not tho least of theso mys
teries.”
The groat trouble, in the modern
world of what is called high-life,
whether there bo property or not, is the
mercenary nature of the matrimonial
market. Tho hoart is relegated to a
second place by girlsJ;Of an arithmet
ical disposition, aud they will hang
on to maidenhood a long time before
accepting a man for a husband whose
prospects are problematical. We do
not mean to say that this is altogether
wrong, especially if they have quali
ties worth the purchase, and 'more
particularly as the numborof really ex
cellent candidates for husbands grows
small by degrees and painfully less.
But lot us return to the main object
of our discourse this morning—the
validity of ante-nuptial promises.
The California case, above adverted
to, is that of a wife who has sued for
divorce on the ground that her consent
to marriage was obtained by the man’s
promise to abandon tobacco. The
wretch, after marriage, failed to keep
his word, and hence these tears. The
suit has not yet been decided; but if it
should be in favor of the woman, we ad
vise young men to be very chary how
they make rash promises, and if every
female who has been tho victim of
misplaced confidence should follow the
precedent we presume to be establish
ed, woe to the unfortunate army of
married men who no doubt won their
wives with dowers of moonshine and
failed to make a conveyance in fee sim
ple, wheu their imaginations were
dwarfed to the true proportions of
their ability to pay.
Tho Times, commenting upon the
California case, sums up in this fright
ful fashion:
“We may assume that every astute
young woman will, in the event of a
judicial recognition of tho binding na
ture of lovers’ vows, at once begin to
collect evidence which will either secure
for her the fulfillment of her lover’s
promises, or will be very handy in case
she should desire a divorce. When
an ardent young man promises to go
through fire and water to please her,
she will quietly make a memorandum
of tho promise, with its date, aud the
consideration —probably of an oscula
tory nature—on which it was based,
aud file it away for future emer
gencies. There may come a day
when that unhappy young man will
be asked cither to fulfill his rash
contract, or to resign his position as a
husband, and he will find no escape
from so unpleasant a dilemma. Pru
dent girls will be careful to extort from
their lovers promises to the effect that
no sewing on of buttons, or building of
flies, or efforts to rival the legendary
skill of their future mothers-in-law in
the preparation of clam fritters, will
ever be required by them. Men, if
properly approached on moonlit balco- \
nies, can be made to promise anything, |
especially if they imagine that they
cannot be enforced at law. What will
be their surprise and horror when, on
returning from the wedding trip, they
are confronted with their thoughtless
promises, strung together in the shape
of a bill of particulars, and find that
they have pledged themselves to a life
of abstinence from tobacco and latch
keys, and of uncomplaining activity in
respect to putting up stove-pipes and
putting down carpets. Moreover,
it should not escape notice that
the success of the divorce suit brought
by the California wife would bring
about a panic in the tobacco trade and
seriously diminish the internal revenue
of the United States. There are at the
lowest estimate probably half a million
of young men now in this country who
have in moments of bliss, in the back
parlor, promised their future wives
never to smoke again. If such a prom
ise is held binding by a California
court, the Government will have to de
vise some new impost, or the next
Treasury balance sheet will show that
we are drifting into national bank
ruptcy. It the California husband is
wise, and if he cares a straw for the
Interests of his fellow husbands, be
will promptly put in the defense of in
sanity. Let his counsel claim that a
lover is temporarily a lunatic, and
hence is unable to make any contract
whatever. Such a plea would have a
fair chance of success if urged before a
jury of married men, and it might very
probably counter-balance the ruling
passion of Western courts and juries
for making innovations upon the laws
of marriage and divorce.”
The above remarks appear to us pure
and unadulterated words of wisdom.
That they will have the effect Intended
we seriously doubt. The rarest thing
In American life is a sensible and
worthy marriage. Even the most ex
perienced men, when widowers, fall into
traps, and the only candid excuse we
ever heard given for another marriage
by a man of society was that he had
tried the experiment for the second
time to do penance for the first. The
only safe plan is for parents to rear
their children to industrious habits
and clean lives. When marriage comes
to those who approach it with rever
ence, prudence and virtue, the chances
of happiness are considerable. In all
other cases, the prospect of bliss is
about equal to the selecting an eel
from a bag of vipers, or escaping im
portunate creditors by buying a lot
tery ticket in the expectation of winning
the capital prize.
Planting and Farming.
The Gainesville Eagle tells, in one
epigrammatic sentence,what the cotton
mania has done for Northeast Georgia,
which is so admirably adapted for the
raising of small grains and diversified
husbandry. It says : “ Nearly all our
farmers have foolishly invested largely
in commercial manures, and Northeast
Georgia is, to-day, in no better condi
tion than tho cotton belt. They have
planted corn and neglected their grain
crops, stock aud farms, until every
thing is run down. They have but
little money, and nearly all are, more or
less, in debt.”
Why the Southorn planters persist
in their suicidal policy, year after year,
passes comprehension. The upshot of
this madness, forit seems to be nothing
else, must be disastrous to the whole
commercial fabric. The Macon Tele
graph, which has struck some heavy
blows at false systems of agricul
ture which pervade so many States
of tho South, gives in a late issue the
subjoined example of the success at
tendant upon a different plan of opera
tions. It says :
A gentleman who resides in Macon runs
a four mule farm a few miles down the
river. There have been no other mules upon
the place nor any horsos during the season.
His crops have been 2,500 bushels of corn,
25.000 pounds of fodder, and 30,000 pounds
of Bermuda hay. The latter was all cut
from live acres of ground. The same mules
which were used in cultivating tho land
have, during the season hauled 100 cords of
wood in the city. The gentle.can has sold
wood and fodder enough to pay all the
expenses of cultivating the land. He pays
his hands the cash' for their work every
aturdav night, consequently has no
trouble in employing and keeping hands.
He estimates that his farming operations
this year will clear him $'2,000, which is a
good showing, and no cotton to mar the
picture.
There is not on the globe a country
with greater natural advantages than
Georgia, and yet, year after year, com
plaints are general that this maguift
ceut inheritance is not a mine of wealth
to its comparatively scanty population.
That much of this distress is due to
the war and its legitimate and illegiti
mate results cannot be questioned;
but we fear there is some
thing lacklug in the present genera
tion of people which is even more
fatal in its effects than Abolition and
Reconstruction. It seems a monstrous
paradox that a brave and sturdy race
like the men of Georgia, who have re
deemed themselves from the yoke of
alien oppression, should find it almost
impossible to free themselves from
a false idea of agriculture, which ap
pears to be so tenaciously adhered to,
that nothing short or death can re
lieve the individual incubus.
With most men life is like back
gammon—half skill and half luck.
Swindling the South.
We were once told by a Northern
liquor dealer that the quality of much
of the whiskey sold to the Southern
country trade was of so vile a descrip
tion that even the sailor boarding
houses of Baltimore would not pur
chase it. How much the consumption
of this infernal decoction has to do
with scenes of violence in our sec
tion, how much it is responsible for
depraved morals and miserable death
beds, even among the better classes,
let the scientist and temperance lec
turer determine. But, it is not alone
in fiery liquids that whirl the brain to
madness that the South suffers from
imposition. There are other commod
ities for which she has to pay,
and yet are not such as repre
sented. Take the case of mackerel.
It has been often declared that one sel
dom sees in the South, a kit of this
fish, though so generally used, which
is a No. 1 article though so branded.
It would seem that deception is prac
tised upon our section, in this particu
lar, as in many others, which should
not be allowed. In verification of what
we here state, let our readers carefully
peruse the subjoined sketch of a con
versation which recently took place
between a reporter of the American
Grocer and an extensive New York fish
dealer:
Reporter—There is said to be consider
able improvement in the S nithern trade
this year; how does it affect you ?
Dealer—Well, not much; the Southern
trade buy more goods in Boston than here,
thinking Boston more headquarters and
that there they can buy cheaper.
Reporter—ls it a fact that they oan buy
cheaper there V
Dealer—Why. no; we have got as good
facilities as Boston and should sen as
cheap; we have a bigger market, and can
handle more goods than Bos’on.
Reporter—Where do the Western men
principally buy ?
Dealer—Tho Western men buy a good
deal in Boston and more In Glom ester di
rect. The men In Gloucester have agents
all through the West, who ship lots of
goods. I saw them shipping goods from
loucostor in great quantities.
Reporter—Where are their distributing
points in the West ?
Dealer—They have them everywhere
through that country—St. Louis, Chicago,
Milwaukee, St. Paul, Ac. Very few fish go
West from New York; they use a great
deal of lake fish, trout and white fish, more
than they do of mackerel.
Reporter—What class of goods is that
which goes South?
Dealer—lt is the inferior kind. I went to
a prominent house in Boston and repre
sented myself as a Southern man; I just
saw their goods that they nut up; they had
them at any pi ice I wanted; they had a lot
of old threes which I could iiave had. I
dropped a line to our folks to say that we
need not be afraid of Boston, wo could sell
as gooil goods as they and sell for less. We
never thought of furnishing such goods.
Reporter—ls iho Boston classification of
ones, twos and threes known through tho
West aud South?
Dealer—l don’t think It is; they have no
idea of It, and for that reason twos and
threes can bo passed off for ones. No. one
mackerel must measure thirteen inches to
tho fork, and twos eleven inches, You take
a largo three, it will measure thirteen or
fourteon Inches, but they are only ‘‘leather
bellies.” Those mackerel pass in the South
as ones; It does not seem to make any
difference. We never ship very fine mack
erel South except we have a spocial order,
though thoy are getting to want finer
mackerel now.
Reporter—Which are the best quality.
Dealer. -Shore mackerel are the best; bay
are the poorer kind; however, so i e time
ago bay were better than shore, on account
of there being so many bluefish, which
drove away the feed, «There is a difference
between Portland and Gloucester mackerel,
which is made in the inspection. The
Portland do not appear so fat as the Glou
cester from! being pressed tighter in the
barrel; but they are inspected a little lar
ger, and we prefer Portland to Gloucester,
though the vessels fish side by side in the
same bay and sometimes trade with each
other, ’i ho Gloucester don’t seem to come
out like Portland, and they seem more
honest at Portland.
Reporter.—What is tho grade of fish ta
ken by New York, compared with the West
and South ?
Dealer.—New York takes a better grade
than either the West or the South, but for
fish, New Jersey is the most particular
State we have. The people of New Jersey
take the finest fish. They are well-to-do
people and judges, and you cannot stick
any poor goods on them. We sell more fish
in New Jersey than in any other State.
Reporter.—Then the worst class of trade
is with the South ?
Dealer.—No; the goods that wo cannot
sell at all elsewhere go to the West Indies.
Os course, there arc some exceptions. When
wo aro stuck and cannot get rid of goods
here, and have no prospect of selling them,
we send them there.
Reporter.—But if you sent a good article
your trade would increase.
Dealer It might, but we want our goo I
goods for home consumption, aud In the
West Indies they want the cheapest the/
can buy.
It strikes us that this veracious con
versation should open the eyes of our
merchauts aud the public generally.
The probabilities are that inferior
articles, at high prices, are foisted
upon the grocers of the South, and
thej r , in turn, out of pure innooence,
sell a third-rate article, at a first-rate
price. There never was a country so
shamefully practiced upon as the
South is, and so long as her people
are dependent upon others for the
commonest necessaries of life, and
permit themselves to be leeched, there
will never be any solid prosperity in
this section.
The Dancing Line.—To a lady cor
respondent and anxious inquirer, an
expert in moral etiquette writes : “You
may dance with your son or lady
friends, but dancing in the middle of a
crowd, with low dresses, up to late
hours, involving a good deal of ap
parent embracing of the opposite sex,
is thought to be objectionable in taste
if not principle.”-
Sad. —A German named Lilienthal,
a professional accountant, highly edu
cated, most respectably connected and
the master of several languages, was
recently sent to the New Orleans alms
house, at his own request. He could
get no work in spite of his accomplish
ments, and came from Germany be
cause he thought the United States an
El Dorado.
Cotton Manufacture—A. vantages of
the South.
So far as it concerns the North, the
Baltimore Gazette argues that the re
cent exportation of American cotton
goods of the cheaper sorts to England,
far from being a matter of jubilation,
is, on the contrary, a sign of unhealth
iness. Our Baltimore contemporary
contends' that it grows out of the de
pressed condition of our cotton manu
factures ; can only be regarded as an
effort to get rid of a part of the accu
mulated surplus now on the market,
and finding slow sale at unremunera
tive prices, and, if maintained at ail, it
must be by reducing the wages of the
operatives. This the mill owners are
trying to do. The failure of the Fall
River strike resulted in forcing the op
eratives to accept a reduction of ten
per cent, on the former rate of wages,
and the mill owners, taking advantage
of their victory, and the necessities of
their work people, now insist on a
further reduction of ten per cent.
The same authority thinks, from
these premises that two things are
made apparent: “If cotton goods can
be successfully exported to England, or
to other countries where these fabrics
come into competition with English
goods, either there is no necessity any
longer for a tariff to protect their
manufacture, or the export must be at
the expense of impoverishing the
operatives.”
The Gazette, however, believes that
the present export is a ruse on the part
of manufacturers, in view of theshrink
age in domestic demands and glut of
the market, to get rid, even at loss, of
the surplus production. The object is
stated as two-fold viz: saving of the
interest on first cost and, by reduction
of stock, to advance prices at home.
Illustrating the effect of this policy
by a comparison with the iron and
copper trade, the Gazette concludes
thus : “When we set down our furna
ces and our rolling mills'in the midst
of the coal and tho ore, the limestone
and the manganese, that are the taw
material required to produce this
most useful of all the metals, we shall
be able to compete with the world
without tho need of a tariff to protect
its manufacture. So, too, wheu we set
our cotton mills in the midst of the
cotton plantations, instead of trans
porting the raw material a thousand
miles to be manufactured, we may
hope to compete with England in
foreign markets and yet pay our
operatives good wages. But not till
then.”
Printers’ Blunders—An Amusing Ex
ample.
Good Deacon Smith, editor of the
Cincinnati Gazette, heard of Henry Wil
son’s certain death and Brick Pomeroy’s
probable failure, at the same time.—
This was an avalanche of good things
and he sat down to write, in his very
clever and forcible way, two articles
upon these widely divergent themes.
Now, if the editor of the Cincinnati
Gazette loved any man it j was the old
Abolitionist Henry Wilson, and if he
cordially abominated any one it was
Pomeroy aforesaid. His articles were
written, read, corrected and sent to the
foreman for an appropriate setting in
the forms for publication. Imagine
the horror and disgust of the pious
Deacon, next morning, when eating bis
broiled grouse and sipping his Mocha
coffee, with the journal of his heart be
fore him, to read the conclusion of his
eulogy upon the dead \ T ice-Presldent
as follows:
There was nothing of the upstart about
him. Unlike those who, having clambered
up to the top of the ladder of success,
kick at those who have reached only the
lower ruunds, ho was as much a believer in
true Democracy when Vice-President by
creditors, whose claims are $140,000 in the
aggregate. Pomeroy had no assets but
his clothes, and those were exempt from
attachment. Had he stayed in La Crosse,
or retired from business in time, he might
had a pecuniary competency, and still en
joy a local fame. As it is, he has gone to
join the humorists and spouters who were
popular for a short time only, to pass into
the depths of obscurity.
It has been shrewdly suggested that
the foreman who arranged this edi
torial gumbo had a “brick in his hat.”
Be this as it may, we feel a moral
certainty that the pious Deacon ex
claimed, as Aaron did, in the play of
Titus Andronicus: “Vengeance is in
my heart, death in my hand.” We
shall carefully search late numbers of
the Gazette for an obituary notice of
the delinquent foreman. The idea of
his being permitted to live is pre
posterous.
Patience and Perseverance. —The
complaint is frequent among stout,
hearty white men that they cannot get
anything to do, and that they do not
make a living when anything offers de
manding exertion on their part. But,
we read that Mrs. Mary Ahart, a col
ored woman, lived in a tent, and her
worldly possessions consisted of two
cows and calves, a straw bed and two
or three boxes, which served as chairs.
She sold milk and] carried it around
herself, by this means supporting her
self and child. She now has several
hundred head of cattle, a fine farm
well stocked and thoroughly improved,
and a comfortable home, the value of
which is somewhere in the neighbor
hood of $50,000, every cent of which
has been earned or gained by industry
and good management. )
The Condition of New York—Hard
Money Growls—Free Trade.
Mr. Edwin D. Mansfield, the phil
osopher of the Cincinnati Gazette, has
taken a trip to New York, and re
cords his observations there in a
most vigorous manner. He notes, first
of all, that the hard money men have
suffered a prodigious reaction and are
not at all confident of aspeedy return to
specie payments, In spite of the defeat
of Gov. Allen. The elections have not
satisfied them, and the result of the
elections has, if anything, plunged them
into greater commercial embarrass
ment. Mr. Mansfield, in view of
these extraordinary manifestations of
the lately rabid resumptionisls, says:
“The only solid ground to stand upon,
at present at least, is to let things
alone. The country won’t stand con
traction upon any terms. There
begins to be a perception of this
truth in New York, and I suspect that
the bankers and merchants who were
so aDXious for hard money will be will
ing to let things alone. They begin to
find out what the commercial history
of the world has shown, that commerce
has its own laws, and that it will not
submit to mere theory, although sup
ported by the whole power of Congress.
But what is the matter with New
York ? And what is to be done for it ?
That New York is relatively depressed
in its business and growth, there is no
question. There may be found new
houses building, and there will be
found a grand array of vessels and
commerce; but, relatively, either to
its former growth or to some other
cities, it is depressed. For example, I
noticed some large real estate sales,
which indicated the general fact. One
of the large insurance companies,
which has been loaning a great deal of
money, is foreclosing a number of them.
A large piece of property sold for a
small fraction—one-half the appraise
ment—and thousands of dollars less
than it had cost; two other pieces sold
under two-thirds the estimated value.”
I Our sagacious Cincinnati philosopher
| shows that the New York of forty
i years ago and the New York of to-day
1 are very differently circumstanced.
The American Babylon is paying the
penalty of overgrowth, aud is at last
j being compelled to yield to Philadel
| phia, Baltimore and the great Western
! cities much of the trade she formerly
monopolized. Her day of exclusive
commercial supremacy has gone never
to return. Mr. Mansfield also tells a
a great truth when he declares that
New York also suffers from a reaction
against extravagance. His words are
these: “No city can continue to live
aud flourish In the hot-bed existence
j New York has had the last twenty
years. Well, New York says, what is the
j matter ? What is to be done ? Why, we
j must.get back to “honest money;” wo
I must have specie payments. That is
! the remedy. Then comes the millen
| nium. Well, suppose you look over to
| Germany and France, and compare
| their financial condition. Germany
| robbed France of thousands of millions
of dollars in gold. France had to ac
| cept paper money. What is the result?
! Germany is in distress, and Franco is
I prosperous. I am not arguing the
j subject at all. I am endeavoring to
| show what New York is trusting to
just now. The difficulty with New
York is the difficulty of the whole com
mercial world—in Europe, as well as
America. It is simply that commercial
business is overdone. All the world is
trying to live by trading, or live by
their wits. The greenest and most
I sanguine young man can see at once
I that the world cannot live upon trade,
Jor upon their wits only. New York
and Berlin have been trying to do that,
and I hazard nothing in saying they
will fail in it.”
Mr. Mansfield does not touch upon
one serious cause of New York’s de
cline—the devastation of the South
and abolition and slavery. It seems to
be a righteous retribution that the
city which had fattened upon the
South, and then furnished the material
for her overthrow, should pay the pen
alty.
There is one thing that may regain
for this great metropolis a consider
able part for her fading renown, and
that is free trade. The wonderful and
enormous growth of English, and
French commerce may be said to date
principally from the time when the
manacles were taken from commerce.
Whether New York shall gain or lose
by such a policy, it is the duty of the
South and West to unite on free trade,
if not for the good of New York, at least
for the benefit of the whole country.
Gov. Smith. —The Atlanta Herald
says emphatically that Gov. Smith will
not be a candidate for re-election, and
that resolve, the editor says, he had
from his own lips, and in such positive
and sincere terms that it cannot be
doubted for an instant. One sensation
spoiled. Next!
Schtrz. —Hon. Carl Schcrz believes
that the third-term project is so dead
that a ton of newspaper articles could
not resuscitate it. And yet a hundred
and eighty-five pounds of Grant are
very apt to accomplish what the news
paper articles fail to bring about.
Liberia —A Borry Failure—Remarka
ble Theoiofiry.
Our readers must have been re
minded, by recent telegraphic dis
patches, that the Liberian Republic
was in a very bad way, and, being una
ble to convert the native negroes or to
whip them, has yelled out for more pro
tection from this country and England.
Not only this, but the melancholy fact
has been stated that the theological
students, pining for their naked rela
tions and ancestral barbarism, have
actually conspired to bring woe upon
the people who had warmed them into
Christian life, and by whose aid Wil
son, Gabbisoh, Sumner, Phillies, Wil
berforce and Clarkson dreamed that
Western Africa should be what
neither the Persian, the Egyp
tian, the Greek nor Roman civil
ization had ever been able to ac
complish. Tbe fact is never was there
a greater or bloodier farce than the
whole abolition programme of England
and the United States, and to their cost
these countries are every day learning
the folly and crime of legislating and
agitating against Nature and Nature’s
God.
A writer in tbe New York Times, who
is wise and witty, despite his pro
nounced Republican tendencies, breaks
out into what may be called an edito
rial guffaw over the Liberian drama,
and says : “One would naturally sup
pose that the Liberians, armed
with civilized shot-guns, and drilled
in accordance with the tactics In
vented by those two eminent gens
darmes, the late Messrs. Dan Bryant
and Nelse Seymour, would be easily
able to repel the invaders. But it must
be remembered that the Liberians are
few In numbers, while Africa is crowded
with native Kings. Then, too, the lat
ter are familiar with the country, and
understand the art of lurking in am
bush behind convenient gollybosh
trees, and hurling their spears into
heedless groups of Liberian soldiers
while the latter are playing •policy.
Bravery and skill can avail little
against overwhelming numbers, and
the most accomplished Liberian Gen
eral at the head of a small army, in
cumbered with baggage-wagons laden
with whitewash brushes and unslacked
lime, can easily be overwhelmed and
defeated by the sudden] attack of a
thousand warlike Kings. Moreover,
there is treachery in the Liberian
camp. It is openly asserted that
among the students at the Cape Palmas
Theological Seminary there are
several who have only recently been
converted to trousers, and whose sym
pathies are actively enlisted on
the side of their barbaric brethren. As
a rule, the theological student in this
country is not a bloodthirsty or a dan
gerous individual. It should, how
ever, be remembered that he has been
born in a land of trousers and educated
amid the restraining and emollient in
fluences of silk hats and paper collars.
The African theological student, who
i has only just renounced the fetich and
all his works, and is still tormented by
doubts as to whether trousers should
be worn on the legs or the arms, is a
very different sort of person. It is not
unreasonable to suppose that at times
he hankers for the unconfliied legs of
j his savage youth, and is inclined to
throw aside the ‘lnstitutes of Calvin,’
i and to resume the study of the ‘Slave
I Hunters’ Manual’ and the ‘Cannibal’s
i Complete Cook Book.’ At any rate,
the invasion of Liberia has rendered
■ the native African theological students
restless, and brought them under the
suspicion of conveying treasonable in
formation to the hostile Kings.”
i In view of the coast fever, wild Afri
cans, semi-barbaric settlers, theological
students “ unconverted to trousers,”
aud the stealthy march of the interior
savages against the ramshackle settle
ments that fringe the coast, we do
most heartily congratulate an amiable,
pious and universally respected clergy
man of this city upon his determintion
to remain a simple pastor in Augusta
rather than assume the dubious honors
and prospective martyrdom, or death
in life at any rate, of a Liberian bish
opric.
An Editorial Used as a Sermon. —
The Philadelphia Press says that on
Thanksgiving Day Rev. A. J. Cather,
of the Asbury Methodist Episcopal
Church, in West Philadelphia, after
prayer, singing, and the reading of a
psalm, read from a newspaper a
Thanksgiving editorial, which, he said,
he regarded as a good substitute for a
sermon. Several times he paused in
reading, and commented upon the
views expressed in the article. This is
a valuable hint to ministers. Editors
may return the compliment by using a
good sermon occasionally.
Last Words. —The admirers of Henry
Wilson having attempted to put into
his mouth a sonorous dying utterance,
the Washington Chronicle declares that
the Vice-President had no idea that
his end was near, and on the morning
of his death, a few moments before life
was extinct, he said to his attendant,
“ I guess I will take some more of that
bitter water,” Let us hope that,
awakening in another world, he found
the waters of eternal life meet and
wholesome.