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DR. TAL3I AGE’S SERMON
Th* Eminent Divine's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject: The Best of All Rooks—TIie
Bible'* Divine Origin Upheld—Ful
filled Frophecle* of the Old Testament
Prove Its Emanation From God.
[Copyright lWKt.i
WASHINGTON, D. C.—In the great con
flict now raging in Europe, as in this coun
try, between Christianity and agnosticism
l)r. Talrnagc has taken a decided Btand,
and in this sermon declares his unwaver
ing belief in the divine origin vii, of the “Do Scrip
tures; text, Matthew 10, men
gather grapes of thorns?”
Not in this country. Not in any coun
tr>\ 1 horns stick, thorns lacerate, but
all the thorns put together Isabella never yielded
one cluster of Catawba or grapes.
Christ, who was the master of apt and po
tent illustration, is thus setting forth what
you and 1 well know—that you cannot get
that which is pleasant and healthful and
good from that which is bad. If you find
a round, large, beautiful produced cluster by of grapes, good
you know that it was a
grapevine, and not from a tangle of 0 an
ada thistle. Now, if I can show you that
inis Holy Bible yields good fruit, healthfiff
fruit, grand fruit, splendid fruit, you will
come to the conclusion it is a good Bible,
and all the arguments of the skentic
against it when he tries to show it is a bad
book, will go overboard.
Do men gather grapes of thorns? Can
a bod took yield good results? Skeptics Bi
with grtat vehemence declare that the
ble is a cruel book. They read the story
ol the extermination of the Canaanitea
and ol all the ancient wars and of the his
tory of David and Joshua, and Bible they come
to the conclusion that the is in fa
vor of laceration and manslaughter and
massacre. Now, a bad book will produce
a bad result, a cruel book will produce a
cruel result.
You have friends who have been in the
habit of Have reading the noticed Bible a tendency great many
years. you a to
cruelty heard on their them part? Have and you practi- ever
any of come out
cally say, “I have been reading the story
about the extermination of the Canaanitea
and I am seized upon maul with and a disposition pinch and
to cut and slash and
murder and knock on?” to pieces everything friends I
can lay my hands Have your
in proportion as they disciples become the diligent Chris Bi- of
ble students and- of st
the Bible, shown a tendency toward mas
sacre that been and murder observation? and manslaughter? Has
What has youT been the effect chil
this cruel book? Or, upon if your do
dren of you not
allow the book to be read in your house
hold, what has been the effect upon the
-children of other households where the
Word of God is honored? cruel Have they as a
result of reading this book gone
forth with a cruel spirit to pull the wingB
off flies and to pinion grasshoppers and to
rob birds’ nests? A cruel book ought to
make and cruel absorbed people: with if they its diligently principles read that
it get
cause must produce that effect. At what
time did vou Bible notice that the teachings oi
this Holy created cruelty in the heart
and the life of George Peabody, of Miss
Dix, Howard, of Florence of John Nightingale, Frederick Oberlin. of John oi
Abbot Laurence? Have you noticed iD
reading the biography of became these people friends that of
the in proportion Bible they as became they enemies to human
ity? Have you not, on the contrary, no
ticed that established, all the institutions of mercy
were chiefly supported or, being by the established, friends of
were
this book? There is the hospital in war
time. There are twenty Christian women.
fering They are cordials, binding up wounds, kneeling they down are of- by
the trey are their
its. dying, Where praying does for the cruelty departing spir- out?
cron all
They lives. have They been read reading the Bible their they
it every morning;
their read it every night; they they carry hospital. it under
arm when go into the
Again, infidels go on and most vehe
mently book. You charge all that know this that Bible is an impure book
produces impure results. an No impure of
amount
money could hire you to allow your child
to read an unclea •. book. Now, if this Bi
ble be an impure book, where are the vic
tims? Your father read it—did it make
him a bad man? Your mother read it—
did it make her a bad woman? Your sis
ter fifteen years in heaven died in the
faith of this gospel—did it despoil her na
ture? Some say there are 200,000,000 cop
ies of the Bible In existence; some say there
are 400,000,000 copies of the Bible. It is
impossible But to give the <accurate statistics. of
the Bible suppose abroad, there this are 200,000,000 hook read copies more
one
than any twenty books that the world
ever printed, this book abroad for ages,
for ages, for centuries—w lie re are the vic
tims? Show me 1000; show me 500 vic
tims of an impure book; show me 100 de
spoiled of the Bible; show me fifty; show
me ten; 6how me two; show me one. Two
hundred million copies of P n impure book, On
and not one victim of tn O impurity. well that it is
the contrary. Bible you know very
where tlie has the most power that
the family institution is most respected. further, and
Again, agnostics go on still
they say the Bible is a mass of contradic
tions, and they put prophet evangelist, against pro
phet, evangelist apostle, against and they if this apos- be
tle against then, say
true how, can that be true. Mr.
Miil, who Avas a friend of the Bible, eaid
he had 'discovered 30,000 different read
ings of the Scriptures and yet not one im
portant difference out of 30,000, only the
difference the that book you might down expect from from the
fact that came gener
ation to generation, a c d was copied by a
great many hands. A a d yet I put before
you writers this fact in to-day—that the four great all doctrines the Bible of
agree
the Bible.
What are these four great doctrines?
God—good, nipotent. Man—a kind, patient, lost sinner. just, loving, Two desti- om
nies—one for believers, the other for un
believers. All who accept Christ reaching
that home and only those destroyed who
destroy their back themselves, upon Christ only and those who to turn the
and come
precipice pushes jump off, for God never
a man off; he jumps off. Now,
in these four great doctrines Beethoven, all the
Bible writers agree. Mozart,
nious Handel, Hadyn, never wrote more harmo
music than you will find in this per
fect harmony of the Word of God, the bar
rnony in providence and in grace.
You must remember also that the. au
thors of the Bible came from different
ferent lands, from different ages and from dif
centuries. They had no communica
tion with each other, they did not have an
idea as to what was the chief design of the
Bible, and yet their writings, got up from
all these different ages ana all these dif
ferent centuries, coming together, make a
l>erfect harmony „
in the opinion of the
very best scholars of all lands. Is not that
a mo6t remarkable fact ?
Again, infidels vehemently charge that
the Bible is an unscientific book. In a
former discourse 1 showed vou that there
was no collision between science and reve
lation, and I went from point to point in
the discussion. But now let us have au
thority in this matter. You and I cannot
give tne forty or lixty or 1 sixty years exclu
sively to the Let study have of science authority that iu some this
men give. us
matter. collision between
Who say3 there is a
science and revelation? Well, Herbert
Spencer, Tyndall, Darwin. They and say revela- there
is a discord between science
tion. But i will bring you names of men
who have found a perfect accord between
science and revelation, men as much high
er in intellectual character above those
whom I have mentioned as the Alps and
Mount Washington and the Himalayas
are higher than the hill hack of your house,
Herscnel, Kepler, Leibnitz, Ross, Isaac
Newton. My friend*, we are in respecta
ble company when we believe in the Word
of God—very I might, respectable infidels company. have failed to
Now. as book, that
prove that the Bible is a cruel
the Bible is an impure look; that the Bi
ble is a contradictory book, that the Bi
bie is an unscientific book—I Infidelity, might move the
a nonsuit in this case of
plaintiff, against Christianity, the defend
ant, but T will not take advantage cf the
circumstances, for when the gullible skeptic people, goes
on to say that we are a
when he goes on to say, as he often does, the
that the greater the improbability when he
more we like to believe it; goes
on to say that the Bible is made up of a
lot of manuscripts, and one another picked from up here
and another there, some
other place, and that the whole thing is
an imposition on the credulity of the hu
man race, I must reply to that charge.
The Bible is made un of the Old Testa
ment and the New Testament. Let us
take the New Testament first. Why do I
believe it? Why do I take it to my heart?
It is because it can be traced bac 1- to the
divine heart just as easily as that aisle can
be traced to that door and that aisle to
that door.
Jerome and Eusebius in the first century
and Origen in the second century, and
other writers in the third and fourth cen
turies gave a list of the New Testament
writers just exactly corresponding with
our list, showing that the same New Tes
tament which we have they had in the
fourth eenturv. and the third century and
the second century they and the first century.
But where did get the New Testa
ment? They got it from Irenaeus. Where
did Trenaeus get it? He got it from Poly
carp. Where did Polycarp get it? He got
it from St. John, who avas the personal as
sociate of the Lord Jesus Christ. My
grandfather it gave I a give book to my father, child. nij I(
pave to me, it to mv
there any difficulty in tracing this line?
On communion day I will start the cha,
Tice at that end of the aisle, and the cha>
lice wifi pass along to the other end of tha
aisle. W ill it be difficult to trace the line
of that holy chalice? No difficulty at all.
This one will say, “I rave it to that one,”
and this one will say, “I gave it to that
one.” But it will not be so long a line as
this to trace the New Testament. It is
easier to get rt the fact. But you say:
that “Although who this knows avas handed but they right down lying in
imposters? way, How take were
can you their testi
mony?” book. Men They died for the truth of that
never die for a lie cheerfully
and triumphantly. They were not lying
impostors. I hey died in triumph for the
truths “Well,” of that New Testament. “now I ready
believe says that some the one. New Testament am
to is
from the heart of Christ, but how about
the Old Testament? Why do you believe
that?” I believe the Old Testament be
cause the prophecies foretold events hun
dreds and thousands of years ahead—
events which afterward took place. How
far can you see ahead? Two thousand
years? Can Can you ahead see ahead minutes? a hundred No, vears?
you see five nothing. no.
Human prophecy amounts to thousands
Here these old prophets stood
of years back, and they foretold events
which came accurately true far on in the
future centuries. Suppose I should stand
here and say to you, “Twenty-five three miles hundred and
and sixty years from now.
a half from the city of Moscow there will
be an advent, and it will be in a certain
farnilv, and it will be amid certain sur
roundings.” because It would make know no I impression fore
upon you, you cannot
see a thousand years or one year or one
minute, and 1 cannot tell what is going to
transpire in a land far away. But that is
what You these old remember prophets did. that Tyre and
must
Babylon and Nineveh were in full pomp
and splendor when said these they prophecies, tvould be these de
stroyed. old prophecies, Those cities had architecture that
makes the houses of modern cities per
fectly insignificant. Yet these old pro
phets walked right through those magnifi
cent streets down; and this said, “This has be all leveled.” got to
come is all going to
Besides that, you must remember that
this book has been under fire for centu
ries, and after all the bombardment of the
skeptics knocked of all the this centuries Bible they have not
out of a piece as large
as the small end of a sharp needle. On,
how the old book sticks together!
Unsanctitied geologists try to pull away
the book of Genesis, They say they do not
believe it. It cannot be there was light
before the sun shone, it cannot be all this
storv about Adam and Eve, and they pull
at tne book of Genesis, and they have been
pulling book of a Genesis? great while, Standing yet where just where is the it
stood all the time. There is not a man on
earth who has ever « -oed it from his Bi
ble.
And so the infidels have been trying to
pull blasted away fig the tree, miracles, at th« pulling turning away of at the the
water into wine, at the raising of Lazarus
from the dead. Can you show me a Bible
from which one oi these miracles has been
eraseu ?
How marvelously the old book sticks to
gether! only driving All the them striking in dee at tnese chapters
clinched the other si PA3 er with until the they ham- are
on e
mers of eternity.
And the book is going to keep right on
until the tires of the last day are kindled.
Some oi them will begin on one side and
some on the other side of the old book.
They will not find a bundle of loose manu
scripts When easily the consumed by the fire.
fires of i last day are kin
dled, some will Revelation, „urn on this side, from
Genesis toward and others will
bum on this side, from Revelation toward
Genesis, and in all their way they will not
find a single chapter or a single verse out
of place. afford That do will without be the first Bible. time we
can to the
Wliat will be the use of th? book of Gen
esis. made, descriptive when the world of how destroyed? the world What waa
the is
will be the use of prophecies when they
are all fulfilled? What will be the use of
the evangelistic or Pauline description of
Jesus Cnnst when we e: j Him tace to face?
But I do not think we will give up the
Bible even at that time. 1 think we will
want the Bible in heaven. I really think
the tires of the last day will not consume
the last copy, for when you and I get our
dead children out of tne dust we want to
show them just the passages, just the
promises, which comforted us here in the
dark day of interment,, and we will want
to talk over with Christians who have had
trials and struggles, and we will want to
show them the promises that especially re
freshed us. I think we Bhall have the Bi
ble in heaven. •:At* ‘ ? c >e*' H4 mhL
Oh, i want “The io near David with shepherd;” his own
voice read, Lord is my
I want to hear Paul with his own voice
read, victory;” “Thanks be unto God that giveth us
the I want to hear the archangel
play Paul’s march of the resurrection
with the same trumpet with which he
awoke the dead! O blessed book, good
enough Dear for earth, book—book good enough for heaven.
old bespattered with
the blood of sprinkled martyrs who aied for its de
fense, book all over with the
tears of those who hands by of it were children comforted!
Put it in the your on
their birthday; put it on the table in the
sitting room it under when you head begin when to keep
bouse; put hook! your I you
die. Dear old press it to my
heart: “Where I press shall it I to go?’ my r said lips. dying Hindoo
a
to the Brahmitic priest to whom he had
given money to pray for his salvation.
••Where shall 1 go after I die?” The
Brahmitic priest said, “You will first of alJ
go the into dyingHindoo, a holy quadruped.” “where shall “But,” I go then?” said
“Then you shall go into a singing bird.”
“But,” shall said 1 go?” the dying “Then,” Hindoo, said the “where Brah
then
mitic, er.” The “you dying will Hindoo go into threw a beautiful his flow
of solicitation he up said, “But arms
in an agony as
where shall I go last of all?” Thank God
this Bible tells the Hindoo, tells voU, tells
me. not where I skall go to-day, not where
I shall go to-morrow, not where I shull eo
next year, but where I shall go last of all!
CYCLING NOTES.
Too clips are gradually coming Into
favor with wheelmen.
Most of tlie wheels seen on the road
are equipped with coaster brakes.
Women cyclists this season prefer
high-framed machines with saddles
well forward.
Last year tlie imports of bicycles
into Sweden amounted in value to
about $1,775,000.
South Carolina is preparing to in
troduce sklepatli and wide tire laws
In the next Legislature.
It Is estimated that more miles of
sMepath tlirougliout Hie country will
be built this year than ever before.
There seems to be a craze with a
number of rWors to perform long-dis
tance feats. The folly of such acts
ought to be readily seen.
Btirns Jimmy Michael was beaten easily by
Pierce in a twenty-mile motor
paced race at Charles River Park, at
Cambridge, Mass., iu tho slow time of
3L29 3-5. A strong wind made record
time Impossible.
The cycle record from New York to
Boston has been broken by lie tram
E. Russell, of Springfield, Mass. Ilia
lime was twenty Lours and three min
utes, being three hours and twenty
nine minutes better than tlie previous
record, made by Warren F. Taylor two
years ago.
A peculiar feature of the competi
tions for club trophies won in century
nins is that the smaller and newer
clubs score more frequently than their
larger and older rivals. The large
dulis compete infrequently, and so the
Little outs find tt possible to win both
first and second prizes.
Many folk never think of Inflating
their tires unless they are going out
for a ride. Rubber tires allowed to
stand slack for any length of time
Ipse vitality, and fail, even when
pumped to their tightest, to run with
the ease aud spring of those that are
constantly kept inflated.
' v
NEWSY CLEANINGS.
Free lancles in saloons have been
forbidden by the City Council of Des
Moines, Iowa.
As a result of a long drought 20,000
sheep perished of thirst in one sec
tion In Australia.
London Is suffering from an epi
demic of suicide, sixty cases being re
ported within thirteen days.
Readjustment of postmasters’ sala
ries has resulted in increased pay in
nearly two thousand offices.
The foreign commerce of the port
of Boston last year aggregated $190,-
485,000, surpassing all previous rec
ords.
A Pan-African Congress will assem
ble in London in July to secure in
creased recognition of England’s col
ored subjects.
The bubonic plague has ljrokcn out
at Guayamas, Mexico, among gome
Chinese w!io passed through the
United States.
A fin-back whale, thirty feet tong,
has been caught by two fishermen
named Tuttle iu a sturgeon net outside
New York Harbor.
Mr. Gladstone’s statue Is to be set
up at Athens In the gardens of tho
Zappekm, in recognition of his services
to Greek independence.
Wheeling, W. Va., will Ik? presented
with a cannon captured by the United
States gunloal Wheeling at Appario,
iu the Islam] of Luzon,
The body of Rev. Ignatius IYwchcli,
lmriod forty years ago, was found
to bo hi a perfect state of preservation
when exhumed at Norwalk, Ohio.
TIk? United Bleachers’ Association,
Including the mast Important bleach
ing firms In England, Inis been formed
at^lioudou, with a capital of $15,000
A movement Is on foot In Boston to
lMTScrve at Hull, Mass., tlie Irouse once
occupied by John Boyle O’Reilly, the
poet, and to convert a portion of it
iuto a free library.
WILL SPRING SURPRISE.
Fro*Mmtlon Tn Goebel Murder Caee Ha*
a Sensation In Store.
A Frankfort, Ky., dispatch says:
Govornor Beckham, at the instance of
T. Campbell, has made requisition ou
Governor Tyler, of Virginia, for a
Goebel suspect whose name is with
held. It is said this arrest will snr
prise the defense. Franklin county
officers left Thursday night for Rich
mond.
BILL ARP’S LETTER
Discourses Upon The Damage
Wrought By Inoessant Rains.
TatS ABOUT HIS WONDERFUL BEANS
And Reverts to the Story of “Jock and
tl*e lleau Stalk”—Digresses to Other
Topic*.
This is the first bright genial sunny
morning that we have had in three
weeks—for twenty-one days it has
rained every day save one, The crops
are in a bad fix: the corn and cotton
are hidden by grass and weeds and
labor is scarce, for the negroes are
wauted in the mines. Most of the
wheat has been cut, but how much of
it will be saved cannot yet be told.
Within my recollection of fifty years
I do not recall so much rain in har
vest time. According to scripture, it
seems to be the same old story, for
Solomon says, “As rain iu harvest so
is honor unseemly in a fool.” They
bad too much rain and too many
fools then just as we do now. Maybe
Providence sends the rain to try the
farmer—to make them diligent aud
shifty.
I traveled on the East and West
railroad last week for 60 miles and I
noted some farms that were clean and
nice—the corn aud cotton chopped out
and the wheat shocked in the field; one
of these belonged to a widow, and she
and her three girls and one boy were
just finishing the cotton. Markham
dident write anything about the woman
with the hoe, nor the girls, but one of
these girls was merry enough to wave
her bonnet at somebody on the train
besides me. Some farmers sit down
and wait for tomorrow’s sun to dry off
the ground; but tomorrow’s sun dident
6hine, and so they wait till next day.
Others slap in every chance and do
something; I know one who began to
cut his wheat Monday morning just as
soon as Sunday was gone—for Sunday
was the day it did not rain. He cat
half that night and all day Monday
and got through with his 30 acres, and
he says he will maks 700 bushels.
Another diligent farmer made 400
bushels last year on twenty acres, and
Bowed it right away to cowpeas and
sold his peavine hay for more per acre
than he got for his wheat. That i3
business—and Solomon says, “Seest
thou a man diligent in his business;
he shall stand before kings.” I am
no braggart, but let me say that if I
had waited for the rain to quit I would
be singing that old song, “A man of
words, but not of deeds, is like a gar
den full of weeds.” I worked between
showers, and sometimes when Mrs.
Arp called and called me to oome in
out of the rain I pretended I didn’t
hear her, and struck a few more licks
for Mr. Markham. I wish you could
see my bean arbor—not butter beans,
but the best and most prolific bean I
ever planted. I had them last year on
my corn patch, but they do better on
poles or over a cane arbor. Plant two
rows of beans five feet apart, and
when they are well up stick them with
canes. Lap the small ends of the
canes together on the ground, and get
your wife or daughters to tie them in
three or four places—all of uniform
length—then arch them over the
beaus, and nature will do the rest.
I never saw half as many beans as
hang from my vines. Of course the
rains have stimulated the growth of
everything, and it’s lucky the vege
tables grow upward instead of outward.
I planted my potatoes in a trench that
was shoveled out and manured with
ashes—wood and poal mixed—then
covered with pine straw and some earth
cm that They are the finest I ever
grew, and come out of the straw al
most clean enough to cook without
washing. Pine straw is very valuable
in a garden and is cheap, costing only
30 cents for a good load. It is good
mulch for strawberries, aud I am ex
perimenting with it under a few to
mato plants; most of them I have
trained up to stakes, but I saw a mar
ket garden near Memphis and all the
tomato vines had tumbled over on
wheat straw, and made more fruit,
though not so large and fine as when
staked.
A garden is a small experimental
farm, and is of as much consequence
and more pleasure, especially if you
mix flowers with it. Don’t throw away
your coal asfles; mixed with wood
ashes, they are a fine fertilizer. Mr.
Berckmans says that ashes produce
fruit, while stable manure produces
vine and foliage. A»he3 will double
tho quantity of strawberries. Beets
generally come up too thick. Thin
them out and transplant; cut oflT part
of the tops, and tlie transplants will
make the best beets. Just so with
celery. But I don’t propose to teach
old gardeners, for some of them cau
teach me—my neighbor, Mrs. Fields,
is the best gardener I know of, and I
am satisfied if I can keep up with her.
I have some of my wonderful beans
planted to poles. The poles are from
eight to ten feet high, and it interests
me to see the bean vines reaching up
to find something higher to cling to.
The tendrils are now two or three feet
higher than the poles, and still reach
ing up and feeling around iu the air.
I am going to give them some fishing
poles fifteen feet long today—wish I
had some twenty feet long.
They remind me of Jack and his
bean vine—my children and grand
children never tire of that good old
story. How a poor widow had a little
boy named Jack who was good to his
mother, and one day Jack saw an old
giant coming. His head was as big
as a small barrel, his eyes as big as
saucers, his nose as big as my arm, liia
mouth like the end of a big stove
pipe and his teeth like iron spoon b.
He came up the road snorting like a
horse, and was singing,
“I smell the blood of an Englishman;
Alive or dead I must have some.”
Jack ran in tlie house to his mother
and she pulled up a plank in the floor
and dropped Jack dpwn in the cellar
and put the plank ^ack, aud moved
her chair and table on it, aud sat down
and went to knitting. Here came the
old giant, puffing and blowing like a
steamboat. He dident eat anything
but little boys, and he peeped in a*
the door and said, I’m hungry, and
I’m hunting for a boy.” Jack’s mother
told him she dident have any boy for
him, and to go off, or she would set
her big dog on liiru. Then he walked
all round the house and looked down
the chimney, for he was as high as a
tree, but he couldent find Jack.
When he went away and was out of
sight, Jack’s mother took up the plank,
and reaching her hand down, she pull
ed Jack out of the cellar. Soon after
this a poor old woman came along and
begged for something to eat, and Jack
and his mother fixed her up a good
dinner and some coffee, aud the poor
woman was so thankful that she gave
Jack a bean and told him to plant it
and it would grow as high as the sky
and have bushels and bushels of beans, i;
and the vine would grow as high as a
tree in one night. So Jack planted it
right away, and next morning he west
out to see it, and the top of it was
away up yonder and he could see it
growing higher and higher. So he
thought it would be fun to climb it,
and the stems of the leaves were strong
enough to hold him up like a ladder,
and he kept on climbing and the bean
vine kept on growing so fast that Jack
couldent catch up with it, and by and
by he got so high he couldent see the
ground and before long he got up to the
clouds aud stepped off on the blue
floor of the sky, and looking around at.
the beautiful country he saw a great
fine house that was built of stone. So
he walked over to it and didn’t see
anybody—not a soul—nor a dog, nor
a cat, nor a horse, nor cow, but he
heard a great snoring inside and saw
bones all around the yard. Then he
peeped in and saw that same old giant
asleep on the floor of the wide hall.
His tongue was hanging out of his 1
mouth and his face was greasy and
bloody, for he had been eatiug aud some- his
body and laid down to sleep,
snoring shook the house. Jack was
awfully scared, and started to run,
but he saw an ax near the door, and he'
wondered if he couldn’t kill that old
giant while he was asleep. So he
slipped in on tiptoe and raising up the
ax as high as he could, he brought it
down ou the old giant’s neck, and
with one blow cut his head off. The
blood spouted all over the Yoom and
Jack ran away as hard ns he could.
By oad by he slipped back to see, aDd
sure enough the old giant was dead
aud had stopped kicking and the blood
had stopped running.
Jack caught his big head by its long
hair aud dragged it away off to the
beau vine and took it down to his
mother, and the folks came to see it
from all over the oountry, and were so
proud of little Jack that they gave him
clothes and pocket knives and marbles
and balla, and ever afterwards called
him Jack the Giant Killer. And there
has never been another giant in the
world since, for he was the last one.
Many a time have I got the children to
sleep on that story, for of course I
vary it and embellish it and tell many
things to point a moral and adorn the
tale.
I have not forgotten how eagerly I
listened to the little stories my mother
used to tell me when I went to bed,
nor how I devoured the Arabian
Nights when I grew older. Stories grief
that reward the good and bring
to the bad children are great helps to
raising them; they are kindergartens little
to the ear aud a comfort to their
minds. I hail rather pkase them with
a little story like this than to fret my
self abusing Mark Hanna and his
crowd, for little children are nearer
heaven than Mark is, according to my
opinion. —Bill Arp, in Atlanta Con
stitution.
FOUR CONTESTS ON HAND.
Democratic Convention Will Dispose of
State Delegations.
So far as the Democratic national
committee is informed the convention
will have four contests to decide. Only
one of these controversies involves a
state delegation. Two of the territo- others
refer to the representation of
ries aud the other to the District of
Columbia. The state contest is over
the representation from Montana, and
the two territories involved are Okla
hcana and Iudiau territorv.