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REV. DR.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S
DAY SERMON.
Nnbject: “What Trouble Is For.”
The Rev T. De Witt Talmage, IV D„
prciened^to au overflowing congregation a t
Before preaching he said that a
notion was abroad that the insurance
destroyed repetition church was enough to rebuild.
of disasters left us in debt. Y
have practically built three churches since
fciacle. came to feoon Brooklyn. First, the original Taber 1 -
after that we made au enlarge-
meat that et*st almost as much as a church,
A few years after it all burned. Then we
put up the building recently destroyed, and
reared it in a time when the whole country
was in its worst financial distress.
It was these repeated disasters that
** us 1,1 debt. My congregation have
*?'®ne debt magnificently, after but any church would be
wa so many calamities. Now for
fine first time we are out of debt. But we
least one hundred thousand dollars ___... to
build a church large enough, aud we call
-on Before people of all creeds and all lauds to help.
J. help dedicate a new church we must
Shave every dollar of it paid. I will never
again be pastor of a church in debt. It has
ravppled us in all our movements, and I
shall never again wear the shackles. I have
for the last sixteen years preached to
.about 5000 people sitting and stand-
iiUg, twice a Sabbath, but everybody knows
i that we need a place that will hold 8000 I
-shall not be surprised if some man of wealth
shall say “Hers are a $100,000 if you will
rput 'the up a memorial structure, and call it after
name of my departed father or child
"'whose memory I want put before all nations
SJJ'U [for all time.” Arid so it will be done.
% 'God shall
Text. wipe away all tears
from their —Rev. vii., 17.
flowers Riding across a hub western prairie, wild
up to the of the carriage wheel,
and while a long distance from any shelter,
there came a sudden shower, and while the
rain was falling in torrents, the sun was
and. shining I thought, as brightly what as I ever saw it shine;
a beautiful spectacle
this is! So the tears of the Bible are
not midnight God’s storm, but rain on pansied
prairies in sweet and golden sunlight.
You remember that bottle which David
labeled as containing tears, and Mary’s
tears, and and the Paul’s harvest tears, and Christ’s
tears, of joy that is to
spring from the sowing of tears. God
them mixes them. God rounds them. God shows
where to fall. God exhales them. A
Census is taken of them, and thero is a record
; t& Ao .the the moment when they are born, and
«asite place of their Alexander, grave. Tears of bad
rmen.ara not hair kept. clipped in his sorrow,
Shad the from his horses and
of Alexander’s tears. I speak of the tears of
'the good. Alas! me! they are falling all the
time. In summer, you sometimes hear the
growling thunder, and you see there is a
storm miles away; but you know from the
drift of the clouds that it will not come any-
•whore near you. So, though it may be all
SSr°e U al1 theUm^ ^71“
riot What substitute is the luugbtei. use of them Why anyhow^ not make Wh^y th_s
-world where all the .p«c,ple «. well and
sternal strangers to pain and aches? YVhat
is the use of an eastern storm when we might
have a pei petual nor westei. Why, them when all a
family is put together, not have
stay, or it they must be transplanted to make
SffSSdhd&S^a of a 7tory“f Why marriages have ani the
births but no deaths not
SSSSs tSr th°e th iow
fatiguing con. Why vv n the > hard p
the hard crust, hard struggle,
16 is easy enough to explain a smile, or a
success, or a congratulation: but, come now,
philosophies and all your.religions will and tell help
me explain a tear. A chemist you
that it is made up of salt and lime and other
compoment parts; keid but he misses the chief
ingredients-tho of a soured life, the
viperine sting of a bitter memory, I the tell frag-
ments of a broken heart. will you
dwhat a tear is: it is agony in solution.
Hear me, then, while I discourse to you of
fu A fyf trouble
First—It is the design of trouble to keep
fcflk world from being too attractive. Some-
(Mug must be done to make us willing to
quif tflis existence. If it were not for trouble
this world would be a good enough heaven
rfbr me. You and I would be willing to take
lease of this life for a hundred million years
»if (there were no trouble. The earth cush-
<v ioned a nd upholstered and pillared and of chan-
ieiicred with such expanse, no story other s||:
worlds could enchant us. We would waSt
“Let well enough alone. If you
s to die aad have your body disintegrated celestial in
! the dust, and your soul go out on a
adventure, then you can go; but this world
is goW;m&n good enough for me.” You might as well
«jlt who has just entered the Louvre
Paris and tell him to hasten off to the
picture 'galleries of Venice “what or is Florence,
“Why ” he would say, the use of
soiY going there? There are Rembrandts and
j Rubens and Raphaels here that I haven’t
i Looked at yet.” of this world,
No man wants to go out or
nut of any house, until he has a better house.
To cure this wish to stay here, God must
somehow create a disgust for our surround-
sags How shall He do it? He cannot afford
to deface His horizon, or to tear off a fiery
panel from the sunset, or to subtract an an-
thar from the water lily, or to banish the
pungent aroma from the mignonette, or to
You. cannot ChSlherWrfnto ou“own S
^ Torment” wX to S SC a
l^nt mv, and^^o?cannot Handeltodiscord ^^xoect his “Israel
^architecture ” rnuSc God to
>P nod tho “ arelro and t“be m^de of His own
k “?*» or a How ^ere then V^Zre trouWrcomS willing
Jo * tTLnhas e ^oorl C
Aft " hadx dealof trouble
vs ‘-Well lam ready to go ^oes If there
I'Mist -omewhere whose roof t leak
& iiisafe. a like to live there If there i« an at-
re somewhero that does not distress
■mosphe • T would like to breathe it If there
•isasoaiet, would uket o live there. If
’rattle, I , home circle somewhere
there /• q nd m y i osd
'[ can i , go there.” He used
would like to of the Bible chiefly * 1
’the first part >art of the Bible chk
' reads the |«s j. » ,i Y
' has he chttiiged Genesis for Revelati
'he used to be tious chiefly to kn
an , de and a jj abou t
! ’ logical this world oonstruet&K was nu , ’ ^ ^ c h< e ff'j
! ious to know flew tk, . e uex t; world was mt .A.
"and how it looks, d w j, 0 til0re ;
an, reads Revelation tore
.flow they dress. Ha .ds Gen^ig oflee ITie
times now where he ret ung, GcAvsreatod th°
■old heavens story, mnd Inthebegm^ the earth, » tbe does otbir thrill
him half as much as d storv
a ne 7 ne y eartb ”
‘The old man s Band treml ' ,es a s ttxrns ^
ovw this apocalyptic leaf,^an ± fce hag ^
T^lth/vAof ReSionsi^Tp, his 'ogsKtidW spectsfcfe
X^ouutoy. ntr fiutowhicflhe ist » soon inAhi-
bito whicM
planted ready laid out, and aveuues opened, and tr as
and mansions built.
The thought of that blessed place comes
over house me mightily, and I declare that if thie
passenger were a board great it, ship, and you h:mjH^HL ,,
launch on and one a
that ship j^to the glories of
should be tom ta
bility and lau
with one
boat unf^^H
b
GlOWi
H feel
out w. v ,nc
King Alphonso .. .
sat
ent at the creation
ter world than this. ,, .ot
present' I do not know what God will do
when some men die. Men think they can do
anything ing until God shows them they do no'fl¬
at all. We lay our great plans at. I we
like to execute them. It looks big God
comes and takes us down. As Prometheus
was assaulted by his enemy, w hen the lance
struck him it opened a great swelling that
haft threatened his death, and he got well,
bo it is the arrow of trouble that lets our
great swellings of pride. We never feel our
dependence upon God until we get trouble. I
was road, riding with my little child along tho
and she asked if she might drive. I
said: “Certainly."
I handed over the reins to her, and I had to
admire the glee with which she drove. But
after a while we met a team and we had to
turn out. The road was narrow, and it was
sheer down on both sides. She handed the
reins over to me, and said: “I think you had
better take charge of the horse.” So we are
all children; and on this road of life we like
to drive. It gives one such an appearance of
superiority and power. It looks big. But
after a while we meet some obstacle, and we
have to turn out, and the road is narrow,
and it is sheer down on both sides: and then
we are willing Ah! that God should take the
reinsand drive. my friends, we get up¬
set so often because we do not hand over the
reins soon enough.
Can you not tell when you hear a man
pray, whether he has ever had any trouoie?
I can. The cadence, the phraseology indicate
it. Why do women pray better than men?
Because they have had more trouble. Be¬
fore a man has had any trouble, his prayers
are poetic, and he begins^ way up among the
sun, moon and stars, and gives the Lord a
great deal of astronomical information that
must be highly gratify mg. He then comes
on down gradually over beautifully table¬
lands to “forever and ever, amen.” But af¬
ter a man has had trouble, prayer is with
him a taking hold of the arm of God and cry¬
ing out for help. I have heard earnest pray¬
ers on two or three occasions that I remem¬
ber.
Once on the Cincinnati express tra£
S ol ?g at torty miles the hour, and the
tral ? -» u “P e * L
near a chasm enghty feet deep,
men ho > a fel Y ‘
swearing and blasphemim Go, h g „ tt(
uU J. ^ ^, ?_ .
P ant h l 81 ] e ,, P ’ , d
up 0 “.n ia
t ab°out r n s »™iib” There wa' 1 another
time, eight hundred miles out at sea
^ J^adTe”! spliTfinei^ thin Sidling
j 'Fhatr ^S nrnvprf ■Hipn TVhv '.s it vou
^ dutiful £ P frfend. say: “He made the
prayer I ever heard?” What
^ ^ beautiful? It is the earnestness of
j ^ 0 h I tell ^ you a mau is in earnest when the
& naked soul wades OIlt kl
soundless, shoreless, bottomless ocean of
w frie nds,that makes us feel
our dependence upon God. We do not know
own weakness or God’s strength until
the “ e ^ last olank breaks. It is contemptible in
ns wnen 6n there i e is nothing a else to take hold of.
.
|£ e " u d u j of monev ’ and raise it quickly, ”
He borrows on word and , note , all ,,, he cam , boi . -
*'? w ; After a wmle he puts a mortgage on
his house. After a while he puts a second
mortgage on his house, i f en he puts a lien
on his furniture. Then he makes over his
hfe insurance. Then he assigns all his prop-
er Jy* Then he goes to his fatber-in-law and
«isks f 01 * lielp.
having failed everywhere, com-
pletely “O failed, Lord, he I gets have down tried on everybody his knees and and
says: everything, hrip of bna.n-
now me out this
? ial tr ° u b l8 - He makes God the last resort
instead of the first resort. There are men
who have paid ten cents on a dollar wno
could have paid a hundred cents on a dollar
if they had gone to God m time. He Why, you
do not know who the Lord is. is not an
autocrat seated far up m a palace from
which He emerges once a year precededby
hsralds swinging swords to clear the way.
No. Buna Father willing, at our call, to
stand by us m every crisis and predicament
ofhf®-, I tell you what , some of „ you , business men
make me think of. A young man goes off
from home to earn his fortune. He goes
with his mother’s consent and benediction.
She has large wealth; but he wants to make
his own fortune. He goes far away, falls
si ' 3k i Sets out of money. He sends for the
hotel keeper where he is staying, asking for
lenience, don’t and the answer he gets is: “If you
moved pay up Saturday hospital.” night you’ll be re-
to the The young man
sends help. to He a comrade in the same building. No
writes to a banker who was a
friend of his deceased father. No relief. He
writes to an old schoolmate, but gets no help,
Saturday night comes and he is removed to
be is frenzied with grief; and
in "Dear he sffs dowHndhTwritefhom!: sick
s»y Come g= ” « is mother, mimites I am o’clock untodeath.
ten of 10 when
she gets the letter. At 10 o’clock the train
starts. She is five minutes from the depot.
She S»ts there in time to have five minutes to
sp*™- She wonders why a train that can go
thirty miles an hour cannot go sixty miles an
hour. She rushes into the hospital. She says:
“My son, what does all this mean? to^vh^but Why didn’t
you send for me? You sent Ifcpu.
me. You knew I
v°uj“ggfip-' bhe^ Ha
■
i . I
U ' l < z ^ B
upon^. so w •, r ^
1 —
this minis tv,, ■
Again. iA» - J'-’'
us for the dime hfi ' t atl
nndfjr the oM disp spriS J , n , |
having water and bj on
and head; .«& ,pn_ 77/ *ars
people are now rt ferity «.« *.lice of
f " 8 » we
like to Have a groat many young twopl e
around us, and we laugh when they laugh,
and we romp when they roinp, and we sing
when they sing; but when we have trouble
we like plenty of old folks around. Why*
lather, They know seventy now to talk of Take and she an is aged ul-
^ft^-omnipoteiit years age, Why?
in comfort. iShe
through it ull At 7 o'clock in the
A she goes over to comfort a young
ho has just lost her bttlx>.
B Smother snows all nbci't that ti'ou*
Ht- >ears ago she felt i* \i 11
f that day She she goes over to co.iffor|
•#ed soul. knows all ehout that.
im s been walking iu that (lark valley
years At ! o'clock iu the afternoon
p knocks at tho door wanting bread.
-lows all about that. Two or three
j S *0 uer life she came to her last loaf.
o’clock that uight she goes over to sit
about /ith . it. ie She one severely all sick. about She fevers knows and
knows
1 eurisies and broken bones. She has been
doctoring pouring all bitter her life, drops, spreading and snaking plasters, and hot
out up
pillows, and contriving things to tempt a
poor appetite. Doctors Abernethy and Rush
and Hosack and doctor Harvey were great doctors,
but the greatest tho world ever saw is
an old Christian woman, Deat Do we
not remember her about the n hen wo
were sick iu our boyhood? "Was ere any
one who could ever 'so touch a soi without
hurting it?
And when she lifted her spectacles against
her wrinkled forehead, so she could look
closer at the wound, it was three- fourths
healed. .And when the Lord took her home,
although thirty, you may have been men and women
the coffin forty, lid and fifty years of age, to-/ lay on
sobbed as though you were
only Goa five or ten years of age. O man, praise
if you have in your memory the picture
of an honest, sympathetic, kind, self sacrific¬
ing,Christ-like mother. Oh, it takes these jwo-
ple trouble. who have Where had trouble to comfort others
in did Paul get the ink with
which to write his comforting epistle? Where
did David get the ink to write his comforting
Psalms? Where did John get the ink to
write his comforting Revelation? They got
it out of their own tears. When a man has
gone through the curriculum, and has taken
a course of dungeons and imprisonments and
sympathy. shipwrecks, he is qualified for the work of
When 1 began to preach, my sermons on
the subject of trouble were all poetic and in
semi-blank verse; but God knocked the blank
verse out of me long ago, and I have found
out that I cannot comfort people except as 1
tbi myself have been troubled. God make me
son of consolation to tho people. I would
rather be the means of soothing one dci - -
turbed spirit to-day, than to play a tune that
would set all the sons of mirth reeling in the
dance. I am a herb doctor. I put into the
caldron the Root but of dry ground without
form or comeliness. Then 1 put in the
Rose of Sharon and the Lily
of the Valley, Then I put into
the caldron some of the leaves from the Tree
of Life, and the Branch that was thrown into
the wilderness Marah. Then I pour in the
tears them of Bethany Then I and Golgotha; under the then I stir
up. kindle caldron a
fire made of the wood of the cross, and one
drop of that potion will cure the worst sick¬
ness that ever afflicted a human soul. Marv
aud Martha shall receive their Lazarus from
the tomb. The damsel shall rise. And on
tho darkness shall break the morning, and
God will wipe all tears from their eyes.
You know on a well spread table the food
becomes more delicate at the last. I have
fed you to-day with the bread of consolation.
Let the table now be cleared, and let us set
on the chalice of Heaven. Let the King’s
cup bearers come in. Good morning, Hea¬
ven “the 1 Bible ‘‘Oh,” says some critic itself. in the It audience, intimates
contradicts
again and again that there are to be no tears
in heaven, aud if there be no tears in heaven,
how is it possible that God will wipe
any away?” I answer, have you never
seen a child crying one moment laughing, and laughing
the next; and while she was you
saw the tears still on her face 1 And perhaps
you stopped her in the very midst of her re¬
sumeaf glee, and wiped off. those delayed
tears. So, I think, after the thero heavenly be rap¬ the
tures have come upon us, may
mark of some earthly grief, and while those
tears are glittering in the light of the jasper
sea, God will wipe them away. How well He
can do that.
Jesus had enough trial to make Him
sympathetic with ail trial. The short¬
est verse in the Bible tells the story:
“Jesus wept.” The scar on the back
of either hand, the scar on the arch of
either foot, the row of scars along the line of
the hair, will keep all heaven thinking. Oh,
that great weeper is just the one to
silence all earthly trouble, wipe out
all His stains of earthly than grief, the Gentle! of Why, the
step is softer step
dew. It will not be a tyrant bidding you to
hush will up your crying. It will be a Father
who take you on His left arm, His face
gleaming into yours, while with the soft tips
of the fingers of the right hand, He shall wipe
away all tears trom your eyes, I have no-
ticed when the children get hurt, and their
mother is away from home, they come to me
for comfort and sympathy; but I have no-
ticed that when the children get hurt and
their mother is at home, they go right past
me aud to her; I am of uo account.
So, when the soul comes up into heaven out
of the wounds of this life, it will not stop to
look for Paul, or Moses, or David or John.
These did very well once, but now the soul
shall rush past, crying: “Where is Jesus?
Where is Jesus?” Dear Lord, what a magni¬
ficent thing to die if Thou shalt thus wipe
away our tears. Methink it will take us
some time to get used to heaven: the fruits
of God without one speck; the fresh pastures
without one nettle; the orchestra without
one snapped string; the river of gladness
without one torn bank; the solferinos and the
saffron of sunrise and sunset swallowed up in
the eternal day that beams from God’s
countenance!
'^receive Thy
If we could in get any appreciation it would make of what
God has reserve for us, us
so homesick wo would be unfit for every day
work. Professor Leonard formerly of Iowa
University, put in my hand a meteoric stone,
a stone thrown off from some other world to
this. How suggestive it was to me And I
have to tell you tho best representations aerolites thing we off
have of heavon are only rolls bearing the
from that world which on.
multitudes of the redeemed. We analyze
these aerolites, and find them crystaiizatious
God snail wipe aiv ay all tears fi ora then
..... t .
Have you any appreciation of the good and
times your friends are having in
How different it is when they get
there of a Christian’s death from what
It is the difference between eui-
Miat.ion and coming into port. Everything
upon which side of the river you
lou you hear of a Christian’s death.
stand on this side of the river you
prn Ir that they go. If you stand on tho
side of the river you rejoice that they
h ferth e . Oh, and the difference jubilee in between heaven—between a funeral
a
mem here and triumphial there. march Together! there—
here and retinton
ft you thought of it? They are together.
one of your departed friends in one land
« anotbef in another land; but together,
ip different rooms of the same house—the
hoiSfle of many mansions Together!
1 fcVer aporeciated faid that her thought so much
as wt^h we away m last slumber
my sister Sarah. Standing there iu the vil¬
lage cemetery, I looked around and said:
“There is father, there is mother, there is
grandfather, there is grandmother, there are
whole circles of kindred;" and I thought to
myself: “Together in the grave—together in
glory." that I do I am so impressed with the thought
not think it is any fanaticism when
some one is going from this world to the
next if you make them the bearer of dis¬
patches “Give to your love friends to who puronts, are gone, give say¬
love ing: to my children, give my love to my old
comrades my who glory, my them my
m j in aud tell I
am trying to tight the good tight of faith,
and I will join them after awhile."
I believe the message will be delivered - and
I believe it will increase the gladness of those
who are before the throne. No trouble Together ure
they, all their tears gone. All Queens, getting
good *x:iety for them. Kings,
Princes, and Princesses. In 1751 there was a
bill offered In the English parliament the pro¬
posing to change the almanac so that 1st
of March should come immediately after th«
18th of February. Put, oh, what a glorious id
change in the calendar when all the years
your earthly existence are swallowed up in
the eternal year of God!
My friends, take this good cheer home
with you, These tears of bereavement that
course your cheek, and of persecution, and
of trial, are not always to be there. Th«
motherly hand of God will wipe them all
away. What is the use, on the way to such
a consummation—what is the use exhilaration of fretting
about anything? Oh, what an
it ought to be in Christian work!
See you the pinnacles against the
sky? It is tho city of our God,
and we are approaching it. Oh,
let us be busy in the few days that shall re¬
main for us. Tho Saxons and the Britons
.vent out to battle. The Saxons were all
ai med. The Britons had no weapons at all;
ami yet history tells us the Britons got battle the
victory. Why? They “Hallelujah!” went into and
shouting three times, at
the third shout of “Hallelujah,” their ene¬
mies fled panic struck; and so the Bfitons got
the victory.
And, mv friends, if we could only appre¬
ciate the glories that are to come, we would
bo so filled with enthusiasm that no power of
earth or hell could stand before us; and at
our first shout the opposing forces would be-
-in to tremble, and at our second shout thi- the;
vould begin to tall back, and at our
shout they would be roitted forever. Thera
is no- power on earth or in hell that could
stand before three such volleys of halle¬
lujah. I the of
put this balsam on wounds your
heart. Rejoice at the thought of what your
departed friends have got rid of, and that
you have a prospect of so soon making your
own escape. and Bear cheerfully thought the ministry it of is
tears, exult at the that soon
to be ended.
There we shall march up the heavenly street,
And ground our arms at Jesus’s feet.
Three Parrot Stories.
There is much difference in opinion,
as to whether a parrot merely imitates
or whether it be poses/ed of reason.
Sure the parrot that keeps jabbering endowed
“pretty polly” does not seem
with much brain, but what must be
said when we hear such parrot stories
as the following, of which we are will¬
ing to vouch for the truth pure and un¬
varnished ?
A lady owned a handsome parrot, and
leaving New Orleans one summer she
gave her pet to a friend’s care. Polly
soon became at home in its new quar¬
ters; won d bow its head to its new mis¬
tress and say in softest tones: “That’s
it, rub polly’s head so, so, darling rub
polly’s head.” That was imitative.
What is this ? One day Polly its mistress
was eating plums. laughed was and near; raid:
looking up, the lady plums
“Aha, polly, I have and I am not
going to give you any! ” “I don’t
care.” said polly, “I don’t want any,
anyhow! ”
A parrot belonging to a dear friend
the of the writer was wjio very much il enter annoyed Ins by
pigeons, won cage
crery mornmg as soon as be left it and
devour the remains of h’s break fas,.
A bright thought—so left it seems- his came for his to
polly. One day as he cage
morning walk he turned and shut the
door of his cage, and then gave a defiant
look at the marauding pigeons. This
lie always d d afterward, and to saved
his breakfast.
Still another parrot story, also true:
Once upon a time a ] arrot lived in a
family which was very religious. The
bird was accustomed of to Scripture. hearing daily One
prayers and verses
last words were: “Tim Lord be with
you J I ’ ‘ New Orleans Picayune.
The Biddenden Maids.
One of the most curious of our old
charities, says the London Hospital, is
that of ihe Biddenden maids. These
two unfortunate women were born at
Biddenden, in Kent, iu the year 1800,
joined to eacii other at the hip and
shoulders. Their names were Eliza and
Mary (Jhulkhurst, and they lived for
thirty-four years. Then one fell ill and
died, and the survivor was advised to
he separated from her dead sister by dis¬
section, but she refused, saying: “As
we cone together we will also go to¬
gether.” Witli n six hours she was
taken sick and died also. By their will
they bequeathed to the church warden
at Biddenden a piece rental of ground, guineas. which
now brings in a of forty
This is expended in the purchase of 500
quartern lea’ e*, and ebeew in propor¬
tion, which afe distributed among the
poor of the parish, and on Easter Sun¬
gravestone, day 1,090 and small bearing rolls, has shaped relief like a
a por¬
trait of the unfortunate maids, are dis¬
tributed to ull who attend divine sej
vi< e.
Reports from ranching boundary districts indicate along’
the international
great scarcity of food and water, anu
stock is Owing” already suffering unusually iu conse dry
quonce. to tire
season the amount of hay put dp wac
small, and immense stretches of pr»ir:e
have lately been' burned over. The out¬
look is so discouraging their cattie that some
ranchers offer to give away/
knowing that death from starvation iar
almost certain.
’ SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Electric cabs arc now being run in the
streets of London, England.
Fusible metal, which liquifies at. the
same temperature as boiling water, is a
compound of eight parts of bismuth, five
of lead nrvl three of tin.
The Westiugliouso, Electric Company
has been chartered by an English corpo-
ration, and will be independent of the
company in this country.
The length of North America is nearly
5000 miles, its greatest breadth about
3200 miles and its area about one-sixth of
the land surface of the globe.
Greenland, more than 1400 miles long, the
is probably the largest, island in
world. Some geographers think it is m
cluster of islands frozen together.
Experts in, London declare that elec¬
tricity, although being rapidly pushed
forward, will not, in that city at least,
interfere to the detriment of gas compa¬
nies.
The manufacture of luminous paint has
been begun in Austria on a large scale, at
about a sixth of the cost hitherto. A
special paper is supplied for use when the
paint is applied to walls.
Dr. T. Bilroth, of Vienna, states that
insignificant injuries are frequently made
serious by the uncalled for application of
carbolic acid, which skillful surgeons are
using much less than formerly. It may
cause not only inflammation, but even fa¬
tal blood poisoning.
A writer in one of the technical jour¬
nals advocates porous earthenware floors
as preferable in certain respects to those
of wood, brick, stone or tiles, especially
if raised above the ground on wooden
joints as they should be in order to avoid
taking up the moisture.
A Corsican doctor, M. de Susini, has
made a sulphuric-ether engine of twenty
horse power, which is expected to realize
a saving of sixty-five per cent, in full.
Scientific men in Paris who have wit¬
nessed its working arc said to have re¬
served their opinion as to its merits until
further tests have beeu made.
In recent tests on forty persons, one part
of saiiciue was tasted in 12,000 parts of
water; of morphine, one in 14,000; qui¬
nine, one in 76,000; quissine, one in 90,-
000; picrotoxine,one in 197,000; albine,
one in 210,000, aud strychnine, one iu
826,000. Twelve tasters detected ©no
part of strychnine iu 1,280,000.
The use of nitro glycerine is cases ©I
emergency, instead of alcohol, is recom¬
mended by an English physician. A
drop on the tongue rouses a fainting man,
and it may restore life in the case of ap¬
parent death, as from drowning. It has
quickly relieved headache, heart pain
and asthma, and strengthened weak pulse
in fevers.
It is found that cocoanut oil is not only
an excellent lubricant, hut it is of great
value for lighting purposes. A French-
man in Cuba has just established a fac¬
tory for the manufacture of this oil. Ha
has imported the most perfect machinery
in order that the oil produced may be as
pure as possible. The oil is very fluid,
oxidizes slowly and is said to keep long
without turning rancid.
The Diver’s Armament.
'
If ^ one hag SC( . n a t i ivcr j„ his sub-
ine ’ bobbi tmmense, from thc wate r
^ J u stcni round, cop-
hi dumsy, -’i man-
fish-like canvass suit, usually stained ct by
use, iron rust and sea water to brownish,
yellowish, gray something the color of a
devilfish, he may at first have been some-
what startled by the apparition. The beijjg
who thus rises from the sea is not a miib
chievous creature, but, on the contrary, •
ver y USP f u i member of society, when hi*
scrv ices are required and brought in re¬
ou A l 3 ition A full description of bis dress
somethin , r like this: From the helmet
. u of 8nake n kc rubber hose,
under his left arm and up through the
water, connecting with an wr pump on ft
float stage 6? k a boat. Tito uumnj*
manipulated by two breathing men, and furnishes
compressed air for when under
water, which exhausts into the water by a
yalve into thc helmet, enabling him to
breathe continually fresh air, while,
when he comes to the surface, the win¬
dows of his helmet can be opened and he
can breathe without the assistauec of the
air pump. When he goes down into the
water he lias two means of communica¬
ting with those above, the hose and the
life line. By the latter he also descends
and comes up when necessary. By each
of these he gives and receives signals
mutually understood, three sharp pulls
on tlie life line indicating that he is ready
to ascend. In order to overcome the natu¬
ral buoyancy of his body and make its
specific gravity such that he can walk
about on the bottom of the sea he wears
shoes with soles heavily ballasted or
weighted with lead. The upper part of
his body is protected, as is also his lower
half, by heavy canvas covering, consist¬
ing of jacket with sleeves, and panta¬
loons, with terminations which fd his clos^y fleaBq
with elastic bands clinging to
thc jacket fitted closely to the helmei
with metalic bands bolted together, with
a rubber gasket betweefl. No waler or
2»r. .can get to him, except the lattei* typ
the hOSC. unless he opens the glass win¬
dows of his helmet, which he is not
likely to do unless occasion requires. Ad*
ditional weight is placed at his chest and
back—sometimes a breast plate and t
shoulder plate of lead, sometimes a belt
heavily weighted, which can be thrown
6U or off the shoulders and hang down
isi front and behind when in use.