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(Hie itlotitgontftg itlo tutor.
D . 0, SUrrOtf, Editor anl Prop’r.
PULPIT THOUGHTS.
Extracts From the Sermons of
Leading New York Ministers.
Owing to the absence of Rev. Dr. Talinage
from ! is pulpit in the Brooklyn Tabernacle
we do not give his customary sermon in this
issue, but print in li u thereof extracts from
the sermons of prominent metropolitan min
isters:
K. HEBE it N’EWTOX ON TRUE IDEAS OF GOD.
The Rev. K. Heber Newton, preached at
Ail fSouls’ Church, in West Forty-eighth
street. ‘ The Scientific Idea of God and the
Spiritual Vision of a Heavenly Father’’ was
his theme “It seems to me,“ said Mr. New
ton, That a true idea of God ought to
l>e able to verify itself in the general
cops iousuess of man. This is the conclusion
which science reaches as Mr. Abbott inter
prets her thought: ‘Because, as an infinite
organism, it thus manifests infinite wisdom,
power, and goodness, or thought, feeling,and
will in their infinite fullness, and because
the' three constitute the essential manifesta
tions Oi personality, it must be conceived as
infinite person, absolute spirit, creative
source, and eternal home of the derivitive
finite pels »na ities which depeud upon it. but
are no less real tha i itself. * * What
is this but infinite beatitude, infinite benign
ity, infinite lov«—the all embracing father
hood and motherhood of God.’
“Let me tell you how, in a very simple
fashion, I reach this blessed assurance. From
the unity of nature it follows that all forms
of being are partial manifestations of this in
finit • and eternal energy. That which Is es
sentially human is undoubtedly what we, for
lack of a better t »rm, call personality—intel
ligen e conscious of itself, free in the power
of will, owning the moral law. If we do not
find personality in the crystal and the beetle,
and hut a dreamlike personality in the dog,
and if we do find such personality in man,
which fact are we to trust as the better ex
pression of the infinite and eternal energy
that is in us all The answer of evolution to
this question is unmistakable. The
higher forms of life must more
truly express thermiture of the infinite and
eternal energy than the lower forms can pos
sibly do. Over a muddy creek a willow
hangs and tries to image its soft flowing lines
in the waters below, how vainly! Above the
clear crystal water of the mountain tarn, ‘the
sacred pine’stoop.-, and sees its noble form
faithfully mirrored m the lake. Each finer
organism is capable of reflecting a finer
image of the face which broods over us, seek
ing to mirror itself. Man is the mystic flower
of the great tree Igdrasil. I must interpret
the dim. shadowy outline of the Infinite
Power which these lower forms trace for me
by the clearer, nobler form which conies
forth in my consciousness. Mv consciousness
yields as the essential human fact the idea o#
personality. lam a man inasmuch as I am
an intelligence conscious of itself, free in the
power ol will, owning the moral law. I am
obliged then to look up into the face which
bends down over life seeking to mirror itself,
and trust the reflection which comes forth in
my nature of the personal power whom l
must call Father. The Divine Being is not
less than personal, however, much more than
personal He may be. He cannot be uncon
scious, since unconsciousness in nature is the
lower form of being which opens into con
sciousness. He cailuot be unmoral, .since
nature, as it strains toward man, passes out
of the calm indiftereutism ot' the brute into a
hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
God cannot l>e heartless, since the very mea
sure of man lies in the heart.
“Because of what I am, as a man, I am
obliged to think of God not less than man but
only more than man, not subhuman but
superhuman, essentially humanity, lifted
higher and breathed out to larger form. Evo
lution goes on in humanity. Climb now to
the very topmost crest of humanity, the
supremely good one of earth. What mons
trous freak of madness could equal a creation
capable, through slow, orderly progressive
development, of unfolding such a human
flower as Jesus of Nazareth without having,
below this climbing growth, a life in which it
roots, infinite and eternal, the source and
spring, the type and pattern, of this flower of
nature! We overheard the soliloquies of his
soul telling the vision mirrored in the calm,
clear waters of his soul, as the sun’s fa'-e is
caught and held in the blue mountain lake.
Over the face of Jesus, th* face that bends
and broods, is a greater human fa *e —One
in whose image he saw himself to l»e made.
Renan confesses: ‘The highest con
sciousness of God which ever existed
in the breast of humanity was
that of Jesus.’ This granted, the con
sciousness of Jesus becomes the supreme word
of God, a word in which we are to trust im
plicitly, not as a s nnething wholly apart
from our own cons *iouns *.ss, but as the artic
ulate utterance of the thought that struggles
for expression in ourselves, the clear vision
which in the ordinary man is but shadow
and cloud. Spinoza de dared Jesus to be the
temple of God, in which God most fully re
veals hims If. The revelation of God
in Chri.-t is the consciousness of God in
Jes is. The blood of the Eternal beats them
incur veins."
THINKING THAT LEADS TO UNBELIEF.
Dr. White, of the West Twenty-third Street
Presbyterian church, took his text from He
brew xii, 15-16. He said in part: “Men from
intellectual pride sell their birthright by
turning away from God and profaning to
find a g'd among the philosophical idols of
the day. The temptation comes in this form;
It I wish to prove my intellectual vigor I
must not accept anything upon trust. !
must demand that everything lie explained
so that its mysteries l»e cleared up; then I
a ept anything as true that cannot
b' Ov Iby the successive steps of logic or
C, o oust rated by the exhibition of scientific
experiment. The old faith of my fathers is
very simp!* and very comforting, but i must
not be misled by any unexp;a md instincts
of mv nature, n r de u led by any pretended
re • ; tion from th • unven world. To by
sure thousands of women and children and
ot i mlimel men have accepted this
faiti, il l and Christ without any very
sear ii i _ ellect lal examination, but I re
quit e proo'.
ow. ,*il this is very well if it is the honest
utterance o: a man who truly desiresto know
the trutn and who with every fa ultyj
e ok- nisi pr r>ose fairly to examine the <? vi
ne/1 es so • <'h, Lstian ty: su *h h n sfc seeker
will be ttH dby Gu»i. But. alas! too many
are po-s - • I w Ith inbdl ■- * al vanity while
the»■ hav.* neither intel < -tna! strength nor
int -I. tual h n * tv. To* > hear </l one and
aic th'T pro r o‘nent s ienti't wh > amuses him
self as an unbeii ' er: or. as-the expression
now is, an agii? » ic. or a positivist. and it
flatters their vanity to say that with such we
take our stan i. They make no original in
vestigation. They make no earnest study of
*viden r_ e'. If they re t h anything upon the
subject it. is upon the destru'.’tive side. They
ft or at the ioea that any new thoughts can
fy- i ven th**m that will support the old faith.
T:i* y' withhold a—ent an 1 pose as unbelievers,
ancinhiuk it spea .s - ell for their intellectual
i» nee that they are dis ipies of thus or
th a - )• Now. no one more than I ap
pxr ■ ■ : ini o iileat thought—of an earn
a ‘-eason
for rr. 1 hop that l- in one I rejoice to know
that ariy man is honestly asking for proof
MT. VERNON. MONTGOMERY CO.. GA.. THURSDAY, APRIL 2D. IBSIS.
even of the highest divine truths, but 1 do
say that for any man from intellectual van
ity, from a deeire to appear to understan 1
what he has never really studied, from an
ambition to call himself by the name of this
or that great master, to turn aside from the
faith of his fathers, to shut his eyes to the
signs of God’s presence, to steel his heart
against the influence of the Holy Spirit is to
sell his birthright for a mess of pottage.”
A PILLAR IN THE TEMPLE.
The Rev. W. F. Price, of the Madison Ave
nue Congregational church. “ ‘Him that
overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple
of my God.’ We classify men as wise and
foolish, happy and miserable, grasping and
generous, but the liesfc classification is ou the
basis of their attitude toward sin—are they
yielding to it or struggling against it? Many
who struggle fall because they have no
abiding place. A stone built into a temple is
fixed; it is necessary where it is and useless
any wh .*i*e else. The day when it was hewn
is forgotten. Men and women are coining in
and going out of the temple daily asking
strength from God and then hurrying back
into the world to use it for their own selfish
ends; but the pillars of the temple remain.
They came in to stay, and they go no more
out. There are men who love their country
because of the advantages she gives them,
and others for her own sake. The latter
class are the patriots. Their names go down
in history, never to be test or forgotten.
Some study solely for the advantages
which education will give them, others for
the sake of truth alone. These are
enrolled as the great scholars of the world.
So those who serve God for His truth’s sake,
who strive to fulfil the end for which they
were created, they art* those who are pillars
in His temple, and who go out thence no
more; they must first be hewn out. and fitted
to their places by contact with the world in !
the struggle for life. They often feel the
blows of tin* hammer fitting them to become
stones in the temple, shaped by t-oil and *if- i
sering into the likeness of God, perfect and i
everlasting. And upon the stones of the
temple shall be cut three inscriptions, that
all may know that it is the temple of God;
‘The name of my God, the name of the city
of my God and my new name.’ ”
RELIGIOUS LESSONS FROM THE OREGON.
The Rev. C. B. Smith, of the Sfc. |
James Protestant Episcopal church: “The
ship is the most human work of man and
equally the divine work of God. The most hu
man because it is so like the human body. But
how were its parts so perfectly combined in
two wavs: by man, who during long centu
ries studied the physical laws of the Creator,
and by God subtly guiding man. The many
overlook the fact that ships are ns distinctly
the works of God as trees or rivers or oceans.
Man has simply been doing what (rod planned
for him to do. Now. there is something in
that sunken Oregon like the generations of
th-* ] >ast. Every present generation is brought
into its mh »ritance in the arms of the g "aera
tion vanishing. Reformers making it Letter
for posterity to live, and then as their work
is done vanishing. The Son of God in sav
ing the world leaves the world. But look
not only at th«* dark side but also at the
bright side. See Christs willingness to do
bo long as He lived to see the redemption of
mankind. Look at the joy of parents as life
*bbj away if only they see their children
happy. This is the parable of the sinking
ship. There is also the parable of the saved
traveler. We sail on the sea of life Our
bodies are the ships in which our soul< are
passengers. God brought every one safe to
shore from the sinking Oregon. The ship
alone was lost. Shall it l>e so with you, my
brother?”
THE JUST DEMANDS OK MISSION WORK.
The Rev. Dr. J. N. Fitzgerald preached in
the Central Methodist Episcopal church on
the subject of “Missions.” He said in part:
Many persons, when asked to contribute to
missionary w’ork, consider that their dona
tions are to be exjieiided entirely in foreign
missions, and say that there is plenty of room
for all their donations and labor at home. If |
that is a candid remark, a fair hearing should |
be occorded to it; but if it is merely an ex
cuse to get out of making a contribution to I
the work, it should not receive the slightest i
recognition. This society, in the Methodist |
cjiurch reaches to al I classes of people at j
home and abroad. In the home mission one ,
may specify to what particular department of j
it hie uesireshis contribution to go. To the
Indian, or to the Chinese, that race which
ha' responded to the proverbial saying:
“Uncle Sam has room enough to give us all
a farm,’’ have come t > this country, and have
been tyrannized and brutally treated in a
manner the like of which has never occurred
before in a civilized country. Others want
their contributions to go to helping the work
of raising up fch f * blacks: others to the Ger
mans; others to the Swede. Swiss or Scandi
navian. In all these branches of home and
foreign missions this society has workers.
But if you cannot decide upon which particu
lar department in which you wish to put your
money, place it in the general contribution,
and a little will be sent to help the worker in
all parts of the world.
WHAT TRUE LIBERTY IS FOR MEN.
Dr. Hall preached in the Fifth Avenue
Presbyterian church on “True Liberty.” He
said: There are various kinds of freedom.
We may think of it on the social and politi
cal plane, and then we may have freedom
from tyranny. Oron the moral nlaneand we
have freedom from bad habits of living Or
on that of spiritual life, and we have deliver
ance from sin and from the fear that hath
torment. We are citizens of the United
States, and it is common to say we are
free. But we know that there are forms of j
bondage that are entirely compatible with
our free institutions. We know how a
ring may worm itself around a community
and put it under bondage. A judge may
manage to get himself into a place from
which it is difficult to dislodge him, who may
be bribed to defend the guilty arid oppress
the innocent. If men are slow to acknowl
edge such bondages as these, it is not strange
that they will not acknowlede their state of
moral bondage. It is through Jesus that true
liberty comes. There are spurious forms of
freedom. A young man throws off the re
straints of home life and even of society, and
travels over the world with no check upon
the indulgin of his tastes and of his lusts. Is
he free? Is he not rather a slave to bis pas
sions? A man makes money getting his ob
ject and throws off the straints of honesty. He
js not free. Everything that is good has its
counterfeit. Never confound the counterfeit
with the reality. We hear a good deal about
the region of law. No matter how good you
are socially you are in the grip of God’s
law He is infinitely just, and if you are not
penitent. His law or death will be enforced.
The spirit of life in Christ Jesus >an make
you free from the law of sin and death.
Plainly Put.
A doctor is railed to m * ri suffering
from asthma. Hi 'i-it is over, 5 c is
Stopped in the entry by the sick in.iii’s
wife.
“Well, doctor, what do you think of
my poor husband ?”
‘Reassure yourself, asthma i a patent
of longevity. *
“But you will cure him A it. won’t
your
“ SUB DEO FACTO FOR ! I TER ''
Befirfem
fttewitesNiiaftifand fhoieea
'fbvy4Sk>\r foam flakes Rghtly-Jle,
A vwy dross of waves, till.free,
Qnirfc-kfcKing breezes surge and sigh.
And all tlw* laurels on the lea
ttand low to listen as bonds the sky
Where spaces throb with melody.
'Fbopform ft? wrought to gold, and T,
Bflont.find heaven surrounding me—
J» gilded fringe- u» breeze’s sigh:
Between the sea sand and the sea
Where yellow foam flakes lightly lio;
Where spar-es’ throb with melody
Between the skylark and the sky.
Between fclw* sunset and the sun
Night slumbers-on the sleeping bars.
And through its curtain, one by one
Gleam tender glances of the stars
Between the sunset and the sun.
And between my love's lips lies
An untold message meant for me;
Whether 'twill bring me sweet surprise
Or dole, or doubt, or Paradise
Is known alone to destiny.
Yet, as I wait, a dream of tears
Betwixm her eyelids and her eyes—
A mystery of mist ap|»ears,
Thut-hints of hopes and flatters fears,
And on her lijis a burst of sighs,
And on her I iris a red that dies
To slumberous shadows that fall and rise,
Till as 1 seek some sigu to see,
Between her eyelids and her eyes
Love lights his lamp and laughs at me.
—Francis Howard Williams in the
American
A SPY IN THE CAMP.
BY AN EX-CONFEDERATE.
In the winter of 1864, when Johnston’s
array lay at Dalton in winter quarters, I
made two or three excursions in the di
rection of Chattanooga, picking up more
or less valuable information, and was
resting after one of these raids when the
incident I am about to relate occurred.
That Yankee spies were penetrating
our camps was a well known fact. Two
or three hud been arrested, but it was
only two or three out of a dozen, and or
ders had been issued to all regimental
officers to be vigilant and alert in seek
ing to detect the presence of strangers.
All the scouts had, as a matter of course,
received the same instructions, but for a
week nothing resulted from this com
bined watchfulness.
One afternoon, while sitting in the
quarters of an old friend belonging to a
brigadi! band, a crowd gathered outside,
and I heard the music of a fiddle. Step
ping to the door, I saw a German about
40 years of age in the center of a circle of
soldiers seated on a cracker-box and play
ing the fiddle in a rude sort of away as
if entirely unmindful of their presence.
The man was in citizen’s clothes, and for
what seemed a very good reason. llis
right arm had been amputated at the el
bow. I looked him over closely as he sat
there, eyes half-closed and keeping time
with his foot, and 1 could not say that 1
had ever seen him before.
Give us a soug, cried a dozen men in
chorus after he had played for a spell,
and he at once complied. The first verse
ran as follows:
“Oh ! (loan 1 yon see my falling tears?
Oh ! rioan’ you know dat I vhas sad?
Dot vhileyon laugh nod merry rhas.
No home 1 has to make me glad.*’
lie had not yet finished it when I was
trying hard to remember where and when
L had heard it before. Ilis voice was
soft and plaintive, anti the air of the
song was one to captivate a soldier. They
crowded closer and were silent while he
sang the second verse:
“Nopody vhftita to welcome me.
Nopody cares which way I "o;
I vlialkf alone, adown life’s path,
My happiness vlism turned to wf»e.”
I was struggling like, a prisoner to
break'his bond -. Years ago I had heard
that song, and had not heard it since. It
was in vain I cudgeled my brain, but just
when I was in despair 1 happened to no
tice how he was holding and playing the
fiddle. His right arm was gone, as I
have told you, but with the stump he
was holding the how by a simple contri
vance and with his left hand he was fin
gering the strings. Indeed, the soldiers
were remarking ori the novelty of it. 1
had not watched him thirty seconds when
my memory came to my aid.
In the summer of 1856 I made a trip to
a watering place in Wisconsin—a bridal
tour. One evening, as my wife and I
sat on the porch of the hotel this man
came along, having a little girl with him.
and as he played that fiddle and sang she
joined iri the chorus and accompanied
him on the ban jo. This was one of the
songs he sang that evening seven or eight
verses to it—and it was sad and plain
tive that we paid him to repeat it two or
three times.
Now I could not say that, he was not
a Confederate, but the fact that he was
not in our uniform, and that I had seen
him so far North, was enough to rouse a
suspicion A • soon a- ho.bad finished his
song he offered for -ah from hi park,
buttons, thread, needles, pencils and
otirer small wares an el elid a rushing busi
ness for had an hour. He oemld have
cold everything right there, but he sud
denly packed up and moved away, even
when a dozen customers had money in
their hands. This action seemed queer,
if not suspicious, and I followed the man.
In half an hour I was certain that he was
a spy and had been making an estimate of
our strength.
Without entirely losing sight of the
man, I communicated my suspicions to
the offiecr-of-the-day, and the result was
an arrest. The man did not even change
countenance when he found himself be
tween the bayonets, but marched off as if
such affairs were down on his programme.
Upon reaching the guard house he
calmly submitted to a thorough search of
his person and pack. This lasted a full
hour, but we made no discovery of im
portance. The man denied that he was
ever north of the Ohio River, and claimed
New Orleans as his residence. He learned
the song from a vagabond musiean who
visited that city, and had sung it in hun
dreds of Confederate camps since the war.
There was absolutely no evidence against
him, and he would have been set at liber
ty had I not entreated the officer to give
me until next day to look up something
to confirm my suspicions.
lat once mounted my horse and rode
through all the adjacent camps nnd I
found that the man had visited every one
of them. He had certainly taken in a
whole corps in his round, and was heard
of among infantry, artillery, cavalry and
even the hospituls. As a peddler he
would have done this, but, us a spy he
would have done the same thing. All
the evidence I could get was that he had
appeared, played his fiddle, sung his
song and sold his notions, claiming to
some to be selling on commission for a
sutler, and to others that he was in busi
ness for himself.
I returned to headquarters clean done
up and mad at myself for having made
such a mess of it. The man was all right
and I was all wrong. I went to the
guard house to ask him a few questions,
and it seemed to me that my sudden en
trance rather confused liim. While I
questioned I also watched, and presently
i observed that beseemed to have a very
large quid of tobacco in his cheek. Mind
you 1 was looking for trifles, and Ino
sooner noticed the fact I have mentioned
than I watched to see him expectorate
and soon realized that he was doing so
This wasn’t at all natural, and 1 began at
liis head to look him over. When 1
came down to the third button on his
blouse there was no button there. All
the others were in place, but this one was
missing.
The man was talkative and even jovial,
and by and by I left him with the remark
that J would go and report to the officer
and have him set at liberty. I stepped
out, walked around for fifteen minutes
and then re-entered the guard-house. The
third button on his blouse was now in
place, and the quid of tobacco no longer
bulged out his cheek. When ordered to
“peel” his coat he hesitated for an in
stant and I saw him change countenance,
hut off it came and I carried it to head
quarters.
Every button on that blouse was not
only a hollow cylinder made to screw to
gether, but each cavity was filled with
proofs to Convict, him as a spy. He had
worked an entire corps, and he had the
number of men, pieces of artillery, condi
tion of arms, and whatever else might be
asked for. Jt must have taken him two
weeks to secure such full and explicit in
formation.
When he was brought before Gen.
lie felt that the jig was up. There were
his own notes to confront him. He re
fused to utter one single word, and
seemed to have made up his mind to pay
the penalty without, flinching. It was brief
work to try, convict and condemn him,
hut he was never executed. On the
night before his execution he died on his
blankets. He was in the full vigor of
years and health, having a hearty appe
tite:, and his death has ever remained a
mystery. There was no wound of any
sort on the body, and of the five surgeons
summoned to investigate all were certain
that he did not take poison of any sort.
After playing on his fiddle for half an
hour he lay down ori the blankets with
the remark that it was his last night to
sleep. A guard sat within ten feet of
him and saw him apparently fall into a
sweet slumber, but two hours later he
was dead.— JM.roit Free Prett.
Had liailges On.”
“Want your sidewalk cleared off?” he
asked of a citizen of Woodward avenue.
“Just got a man.”
“Have any badges on?”
“1 believe he has five or six.”
“Then let him keep the job. I’m a
trarnp and hard-up, but, them roller
skating champions has got to earn a liv
ing somehow, ttid I’m not the man to
stand in their way. They are entitled to
public sympathy and assistance.— Detroit
Fret Preu.
Hull righting In Mexico.
The bull ring is an enclosure something
like a northern base ball ground, but
much larger, writes a correspondent from
Mexico. It forms a complete amphithea
tre, around which the spectators sit.
The spectators pass in and out through a
door in the high fence, over which nod
cocoa palms and other tropical trees. A
short distance from the enclosure a num
ber of houses built of stone and mud arc
located. But the immediate vicinity "f
the bull ring is vacant ground. The
spectators are seated high above the
lighting ring, which is surrounded by an
other fence witli gates on the level with
the ground. Through these gates the
bull is driven into the arena, while the
fence serves as a vaulting place for the
torredos, or bull fighters, to leap out of
the way of the enraged hull when really
mad. When I visited the place every
one seemed ready to fight except
the bulls. They appeared to he
lazy. Red cloths were flashed be
fore their faces, and although they
would occasionally make a dash for the
holder, as soon as he leaped over the
fence the hull would become quiet. A
Mexican, armed with a spear or lance, and
mounted on a swift-running horse, would
try to stir tho bulls into a fighting mood;
but beyond a sudden dash for the rider,
very little fight could be got out of the
animals. Still it was very interesting to
one who had never seen a bull fight, and
even hundreds of those who had were
willing to pay to enter the enclosure in
Order to see what might happen. It is
not an unusual thing, as 1 have been told,
for the bull to become so enraged as to
tear both men and horses to pieces.
When this happens to be the case, the joy
of the spectators is unbounded. Os
course the lives of the bull fighters de
pend on their agility in leaping tho
fences and eluding the well-directed dash
of the wild animal, who is rendered more
infuriated by the flashing of red cloaks
and other garments before his eyes. Rut
no lives were lost during my visit, and
none of the torredos were injured; yet
the spectators appeared to enjoy the
sport.
Power of an Ocean Wave.
In a paper by the Rev Phillip Neale,
late British Chaplain at Batavia, in Leis
ure Hour, speaking of the great inunda
tion from the sea caused by the Krakatau
earthquake, Java, he says; “One of the
most remarkable facts concerning the
inundation remains to he told. As we
walked or scrambled along, we were
much surprised to find great masses of
white coral lying at the side of our path
in every direction. Some of these were
of immense size, and had been cast up
more than two or three miles from the
seashore. It was evident, as they were
of coral formation, that these immense
blocks of solid rock had been torn up
from their ocean bed in the midst of the
Sunda Straits, borne inland by the gigan
tic wave, and finally left on the land sev
eral miles from the shore. Any one who
had not seen the sight would scarcely
credit the story. The feat seems almost
an impossible one. How these great
masses could have been carried so far into
the interior is a mystery, and hears out
what I have said in previous papers as to
the height of this terrible wave. Many
of these rocks were from twenty to thirty
tons in weight,, and some of the largest
must have been nearly double. Lloyd’s
agent,, who was with rne, agreed in think
ing that we could not be mistaken if we
put down the largest block of coral rock
that we passed as weighing not less than
fifty tons.
Fresh Water from Sea Ice.
Mr. John Rae writ*'- in Nature: “1
know from personal experience that sal
ine fluid does, under certain circum
stances, percolate or filtrate downward,
converting sea ice, previously saline, into
a sufficiently fresh state to afford good
drinking water when thawed. This dis
covery, like a good many others of more
importance, was accidental. Iri passing
a piece of old ice -that is, of a former
year’s formation, which was known to be
so by its wasted and nigged outline, as
it stood some feet above the surrounding
level ice-floe- 1 knocked a small piece
off, and on putting it into my mouth
found it quite fresh. From that time,
during sledge journeys of 1200 miles in
the spring of 1847, I looked out for some
old rough ice, before building our snow
hut for the night’s shelter, so as to get
water quickly. Experience had taught!
me that a kettleful of watercould be ob
tained much more rapidly and at a far
less waste of fuel by thawing ice than
from snow, because the latter, however
closely packed, contained much air,
which, at a temperature of zero or lower,
required extra fuel to warm it up to 32
degrees Fahrenheit; a kettleful of snow
will giv<- little more than a third of a ket
tleful of water, while the same measure
of ice will nearly fill the kettle with
water. ”
YOL. I. NO. 8.
Drifting.
Th<» wavrs may s[Mtrklo through ths
(lav,
Porkixi in the folds of Heaven's raflertteA
blue,
Anil K|uirkling over soft-voiced shoal* may
piny.
Or mirror in its surfauc-depths the view:
jut tin* stream (lows on, and wo, upon Hf*k
rivor,
b loaves upon tin* current, drift forover.
nbft melodies may soot In' us ns we drift
1 iencnth tin* boughs of over-arching tree*;
Anil iHTfuine'.(loot from every leafy rift,
Or from tin* neighboring lily ninntled lean:
Hut life ex |>niids into a mighty river,
And we, upon its bosom, drift forever.
All, soon its sparkle dulls; it* glitter diee;
And all the song in life is left liehind;
And only emptiness around 11s lies
As love grows fold; until at last we find
Life’s perfume Hod. Then we, upon the
river,
Yearn for a sweetness that is gone forever.
Hut often in our hearts a fragrant, nir
Floats down the stream in sad, delicious
sighs:
And in, and round, and near ns everywhere
A thousand mellowed memories arise,
Like flowery perfumes watted down the
river
To soothe us as we drift along forever.
O. 11. Murphy in Ihr Current
IIUMOKOUB.
A liberty pole Kosciusko.
A moving scene An earthquake.
“liver kneeling at thy feet”—The boo*
black.
.Jonah was the first secretary of the In
terior.
“Tire money makers" —Workers in the
mint.
Lust, hilt not least -What your boot
was made on.
Irate Creditor—“ Now when will thin
bill be paid?”
What is pic-plant? Why, the burial of
a bilker, of course.
“Mamma, why is papa bald?” "lam
his fourth wife, darling.”
“Wind istlu* nationality of that, drinkl"
he asked the man who was filling a glass
from a syphon bottle. “Celt, sir.”
A Western settler’s cabin was recently
swept entirely away by a tornado. That
is what we should call carrying a house
by u storm.
Dr. Tanner says that with the unaided
eye only about five thousand stars can be
Ken. Dr. Tanner lias evidently new
been on skates.
Duttons—Missus told me to come down
and tell you she was not at home. Huff
cut—Go hack and tell your mistress I aay
I haven’t called.
An agriculture paper says: “No ani
mal can fight and cut at the same time.
Evidently never seen a travelei at a ten
minutes-for-luneh stand.
Dio Lewis says that hot water will
cure all complaints. In that ease im
provident men ought to tie extra healthy,
for they are always in it.
A poor young man and his poor young
wife get along very well with their
economy until the dry goods stores begin
to spread all over the newspapers. Then
there’s a break.
No matter if a woman hasn’t but three
lines to write on a page of letter paper,
she can't resist the temptation to write
two of them on the side margin and
then sign her name upside down over the
date.
An up-eountry schoolmaster, whose wife
was one of his pupils, had occasion to
punish her one day. The next day the
school-house door bore this inscriptioiu
“School closed for one week owing to the
illness of the schoolmaster.
Down in the silent hallway
Bcamjior* the dog about,
Arid whines, and barks, and scratches,
In order to get out.
Once in the glittering starlight,
He straightway doth liegin
To set up a doleful howling
In order to get in.
Moonshiners.
The term moonshiner appears to have
originated about tin- year 1870 in the
mountain districts of the southern states.
In the opinion of General Green B.
Raum, formerly collector of internal rev
enue, it arose ‘Spontaneously from the
fact, that the illicit, distiller was a moon
shiner, and his product moonshine whis
key.” General Katun mentions also a
curious term used in the south in con
nection with tin- tax on tobacco. “The
dealers in illicit tobacco, who flourished
principally in North Carolina, were
called “bloekailers," and the illicit (un
taxed) tobacco blockade tolmeco. By
analogy the t mi blockade whiskey was
also used. ’’This evidently had its ori
gin in the long bloegadeiif the southern
ports during the win 1 thill 1805), which
caused the common jicuple to associate
blockade with anything at once illicit
or prohibited, a well a-, dangerous.”—
BonU/n Beacon.