Newspaper Page Text
n C. STiTTPN, Editor and Prop’r.
DR. TAMAGE'S SERMON.
RUM THE WORST ENEMY OF
THE WORKING CLASSES.
Text: “He that carnoth wages earnotti
Wages to put it iu a bag with holes.” Hag
gai, i., 5:
In Persia, during the reign of Darius
Hystaspes, tue peoj>le did not prosper. They
made money but they could riot keep it.
They Were like a mhn who lifts a sack
W hich he puts money into, not knowing that
the sack has been torn or worm-eaten, or is
in some way incapacitated to hold valuables;
As he puts the coin in one end of the sack it
drops out of the other. They earned wages
but they lost them, or its tb*prophet tint* it'
He that. tSarneth Wages earnout wages to
put, it iu a bag with holes.” What has
become of the billions and billions of dol
lars paid fts wages to the working classes
<>t this country! Many of tho moneys have
gone for the purchase of wardrobes, for tbe
purchase of hrinlostertdS) fob tl'e support Os
families, for the education of children, for
the meeting of tho necessities of life, for pro
viding comfort for time of old age, and
rightly spent, Chri.tianly spent. W hat has
become of the other billions and billions Os
t he wages paid to tho w orking classes of this
country? Many of then! fooliehjv wasted,
wasted at gaming tableo, wasted In intoxi
cants, put into a bag with n hundred holes,
(lather up the moneys that have limn spent
by the working classes of this country during
the last thirty yea s for rum and tobacco,
and I will build for tho workingmen, every
workingman, a house, surrounding il. with a
garden, clothing his sons in broadcloth ami
ins daughters iu silks, standing at his front
door tt praMeing span of htlys.br Sorrels,
and insuring his life so that his place can be
kept up after his death. If in the city of
'Brooklyn the people have expended $17,000,-
000 in one year for strong drink, and one
half of that money has been spent by tho
wage earning classes, then one-half the
wages of this city has gone for rum. 1 stand
before the Christian church and before the
American people to-day to deleave that the
most persistent and overwhelming enemy of
the working classes is intoxicating liquor. It
is a worse enemy than monopoly,it is a wore
enemy than associated capital, it is the pest
of the century, aud has boycotted and is boy
cotting the body, mind and soul of American
industry. It snatches away a large percent
age of the wages of litis country. It meets
the laboring man and operative on bis way
to work in the morning, with baleful solici
tations, and at the noon sped aud
in lit ■ eventide and on Saturday
witen the wages are paid it takes much of
that which ought to go for the support of
the family and sa arrives it. lo the taloou
keeper. Wo have now in these cities saloons
that have what they call free lunch, aud for
Scents Hie laboring man may have his glass
of intoxicating liquor and one or two articles
of food, and you wonder how tho saloonist
can afford that. I will tell you how ho af
fords it. The laborer does not stop with one
glass or one cup. llis thirst is kindled and
he drinks on and drinks on and becomes a
patron of that establishment, and drinks
mere and more until he goes into tho grave,
and his wife and children go to tho poor
house. Within 300 yards of old Sands Street
Methodist Church, Brooklyn—that Gibraltar
of Christianity, that fortress of Godliness
and the truth decade after decade, (hat old
historical church, in w hich John Summer
iiehl thundered on righteousness, temperance
and -judgment to coine—within 300
yards of old Sands Street Methodist
church, there aro to-day fifty-four drinking
saloons aud an application for another. It I
Ims been estimated that if the groggeries and
the rum shops of this country were put side j
by side they would make a solid block from j
New York to Chicago. The liquor traffic is J
gathering up its forces and crying out: "For
ward march! take possession of the ballot
box, take possession of the city halls, take
possession of the Legislatures,take posse siou
of the Congress of the United States. < apture
the whole law for intoxication.” Will you
tell me what chance there is for the laboring
( lasses of this country while this iniquity
progresses a; it does? The rum traffic pours
the vitriolic,damnable stuff down the throats
of hundreds of thousands of tho working
class,and while a strike injures both employer \
and employe, I this day proclaim a universal ;
strike against strong drink, whirii strike if
kept up will release the working class and be i
the salvation of the nation. Any healthy
man in America, if he will be industrious for j
twenty years aud abstain from strong drink, j
and be saving, may be his own capitalist on
a small scale. This country spends annually j
in strong drink one billion, five hundred mil
lion and fifty thousand dollars. A largo part
of that money is expended by the laboring j
classes. In Great Britain there are expended i
anui ally one hundred million pounds, or five
hundred million dollars. Oh, workingmen
of America, whether you sit in this house to
day, or whether these words shall in some !
other way coine to you, I ask you to sit
down an 1 add up how much you
have expended during your lifetime for
rum and tobacco, and' then ask your j
fellow workmen how much they have \
expended for rum and tobacco, aud add it all j
up cud realize that by co-operative associa
tion you might have been your own capitalist, j
instead of answering the beck aud whim of j
of others. Anything that takes from the ;
working classes of America their physical
strength is a robbery. Now, a man who
stimulates has not as much energy and phys- !
ical endurance as a man who refuses to
stimulate. My father told me how he be
came a tcmjieiance man. He said: “I be
came a temperance man when everybody \
drank, because of what I saw in the harvest j
field, where I found that though I was phys
ically weakerthan oth -rnrr-n liecaiiseof long
sickness, I could endure more than my com
rades in the harvest field: I could work harder
ar:d work longer, and 1« less fatigued at
night: they took stimulants, I took none.”
A brick maker in England, having in bis :
employ many men. investigated the subject, j
ana he gives as the result of his investigation:
‘The freer drinker who made the fewest bricks
made 1159,000. The abstainer who made the
fewest bricks made 740,000. The difference in
behalf of the abstainer over the indulger,
87,000.” There came a time of great weari
ness in the British l arliament and the sessions
were so long, and from week to week, that
nearly a 1 the members of the Parliament
were either sick or worn out. Os the 033
members only two went through undamaged.
They were teetotalers. In time of war,
soldiers who go forth with wa'er or coffee in
the canteen can inarch longer and make
braver fight than the soldi* rs who carry
whisky in the canteen. Hum is a great help
for a man to fight if he has only one con
testant and that at the street corner; but if a
man goes forth to fight for God and his
country, be wants no rum about hirn. When
the Kasdan army goes out a corporal passes
along the line and smells the breath of eac h '
soldier, and if there be in the breath the j
slightest suggestion of liquor the man is sent
ba-k to the barracks. Why? He cannot
stand the battle, he cannot stand the march.
All our yonng men understand this. When
thev are preparing for the regatta, for the
ball club, for til- athletic wrestling, they
abstain from strong drink. It is most irn
jk,riant that all my friends who are tolling
with hand and foot and brain understand
they can do more work Without rum than
they can do with it. The workingman who
pu.W down hu wages and then puts down
®leJwoiitjomcr| itlcmitor.
right 1 edi'e them his expenses end makes
them u t equal is not wise. 1 know laboring
I turn why are iu a perfect lidvet until they
! have ap- ijt their hpst, dollar. The following
: Urouiiistn‘l w c*lu;A under 'in own observa
tion: A voting man was gets tig ♦O’Kl w s7(>.i
! salary. Day of marriage came. His wife
j inherited SSO) from her grandfather. -She
j expended every dollar in a wedding eqnlp
-5 meut. Then they rented u room. Then the
voting nmn found it necessary to t ike even
ing omnlotincnt; He was already nearly
I worn otic lriuii overwork; btiX now to the
day must night employ mout rW ad do 1, until
j his ovesight wits ti arlv- extinguished and his
lira 1 Hi nearly gtnWhy did h > add night
, employment t> the dav empoyment? To
I pet if ore money. What ■ lid he want
i to get more money fori To put away
, for a rainy day? Oh no. To get his life in
| sured so that it he (lied his wife would not
' be a beggar? No, c lino. He had tilts other
j grand and glorious enterprise on hand: he
i wanted to get. mid hs did get, by this extra
labor $l5O with which to purchase his wife a
s-aktkiri coat. Wdfthy Os a man's highest
endeavor! The sisW of the bride heard of
tho achievement and she was not to lie
e dip;ed. She was earning her living with
| tlirnce lie. So she sat up nights week aft-r
I week, month after month, until she came to
j the same glorious achioye.uenfc and she had
! won $l5O with which td biiv e Sealskin coat,
j I do not know what the effect nas ou that
street. There were many people on that
street with small incomes and I suppose
this contagion spread and that people
came out crying, figuratively if not
literally, “though the heavens fall, I must
have a sea Nk ill coat.” Now, between such
u fool as that and pauperism there is only
on ) step. I was tol l a! out eight vears ago,
while riding with a clergyman in lowa, that
nearly all Ills congregation and the neighbor
hoed had bee i financially ruined by the fact
that the farmers had i ul mortgages on their
farms in order that, they might send their
families to the Philadelphia Centennial Ex
hibition. '‘Why,” he said, “it was not con
sidered respectable here not to go to tho Phil
adelphia Centennial Exhibition.” So they
nil went. Ah, my friends, if by some fiat of
the capitalists, if bv some new law of the
government of the United States, twenty-five
per cent., fifty per cent., 10) per cent,
could bo added to tHo wages of
tho working people, hundreds of thousands
of them would be no better off. More
money, more rum. More wages, more holes
in the bag. Scores of people who might have
beon well off t -day, are in destitution be
cause they chewed, or smoke I, or drank, or
lived beyond their means, while others on the
same salary went on to a competency. I
know a man now who is all the time com
plaining of Iris poverty and crying out
agaiust rich men, yet he keeps two
dogs, and he smokes and chews, and ho
is filled to tho chin with whisky and beer.
Micawber said to David Oopperflclil: “Cop
perfield, my boy, one pound income, twenty
shillings an 1 sixpence outgo. Itosult, misery.
But Copperfield, my boy, one poun I income,
ninet en shillings an 1 sixpence outgo. Re
sult, happiness,” But oh, workingmen, yon
take your dram in the morning, aud
you take your dram at noon, and you
take your dram at night, aud I will prom
, iso you aud your children poverty forever.
1 The vast majority of the children in the
almhouses of this country had for fathers
drunken or lazy or improvident man. 1 do
not know how it is with others who try to help
the poor, but nine out of ten people that I
help are the wives or the children of drunk
ards. Now, the times have got to change if
lliere is to be any relief from these influences.
We have got to live within our means, and
wo have got to be prudent. And here, let me
say, that I do not sympathize with skinflint
saving. I am pleading for Christian pru
dence. A man now may have n i means to
savo, hut u e aro ut the morning of a great
day of national prosperity, and people aro
going to have means to savo. There arc men
who now have not a dollar who might have
been their own masters, independent of em
ployers, independent of capitalists, and what
1 say, you ail know to be true. I know
there are people who think it is mean to
turn the gas down lower when they leave
tho parlor. I know there are people uh i
are very much embarrassed if tho door bell
rings before tho hall is lighted. I know
there are people who feel apologetic when
you find them at a plain table, plain food.
Well, it is mean if it only bo for piling up a
miserly hoard; but if it bo to give a better
education to your children, if it be to give
help to your wife when she is not strong, if
it be to keep your funeral day from being a
horror beyond endurance because it is the
annihilation of your home—that is grand, that
is magnificent. It depends very much upon 1
what you savo for, whether it is mean or
grand. I know young women iu tills city
who are denying themselves all luxuries to
educate brothers, or to give a younger sister
musical advantages. What do you call that?
It is next to the angelic. Now, I want to say
to the workingmen of America, so far as I
can reach the y, and I want to say at tho
same time the same things to all business
men, men of all classes and occupations,
the greatest foe of labor, the greatest
foe of literature, the greatest foe of religion,
the greatest foe of all classes of people, is
strong drink, and I want this morning iu the
name of God to implore you to quit the use
of it, I warn you t > take one square look at
the suffering man who becomes the despoiler |
of the wine flask or tho beer mug or the
whisky bottle, and understand that a
vast . multitude aro running for that
goal. Rome of you are running for it!
When a man comes from under this influence
he feels bemoaned. Ido not care how reck
less he talks. He may say: “I don’t care.”
He does care. H cannot look you iu tho
eye without a rallying of his energies and
force of resolution. The Philistines have J
bound him hand and foot and gouged his j
eyes out and shorn his locks, and Tie has !
already started to grind in the mill of a great
horror. Just as soon as a man, whether he j
lie a workingman, or, as we call him, a bust- j
ne« man, gets under the influence of strong !
drink, he will try to persuade you flint of all
that he can stop at any time. He cannot. I
will prove it. He loves himself, lie loves his
body, he loves his rijind, he loves his soul. He
knows his habits are ruining all these, yet he
k< eps right on. Why does be not stop? He
cannot stop. He loves his family; he thinks
the finest group in all the world is his
wife and children; he knows that be is,
that his son and his daughter are going out |
under the baleful influence of having had an i
inebriated father. Whv does lie not stop? 1
He cannot. I had a friend who for fifteen j
or twenty years was going down under this j
pr*ce-s. He was a generous soul. He had
given thousands of dollars to Bible societies, |
tra t societies, missionary so defies, and yo t
could not make an appeal in behalf of charity
but he liberally responded. Ilis ,
ordinary mode with ultimate friends I
was when applied to for help to say: “Put
rny name down on the subscription paper for |
what you think 1 ought to pay, and I will
pay it.” Glorious soul. Not many like him.
Rut strong drink put its grappling ho -ks
upon him and he went on, bn, down, down,
lie said: “I can stop any time I want to,
don't tie worried.” His pastor protested,
and said: “Don’t you know you aro
ruining yourself, you are ruining your
family, now, you stop.” He said: “Oh.
I could stop any time if I wanted to.” After
awhile he had delirium tremens. The doctor
said to him: “Now, if you have another at
tack of this kind the pro! ability i- you won’t
get well.” “Why,” said he. “doctor, lean
stop at any time; it is only a question of
time. I can stop as easily as turn ng my
hand over. ’ lie bad a sscon 1 uttaek.
His physician saij; “Now, you moot
MT. VERNON, MONTGOMERY C*o GA.. THURSDAY, JIM,Y 22, I SRC.
this I oahlt l*' any lu»lp u> Vot f , »*<>r
can You must stop.V “Oh," ho
said, “doctor, * *top if [ w.mtol too, if
I thought it best.. 1 think you w iv wistgdern,
doctor." He is dead, my friends, d al. »~h.'i*
killed him? Hum’ (hi»’ of tho last things lie
did was try to l( per*Uiufo his friends ho
could stop if lu* wain! -il tv it' h« ( thought it
was best to stop— lemonstmtnq* tiV t;u Mhflt
there is a point beyond which if a man
go he cannot stop. A man saitl to a Christian
friend: ‘ If 1 wore told l could not get any
strong drink before to m >rro\v night miles, l
had in> tiiieyr* cbopwd off. 1 would say:
‘Bring a hatchet and c nop flic in “iV" 1 had
a dear friend hi l bila loluhini who was chid
ing ids nopHew for yielding to this tempta
tion. The nephew saiu; “\Vh\\ tin le, if there
was acftunon an l on the top of M»o minion
stoo l a wine glass, and the thirst were
on mo and I knew as I advanced
that cannon would be fired off, 1
would start for that wine cup,” t )h, men of
the working classes an I inch of all c lu ses, clo
not get this grip on you. It is an awful thing
for a man to wake up aud say; “1 could have
stoppo l once, but 1 cannot stop now. 1 might
have li\« 1 a useful life and. d e l a Christian
death. Head but not buried. lam a walking
corpse. 1 am only an apt aritioh Cf what 1
once was. 1 am a caged immortal, and my soul
beats against tho wires of the cage on this
side and boats against the wires of the cage
on the other side, hut cannot, got out, and
there is blood oft the wires and there is blood
on my soul- Destroyed without, remedy.
Ami then there is all tlto sorrow tlirtt coine
from the loss of physical health. Doctor
Bewail —some of tho aged men in this
may remotulior the time
,wheu lie went through the country
and eldctfifie l audiences. lam told by those
who Heard him fchrtt he Imd eight or ten d n
granis, which lie displayed before the poop.o,
showing the devastation of alcoh lisiit on the
human stomach. There wore thousands of
people who turno 1 away from these ul crons
sketches swearing by the help of Almighty
God they would never again touch intoxi
cating Honor. Oh, what tho inebriate sn
fers. Pain fi!*s on every nerve and travols
every muscle, and gnriws every bjno and
burns with every flame, dud stings
with every poison, and pulls with every tor
ture. dVhat fiends stand by his midnight
pillow? What horrors shiver through his
soul? What groans tear his cars? Talk of
the rack, talk <>f the inquisition, talk of tho
crushing juggernaut—he Dels them alt ut
once. There lie lies in one of tho wards of
the hospital. The keeper comes up and says:
“You must be still; you’ve got to
stop this noiso; you're disturbing tho
whole hospital.” No sooner has tho
keeper gone away than the poor soul says:
“Oh God, Oh God, keep mo! Take the
devils off of me. <>h God, give me rum, give
m » rum!” And Him when the keeper come*
he asks tho kec|K‘i* to kill him. “Stub me,
slay me, smother me. Oh God. Oh God.”
It is no fancy sketch. That is going on nil
up and down this land. Moreover, it is tho
death some of you will die.
Tien thero am all tho sorrows of a de
stroyed home. Ido not, care bow much a
man lovei his wife and chil Iren, if this pas
sion tor strong drink comes upon him, and lie
cannot get it in any other way, he will be
willing to soil them all into eternal bondage.
I hate that strong drink. Do not tell mo ft
man can bo lumpy when ho knows jfhafc ho is
breaking his wife’s heart, apd c!otlioig hi*chil
dren with ragß. All! there a.e th .iisands of
children to-day on the streets of I ho cit y and on
the roads of the country, unkempt, uucombod
auduncand for. Want written on every
patch of their garni- and on every wrinkle
of their prematurely old faro. Tre y would
have been in the bouse of God aud a< well
da las any of you but for tho fact that their
fathers woro drnol ads. Th°v wont, down
aud took the'r lanr*ic> with them, rs they
always do. Th »ro is not an as ;omblago ill
tin* I’nifol State* today in which there
arc not women who n*o lighting the battle
for bea t alone. Tho man who promised
fidelity, tho man elio wa ordained as tho
head of th • ho ire’iol l n destroying himself
and dost roving all lb cede; »<*iif lent upon hirn.
Oh Rum, thou foe of Go I, thou despoller of
the human race, thou recruiting officer of
holt, 1 hate thee.
But the negle t- take* a deeper tone when I
tell you that, it des. oils—t. iis < vil d oils the
soul. The Bible iudica again and again
that if our hearts be mu h inged and we go
into the other wort I rurogenerate, our evil
appetites and ros- io is go with ns and there
torment u*. In this world the nrui could
borrow or steal fivo cent; t > get that which
slaked his thirst for a little while, but in
eternity, whom is the ruin to come from?
Dives wanted a drop of water. 7he inebriate
wants rum. Where shall it come
from? Who will Imv it? Who will mix it?
Who will set. h it ? Millions of worlds now for
the dreg* which the young man slung out on
thesawdusted floor of the restaurant-. Mil
lions of worlds now for the rind pitched out
from the punch bowl of the earthly banquet.
Dives wanted water. Tho inebriate wants
rum. If a spirit from the lost world should
come up for some work in a grogshop and
then go bock, taking one drop on his infer
nal wing, and that one drop on the
fiend’s wing could be out on tho tip of the
tongue of the lost ineoriate, however small
the drop, if it only have the si a' k of alco
holic liquor, that one drop on the inebriate’s
tongue would make him cry: “Aha! aha!
that is rum!” It would wake up all tho
echoes of the dammed, as they cry: “Give
me rum! give me rum!” Ido not think tho
sorrow of the inebriate in the next world will
Is) the absence of God or the absence of
light, or the absence of holin<-s: it, will be
the absence of rum. f nay it to the working
classes of America, and Isay it to all busi
ness classes, to all these merchants, to all
these men whether they toil for a living with
brain, or hand, or feet, you ought to quit
your strong drink, have nothing to do with
it. “Look not upon the wine when it is red,
wh*n it moveth itsejf aright in the cup, for
at, the last it biteth like a serpont, and it
stingeth like an adder. " Oh, I think it is about
time for another womens crusade, such a.-, wo
had seven or eight years in Ohio, when thiity
women went at and cleared all the gropshoj s
out of a town of a thousand inhabitants—
thirty women surcharged with th" Holy
Ghost, their only weapons prayer and s »ng,
and many a grogshop was closed as fh«*y
came up, the owners saying: “Now, don't
come here and pray and ong. w 'll Hose up.”
If thirty women surcharged with the Holy
Ghost could clear out rum from a
village of a thousand inhabitant*, throe
thousand consecrated women of Brooklyn
in the strength of Almighty God banding to
gether and going forth, cotiii in six months
clear out at least three fourth* of the grog
shop*. and if tho three thousand should band
together, and they had no other leader, I. a
minister of the most high God, would offer
rny services, and I would f-orne out in front
of them and would say: “Come on,
come on with your prayers and your songs
and your Christian entreaties, cone on!
Some of you will tako this left
wing of tin enemy, and others of you will
take the right wing of the enemy. For
ward! the Lord of Hosts is with us, the God
of Jacob is our refuge. Down with the
dram-hops, down with'tho grogshops. (Ap
plause.) Ah! my friends, rather than your
applause. Jet it In your prayers to Almightv
(iod that this beloved city,the pride of our resi
dence, may have the awful curse of strong
drink lifted. Not waiting for those mo jth* of
bell, tie grogshops to lie closed, start you
on your duty.fof if I said a few moment ago
that there wa* a point beyond which j; a
man went he could not stop, J have to toll
you that the Lord God Almighty by Hi*
I
“SUii DEO FACIO FOUTITER:’
(sj-ftro enn iiolp nny ninn fit RtO]\ I tvnn (>vet
in IV7 (ff tN* mo.iiiiß-* in Now YAi-u whom
tlinro win ii mu;* rfitmlierof roformoil ilitutk
arilf, iiuU 1 lul l » i'iu io'Hort iiifido ft> um
* *lvn- flint I noyor lioforo ;rifor..t*,ri.
Th# 4ul"tnn , \> of tho tojimotiv of t wentV <*'
thlrlv people was "Wo worn tho vie;
tim. of stronr drink. \\ o vrlc'il toqiirt.. Wo'
conM not- Wo made fnilire. Wo i* , l-.'i:" A i
!c( til’.sort* of so. iotios ami we triad to got
over tho lu.i it, hut wo always failed. Hut,
after a while we tuiind Go** and gave our
hearts to Him. Wo hnvo 1m- i greatly
changed. Not only havo our hourW*
boon chan :vd, hut our bo lies havo
H>dt changed ‘ \Yo don't fool tho thirst any
inure. »• i don't havo the temptation."
tfof only enu tlio Ri'rton of Christ clinngo
tho heart, but it can n-riqH'rato and
clinrivc tlia body, and though tpdav
you ,Vl nl tli - roots of yonrtongu > tho crav
ings of »i.mighty thirst, cnlt on God and Ho
will rose' you. N oil I'-Oilint do it your
self. H o,in. He can. Ami If you have
only lio;nu t> go astray, if it is a
mat.Vi >f luxury to you; wlioa tho liquor
pours into tllO cup, whether il boil gold-m
chalice or a pewter ini!; 1 want, you, oh men,
to real in the foam on 111 1 tm> of the m • in
white - letters the word, “Beware!' lint
j*o ri zht on as sonic of you aro going and
in t« • years vy.i will ns to voiirbody tiedown
in a drunkard s griiv-, mi l as to your immor
tal soul you will Uo down in a drunkard's
boll It is an awful thing to say, but lam
coin|xdled to sny it . Ob, wtieu the bonks iff
judgment are opened, and ten million ilnink
fli'ds < into up to got their J mm, I want you
to bs,: ify t,lint this day, in all kindness and
love .old plainil s.I w:imn I you to beware of
the inllueneds wlricli Imvo already reached
your homo and are putting out hoiiio of it *
iigiits, a premonition of darkness for
ever. ( ill. that to-day you might Ii sir
ilitooipoi'iuiro with drunkards’ on tho
top of the liquor cask drumming tlm d ad
nittr it of intmorlnl son Is. And tli -ii the sight;
of a wine glass would make you shield -r,
and thru the color of tho liquor would ro
mind you of the blood of t Ir, slain, and the
foam on the iup would make yon think of
tho froth or tho mania 's lip, and you would
go home from this service t > knool down
and pray Almighty God that rnthor than
your rhildiTn should become victims of such
a habit you might carry them out lo tho
cemetery and put them down l i I lie last
sleep, until all ovtV tifwtr grave would come
the flowers—sweet prophecies of the resur
rection. God hath a balm l’or such a wound;
but tell me, tell me, toll mo, what flower of
comfort ever grew on tho blasted heath of a
drunkard’s sepulchre!
A Change of Hear).
One of “the boys” now hanging out. in
Detroit was nabbed in IVnn.sylyuiiia a
few months ago for some swindling
gallic, aud was locked up in a County
j jail pending examination, lie was the
( only prisoner in the buililing, and hr
I hadn’t been there fifteen lninulet before
j lie licit (hat an hour's work would Let
r lii/it out. It was a tumbledown alfair,
buifVliaif a century ago, mid the turnkey
!wa young Quaker. As lie received lii.s
| |>rb"jiier, he said :
‘# think i shall place thee on thy
bot'.*ir not to escape. ”
“All right,” icplicd the prisoner, “I
want to stay right here and see this case
! through.”
He had the run of the corridor ami an
open cell, and about two hours after sup
per he had no troiihlewrcncliiiigacouple
of bars oIfI he corridor window. Wait
ing for the jail to get quiet he lifted the
sash and climbed out on the sill for a
drop to the ground, blit at that instant
he heard a voice fiom beneath b in say
ing:
“On second thought I concluded that
thy honor might not be as s tfe as my
vigilance. Get thee back or I will blow
thy head oil I”
Tile prisoner not only “gotthee,” but
flic old crib field him wifely until he was
taken into court. /'Vve Press.
Not rntentnhle.
“I want to take a patent out for a
dream,” said a. crank who entered the
room of the chief clerk of the Patent Os
lice, this afternoon.
“Dreams are not patentable, sir.” was
the answer.
“You don’t fget my idea,” j ersis ed
tlie imaginary inventor. “H’s like thi :
I had a drenin the other night. lin
vented a machine in "my sleep, ft would
navigate the air. I got up, took rny
knife, and scratched a drawing of it on
the I ead houid of my bed. There it is
now. I don't understand it, bill I shall
sooner or later. Then I’ll want a patent,
and I thought Pd belter register now, for
great ideas move iu lln: same channels,
don’t you know.”
The bouncer wits called in and the in
ventor was thrown into the street.—
Washington letter.
“Aim o the Ttva.”
In a wild part of Scotland, a deabr
in fall used to drive bis cart a consider
able distmee inland. On one occasion,
when pas-ing a wild moor, h” dropped
a lobster Home ebildien picked it up,
and, wondering what the strange crea
ture could be, look it to the school*
ina ter. The dominie put on ids specs,
and. turning it over and over, examined
it car fully “Weul,” at length said
the ora -le, ‘I ken maist o’ the wonderfu’
ari uinl o’ creation, except just twu;and
tine iwaf »< v r saw. They arc an ole
phaitand a turtle dove, and so this
must be anc o’ the I wa ”
A Difference of Livers.
“No, sir,” remarked the irate custo
in or, banging the bo! tle down upon the
drug store show-case: “I don’t want
any more of Pott's L-ver Cure.”
“It’s a very good remedy, sir, ” sug
ge-ted the clerk, timidly.
“Yes; maybe it is for Pott’s liver.
Probably it is But it wasu t worth a
cuss for mine. Pick.
Not Lasting.
Customer -“Thorn scom to lie very
fine diaruoud . Are they of puie water?"
Jeweler—“ Yes, and they are in
rparkling as Lie tears of a young
v. idow. ”
Customer--“If that's the kind of
diamonds they are / jou t want them.
'ihe water would n / ycry long,”-*
k'jU/t'js. _ '%
A DANGEROUS WOMAN.
The Narrative of m Saeret Ser
vice Detective.
A (•bvmtorfeiter's Wife who Successfully
Assumed Mu more os Disguises.
Tn January, IBfi;i, tho Secretary of the
Treasi.T-r was notified that it now' n<s(
dangerous counferfsU on a Cincinnati
National bank bad been pnt afloat in
BoJon. Tile Detective Bureau bciif£‘ no
tified in turn I was detailed on the ease
and left for Boston the same day. About
s'?,()0 1 » (if the queer bad been floated in
die day, and the work had been dime by
a woman. At one place she bad pur
chased *(io;> wort It of diamonds; at an
other a $250 gold watch ;,at another a dia
mond bracelet. The goods in all cases
were such articles as could ho sold again
i for at least half their value.
E i'h victimized party described her
differently. At the first place she was a
blonde, plainly dressed. At the next she
was a brown-haired woman in mourning;
at the third she had black hair, was
showily dressed, and claimed relationship
to a well-known family. After a day
spent in taking notes and making deduc
tions I nunc to tint conclusion that there
was only one woman in the case, and tlml
she had assumed disguises. Boston was
thoroughly searched for her, aud I had
not yet found a clue when the chief tele
graphed me that she had appeared in
Philadelphia, I reached that city to find
that she had purchased SI,OOO worth of
diamonds at one place and SBOO worth at
another, paying, of course, in the coun
terfeit bills. Tins first jeweler described
herns a showy woman with gold iu her
upper front teeth. The second jeweler
described her as very plain and demure,
and be was sure that slio bad no gold in
her teeth.
I bad set out under tho belief tlml I
bad only one woman to deal with, and |
would not now admit there were two. I
looked Philadelphia high anil low for IV
males bearing the. description, and at (lie
end of four days received another tele
gram from Jicadquurters. Sin: bad ap
peared in Pittsburgh, where she had
made three different purchases of jewel
crs. I hastened to the Smoky (,'ityas
soon as possible, and lo! the three de
scriptions gi veu were so entirely different
t hat one was almost sure there were three
women at work floating off the counter
feits.
(•lie jeweler hod been mashed or. It n
customer, and had therefore taken par
ticular notice that her eyes were blue,
her hair brown, and her height medium.
Hlie had gold ill her upper front teeth,
and was affected in her ways mid speech.
Theseroiid jeweler Wir n’l mushed, blit lie
was an old detective, and he noticed that
she had brown eyes, (link hair, a mole on
her cliin, and plain, while teeth. There
was nothing affected about her. The
third jeweler could swear I lint she had
black hair, gold in her lower teeth, a
slight squint to one eye, and stammered
u bit im she talked.
I bunted Pittsburgh for three days, but
met with no success. Believing she
would next turn up at Indianapolis, I
started for that city without orders, tak
ing a sleeping ear on a night train. It
was a woman who had the lower berth
next to mine, and as I looked her over 1 j
made up my mind that she was a school '
teacher aud an old maid. Hie- had red ■
hair dressed plainly, and paid not the j
slightest attention to any one. When
f ile porter came to make her berth lie
jilaeed a rather bulky satchel belonging
to her on the scat at my feet, and she
found a temporary seat at the other end
of the ear. The jar of the cars jostled
the satchel to the floor after a bit, and,
as I stooped over to pick it up, 1 found
the floor covered with wigs, cosmetics, I
small brushes, pie, ,-s of crayon and false
teeth. There wen- three wigs of differ
ent colors, mid two upper ami two tinder j
sets of teelh. 11l one Hie gold was in the j
upper; in the other it was in the lower, j
Well, you may believe that with my j
mind full of the mysterious woman and j
her disguise, I was not long in concluding j
that i ha,l stumbled upon the person I
wanted. / replaced the articles
in tho sat,did mid walked over to
her and made know my errand. Khc
gave mo a terrible tongue-lashing and
called on the passengers for protection,
but when I revealed rny identity and
emptied the contents of the satchel on a
sent, she gave in. We got off at Steu
benville, and, when I bad her searched,
over SI,OOO in the counterfeits was
brought to light, but her purchases were
not to bo found, she having shipped them
to confederates. Khe was the wife of the
notorious “Black Dan,” and the pair were
tho most dangerous couple in America
at that time. We got her husband in a
week or two, and, whiio he got a sen
tence of twenty-two years, she got off
with seven,- Detroit Free Tress,
VOL. I. NO. 20.
Uaxlc in India.
Caste, like n terrible 11 iylitumrr-, in
firmly fustfwod upon tin* social life of
India. It will take generations of civil
izing influence to make these lethargic
people realize that the .system is evil. It
is nut easy for us to understand it. The
following description, by a gentleman in
India, shows a little of its pernicious
working.
During n severe famine, a man, with
his wife ami child, applied to a mission
ary for help. They had come from a dis
tance, and were thin and pinched with
hunger. Food was at once brought, but,
hungry fl" they were, tney would not
touch it. The child was on the ground
hunting for and eating the raw rice that
was scattered about the floor. Itico be
ing given them, they commenced to rook
it, but devoured it before it was half
done. They would not lose caste by eat
ing' food prepared by any one not of their
grade.
There are four principal castes. The
Brahmins, or priests, are the highest.
They consider it beneath them to labor.
To tend cuttle or to milk a row would
bn pollution. Formerly, if a low caste
person tom bed them, even by accident,
they could kill him on the spot with im
punity. The people yield to them as
superiors as a matter of course.
When a high caste man came into a
meeting, a whole bench was vacated, the
occupants taking seats on the floor. The
natives usually travel third class on the
railway. These ears are so crowded
there is no room to it apart. This has
a tendency to break down caste.
The railway companies had difficulty
in supplying them water to drink. A
high-caste man could not drink water
brought by a man of lower caste. By
employing a high-caste man, all cun ho
supplied.
In their villages each caste lives by it
self. Kadi bus its own shops, or bazaars.
Below the regular castes are the outcasts
those who have broken over some of
the various restriction Youth,’* Com
panion.
The Air (Itin.
The air-gun is simply a pneumatic en
gine, for the purpose of discharging Infi
ll Is hy the elastic force of compressed
air. It is not known exnelly when or by
whom it was first invented, but it was
certainly in use in France three centuries
ago. 11. is probable that hud not the
gunpowder been discovered also early a
date air-guns might have been made very
effective. They arc tisunlly made in the
form of muskets, having a hollow stock,
which is filled with compressed air from
a force-pump. The lock is nothing mote
than a valve, which fi ts into the barrel a
part of the compressed air from the stock
when the trigger is pulled. The gun is
i loaded with wadding and bullet in the
! ordinary way, and the bullet is driven
from the barrel by the expansive action
of the air. The range of the gun de
pends upon its size and the amount and
degree of compression of the air. The
velocity of the bullet is proportioned to the
square foot of the degree of compression
of tlie air. Under the pressure of fifty
atmospheres, or 730 pounds, for instance,
tlie impulse given to the ball is almost
eijual to that of an ordinary charge of
gunpowder. Air-guns are sometimes
made in the form of walking sticks, so
they can be readily used for purposes of
defense. Air-guns arc generally regard
ed as somewhat unsafe, but it is not
known that any law inis ever been enact
ed against them. In the hands of inexpe
rienced or malicious persons they are cap
able of doing much mischief.—lnter
(Jr,t Ml.
A Very 1C it li Man.
Mr. William If. Vanderbilt is extreme
ly particular about bis wearing apparel,
lie Inis a French valel, who looks after
nil bis belongings and chooses his ties
and shoes. /1 is clothing is all made in
London and sent to .New York every
throe months by order, lie wears a cost
ly diamond ring on his small finger and
small diamond studs when in full dress,
lie invariably wears a high silk hat, and,
like most blondes, looks his best when in
a lull ilren suit. He lias a pleasant bari
tone voice for si ging, and is a rnembei
of St. Bartholomew's, like his brother.
Cornelius.
“SI.”
A correspondent of the I’all Mall re
marks that all words beginning with :il
have in some degree a eeond rate or bad
quality about them. ‘ Look through the
dictionary,” he says, “and you will not
find one that is quite first rate, for ‘sleep,*
which is about tlie best of them, Is after
all half-way to death, and the great ma
jority of these words are more or less dis
gusting us well as degraded.”
Little maiden (who is spending tho
afternoon with her aunt) —Auntie,
mother said I must not ask you for any*
thing to cat, but I'm awful hungry.