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Ste. Jtlontgomcr | Jffite nit or.
D. 0. SUTTON, Editor and Prop’r.
DR, TALMAGE'S SERMON,
THE CHEAP SPAREOW
Text: “Are not five sparrows sold for two
farthings, nnd not rue of them is forgotten
before God?”—Luke xil, a
You see the Bible will not be limited In the
choice of symbols. There is bnrdly a boast,
or bird or ins -ct which has not been called to
illustrate somo divine truth—the ox's ]>a
tien o, the ant’s industry, the spider's skill,
the hind s surefooteduess, the eagle’s sjieod,
the dove’s gentleness, and even the sparrow's
meanuess and insignificance. In Oriental
countries none but the poorest people buy the
sparrow and eat it, so very little meat is
there on tho bones, and so very poor is it.
what there is of it. The comfortable popula
tion would not think of touching it any more
than you won id think of eating a bat or a
lamprol. Now, says Jesus, if God takes
such good care of a poor bird that is not
worth a cent, won't he care for you, on im
mortal !
We associate God with revolutions. We
can see a diving purpose ih the discovery of
America, in the invention (if the art of print
ing. in the exjxsure of the Gunpowder Plot,
in the eontrivan o of the needie-gun, in ilie
ruin of an Austrian or Napoleonic despotism;
but how hard it is to s o God in tile minute
personal affairs of our lives! We think of
God as making a record of the starry host,
but cannot realize the Bible truth that lie
knows how many hairs are on our head. It
seems a grand thing that Go 1 provided food
for hundreds of thousands of Israelites in the
desert; but we cannot appreciate tbo truth
that, when a sparrow is hungry, God stoops
down and opens its mouth and puts ti e seed
in. We are struck with the idea that God
fills the universe with His presence; but can
not understand how He encamps in the
crystal palace of the dewdrop, or finds
room to stand, without being crowded, be
tween the alabaster pillars of a pond lily.
We can see God in the clouds. Can we see
God in these flowers at our feet? We are apt
to place God on some groat stage—or try to
do it—expecting Him there to act out His
stupendous projects; but we forget that the
life of a Cromwell, an Alexander, or a Wash
ington, or an archangel, is not more under
divine inspection than your life or mine.
Porupey thought there must be a mist over
the eyes of God because He so much favored
Gesar. But there is no such mist. He sees
everything, We say God's path is in the
great waters. True enough! but no more
certainly than Ho is in tho water in tho glass
on the table. We sny God guides the stars in
their courses. Magnificent truth! but no
more certain truth than that Ho decides
which road or street you shall take in coming
to church. Understand that God does not sit
upon an indifferent or unsympathetic throne;
but that Ho sits down beside you today, and
stands beside me to-day, and no affair of our
lives is so insignificant but that it is of im
portance to God.
In the first place, God chooses for us our
occupation. lam amazed to see how many
r>eonl« there are dissatisfied with tho work
they fcavo to do. I think three fourths wish
they were in some other occupation; and
they spend a great deal of time in regretting
that they got in tho wrong trade or profes
sion. I want to tell you that God put into
operation all the influences which led you to
that particular choice. Many of you are not
in the business that you expected to be in.
You started for tho ministry, and learned
merchandise; you started for tho law, and
you are a physician; you preferred agri ul
ture, and you are a mechanic. You thought
one way; God thought another. But you
ought not to sit down and mourn over the
past. You are to remember that God—a
beneficent God, a kind God. a loving God
arranged all these circumstances by which
you were made what you are.
Hugh Miller says: “I will be a stone
mason.” Godsays: “You will bea geologist.”
David goes out to tend his father s sheep.
God calls him to govern a nation. Saul goes
out to hunt his father’s asses, and before he
gets back finds the crown of mighty domin
ion. How much happier would we be if wo
•were content with tho places God gave us I
God saw your temperament and all the cir
cumstances by winch you were surroun led,
nnd 1 believe nine-tenths of you are i:i the
work you are best fitted for.
1 hear a great racket in my watch, and I
find that the hands and the wheels and the
springs are getting out of their places. I
send it down to the jewelers and say: “Over
haul that watch, and teach the wheels and
tho spring and the hands to mind their own
business.”
You know a man having a large estate.
He gathers his working hands in the morn
ing, and says to one: “You go and trim that
vine;” to another: “You go and weed tho.e
flowers;” to another: “You plow that tough
glebe; ’and each one goes to his particular
work. The owner of the estate points the
man to what he knows he can do best, and so
it is with the Lord. He calls us up and points
us to that field for which we are best fitted.
So that the lesson for to-day, coming from
this subje.-t, is; “Stay cheerfully where God
puts you.”
I remark further; That God has arranged
the place of our dwelling. What particular
city or town, street or house you shall live in,
seems to be a mere matter of accident. You
go out to hunt for a house, and you happen
to pass up a certain street, and happen to see
a sign, and you select that house. Was it all
happening so? O, no! God guided you in
every step. He foresaw the future. He knew
all your circumstances, and he selected just
that one house as better for you than any
one of the ten thousand habitations in the
city. Our house, however humble tho roof
and however lowly the portals, is as near
God s heart as an Alhambra or a Kremlin.
Prove it, you say? Proverbs iii., 3iJ: “He
blessed the habitation of the just.”
I remark further, that God arranges all
our friendships. You were driven to the
wall. You found a man just at that crisis
who sympathized with you and helped you.
You say: “How lucky I was!” There was
no luck about it. God sent that f :dend just
as certain as He sent tho angel to strengthen
Christ. Your domestic friends, your busi
ness friends, your Christian friends, God
sent them to bless you, and if any of thorn
have proved traitorous it is only to bring out
the vaiu" of those who rema n. If some die,
it is onf> that they may stand at the out
post of Heaven to greet you at your coming.
You always will have friends—warm
hearted friends, magnanimous friends; and
when sickness comes to your dwelling there
will be watchers; when trouble comes to your
heart there will be sympathizers; when
death comes there will be gentle fingers to
close the eyes and fold the hands, and ger.tje
lips to tell of a resurrection. Oh, we are com
passed by a body-guard of friend-: Every
man, if he has 1 ehaved himself well, is sur
rounded by three circles of friends—those of
the outer circle noshing him well: those in
tho next circle willing to help him: while
close up to his heart are a few who would die
for him. God nitv the wret h who has not
any friends! He has not behaved well.
I remark, again, that God puts down the
limit of our temporal prosperity. The world
of finance seems to have no God in it. You
can not tell where a man will land. The af
fluent fall: the poor rise: the ingenious fail
the ignorant succeed. An enterprise own
ing grandly shuts In bankruptcy, while out
of the peat dug up from some New England
marsh the millionaire builds his fortune.
Too poor man thinks it is chance that keeps
him down; the rich man thinks it is chance
I wliicll hoists him; and they lire both wrong.
It is so hard to realize that God rules the
money market, and has a hook in the nose of
tho stock gambler, and that all the commer
cial revolutions of tho world shall result in
the very best for Gtxl’s dear children. My
brethren, dp not kick against the divine al
‘ loticents. God knows just how much money
It is best for you to lose. You never gain
unless it is best for you to gain. You go up
when it it best for you to go up, and go
down when it is bests r you to go down.
Provo it, you say? I will: Romans viii, 28:
“All tilings work together for good to them
that love God." You go to a factory, and
you see twenty or thirty wheels as they are
going in different direction!. This hand is
rolling oil'this way, nnd another hand an
other way; one down, another up. You say:
“What confusion in a factory?” Oh, noi all
lho-e different hands are only different parts
of the machine y. So Igo into your life and
see strange things. Here is one providence
pulling you one way, and another in another
way. But those are different parts of one
machinery, by which He will advance vour
everlasting and present well-being. Now
you know that a second mortgage, nnd a
third afid fourth mortgage, is often worth
nothing. It is tho first mortgage that is a
good investment. I have t> tell you that
every Cliristsan man liai a first mortgage t*
every trial and on every disaster, and It must
m ike a payment of otornal advantage to his
soul.
I tow many worrimonts it would take out
of your heart if you believed that fully.
You buy goods and hope the price will go up;
but you nt e in a fret and a frown for fear the
prico will go down. You do not buy the
goods, using vour liest discretion in the
matter, and then say: “Oh, Lord! I have
done tho best 1 could: I commit this whole
transaction into Thv hands.” That is what
religion is good for, or it is good for nothing.
There are two things, says an old proverb,
you ought not to fret about: First, things
that you can help: and, socond, things
which you can not help; If you can help
them, why do you not apidy the remedy? If
j you can not help them, you might as well
surrender first as last. My dear brethren,
do no sit any longer moping about your
ledger. Do not sit looking so desponding
upon your stock of unsalable goods. Do you
think that God is goingto allow you, a ('hris
tian man, to do business alone? God is the
contro’ling partner in every firm: and
j although your debtors may abscond, although
your securities m iv fail, although your store
| may burn, God will, out of an infinity of re
sults, choose for you the very best results-
Do not have any idea, that you can overstep
the limit that God has laid down for your
prosperity. You Will never get one inch be
yond it. God has decided how much pros
! perity you can stand honorably, and employ
usefully, and control righteously; and at the
end of 1888 you will have just so inauy dollars
and cents, just so much wardrobe, just so
much furniture, just so many bonds and
morl gages, and nothing more. I will give
you 8100 for every j enny beyond that. God
has looked over your life. "He knows what
is best for you, and Ho is going to bless you
in tin e and bless you for eternity; and Ho
will do it in tho best way.
Your little child says: ‘‘Papa. I wish you
would lot mo have that knife ?” “No,” you
say, “it is a sharp knife, and you wilt cut
yourself.” Ho says: “X must have it.” “But
you can not have it,” you reply. Ho gets
angry and red in the face, and says he will
have it; but you say he shall not have it.
Are you not kind In keeping it from him? So
God treats His children. 1 sny: “I wish,
Heavenly Father, to get that.” Godsays:
“No, ray child.” I say: “I must have it.”
God says: “You can not have it” I get
angry and say: “I will have it.” God says:
“You shall not have it.” And 1 do not get
it Is He not kind and loving and the bestol
fathers i Do you tell mo there is no rule and
regulation in these things ? Toll that to the
men who believe in no God and no Bible.
Tell it not to me.
A man of large business concludes to go
out of his store, leaving much of his invest
ments in the business, nnd ho says to hii
sons: “Now. lam going to leave this busi
ness in your hands. Perhaps I may come
ba k in a little while, and perhaps not.
While I am gone you will pleaso to look
after affairs.” After awhile the father comei
back and finds everything at loose ends, nnd
the whole business seems to bo going wrong
lie says: “I am going to tako possession o:
this business —you know I never fully sur
rendered it; and henceforth consider your
selves subordinates.” Is he not right in doing
it? He saves tho business. The Loro
seems to let us go on in life guided by
our own skill, and we make misorabl*
work of it. God comes down to our
shop or our store and says: “Thingsare go
ing wrong; I come to take charge, lam mas
ter, and I know what is best, and I proclaim
my authority.” We are merely subordi
nates. it is like a boy at school with a
long sum that he cannot do. He has been
working at it for hours, making figures here
and rubbing out figures there, and it is all
mixed up: and the teacher, looking over the
boy’s shoulder, knows that ho cannot get out
of it, aud cleaning the slato, says: “Begin
again. ” J ust so God does to us. Our affairs
get into an inextricable entanglement, and
He rubs everything out and says: "Begin
again?” Is He not wise and loving in so
doing?
I think the trouble is that there Is so large
a difference between the Divine and the human
estimate as to what is enough. I have heard
of people striving for that which is enough,
but 1 never heard of any one who had enough.
What God calls enough for man, man (rails
too little. What man calls enough, God says
is too much. The difference between a poor
man and a rich man is only the difference in
banks. The rich man puts his money in the
Nassau Bank, or tho Park Hank, or Fulton
Bank, or some other bank of that character,
while the poor man comes up aud makes his
investments in the bank of Him who runs alj
the quarries, all the mines, all the gold, all
the earth, all heaven. Do you think a man
can fall when he is backed up like that?
1 want to bring this truth close up to the
heart of those people in this audience who
have to calculate rigid economy, who are
perplexed how they will make the old gar
ment hold out a little longer, with whom the
great question is not which is the best invest
ment or the most lucrative security, hut how
(hail I make tho two ends meet? To such
people I bring the condolence of this Chris
tian truth.
You may have seen a rnap on which is de
icribed, with red ink, tho travels of the chil
dren of Israel through the desert to the
Promised Land. You see how they took this
an 1 that direction, crossed the river and
went through tho sea. Do you know God
has made a map of your life, with paths load
ing up to this bitterness and that success,
through this river and across that sea? But,
b'essed be God! the path always comes out
at the Promised Land. Mark that! Mark
that!
I remark, again, that all those things that
seem to ho but accidents In our life are under
the Divine supervision. We sometimes seem
to bo going helmless and anchorless. You
ray: “If I had some other trade: if I had
not gone there this summer: it I had lived in
some other house.” You have no right to
say that. Every tear you wept, every step
you have taken, every burden you have ear
riei, is under Divine inspection, and that
event which startled your whole household
with horror, God met with perfect placidity,
because he knew it was lor your good. It
was part of a great plan projected long
sgo. In eternity, when you come to
rookon up jour mercies, you will point to
thal affliction as one of your greatest bless
ings. God has a strange way with us. Joseph
MT. VERNON. MONTGOMERY CO.. GA.. THURSDAY, AUGUST 26. 1886.
(bund his way to tho Prime Minister's chair
by being pushed into a pit; and to many a
Christian down is up. The wheat must b(
flailed; tho quary must lie blasted; tho dia
mond must bo ground; tho Christian mast be
afflicted; and that single event, which you
luppore i stood entirely ttlouo, was a eonnei't-
Ing link between two great chains, one chain
reaching through nil eternity pest nnd the
other other chain reaching through all eter
nity future, so email an event fastening two
eternities together.
A missionary, coming from India to the
United States, stooped at Bt. Helena while
the vessel was taking water. He had his little
child with him. They walked along by nu
embankment, and n rock at that moment be
came loosened, and falling, instantly killed
the child. Was it an accident? Was it a
surprise to God? Had He allowed His servant,
after a life of consecrat ion, to come to such a
trial? Not such is my Uod. Tiler* are no
accidents in the divine mind, though they
may scorn so to us. God is good, nnd by
every single incident of our file, whether it
be adverse or otherwise, before earth and
Heaven God will demonstrate His mercy.
“1 hear a man sav: “That idea belittles
God. You bring Him down to such little
things.” Oh! I have a more thorough nj>-
preciation of God in little things than i have
fa great things. The mother does not wa t
until tho child has mashed its foot or broken
Its arm before she administers
l’Uo child comes in with the le:ist bruise, and
tho mother kisses it. God does net wait for
some tremendous crisis ill our life, but comes
lown to us in our most insignificant trials,
md throws over us the arms of llis mercy.
. Going up tho W hito Mountains some Tears
sgo I thought of that passage in the Bible
that speaks of God as woighing mountains
in a balance. As I looked at those great
mountains I thought, can it bo possible that
God can put theso great mountains in scales?
It was an idea too great for ino to grasp: but
when I saw a blue-bell down by the mule’s
foot, on iny wav up Mount Washington, then
1 understood the kindness and goodness of
God. It is not so much of God in great
things I can understand, but of God in littlo
things.
There is a man who says: “That doctrino
cannot bo truo, because things do go so very
wrong.” I reply, it is no inconsistency on
the part of God, but a lack of understanding
on our part. I hoar that men are making
very fine shawls in some factory. Igoin on
tho first floor and see only tho raw materials,
an 1 I nsk: “Are those the shawls I have
heard about?" “No,” says the manufacturer;
“go up to the next floor,” and I go up, and
then I begin to soo tho design. But the man
says: “Do not stop here; go up to the topi
floor of the factory, and you will see tho idea
fully carried out.” I do so, and having come
to tho top, see the complete pattern of an
exquisite shawl. So in our life, standing
down on a low level of Christian experience,
we do not understand God’s dealings. Ho
tells us to go up higher, until we begin to
understand tho divine moaning with respect
'to us, nnd we advance until we stand at tho
very gate of Heaven, and there soe God’s
idea all wrought out—a perfect idea of mercy,
of love, of kindness. Andwesav: “Just and
true are all Thy ways.” It is all right at the
bottom. Remember there la no inconsistency
on tho part of God, but it ts only our mental
and spiritual incapacity.
Some of you have been diappointed this
summer—vacations are apt to be disappoint
ments, but whatever have been your perplex
ities and worriments, know that “Man’s
heart dovisnth Ills way, but the Lord di
recteth his steps.’’ Ask these aged men in
this church if this is not so. It
has been so in my own life. One
summer I started for the Adiron-
but my plans wore so changed
that I landed in Liverpool. I studied law,
and I got into the ministry. I resolved to go
as a missionary to China, and I stayed in the
United States. I thought I would liko to lie
in tho East, and I went to the West—all the
circumstances of fife, all my work, different
from that which I expected. “A man’s heart
dev is th his way, but the Lord direcloth his
st^ps,
80, my dear friends, this day take hom
this subject. Be content with such things as
you have. From every grass blade under
your feet learn tho lesson of Divine core, and
never let tho smallest bird flit across your
path without thinking of tho treth that “five
sparrows are sold for two farthings, and not
one of thi rn is forgotten before God.” Blessed
be His glorious name forever. Amen.
PERSONAL MENTION.
Michael Davitt. Irish Homo Rule leader,
is about to visit the United (States.
Colonel Mosijv, the ex Confederate, will
bo in tho lecture field next season.
Sardoi: himself is expected to attend tho
opening of “Theodora” in New York in tho
fall.
James; Russell Lowell, now visiting
England, finds himself the constant guest of
duties and earls.
Senator Morrill, of Vermont, has been
In Congress thirty years, and is twenty years
older than Edmunds.
Dwight Moody, the evangelist, is spend
ing the summer at Mount Hermon, instruct
ing 225 young men in the (Scriptures.
Jui-KS Verne, tho French novelist, has
not yet entirely recovered from tho effects of
a pistol shot wound inflicted by bis crazy
nephew last March.
The Rev. Dr. Talmage, wife nnd family
have gone to Ashville, N. C., for the sum
mer. He preached an open-air sermon on
the Battery Park grounds in that place.
Captain Eads, of Mississippi River fame,
is described as a little man with white beard
and a fringe of white hair around a tali
head, and a pale, bloodless complexion.
T. B. Aldrich, the editor of the Atlantic,
has written a two-act drama entitled “Mer
cedes," which Mr. Lawrence Barrett will
essay next season. The scene is laid in Franco
during the Napoleonic wars.
Among the first iristallrnentof Chinese thut
went to North Adams, Mas-., was Lim Oim
Gong. lie became converted to Christianity,
studied hard, saved money, and is now about
to return to his native land as a missionary.
The young Ernperor of China, K wung-Su,
will assume the reins of government during
thß first month of the new Chinese year.
Tho ministers and Board of Astronomy are
now engaged in casting (he horoscope to find
an auspicious day for the ceremony.
Upon her ascension to the throne Queen
Victoria appointed a Hebrew, Bir Moses
Montefiore. as Bfceriff of London, and now
at the beginning of the fiftieth year of her
reign, another of the tribe of Judah, Aider
man Isaacs, has been appointed to tho same
office.
A correspondent writes that Miss Alice
Freeman, the President of Wellesley College,
is in herself a glorious example c/c what a
woman may Is:- oma. Small and slight and
handsome, only twenty-eight years of ng-,
she has mastered thoroughly seven languages,
all the sciences, and won tho right to stand
beside any professor on earth as President of
a college.
A ÜBUCOIHT'N MISTAKE.
A druggist, in Cleveland, Ohio, on
Monday, sold to Mrs. Andre Barroll, an
Italian woman, arsenic for sugar of mill*
That night the mother was dead and
three children not expected to recover.
The druggist is crazy with grief.
"SUB DFO FAOTO FOKTITE\ .”
WARRIORS OF ASSAM.
A Missionary’s Life in a Corner
of Hlndostnn.
A People Who Ornament Their Houses
with Human Skulls.
“I was sent to Assam,” said Dr. E. W.
Clark, a missionary, to a reporter of
the Washington Republican, under tho
auspiees of the American Baptist Mission
ary union, of Boston, Mass. Myself and
wife were the first white people to sot
foot in Assam, which is asmall valley six
ty-live miles in width and 500 miles in
length, and h:i9 about 3,000,000 of popu
lation.
“It is situated in the northwestern
part of llindoostan nnd is an English
possession. The inhabitants of tho Naga
Hills nro wild mountaineers, living
around tho summits of tho mountains.
Up to five years ago these people were in
dependent; the grent wars of India never
succeeded in subjecting them. They de
light in war and are barbarous as arc
American Indians. In tho same manner
as our Indians take the scalp the Nuga
warriors take the head."
“They’re not head-eaters?” murmured
the scribe, with a shudder, wondering if
the doctor’s long life in that country had
not led him to partake of the Assam cus
toms.
“No,” continued tho doctor. “They
are called head cutters, nnd they orna
ment their houses with long strings of
skulls of captives as tokens of their prow
ess. Unlike our Indians, they cultivate
.the soil and entertain the highest respect
toward the women. Any obscene talk
in the proscnce of a woman is severely
punished. They work hard for their liv
ing, knowing if they do not they must
perish. Their homes consist of rude
bamboo houses with leaf roof.
“Medicine is not known, and they
fancy all sickness or evil that happen to
them isibccauso some deity lias been dis
pleased. Hence the-blood of animals is
shed m a sacrifice to appeaso the indig
nant. god. This sacrifice first commences
.with a fowl, then a pig, and lastly cattle;
if long continued it sometimes impover
ishes a whole family.. The general name
for deity is ‘soonngram. ’ There are no
special names for their deities, as they
worship a house, site of a iiouse, etc.
All debts mustibe paid; they have not
learned how to repudiate.
“Os sin they have a strong impression.
Frequently untenanted houses are seen,
all possessions in.tho house having been
abandoned. 'lTlte idea is that it is sinful
to steal goods* tiius left. When somo
member of a flimily is killed by a tiger,
by drowning or by the falling of a tree,
these are considered sinful persons, too
polluted to be even touched.
“Among the bill people there is no
caste. The Assamese are betrothed at
from (three to five.and marry at ten years
of age, being them fully developed. In
appearance they are much like the Chin
ese, but are much more muscular and
hardy. There is a fine field for gospel
teaching among them. When I first
went among the Assamese the English
were scared, but afterword rendered eve
ry assistance, because they found we
were establishing peace on their border.
“Up to the present time there have
been four villages largely Christianized
and many converts made. There is no
written language. After many years of
labor I succeeded in reducing to writing
in their language a collection of hymns
and school books.”
The doctor oxhibted the first book
printed in Assamese. It is a translation
of a chapter of the Bible, translated by
the doctor, and printed on a little Amer
ican press sent from Boston to the town
of Moiling.
“And all the letters have but one
sound apiece, continued Dr. Clark, “and
the language is in some respects, easier to
acquire on that account. The chief
towns in Assam are Gohaty, Nowyong,
Tezpor, Sibsagor and Dibroogur, which
is the head of steam navigation of the
Brahamapootra river, which was our
nearest government station, though forty
miles away, and only reached by paths.
There are no roads, and all travel is on
the back of elephants.”
A I'romising Man.
Jones—Have you heard from Smith
ately ?
Brown—No; I think he is out West
somewhere practicing law.
Jones—was a promising young fel
low.
Brown (with fervor) —Promising? I
should say he was. He borrowed $lO
from me five years ago and kept promis
ing me he would pay it back up to the
day he went away.— Graphic.
Nearly everybody has it in him to be
better than he is. Improvement is
chiefly the regulation of the propensities
and passions.
An Incident of Autioiani.
Tho most savagely contested part of
the struggle at Antictam was in nnd
around the sunken lane of Boulet’s farm,
where Jackson's Corps for hours held tbo
ground, from which Hooker and Mans
field had been successfully repulsed early
in the morning. In their yellowish, but
ternut suits the Confederates were scarce
ly distinguishable from the road-bed on
the ditch whore they lay, or from the
ripe stalks of tho cornfield behind,
through which their re enforcing bri
gades were constantly descending. Not
more than fifty yards oil, lying or kneel
ing in tho green pasture field, without
any shelter, the Union men Kimball’s,
Caldwell’s and the Irish brigades poured
so deadly a fire into that lane that after
the battlo six hundred Confederate dead
were found there. Repeated efforts were
made by the Union troops to charge.
Perhaps the first was in conformity to a
General’s orders; the others certainly
were not. Tho Confederate fire was so
terrible that everyone, however, realized
the need cither of driving the Confeder
ates from the lane and tho rising ground
behind, or else of retiring, to avoid anni
hilation. Such expressions as, “Wo
must charge,” “Let’s try the bayonet,
boys,” were constantly repeated along
the line, and bayonets would be fixed
without any order whatever, so far as
known, from General or field officers.
But, on making the eitort to charge, and
finding tho enemy’s fire irresistible, the
Union line, with heads bent, as if against
a rain-storm, would back up to its for
mer position, and, kneeling or lying
down again, resume its lire. Finally a
clamor of desperation broke out. There
were no troops in sight behind, no prom
ise of reserve or support, and the situa
tion was galling. The wholo heavens
was splitting with the detonations of
battle, and the rest of the army was
probably lighting for its own life. Tho
men on their knees fixed bayonets again
for tho tenth time, perhaps, and, with a
murderous howl of rage, the three bri
gadeu rushed forward and in a minute
were in the lane and their banners were
ascending through the cornfield toward
the peach orchard where Jackson him
self is said to have been during all these
hours. This charge, which broke Jack
son’s right for a time, and required all
his genius to prevent proving a supremo
disaster to his army, would not have been
made when it was made if tho initiative
had depended on a commander’s or
ders.— Chicago Ledger.
Why Steam Boilers Explode.
A boiler explodes because it is not nblo
to withstand the pressure to which it, is
at the time sub jo ted. This condition
of weakness may be caused by any one of
a number of causes, as follows: 1. Bad
design, as when the boiler has not been
properly strengthened by stays and
braces; or a deficient water space pre
vents the proper circulation of the water.
2. Bad workmanship, the riveting or
other workmanship having been done
hastily, or by incompetent workmen. Si.
Bad material, blisters in the plate, etc.
Excessive pressure, caused by recklessness
of tho engineer, or by defective steam
gauges or inoperative safety valve. 5.
Overheating of the plates, caused by
carelessness of the engineer in allowing
the water supply to get low and then
pumping in upon the too greatly heated
plates. 0. Accumulation of scale, mud,
or other deposit, which prevents the wa
ter gaining access to the iron. This
causes the seams to leak and the, crown
sheet to bulge or come down, and when
Ibis occurs the boiler is in a very danger
ous condition, liable to explode at any
time. There is really no mystery about
boiler explosions; they are always caused
by one or more of the above causes. If
all boilers were of good design, workman
ship and material, and were managed by
none but jsober, intelligent and experi
enced engineers, such a thing as a boiler
explosion would be almost unknown. —■
Inter- Ocean.
lie Couldn’t Remember.
“Did I pay for that wine we had last
night, landlord?” usked Crirasonbeak,
coining down one morning witli bis head
tied up in a towel.
“Why, you ought to know, Mr. Crim
sonbeak,” replied a bystander, jokingly.
“Well,” said Cnmsonbeak, “1 con
sulted my pocketbook, and it seemed to
say that I did ; but when I consulted my
head I came to the conclusion that I was
piiy»'jg for it this morning.”— Statesman,
Both Meant the Same.
“Ah, yes, I’ve just been to the dentist,
and he’s fixed me all up. I tell you I’ve
had an awful siege with him —two weeks
of it.”
“You must have had some pain.”
“Well, yes, o ne.”
“It’s all over now, I presume.”
“All over! not a bit of it. It’s all
stopped.”— Tib-Bits.
VOL. I. NO. 25.
CLIPPINGS FOR THE CUISIOCS.
A factory in Madison, Miss.,
turns tut 110 barrels of cottonseed oil
every week.
The shark is still worshiped on the Af
rican coast, and offerings of poultry and
goats are made. Onco n year a child is
sacrificed to propitiate it.
Nitro glycerine is probably the most
popular of the new remedies recently
adopted by physicians.
A question likely soon to come to the
fore is the practicability of tunnelling
between England and Ireland. At one
point the distance is under twenty-two
miles.
A lie Kalb county (Illinois) farmer has
gathered $l2O worth of scalps from the
progeny of a pair of wolves which he
carefully guards from hunters. Tho
county pays $5 for every wolf scalp.
There has boon on exhibition at New
Haven the king of oatdom. lie is eight
years old, of the tiger variety, weighs
thirty-two pounds, and is believed to bo
the biggest tamo cat in tho United
States.
Hawks in old times wero usually trained
by being kept from sleep, it having been
customary for the falconers to sit up by
turns and watch tho hawk and keep it
from sleeping, sometimes for three suc
cessive nights.
The notion that the swan sings sweet
ly at the time of his death probably
| originated in the swan being identified
with Orpheus. We read that, “after his
death, Orpheus, the musician, became a
swan. Thus was it tho bird of Apollo,
called the bird of music, of tho Greeks.”
Said Pasha’s toothbrush stand is made
of two oblong emeralds of the largest
known to the Hue do la Paix jewellers.
They are arranged to form an X, and at
tho point of intersection are fastened
with a brilliant-studded twist of gold.
Tho toothbrush handle is so bejewelled
and carved that it cost 50,000 francs.
Before the reign of King Alfred slaves
in England could own nothing; under
his legislation they wero permitted to
dispose by will of what was given them,
or what they could earn in their freo
J hours. He forbade, also, any master 8
i who have incurred a lino or amend from
buying off by the sale of man as well as
beast.
The house in which Lincoln died was
a lodging house. John Matthews, a com
edian, who was a great friend of John
Wilkes Booth, had rooms there, and his
room was the room in which President
Lincoln died. A few nights before the
assassination John Wilkes Booth oc
cupied Matthews’ room and it is a curious
fact that he slept in the same bed upon
which tho man whom he afterward mur
dered breathed his last breath.
Alaska Mosquitoes.
A fair wind one day made me think it
possible to take a hunt inland, but, to my
disgust, it died down after I, had pro
ceeded two or three miles, and my fight
back to camp with the mosquitoes,
I shall always remember as one
of the salient points of my life. It
seemed as if there were an upward rain
of insects from the grass that became a
deluge over marshy tracts and more than
half the ground was marshy. Os course,
not a sign of any gams was seen except a
few old tracks; and tho tracks of an ani
mal are about the only part of it that
could exist here in the mosquito season,
which lasts from the time the snow is
half off the ground until the first severe
frost, a period of some three or four
months. Buring that time every living
creature that can leave the valleys as
cends tho mountain.-, closely following
the snow line, and even there peace is
not completely attained, tho exposure to
the winds being of far more benefit than
the coolness due to the altitude, while
the mosquitoes are left undisputed mas
ters of the valleys, except for a few
straggling animals on their way from one
range of mountains to the other.
Had there be n any game, and had I
obtained a fair shot, I honestly doubt if
I could have secured it, owing to
these pests; not altogether, on ac
count of their ravenous attacks upon my
face, and especially tho eyes, but for the
reason that they were so absolutely dense
that it was impossible to see clearly
through the mass in taking aim. When
I got to camp I was thoroughly exhausted
with my incessant light, and completely
out of breath, which I had to regain as
best i could in a stifling smoke from dry,
resinous pine knots.— Lieut. Schwalka.
Well Applied.
Wife—“ What is a chcstnflt, my dear?”
Husband —“A chestnut, love, isa story
that has been told over and over again.
Why?”
Wife—“ Nothing. Only it’s funny
that you should bring a chestnut with
you every time you come home late at
night.— Lowell Ciliien.