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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.