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She itlontgontcrg Jttoitor*
D. 0, SUTTON, Editor and Prop'r.
DR, TALMAGE'S SERMON,
MEASURED BY YOUR OWN YARD
STICKS.
[Preached at Asheville, N. C.J
Te\t: “With what measure ye mete, it
• hall be measured to you again. Matthew
vii, 3.
In the greatest sermon ever preached—a
sermon about fifteen minutes'long, according
to the ordinary rate of speech—a sermon ou
the Mount of Olives, the Preacher, sittiug
while He spoke, according to the ancient
mode of oratory, the people were given to
understand that the same yard stick that
they employed upon others would be em
ployed upon themselves. Measure others by
a harsh rule, and you will be measured by a
harsh rule. Measure others by a charitable
rule, and you will be measured by a charita
ble rule. Cfive no mercy to others, and no
mercy will be given to you. “With what
measure ye mete, it shall he measured to you
again.”
There is a groat deal of unfairness in the
criticism of human conduct. It wa. to smite
that unfairness tuat Christ uttered the words
of the text, and my sermon will be a re-echo
of the Divine sentiment. In estimating the
misbehavior of othors we musttake into con
sideration tho pressure of cireumstan es. It
is never right to do wrong, but thero aro de
grees of culpability. When men misbehave
or commit some atrocious wickeduess wo are
disposed indiscriminately to tumble them all
over the bank of condemnation. Suffer they
ought and suffer they must; but in difference
of degree.
In the first place, in estimating the mis
doing of others we must take into calculation
tho hereditary tendency. There is such a
thing as good blood and there is sucli a thing
as bad blood. There a’ o families that havo
had a moral twist in them for a hundred
years back. They have not been careful to
Keep the family record in that regard. There
havo been escapades and maraudings aud
scour.drelisms and moral deficits all tho way
back, whether you call it kleptomania or
jiyromania or dipsomania, or whether it bo
in a milder form and amount to no mania at
all. The strong probability is, that the pres
ent criminal started lifo with nerve, muscle
aud bone contain nated. As some start life
w ith a natural tendency to nobility and gen
erosity, and kindness nn l truthfulness, there
are others who start, lifo with just the oppo
site tendency, aud they are born liars, or
born malcontents, or born outlaws, or born
swindlers.
There is in England a school that is called
the Princess Mary School. All the children
in that school are the children of convicts.
The s liool is supported by high |tatronage.
I had the pleasure of being present at one of
their anniversaries in presided over by
tho Earl of Kintore. By a wise law in Eng
land, after parents havo committed a certain
number of crimes and thereby shown them
selves incompetent rightly to bring tip thoir
children, tile littlo ones are taken from under
pernicious influences and put in reformatory
schools, where all gracious and kindly intlu
em es shall be brought upon them. Os course
tho experiment is young and it has got to bo
demonstrated how large a percentage of the
children of convicts may bo brought up to
respectability and usefulness. But we nil
know that it is more difficult for ch Idren of
bad parentage to do right than for children
of good parentage.
In this country wo are taught, by tho De
claration of American independence that all
peoplo are bom equal. There never was a
greater misrepresentation put in one sen
tence than in that sentence which implies
that we aro all born equal. You may us well
say that flowers are born equal, or tree-are
bom equal, or animals are born equal. Why
does one horse cost SIOO and another horse
cost *50,000? Why does one sheep cost slft
and another sheep $500? Difference in blood.
We aro wise enough to recognise the differ
ence of blood in horses, in cattle, in sheep
but wo aro not wise enough to make allow
ance for the difforenre in the human blood.
Now I demand, by (he law of eternal fair
ness, that you be more lenient iii your criti
cism of those who were born wrong, in
whose ancestral line there was a hangman’s
knot, or who came from a tree tho fruit of
which for centuries has been gnarled and
worm-eaten. Dr. Harris, a reformer, gave
some marvelous statistics in his story of
what ho called “Margaret, the mother of
criminals.” Ninety years ago she lived in a
village in Upper New York Ktate. She was
not onlv poor, but sho was vicious. Sho was
not well provided for. There were no alms
houses there. The public, however, some
what looked after her, but chiefly scoffed at
and derided her, pushed her further down
in her crimes. That was ninety years ago,
There have been 633 persons in that an
cestral lino. 200 of them criminals. In one
branch of that family thero wore twenty,
and nine of them have been in
State Prison, and nearly all of the
others have turned out badly. It is esti
mated that that family cost tho County aud
State SIOO,OOO, to say nothing of the prop
erty they destroyed. Are you not willing,
as sensible people, to acknowledge that it is a
fearful disaster te>b_* born in such an ances
tral line? Does it not make a great differ
ence wbe‘ her one descends from Margaret,
tho mother of criminals, or frem some
mother in Israel? Whether you are the son
of Ahab or the son of Joshua? It is a very
different thing to swim with the current
from what it is to swim against tho current,
as some of you havo no doubt found in your
summer recreation. If a man find him
self iu an ancestral current where
there is good blood flowing smoothly
from generation to generation it is
not a very great credit to him if
be turns out good and hon> st and pure and
noble. He could hardly help it. But sup
pose ne is Dorn in an aticesTal line--iu a
hereditary line—where the influence,- have
been bail an t there has been a coming down
over a moral declivity, if the man surron lor
to the influences he will go down under
the overmastering gravitation unless some
supernatural aid ho afforded him. Now,
su<-h a person deserves not your excoriation,
but your pity. Do notsit with the lip curled
In s orn, an 1 with an ass lined air of angelic
innocence, looking down upon su-h moral
precipitation. You ha i better get down on
your knees and first pray Almighty Go l for
their rescue, and next thank the Lor 1 that
you have not been thrown under the wheels
of l hat Juggernaut.
In Great Britain and in the United States,
in every generation, there are tens of thou
sands of jwrv ns who are fully developed
criminals aud incarcerated. 1 say, in every
gci o ation. Then, I suppose, there are tens
of thousands of jiersons not found out in
their criminality. In addition to tbe,e there
are tens of thousands of per-.ons who. nit
positively be omipg criminais. nevertheless
have a criminal tendency. Anv one of all
those thousands by tho grace of Go-1 may
become Christ an, an l resist the ancestral in
fluence and open a new chapter of behavior:
but the vast majority of them will not. and
it becomes all men. professional, unpro
fessional. ministers of religion, judges of
courts, philanthropists and Christian work
ers to recognize the fa t font there are these
Atlantic and Paeifi * surges of hereditary evil
rolling on throu.h the centuries.
X say, of coarse, a man can resi t this ten
dency, just ai in the an e-tral line mentioned
Inthr first chapter of .Matthew Y u see
la the same line in which thero was a wicked
Itehoboftm and a desperate Manosses, there
afterward came a pious Joseph and a glori
ous Christ But, my friends, you must recog
nize tho fact that these influences go on from
feneration to generation. I am glad to
now, however, that a river which has pro
duced nothing but miasma for a hundred
miles, may, alter awhile, turn tho wheels- of
factories and help support industrious nml
virtuous populations; aud there are family
lines which were poisoned that are a bene
diction now. At the Last Day it will bo
found out that there nro meu who have gono
clear over into all forms of iniquity and
plunged into utter abandonment, who, be
fore they yielded to the first temptation, re
sisted more evil th in many a man who has
been moral and upright all his life. But
supposing now that in this age when there
are so many good people that I come down
into this audience ami select tho very best,
man in it. I do not mean the man who would
style himself the best, for probably he is a
hvpoerita; but I mean tho man who before
God is really the best. I will take you out
from ail your Christ an surroundings. I will
take vo i back to bovhoo l. 1 will put you in
a deprave 1 homo. I will put you in a cra
dle ,f iniquity. "Who is that bending
o- or that cradle? An intoxicated mother.
Who is that swearing in the next,
room! Your father. The neighbors come
In to talk, and their jokes aro unclean. There
is not in the Uonsea Bible oranioral treatise,
but only a few scraps of an old pictorial.
Aft » a while you aro old enough to get out
of tho cradle, and you ate struck across
the hea l for naughtiness, but never in any
kindly manner reprimanded. After a while
you are old enough to go abroad, aud
ywi nro sent out with a basket to steal.
If you come home without any spoil, you
aro whippet until the blood comes. At
fifteen years of age, you go out to fight your
own battles in this world, which seems to
■are no more for you than the dog that
has die iof a fit under the fence. You are
kicked and cuffed an 1 buffeted. Sonic day,
rallying your courage, you resent some
wrong. A man says: “Who are you? I know
who you are. Your father had tree lodgings
at Sing Sing. Your m*l her, sho was up for
drunkenness at tile Criminal Court. Get out
of my way, you low-live 1 wretch?” My
brother, suppose that hail been the history of
your advent, and the history of your early
surroundings, would you have been the
Christian man you are to-day, seated in this
Christian assembly. I ted you nay. Aou
would havo been a vagabond, an outlaw, a
murderer on the scaffold atoning for your
crime. All these considerations ought to
make us merciful in our dealings with the
wandering aud tho lost.
Again, I havo to remark that in our osti
mat > of tho misdoings of people who have
fallen from high respectability and useful
ness we mu ttake inti consideration the con
junction of circumstances. In nine cases
out of ten a man who goes astray does not
intend any positive wrong. He has trust
funds. I(e risks a part of these funds in in
vestment. He says; “Now, if I should lose
that investment 1 have of my own property
five times as much, and if this investment
should go wrong I could easily make it up: I
could five times make it up.” With that
wrong reasoning he goes on and ruakos the
investment, ami it does not turn out quite so
well as he expected, and he makes another
investment, and, strange to say, at the same
time all his other affairs get entangled, and
all his other resources fail, and his hands are
fieri. Now lie wants to extricate himself. He
goes a littlo further on in the wrong invest
ment. He taker a plunge further ahead,
for he wants to save liis wife and children,
he wants to save his home, lie wants to save
his membership in the church. Ho takes one
more plunge ami all is lost. Some morning
at 10 o’clock the bank door is not opened, and
thero is a card on tho door signs 1 by an offi
cer of the bank, indicating flint there is
trouble, the name of the defaulter or the de
frauder hen is the newspaper column, and
hundreds of men say: “Goo-l for him;”
hundreds of other men say: “I’m glad he's
found out at hist;” hundreds of other men
say: “Just a; I told you;” hundreds of other
monsnv: “We couldn't possibly have boon
tempted to do that—no conjunction of cir
cunstan e-> could over have overthrown me;"
anil there is a superabundance of indigna
tion but no pity. The heavens full of light
ning. but not one drop of daw. If God
trealod us as society treats that man wo
would all have been in hell long ago! Wait
for the alleviating circumstances. Perhaps
he mav havo been tho dupo of othors. Be
fore vou let all tho hounds out from tlieir
konuel to maul and tear that man, hud
out if he has not been brought up in a
commercial establishment whore thero was
a wrong system of othic3 taught:
find out' whether that rnan has not
an extravagant wife, who is not satisfied
with his honest earnings, and in the tempta
tion to please her he has gone into that ruin
into which enough men have fallen, and by
the same temptation, to make a procession of
many mile% Perhaps some sudden sickness
may have touched his brain, and his judg
ment may bo unbalanr ed. He is wrong—lie
is awfully wrong,and hi must be condemned,
but there may be mitigating cir umstancos.
Perhaps under the same te’inp'ation y »u
might have fallen. Tho reason some men do
not steal $2 10,000 is be auso they do not got
a chance! Have righteous indignation you
must about that man’s conduct, but
temper it with mercy. But von say: "I am
so sorry that the innocent should suffer.”
Yes, I am too—sorry for the widows and or
phans who lost their all by that defalcation.
I am sorry, ais ~ for th ■ lousiness men, the
honest business men, who havo had tlieir
affairs all crippled by that defalcation. 1
am sorry for tire venerable bank President to
whom tho credit of that bank was a matter
of pri le. Yes, lam sorry, also, for that, man
who brought ail the distress—sorry that ho
sacrificed body, mind. soul, reputation,
Heaven, and went into thablackness of dark
ness forever.
You defiantly sav: “I could not be tempted
In that way.” Perhaps you may be tested
after awhile. God has a very good memory,
and he sometimes seems to say: “This man
feels so strong in his miiat ■ power ami good
ness h • shall be tested; he is so full of bitter
invectiv * against that unfortunate,it shall lie
shown now whether he has the power to
stand.” Fifteen years go by. The wheel of
fortune turns several times, and you arc in a
crisis that you never coal 1 leave anti spat d.
Now all the powers of dn"knc'! come around,
and they . h ickle, nn l tlrev chatter, and they
say: “Aha: her.; is tho oil so low xvh * was
so proud of liis integrity, and who
bragged he couldn’t le; overthrown by
temptation, and r\a; so uproarious iu his
demonstrations of indignation at the def al a
tion fifteen years ago. fret us sec. fJo l lets
the man go. God. wh i bil knot, that man
under Hi - protecting care, lets the man go aud
try for himself ths rnajes'y of hi- int -gnty.
God let ing the man go, tire powers of da-,:-
n- ss pounce upon him. I se; you some dav
in your office in greatexcit cmeiit. One of two
things you can do. Be’ ho., st. and Iss r auper
ized, and have your ehil ir -.o b ‘ought h nine
from school, your family dethroned in social
Influence The other th ng is, you can tpa
little aside from that whi h is right, you urn
only just go ha f an in "h o jtof the proper path,
vou can only fake a little risk, ari l then vou
have al vour finances fair ansi right. You
have a large property. Yo l can leave a for
tune for vour children and e .dow a college
aud builsl a public library in y ur native
town. You halt and wait, an 1 halt and wait
until your lips get white. You d tcide to
r.- : it. Only a few strokes of the pen nox.
Bit oh. how your hand trembles, how
dreadfully it trembles! The die is cast.
By the strangest and most awful
conjunction of circumstances any one
MT. VERNON, MONTGOMERY CO., GA., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, I88<;.
“SUB IMO FAOIO FOKTiTER”
couM have Imagined, you are prostrated.
Bankruptcy, commercial annihilation, ex
posure, crime. Good men mourn and devils
hold carnival, nml you soo your own name at
the head of the newspaper column in a whole
congress of exclamation points; and while
you are reading tho anathema in the repor
ter ia l And editorial paragraph, It occur* to
you how much this story is like that of the
defalcation fifteen years ago, and a clap or
thunder shakes tho window-sill,saying: “ IN ith
what measure yo meto, it shall be measured
to vou again!”
You look in another direction. There is
nothing like an ebullition of temper to put a
iuau to disadvantage. You, a man with
calm pulses and a line digestion and perfeofc
health, tan not understand how anybody
should bo capsized in tomjier by an iniimtesi
in.d annoyance. You say: “I couldn’t l»e
unbalanced in that way.” Perhaps you snide
at a provocation that makes another man
swear. You pride yourself on your imper
turbability. You say with your manner,
though you have too much good taste to say
with vour words: “1 have a great deal more
sense than that man has; l havo a great deal
more equipoise of temper than that man lias;
I never could make such a puerile exhibition
of myself as that limn has made.”
My*brother, you do not realize that that
man was horn with a keen nervous organiza
tion; that for forty years ho has been under
a depicting process; tiiat sickness and trouble
have been helping undo what was left
of original health fulness; that much of liis
time it has been with him like filing saws:
that his nerves have come to be merely p
tangle of disorders, and that he is tho most
pitiable object on earth, who, though he is
very sick, does not look sic k, and nobody
sympathize?. Ret mo see. IHd you u ofc
say that you could not bo tempted to
an ebullition of temper? Since September
you come home from your summer watering
place, and you have inside, away back in
your liver or spleen, whit wo call in our day
malaria, but what tho old folks called chills
and fever. You take (juinineuutil your oars
are first buzzing lieehives and then roaring
Niagaras. You take roots and herbs,you take
everything. You get well. But the next day
you feel uncomfortable, and you yawn, and
you stretch, and you shiver, an l you con
sume, and you suffer. Vexed more than you
can tell, you can not sleep, you can not eat,
you can not bear to soo anything that looks
happy, you go out to kick the cat that is
asleep in the sun. Your children’s mirth
>vas onco music to you; now it is deafening.
You say: ‘‘Boys, stop that; racket!” Non
turn lui’k from .1 line to March. In tho family
and in the neighborhood your popularity is
85 j>or cent. off. Tho world says: “What is
zho matter with that disagreeable mani
What a woe-begono countenance! I can t
bear the sight of him.” You have got your
pay at last got your pay. You feel just as
the rnan felt that man for whom you had
no mercy, and my text comes in with mar
velous appositeness: “With what measure ye
mote, it shall be measured to you again.”
In tho study of society I havo come to this
conclusion —that the most ol tho people want
to be good, but they do not exactly know
how t » make it out. They make enough good
res dul ions to lift them into angelhood. The
vast majority of people who fall are the vic
tims of circumstances; they are captured by
ambuscade. If their temptation should
come out in a regiment and tight them in a
fair field they would go out in the strength,
and tho triumph of David against Goliuli.
But they do not soo the giants and they do
not see the regiment. Suppose temptation
should come up to a man and say: “Here is
alcohol: take three tablespoon fills of it aday,
until you got dependent upon it; then after
that take half a glass three times a day, until
you got dependent upon that amount; then
go on increasing the amount unfc 1 you are
saturated from morning until night and from
night until morning.” Do you supoose any
man would become a drunkard in that way?
Oh, no! Temptation comes a;.J says- “Take
these bitters, tako this nervine, take this aid
to digestion, take this night-cap.” The vast
majority of men and women who are de
stroyed by opium aud by rum first take them
as medicines. In making up your disli of
criticism in regard to them, take from the
caster the cruet of sw> el.oil and not the cruet
of cayenne popjxjr. Bo easy on them. Do
you know how that physician, that lawyer,
that journalist became t,!i; victim of dissipa
tion? Why, the physi inn was kept up
night by night on j r >:osdonal duty. Rife
and death hovered in tho balance. His nerv
ous system wag exhausted. Th m came a
time of epidemic, and whole familie; were
prostrated, and his nervous strength was
gone. He was nil worn out in the service of
the public. Now he must bra e himself up.
Now he stimulates. Tho life of this mother,
the life of this child, tlr* life of this father,
tho lifo of this whole family must l>? saved,
and tho lives of all these families must he
saved, and he stimulates, and he does it again
and again. You may criticise his judgment,
but remember the pro ms. it was uot a sol
fL>h process by which ho wont down. It was
a magnificent generosity through which lie
fell. That attorney at the bar f<u; weeks has
been standing in a poorly ventilated court
room, listening to the testimony and contest
ing in the dry to linicjditios of the law, and
now the time has come for him to wind up,
and ho must plead for tho life of liis client,
anl Ills nervous system is all gone. If
he fails in that speech then his client
perishes. If he can havo eloauence
enough in that hour his client is saved, lie
stimulates. Ho must keen up. Ho says; “I
must keep up.” Having a large practice you
see how he is inthralled. You may criticise
his judgment, but remember tho proofs. Do
not bo hard. T hat journalist has had ex
hausting midnight work. Ho has hod to
report speeches and orations that keep
lii in up till a very late hour. lie has
gone with much exposure working up
some case of crime in company with a
date tive. Ho "-its down at midnight
to write out his notes from a memorandum
scrawled on a pad under unfavorablocireiim
stancoa. His st ongth Is gone. Fidelity to
the public intelligence, fid Tity to his own
livelihood, demands that lie keep up. Ho
must koe;» up. He stimulates. Again and
aa n lie does that, and he g down. You
may criticise his judgment in tho matter, but
have mercy. Remember tho process. Do
not *»e hard
Mr friends, this to.twill come to fulfill
r fieri* in a nine '*ases in this world. The
huntsman in Farmstoen was shot by some
unknown person. Twenty years after the
son of the hunts nan was in the same forest,
and h• a i lentally shot a m »n, and the man
in dying said: “God is just. I shot your
fath r jus here twenty years ago.” A bishop
sal 1 to Rouis XI. of France: “Make an Iron
cage for all those who do not think as wo
do—an iron cage in which tho captive can
neither lie down nor gland straight up.” It
was fashioned —the awful instrument of pun
ishment. After awhile tho Bishop offende 1
Roui.s XI., and f >r fourteen years bo was in
that same cage, and could nether lie down
nor stand up. it is a r>oor rule that will not
work lioth ways. “With what measure ye
mete, it shall lx> measured to you again.”
* Ob, rny friends, let us be rexolved toscoM
loss and pray in re! That which in tho Bible
is used the symbol of all gra ious influ
on os is the dove, not the por opine. Wo may
so uuskillfull v manage the Jife-b at that we
shall run down those whom we want to r ♦*-
(Tie. Tho first preparation for Christian use
fuln kh is wflr;n-h : irv*J <• tnunon wn e, prac
tical Hymoathy for thos s whom wo wan* to
save. What headway wifi we make in the
Judgment if in this world wehav- I>c'»m hard
on tnose who have gon • astray' What h ‘ad
wav will you and l make in th" last Gr at
Ju Igmeut, when wo rnu-.t a e mercy or j»er-
tsh! The Bible says: “Tli'V shall li ivo judg
ment without merry lhatsb nvetli liomciyy.”
I soo tho s-’nlies of tloivon lo i'.i up iuf.»
tho face iff sin'll u man. saving: “Wlmtl
you plead for mercy, you, who in nil your
life never hud any mercy ou vo ir follows?
Don t you romonibor how hard you w to in
your optu ions of th wa» who w ero mi ray ■ i 1 n't
you remeinlior when you oujht to have Riven
n helping hand you employe 1 a hard heel?
Mercy I You must misspeak yourself
when you plead for mercy hero.
Merev for othors but no mercy for you.
Look,” sn.vs the scribes of heaven, “look at
that ills u intion over the Throne of Ju la
ment, the Throne of Oi id's Judgment. Boa
it coining out lottor by letter, word by word,
sentence by sontonco, until your startled vis
ion reads it and vour remorseful spirit ap
propriates it: “With what measure yo mete,
it shall lie measured to you again. Depart,
yo cursed 1”
SCIENTIFIC ANI) INDUSTRIAL.
Ins cannon foundry at Bourses, Franck,
electricity has been successfully applied
to mechanical purposes for more than
five years, two large movable cranes,
each weighing over twenty tons, having
been w orked by electric motors without
dilticulty.
It lias been found that, compressed teak
may be made lo servo sonic of tho pur
poses for which boxwood, which is rap
idly tecoming scarce, is now being used.
A powerlul hydraulic press compressing
teak for loom shuttles lias just been made
i:i Manchester, England.
An important experiment has just been
successfully made in transporting fresh
fruit over the long route from South
Australia I<> England. The fruit, various
kinds of apples, pears tuul grapes was
packed in sawdust and‘placed in u cold
chamber kept at a uniform temperature
of forty degrees. It arrived in London
in excellent condition. . »
By experiments on a large butcher's
dog, Signor Ogata has found that tea ami
coffee in moderate amount, pure water
and water containing carbonic ucid cl >
not disturb digestion. Beer, wine nml
brandy retard digestion considerably
until absorbed, mid in tho ease of licet
the extractive matters act. thus ns well us
the alcohol, so Unit beer bus a greater
clicet than wine containing the same
quantity of alcohol. Both cane yiml
grape sugar retard digestion consider
übly, while common salt distinctly ac
celerates it. >
Cork may lie put'to many/uses, but
one (J the most ingenious mto chock
the r, oil of guns niter discharge. An
emlrieiit firm of /English engineers is
making experiments with a, view to
bringing the theory to practical issue.
The carriage is in (he form of tswo pistons
connected with the gun by/two roils.
The pistons are filled with cork and
water, ami the recoil of theigun forces
(lie rods bock and so compresses the cork,
the water assisting to check the recoil.
Tho great expanding properties of the
cork in turn force the guir, forward, and
so bring it again into loading position.
It is very easy to niakevany ordinary
paper temporarily transliiceliit/hy simply
dampening it with a sponge ' moistened
with benzine. In this conditilon it is suffi
ciently transparent to permitnof the lines
of a drawing being seen through it, and
of ink or water colors being- used on its
surface without running. As film benzine
evaporates the paper loses its fransliioency
and assumes its ordinary opaque appear,
since. If tliis occurs too ifuickly, the
part can easily be dampened qgain with
tho benzine. The faint smell of the oil
which will remain will disappear in a
dsiy or two if the paper is left*uxposed to
tho air.
A novel u e is made of the al ereoscope
to detect forged bank notes. .A note of
KH) francs was recently suhiniftted to the,
experts of the Bank of Franco as itemed
by u hand of forgers, lint I lie. execution
was so perfect that no defect could he
discovered by the closest examination.
A suggestion wus then made to* pin/ e the
suspected note side by side with :w genu
j ue one in the objective of a stare? iscopc,
the two images of which, us is well
known, overlay each other unidl form a
single picture. The result of the experi
ment was that 11 1 ■ ■ loop in a letter of the
forged note did not exactly cower that, of
tho genuine one, showing that.«they hud
not been printed from the sainei pluto.
WISE WORDS.
Novelty is the great parent of pleas
ure.
The best way to make a name is to
have ari aim.
Good company and good conversation
aro the sinucs of virtue.
A wise man should have money in his
head, but not in his heart.
Our belief or disbelief of a thing does
not alter the nature of a tiling.
Vour character cannot be essentially
injured except by your own acts.
He is only advancing in life whoso
lie irt is getting softer, whose blood
warmer, whose bruin quicker, whose
spirit is entering into living peace.
The blessings of fortune are the low
est; the next are the bodily advantages
strength and health, but the superla
tive blessings, in fine, are those of the
mind.
Teach self-denial and make its practice
pleasurable, and you create for the
world a destiny more sublime than ever
issued from the brain of the wildest
d reamer.
Bible Allusions to Itookmaklng.
The paper-reeds by the brooks, and
everything sown by the brooks, shall
wither, be driven aa ay and be no more.
—lnaiak xix. 71.
Oh that one would hear me, behold rny
desire is that the Almighty would answer
me, and that my adversary had written a
b/ok! —foh xxxi. 35.
And further, by these, my son, be ad
monished: of making many books there
is no end: and much study is a weariness
of the flesh.— Ecde»iante» xii. 12.
lIIS LITTLE GAME.
Tito Young Man Who Wasn't
Particular A bout Wngoa.
An Agreement Which Proved A Duns
trous one for tho Employer.
A'ear before last a bright-looking
young mail entered our counting-room in
response so an advertisement for an as
sistant, shipping clerk. lie told the
usual tale of how he desired a position
more than wages for tho time being, and
was willing to accept a nominal salary to
start in on. Tho old man was feeling in
particularly good humor that afternoon,
and said pleasantly so tho new comer:
“Well, sir, wlmt would you consider
a nominal salary? What, would you bo
willing to accept in beginning?”
The young man picked at the lining of
his hat with his fingers, and deferentially
replied:
“I want to show you, sir, that I mean
business, and 1 will work for one cent
for the] remainder of this month, pro
viding you think it would not bo too
much to double my salary each month
thereafter.”
“That’s a novel proposition, surely,”
said the old man with a smile. “Do you
know wlmt you ure talking about, my
dear hoy?”
“’Well, sir, my principal aim is to
learn the business,” responded the young
fellow, and I would almost lie willing to
work for nothing, but I’d like to feel
and be able to say that 1 was earning
something, you know.”
“I’ll take you,” remarked the old
mail. “One cent, two cents, four cents,
eight, sixteen,” he enumerated. “You
won’t get much for awhile,” he added.
He look him up to tho cashier. “Tills
|is John Smith,” ho said. “He will go
! to work as an assistant shipping clerk
j to-morrow. His salary will he one cent
j this month. Double it every month
| from now on.”
“In consideration of my working for
this small salary might I ask you to as
sure me a position for a definite period?”
inquired John Smith.
“We don’t usually do that,” replied
I the governor; “but we can’t loose much
| oil you anyhow, I guess, and you look
| like an honest fellow. How long do
you want employment?”
“Three years, sir, if agreeable to you.”
Well, by Jove, the old man agreed,
and young Mr. Smith, on pretence of
j wanting some evidence of stability of
his place, got the governor to writo out
and sign a paper that he had been guar
anteed a position in the house for three
years on the terms I have stated.
Ho worked along for six mouths with
out drawing a cent. He said he would
draw all his earnings Christmas. The
cashier one day thought he’d figure tip
how much would bo corning to tho
young man. He grew so interested in
the project that lie kept multiplying for
the three years. The result almost stag
gered him. This is the column of figures
he took to the old man. First month,
01; second, .02; third, .04; fourth, .08;
fifth, .1(1; sixth, .113;seventh, .04;oiglitli,
$ 1.28; ninth, $2.50; tenth, $5.12;
eleventh, $10.24; twelfth, $20.48; thir
teenth, $40.00; fourteenth, $81.02; fif
teenth, $103.84; sixteenth, $327.08;
seventeentli, $055.30; eighteenth, sl,-
311.72; nineteenth, $2,023.54; twen
tieth, $5,247.08; twenty.first, $10,404,-
10; twenty-second, $20,088.32; twenty
third, $41,070.04; twenty-fourth, $82,-
053.28; twenty-fifth, $105,000.56; twen
ty-sixth, $331,813.12; twenty-seventh,
$003,020.24; twenty-eighth, $1,327,252.-
48; twenty-ninth, $2,054,504.06; thir
tieth, $4,000,000.02; thirty-first, SB,-
618,010.84; thirty second, $17,230,030.-
08; thirty-third, $34,472,078.38; thirty
fourth, $68,044,150.72; thirty-fifth,
$137,888,313.44; thirty-sixth, $275,770,-
020.88; total salary for three years,
$552,554,253.05.
The governor nearly fainted when he
understood how, even if he was twice as
rich as Vanderbilt, he would bo ruined
in paying John Smith’s salary.
He concluded to discharge the modest
young man at once. Bmitli hud figured
up how much would he due him, and re
minded tho old man of liis written
agreement. Rather than take chances
in courts and let everybody know how
he had been duped, the governor paid
Smith $5,000 and bade him good-bye.
I’ve heard he tried the same dodge in
Chicago after leaving here. Courier
Journal.
It is le lived that over £1,000,000 is
spent yearly in pilgrimages to Mecca and
Medina. Many of these Mohammedan
pilgrims travel immense distances. Thus
nearly 6,000 of them me fro n the Soudan
and neighboring parts of Africa, 7,000
are Moors, 1,400 Persians, 16,000 Malays
and Indians, and some 25,000 Turks or
Egyptians. These are the figures for the
year 1883.
VOL. I. N(). 20.
Chased by a Plant.
Ono of this most familiar plants in
Southern California and Arizona is the
tumble-weed. In the fall tho gardens of
some localities arc covered with then),
the plant being a low bush, about two
feet in height, and spreading out to sev
eral feet in width. So small and weak
are the roots that when tho plant goes to
seed the breeze detaches it and the plant
goes rolling along like a ball, scattering
its seeds broadcast over the land miles
from where it originally grew. In Ari
zona tho tumble-weed sometimes attains
mammoth proportions. I have seen them
live feet across, and so bulky that ono
would easily upset a man when traveling
at a good rate of speed.
Tho following incident shows that a
man may be chased by a plant: “I
was travelling through Arizona on horse
back some years ago,” said tho narrator,
“and ono day found myself in a desert
plain almost destitute of vegetation. Tho
oidy thing in the way of a shrub wero
numbers of dead tumble woods, many of
gigantic size, and, curiously enough, they
wero piled in great heaps as if some ono
had hauled them together to burn them;
but as there was no object in doing this,
I concluded that the wind had done it,
and 1 found later that my supposition
was correct.
“I had gone about ten miles in this
tumble-weed countiy when 1 noticed a
storm coming up to the west. There
was not tho slightest shelter, so I kept
along, hut filially saw a big pile of tum
ble-weed and inudo for it, thinking to
get, under its lee, and I just about made
it when tho rain commenced. The pile
was about ten feet high, and I thought I
bad a good shelter and dismounted; but
1 had hardly reached tho ground when a
gust of wind came that shook the heap
as if it had boon made of paper, and a
big tumble weed on top rolled oil onto
the, horse. Fortunately 1 had not left
him, and as he leapt hack and reared I
hung on and in a second was on his
back, and not a bit too soon, as then tho
galo struck us, and tho way that heap
dissolved partnership was a caution to
sinners. My horse was wild with fear
and was off leading, while behind cumo
thirty or forty mammoth tumble-weeds,
rolling along like gigantic cannon-balls.
I never saw such a sight in my life, and I
soon found that I was being chased by
hundreds of them. I looked back amt
saw ono jump twenty feet into tho air as
it bit a rock, and every little promincnco
sent thorn up where tho wind would
catch them and howl them like foot-hails.
I dodged several and at last got out of
the squall. I haven't tho slighte d doubt
that if I bad been struck by ono of tho
plants it would have knocked over liorso
and all—in fact, I hoard later of a man
that was caught in such a squall and ac
tually bowled over by one of them.”—
Man Francineo Call.
Tobacco ami the llyes.
Tho New York Mail and Kxjtreu says;
Dr. Cyrus Ed son's opinion that tho recent
poisoning of tho crew of the bark Sy
ringe, and tho uccoinpunyiny ophthalmia,
were duo to the excessive use of tobacco,
bus renewed the fervor of the anti-tobac
conists. For years it has been known to
surgeons that abuse of tobacco may lead
to failure of sight, and this fact has been
made uso of by the anti-tobacconists.
Tho lirilinh Medical, Journal a few years
ago published a widely quoted article on
this point, in which it said:
“In the report, of forty cases of tobac
co amplyopia by Mr. Shears, of Liver
pool, it appears that athrophy of the op
tie nerves is very rarely met with ns tho
result of excessive smoking, although to
bacco is the essential agent in producing
failure of sight. (Irent moderation in
smoking and especially tho employment
of forms of tobacco, is all that is neces
sary to insure recovery. Workmen in
tobacco factories do not appear to bo
subject to deterioration of eyesight. In
one large manufactory where 12,000 men
and women are employed, Mr. Scars has
found that not a single person on tho
premises suffered from failure of eyesight,
although many of the hands had been
working there for ten years.”
The llights of Babyhood.
Babies have a right to be. It is a com
mon saying that we owe our parents a
debt of gratitude for bringing us into
the world. Too frequently children are
born to such an inheritance of suffering and
woe that it is a doubtful question whether
they owe any gratitude for the uncertain
boon of existence; but, in any case, an
infant has a right to a kiodiy reception,
to loving thoughts, to dainty stitches, to
its own little niche in the family struc
ture. If tho portion of worldly goods
for she infant’s inheritance is small, yet
there are these precious jewels that every
father and mother should strive to give
the little one a strong fame,a good head,
and an earnest, hearty welcome, — Baby*
koo<L