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About The Montgomery monitor. (Mt. Vernon, Montgomery County, Ga.) 1886-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1886)
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
