Newspaper Page Text
Banks County Gazette.
VOL 2.—NO. 5.
Homeless Poor of Berlin.
One of the most note-worthy insti
tutions of Berlin is known as the
“City Shelter,” the like of which is
to be found in no other capital in the
world. It stands just outside Berlin,
was opened in October, 1887, and is
intended for the accommodation not
only of homeless individuals, but of
homeless families as well. It con
sists (as we learn from an account of
it given in the Illustriate Zeitung) of
one largo three-story building, and in
the rear twenty one-story barracks,
each of which is capable of accommo
dating from sixty to eighty persons.
The main building is intended chictly
for poor families. Rents are excess
ively high in Berlin, and it often hap
pens that an artisan or a laborer gets
into arrears with his payments, and
finds himself ejected with his family
into the street, having no money in
his pocket with which to hire fresh
rooms. His recourse on such an oc
casion is the “City Shelter,” whither
he goes with his wife and children
told whatsoever household effects he
still possesses. On their arrival the
clothing they wear and the furniture
they have brought with them is thor
oughly disinfected, and the members
of the family are sent to different
parts of the establishment, according
to sex or age. The husband is located
in the men’s department; the wife,
the oldest daughters, and the small
est children are sent to that for wo
men, while the boys over six years
of age are cared for in rooms specially
set apart for them.
The entire family are allowed to
remain in the shelter for eight days,
and are not only lodged, but are pro
vided also with good, wholesome
food by the city, not a penny being
asked for from them in return. The
women, however, are expected to
assist in the laundry and in keeping
the estublishment scrupulously clean;
the men arc allowed certain hours of
absence, dining which they may go
in search of work, should they be out
of employment, while the boys get
regular instruction in the school
rooms. Should it be fouud that the
husband or father has honestly striven
to obtain work during the eight days,
but has failed, the family are allowed
to remain for 'till another such period.
Even then, if he should have obtained
an engagement that is not sufficiently
remunerative to enable him to set up
a fresh home at once, the wife and
children may remain still longer in
the shelter, and he may go there to
sleep at night. Even with all this
the kindness of the city does not end,
for when at last the family leave they
may lie presented with from 15 to 20
shillings toward their preliminary
household expenses.
The barracks in the rear are for
men and women who are accommo
dated for the night only. The same
individual is not allowed to go there
oftener than five times a month, ex
clusive of Saturday, which is a “free”
night, when questions as to prdvious
visits are not asked. There is a strict
exclusion of persons who are not so
ber, and the bringing in of intoxica
ting drinks is prohibited, as also loud
talking, singing, and smoking. The
doors arc open at 4 o’clock in the
afternoon, and remain open for later
comers until 2 o’clock in the morning,
though during the severe frosts of
winter they are not closed all night.
On arriving at the shelter the name,
age, etc.,'of the visitors are inscribed
in a book, and an invitation to the
bath-rooms follows, the clothing being
disinfected in the meanwhile. Then
the visitors are sent to the barracks,
where they are to remain for the
night, each being furnished with a
sail-cloth, which is to serve for cover
ing when they stretch themselves on
the broad bench that runs all round
each building. Artificial heating is
kept up, and excellent ventillation is
maintained. At eight o’clock each
visitor is supplied with warm soup
and a piece of bread, and they re
ceive a similar meal when they leave
in the morning, which they are al
lowed to do at six m the summer and
seven in the winter—or still earlier
in the winter if there is a chance of
their getting work at removing snow.
Altogether, it is no unusual thing for
as ruaDy as 1,600 persons to sleep in
the shelter the same night as guests
of the city of Berlin.
Since the 21st of January last there
has been a provision ot sick rooms
with 100 beds on the first floor of the
main building. If any of the inmates
should have sore feet, be feverish,
exhausted from fatigue, or be other
wise not in a fit condition to start
again on their traveles, they may see
the doctor, who, if he thinks fit, or
ders them into the sick-rooms. There
they will be looked after for several
days, at the end of which time,
should they still be unable to leave’
owing to the gravity of their ailment,
they are sent to the hospital. The
staff engaged in the management of
the shelter comprises a chief inspetor,
a “l ouse father,” twelve wardens,
and two clerks.
Beilin is proud of this institution,
and may well think it superior either
to the English casual ward or to the
English alternative of allowing the
homeless poor to sleep under railway
arches or on door-steps.—Pall Mall
Gazette.
When there is darkness beforo and
around us, there is light above us. In
U e deepest gloom of earth’s shadows
it is possible for us to have tight for
our cheer and guidance if we will
look upward. And here is one of the
gains of dark hours, in their prompiiv
to the upward look.— S. S. Times. °
Political Garden Seed.
The seeds sent out l>y th e depart
ment are mostly given to members of
congress. According to the tabular
statement, senators, representatives
and delegates in congress were given
3,832,112 packages, leaving only a
little over a million to be sent to in
dividual, experiment station and
agricultural societies. And this ex
plains why the seed division has
grown as it has, and congress is wil
ling to make appropriations for it.
Politicians own it and use it for their
own purposes, while the original pur
pose for which it was established lias
vanished from sight. The agricul
tural department, on the whole, we
regard as admirable, and it is di ing
excellent work for the country; but
the seed division has been degraded
to low political uses at the expense of
the people, and the better informed
portion of the community demand its
improvement or its abolishment.
One tenth part of the money now
appropriated for the seed division
would be entirely sufficient for all
good uses. The rest of it is worse
than wasted, and the officers of the
agricultural department know it, and
the people know it!—Vick’s Maga
zine for April.
Learn to entwine with your prayers
the small cares, the trifling sorrows,
the little wants of daily life. What
ever affects you—bo it a changed
look, an altered tone, an unkind
word, a wrong, a wound, a demand
you cannot meet, a sorrow' you cannot
disclose—turn it into prayer and send
it up to God. Disclosures you may
not make to man, you can make to
the Lord. Men may be too little for
your great matters; Cod is not too
great for your small ones. Only give
yourself to prayer, whatever be the
occasion that calls for it.—Anon.
“For Thy Sake.”
There is something very peaceful
and helpful in this inscription : “For
thy sake.” We can use it in our
family circles fcometimes when the
father looks upon son, or
upon his circle of loving children, and
says: “For thy sakes, for your sakes.”
So the wife, in the midst of endurance,
says to the husband: “For thy sake.’’
For agony and pain only in any case
become endurable as they become
ideal, as they are related to sovereign
and purifying affections, as we are
able to say: “For thy sake.” Then
may a toil become sweet, and many a
pain possible to bear, many a sharp
trial easy to undergo, and many a
sharp suffering a rosy garland and a
crown. “For thy sake.” This is the
divine theology of pain, this is the
HOMER, BANKS COUNTY, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1801.
relation of means and ends in benevo
lent purposes. Sir Charles 801 l and
others have talked eloquently of de
sign in pain, but the comfort of the
Christian will be found in spirings
deeper still and in motives higher far
than those of mere socalled natural
theology. “For thy sake.” That
implies more than by arrangement;
it has a tender tone, and reveals to
us our being as related to him. This
is, then, the meaning of th mystery
of pain.—E. Paxton Hood.
Hold a mouthful of spirits—whis
ky for instance—in your mouth for
five minutes, and you will find it
burns severely; inspect your mouth
and you will find it inflamed. Hold
it for ten or fifteen minutes, and you
will find the various parts of the in
terior of your mouth have become
blistered; then tie a h mdkercliief
over the eyes, and taste' for instance
water, vinegar, milk or senna, and
you will find you are incapable of
distinguishing one from another.
This experiment proves to a certainty
that alcohol is not only a violent
irritant, but also n narcotic. Canyon
believe that the still more tender and
important internal organs of the body
can be less injuriously affected than
the mouth ?—Dr McCulloch.
To pun who makes it so, any
sphere is a high sphere. Fulness of
sendee is the supreme test. One
reason why so many persons are in
efficient is that they are spending
their energies in some other direction
than that which is theirs at the time.
They are afraid of being undervalued
if they do net show themselves above
the service that is expected of them.
They neglect their part in the round
of life duties because they want to
exhibit their superiority to their own
present calling. But a man who will
not do his best in what he is set to
do is not the man to do hotter any.
whore else Of course, one may be
bettor fitted for one calling than an
other. But the best evidence of
fitness for any calling is the living up
to one’s possibilities in that situation
where lie is, without regard to where
he might better like to be.—Sunday
School Times.
From the Canada Presbyterian the
Christian Advocate copies this: “A
young man of intellectual pretentions,
who had been reading Mr. Herbert
Spencer, found himself one day in
the company of Mr. Spurgeon. ‘But
I do not belong to your school, Mr.
Spurgeon,’ said he, with a touch of
pride; ‘I should inform you, sir, that
lam an Agnostic.’ ‘An Agnostic?’
replied the preacher; ‘that is Greek,
is it not?’ ‘I believe so,’ said the
youth. ‘Of which,’ continued the
preacher, ‘the Latin equivalent is
Ignoramus, is it not?’ A question
which reduced, as Or. Samuel Johnson
might have said, the ambitious aspi
rant for fame from a perpendicular to
a horizontal form.”
Tlic Blessings of Forgetfulness.
The blessings of a good memory
and the importance of, cultivating
such a power are too evident to call
for notice; the annoyance caw ed _bv
forgetfulness emphasizes itself \,y
daily repetition. The possibility of
losing any thing out of the mind is
altogether too familiar a thought to
cause any surprise, and is one of the
last things iri the world that we should
think of being thankful for. Yet,
when we reflect on it, is it more
strange that wc can remember at all
than that any thing that has once
been a tenant of the blind can leave
its home and become lost ? The
power to forget is perhaps not less a
blessing than the power to remember.
There is good ground for thankful
ness that we are not obliged to go
through life loaded with the accumu
lated burdens of other days, that the
dread of evil that made some days
wretched without cause need not
haunt us in after years, that the dis
appointment that proved so bitter at
the time does not remain a perpetual
possession, that the failure that
caused such mortification as for the
moment to cast a gloom over every
thing fades away as it grows more
distant. The principle that “sufil
cient unto the day is the evil there
of” has its application to the evil that
is past as well as to what is antici
pated; and it is by the goodness of
the Creator that, while the past
teaches its lessons, wo cannot keep it
at all if we would, any more than we
can pry into the future.
The power of forgetting as well as
that of remembering can be culti
vated, and sometimes needs to be
cultivated. It is often important to
cast aside so far as possible the mem
ory of personal experiences; of still
more importance is what wo harbor
in our thoughts as to the deeds of
others, for over such exercise of
menipry the will has much control.
It is something besides a desire for
alliteration that makes us speak of
forgiving and forgetting: and in this
direction there is- occasion for us to
imitate Him who says: “I will re
member their sin no more.”—Anony
moss.
Make men see and feel that a sa
loon is a more positive evil to a neigh
borhood than a shanty filled with
smallpox patients, and a fire will be
kindled which will purge the country
of its greatest crime and misery breed
er whoso colossal shadow envelops
Christendom ar.d carries a thrill of
misery, a pulsation of vice, a throb of
degradation wherever it falls.—The
Arena.
The Chicago Evening Post, speak
ing from the vantage of a Chicago
experience, portrays as .follows the
saloon keeper in politics: “That the
saloon appears to Vie one of the prin
cipal stepping stones to political pre
ferment cannot be denied. The
saloon keeper figures largely in cau
cuses and conventions, and there
seems to be a belief, especially in
<argv!.i citioH like Chicago, that the
man who can mix a cocktail can leg
islate for his fellow men. There is
money in politics for the saloon
keeper. His till overflows during a
canvass. The ‘boys’ caucus in bis
back room, and keep the electric but
ton busy all the while. His opportu
nities are large. A man in any other
line could not embrace them. No
druggist could afford to drive his
trade away by making his place ot
business a rendezvous tor political
heelers, and no small tradesman
wouid consent to jeopardize his busi
ness in like manner. So the in m who
sells rum for a living has it all his own
war. In bis bottles is tho potent ar
ticle that mellows the workers, and
before his mahogany they are /el
come. That is why he has such a
pull.”
At three or four of the Scotch iron
works, the Furnace Cases company
are paying yearly rental for the right
of collecting the smoke and gases
from the blast-furnaces. These are
passed through several miles of
wrought iron tubing, gradually dimin
isliing in size from six feet to about
eighteen inches, and as the gases cool
there is deposited a considerable
yield of oil. At one establishment in
Glasgow they pump and collect about
sixty million feet of furnace-gas per
day, and recover, on an average,
twenty-five thousand gallons of fur
nace oils per week, using the residua]
gases, consisting chiefly of ca/oon
monoxide, as fuel for distilling and
other purposes, while a considerable
yield of sulphate of ammonia is also
obtained.—New York Ledger.
A Future of Hope.
Look where we may the future
seems full of hope. The great world,
slowly and reluctantly it may be, is
still opening its eyes to the appalling
spectacle of wretchedness, degrada
tion, and sin that lies to us so close
on every band. The cry of the
afflicted and down trodden is heard
at last. We refuse to acquiesce in
what selfishness and cowardice assure
us to be inevitable. The few who
have taken upon their shoulders the
burden of suffering humanity are be
ginning to find not only sympathy
but help iu their efforts to do battle
with the evil power which now deso
lates so vast a portion of mankind.
The struggle must bo long. No
schemes, however glorious; no devo
tion, however generous, can win a
sudden triumph; for, at the best,
human progress cannot be measured
from year to year; its movements,
though sure, are imperceptible; only
by generations can loss or gain be
reckoned. But when anew spirit
enters into the world; when the ideal
of the few becomes the enthusiasm of
the many, and the vision once seen
only by lone watchers on mountain
heights is revealed in its glory to the
toilers on the plain; when a faith,
once dim and faint, begins to stir with
anew fire and anew life, wo cannot
for long be unconscious of such a
change. And such a change is surely
coming on. The long night, with its
darkness and silence, is passing away,
and through the awakening world
rings the trumpet sound: “Let the
King reign!”
The Journal of Inebriety calls at
tention to the fact that alcohol and
tobacco used by railway engineers
and other railway employees, especial
ly when used together, are liable to
produce color-blindness, even uncon
sciously to themselves and after they
may have passed a satisfactory test
examination upon entering the ser
vices as to their ability to distinguish
readily the color signals.
The country is fairly jingling with
the silver question, and a very pleas
ant sound it makes, indeed. The
people have taken hold of it, and
they will see it safely through.—At
lanta Constitution.
A few years ago no one dreamed
that in so short a time the. electric
light would become a regular part of
the equipment of mills and factories.
It was only when the dynamo found
its place in the engineroom and the
incandescent light sparkled in the
shops and work rooms , that tUo
engineer found any thing of special
interest to him in the study of elec,
tricily. Now he must study it wheth
er he will or no, and though the
knowledge he most requires must be
of a practical nature, he must have a
goodly amount of theoretical or
“book” iuformation in order to under
stand what he is doing.—Stationary
Engineer.
A Dream and Yet Not a Dream.
A laborer at the Dundee harbor
lately told bis wife, on awakening, a
curious dream which he had during
the night. He dreamed that he saw
coining toward him, in order, four
rats. The first one was very fat, and
was followed by two lean rats, the
rear.rat being blind. The dreamer
was greatly perplexed as to what
might follow, as it has been under
stood that to dream of rats denotes
coming calamity. He appealed to
his wife concerning this, but she,
poor woman, could not help him.
His son, a sharp lad, volunteered to
be the interpreter. “The fat rat,”
he said, “is the man who keeps the
public house that ye gang till sae
often; and the two lean anes are me
and my mither, and the blind anc is
yerseli, father.”—Exchange.
It was said by the conductor of an ,
American theater that t,/e Sundayj
evening concert made the Sunday
theaters a possibility. There is a
movement in England to establish a
Sunday theater. It is charged that
this movement has grown out of the
tastes cultivated by the church and
stage guild. When the church is
turned into an entertainment, it
creates and cultivates a taste that will
without question "and by a fixed law
find its gratification in the theater.
It is bid a step or two from the Sun
day night church concert to the Sun
day night theater.—Christian Advo
cate.
It is so little we can really do for
one another in me march of life. W e
are all under marching orders and
have burdens to carry. There is no
halt for nook-day dreams nor twilight
rest. It is step, step, step—right
onward through dust and common
place, without music, or banners, or
SINGLE COPY THREE CENTS,
present glory, and yet to each soldier
has been given a canteen full of never
failing water, a cup of which he may
proffer with no fear of a diminished
store, all the way through to the end
of the long march to the sea. Is onr
comrade discouraged ? Does bis feet
fail and his hands grow' heavy? A
cheering word, a loving service, a
friendly suggestion, born of the de
sire to help and encourage, will re
vive him like sparkling water in the
desei t heat. Such things cost nothing,
but not all the gold and diamonds you
could pack in your bundle would match
them for solace on tho long and dus
ty march that stretches for each one
of us between the cradle and tho
grave.—Amber.
How Little to Give.
How little it is to give! It is in
appearance only a little tenderness
in the voice that the spirit that needs
it recognizes, though it could hardly
tell how it recognized it. It is stttftj: ■
ply t. at the soul shows herself fo£jsp
moment at her window, and the way*
farer looks, and by a sudden rocogni-
tion sees her there, ar.d knows that
it is her care for him that brought her
there. It is only a something, we
hardly know what, in the grasp of the
hand, an electric thrill that shows
that is no mere formality, but that it
is a touch of life—Jhat the hand is
warm from the heart. This is all it
is to give. But what is it to receive?
It is often nothing less than anew
life. Here is a poor, suffering soul
that feels itself cut off from the com
mon joys and the necessaries of com
mon life seem not for it. It seems
to itself like one shivering apart,
while the merry groups of happier
ones rejoice in the warm sunlight and
in the play of free and kindly inter
course. But when this solitary soul
meets the touch or the look of sym
pathy, its isolation is over;' yt is by
tills drawn into the common eir -ie of
humanity. The common broth"
hood reaches it also.
Perhaps this lonely soul had felt
itself forgotten even by God. Per
haps it saw no signs that he still re
membered it. But by this greeting
of hearty interest—by this touch of
feeling, of compassion, of fellowship
—it is as if Cod himself spoke to it.
It is as if he had sent one of his angels
to speak to it good cheer; for if ono
of his children cares for it and loves
it, it feels that the Father himself
cannot have forgotten it.—lndepend
ent.
It pays to do every thing well,
because any thing well done is a part
doing of the next thing that we
would not do otherwise than well.
“Play always as if a master were
listening,” said Schumann, himself a
musical master who knew whereof
he advised. If the doing of one thing
is, in effect, the preparation for and
part doing of another, then it wero
well to perform any part always as
if the Master were listening, because,
if the Master is ever to listen, he is,
in effect, listening always.
Dr. Cuyler tells this story ><i a
littl, boy, the sou of good !
rian parents, who w;.>. '■■■iA'
question in the ‘What is
i Act cad?” mid lie answered
j it, “Man’s chief end is tb glorify God
| and annoy him forever.” There are
too many men, says Dr. Cuyler, who
act as if that were their chief end.
The great high road of human wel
fare lies along the old highway of
steadfast well-doing; and they who
are the most persistent, and work in
the truest spirit, will invariably be
the most successful. Success treads
on the heels of every right effort
Smiles.
To pray with all our heart and
strength, with the reason and the will,
to believe vividly that God will listen
to our voice through Christ and verily
do the thing that lie pleaseth there
upon, this is the last, the greatest
achievement of the Christian’s war
fare upon earth.—Coleridge.
In the day of prosperity we have
many refuges to resort to; in the day
of adversity, only one.—Bonar.