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THE GOSPEL FEAST
WAS THE SUBJECT OF TALMAGE’S
SEKIUON LAST SUNDAY.
flThe Text Was from Luke 11, 18: “And They
Ail with One Consent Began to Make
Excuse”—An Abie Sermon.
Brooklyn, N. Y., April 16. —(Special.)—
Her. Dr. Talmage, in his sermon in the
Brooklyn tabernacle this forenoon, spread
before the great audience in eloquent
Words the beauty and attractiveness of the
gospel feast, the text chosen being from
Luke 14:18: "And they all with one eon
•ent began to make excuse.”
After the invitations to a levee are sent
tout the regrets come in. One man apolo
gizes for non-attendance on one ground,
another on another ground. The most of
the regrets are founded on prior engage
ments. So in my text a great banquet was
spread, the invitations were circulated, and
now the regrets come in. The one gives an
agricultural reason, the other a stock deal
er’s reason, the other a domestic reason.
All poor reasons. The agricultural reason
being that the man bad bought a farm and
Wanted to see it. Could he not see it the
kiext day? The stock dealer’s reason being
that he had bought five yoke of oxen aud he
wanted to go and prove them. He had no
business to buy thorn uuiil he knew what
they were. Besides that, a man who can
own live yoke of oxen can command Ins own
Kime. Besides that, he ungut have yoked
two of them together ami driven them on
the way to the banquet, for locomotion was
not as rapid then as now. The man who
gave the domestic reason said he had got
married, lie ought to have taken his wife
with linn. The fact was, they did not want
to go. "And they all with one consent
began to make excuse.” So now God
spreads a great banquet; it is the gospel
least, and the table reaches across the
hemispheres, and the invitations go out and
multitudes come and sit down aud drink
out of the chalices of God’s love, while
other multitudes decline coming—the one
giving this apology and the other giving
that apology, "and they ail with one con
sent begin to make excuse.'' 1 propose this
morning so far as God may help me, to ex
amine the apologies widen men make for
not entering the Christian life.
Apology the first: 1 am not sure there
is anything valuable in the Christian re
ligion. it is pleaded that there are so many
impositions m this day, so many things
that seem to be real are sham. A gilded
outside may have a hollow itiwide; there is
so much quackery in physics, in ethics, in
polities, that men come to the habit of in
credulity, and alter a while they allow that
im iedulity to collide with our holy religion.
But, my friends, 1 think religion has made
ft pretty good record in lite world. How
many wounds it has salved. how many pil
lars of lire it. has lifted in the midnight
wilderness, how many simovn-struek Ba
haras it ha h turned into the gardens of
the Lord; how it hath stilled the chopped
isi'ti; what rosy light it hath sent, streaming
through the rift of the stormcloud wreck;
what pools of cool water it hath gathered
for thirsty Hagar and Ishmael; what
manna whiter than coriander seed it hath
dropped all around the camp of hardly-be
stead pilgrims; w hat promises it hath sent
out like holy watchers to keep the lamps
burning around deathbeds; through the
darkness that lowers into the sepulchre,
what flashes of resurrection morn!
Besides i ell, tills religion has made so
intt’iy heroes. It brought Summerfield, the
•Methodist, aerosfs the Atlantic ocean with
his silver trumpet to blow’ the acceptable
year of the Lord, until it seemed as if all
our American <itie> would take the king
dom of heni 't. by violence. It sent Jchudi
A sb,man into Alriea alone, in a continent
of naked barbarians, to lift the standard
of civilization and Christianity. Il made
John Milton among poets, Raphael among
painters. Christopher Wren among archi
tects, Thorwaldsen among sculptors. Han
del among musicians. Dupont among mil
itary commanders and to give new wings
to the imag nation, :i'"' better'■'balance io
the judgment, and more determination to
the will, and greater usefulness to the life,
end grander nobility to the soul, there is
nothing in all the earth like our Christian
religion.
Nothing in religion! Why. then, all
those Christian* were deceived, when in
their dying moment they thought they saw
♦he ensiles of the blessed: and your child,
that with unutterable agony you put away
into the grave, you will never see him
flgain, imr hear his sweet voice, nor feel
the throb of his young heart? There is
nothing in religion! Sickness will come
upon you. Holl and turn on your pillow.
No relief. The medicine may be bitter,
the night may be dark, the pain may be
sharp. No relief . Christ never comes to the
sickroom. Lei tin* j uin stab. Lei the fevt •
burn. Curse it and die. There is nothing
in religion! After awhile death will come.
You will hear the pawing of the pale horse
on the threshold. The spirit will be
breaking away from the body, and it will
take flight whither ? w hit her ? There is no
God. tto ministering angels to conduct, no
Christ. no heaven, no home. Nothing in
religion! Oh! you are not willing to adopt
such a dismal theory. Ami yet the world
is full of skeptics. And let me say there
is no class of people for whom I have a
warmer sympathy than for .skep
tics. We do not know' how to
treat them. A\ •» deride them: we car
icature them. We, instead of taking them
by the soft hand of Christian love, clutch
them with the iron pinchers of ecelesi
fistieism. Oh! if yon knew how- those men
bad fallen away from Christianity ami l>e
••oine sceptics, you would not be so rough
«>n them. Some were brought up in homes
where religion was overdone. The most
wre ehod d.n in the week was Sirndav.
Jfeljgion was driven into them with a trip
) at. •;!■■■ l av- ■-■ ii t •
meetings. They were stuffed a >d choked
with catechisms. They were told by their
parents that they were the worst children
that ever lived, because they liked to ride
down hill better than to read ‘ Pilgrim’s
•Progress.” They never heard their parents
ml . i reliei-'U mu wiih ilu- <• rners of their
mouths drawn down and I'm- eyes rolled I
up- I
Others went into scepticism through mal
treatment on the part of some who pro
cessed religion. There is a man who says:
“My parttier in business was voluble in
prayer meeting: aud he was officious in all
religious circles; but he cheated me out
r»f three thousand dollars, anil I don't want
»ny of that religion.”
There are others who got into scepti
cism by a natural jursi-tem • in asking
why? or how"' How can God be
one being in three persons? They cannot
understand it. Neither can I. How can
God be a complete sovereign, and yel man a
free agent? They cannot understand it.
Neither can 1. They cannot understand
why a holy God lets sin come in*o the
•world. Neither can I. They say. ‘JI -re is
ii great mystery; here is a disciple of fash
ion, frivolous and godless all her days—
►he lives on to b an octogenarian. Here,
is a Christian mother training her cbil
rlren for God and for heaven, self sacri
ficing. Chris -like, indispensable, seemingly,
to that household she takes the cancer and
flies.” The sceptic -.-iys, "1 can't explain
ithat.” Neither can 1.
Oh. 1 cun see hov men reason themselves
Into scepticism. With burning feet 1 have
troil that blistering way. I know' what it
1* to have a hundred nights poured into one
Cures Scrofula
Mrs. E. J. Rowell, Medford, Mass.. says her
mother has been ci; redo' Scrofula by the use of
four bottle- of afler lia* Ing had
much other tie atiucnt..-. id being
reduced toqui a low condition
®f health, as it was thought she could not live.
INHERITED SCROFULA.
mmwwi fared tny little l>oy of hereditary
Scrofula, v. hieh appt .red all over
K&iZaaa his face. For a year I had given
up all hojie of his re< overy. when finally I was
induced to use A few bottles
enred him, and gfrjfefc'Eg no nyn-ptoms of
the disease remain. vius. T. J.. M vthers,
Matherville, Miss.
•aibccs at Bload and Skit Piaetws maitaS free.
Swift SrsctrtC Co.. Atlanta, fia
hour. There are men in this audienca
who would give their thousands of dolars
if thev could get back to their old religion
of their fathers. Such men tire not to be
caricatured, but helped, and not through
their heads, but through their hearts.
When these men really do come into the
kingdom of God. they will be worth far
more to the cause of Christ than those who
never examined the evidences of Christian
ity. Thomas Chalmers mice a sceptic,
Robert Hall, once a sceptic, Christmas
Evans, once a sceptic: but when they did
lay hold of the gospel chariot, how they
made it speed ahead! .
If, therefore. 1 stand this morning before
men and women who have drifted away
into scepticism, 1 throw out, no scoff; 1
rather implead you by the memory ot those
good old times when you knelt, at, your
mother's knee aud said your evening prayer,
and those other days of sickness when she
watched all night and gave you the medi
cines at just the right time, and turned
the pillow when it was hot, and, with
Ikhiils long auo turned to dust, soothed
your pains, and with that voice you will
never hear again unless you join her in the
better country, told you never mind —you
would be better by and by; and by that
dying couch where she talked so slowly,
catching her breath between the words—
by all those memories 1 ask you to come
and take the same religion. It was good
enough for her —it is good enough for
you.
Aye, 1 make a better plea; by the wounds
and the death-throe of the Son of God.
who approaches you this morning with
torn brow and lacerated hands and whip
ped back, crying, “Come unto me, all ye
who are weary and heavy laden, and 1
will give you rest,”
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because of the incorrigi
bility of their temper. Now. we admit
that it is harder for some people to be
come Christians than for others; but tin*
grace of God never came to a mountain that
it could not climb, or to an abyss that it
could not fathom, or to a bondage that it
could not break. The wildest horse that
ever trod Arabian sands has been broken
to bit and trace. The maddest torrent tum
bling from mountain shelving has been
harnessed, to the mill wheel ami factory
band, setting a thousand shuttles all a-buzz
and a-elatter; ami the wildest, the haughti
est, the most ungovernable man ever cre
ated, by the grace of God may be subdued
and sent out on a ministry of kindness,
as God sends an August, thunderstorm to
water the wild flowers down in the grass.
Good resolution, reformatory effort, will
not. effect the change. It takes a mightier
arm and a mightier hand to bend evil hab
its than the hand that bent the bow of
Llysses. and it takes a stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie. A man
cannot go forth with any human weapons
and contend successfully against these Ti
tans armed with uptorn mountain. But
you have known men into whose spirit
the influence of the gospel of Christ came,
until their disposition was entirely changed.
So it was with two merchants in New
York. The.v were very antagonistic.
They hud done ail they could to injure
each other. They were in the same line of
business. One of the merchants was con
verted to God. Having been converted he
asked the Lord to tench him how to bear
himself toward, that business antagonist,
and he was impressed with the fact that
it was his duty when a customer asked
for a certain kind of goods which he had
not, but which he knew his opponent
had, to recommend him to go to that
store. I suppose that was about the hardest
thing the man could do; but being thoroughly
converted to God he resolved to do that very
thing, and being asked for a ceriain kind of
goods which he had not. he said: “You go
to such and such a store and you will get
it.” After a while merchant number two
found these customers coming so sent, and
he found also that merchant number one ha I
been brought to God. and iie sought the
same religion. New they are good friends
and good neighbors, the grace of God en
tirely changing their dispositions.
says some one, “I have a rough,
jagged., impetuous nature, and religion can’t
do anything for me." Do you know that
Martin Luther and Robert Newton and
Richard Baxter were impetuous, all-consum
ing mi litres, yet the grace of God turned
them into the mightiest usefulness? O’. hoi
many who have be ■■> puir ia- i-ets and hard
to p!en*e. and irasejde, tied more bothered
about the mote in their rn'ic.b’i- r'i eye than
about, the beamiike ahiptimber in their own
eye, have been entirety changed by tin* grace
ol God, and have found out that, “godliness
is profitable for rhe life that now is as well
as for the lite which is to come.”
Peter, with nature tempestuous as the
sea that he once tried to walk, at one look
of Christ went out. and wept bitterly Rich
harvests of grace may grow <jp the tiptop
of the jagged steep, and flocks of < ,'bristiaa
graces may find pasturage in fields of bram
ble ami rock. Though your disposition may
be all a-bristle with fret fulness, though you
have a temper a-gleam with quick light
nings. though your avarice be like that of
the horse leech, crying: "Give!” though
damnable inipurith s have wrapped you in
all-consuming fire -God can drive that devil
out of your soul, and over the chaos and the
darkness be cun say: "Let there be light."
Converting grace has lifted the drunkard
from the ditch, and snatched the knife from
tiie hand of the assassin, and the false keys
from the burglar, and in the pestiferous
lanes of the city tm-i the daughter of sin un
der the dim lamplight, and scattered her
sorrow ami her guilt, with the words: "Thy
sms are forgiven -go, and sin no more.” For
scarlet sin a scarlet atonement.
Other. persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because of the inconsis
tencies of those who profess religion. There
are thousands of poor farmers. They do not
know the nature of soil nor the proper rota
tion of crops. Their corn is shorter in the
stall, and sm.-iller in the ear. They have ten
10-s bushels to the acre than their neighbors.
I’tit who declines being a farmer because
there are so many poor farmers?
i here are thousands of incompetent mer
chants. They buy at the wrong time,
i hey get cheated in the sale of their goods.
Every bale ot goods is to them a bale of
disaster, d hey fail after awhile and go ouj
oi business. But who declines to be a iner
t-mint because there are so many incompe
tent merchants? There are thousands of
poor lawyers. They cannot draw a declar
ation that will stand the test . They can
not recover just damages. They cannot
hejp a defendant escape from rhe injustice
of his persecutors. They are the worst
evidence against any ease in which they
retained. But who declines to be a
lawyer because there are so many incompe
tent lawyer? Yet there are tens of thou
sands of people who decline being religious
because there ate so many unworthy C’liris
liaus. Now, J say r it is illogical. Poor law
yers are nothing against jurisprudence,
poor physicians are nothing against medi
cine, poor farmers are nothing against agri
culture and mean, contemptible professors
of religion are notlung against our glorious
Ghrlsti.'inity.
Sometimes you have been riding along
on a summer night by a swamp, and you
have seen lights that kindled over decay ed
vegetation—lights which are called Jack
o lantern or Will o’ the wisp. These lights
are merely poisonous miasmata. My
friends, cm your way to heaven you will
want a better light than the Will o' the
wisps which dance on the rotten character
of dead Christians. Fxndation.s from poi
sonous trees in our neighbor's garden will
make a very poor balm for our wounds.
Siekne is will com'., and we will be pushed
out toward the Red sea which divides this
world from the next, and not the inconsis
tency of Christians, but the rod of faith
will wave back the waters as a command
er wheels his host . The judgment will
come, with its thundershod solemnities, at
tended by bursting mountains and the deep
laugh of earthquakes, and suns will tiy be
fore the Jt»et of God like sparks form the
anvil, and ten thousand burning worlds
shall blaze like banners in the track of God
omnipotent.. Oh, then we will not stop am]
say, “there was a mean Christian; there
w,as a cowardly Christian; there was a
lying Christian; there was an impure Chris
tian.” In that 'lay, as now. “If thou be
wise, thou shall be wise for thyself; but if
thou svorncst. thou alone shall bear it.”
Why. _my brother, the inconsistency of
so far from being an argument
Io keep you away from God. ought Io be an
argument tq drive you io him. The best
place for a skilful doctor is in a neighbor
hood where they are all poor doctoss; the
liest, place for an enterprising merchant to
open his store is in a place where the bar-
HIE WEEKLY CONSTITUTION: ATLANTA* GA.* TUESDAY. APRIL 18. 1893.
gain makers do not understand their busi
ness; and the best place for you who want to
become the illustrious and complete Chris
tian —the best place for you is to come right
down among us who are so incompetent
and so ineosistent sometimes.
Other persons apologize for not becoming
Christians because they lack time. As
though religion muddled the bruin of the
accountant, or tripped the pen of the
author, or thickened the tongue of the
orator, or weakened the arm of the mc
chiinie, or scattered the briefs of the
lawyer, or interrupted the sales of the
merchant. They bolt their store doors
against it, ami light it back wii.li trowels
and with yardsticks, and cry, “Away with
your religion from our store, our office,
our factory!”
They do not understand that religion in
this workaday world will help you to do
anything you ought to do. It can lay a
keel, it can sail a ship, it can buy a cargo,
it, '"in work a pulley, it can pave a street,
ii can lit a wristband, it c n write a con
stitution, it can marshal a• host. It is as
appropriate to the astrouo«ier as bis tel
escope; to the chemist as this laboratory ;
to the mason as his plut|ib-line; to the
carpenter as his plane; to 'Vie child as Ids
marbles; to the grandfathe i as his staff.
No time to be religious, re! You have
no time uot. to be religiou.Lt You might as
well have no clerks in you' ’[.tore, no
in your library, no compass on your ship,
no rifle in the battle, no hat for your head,
no coat for your back, no .shoes for your
'feet. Better travel on toyvard eternity
bareheaded and barefooted and houseless
ami homeless and friendh i, than to go
through life without, religion l .
Did religion make Raleigh any less of a
statesman, or Havelock any less of a sol
dier, or Grinnell any Jess of a merchant,
or West any less of a painter? Religion
is the best security’ in every bargain, it
is the sweetest note in every song, it is
the brightest, gem in every coronet. No
time to be religions! AA’hy. you will have
to take time to be sick, to be troubled, to
die. Our world is only the wharf from
which we are to embark for heaven. No
lime to secure the friendship of Christ. No
time to buy a lamp and trim it for that
walk through the darkness which other
wise xvill be illumined only by the white
ness of the tombstones. No time to edu
cate the eye for heavenly splendors, or
the hand for choral harps, or the ear for
everlasting songs, or the soul for honor,
glory ami immortality. One would think
we had lime for nothing else. “
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because it is time enough
yet. This is very like those persons who
semi tliflr regrets and say. “1 will come in
perhaps at 11 or 12 o'clock: I will not,
lie there at the opening of the banquet,
but I wiH be there at the close.” Not yet!
Not yet!
Now. 1 do not give any doleful view of
this life; there is nothing in my nature,
nothing in the grace of God, that tends
toward a doleful view of human life. I
have irnt much sympathy with Addison’s
description of the “Vision of Mirza.”
whore he represents human life as being
ii bridge of ,i hundred arches, and both
cuds of the bridge covered with clouds,
and the race coming on. the most of them
falling down through the firs; span, and
all of ihem falling down through the last
span. It i-, a very dismal picture. I have
mu much sympathy' with the Spanish prov
erb which says, “'Hie sky is good and the
earth is good—that, which is bad is be
tween the earth and the sl~y.”
But while we, as Christian pimple, are
bound io take a cheerful view of life, we
nm.-t also confess thai life is a great uncer
tainty, and that man who says, "I can’t be
come a < 'hl ist ian because there is lime
enough yet." is running a risk infinite. You
do noi perhaps realize the fact that this
descending grade of sin gets steeper ami
steeper, and that you arc gathering up a
rush and velocity which after a while may
not answer to the brakes. O. my friend, be
not among those who give their whole life
to the world and then give their corpse to
God. 11 does not seetn fair while our pulses
are in full play of health, that we serve
ourselves and serve the world, and then
make God at last the present of a collin. It
iloes not seem right that we run our ship
from coast to coast, carrying cargoes far our
selves, and then when the ship is crushed on
lhe 'o< !:s. give to I lhe sh;\‘eri’ , .l tifnpers.
It. is a great thimr .'■ ■ a man o, his dying
p'ilow to lopent be. er th... than never at
till: but bow much b'tter, how much more
generous it would have been if he had re
pented fitly years before! My friends, you
wHI never get, over these p’ocr.ist!nations.
Here is a delusion. People think, "f can
go on in sin and worldlinesa, but after a
while 1 will repent and then it will be as
though 1 had come at. the very start." That
is a delusion. .No one ever gets fully over pro
crastination. If you give your s.ml to God
S'.imo other lime than this, you will enter
heaven with only half the capacity for en
joyment and knowledge you might have had.
There will be heights of blessedness you
might have attained yon will never reach;
thrones of glory on which you might have
been Seated but which you will lower climb.
Mo will never get over procrastination,
neither in lime nor in eternity. We have
started on a march from whie'i there is no
retreat. I'he shadows of eternity gather on
om-pathway. How insignificant is time com
pared with the vast eternity! I was thinking
of this while coming down over the Alle
gheny’ mountains at noon, by that wonderful
place which you have all heard described as
the horseshoe- a depression in the side of
the mountain where the train almost turtles
back again upon itself, and you see how ap
propriate is the description of the “J lorse
shoe”—and thinking on this very theme,
and preparing this very sermon, it seemed
to me as if the gi’eat courser of eternity
speeding along had just struck the mountain
with one hoof and gone on into illimitable
space. So short is lime, so insignificant is
earih. conipared With the vast eternity.
This morning voices roll down the sky,
and till Ute worlds of light, are ready to re
joice at your dtsenthralmont. Rush not into
the presence of rhe Idug ragged with sin,
when you may hive this robe of righteous
ness. Ihtsh not your loot to pieces against
th'- ihroi).- of crucified (flirist. Throw not
your crown of life off tlm battlements. Ail
the scribes of God are this moment ready
with volumes of living light to record the
news of your soul emancipated.
FLOWERS FOR SOLDIERS’ GRAVES.
The I.udies Memorial Association of Atlanta
liequests Contributions.
The officers ami members of the Memo
riai Association, of Atlanta, ask The Con
stitution to call the attention of the women
of Georgia to the approach of Alemorial
Day and to request contributions of flowers
from those who are able to send them.
Here in Atlanta spring is seldom far
enough advanced to bring forth anything
like enough llower.-. to decorale the grave:-.
There arc many people in Georgia who will
doubtless be willing and glad to help the
women of Atlanta in paying this touching
tribute to the memory of the south's dead
heroes. The Southern ilxpress Company
will deliver flowers free of charge if ad
dressed to the "Memorial Association, of
Atlanta, care Airs. John Milledge, presi
dent.”
They’ vfvmld be sent so as to reach At
lanta Tuesday' afternoon, the 25th, or
Wednesday morning, the 2Gth, ami each
emit ribtit ion should bear the name and ad
dress of the sender.
BROWN’S IRON BITTERS
Cures Dyspepsia, In
digestion & Debility.
TELEGRA I'll VI TIES.
A letter iieeived ill Zanzibar from Tippo
Tib's son confirms the report of the death of
Emin Pasha and all his people.
Eugene Kelly, treasurer of the National
p'ederatlon of America, lias forwarded .$13,000
to Juslin McCarthy for the borne rule fund.
The church trial in the case of Rev. T. .1.
nt Wheeling. W. Va.. eliarged
with immorality, resulted in sustaining the
clifl rtje.
President Carnot, of France, will give a
dinner to lhe members of lhe Behring sea
arbitration on Saturday next.
over live hundred Chinese have arrived at
S-in Francisco on their way to tile world’s
fair to be part of the inhabitants of a Chinese
village.
An order of General Gordon, commander
of c amps of confederates veterans, will notify
members that they are invited to the ceremo
nies in New Orleans <>n the occasion of the
removal of Mr. Davis's remains on May 31st.
SARGE PLUNKETT
TALKS WITH OLV-TI3IF.RS ABOUT
SCHOOLS AND TEACUEItS.
A I’eep Into a Country School-Room—The
Methods of Discipline In Old Time
Schools—Other Matters.
For The Constitution.
A tender chord in every heart is touched
by early recollections.
I venture there be many a grand mail
and many a tine lady who remembers with
feelings of pleasure the little tin bucket
that they use to carry to school —the old
country school that was two and three,
.sometimes as far as four, miles from their
homes. It is lhe associations of that little
bucket which make it remembered. How
nicely was the dinner packed awsiy in it.
Mothers thought of the very bitd they had,
an,d it was saved to go into these little
buckets. A nice piece of chicken —■a “drum
stick" —a piece of ham with biscuits dipped
in red gravy was put at lhe bottom; on top
of this was placed a tart and some cake,
then on top of it ail would be a biscuit split
open with a fried egg between to eat at
“recess.” This was a part of going to
going to school in old times, ami a happy
part to all who could resist the temptation
of eating it up before dinner. It was
pretty hard for me to do, aud Brown never
could get to school with his; he never was
known to get more than a quarter iroui
home before he would, have me lid off of
the bucket examining what he had. The
sight and the smell was too much for such
a mortal as Brown, and down he would sit
on a grassy place and eat it up. lie had
to; 1 believe it would have run him crazy
to have kept it and thought about it -and
1 was somewlliat like him; it like to have
got me, and some folks think it did, but
anyhow 1 remember such things with pleas
ure and wish that it was so again, aud 1 be
lieve there are thousands of others
who, think lhe same way, but
won't say so. Seriously, 1 believe
that all thinking people would like to go
back to the old school system, but it can't
be done. Too much money is invested
in public schools now to turn them
loose, and so the old schoolhouse aud
lhe old schoolmaster must remain a tiling
of lhe past.
The oid-iime schoolmaster was as plain
as the old blue-back speller and just as
solid. Horse sense mid muscle aud nerve
was what were needed to be a success.
Standing collars and high-top hals dident
play no pan. The boys were there to try
him. and they would run him out of the
settlement if he dident mind. 1 uster
waieh these old teachers. They were a
study, and they knew how to size a school
up, for tin y studied too. The tirst day or
two these old teachers would let tilings tun
along pretty’ smooth, but all this time he
was studying bis scholars. There was id
ways a leader among the boys in "trying”
the old fellow. This lender was the ideal
of all llje rest, ami was more than apt to
be pretty hard to handle. The best dis
ciplinarians among these* old teachers would
make it a point to frail thunder onto)) this
leader th'- first thing, and then he had the
school. It was no more trouble after lie
whipped tin- "bully,” and whip
ped him well, to manage u school, but
if he bailed in this he had better go to
some other settlement. But they seldom
failed. They went into it like killing
snakes, and many has been the time J
have seen Ihem roll and tumble and scram
ble and fall over the schoolroom with a
big fellow who thought he could not be
whipped, it would cause :i right smart
confusion for awhile in the schoolroom
but when the old teacher got th'- youngster
by the eoHr'.r and made him stand and take
a flailing with an ox pole, it dident take
him long to restore order and he had no
more trouble that year. Those old teach
ers were rough, ami their methods wouldelit
do this day and time. Some ten-year-old
boy would shoot thunder outen
lim with a big pistol. and then
some “board” or “trustees.” Or something
else would hold a meeting and pass reso
lutions exonerating the boy and thus encour
a.^, others i > go and do likewise. There is
mighty little difference between church and
state and school and stale, is my notion,
bill it won’t do to say so, not yet; but just
Wtiit and remember I "told you so."
Ail of these old teachers were pretty
much the same, but there was om- down in
lhe county- of Bike who combined preach
ing with leaching. Some of the older fy'ks
wanted a church organized, but I’m r - were
la great many' rowdies who did not wait
a church—they- were afraid it would break
up their little game* of seven-up. I’liis old
fellow, though, with lhe same stern resolve
of thousands of the old time preachers,
give out that he would preach on a certain
Sunday. He was there, as appointed, ami
so were the rowdies. The old fellow came
swi' ging up to the church with Ins eaat
over his shouldn't, aud he jio sooner
got .to where tlm crowd was loan he ask
ed a'u old brother io just hold his coat a
few minutes; lu* wanted n> "fan out tin*
rowdies before he got cool," was the way
be expressed it, and he did. In those days
any man was sure of fair play in a rough
and tumble figfß. This ol I te;mber knew
this ami he felt equal to the best, man the
rowdies had in their crowd. Ile walked
right out among them and “fanned out”
the biggest fellow without passing any
words. This was enough, the balance suc
cumbed, and from that day to this a church
has stood right njion that ground and 1
am in hopes that it won’t be moved from
there to the railroad, a* is too often the
case in these days.
A crowd of we old timers bad a pleasant
chat the other night about these old schools
am! these old teachers. Brown swears
they ruined him, that is, tlm
girls did. for all these schools
were mixed. He never did study
any at school, but depended entirely on
lhe two girls he stood between telling him.
These girls were Brioxvn’s masters, if
they got in the pouts with him any day he
had a hard row to travel. They were
tyrants, too—. They knew they' had Brown
and they' made him do just as they pleased,
aud they were cruel, too, sometimes for
they wouldn’t tell him just to see_ him get
a whipping. I have seed some inight.y sad
looks come over Brown's face as he stood
between these two girls reciting h!s les
sons. Sometimes it would be because he
could not quite hear what the girls said,
and sometimes it would be pmiitse 'he
girls out of pure devilment would tell him
wrong an lhe old teacher would bawl out.:
"What's that? What's that?"
Brown ism-w w*lt This meant and he
would cut his eye from Mary to Fanny m
the most appealing way. but often they' let,
him “cat' ll it” just to see him jump about.
But never mind about these schools; we
won’t "eed any much longer, i'm thmking,
for it won’t Im long till there won't be anr
children, especially boys, and withi ur ci: !-
dren we don’t need schools. A boy not
over nine years old the other 'lay advised
me not to plant corn as I was limit I'.eii-g.
lie was sure he knew best, and Wanted
to see it did another way. I don't in.”"ion
tbis»to chide the boy; 1 just want to Mr w
that they' jump from the crtnlie to ao.mt
■ '.)■■• I* ■•uoo I at eighteen years ,f ;me.
A ten-year-old Imy now is abony thirty fiv
as compared with what it used to be, and
so wags the world.
Let "er wag!
SAROE Pt.t XKETT,
He Was a Eattn mid Greek Murderer.
Dallas Tex.. April 15.—A News special
from Tyler, Tex., says: Charles . Scott,
colored. Was banged here today m tlm
presence of 3JW people mostly negroes,
for shooting ami killing IL H. ( urties, July
12th lust. Scott rented from Curtis and re
fused to work the crop and this caused
trouble. Curtis was tWenty-two years
old. Scott shot him with buckshot, empty
ing the hist cliirge in the head after th»
victim fell. Scott died of strangulation
after the drop fell. He was a Greek and
Latin scholar. Tlm governor was hanged
in effigy for granting Scott, a two weeks
respite.
A young and beautiful girl is said to be
tramping through the state of T.ouisiana. She
Is very neatly dressed, and claims to be walk
ing for a wager.
SOUTHERN NEWS NOTES.
Cotton seed oil mills are going up all over
Texas.
Since lhe recent lire Avondale, Ala., Is
without a city prison and town hall.
Two members of the Selma, Ala., checker
club will commence a series of 500 games
the tirst of -May.
ik son of Howard Karl, of Clarke county,
Al.i., s suffering from symptoms of hydro
p.hoDia and will probably die.
During the year ISP2 there were shipped
from Florida. 321,327 tons of phosphate, an in
crease of i 73 tons over 1801.
In Bedford comity, Virginia, Lillie Ayers, a
airi iff thirteen. was married to Henry
Mitchell, a man of thirty-three.
The Baptists of Gadsden, Ala., have sold
their church lot for 505 ami will at once
erect a handsome church io cost .>12,000.
'The Memphis Commercial has ordered type
set Ling machines. Already two of the four
Memphis dailies use linotype machines.
Raleigh. N. C. is said to be the only town
where two morning newspapeis are punlislied
by lhe same staff and the same office.
4 voting hide in MeNalry county. Tennessee,
was attacked by a mad ilog a r ''"’
and horribly bitten about the late and body.
North Carolina has a boy baby with two
well-formed bands wltere only h‘S left l and
should be, and the dime museums ate alter
hint.
Fri'htv last was a phenomenally hat day
in Wheeling, W. Va. f rhe iherm'.meter iwar
ly readied the ineties, and pedestnaus were
■'•roasted.”
A Covington, Ky., man was arrested for
stealing a chunk of Limburger cheese. It, is
said the police had no trouble in following the
scent until they caught lhe thief.
At Paris, Texas, a divorce was granted to
a woman, and in five minutes thereafter she
faced the judge witli another man and xyas
married. It is one of the most remarkable
cases of ' hanging husbands on record.
'flic movement to have lhe Texas legisla
ture adjourn and then meet right off in spe
cial session at $5 per day is supposed to have
bee put on foot by Austin boarding house
keepers.
Several strange serpents have been discov
ered in the swamps of Florida. A hunter re
ports that thev are of a species hitherto un
known. They are many-colored and appear
to be harmless.
The announcement is made that there will
be no extra, session of the Tennessee legisla
ture, and the newspapers of the state are re
joicing thereat.
The San Antonio Star says that sunstrokes
in Texas at this time of year are rather un
usual, but it seems that the people in some
sections are suffering from them just the
same.
The negroes are leaving Padueah, Ky.. for
Chicago in such largo numbers as to mate
riallv decrease the attendance in the colored
schools. The motive of many of them is to lo
cate there.
The Center college people of Kentucky are
interested in an effort to establish an academy
at London which shall be under the care of
Transylvania Presbytery and tit young men
and women for office.
Texas lias a little blind girl, aged twelve
veai-s. who possesses wonderful powers of
'miwi reading Siu- has never appeared in
public, but, has given many private exhibi
tions of her skill. She resides near Brenham.
At Alum Bridge, between Glennville and
Weston. W. Va . there is a sixteen year-old
boy l>v the name es Judson Wooster. who is
six feet eight Inches tall ami weighs over
two hundred pounds. Wooster was si. feet
tall at thirteen.
Tiie Amalgamated Trades Council, of Jack
sonville Inis passed resolutions endorsing
senate bill Xo. 3. and favoring its passage.
The laboring men. especially, are anxious to
return to tin elective government, ami they
say that this bill is a remarkably fair one.
Thomas Allen, who served umb-r Wellington
in the wars with Xapoleon, mid under t.em-ral
Scott in tiie .Mexican war. and who enlisted
at the age of sevoniv-two for in the
civil war. is still alive at the age of It'd years
la Tvl<'■ counts', \> <:l Airginia.
The paneling for the rostrum in lhe women's
building in the xvorid's fair, which is the ex
,,f the Mobile Worlds Fair Associa
tion Ims finished and forwarded to Chi-
cago. it is "f Alabama wood and made by
Molille mechatiics.
At Shelby. N. C.. Cicero Harris, colored,
was -'fooling" around a. iior.se and the horse
kicked him. Harris, hml an open knife in Ids
Jmn.l and the horse’s heels struck the hand,
driving th'* knife blade into the negro s eye
b;d, destroying the sight.
There is a man in T> xas who now keeps a
saloon and practices law. He lifts killed six
tneti Clerked in n dt'.V goods store served as
SO- toll t>reaeli"d nnd run a gambling saloon
Th,* Mattray Democrat predicts thal he will
vet run for congress.
Vlie I'exns State ITortleultural Society will
hold Its seventh annual meeting at Rock
port. June 20th. This is intended to be tlm
most interesting meeting over liehl: bv the
society. All su >j • s pertaining t" boitliulturc
Ju Texas will be discussed.
Baltimore imports for tlm fiscal year which
will end in Julv. will show an enormous in
crease in vahm over those of tt><‘ Previous
fiscal year. The estimate is made that this
increase will be so large that the duties will
be a million dollars in excess of those of last
year.
At Chattanooga Captain Robinson ami Tom
Bales found a queer animal near the waters
edge of the Market street wharf. They threw
stones at the animat, which proved to be an
alligator fully four feet long. Alter taking
considerable thumping from Hie stone- Hie
saurian .-imbled into Hie waler au disappeared.
He wus game, and showed light.
Marion Butler, the third party extremist,
of North Carolina, who is also the head of
tli<* state alliance, is out in a long address to
the alliances. This is made up of ai tacks mi
the legislature for its daring to modity the
alliance charter, aud upon certain persons
who, Butler says, were back ot tin* movement
to repeal the charter. He does uot name
these but terms them liars, etc.
There is still considerable excitement at
Oakland, W. V:*.., over the finding, by Mr.
Thomas J. Peildlcord. of a woman s hand,
thai had been severed at the wrist. Iwo or
three fingers of the hand had at one time been
dressed by a physician. The. hand was found
under the Pritchard building, am! rumors are
rife as to how it came there. 3he nxattci
was placed in the bauds of bl ate s Attorney
G. S. Hamlin.
Hillary Hopkins, a colored man residing in
the suburb of Suburba. Tenu is anxious to
find bis two brothers, ike and : T « ck
who are the sous of Fanny Bolden, and who
were raised near D'-eulur. Ala. At a sum
sab* on Judge lianmtoud's farm near Hunts
ville. Ala., they were sold in difierent lots
and became separated. Ike and la' I* wete
taken by their owner, AV. Gray Lolden. to
Texas and have not been heard from since.
E AV. Garrison, of Perryville. Perry coun
ty Ala., is elghtv-fonr years <»!d, but slid
hale and active. He says he can stand tlat
footed ami kick a man's hat off. 11" went to
i-errv county in 1537. and has always live,
in lhe same neighborhood. AVhen he landed
at his present home his property consisted of
a good wife, two children ami ?30 in money.
He is out of debt, has enough to live on. and
unit work only a few years ago. Mr. Garri
son savs lie lias cut and split 300 rails many
<; WORTH A GOT»SA A BOX.*' 1 .
COVERED MIT 11 A TASTELESS AND ' !
j SOLUBLE COATING. I [
A WGNDZRFUL AIEOICINE FOR
Want of Appetite. Fullness '
Meals, l~omlti><(/s. Sickness of J
the Stomach, Hiliow Liecr Coni-' .
ylalnls, Sirk Ileadaelie.Cold Chills,\ •
Fhmhinrfsof Heitt.Loiiwssof Spir-, '
its, and All Nervous Affections.
To cure theso complaints we must remove, [
the enure. Tho principal cause is generally ,
to be found in the atomach i»n«l JSvcrt pul .
thaeiico nrf/uns right oud nil will te urll. From '
two to four Pilis twice a day for a short time '
will remove the evil, nnd restore tho sufferer ’
to sound and lasting health. !
;Of all druggists. Price SR cents a box. >
. New York Depot, 365 Canal St. [
a day, and had some of them on the fencl
before night. He hns raised ten children, anfl
lived to seo them baptized and members ol
the church. He joined the Baptist church
sixty years ago. and has been a deacon for
thirty years. He had five sons in the con
federate service, two of whom were killed
aud the other three wounded.
GOOD ROADS FOR GEORGIA.
Sparta Tshmaelite: Some people object! to
better roads for the reason that the value of
their property would be increased, thus in
creasing their taxes. This is a fact, though
such foliy is incomprehensible.
Cuthbert Liberal Enterprise: AVby is it that
we are using Hie same system for working
our public roads that was used 100 years ago?
AVhy don't we progress? AVhy don't people
learn that good roads will increase the value
of their lands more than corn, cotton, hay
and everything else that is made on a farm?
The Madisonian: Bartow county proposes to
have good roads, her commissioners have de
cided to work the county's convicts in tho
chaingang for that purpose, in accordance
with a recent grand jury recominendaton.
This is a step in the right direction. Let
every county in Georgia do likewise.
Milledgeville Chronicle: This is au off yeai
politically. Tiie citizens of every county
should iet the government take care of itself
tills year and give their attention to such im
portant measures as good roads. Let out
roads be made so tine ttiati the load it
now takes two horses six hours to haul can
be hauled by one horse in three hours.
Charles E. Pease
Os Confersville, lud.
Hip Disease
A Boy’s Terrible Experience
Civen Uip by Physicians—
Considered a Con
firmed Crippie
“ For tiie benefit of other sufferets wo state
the case of our boy, who was taken with hig
disease five years ago, when three years old.
Tho trouble began xvlth stiffness and severe
pain in his knee, which suddenly went to his
hip. The doctor pronounced it a genuine case
of hip disease, and said if he lived ho would
Always boa Cripple.
Imagine our feelings! Charlie was entirely
helpless. AVhen we went to his bed to move or
turn him for rest, lie would scream as though
we were murdering him. After twomionths, I
happened to read of a similar case cured by
Hood’s Sarsaparilla, it is hardly necessary to
say that I pulled lota drug store and got a bot
tle. This was in April. AA'e gave it to our boy.
and In July several places on his hip gathered
and broke. AVhen we had taken a bottle and a
half of Hie Sarsaparilla, we saw that his general
Health Was Improving.
His color was better. In fact he was better in
every way. The sores entirely healed up. AVe
got him crutches and he walked with them fp\
nearly two years. He grew stronger, an-.l now
for two years has had no sores, and lias not
used a crutch for over a year. Ho limps a little
Hood’s x Cures
but is in the best of health, goes to school, runs
and playa just as lively as any of the boys; ho
walks over half a mile to Sunday school and
return every Sunday.
“My wife and I think there never was such a
medicine made as Hood’s Sarsaparilla.” Isaac
AV. Pease, Connersville, Ind.
Hood’s Pills cure all liver His. biliousness,
jaundice, indigestion, sick headache. 25c.
Mention The Constitution.
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Dr. M- Ney Smith,Specialist,72l Olive,St Louis,Mo.
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JF MARRIED I. A DIES ONLY KNEAV
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