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REV. DR. TALMAGE.
TFS BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject: “Trouble on Both Sides.'*
Text: "There was a sharp rock on the
one, side, ancl a sharp roc k on the other
side." —1. Samuel, xiv, 4.
The cruel army of the Philistines must be
taken and scattered. There is just one man,
accompanied by his bodyguard, to do that
thing. Jonathan is the hero of the scene. I
know that David cracked the skull of the
giant with a few pebbles well s ung, and that
three hundred Gideonitcs scattered ten thou
sand Amaiekites by the crash of broken crock
ery; but here is a more wonderful conflict.
Yonder are the Philistines on the rocks.
Here is Jonathan with his bodyguard in the
valley. On the one side is "a rock called
Bozez; on the other side is a rock called
Seneh. These two were as famous in olden
times as in modern times are Plymouth Rock
and Gibraiter. They were precipitous, un
scaleable, and sharp. Between these two
rocks Jonathan must make his ascent. The
day comes for the scaling of the height.
Jonathan, on his hands and feet, begins the
ascent. With strain, and slip, and bruise,
I suppose, but still on and up, first goes
Jonathan, and then goes his bodyguard.
Bozez on one side, >Seneh on the other. Alter
a sharp tug, and push, and clinging, 1 see the
head of Jonathan above the hole in the
mountain; and there is a challenge, ami a
fight, and a supernatural consternation.
These two men, Jonathan and his body
guard, drive back and drive down the Philis
tines over the rocks, and open a cam
paign which demolishes the enemies
of Israel. I suppose that the over
hanging and overshadowing rocks on either
side did not balk or dishearten Jonathan or
his bodyguard, but only roused and filled
them with enthusiasm as they went up.
“There was a sharp rock on the one side and
a sharp rock on the other side.”
My friends, you have been, or are now,
some of you, in this crisis of the text. if a
man meets one trouble, he can go through
with it. He gathers all hi- energies, con
centrates them upon one point, and in the
strength of God, or by his own natural
determination, goes through it. But the
man who has trouble to the right of him,and
trouble to the left of him is to be pitied.
Did either trouble come alone, he might
endure it, but two troubles, two disasters,
two overshadowing misfortunes, are Bozez
and Seneh. God pity him! “There is a
sharp ro :-k on the one side and a sharp rock
on the other side.”
In this crisis of the text Is that man whose
fortune and health fail him at the same time.
Nine-tenths of ail our merchants capsize in
business before they come to forty-five years
of age. There is some collision in commer
cial circles, and they stop payment. It seems
as if every man must put his name on the
back of a note before he learns what a fool a
man is who risks all his own property on the
prospect that some man will tell the truth. It
seemsas if a man must have a large amount
of unsalable goods on his own shelf before
he learns how much easier it is to buy than
to sell. It seems as if every man must be
completely burned out before he learns the
importance of always keeping fully insured.
It seems as if every man must be wrecked in
a financial tempest before he learns to keep
things snug in case of a sudden curoclydon.
When the calamity does come it is awful.
The man goes home in despair, and he tells
his family: ‘ We’ll have to go to the poor
house.” He takes a dolorous view of every
thing. It seems as if he never could rise.
But a little time passes, and he says: “Why,
lam not so badly off after all; I have my
family left.”
Before the Lord turned Adam out of Para
dise he gave him Eve, so that when he lost
Paradise he could stand it. Permit one who
has never read but a few novels in all his life,
and who has not a great deal of romance in
his composition, to say, that if, when a man’s
fortunes fail, he has a good wife—a good
Christian wife—he ought not to be despond
ent. “Oh,” you say, “that only increases the
embarrassment, since you have her also to
take care of.” You are an ingrate, for the
woman as often supports the man as the man
supports the woman. The man may bring
all the dollars, but the woman generally
brings the courage and the faith in God.
Well, this man of whom I am speaking
looks around, and he finds his family is left,
and he rallies, and the light comes to hia
eyes, and the smile to his face, and the
courage to his heart. In two years he is
quite over it. He makes his financial
calamity the first chapter in a new era of
prosperity. He met that one trouble—con
quered it. He sat down for a little while
under the grim shadow of the rock Bozez;
yet he soon rose, and began, like Jonathan,
to climb. But how olten is it that physical
ailment, comes with financial embarrassment.
When the fortune failed it broke the man’s
spirit. His nerves were shattered. His brain
was stunned. I can show you hundreds of
men in New York whose fortune and health
failed at the same time. They came pre
maturely to the staff. Their hand trembled
with incipient paralysis. They never saw a
well day since the hour when they called
their creditors together for a compromise.
If such men are impatient, and
peculiar, and irritable, excuse them.
They had two troubles; either one of which
they could have met successfully. If, when
the health went, the fortune had been re
tained, it would not have beeD so bad. The
man could have bought the very best medical
advice, and he could have had the very best
attendance, and long lines of carriages would
have stopped at the front door to inquire as
to his welfare. But poverty on the one side,
and sickness on the other, are Bozez and
Seneh, and they interlock their shadows, and
drop them upon the poor man's waj. Goc
help him! “There is a sharp rock on the one
side, and a sharp rock on the other side.”
Now, what is such a man to do? In the
name of Almighty God, I will tell him what
to do. Do as Jonathan did—climb; climb up
into the sunlight of God's favor and consola
tion. I can go through the churches, and
show you men who lost fortune and health
at the same time, and yet who sing all day
and dream of heaven all night. If you have
any idea that sound digestion, and steady
nerves, and clear eyesight, and good hear
ing. and plenty of friends, are necessary to
make a man happy, you have miscalculated.
I suppose that these overhanging rocks only
made Jonathan scramble harder and the
faster to get up and out into the sunlight;
and this combined shadow of invalidism and
financial embarrassment has qften sent a man
up the quicker into the sunlight of God’s
favor and the noonday of His glorious
promises. It is a difficult thing for a man to
feel his dependence upon God when he has
ten thousand dollars in the bank, and fifty
thousand dollars in Government securities,
and a biock ofstoresand threeships. “Well,”
the man says to himself, "it is silly for me
to pray: ‘Give me this day my daily
bread,’ when my pantry is full, and
the canals from the West are
crowded with breadstuff's destined for my
storehouses.” Oh, tny friends, if the com
bined misfortunes and disasters of life have
made you climb up into tne arms of a sym
pathetic and compassionate God, through all
eternity you will bless Him that in this
world ‘there w T as a sharp rock on the one
side, and a sharp rock on the other side."
Again, that man is in the crisis of the text
who has home troubles and outside persecu
tion at the same time. The world treats a
man well just as long as it pays best to treat
him well. As long as it can manufacture
success out of his bone and brain, and
muscle, it favors him. The world fattens
the horse it wants to drive. But let a man
see it Ins duty to cross the track of the
world, then every bush is full of horns and
tusks thrust at him. They will belittle him;
they will caricature him; they will call his
generosity sell-aggrandizement, and his piety
sanctimoniousness. Ihe very worst persecu
tion will some time come upon him from
those who profess to be Christians.
John Milton—great and good John Milton
—so forgot himself as to pray, in so many
words, that his enemies mizht be eternally
thrown down into the darkest and deepest
gulf of hell, and be the undermost and most
dejected and the lowest down vassals of per
dition! And Martin Luther so far forgot
himseir as to say. In regard to his theological
opj ouents: “Hut them m whatever sauce you
p.ease, roasted, or trie i, or baked, or stewo.l,
or boded, or hashed, they are nothing hut
i ssts! Ah, ray friends, if John Milton or
Mm tin i.uiher cou.'d come down to such
-> uriiity, wu.it may you not expect from
less elevated opponents; Now, the world
sometimes takes after them; the newspapers
take alter them; public opinion takes alter
them; ; n 1 tne unfortunate man is lied about
until ail the dictionary ot Billingsgate is
exhausted on him. You oiten see a man
wuoia you know to be good and pure and
boinst set upon by the world, and mauled by
whole communities, while vicious men take
on a supercilious air in condemnation of him,
as though Lord Jeffreys should write an
essay on gentleness, or Henry VIII. talk
about purity, or Herod take to blessing little
children.
Now, a certain amount of persecution
reuses a man’s defiance, stirs his blood for
magnificent battle, and makes him fifty times
more a man than he would have been with
out the persecution. Bo it was with the
great reiormer when he said: "I will
not bo put down; I will be heard.” And so
it was w.th Millard,the preacher, in the time
of i.ouis XI. VV lieu Louis XI. sent word to
him that unless he stormed nrearhimr in that
style he would throw him into the river he
replied: “Tell the king that 1 will reach
heaven sooner by water than he will reach it
.by fist horses.” A certain amount of perse
cution is a tonic and inspiration, but too
much of it, and too Jong continued, becomes
tile rock Bozez, throwing a dark shadow
over a man’s life. What is he to do then?
Go home,you say. Good advice, that. That is
just the place for a man to go when the world
abuses him. Go hom *. Blessed be God for
our quiet and sympathetic homes. But there
is many a man who has the reputation of
having a home when he has none. Through
unthinkingness or precipitation there are
many matches made that ought never to
have been made. An officiating priest can
not alone unite a couple. The Lord Al
mighty must proclaim banns. There is
many a home in which there is no sympathy,
and no happiness, and no good cheer. The
clamor ot the battle may not have been
heard outside, but God knows, notwithstand
ing all the playing of the “Wedding March,”
and all the odor of the orange blossoms,
and the benediction of the officiating pastor,
there has been no marriage.
Sometimes men have awakened to find on
one side of them the rock of persecution, and
on the other side the rock of domestic in
felicity. What shall such a one do? Do as
Jonathan did—climb. Get up the heights of
God’s consolation, from which we may look
down in triumph upon outside persecution
and home trouble. While good and great
John Wesley was being silenced by the mag
istrates, and having his name written on the
board fences of London in doggerel, at that
very time his wife was making him as miser
able as she could—acting as though she were
possessed with the devil, as I suppose she was;
never doing him a kindness until the dav she
ran away, so that he wrote in his dairy these
words: “1 did not forsake her; I have not
dismissed her; I will not recall her.” Plant
ing one foot—John Wesley did—upon outside
persecution, and the other foot on bomo
trouble, he cliini>ed up into the heights of
Christian joy, and after preaching forty
thousand termons, and traveling two hun
dred and seventy thousand miles, reached
the heights of heaven, though in this world
he had it hard enough—“a sharp rock on the
one side, end a sharp rock on the other.”
Again, that woman stands in the crisis of
the text, who has bereavement and a strug
gle for a livelihood at the same time. With
out mentioning names, I sneak from obser
vation. Ah, it is a hard thing for a woman
to make an honest living, even when her
heart is not troubled, and she has a fair
cheek and the magnetism of an exquisite
presence. But now the husband, or the
father, is dead. The expenses of the obsequies
have absorbed all that was left in
the savings bank; and wan and wasted
with weeping, she goes forth—a grave,
a hearse, a coffin, behind her —to contend for
her existence and the existence of her chil
dren. When I see such a battle as that open
I shut my eyes at the ghastliness of the
spectacle. Men sit with embroidered slip
pers and write heartless essays about women's
wages; but that question is made up of
tears and blood, and there is more blood than
tears. Oh, give women free access to all the
realms where she can get a livelihood, from
the telegraph office to the pulpit. Let men’s
wages be cut down before hers are cut down.
Men have iron in tbeir souls and can stand
it. Make the way free to her of the broken
heart. May God put into my hand the cold,
bitter cup of privation, and give me nothing
but a window less hut for shelter for many
years, rather than that after I am dead there
should go out from my home into the pitiless
world a to fight the Gettysburg,
the Austerlitz, the Waterloo of life for
bread.
And yet how many women there are
sealed between the rook of bereavement oa
the one side, and the rock of destitution on
the other—Bozez and Seneh interlocking their
shadow and dropping them upon her miser
able way. “There is a sharp rock on the one
side, and a sharp rock on the other side.”
What are such to do? Somehow, let them
climb upintotho heights of the glorious
promise: “Ijeave thy fatherless children: I
will preserve them alive, and let thy widows
trust in Me.” Or get up into the heights of
that other glorious promise: “The Lord
preserveth the stranger and rehereth the
widow and the fatherless.” Ol ye sewing
woman on starving wages. O! ye widows
turned out from the once beautiful home. O!
ye female teachers, kept on niggardly
stipend. 01 ye despairing woman,seeking in
vain lor work, wandering along the docks,and
thinking to throw yourself into the river last
night. 01 ye women of weak nerves and
aching sides, and short breath and broken
heart, you need something more than human
sympathy; you need the sympathy of God.
Climb up into His arms. He knows it all,
and He loves you more than father, or
mother, or husbmd ever could or ever did;
and instead of sitting down, wringing your
bands in despair, you had belter begin to
•climb. There are heights of consolation for
you, though now “there is a sharp rock on
the one side, and a sharp rock on the other
side."
Again, that man is in the crisis of the text
who has a wasted life on the one side, and
an illuminated eternity on the other. Though
a man may all his life have cultured delibera
tion and self-poise, if he gets into that posi
tion all his self-possession is gone. There are
all the wrong thoughts of his existence, all
the wrong deeds, all the wrong words—strata
above strata, granitic, ponderous, over
shadowing. That rock 1 call Bozez. On the
other side are all the retributions of the fu
ture, the thrones of judgment, the eternal
ages, angry with his long defiance. That
rock I call Seneh. Between these two rocks
Lord Byron perished,and Alcibiades jierished,
and Herod perished, and ten thousand times
ten thousand have perished. O: man immor
tal, man redeemed, man blood bought, ciimh
up out of those shadows. Climb up by the
way of the Cross. Have your wasted life
forgiven; have your eternal life secured.
This morning just take one look to the past
and see what it has been, and take one look
to the future and see what it threatens to be.
You can afford to lose your health, you can
afford to lose your property, you can afford
to lose your reputation; blit you cannot af
ford to loss your soul. That bright, gleam
ing. glorious, precious, eternal possession you
must carry aloft in the day when the earth
burns up and the heavens burst.
You see from my subject that when a man
goes into the safety and peace of the Gospel,
he does not demean himself. There is noth
ing in religion that leads to meanness or un
manliness. The Gospel of Jesus Christ only
asks you to climb as Jonathan did—climb to
ward God, climb toward heaven, climb into
the sunshine of God's favor. To become a
Christian is not to go meanly down; it is to
come gloriously up—up into the communion
of saints, up into the peace that passcth all
understanding, up into the companionship of
angels. He lives up; he dies up.
Ol then, accept the wholesale invitation
which I make this morning to all the people.
Come up from between your invalidism and
financial embarrassments. Come up from
between a wasted life and an unillumined
eternity. Like Jonathan, climb with all
your might, instead of sitting down to wring
your hands in the shadow and in the dark
ness—“a sharp rock on the one side, and a
sharp rock on the other side. ”
AMONG TUG MINGRELIjNS.
HABITS OF THE MOUNTAINEHS
OF THE WESTERN CATTCASTS.
Their Elaborate Salutations, Odd
Table Etiquette and Peijiliar j
Judicial Proceedings.
In the highland regions of the Astern j
Caucasus the manners of the Cnfinian
mountain folk are pretty much whtthey
were a quarter of a century ago wfen the
Russians first came into the county. A
Miugrelian “How dyou do?” ( the
genuine old-fashioned kind, is sill an
elaborate performance that takes o ac- I
count of time. As in ’aiestine ari else- I
where, Grusiniau etiquette require that}
salutations shall be exchanged as »on as j
the parties meeting come within sight
of each other, and to leave out the most
triv.al inquiry relating to the mOt in- j
significant member of another's ouse- j
hold is accounted •xtremely bad form,
so that a couple of silk-shirted Nlngre
lian elders—they are particularly find of j
silk garments, which they wear wthout
changing until they drop to pices—
will begin a series of bows and heelings
when half a mile from each othe and
continue them with a running firof ex
clamations until they come within hail
ing distance. Then the inquiries com
mence: “How is your health ?1 and
“How have you been;” “llow i? youi
mother, your wife and your mrse?”
(nurses are very important person.ges in
all Mingrelian households). "low is
your overseer and your yard master and
herdsman?” “is your favoriti horse
well, and are your cattle and sleep in
good health?” and so on in regilar di
minuendo. ending with the .meanest
maid servant or scullion of th( person
addressed, if the latter be a man of
standing or position, ancl not firgetting
even "his honors dog.” Wucu the
principals have finished, their atendants
proceed as deliberately to ixchange
similar compliments. Time is of no
consequence.
The Mingrelians, like the Ossetes of
the mountains, have the extraordinary
custom of going bareheaded ote day in
the week—on Saturday, that is, or, as
they term it, the “Shabbat.” This they
do in honor of the Sa .bath, though they
make no other distinction between it
and any other day of the week, working
and living as usual. But, wet or dry,
rain or snow, none ever go abroac on
Saturday save with uncovered head.
The Mingrelians, like nearly all the
Caucasian mountaineers, eat much and
eat greedily. Their table etiquetts is
peculiar. Portions are allotted accord
ing to age and position—according to
age in the house and at family gather
ings, and according to station at piblic
feasts, to which these people are nuch
addicted. At home the huge iron pot in
which the food is cooked is placed by
the side of the house-father; for several
married sons often reside in one dwel
ling with their parents. He fates a
piece of meat and a large bone out cf the
kettle, grasps the bone in the right and
the meat in the left hand, and, fscing
south, calls upon “Brussabsell
tshisadta tshidawgita bidiss”—the
“mountain tops and the holy ones
who dwell there”—to have mercy upon
those who cry to them. Then messes
are sent round to each, beginning with
the oldest male; and when these portions
are eaten there is a general scramble for
tha contents of the pot, which it is eti
quette to finish. Every one eats h.s
mess as fast as he can; for he who has
first finished his plateful has the pi k of
ihe pot. This distributiou of the messes
is a very nice task, and is sometimes
provocative of a quairel. For at a public
meal —and the e are frequent—the ap
portioning of the food offers a tempting
opportunity to the presiding elder for
resenting a slight, and the gnests are
ready enough to take advantage of any
occasion to start on« of the feuds so com
mon among them. Jn former times the
rump bone, esteemed a specially honora
ble mess, when withheld frorarone con
sidering himself entitled ,to it, was the
cause of many a murder. And even now
adays the disposal of a tempting piece of
“kish-ki,” or stuffed entrail, may ao
count for half a dozen broken heads.
The Mingrelians are hearty drinkers.
They make a spirit from grain, and
drink it out of vessels made of horn with
a very narrow top and very long stem.
But they are mighty beer drinkers. They
brew from barley, and their drinking
vessels are fashioned of the huge horns
of the aurochs, which still ranges the
Caucasus, borne of these beer horns are
a yard and a quarter long. Their sim
ple rule in drinking, judging from what
we have ourselves witnessed, is plenty
and often. Whenever they partake of a
meal, a portion of meat and drink is re
served and placed in a separate room for
the household spirits.
In remote villages the old patriarchal
system of the Grusinians is in full force.
The Mingrelian father is lord and mas
ter in the fullest sense. His power is
unquestioned, and he is honored so long
as there is breath in h s body. He has a
special armchair, the house-father’s seat,
which no other person would ever ven
ture to sit in. In ail disputes, civil and
criminal, the decision of the elders—that
is, a number of house-fathers—is bind
ing. If cause of action arise, the ag
grieved parties select each of them three
elders, who must be in no way related to
either of them, and the matter is submit
mittexi to this court of six. There are
prescribed penalties for every offence,
from manslaughter to petty larceny. The
fine is always payable in oxen. Accord
ing to the old laws of the tribes, the fine
for the murder of a chief was eighteen
times eighteen oxen, for an elder, nine
times nine, and for an ordinary person
thice times nine. Every member of the
body was rated at a certain fixed amount,
payable in case of in Hry to the part.
Theft, when committed by stealth,
entailed upon llie criminal the
payment of five fold the tiling
stolen, but robbery with violence only
double; for it was held to be easier to
defend oneself from violence thau from
crime committed by stealth or guile.
The strangest thing about the proceed
ings of the Mingrelran tribal assessors is
that the decision is never communicated
to either plaintiff or defendant. The
party to be amerced is ordered to pay a
certain fine in cattle or sheep within a
certain time, and then to appear again.
When he comes he is once more directed
to furnish, if need be, a second instal
ment, aud so on until the full amount
has been exacted. In this way the Min
grelians believe the party punished does
pot feel the penalty as he would if the
full judgment wer* claimed forthwith,
while time is allowed for the angry feel
ings of the complainant to settle <|own
and prepare away for compromise. Not
the least peculiar thing about the Min
grelian and Grusiue tribes of the C'au
casus is that their scale of numeration is
octodecimal —a scale of eighteen: that
is, their hundred, to use a phrase not
scientifically correct but still intelligible
to rhe reader, being eighteen times
eighteen. — St. James Gazette.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL
Prof. Cushman has found a buried
city and unearthed 2000 skeletons on
Salt River, Arizona.
A new torpedo boat built by 'lhorny
croft for France equals ir speed any yet
built—twenty-six knots an hour.
The electric arc lights in the United
States now number nearly 200,000; and
the incaudescents number over 1,000,000.
A Gla gow, (Scotland) firm has just
finished a brass wire for the Glasgow
Exhibition sixty five miles long and a
copper wire 111 miles long.
A bright meteor, drawing after it “a
bright train of twenty-three clearly de
fined stars,” shot across the heavens at
Columbus, Ohio, the other night.
What may be of great value in ship
building and watchmaking is the dis
covery that steel mixed with 24 percent,
of manganese becomes non-raagnetic.
A Pittsburg foundry is making for the
American Emensite Compauy a cannon
which will be used to demonstrate the
value of that new explosive. The can
non is expected to throw a six-inch shell
with emensite ten to twelve miles.
Manufacturers of bricks along the
Hudson River in New York are experi
menting with oil for fuel as a substitute
for wood. If the new method is found to
be practical there will be a saving of 40
per cent, ellected. The main difficulty
is iu the ‘-drying off” process.
A Providence, (R. I.) foundry is en.-
gaged in casting the largest mining
pump in the world for the Calumet and
Hecla, of Michigan. A single section of
it has been completed and weighs twenty
tons. The unwatering of the mine will
be done sooner than was expected.
Krupp’s works at Essen, Germany, are
making a 139-ton gun for the Italian iron
clad Sardegna. It will be 52A feet long,
with a bore of 15.7 inches. It, will fire a
steel shell of 1(530 pounds with an initial
velocity of 2411 feet per second, or one
of 2 ,14 pounds at 2099 feet per second.
Oil of peppermint in vapor diluted
even to one part in 100,000 will kill
cockroaches in an hour, they dying in
convulsions. One drop of the oil placed
under a bell jar covering a cultivation of
cholera bacilli will kill both bacilli and
.- pores in forty-eight hours. It is also re
garded a 3 among the best surgical anti
septics, and of great value in phthisis
and diphtheria.
According to geographical computa
tions the minimum age of the earth since
the ormations of the primitive soils is
£1,000,900 years, allowing 6,700,000
years for the primordial-formation,
t> 400,000 years for the primary age,
2,300,000 years for the secondary age.
400,000 years for the tertiary age, and
100,000 years since the appearance of
man upon the globe.
A German company has patented a
process for producing surface colorations
upon articles made of copper, zinc or
brass. Upon the first named metal it is
possible to develop all the colors of the
rainbow-, and upon zinc the coating is
formed of such thickness as to permit of
chasing the surface. The most import
ant application of this invention seems
to be in the imitation of antique bronze,
the results in this direction being very
satisfactory, both hi the matter of dura
bility and resemb^ce.
Platinum can be made to adhere to
gold by soldering in the following man
ner: A small quantity of fine or eighteen
carat gold should be sweated into the
surface of the platinum at nearly a white
heat, so that the gold shall soak into the
face of tiie platinum. Ordinary solder
will then adhere to the face obtained in
this manner. Hard solder acts by par
tially fusing and combining with the
surfaces to be joined, and platinum alone
will not fuse or combine with any solder
at a temperature anything like tho
fusing point of ordinary gold solder.
A very good and sensitive barometer
made be made by gluing together strips
of red cedar and seasoned pine. A strip
of cedar about thirty inches long, one
and one half inches wide and one-eighth
of an inch thick, is cut with the grain,
and to one side of it must be glued
strips of pine of equal thickness, with
the grain running across that of the
cedar. This combination is set on end,
and will, according to the state of the
weather, be found to have bent over on
one side or the other, and this may be
determined by trial.
Money in the United States.
A correspondent, says the Manufac
turers’ Record, wishes to know how
much money there is in circulation in
the United States, and how it compares
with previous back years.
The financial report of Mr. C. S. Fair
child, the Secretary of the Treasury,
gives the figures, and from his report we
compile the following;
total currency or evert kind in the
UNITED SPATES, JUNE 30, ISB7.
Gold $654,520,335
Silver 352,993,556
Gold certificates 121,486,817
Silver certificates 145,543,152
National bank notes 279,217,788
Ijegal tender notes 346,681,016
Legal tender certificates 9,080,000
Small notes ami fractional cur
rency 15,737,210
Aggregate circulate on $1,925,259,882
Total paper money $017,745,981
Total metal money 1,007,513,901
TOTAL MONEY IN THE TREASURY JUNE 30,
1887.
Gold $277,979,653
Silver 248,860,979
Paper 65,142,894
Total held in the Treasury $591,983,426
Aggregate money $ 1,925,259,882
Total in Treasury 591,983,526
Net circulation $1,433,276,256
Net gold 376,540,682
Net silver 104,132,587
Net paper 852,603,087
AGGREGATE CIRCULATION.
1876 $966,370,834
1877 1,018,692,678
ISBO 1,243,800,729
1882 1,515,865,698
1885 1,863,219,654
1887 1,925.259,881
SELECT SIFTINGS.
A palm is three inches.
A span is ten and seven-eights indues.
David Ober, of White Oak, Penn.,has
had a lead pencil forty years.
The crown and regalia of England were
pledged to the city of London by Rich
ard 11. for SIO,OOO.
The German and French governments
in the war of 1871 held to their agree
ment to employ no privateers.
A vegetarian hotel is an innovation in
London There are already thirty vege
tarian restaurants in that city.
The custom of going bare headed one
day in|thc week (on the “Sabbath,” or
Saturday) is observed by the Mingrelians.
Recently a disgusted Oshkosh, Wis.,
juryman offered to pay the sum in dis
pute if the claimant would dismiss the
case.
Even so celebrated a general and old a
soldier as the Duke of Wellington felt
it necessary to tight a duel as late as
1829.
Paradise, by Tintoretto, is the largest
painting in the world. It is 84 feet wide,
33£ feet" high, and is now in the Doge's
Palace, Venice.
“Hoodlum” comes from the German
huddler, meaning a loafer, or idler; so
“bummer” from the German bummler,
a word of similar import.
Within a twelvemonth four persons
have been killed outright and a fifth
badly crippled at very near the same
Bpot in the freight yard at Amcricus,
Georgia.
Cooks of old were considered a sacred
race; even their fingers were consecrated
to the deities. The thumb was devoted
to Venus, the index finger to Mars, the
middle finger to Saturn, the next to the
sun and the little one to Mercury.
Henry Cary, of Key West, Fla., has a
novel shaped potato. Standing at a dis
tance of six or seven feet one could not
tell it from a wild duck which had been
deprived of its body feathers, and to
make the delusion more perfect he had
inserted a few tail feathers.
A traveler at St. Clairsville, Ga., out
of curiosity visited the court house, and
was almost horrified to find his only sis
ter the defendant in a murder trial going
on at the time. She had mysteriously
disappeared from home years before and
her whereabouts were unknown to her
people.
Jacob Hibsliman, an unmarried man,
aged forty-five years, residing near Lan
caster, Penn., died of blood poisoning
the other afternoon. Four weeks be
fore, while cutting feed for his stock, his
right hand was pierced by a sharp frag
ment of hay, and that scratch caused his
death.
An immense pipe of baked clay, that
probably belonged to some distinguished
mound-builders of prehistoric days, was
recently dug up near Purdy, Tenu. It
weighs four and one-half pounds, and is
in the shape of an eagle, the bowl rest
ing on the eagle’s back, and measures
bine inches in length.
Jim Blevins, living near White Ro k,
Texas, killed a very large chicken snake
a few days ago, and noticing the snake’s
body was unusually large and ill-shaped,
made an incision and found it to contain
ia large cow horn and in the horn a
prairie rat. It is supposed that the snake
chased the rat into the horn, and to se
cure the rat swallowed the horn.
In the National Library at Paris there
is a Spanish globe 350 years old, on
which the Congo follows in a remarka
manner the course now given to that
river on the maps. All the best maps in
the sixteenth century showed the Congo
as rising in a lake far inland, while in
this century we first tried to identify
Ok Congo with the Niger, end then for
nrany years made it flow north.
Poison for some animals is food for
others. Hogs can eat henbane or
hyocyamus, which is fatal to dogs and
most other animals. Dogs and horses
are not easily poisoned with arsenic.
Goats eat water hemlock with impunity;
pheasants, stramonium; rabbits, bella
donna; and morphia is said to be innocu
ous to pigeons. There is some truth in
the old saying that “What is one man’s
meat is another man’s poison.” This is
lue to habits and idiosyncracies.
Ironclad Overland Craft.
Perhaps the only solid iron box car in
the Southern States to-day is now in use
regularly on the Nashville, Chattanooga
and St. Louis Railroad. It was built by
the United States Government more than
twenty years ego, and, judging from
present appearances, it will be used for
twenty years more.
This relic is constructed of heavy
boiler iron, with doors of the same ma
terial, snd was used to transport powder
and ammunition along the line of road
between Nashville and the South, to the
Federal troops and stations. It afforded
perfect safety to its contents from those
terrors, the Tennessee bush-whackers,
who would be along the side of the track
and fire upon occupants of every train.
Their bullets fell harmlessly from the
sides of the ironclad, so for four long
years of strife and bloodshed this old
traveling magazine would jog along
calmly and serenely through the thickest
of the fight, perfectly indifferent to all
attacks that were made upon it. After
following the army all over the South,
and fulfilling its important mission, at
the close of the war it was sold to the
present owners. It was used by them as
a baggage car on the Shelbyville branch
for about fifteen years. It is, perhaps,
the only relic of the kind in the country,
and, its veteran fiiends say, in token of
past services, should be bought by the
Government and placed in the National
Museum, where, doubtless, it would be
a very attractive feature. Nashville
( Tenn .) American.
A Montenegrin Dance.
The Montenegrin dance is curious
graceful it is not; but one can not help
being struck by the wonderful activity
and suppleness of limb displayed by the
dancers. A ring is formed and a man
and woman begin to dance by springing
as high as they can in the air, with the
arms raised above the head. After a few
bounds they change sides with a prodi
gious spring, twisting around in the a<r
as they pass. A couple will dance for a
minute or so, and when exhausted be
succeeded by another couple and so on.
The dance is unaccompanied by any sort
of music, not even by that primitive and
doheful monochord instrument, the
“guzia.”— St, James Gazette.
BANK OF ENGLAND.
THE RICH “OLD LADY OF
THIiE VDNEEDLE STREET.”
Making, Issuing and Canceling the
Rank Notes of the Greatest Finan
cial Institution in the World
Forgery Impossible.
A recent criminal trial in London, Eng
land, in which the conversion of a New
York draft into Bank of England notes
formed a perfecting link in the chain of
evidence by which the prisoners were
convicted, suggested to the New York
Graphic a brief description of the bank’s
methods with regard to its issue.
The paper on which the notes ars
printed is made by a private factory in
Yorkshire under strictly guarded condi
tions, and with the water-mark, which
is so conspicuous a feature. It is of sil
very white and so strong that it will
sustain fifty pounds weight when sus
pended at the corners. The printing is
performed at the bank in Threadneedle
[street, including the signature of the
nominal maker of the draft. The drafts
or notes used formerly to be signed by
assistant cashiers, but the issue eventual
ly became too large to admit of a sign
manual being issued, so printing was
substituted.
Each individual note as soon as issued
has its number, letter, date and denom
ination placed to its debit in a ledger ac
count, the per contra being filled on the
return of the note, perhaps the next day.
Some years ago a lot of £1 notes issued
in the middle of last century were hand
ed in for payment. A reference to the
ledger of that date showed the credit
side of the note account, with corre
sponding numbers, to be open, so the
drafts were duly honored.
The lowest denomination now issued
is of £5, the highest of SIO,OOO. A nota
ble feature of the Bank of England note,
when compared with that of other is
sues and countries, is its crispiness and
clearness. The simplicity of design and
clearness of lettering aud figuring are
very conspicuous. The reason why we
never find tattered and foul Bank of
England bills or bank notes, as the Eng
lishman prefers to call them, arises from
the custom of the bank never to issue
one of its notes a second time. This
rule is so scrupulously observed that
should a thousand notes of £5 each, is
sued in the morning iu exchange for gold
at the issue department come into the
hands of the banking departments as a
customer’s deposit in the afternoon, pos
sibly without having been untied, they
would be immediately canceled. This
cancellation is performed by tearing off
the signature corner of each note, the
number and date first being recjrded by
the receivng clerk on his counter cash
book.
The mutilated bills at the banking de-
Eartmentsare collected at short inteivals
y a clerk from the Accountant’s De
partment, where they are assorted into
their respective denominations and
placed to their individual ledger credits.
They are then stored, and after ten
years’ interval consigned to the flames.
The detection of the forged bank
note is almost inevitable under this
system. Simply to imitate the paper is
dilficult, the be3t imitation being readily
perceptible to a practiced touch. To
counterfeit the printing is almost im
possible, owing to the absence of com
plexity to confuse the eye, and a third
reliance for the paying teller as ha
rapidly scans the notes before shovel
ling out the gold in exchange is a
peculiarity in the formation of certain
letters known only to the initiated.
Should a forgery slip through these
guards the numbers and dates and de
nomination must all correspond with
the ledger entry, and should all these
agree the chances are that the legitimate
note will have already filled up the
blank.
It is the rule in all London banking
houses aud in most private establish
ments to record the date aud number of
every bank note passing through their
hands, together with the name of the
person presenting it. The Bank of Eng
land, moreover, requires the endorse
ment of the holder on every note or
parcel of notes presented for exchange
for gold or for notes of other denomi
nations. This system greatly facilitates
the detection of fraud, and in the case
which gave occasion lor these remarks
was the direct means of establishing the
Prosecuting Attorney’s theory.
The actual cost of each Bank of Eng
land note issued is about five cents. An
ordinary day’s issue of notes, with a
corresponding number canceled, is from
20,000 to 30,u00; but when a forgery is
known to be afloat all of that particular
denomination are poured in by their
holders for exchange or redemption, and
as many as 80,000 notes under such cir
cumstances have been presented and
canceled in one day.
As an offset to this expense, the yearly
gain to the bank in notes destroyed by
jre and water amounts to a large sum,
which, however, is taken into account by
the Government when adjusting its
national debt and exchequer arrange
ments with the bank.
The “Old Lady of Treadneedle Street,”
as the Londoner lovingly calls the institu
tion, which, next to his Queen, he most
deeply reveres, is very ’ ; beral when deal
ing with cases of notes destroyed or
mutilated. The Secretary’s office attends
to those matters, and there may be seen
daily remnants of notes which have
undergone every conceivable ordeal short
of absolute destruction.
Little pulpy masses which hive passed
through the digestive apparatus of dogs
and children, half burned pieces that
have unwittingly done duty as cigar
lighters, remnants of every kind of which
enough is left to indicate iu the'faintest
degree the original worth—all receive
full consideration, and the owners lose
nothing. Even total destruction when
fully proved is no bar to indemnification
when good security against possible Mis
take is given.
To remove a foreign body from the
eye, wrap dry white silk waste around
and thoroughly over the end of a wooden
toothpick, brush with this carefully over
the part of the eye where the substanco
is lodged, and it will become entangled
in the silk. Bits of steel or any other
sharp substance which may become im
bedded in the eve-ball may be removed
by this means.
The Texas school fund has a surplus A
$16,000,000.