Newspaper Page Text
REV. DR. TADIAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUN
DAY SERMON
Subject: “Superfluities a Hinder
since.”
-
Text: “A man of great stature, whose
fingers and toes were four and twenty/, six
on each hand, and six on each foot; and he
a 1 so teas the son of the giant. But when he
defiled Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shirnra,
% David's brother, slew him." —l. Chronicles
xx., 5, 6 and 7.
Malformation photographed, and for what
reason! Did not this passage slip in by a
mistake into the Sacred Scriptures, as some
times a paragraph utterly outioxious to the
editor gets into his newspaper during his ab
sence! Is not this Scriptural errata t No,
no; there is nothing haphazard about the
Bible. This passage of Scripture was as cer
tainly intended to be out in the Bible as the
Eassage: “In the beginning God created the
eavens and the earth,” or, “God so loved the
world that He gave his only begotten son.”
And 1 select it for my text to-day because it
is charged with practical and tremendous
meaning.
By the people of God the Philistines had been
conquered, with the exception of a few giants.
The race of giants is mostly extinct,lam glad
to say. There is no use for giants now ex
cept to enlarge the income of museums. But
there were many of them in olden times.
Goliath was, according to the Bible, eleven
feet, four and a half inches high. Or, if
you do not believe the Bible, the famous
Pliny, a secular writer, declares that at
Crete by an earthquake a monument was
• broken open, discovering the remains
of a giant forty-six cubits long, or
iixty-nine feet high. So, whether
vyou prefer sacred or profane history, you
must come to the conclusion that there were
in those olden tunes cases of human altitude
monstrous and appalling. David had
smashed the skull of one of these giants, but
there were other giants that the Davidean
1 wars had not yet subdued, and one of them
| ,, stauds in my text. Ho was not only of
I Alpine stature, but bad a surplus of digits.
I To the ordinary fingers was annexed an
I additional finger and the foot had also a
I superfluous addendum. He had twent.y-
I four terminations to hands and feet
I where others have twenty. It was
I not the only instance of the kind.
I Tavernier, the learned writer, says that the
I Emperor of Java had a son endowed with
I the same number of extremities. Volcatius,
I the poet, had six fingers on each hand. Mau-
I petius in his celebrated letters speaks of two
I families near Berlin, similarly equipped of
I hand and foot. All of which I can believe
I for I have seen two cases of the same physi-
I cal superabundance. But this giant of the
I text is in battle, and as David, the dwarf
I warrior, had dispatched one giant, the
I brother of David slays this monster of
Imy text, and there he lies after the
I battle in Gath, a dead giant. His stature
| did not save him, and his superfluous appen-
I dices of hand and foot did not save him.
I The probability was that in the battle his
I sixth finger on his hand made him clumsy in
I the use of his weapon, and his sixtli toe
I crippled ins gait. Behold the prostrate and
I maliormated giant of the text: “A man
I ,great of stature, whose fingers and toes were
I Tour and twenty, six on each hand, and six
I on each foot; and he also was the son of the
I giant. But when he defied Israel, Jonathan,
I the son of Shimea, David’s brother, slew
I him.”
Behold how superfluities are a hinderance
than a help! In all the battle at
that day there was not a man with
I ordinary hand and ordinary foot and
I ordinary stature that was not better of? thau
I this physical curiosity of my text. As
I physical size, is apt to run in families the
I probability is that this brother of David
I who did the work was of an abbreviated
B jtature. A dwarf on the right side is
I stronger than a giant on the wrong side, and
I all the body, and mind, and estate, and oppor-
I tunity that you cannot use for God and the
I betterment of the world is a sixth finger
I and a sixth toe, and a terrific hinderance.
I The most of the good done in the world, and
I /he most of those who win the battles for the
I right, are ordinary people. Count the fingers
I of their right hand and they have just five—
Ino more and no less. One Doctor Duff
I among missionaries, but three thousand mis-
I sionaries that would tell you they have only
I common endowment. One Florence Night-
I ingale to nurse the sick in conspicuous places,
I but ten thousand women who are just as
I good nurses though never heard of. The
K “Swamp Angel” was a big gun that during
II the war made a big noise, but muskets of or-
I dinary calibre and shells of ordinary
I heft did the execution. President Tyler
I and his cabinet go down the Potomac one
■ day to experiment with the Peacemaker, a
I great iron gun that was to affright with its
■ thunder foreign navies. The gunner touches
I it off and it explodes and leaves cabinet min-
I isters dead on the deck, while at that time all
I up and down our coasts were cannon of ordi-
I nary bore able to lie the defense of the nation,
I and ready at the first touch to waken to duty.
I The curse of the world is big guns. After
■ the politicians who have made all the noise
I go home hoarse from angry discussion on the
■ evening of the first Monday in November,
I the next day the people with the silent ballots
■ will settle everything, and settle it right, a
I million of the white slips of paper they drop
■ making about as much noise as the fall of
■ an apple blossom.
11 Clear hack in the country to-day there are
■ mothers in plain apron, and shoes fashioned
■on a rough last by the shoemaker at the end
■ of the lane, rocking babies that are to be the
I Martin Luthers, and the Faradays, and the
■ Edisons, and the Lismarcks, and the Glad
■ fctones, and the Washingtons, and the George
■ Whitefields of the year 19311, and who will
■ make the 20th century so bright that this
■ much lauded nineteenth in comparison will
■ seein like the dark ages. The longer
■ I live the more I like common
■ folks. They do the world’s work, bear
■f*g the world’s burdens, weeping the
■world’s sympathies, carrying the world’s con
■solation. Among lawyers we see rise up a
■Rufus Choate, or a William Wirt, ora Sam
■fel Sout hand, but society would go to pieces
■to-morrow if there were not thousands of
■common lawyers to see that men and women
■get their rights. A Valentine Mott or a
■ Willard Parker rises up emineut in the medi
■cal profession, but what an unlimited
■sweep would pneumonia, and diphtheria,
■and scarlet fever, have in the world
|d it were not for ten thousand
■common doctors. The old physician in his
■g>g roiling up the lane of the farmhouse, or
■riding on horseback, his medicines in the
■saddle-bags, arriving on the ninth day of the
■fever, and coming in to take hold of the
■pulse of the patient, while the family, pale
■w ith anxiety, are looking on and waiting for
■bis decision in regard to the patient, and
■"earing him say: “Thank God, I have
■Mastered the case, he is getting well,” excites
B n me an admiration quite equal to the raen-
Mbon of the names of the great metropolitan
■doctors, Pancoast or Gross, or Joseph C.
■Hutchinson, of the past, or the illustrious
Bhdng men of the present.
■p 'et what do we see in all departments?
B"eople not satisfied with ordinary spheres of
Bvork ami ordinary duties. Instead of try-
Bbg to see what they can do with a hand
■of five fingers they' want six. Instead of
Btsual endowment of twenty manual and
addenda they want twenty-four. A
amount of money for livelihood and
Bor the supply of those whom we leave be-
Bhnd us uftt)* we have departed this life is
Bmportant, for we have the best authority
Bor saying: “He that provideth not for his
■P? n > and especially those of his own
Brousehold is worse than an infidel,”
■hut the large and fabulous sums for which
Btmny struggle, if obtained would be a hin
■oerance rather than an advantage. The
■anxieties and annoyances that those have
■r_hose estates have become plethoric can only
ilka
’Ei u t ' o<x l thing when through your industry
■md public prosperities you can own the
■muse in which you live. But suppose you
KT n , T houses and you have all those rents
Kr c °Hect and all those tenants to please.
B’bppose you have branched out
,■? business successes until in almost
B Wr 7 direction you have investments.
The fire bell rincs at night; you rusTr un
stairs to oo’c out of the window to see if it is
in any of yrur mills. Epidemic of crirnd*
comes and thi-re are embezzlements and ab
scomlings in all dire tions, and you wonder
whether any of your bookkeepers will prove
recreant. A panic strikes the financial
world, and you are like a hen under a sky
full of hawks and trying with anxious cluck
to get your overgrown chickens safely under
wing. After a certain stage of suc
cess has been reached vou have to trust
so lany important things to others
that you are apt to become the prey of
others, and you are swindled and defrauded,
and the anxiety you had on your brow when
you were earning your first thousand dollars
is not equal to the anxiety on your brow now
that you have won your three hundred thou
sand! The trouble with such a one is’Sse is
spread out like the unfortunate one m rr.y
text. Vou have more fingers and toes than you
kno-v what to do with. Twenty were useful,
twenty-four is a hindering superfluity. Dis
raeli says that a King of Poland abdicated his
throne and joined the people and became a
porter to carry burdens. And some one
asked him why he did so and he replied:
“Upon my honor, gentlemen, the load which
I quit is by far heavier than the one you see
me carry. The weightiest is but a straw
when compared to that world under which I
labored. I have slept more in four nights
than T have during all my reign. I begin to
be a King myself. Elect whom you choose,
for me who am so well it would be madness
to return to court.” •
“Well,” says somebodv, “such overloaded
persons ought to be pitied, for their worri
ments are real and their insomnia and their
nervous prostration are genuine.” I reply
that they could get rid of the bothersome
surplus by giving it away. If a man has
more houses than he can carry without
vexation, let him drop a few of them. If his
estate is so great he cannot manage it with
out getting nervous dvsnepsia from having
too much, let him divide up with those
who have nervous dvsnensia because thev
cannot get enough. No! they guard their sixth
finger with more care than they did the
original five, They go limping with what
they call gout, and know not that, like the
giant of my text, they are lamed by a super
fluous toe. A few of them by large chari
ties bleed themselves of this financial obesity
and monetary plethora, but many of them
hang on to the hindering superfluity till
death, and then as they are compelled to
give the money up anyhow, in their last will
and testament thev generously give some
of it to the Lord, expecting no doubt
that He will feel much obliged to
them. Thank God that once in a while we
have a Peter Cooper, who. owning an interest
in the iron works at Trenton, slid to Mr.
Lester: “I do not feel quite easy about the
amount we are making. Working under one
of our patents, we hawo a monopolv which
seems to me something wrong. Everybody
has to come to us for it and we
are making money too fast.” So they
reduced the price, and this while our philan
thropist was building Cooper Institute, which
mothers a hundred institutes of kindness and
mercy all over the land. But the world had
to wait five thousand eight hundred years for
Peter Cooper. lam glad for the benevolent
institutions that get a legacy from men who
during their life were as stingy as death, hut
who in their last will and testament bestowed
money on hospitals and missionary societies;
but for such testators I have lio respect.
They would have taken every cent of it with
them if they could, and bought up half of
heaven and let it out at ruinous rent, or
loaned the money to celestial citizens at two
per cent, a month and got a corner on harps
and trumpets. They lived in this world
fifty or sixty years in the presence of appall
ing suffering and want, and made no effort
for their relief. The charities of such people
are for the most part in “paulo-post future”
: tense and they are going to do them. The
I probability is that if such a one in his last
will by a donation to benevolent societies
tries to atone for his life-time close-fisted
i ness, the heirs at law will try to break the
will by proving that the old man was senile
or crazy, and the expense of the litigation
will about leave in the lawyers’ hands what
was meant for the American Bible Society.
O ye overweighted successful business men,
whether this sermon reach your ear or your
eye, let me say that if you are prostrated
with axieties about keeping or investing
these tremendous fortunes, I can tell you
how you can do more to get your health
back and yonr spirits raised than by
drinking gallons of bad-tasting water at
Saratoga, Horn burg or Carlsbad give
to God . and MUmanity and the Bible ten
per cent, of all your income, and it will make
a new man of you. and from restless walking
of the floor at night you shall have eight
hours’ sleep without the help of bromide of
potassium, and from no appetbe you will
hardly be able to wait your regular meals,
and your wan cheek will fill up, and when
you die the blessings of those who but for
you would have perished will bloom all over
your grave with Yiolets if it be spring, or
gladiolus, if it be autumn.
Perhaps some of you will take this advice,
but the most of you will not. And you will
try to cure your swollen hand by getting on
I it more fingers, and your rheumatic foot by
getting on it more toes, and there will be a
sigh of relief when you are gone out of the
world: and when over your remains the min
ister recites the words: “Blessed are the dead
who die in the Lord,” persons who have keen
appreciation of the ludicrous will hardly be
i able to keep their face straight. But
whether in that direction my words do good
or not. I am anxious that all who have only
ordinary equipment be thankful for what
they have and rightly employ it. I think
j you all have, figuratively as well as literally,
fingers enough. Do not long for hindering
superfluities. Standing in the presence of
this fallen giant of my text and in
this post-mortem examination of him.
let us learn how much better off we
are with just the usual hand, the
usual foot. You have thanked God for a
thousand things, but I warrant you never
thanked Him for those two implements of
work and locomotion, that no one but the
j Infinite and Omnipotent God could have
ever planned or made, the hand and the foot.
Only that soldier or that mechanic who in a
battle or through machinery has lost them
knows anything about their value, and only
the Christian scientist can have any appre
ciation of what divine masterpieces they
are. Sir Charles Bell, the English
surgeon, on the battlefield of Water
loo, while engaged in amputations
of the wounded was so impressed with the
wondrous construction of the human hand
that when the Earl of Bridgewater gave
forty thousand dollars for essays on the wis
dom and goodness of God, and eight books
were written, Sir Charles Bell wrote his en
tire book on the wisdom and goodness of
God as displayed in the human hand. The
twenty-seven bones in hand and wrist, with
cartilages and ligaments and phalanges of
the fingers, all made just ready to knit, to
sew, to build up. to ptill down, to weave,
to write, to plow, to pound, to wheel, to bat
tle, to give friendly salutation. The tips of
the fingers are so many telegraph offices by
reason of their sensitiveness of tou h. The
bridges, the tunnels, the cities of the whole
earth are the victories of the hand. The
hands are not dumb, but often speak as dis
tinctly as the lips. With our hands
we invite, we repel, we invoke, we
entreat, we wring them in grief or
clasp them in joy, or spread them abroad
in benediction. The malformation of the
giant’s hand in the text glorifies the usual
hand. Fashioned of God more equisitely and
wondrously than any human mechanism
that was ever contrived, I charge you use it
for God ana the lifting of the world out of
its inoral predicament. Employ it in the
sublime work of gospel handshaking. You
can see the hand is just made for that. Four
fingers just set right 1o touch your neighbor's
liand on one side and your thumb set so as to
clench it on the other side. By all its bones, and
joints, and muscles, and carriages, and liga
ments, the voice of nature joins with the
voice of God commanding yon to shake
hands. The custom is as old as the
Bible, anyhow. Jehu said to Jehonadeb:
“Is thine heart right as my heart is with
thine heart? If it be, give me thine hand.”
When hands join in Christian salutation a
gospel electricity thrills across the palm from
heart to heart, and from the shoulder of one
to the shoulder of the other. Shake hands
all around. With the timid and for
their encouragement, shake hands. With
the troubled and in warm-hearted sympathy,
shake hands. With the young man just en
tering business and discouraged at the
small sales ami tbe J"* 8 ® x P onses - s ' mk(3
hands. With tt 0 child w l l . lO 18 new from
God, an l started on unending journey for
which he needs to gather great supply of
strength, and who can hardly reach up to
you now because v ou ar , e 80 r !”! ,
shake hands. A rm* , ra,il , ,,s »ud dying beds
and graves, shake L un ' ls - W 1 y° ur
enemies, who have l * ollo a ‘ , to
fame and hurt you, ’ ut , w l * lom .
can afford to forgive. sf»X 0 bands. At the
door of churches where pen. ’" e come m - an d
at the door of churches ler f P e °ple go
out. shake hands Let pulpit shake hands
with pew, and Sabbath day 0 ban Is with
week day, and earth sha.W . bands with
heaven. Oh the strange, the t»gh. ttle un
defined, the mysterious, the eternal power of
an honest handshaking. The d®?<w*. n . CO be
tween these times and the miller.-nml t ur * es > 3
that now some shake hands, but then a 1 Wl “
shake hands, throne and foot stool, a TOS3
seas nation with nation, God anil it ’ an >
church militant and church triumphant.
Yea; the malformation of this' falle, n
giant’s foot glorifies the ordinary font, for
which I fear you have never once thanked
God. The twenty-six bones of the foot are
the admiration of the anatomist. The arch
of the foot fashioned with a grace and a
poise that Trajan’s arch at Beneventum, or
Constantine’s arch at Rome, or arch of
Triumph at the end of Champs Elysees
could not equal. Those arches stand
where they were planted, but this
arch of the foot is an adjustable arch,a yield
ing arch, a flying arch, and ready for move
ments innumerable. The human foot so
fashioned as to enable man to stand upright
as no other creature, and leave the hand that
would otherwise have to help in balancing
the body free for anything it chooses. The
foot of the camel fashioned for the
sand, the foot of the bird fashioned for
the tree branch, the foot of the hind fashioned
for the slippery rock, the foot of the lion
fashioned to rend its prey, the foot of the
horse fashioned for the solid earth, hut the
foot of man made to cross the desert, or
climb the tree, or scale the cliff, or walk the
earth, or go where he needs to go. With that
divine triumph of anatomy in your possession
where do you walk? In what path of
righteousness or what path of sin have you
set it down? Where have you left the mark
of your footsteps? Amid the petrifactions in
the rocks have been found the mark of the
feet of birds and beasts of thousands
of years ago. And God can trace
out all the footsteps of your
lifetime, and those you made fifty
years ago are as plain as those made
in the last soft weather, all of them petrified
for the Judgment Day. Oh, the foot! How
divinely honored not only in its construction
but in the fact that God represents Himself
in the Bible as having feet: “The coulds on
the dust of His feet:” “Darkness was under
His feet;” "The earth is My footstool.” And
representing cyclones and euroclydons and
whirlwinds and hurricanes as winged
creatures, He describes Himself as putting
His foot on these monsters of the air and
walking from pinion to pinion, saying: “He
walketh upon the wingsof the wind.” “Thou
hast put all things under Histfeet,” cri£s the
psalmist. Oh, thofoot! Give me the auto
biography of your foot from the time you
stepped out of the craddle until today and
1 will tell your exact character now and
what are your prospects for the world to
come. That there might be no doubt about
the fa r, t that both these pieces of divine
mechanism, hand and foot, belong to Christ’s
service, both hands of Christ and both
feet of Christ were spiked on the
cross. Right through the arch of
both His feet to the hollow of
His instep went the iron of torture, and
from the palm of His hand to the back of it,
and there is not a muscle or nerve, or bone
among the twenty-seven bones of hand and
wrist, or among the twenty-six bones of the
foot but it belongs to Him now and forever.
Charles Reade, the great writer, lost the
joint of his forefinger by feeding a
bear. Look c.ut that your whole hand gets
not into the maw of ’the old Cerberus of
perdition. Sir Thomas Trowbridge, at the
battle of Inkerinann, lost his foot and when
the soldiers would carry him away, he said:
“No, I do not move until the battle is won.”
So if our foot lie lamed or lost let it be in the
service of our God, our home or our country.
That is the most beautiful foot that goes
about paths of greatest usefulness, and that
the most beautiful hand that does the most
to help others. I was reading of three women
who were in rivalry about the appearance of
the hand Ami the one reddened her hand
with berries, and said the beautiful tinge
made hers the most beautiful. And
another put her haDd in the mountain brook,
and said as the waters dripped off. that her
hand was the mo3t beautiful. And another
plucked flowers off the bank, and under the
bloom contended that her hand was the most
attractive. Then a poor old woman ap
peared. and looking up in her decrepitude
asked for alms. And a woman who had not
taken part in the rivalry gave her alms. And
ail the women resolved to leave to this beg
i gar the question as to which of all the hands
present was the most attractive, and she
said: “The most beautiful of them all is the
| one that gave relics to my necessities,” and
as she so s&id her wrinkles and
rags and her decrepitude and her body dis
appeared, and in place thereof stood the
I Christ who long ago said: “Inasmuch as ye
did it to one of the least of these ye did it to
Me! ’ and who to purchase the service of our
: hand and foot here on earth or in resurrec
tion state, had His own hand and foot lac
; erated.
Where is the Grandmother I
The sketch given below is reproduced
from a composite photograph of a young
lady and her grandmother, which lately
appeared in the columns of Puck.
SOUND ADVICE.
A Howard street mother has oonnider
able trouble with a little incorrigible.
He is chock full of natural depravity,
and yet is exceedingly bright.
“I declare, Georgie, I don’t know
what to do to you,” she said the other
day. “I have punished you severely
half a dozen times for this same offense,
but it does no good.”
“It seems that it doesn’t,” he said.
“Mother, I tell you what I’d do were I
you. I’d just give up in despair.”—
Detroit Free Press.
The Same Man.
“Come here, my little Eddy,” said a
gentleman tp a youngster of seven years
| of age, while sitting in the parlor, where
a large company was assembled, “do
you know me?” “Yes sir, I think I do.”
; “Who am I then? Let me hear.” “Vou
are the man that kissed sister Angelina
last night in .he conservatory.”
AN INACCESSIBLE RANCH.
AN OWNERLESS HERD IN A ROCK
. GIRT VALLEY.
,f" U • r
-- ■s k
Story of the Most Wonderful Cattle
llango in the World—lndiau Tra
s'r= ditions Concerning It.
A few miles to tlie northweit of
Meeker, Col., seventy-live perhaps, is the
most wonderful cattle ranch in the world.
Within a space of live miles in length and
half a mile in width roam a herd upon
whose sides the branding iron has never
been placed and around whose horns the
lariat has never tightened. But a score,
or even fewer, of them have- ever seen a
man or a horse, or other animal than of
their kind,and in truth their kin, except
at a distance of nearly COO feet above
them.
The Ute Indians call them
“p’chek-up.” or red buffalo, and yet if
,an Indian who has seen them should be
adked about it, he would laugh and
slake hi* head and all the information
obtainable would be “p’ehek-up, ’em
red; no ketch ’em.” There are more
thau four hundred of this nerd and yet
no man owns them, nor is there a man,
white or copper colored, who has ever j
been able to possess a single hoof of I
these fat and tempting beeves. The cat
tle are in a prison. Out of it there is o»e 1
method ot escape,, but to travel that road
means death to the adventurous brute.
There is no way to get in, ext ept it b«
by means of a rope a thousand feetloDg.
As the Indians say: “Heap see ’em, no l
ketch ’em, no come away. ” On the two
long sides of the oblong space in which
these cattle roam rise precipitous and.
even concaved rocks four, live and six
hundred feet, yawning black and insur
mountable, and at either end seethes and
rushes the iampa or Bear River. For
miles above it plunges and stumbles on
in its headlong haste to- reach the arms,
of its parent, the scarcely less tumultuous
but deeper Green River.
Like the wonderful fiat-top mountains
of Colorado, this home of the imprisoned
herd has no likeness in the world. The
story of the way in which these cattle
came there is as strange as their existence
is curt jus.
Fifteen years ago, when Tthe Govern
ment troops were pursuing the Mormon
murderers of the innocent victims of the
Mountain Meadow massacre, the Danites,
or avenging angels of the Mormons, lied
for their si?*ety into what was literally
the wilderness. A few of those who
had been the blindest followers of Lee,
the Mormon fiend incarnate, and whose
hands were red with the blood of women
and children, found in their wanderings
a pretty valley on a stream which flows
from the Wasatch range in the Green
River.
, They struck their stakes, built their
camp lires and during the night their
sagacious leader had a vision which told
him there to stay. They could Hiardly
have chosen in all Utah a more fertile or
more isolated spot. They called it
A>hley, aud about them have since
gathered more of their sect, until where
the refugees posted their picket of
guards on the lonely nights of the first
Bummer has grown a thriving village.
It is 140 miles from the Union Pacific
Railroad, south, and 145 miles north of
the Rio Grande Western. I ntil within
five years it has been isolated entirely,
but now it is but thirty miles from the
Unita reservation, and furnishing sup
plies for the agency forms quite a busi
ness lor the community. It- is a proverb
of the Danites that robbery or theft from
a Gentile is no crime. So it was thought
to be only a cunning trickßieu John
Wyckliffe, one of the Moriium settlers of
the new town, and his three sons made a
night sortie on Henry’s Fork, in Wyom
ing, and carried away 300 head of cattle
ranging there. This was in 1876.
The owners of the cattle discovere 1
the loss of their stock a few days after
they were gone and started in pursuit.
The Wyckiiffes had their friends along
the trail and were warn d by signals of
the coming of the pursuing party. Ac
cordingly they drove the cattle as fast as
they could travel on eastward across
Green River aud up along the Bear, with |
the intention of reaching the Elk moun
tain country in northwestern Colorado, j
where they would be practically safe from I
detection and their stock also would se- j
cure the most succulent of feed.
The thieves and their stolen herd
reached a mesa of inviting grass at sun
down one day and halted to camp for
the night. A terrific storm arose. The
lightning flashed incessantly and the
thunder pealed and cracked with unre
mitting fury. The four men desperately
held the terror-stricken cattle by riding
about them constantly. But the wild
fearfulness of the furious storm excited
the brutes beyond measure. They surged
and bellowed, every moment growing less
subject to control. All at once, as if by
one mad impulse, they stampeded.
John Wyckliffe and his sons met their
fate amid the lightning's glare and the
thunder’s roar. They endeavored to head
off the stampeding herd. Instead-they
and their horses were swept on and driven
in tire terror to escape the maddened ani
mals over the brink of the awful preci
pice which frowns up from the waters of
the Bear. After them plunged the whole
cra/.ed herd and down to the bottom of
the fearful fall went horses, riders aud
horned creatures. Out of this plunge of
life to what was seemingly certain death
for all, a few of the herd were not killed.
Those which had gone ahead formed a
cushion of death. Maimed, stunned,
but still invested with a spark of life,
when the storm was over the living cattle
crawled out from the mass beneath them
and formed a nucleus for the herd which
now roams at will within their rocky
confines.
To who look at them from the
edge of the pricipice they seem small and
as wild [as deer. The progeny of the
surviving animals from the fall are fat
and sleek, and have sunny beds, deer
like, where they lie for warmth in the
winter. As yet no man has been able
to reach them.
The Utes have a tradition that savors
of a romance connected with this won
derful spot. It is that a young buck
who was of Piah's renegade baud be
came enamored of a young Sioux squaw
and sought to take her to his tribe. The
bucks drove Se ne-jafio and his bride
away. After weeks of outlawry, often
pursued, and clinging to an existence of
terror, the young buck and his squaw
determined they would see this cattle
valley, which the Ind’ans call the “Lower
Earth” and try to find some access. The
buck made a dugout from a log and
a paddle from a limb. Twelve miles
above they launched the rude craft,
them«elves lashed to it, and went
Whirling and shooting on downward.
When they merged from the dark walls
ahio Lne wuicii nicy usu
would be their impregnable refuge the
dugout was bottom out and already
splintered by contact with a thousand
jagged rocks, while it bore on in the
resistless current two lifeless and bruhed
bodies. —New York Journal.
! SELECT SIFTINGS.
” A biblical omer was six pints.
Damascus is the oldest city in the
world.
A Connecticut firm is making ink out
of green apples.
A camel will work seven or eight dayG
without drinking.
j The brain of an elephant is somewhat
I larger than that of a man.
In Turkey, when a man tells a false*
; hood they blacken the front of his house.
There is a sign on Third avenue. New
York, which reads: “Come in and buy
a cigar from the handsomest man on the
block ,T
A California man is hatching chickens
by immersing pails of eggs in spring
water, the temperature of which is 102
degrees.
One of Chicago’s millionaires, Mr
Dale, sold for $7,0,000 not long ago a lot
within the city limits that he originally
paid only $75 for.
The English put-a-nickel-in-the-slo
machines have got so far along that they
now give a chew of tobacco to any one
who drops in a penny.
“Hoodlum” comes from the German
badler, meaning a loafer, or idler; so
“bummer,” from the German bummler,
a word of similar import.
Paris, in a total population of 2,260,-
945, has 20 centenarians, 138 persons
over ninety-five,. 040 over ninety, and
0380 who have- passed the eightieth
year.
The old oak tree at Waltham, Mass.,
which Professor Alexander Agassiz said
was 700 years old; and which has been
dead for some time, has been cut down.
Portions of it are to be placed in the
public library.
A Georgia baby not quite two years
old “has fallen over the foot of the bed
111 times by actual count,” besides
mashing both hands rather badly, and
having the surneon called about twice a
week to sew up cuts in his scalp.
Chinese cash £re made Horn an alloy
of copper and zinc, nearly the same ns
the well-known Muntz metal; aud it
takes about one thousand of them to
answer as change for a.dollar, so minute
and low do prices run in that country.
In Paris a man picks up a living by
going about the streets playing on a
clarionet through a canula placed in a
hole in his throat after the operation ol
tracheotomy. he has finished a
little tune he takes the canula out and
exhibits it to the audience, to show that
there is no deception.
The coca is the strongest sort of a
tonic, and by chewing it the Chillano
soldier can abstain from food or drink
lor a week or ten days at a stretch. He
takes a bunch of leaves as big as a quid
ol tobacco in his mouth, and occasion
ally mixes potato ashes with the
saliva to give the juice a relish.
An engine is being made in Connecti
cut from a silver half-dollar. The boiler
will hold eight drops of water, but the
engine worked several minutes
with four cm!p3. When finished, the
whole affair will be placed under a glass
case three-quarters of an inchin diame
ter and one and one-eighth inches in
height. ~
The nutmeg tree, a shrub that grows
ten feet high, which is not now culti
vated in Mexico aud is becoming very
rare, is found in great abundance in the
vicinity of Papantha. The Mexicans
use large quantities of nutmegs, both as
a remedy and a condiment with charac
teristic improvidence. They neglect
nature’s benefits and bay what- they
might easily raise.
Bail Marksmen Spare a Child."'
Four Europeans who had been out
after tiger in the Maimensing district
were, says the Calcutta (India) Watch
man, returning at the close of a very long
day, and had almost reached the factory
where they were to dine and pass the
night, when the Captain ordered a halt.
The “line” at once pulled up, and he
said: “I hate seeing loaded ritles taken
into a house (it was the old muzzle load
ing days), more especially where there
are children. 1 propose that we fire curs
off.” “All right.” said another, “but
we have not had a shot all day; what do
you say to a ‘pool?’ ” “There’s nothing
to fire at,” observed a third. “There’s
that gliurrah,” said, the Captain, point
ing to an earthen vessel which some ryots
who were working at a little distance,
had as usual, brought their day’s supply
;of drinking water in. “Very good,”
said the fourth, “but, what with bad
light aud distance, it’s by no means an
easy shot. I propose we each put a chick
on. ’ “How shall we decide as to the
order of tiring?” said one. “Oh,” re
plied the ( aptain, generously, “com
mence at your end of the line.” The mark
was by no means an easy one to hit, for
the distant e was well nigh a hundred
yards, the guns smooth bores, and the light
that deceptive kind w hich one gets just
! between daylight and dark. But, on the
other hand, the hunters were exception
ally good men, all excellent shots, either
j of whom could hit a running deer from
the back of an elephant twice out of
three times. “Fire away,” said the cap
tain. No. 1 grazed the right side of the
vessel, aud it was thought must have hit
it. No. 2 went just over it. No. 3 went
a little to the left. “Thank you, gen
tlemen,” said the captain; “I’ll trouble
you for those 12 rupees.” He raised his
gun as he spoke, aud the next moment
the jar was covered with earth; the bul
let had cut the ground beneath it. Pres
ently the vessel was seen to wriggle, and
then to kick, while a feeble cry pro
claimed it to be a baby. Consternation
was depicted on every face. The ele
phants bolted, the sahibs jumped down
and rustled to the spot, the parents run
; ning from the opposite direction. The
little mite hadn’t been torn hed, and was
carried off bv the father and mother
with great rejoicing. They also took the
“pool” along with them, and right glad
the sahibs were, under the circumstances,
to pait with it.
GLASS ORGANS OF VISION.
■£s?~w -pp, rf-.v q
THE MAKERS AND WEARERS OJt
ARTIFICIAL EYES. w '*
Wr: *
Some Beautiful Specimens of These
■ v Translucent Optics—l'ne Opera
-7 tion of Enucleation.
Upward of 5000 New Yorkers weal
artificial eyes, and of this goodly num
ber the majority are ladies, whose sole
ambition is ceutered in the hope of be
coming attractive. Artificial eyes may
be classified into two distinct classes,
viz., glass and composition. Until re
cently those who had the misfortune to
lose an eye have provided themselves
with artificial ones of glass to hide the
deformity.
Oculists and opticians say that thou
sands who make use of this valuable and
important artifice show no evidence ex
cept to an expert of any impaired sight.
'i"he glass eyes which are manufactured
in this country are really made of glass.
Thriy have many defects, among whiclr
may be mentioned their liability to be
broken and the hard pressure of their
edges Yipon the fleshy parts. A fail or
blow will often break them, or they will
sometime.* crack spontaneously, and, in
addition to the losa of the artificial eye,
the patienJ’s eyelids are frequently
wounded. This accounts for the fact of
children being rarely provided with
glass eyes on accoun* of them not being
able to handle them without danger.
Th» composition eye, which is made
of a substance resembling celluloid, is
now in- universal demand. It is much
worn by ladies and children, as it pre
vents a distortion of the face. After the
human eye is once impaired aud total
blmdnessf sets in, the faae will be dis
torted if no artificial eye is worn, by the
falling in of the eyelids. The composi
tion eyes are imported from Germany,
and have destroyed the market of the
glass specimens which are exclusively
manufactured in this country.
Some of these are remarkable for close
imitation, while others ara beasatiful
specimens of art. They are generally
worn by those who have an injured eye
extracted, but the ma ority of artificial
eye wearers are recruited from the ranks
of the fair sex, who- perchance are
squinted or possessed of some other
trifling ocular deformity.
In certain diseases of the eye it be
comes necessary to extract the orb so
affected, as the eyes are so intimately con
nected through their nervous structures
that one diseased eye will ultimately
ruin the other by sympathetic ophthal
mia. The operation of removal is known
as “enucleation,” by which the muscles
are left behind to assist in moving the
artificial eyes.
These are not round, as is popularly
supposed, but shaped like a shell, and
cause little or no trouble in being intro
duced. They are generally removed at
night and the parts washed with water
or lotion. They generally last three
years, after which they lose their polish
aud become unfit for wear. New ones
are then introduced after the same
fashion, and when once accustomed to
this routine the wearer experiences very
little inconvenience in their adjustment.
The composition eyes possess the ad
vantage of lightness, and the composi
tion may be trimmed with a penknife or
a file to adjust it accurately anti comfort
ably to the parts. No artificial eye is of
perpetual duration, because by its in
cessant movement it loses its smooth
surface.
It is surprising to think ot the vast
number of parsons who wear glass eyes.
The largest percentage, of course, are
ladies, who annually expend large sums
in the purchase of those translucent
optics, and unless a person thoroughly
experienced in handling those eyes no
other could discover that they are
imitations. Glass eyes cost all the way
from $8 to $25 each, but composition
eyes which are imported cost extravagant
sums, though some may be purchased at
comparatively low prices, depending, of
course, on the qv.ality of the material.
You know cattle also wear glass eyes,
and thousands of men find themselves
the possessors of horses and.other animals
ornamented with those eyes which they
purchased on the supposition that they
were free from defects.
A sheep’s eye resembles the human
eye. Young opticians often use the eye
of a sheep in learning many of the most
critical points connected with their pro
fession. The insertion of artificial eyes
requires great skill on the part of the
operator, as the comfort aud stability of
the artificial orb to the patient are de
pendent on the process of transforma
tion.
The eye is taken between the fore
finger and thumb of the right hand,
while the other hand is placed on the
forehead and its extremities used to
raise the upper eyelid. It is then intro
duced i.nd»# the upper eyelid, the lower
one is drawn down by the disengaged,
fingers, and behind this the piece at
once pla es itself.
In extracting a glass or composition
eye the easiest way is to catch hold of it
between the fingers and draw it out
ward. Should any difficulty be expe
rienced the head of a pin or some blunt
instrument inserted under the head at
once removes the obstacle. This is
where the folly of using glass eyes be
comes apparent, for if not allowed to
rest or fall on a handkerchief or somej
soft material, they break, and their re-’
placement at frequent intervals costs a
considerable amount.
Glass eye making requires judgment
in the selection of proper glass. This ia
composed of sand, soda, saltpeter, pot
ash, lime and chloride of lead. All tnese
ingredients are put into a melting pot
for a period of at least twenty hours and
subject to a heat of 1800 degrees, 'ihe
sand and other chemicals then unite in
forming a liquid. The glass-blower
then uses an iron pipe heated enough to
make the glass stick to it. This is
stirred in a circular direction until a ball
is formed. The pupils, which are made
in the same manner, from glass of differ
ent shades and colors, are now inserted
into this globular mass, aatl allowed to
cool, alter which the congealed substance
is paired off in any form or manner re
quired.
Glass eyes never produce irritation or
become painful except when exposed
for a long time to a strong tiame. —New
Y orb Press.
There are 100,000,000 English-speak
ing people, 60,000.000 who" speak Ger
man, 61.000,000 who speak Russian, and
4 ,100,000 who speak French