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liEV. DIE TALMAGE.
tiie mtooKLYx divimhs Sun
day SEll MO V.
Subject: “The Clouds His Chariot,”
l
Text: 11 Who maketh the clouds IHs
Chariot." —Psalm civ., &
Brutes are constructed so as to look down.
Those earthly creatures that have wings
■when they rise from the earth still look
'down, and the eagle searches for mice in tho
frass and the raven for carcasses in the field.
lan alone is made to look up. To induce
hint to look up God makes the sky a picture
galrery, a Dusseldorf, a Louvre, a Luxem
bourg, a Vatican that eclipses all that Ger
man, or French, or Italian art ever accom
plished. But God has failed so far to attract
the attention of most of us by the scenery of
the sky, We go into raptures flover owers
in the soil, hut have little or no appreciation
of the “morning glories" that bloom on the
wall of the sky at sunrise or the dahlias in
the clouds at sunset. We are in ecstasies
• over a gobelin tapestry or a bridal, veil of
rare fabric, or a snowbank of exquisite curve,
but see not at all, or see without emotion,
the bridal veil of mist that covers the fflee of
the Catskills, or the swaying upholstery
around the couch of the dying day, or the
snowbanks of vapor piled up in the heavens.
My text bids us lift our chin three or four
inches and open the two telescop s which
under the forehead are put on swivel easily
turned upward, and see that the clouds are
not merely uninteresting signs of wet or dry
weather, but that they are embroidered
canopies of shade, that they are the con
servatories of the sky, that they are thrones
of pomp, that they are crystalline bars, that
they are paintings in water color, that they
are the angels of the mist, that they are
great cathedrals of light with broad aisles
lor angelic feet to walk through and bow at
altars of amber and alabaster, that
they are the mothers of the dew,
that they are ladders for ascending
and descending glories, Cotopaxis of
belching flame. Niagaras of color, that they
are the masterpieces of the Lord God Al
mighty. 'ihe clouds are a favorite Bible
simile and the sacred writers have made
much use of them. After the deluge God
hung on a cloud in concentric bands the
colors of the spectrum, saying: “I do set my
bow in the clouds.’’ As a mountain is some
times entirely hidden by vapors, so, says
God, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud
thy transgressions.” .David measured the
divine goodness and found it so high he
apostrophized: “Thy faithlulnessrea 'hes unto
the clouds. ’ As sometimes there are thou
sands of fleeces of vapor scurrying across the
heavens, so, says Isaiah, will be the converts
in the millenium, “as clouds and as doves.”
As in the wet season po sooner
does the sky clear than there comes
another obscuration, so, says Solomon,
one ache or ailment of old folks has no more
than gone than another pain comes “as
clouds return in the rain.” A column of
illumined cloud led the Israelites across the
wilderness. In the book of Job, Elihu, watch
ing the clouds, could not understand why
they did not fall or why they did not all roll
together, the laws of evaporation and con
densation then not being understood, and ho
cries out: ‘Dost thou know the balancing of
the clouds!” When T read my text it sug
gests to me that the clouds are the Creator’s
equipage, and their whirling masses are the
wheels, and the tongue of the cloud is the
cole of tlie celestial vehicle, and the winds
"re the harnessed steeds, and God is the
Royal oeeunant and driver “who maketh
the clouds His chariot.”
To understand the psalmist’s meaning in
♦he text you must know that the chariot of
old was sometimes a sculptured brilliancy
made out of ivory, sometimes of solid silver,
and rolled on two wheels which were
fastened to the axle by stout pins, and the
awful defeat of Oenomaus by Pelops was
caused by the fact that a traitorous charioteer
had inserted a linob pin of wax instead of a
linch pin of iron. All of the six hundred
chariots of Pharaoh lost their linch pins in
the Red Sea, for the Bible says: “The Lord
took off their wheels.” Look at the long
.flash of Solomon's fourteen hundred chariots,
ftnd the thirty thousand chariots of the
. Philistinea If you have ever visited the
buildings where a king or queen keeps the
coaches of state, as I have, you know that
. kings aud queeqs have groat varieties of
turnout. The keeper tells you: “This is the
state carriage, and used only on great
occasions.” “This is the coronation
carriage, and in it the king rode
on the day he took the throne.” “In this tho
Steen went to open Parliament” “This is
e coach in which the Czar and the Sultan
I Tode on the occasion of their visit.” All
costly and tesselated and enriched and em
blazoned are they, and when the driver takes
the reins of the ten white horses in his hands,
gnd amid mounted troops and bands in full
I force sounddig the national a>r, the splendor
I Starts and rolls on under arches entwined
with banners, and amid tho huzza, of hun
dreds of thousands of spectators' the scene is
I memorable. But my text puts all such oc-
I casions into insignificance, as it represents
I the King of the Universe coming'to the door
I of his palace, and the gilded vapors of the
I heavens rolling up to His feet, and He stop-
I ping in and taking tho reins of the galloping
I winds in His hand starts in triumphal ride
I Under the arches of sapphire, and over the
I atmospneric highways of opal and chrysolite,
■ the clouds His chariot.
I Mv hearers, do not think that God belit
■tles Himsslf when he takes such conveyance.
■Bp you know that the clouds are among the
■most wondrous and majestic things in the
■whole universe? Do you know that they are
■flying lakes and rivers and oceans? God
■waved His hand over them and said: “Come
■P higher!” and they obeyed the mandate,
cloud instead of being, as it seems, a
■mall gathering of vapor a few yards wide
(Thigh is really seven or eight miles across,
®nd is a mountain, from its base to its top,
■*l,ooo feet, 18,000 feet, 20,000 feet, and cut
■trough with ravines 5000 feet deep. No,
did not make a fragile or unworthy
of God in the text when he
■joke of the clouds as His chariot. But as I
■lggested in the case of an earthly king. He
■as His morning cloud chariot and evening
chariot—the cloud chariot in which
■ e rode down to Sinai to open the law, and
■® chariot in which lie rode down to
[fabJPio honor the gospel, and the cloud
in which He will come to judgment.
■'Then He rides out in His morning chariot
this season, about six o’clock, he puts gol
*■& coronets on the dome of cities, and sil-
Bp’ the rivers, and out of the dew makes a
■wiond ring for the finger of- every grass
■we, and bids good cheer to invalids who in
■® night said: “Would God it were morn
■■ From this morning cloud chariot He
■tributes light, light for the earth and light
■ ihc heavens, light for the land and light
■ the sea, great bars of it, great wreathes
■s' n- ea * : - co^umns of it. a world full of it.
■>l Him in worship as every morning He
■yes out in His chariot of morning cloud,
■ ” r y with David:
■My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning;
he morning will I direct my prayer unto
■7 end look up ” I rejoice iu these Scrip
ejaculations: “Joy cometh in the morn
“Mv soul waiteth for Thee more than
that watch for the- morning,” “If I take
■ wing of tho morning,” “The eyelids of
■ niorning,” “The morning cometh, 1 ’ “Whc
■he that looketh forth as the morning:”
Rj forth is prepared as the mora
ss As the morning spread on the mount
■ . That thou shouldst visit him every
■nmg.” What a mighty thing the King
■ Ws from His chariot when He throws us
■norning!
Hen: He has his evening cloud chariot. It
Made out of the .saffron and the gold and
t Pie an 1 the orange and the vermilion
1 ■upshot flame of the sunset. That is the
■* where the splendors that have marched
■tn da 3L having ended the proces
■ throw down the torches and set the
■ens on fire. That is the only hour of the
hen the atmosphere is clear enough to
the wall of the heavenly city with
■“’-ye manner of precious stones, from
■!a-:on of jasper to middle 6trata
■ lr ~UB and on up to the co
■ amethyst At that hour witta
of Elisha’s supernatural vision
■* “orses »f hi * &a 4 ahariots of fir* a®d
tanners of firo and ships of fire and cities of
fire, s-as of fire, mid it set-ms as if the last
conflagration had begun and there is a world
on fire. When God makes these clouds His
chariot let us all kneel. Another day past,
what have wo done with it? Another day
dead nnd this is its gorgeous catafalque.
Now is the tim« for what David called the
“evening sacrifice,” or Daniel called the
“evening oblation. ” Oh! oh! what a chariot
made out of evening cloud! Have you
hung over the taffrail on the ocean
and seen this cloudy vehicle roll over
the pavements of a calm summer
sea, the wheels dripping with the magnifi
cence? Have you from the top of Ben
Lomond or the Cordilleras or the Berkshire
hills seen the day pillowed for the night, and
yet had no aspiration of praise and homage?
Oh, what a rich God we have that He can
put on one evening sky pictures that
excel Michael Angelo's “Last Judg
ment” and Ghi i land jo’s “Adoration of
the Magi” and whole galleries of
Madonnas, and for only an hour, and then
awav, and the next evening put on the same
?ky something that excels a 1! that the
Raphaels and the Titans and the Rembrandts
and the Corregios and the Leonardo da \ mcis
ever executed, and then draw a curtain of
mist over them never again to be exhibited!
How rich God must be to have a new chariot
Of clouds every evening!
| But the Bible tells us that our King also
I has a black chariot. “Clouds and darkness.”
we are told, “are round about him.” That
chariot is cloven out of night, and that night
is trouble. When He rides forth in that
black chariot pestilence and earthquake and
famine and hurricane and woe attend Him.
Then let the earth tremble. Then let na
tions pray. Again and again He has ridden
forth in that chariot of black clouds, across
England, France, Italy. Russia, and America,
and over all nations. That which men took
for the sound of cannonading at Sebastopol,
at Sedan, at Gettysburg, at Tel-el-Kebir, at
Bunker Hill, were only the rumblings of the
black chariot of the Almighty. Aye, it is
the chariot of stormcloud armed with thun
| derbolts. and neither man nor angel nor devil
1 nor eirth nor hell nor heaven can resist Him.
| On those boulewards of blue this chariot
' never turns out for anything. Aye, r.o one
else drives there. Under one wheel of
that chariot Babylon was crushed and Baal
beck fell dead and the Roman Empire was
prostrated and Atlantis, a whole continent
that once connected Europe with America,
sank clear out of sight so that the longest
anchor of ocean steamer cannot touch the top
of its highest, mountains. The throne of tne
Caesars was less than a pebble under the
right wheel of this chariot, and the Austrian
despotism less than a sno-.vflake under the left
wheel. And over destroyed worlds on worlds
that chariot has rolled without a jar or jolt.
This black chariot of war clould rolled up
to the northwest of Europe in 1812 and four
hundred thousand men marched to take Mos
cow, but that chariot of clouds rolled back,
and only twenty-five thousand out of the four
hundred thousand troops lived to return. No
great snowstorm like that had ever before or
has ever since visited Russia. Aye, the chariot
of the Lord is irresistible. There is
only one thing that can halt or turn any of
His chariots, and that is prayer. Again and
again it has stopped it, wheeled it around,
and the chariot of black clouds under that
sanctified human breath has blossomed into
such brightness and color that men and
angels had to veil their faces from its bright
ness. Mark you, the ancient chariot which
David uses as a symbol in my text had only
two wheels.and that was that they might turn
ouickly, two wheels taking less than hal,
the time to turn that four wheels would
have taken. And our Lord’s chariot has
only two wheels, and that means instant re
versal, and instant help, and instant deliver
ance. While the combined forces of the
universe in battle array could not stop his
black chariot a second or diverge it an inch,
the driver of that chariot says: “Call upon
Me in the day of trouble and I will de
liver thee,” “While they are yet
speaking I will hear.” Tv.-o-wheeled
chariot, one wheel justice and the other
wheel mercy. Aye, they are swift wheels.
A cloud, whether it belongs to the cirrhus,
the clouds that float the highest; or belongs
to the stratus, the central ranges; or to the
cumulus, the lowest ranges, seems to move
slowly along the sky if it moves at all. But
many clouds go at a speed that would make
a vestibule limited lightning express train
seem lethargic, so swift is the chariot of our
God; yea, swifter than the storm, swifter
than the light. Yet a child ten years old has
been known to reach up, and with the hand
of prayer take the courser of that chariot
by the bit and slow it up, or stop it, or turn
it aside, or turn it back. The boy Samuel
stopped it. Elijah stopped it Hezekiah
stopped it. Daniel stopped it. Joshua
stopped it. Esther stopped it. Ruth stopped
it. Hannah stopped it. Mary stopped it.
My father stopped it. My mother stopped it.
Mv sister stopped it. We have in our Sab
bath-schools children who again and again
and again have stopped it.
Notice that these old-time chariots, which
my text uses for symbol, had what we would
call a high dash-board at the front, but were
open behind. And the king would stand at
the dash-board and drive with his own hands,
And I am glad that He, whose chariot the
clouds are, drives Himself. He does not let
natural law drive, for natural law is deaf. He
does not let fate drive, for fate is merciless.
But our Father King drives Himself,
and He puts His loving hand on the reins of
the flying coursers, and He has a loving ear
open to the cry of all who want to catch His
attention. Oh, lam so glad that my Father
drives and never drives too fast, and never
drives too slow, and never drives off the
precipice, and that He controls,by a bit that
never breaks, the wildest, and most raging
circumstances. I heard of a ship captain
who put out with his vessel with a large
number of passengers from Buffalo on Lake
Erie, very early in the season and while
there was much ice. When they were we 1
out the captain saw to his horror that the ice
was closing in on him from all sides, and he
saw no way out from destruction and death.
He called into the cabin the passengers and
all the crew that could be spared from th-ir
posts, and told them that the sh p must lie lost
unless God interposed, and although he was
not a Christian man hssaid: “Let us pray,”
and they all knelt asking God to come for
their deliverance. They went back to the
deck, and the man at the wheel shouted: “All
right, eap'n, it’s blowing nor' by nor’ west
now.” While the prayer was going on in the
cabin the wind changed and blew the ice out of
the way. The mate asked: “Shall Iput on more
sail, eap’n?” “No!” responded the captain.
“Don't touch her. Some one else is managing
this ship.”
Oh, men and women,shut in on all sides
by icy troubles and misfortunes, in earnest
prayer put all your affairs in the hands of
God. You will come out all right. Some one
else is managing the ship! It did not merelv
happen so that when was begelged,
and the Duke of Alva felt sure of his tri
umph, suddenly the wind turned, and the
swollen waters compelled him to stop
the siege, and the city was save 1.
God that night drove along the
const of the Netherlands in a black chariot
of storm cloud. It did not merely happen -o
that Luther rose from the place where he
was sitting just in time to keep from lieing
crushed by a stone that the instant after tell
on the very spot. Had he not escaped where
would have been the Reformation? It did not
merely happen so that Columbus
was saved from drowning by an oar
that was floating on the waters. Other
wise, who wou d have unveiled America?
It did not merely happen so that when
George Washington was in Brooklyn a gre it
fog settled down over all the place where tins
church stands, and over all this end of Long
Island, and that under that fog ho and h;s
army escaped from the clutches of Generals
Howe and Clinton. In a chariot of mist and
cloud the God of American Independence
rode along here. On that pillow of consolation
I put down my head to s eep at nig.it.
On that solid foundation 1 build when 1 see
this nation in political paroxysm every four
years, not because they care two cents about
whether it is high tariff, or low tariff, or no
tariff at all, but only whether the Demo
crats or the Republicans sha 1 have
the salaried offices. Yea, when Eu
ropean nations are holding their bieatn,
wondering whether Russia or Germany will i
launch a war that will incarnadine a con
tinent, I fall back on the faith that my
Father drive*. Yes, I oast this as an anchor,
and plaat this an a column of strength, and
lift this as a telescop?, and build this as a
fortress, and propose without any perturba
tion to launch upon an unknown future trium
phant in the fact that my Father drives. \ es.
He drives very near. I know that many of
the ciouds that you see in summer are far
off, the bases of some of them five miles
above the earth. High on the highest peaks
of the Andes travelers have seen clouds far
higher than where they were standing.
Gay Lussac, after he had risen in a
balloon twenty-three thousand feet, still
saw clouds above him.
But there are clouds that touch the earth
and discharge their rain, and, though the
clouds out of which God s chariot is made
may sometimes be far away, often they are
close by, and they touch our shoulders, and
they touch our homes, and they touch us all
over. 1 have read of two rides that the
Lord took in two different chariots
of clouds, and of another that He
will take. One day, in a chariot <4
clouds that were a mingling of fog andt
smoke and fire, God drove down to the top
of a terrible crag fifteen hundred feet high,
now called Jebei-Musa, then called Mount
Sinai, and He steppe-1 out of His chariot
among the split shelvings of rock. The
piountaT 8 shook as with an ague, and there
were ten volleys of thunder, each of the ten
emphasizing a tremendous “Thou shalt,” or
“Thou shalt not." Then the Lord resumed
xi* , - aud drove up
—*s chariot oi c.u—
the hills of heaven. They .
dark and portentous clouds that made that
chariot at the giving of the law. But one
day He took another tide, and this time down
to Mount Tabor, the clouds out of which His
chariot was made,were bright clouds, roseate
clouds, illumined clouds, and music rained
from all of them, and the music was a ming
ling of carol atid chant and triumphal
march: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.” Transfiguration chariot!
“Oh,” say hundreds of you, “I wish 1 could
have seen those chariots —the black one that
brought the Lord to Jebel-Musaatthe giving
of the law, and the white one that brought
Him down to Tabor.” Never mind, you will
see something grander than that, and it will
be a mightier mingling of the sombre and
the radiant, and the pomp of it will
be such that the chariots in which
Trajan, and Diocletian, and Zeuobia,
and Caesar, and Alexander, and
all the conquerors of all the ages rode will
be unworthy of mention; and what stirs me
the most is that when he comes in that
chariot of cloud and goes back, He will ask
you and me to ride with Him both ways.
Sow do I know that the judgment
chariot will be made out of clouds?
Revelation L, 7: “Behold He cometh with
c'ouds.” Oh, He will not then ride through the
iea . ens alone as He does now. Ho is going
to uring along with Him escort of ten full
regiments. Inspiration says: “Behold the
Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints.”
But these figures simply mean that there
will be a great throng. And as we shall
probably through the atonement of Christ
be in heaven before that, I hope
that we can come down iu that es
cort of chariots. Christ in the centre
chariot, but chariots before Him to clear the
way, and chariots behind Him, and chariots
on either side of Him. Perhaps the proph
ets and patriarchs £of the old dispensation
may ride ahead each one charioted—Abraham
and Moses and Ezekiel aaid Dayid and Joshua,
who foretold his first coming. On either side
of the central chariot apostles and martyrs
who in the same or approximate centuries
suffered for Him—Paul, Stephen, and Igna
tius, and Polyearp, and Justin M irtyr, and
multitudes who went up in chariot of fire
now coming in chariot of cloud, whiie ,n the
rear of the central chariot shall be the multi
tudes of latter days and of our own time who
have tried to serve the Lord, ourselves I hope
among them. “Behold the Lord cometh with
ten thousand of His saints.” Yes, although
all unworthy of such companionship we
want to come with Him on that day to see
the last of this old world which was our resi
dence. Coming through the skies myriads of
chariots rolling on and rolling down. By
that time how changed this world will be.
Its deserts all flowers, its rocks all mossed
and lichened, its poor houses all palaces,
its sorrows all joys, its sms all virtues,
and in the same pasture field lion and calf,
and on the same perch hawk and dove. Now
the chariots of cloud strike the earth, filling
all the valleys, and covering all the mount
ain sides, and halting in ail the cemeteries
and graveyards and over the waters deep
where the dead sleep iu coral snr ophagus.
A * loud blast of the resurrection
trumpet is given and the bodies of the dead
rise and join the spirits from which they have
long been separated. Then Christ, our'King,
rising in the center chariot of cloud, with Ins
scarred hands waves the signal, and tne
chariots wheel and come into line for glor.ous
ascent. Drive on! Drive up! Chariots of
cloud ahead of the King, chariots of
cloud on either side of the King,
chariots of cloud following the Kin". Up
ward and apast starry hosts, and through
imirifeusities, and across infinitudes, higher,
higher, higher, unto the gates, the shining
gates. Lift up your heads, ye Everlasting
Gates, for Him who maketh the clouds His
chariot, and who through condescending and
upl fting grace invites us to mount and ride
with Him!
What They. Will Wear.
A man stood in front of a furrier’s
store contemplating seal garments in the
windows.
“I never see a seal coat,” he said,
“that I am not reminded of a heart
breaking day I passed among the seal
killers.”
Then he told of joining an expedition
when he was a young man and going out
for the sport of seal killing. They
knocked the pretty creatures on the
head. The seals are so tame, affection
ate and fearless that when the hunters
landed and came among them they crowd
ed round like dogs, making their little
friendly barks and fawning upon the
murderous hands that proceeded to
stretch their bloody corpses upon the
beach. The man related how sick at
heait he got, how he tried to go away
from this massacre of the innocents, and
to this day a sealskin coat recalled his
wretched experience as a murdering
criminal among the seals.
But the woman to whom he told this
harrowing tale went right into the store
and bought coats, inquiring particularly
if the fur was off young seals. I believe
if women heard that the skins were more
durable if taken off the poor little blasts
alive, every mother’s daughter would
insist on vivisection. A club of women
lately met to discuss the awiul cru Ities
shown to cats bv the man on a certain
street who tired revolvers and bootjacks
from back windows nights at their fa
vorites, and by actual count as many
as fifty birds and one hundred beasts
had been slaughtered to produce the
winter garments in which they were at
tired.
A woman lately returned from Europe
brings a reception gown that must have
200 little brown birds fastening a rose
colored crepe upon the skirts of white
silk. A eirclel of these little feathered
creatures is for the head.
“I believe it would be a good dress foi
a character to wear at a costume ball,"
said its owner, “ouly I wouldn’t know
what to call it. What would you say for
a name?”
“Cruelty to Animals,” replied the
friend.
Certainly the first thought that crosses
one’s mind at seeing tlua dress is one of
horror at the slaughter of those poor
little creatures that a gown might be
trimmed with their bo lies. Almost
every year some such costume turns up,
and it fi’-es the inventive genius of many
a silly girl.
ARTIST AND FRIAR.
Should you in Florence wander where
The Past has hoarded riches rare —
Paintings within whose perfect lines
The kindling touch of genius shines,
Statues throughout whose marble limi
A seeming life blood leaps and swims-
Among tho names recounted long
With honor in enduring song,
One will be heard where’er you go,
The master’s—Michael Angela
And you will hear another name
Blown by the trumpet nlast of fame
Through Christian lands. No halls of art
Bespeak the tlirobbings of his h art,
But streets are vocal, and the squar*
| That heard his final martyr prayer.
A rosary his fingers told,
The cai> ho wore in cloisters old,
Borne blazoned books, are all they
Of noble Fra Girolamo.
Both long b&Yo bosomed in the clay-
Yet bath are living on to-day.
Time hath no bondage of control
O’er of the soul.
I The years lW r e shown how well they
wrought,
Preserving still their priceless thdiigkt.
One shaped in forms most fair to see,
The other worked intangibly.
The artist stands at first confessed,
And yet the friar wrought the host.
— Clinto x d, in the Independent.
FITZHERBERT,
My name is John Smith—plain Smith,
without change or addition of vowel—
and I was in no way discontented with
it till I tell iu love with Katie Rogers.
Katie had never sneered at it, but her
elder sister, Miranda, had more than
once hinted that it was neither romantic
nor uncommon; and her father, in his
somewhat lengthy discourses about the
British aristocracy, had an aggravating
way of looking - apologetically at me
every time he spoke of “a good name.”
In our commercial community Smith
was counted a better name than Rogers,
and young Smith, tho rising cotton
broker, a more distinguished member of
society than old Rogers, ex-Captain of
dragoons, who could scarcely pay his
thirty-pound rent, and never wore a de
cent hat.
I quite agreed with my neighbors on
these points till I fell in live with Katie,
ana grew famiiar with Miranda’s senti
ments about “the ignorance of Philistine
Riverbatik.
Captain Rogers Vas descended from
Fitzroger, who came over with the
Conqueror, and, as I listened reverently
to the history of the family progress
through eight centuries, there was a
total collapse of my once foolish pride
in belonging to what a local paper called
“one of the oldest families in River
bank.” For Kiverbank was scarcely as
old as rhy father, having grown into a
town with a speed rarely equaled on
this side of the Atlantic.
In a general way 1 did not undervalue
myself, but it was with a deep sense of
humility that I implored the descendant
of Fitzroger to become my father-in
law. We were alone together in the
dining-room of the thirty-pound house,
he sitting in a shabby armchair, I stand
ing on a still shabbier hearthrug. He
looked up at the “Battle Roll of Hast
ings, ” which hung over the mantelpiece,
and down at the tire kept low by eco
nomical Miranda. Then, having ap
parently weighed the past glories of
fitzroger against the present price of
coals, he accepted my proposal with the
magnificent condescension a king
con-enting, for certain «it Reasons, to
bestow the hand of a royal uriuccss on
an aspiring subject.
So Katie and I were engaged, and, for
a time, I was supremely happy. I was
not quite vain enough to share my dar
ling’s opinion, that I, John Smith, was
better worth worshiping than all Car
lyle's “Heroes” put together; but I was
rather easily convinced that I was far
too fine a fellow to fear any rival. So,
when Katie went on a visit to London, !
there wtis no bitterness in mv regret, for
I bel'eved in her—and myself.
At first I was not disturbed by Mi
randa’s boasts about the advantages her
sister was enjoying in “the best society,”
but when ihe ! ondeftj visit extended for
weeks and months beyond its original
limit, T began to feel vaguely uneasy. In j
those days Katie’s letters, though loving, I
were not long, and she more than once
apologized for their brevity by pleading
“a particular engagement,” the nature
of which she never explained. My con- !
fidence sank, my jealousy rose.
At lust she came home, and then I
noticed a change in her that seriously
alarmed me. Ihe was pa'er and quieter,
and at times there was a wistful look in
her eyes, suggestive of something on her
mind. It could not be anxiety about
her father’: pecuniary affairs, because
about that time he appeared in a new
hat, and Miranda kept better fires.
These outward and visible signs of pros
• perity would have given me sincere
pleasure if it had not been for the sus
picion that old i ogers was more than
ever disposed to ta c the Norman Con
quest tone with me, and for the cer
tainty that Miranda's sneers at “people
who could not count
where all for my benefit.
One evening I cal ed much later than
usual, having been detained by an im
portant business matter iaAbe neighbor- i
ing city of Shipley. The outej*door of j
the house was open, and I, in my u ual
way, turned the handle of the vestibule
door and walked into the drawing-room,
which appeared to be empty. I was just
going to ring the hell for the servant,
wi en I heard a pleading little voice be
hind me:
“Oh, I say, Jack, don’t do that!”
It was the voice of Bob, tho youngest
of Katie’s many youmr brothers, and.
turning sharply round, I saw his scared
little face pee ing between the curtains
drawn across the bow-window.
“Lome here, dear old Jack,” he en- j
treated; “and stay with me till she goes
past. ”
“What she?” I asked, as I stepped be
hind the curtains to find Bob’s hitherto
invisible form clad in a nightgown.
“ iranda,” he added in a tragic
whisper.
Bo > had blue eyes and go’den hair,
end in his white array h’ looked like an
angel in a picture But I rightly
guessed that he had descended from the
upper regions that night on no angelic
mission.
“I thought she wassafa up in the lum
ber room for the next half hour," he ex- j
plained, “and 1 got out of bod tad waa
slipping down to the kitchen for a taste
of the new jam. I knew it was my only
chance. She’s so mean about it when
it’s in pots. I just got to the hall when
I heard her sneaking down stairs, so I
run in here. She’s in the dining-room
now, and I don’t know whether she’s
going up again ordown to the kitchen.”
*1 Don’t be a coward, my boy,” I said,
feeling it my duty to be moral. “Of
course Miranda will scold if she finds
you, but you must bear it like a man.”
“Scold!” repeated Bob, with scorn in
his subdued tones. “Do you think I'd
care if it was only that?”
I understood the full peril of the
situation now. Miranda prided herself
on doing a mother’s duty to the mother
less boys, and I knew that whatever her
hand found to do she did it with all her
might.
“And it’s just because I ain’t a coward
I don’t want to meet hew” went, on Bob,
evidently mindful of the traditions of
Fitzroger valor. “You see, Jack, I
could hit back if she was a man, but she
ain’t, you know, and of course no fel
low who is a gentleman ever Jilts a
.ruinan."
“Robert,” I murmured, “you are the
soul of chivalry.”
“Oh, shut up, Jack Smith!” and my
small brother-in-law elect held me with
a desperate grip. “She’s coming in!”
I peered cautiously between the heavy
curtains, atid caught a glimpse of
Miranda’s lank form and lynx eyes. The
next moment she was vanishing, but she
stopped as Katie appeared at the door.
“Kate,” she said in her thin sharp
voice, “I was looking for you. I th : nk
you might help me to pot the jam. Smith
may not be here to-night, and if he
comes let him wait. How pale you look!
I can tell yoQ, my dear, that your ap
pearance has not improved since you
took up with Fitzherbert.”
I stood with freezing blood behind
tht curtains, wondering what awful
revelation was about to wreck my life’s
happiness. In a lightning Hash of jeal
ous imagination I saw Fit/herbert. No
doubt he was one of the swells Katie
had met in London. A military swell,
one of those handsome, haughty guards
men I had read about in society novels.
“Miranda.” said Katie, “don’t you
think I ought to tell Jack about Fitz
herbert?’’
“No, I don’t,” said Miranda, sharply.
“I don't see why the interests of our
family are to be risked in a collision !
with the narrow mddlc-class prejudices
of Mr. John Smith.”
Katie’s voice sounded a little weary
when she spoke again.
“You know, Miranda, you were horri
fied yourself when I first told you about
Fitzherbert’s 'proposal.”
Miranda replied in a tone of cold supe
riority.
“I was more open to conviction than
you would find Mr. John Smith. We
who have been rooted in English soil for
eight centuries naturally take larger
views of life than mushrooms of yester
day. Besides, your conduct in this af
fair is justified by the example and ap
proval of women in the best society.”
“I hate concealment,” said Katie;
“and Jack'is so truthful himself, that I
can’t bear the idea of deceiving him.
Oh, Miranda, dear, I was so happy when
Fitzherbert made mo the oiler that I
never stopped to wonder what Jack
would think about it, but now I am so
miserable I sometimes think I must
give up FitWierbert.”
“Rubb'sh!” said Miranda, “and self
ish rubbish too. I wonder, Kate Rogers,
how you can talk in that way, when you
know how Fitzherbert’s money is
tc your poc^Tather.”
Oh, this was too awful? Katie not
only false to ins, but actually so mean as
to take money from her new lover. I
could stand it no longer. I wrenched
my elf fro*m poor little Bob’s grasp, and
stood sternly facing the two girls.
Miranda fled from the room. Katie
stood white and still.
“pray do not give up Fitzherbert on
my humble account,” 1 said scornfully.
“Do not let my vulgar prejudice in
favor of truth and honesty interfere with
the wider morality of the best society.
Marry Fitzherbert to-morrow, if you
like, and be as happy as you deserve to
be.”
The color rushed back into Katie’s
face. The Lght sparkled in her eyes.
She actually laughed.
‘•Thank you very much, Jack,” she
said, “but even with your kind per
mission I can’t marry Fitzherbert. The
fact is,” and her blue eyes danced,
“Fitzherbert is a married woman.”
Then, with the crushing consciousness
of having made a fool ot myself, I
listened humbly to Katie’s little story.
“ Fitzherbert is a West End milliner,
and was Aunt Clara’s maid before her
marriage. Her name is not really Fitz
herbert, but something quite ordinary,
like Brown or t-mith—oh, I beg your
pardon, Jack! She was always fond of
me, and I often amused myself looking
through her new fashions. One day,
while I was waiting for Aunt Clara, who
had gone to her dentist, a fussy old lady
came into the shop, and was very angry
because none of the new Paris bonnets
suited her. She was one of the best
customers, and poor Fitzherbert was in
despair when she was leaving the shop in
a rage. Well, Jack, I have quite a genius
for millinery. One of our ancestors was a
painter, and Aunt Clara says I have his
artistic eye for color and form. Anyhow,
I always seem to know exactly what suits
a face. I persuaded the old lady to sit
down again, and with Fitzherbert’s per
mission, I made a few alterations in one
particular bonnet. The result was so
becoming that the old lady was
charmed. ‘ Yen are a heaven-born
milliner, my d ar,’ she said. ‘Why
don’t you go in for that sort of thing?
It is all the fashion among the
best people.’ Aunt Clara called for me
presently, and was quite struck with the
new idea. After a long talk with Fitz
herbert, it was decided that I should go
to the shop every day, and qualify for
the position of millinery aide-de-camp.
I became quite popular with the custom
ers, especially the elder ones. I love old
ladies, and delight in making them look
lovely, and some of them threatened to
leave Fitzherbert unless I undertook the
arrangement of their bonnets and caps
for the term of my single life. Fitzher
bert ollered me very liberal pay for my
assistance, and I was so glad to think of
helping poor old daddy that at first I
forgot about you aad your possible ob
je tion to marrying a young woman who
worked for a shop, but I thought of this
afterwards, and was always fighting with
my conscience about telling you the
truth. But, indeed, there are man j lad
milliners in London, and Oh, Jac]|
dear, I see you don’t mind so much, af*
ter all 1”
The precise nature of my aonduefc on
this occasion need not here be recorded.
The bridal wreath was a present from
Fitzherbert. —Household Words.
Fantastic Brahmin Idols.
One sees Brahma occasionally in th<
East pictured in heroic size on the walls
of houses, or as an idvl of wood os
stone, occupying a shed at one end of n
village with his wife Sarasvati. He ii
also, of course, to be seen in temples, bui
not often.
Sarasvati ia always represented as f
beautiful young woman presenting •
flower to her husband, says a corre
spondent of the Courier-Journal. Liks
our own Mother Eve, she was created out
of a portion of her husband’s bodv, al
though the Hindoos do uoL distinctly
a rib.
When this happened Brahm*
sessed of but one head, thi«
lovely newly £ cate( j Com p an i oll) Tiow
, ever, he at once became smitten with he?
! charms. Sarasvati, being a shame-faced
' mouSstt* turned away to escape
his gaze. _ - \
A t Brahma’s wish to still behold her,
a second head issued from his body. AS
the damsel skipped around to another
position a third head appeared and then a
fourth.
At length, in her embarrassment,
Sarasvati sprang into the sky. Not to
be outdone, however, Brahma instantly
produced a fifth head. This fifth head
was subsequently struck off by another
god in a dispute, which leaves him only
four.
The idol with the leopard skin loin*
cloth, the snake about his head and
neck and the tridentin his hand, is Siva,
the destroyer. He is one of the most
familiar idols one sees in India. As you
approach an Indian village the first
building by the roadside is apt to be
a shed-like shrine, sheltering an idol of .
Siva about the size of a man.
He is painted red, with a blue neck,
and sometimes garnished profusely with
bits of gold or silver tinsel pasted here
and there about his figure. This bright
paint and tinsel gives the idol a rathe*
cheap and tawdry appearance, suggestive
of a cheap show. V
A Snake Swallows a String of Fish.
Hugh Pattison, of the water rates
i office, had a funny experience while
fishing at Long Lake, says the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat. He had been catching
fish pretty lively all the morning, ana
along toward noon he went on land and
left his string of fish in the water by thk
boat. He lingered under the shade of
the trees for a couple of hours, and then
returned to take up His rod for the pur
pose of enlarging the string of croppies
that he caught in the morning, after
fishing a short time he took a nice bass
and reached over the side of his boat fo?
his string of fish, to place the bass with'
the others. It was gone. Kota sign of
his twenty-five croppies could be found.
“You may imagine my disgust at the
discovery,” said Mr. Pattison, relating
the story. “I had almost made up my
mind to pull up stakes and go home,
when I noticed a monster blacksnaks
lying in the sun by a little bush about
twenty feet away. I had a little rifle
with me and I took careful aim at tha
snake’s head and let go. The bullet did
its work well, for the snske, after writh
ing a little, became quiet, and I went
ashore to look at him. I took a pole
with a hook on the end that I use for
loosening my line when it is caught on a
snag and pulled the big SDake up on the
bank. I never saw such a big one beforg
and its belly was puffed out till it looked
like a stovepipe. I noticed a piece of
string sticking out of the snake’s mouth
and my curiosity was aroused, so I took
out my knife and cut him open. Well,
you may not believe it, but there was my
elegant string of croppies in the snake’s
stomach, and some of them were alive
and kicking when I took them out.
Threw them away? of course I didn’t.
I just washed them off and went on fish
ing, and when I got home I gave the
string of fish to a friend, who declared
that he never ate better croppie in his life.
Leghorn Straw Farming.
What is known as Leghorn straw is
raised on the hills which rise on each
side of the rivers Pisa and Elsa, to the
southwest of Florence, Italy. Its adapt
ability to the uses to which it is destined,
depends principally on the soil in which
it is sown, which soil, to all appearance,
exists only in this small district, out of
the bounds of which, the industry is
unknown. Any variety of wheat which
has a hollow, flexible steam can be used
for seed. The soil must be tilled and
prepared very much as it is for corn, but
the seed must-be sown flve times as
thickly as is usual for other purposes,
and this is done in the month of Decem
ber or February. When the straw is full
grown, and just before the grain begins
to form itself in the ear, it is uprooted
and firmly tied in little sheaves the si. e
of a handful. Each sheaf or mennta, as
it is called, is spread out in the shape of
a fan, to dry in the sun for three days,
after which it is safely stowed a.\ay in
barns. The harvest being over and the
fields empty, it. is again spread out to
catch the heavy summer de<vs and to
bleach in the sun, during which process
it is carefully turned until all sides are
equally white. Here the cultivatory
work ends, and the manufacturing be
gins. —New York Dispatch.
•r i
Flameless Securite.
Securite, the new flameless explosive,
is the invention of Herr Schoenweg, and
has been used in Germany for two years
past. It is composed of a nitrated
hydro carbon in combination with cer
tain oxidizing agents, which is rendered
flameless by the addition of a certain
proportion of an organic salt. It emits
a spark in exploding, but this spark is
harm ess, not possessing sullicient energy
to explode inflamable gases or coal dust.
By the action of the organic salt the
spark is almost instantly extinguished.
In the tests mentioned, the fiameiess
“securite” was exploded in vessels con
taining the most highly explosive mix
ture of gas and air, and, in some cases,
this combined with coal dust, but while
gunpowder invariably causes their ex
plosion, the flameless “securite” did not
ignite the gas or the coal dust, and it was
demonstrated to be safe, even under more
severe tests and conditions than are ever
present in musing operations.— Detroit
grt: Drc»*.