Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: “The Present Epidemic ol Suicide ” *#> _______ Text. — M God Blessed the Seventh Day."— genesis ii.. 22. The mathematics of the Bible is noticeablo, ;be geometry and the arithmetic; the square n Ezekiel; the circle spoken of in Isaiah; the ajrve alluded to in Job; the rule of fractions nentioned in Daniel; the rule of loss and rain iu Mark,where Christ asks fhe people to •iplier out by that rule what it would ‘'profit i man if he gain the whole world and lose jis own souL ’ But there is one mathematical igure that is crowned above all others in he Bible, it is the numeral seven, which he Arabians got from India, and all follow ng ages have taken from the Arabians. It itands between the figure six and the figure light. In the Bible, all the other numerals jo\v to it. Over three hundred times is it mentioned n the Scriptures, either alone or compounded pith other words. In Genesis the week is ounded into seven days, and I use my text lecause there this numeral is for the first produced in a journey which halts not un il in the close of the Book of Revelations its aonument is built into the wall of heaven in rvsolite, which in the strata of precious (ones is the seventh. In the Bible we find hat Jacob had to serve seven years to get lacliael, but she was well worth it; and oretelling the years of prosperity and fam ie in Pharaoh's time the seven fat oxen re eaten up of the seven lean oxen; and ■isdom is said to be built on seven pillars; Hid the ark was left with the Phillistines Even years; and Naaman for the cure of his Btjosy plunged in the Jordan seven times; l l dead child, when Elisha breathed into K mouth, signaled its arrival back into Hn-rioiisne.'S by sneezing seven times; to the Euse that Ezekiel saw in vision there were Bren steps; the walls of Jericho before they Ell down were compassed seven days; Bsckariah describes a stone with seven eyes; E c eanse a leprous house the door must be Briukled with pigeon's blood seven times; B Canaan were overthrown seven nations; ■n one occasion Christ cast out seven devils; K a mountain he fed a multitude of people Kth even loaves, the fragments left filling Ben baskets: and the closing passages of Ke Bible are magnificent and overwhelming Eth the imagery ma le up of seven churches, Ben stars, seven candlesticks, seven seals, Ben angels, and seven heads, and seven ■owns. and seven horns, and seven spirits, El seven vials, and seven plagues, and seven Bunders. (Yea, this numeral seven seems a favor- I with the Divine mind outside as well as Bide the Bible, for are there not seven pris- Katie colors? And when God with the rain- Bv wrote the comforting thought that the ■orld would never have another deluge, ha (rote it on the scroll of the sky in ink of Ben colors. He grouped into the Pleiades Ben stars. Rome, the capital of the ■orld, sat on seven hills. When God Buld make the most intelligent thing on Eth, the human countenance. He fash ■ns it with seven features—the two ears, the Bo eyes, the two nostrils and the mouth, ■ea, our body lasts only seven years, and shed it for another body after Bother seven years, and so on, for we are, ■to our bodies, septennial animals. So the Bn'eral seven ranges through nature and ■rough revelation. It is the number of ■rt'ection, and so I use it while I speak of Be seven candlesticks, the seven stars, the Hten seals and tbp-seven thunders. ■The seven go’den candlesticks were and are le churches. Mark you, the churches never Bre, and never can be, candlqz. They are Blv candlesticks. They are not the light, It they are to hold the light. A room in E night might have in it five hundred can , Bricks, and yet you could not see your Bf i before your face. The only use of a Edlestick. and the only use of a church, is ■ hold up the light. You see it is a dark ■rid, the night of sin, the night of trouble, ■ night of superstition, the night of perse lion, the night of poverty, the night of ■kness. the night of death; aye, about fifty <Bhts have interlocked their shadows. The Bole race goes stumbling over prostrated |Bes and fallen fortunes, and empty Hr barrels, and desolated cradles, and death Bs. Oh. how much we have use for all the ■en candlesticks, with lights blazing from ■ top of each one of them! Light of par- B for all sin! Light of comfort for all Bible! Light of encouragement for all ■pondency! Light of eternal riches for ■poverty! Light of rescue for all persecu- B Light of reunion for all the bereft' Bit of heaven for all the dying! And that Bt is Christ, who is the the Light that ■ii yet irradiate the hemispheres. But ■rk you, when I say churches aije not can- B- but candlesticks, I cast no slur on can- Bticks. believe in beautiful candlesticks. The dipsticks that God ordered for the ancient ernacle were something exquisite. They . e a dream of beauty carved out of loveli- I s. They were made of hammered gold, i >d in a foot of gold and had six branches told blooming a'l along in six lilies of gold h. and lips of gold from which the candles ed their holy Are. And the best houses in : city ought to the churches —the best It, the best ventihated, the best swept, the t windowed and the best chandeliered. cabins may do in neighborhoods most of the people live in log ins: but let there be palatial churches regions where many of the peo live in palaces. Do not have a better e for yourself than for your Lord and g- Do not live in a parlor and put your Sst in a kitchen. These seven candlesticks r hich I speak were not made out of pew >r iron; they were golden candlesticks, sold Is not only a valuable but a bright al. Have everything about your church ht—your ushers with smiling faces, your ic jubilant, your hand shaking cordial, t, entire service attractive. Many people that in church they must look dull in ■'' to le reverential, and many whose ' s in other kinds of assemblage show all > different phases of emotion, £ in church no more expression than back wheel of a hearse. Brighten up and esponsive. If you feel like weeping, >. If you feel like smiling, smile, if feel indignant at some wrong assailed i the pulpit, frown. Do not leave your P'dnessand resiliency home because it is lay morning. If as officers of a church meet people at the church door with a k look, and have the music black, and Minister in black preach a black sermon, bom invocation to benediction have the 'ession black, few will < ome, and those do come will wish they had not come al ’Men candlesticks! Scour up the six ■on each branch,and know that the more y and bright they are, the more tit they p hold the li lit. But a Christless church damage to the world rather than a good. l n 'oH stabled his cavalry horses in St s Cathedral, and many now use the p ll a place in which to stable their ties and worldliness. A worldly church ai dipstick without the candle, and it l ,s prototype in St. Sophia, in Con tinop’e, bnijt to the glory of God by Con :r'e but ban-formed to base uses by panned tiie Se ond. Built out of colored i; f- cupoa with twenty-four win -1 p .'. iarin g to the height of 180 feet; in - one great bewilderment of llc - galleries supported by eight columns porphyry and 6ixty-seven oo umns of n jasper; nine bronze doors with alto o-work fascinating to the eye of any Va ses and vestments encrusted with Ihnner of precious stones. Four walls <- with indescribable splendor. Though ”as cheap the budding cost one million hundred thousand, dollars. Ecc.esi ~ structure almost supernatural in P and majesty. But Mohammedanism 1 down from the walls of that ip? all. the saintly Christian images.and T, ' n the dome the figure of the cross Jripod out that the crescent of the bar -nrk might be substitute#!. A great but no Christ! A gorgeous candle ■but no candle! Ten thousand such , « w ould not give the world as much s one home-made tallow candle by which lost nigfrb sortie grandmo'iier in toe <£ghties put on her Spectacles and read the of David in largrtlype. Up with the <’hu”'cheH. by all means! Hundreds of them, thousands of them, and the more the better. But let each one be a blaze of heavenly light making the world brighter and brighter till the last shadow has disappeared, and the last of the suffering children of God shall have reached the land where they have no tif*>d of candlestick or “of candle, neither light of the sun, |pr the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign forever and ever.” Seven candlesticks, ths complete number of lights! “Let your light so shine before men that they seeing your good works may glorify your Father which is in heaven,” Turn now in vour Bible to the seven stars. We are distinctly told that they are the min isters of religion. Some of them are large stars, some of them small stars, some of them sweep a wide circuit and some of them a snail circuit, but so far as they are genuine they get their light from the great central sun around whom they make revolution. Let each one keen his own sphere. The solar system would soon be wrecked if the stars instead of keeping their own orbit shuu’u go to hunting down other stars. Ministers of religion should never clash. But in all the centuries of the Christian Church some of these stars have been hunt ing an Edward Irving or a Horace Bush nell or an Albert Barnes; and the star* that were in pursuit of the other stars lost their own orbit and some of them could never again find it. Alas for the heresy hunters 1 The best way to de stroy error is to preach the truth. The best way to scatter darkness is to strike a light. There is in immensity room enough for all the stars, and in the church room enough for all the ministers. The ministers who give up righteousness and the truth will get punishment enough anyhow, for they are •‘the wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever, ’ But I should like as a minister when I am dying to be able truthfully to*sav what a captain of the English army.fallen at the head of his col umn. and dying on the Egyptian battlefield, said to Gen Wolesley, who came to condole with him: “I led them straight; didn’t I lead them straight, General?' 1 God has put us ministers as captains in this battlefield of truth against error. Great at last will be our chagrin if we fall leading the people the wrong way; but great will be our gladness if when the battle is over we can hand our sword back to our great Commander saying: “Lord Jesus! IVe led the people straight: didn’t we lead them straight?” Those ministers who go off at a tangent and preach some other gospel are not stars but comets, and they flash across the heavens a little while and make people stare, and throw down a lew meteoric stones, and then go out of sight if not out of existence.Oh,brethren in the ministry, let us remember that God calls us st irs, and our business is to shine and to keep our own sphere, anil then when we get done trying to light up the darkness of this world, we will wheel into higher spheres, and in us shall be fulfilled the promise “they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.” Ah! the ministers are riot all Peck sniffs and canting hypocrities, as some would have you think! Forgive me if, h iv ing in your presence at other times glorified the medical profession and the legal profes sion and the literary profession—l glorify my own. I have seen them in their homes and heard them in their pulpits, and a grander array of men never breathed, and the Bible figure is not strained when it calls them stars: and whole constellations of glorious ministers have already taken their places on high where they shine even brighter than they shone on earth: Edward N. Kirk, of the Congregational Church; Stephen H. Tyng, of the Episcopal Church; Matthew Simpson, of the Methodist Church; John Dowling, of the Baptist Church; Samuel K. Talmage, of the Presbyterian Church; Dr. DeWitt, of the Reformed Church; John Chambers, of the Independent Church; and there I stop, for it so happens that I have mentioned the seven stars of the seven churches. 1 pass on to another mighty Bible seven,and they are the seven seals. St. John in vision saw a scroll with seven seals, and he heard an angel cry: “Who is worthy to loose the seals thereof?” Take eight or ten sheets of foolscap paper, paste them togecher and roll them into asi roll, and have the scroll at seven different places sealed with sealing wax. You unroll the scroll till you come to one of these seals, and then you can go no further until you break that seal; then unroll again until you come to another seal and you can go no further until you break that seal; then you go on until all the seven seals are broken, and 4he contents of the entire scroll are revealed. Now, that scroll with soven seals held by the ancel was the prophecy of what was to come on the earth; it meant that the knowledge of the future was with God. and no man and no angel was worthy to open it; but the Bible says Christ opened it and broke all the seven seals. He broke the first seal and un rolled the scroll, and there was a painting of a white horse, and that meant prosperity and triumph for the Roman empire, and so it really came to pass that for ninety years virtuous emperors succeeded each other, Nerva, Trajan and Antoninus. Christ in the vision broke the second seal and unrolled again and there was a painting of a red horse, and that meant bloodshed, and so it really came to pass, and the next ninety years were red with assass nations and wars. Then Christ broke the third seal and un rolled it and there was a painting of a black horse, which in all literature means fam ine. oppression and taxation and so it really came to pass. Christ went on until He broke all the seven seals anii opened all the scroll. Well, the future of all of us is a sealed scroll, and I am glad that no one but Christ can open it. Do not let us join that class of Christians in our day who are trying to breax the seven seals of the future. They are trying to peep into things they have no business with. They try to foretell what is going to come to them and what is going to come on the earth. They know nothing about it. Christ is the only one who can break the seal ol : the future. Bible prophecy was not written to help us to tell things in the future, but to have us, when the things actually do come to pass, compare them with prophecy and so learn God’s foreknowledge and the in spiration of the Scriptures. But you go iuto the study of the prophecies in order to find out what is going to happen a year from now, or twenty years from now, or one thousand years from now, and I will make a prophecy of my own, and that is that you will have your brain addled, if you do not positively get into a public or private insane asylum. ” wiiere the greatest of expounders and preachers of pro, hecy ended his life a few years since,nrnl where you may regale the visitorsofr.be nstitotion by incoherent mum filings over something from Daniel or Keveia tions about the leopard which means Greece, and the bear which means Medo-Persia, and the image with the great toes. VV hat a mental wreck did the persistent attempt to forestall events make of that miracle of lire chers Edward Irving, of London, it would take several mad houses to ho.d the demented victims of the improper use of the i ropbecies of Daniel and Revelation. What ! are not those books to be studied ? Y es. No part of the Bible is more important Neither is there any more import int shelf in thatapothecar s store than the shelf on which are the bel a donna and the morphine, hut he more care ful in using them than in the use of penper mint and ginger. Keep your hands off of the seven seals. Christ will break 1 1 icm soon enough. Don’t go to seme necro caller or sp ritualist or soothsayer or fortune-teller so find out what is going to ha pen to yourself, or vour family, or your mends. W ait till ( brist breaks the seal to find out wnetner in vour own personal life or the life of the na ion or the life of the world, it is going to be the white horse of prosperity or the red horse of war or the black horse of iamine. You will soon enough see him paw and hear him neigh. Take care of the present and the future will take care of itself If a man live seventy rears, his biography is in a scroll havingat [east seven seals: and lot him not during tne first ten years of life try to look into the twentie-q nor the twenties mt° the thirtbs, nor the thirties int- the forties, nor the forties into the fifties, nor the fifties into the sixties, nor the sixties into the *«Venties. From the way the years have got . habit of racing along, I guess you will no*- have to wait a great while before ah the seals of the future are broken. I would not give two cents to know how long I am going to live, or in what day of what year the world Is going to be de molished. I would rather give a thousand dollars not to know. Suppose some one could break the next seal in the scroll of your per sonal history, and should tell you that on the 4th of July. 1890, you were to die, the sum mer after the next: how much would you be good for between this and that? It would from now until then be a prolonged funeral. You would be counting the montns and the days, and your family and friends would be counting* them; and next 4th of July you would rub your hands together and whine—• “Oneyear from to-day I amtoga Dearme! I wish no one had told me so long before. I wish that necromancer had not broken the seal of the future.” And meeting some undertaker you wouid say: “I hope you will keep yourself free for an engagement the Fourth of July, 1890. That day you will be needed at my uOiuo. To save time you might as well take my measure now,five feet,eleven inches.” I am glad that Christ dropped a thick veil over the hour of our demise and j the hour of the world’s destruction when he said: “Of that day and hour knowetli no man: no, not the angels, but my Father only.” Keep your hands off the seven seals. There is another mighty seven of the Bible, viz., the seven thunders. What those thunders mean we are not told, and there has been much guessing about them; but they are to come, we are told,before the end of all things, and the world cannot get along without them. Thunder is the speech of lightning. There are evils in our world which must be thundered down, and which will require at least seven volleys to pros trate them. We are all doing nice, delicate, soft-handed work in churches and reforma tory institutions against the evils of the world, and much of it amouuts to a teaspoon dipping out the Atlantic Ocean, or a clam shell digging away at a mountain, or a tack hammer smiting the Gibraltar. What is needed is thunderbolts, and at least seven of them. There is the long line of fraudulent commercial establishments; every stone in the foundation, and every brick in the wall, and every nail in the rafter made out of dishonesty; skeletons of poorly paid sewing girls’ arms in every beam of that establish ment; human nerves worked into every figure of that embroidery; blood in the deep die of that proffered upholstery; billions of dollars of accumulated fraud “ntrenched in massive storehouses and stock companies manipulated by un scrupulous men until the monopoly is defiant of all earth and all heaven How shall the evil be overcome? By treatises on the maxim: Honesty is the best policy? Or by soft repetition of the golden rule that we must “do to others as we would have them do to us?” No, it will not be done that way. What is needed, and what will come, is the seven thunders. There is drunkenness backed up by a capital mightier than in any other business. In toxicating liquors enough in this country to float a navy. Good grain to the amount of 57,950,000 bushels annually destroyed to make the deadly liquid. Breweries, distilleries, gin shops, rum palaces, liquor associations, bur nation spending annually seven hundred and forty millions of dollars for rum, result ing in bankruptcy, disease, pauperism, filth, assassination, death, illimitable woe. \V hat will stop them? High license? No. Thunder bolts will do it; nothing else will. Beveu thunders! Yonder are intrenched infidelity and athe ism with their magazines of literature scoff ing at our Christianity; their Hoe print ing presses busy day and night. There are their blaspheming apostles, their drunken Tom Paines and libertine Voltairea of the present as well as of the past, reinforced by all the powers of darkness from highest demon to lowest imp. What will extirpate those monsters of infidelity and atheism? John Brown’s shorter catechism about “W ho made you?” or Westminster catechism about “What is the chief end of man?” No, Thunderbolts! The seven thunders! For the impurities of the world empalaced as well as cellared, epauletted as w ell as rag ged, enthroned as well as ditched: for cor rupt legislation which at times makes our State and National capitals a hi mispheric stench: tor superstitions that keep whole na tions in squalor, century after century, their Juggernauts crushing, their knives lacerat ing. their wateis drowning, their funeral pyres burning, the seven thunders! Oh, men and women, disheartened at the had way things often go, hear you not a rumbling down the sky of heavy artillery, coming in on our side, the seven thunders of the Almighty? Don’t let us try to wield them ourselves; ihey are too heavy and to fiery for us to handle; but God can and God will; and when all mercy has failed and all milder means are exhausted, then judgment will begin. Thunderbolts! Depend upon it,, that wtiat is not done under the flash of the seven candlesticks will be done by the tramp ling of the seven thunders. But I leave this imperial and multipotent aumeral seven, where the Bible leaves it, imbedded in the finest wall that was ever built, or ever will be constructed, the wall of heaven, it is the seventh strata of precious Btones that make up that wall. After nam ing six of the precious stones in that wall, the Bible cries out—“the sev enth chrysolite!” The chrysolite is an exquisite green, and in that seventh layer of the heavenly wall shall Re preserved forever the dominant color of the earth we once inhabited. I have sometimes been sad dened at the thought that this world, according to science and revelation, is to be blotted out of existence, for it is such a beautiful world. But here in this layer of the heavenly wall, where the numeral seven is to be embedded, this strata of green is to be photographed, and embalmed, and perpetuated, the color of the grass that ;overs the earth, the color ot the foliage ■hat fills the forest, the co’or of the ieep sea. One glance at that green chrvsol ,te, a million years after this planet ha? been extinguished, will bring to mind just how it looked in summer and spring, and we will say to those who were born blind on earth, and never saw at all in this world, after they have obtained full eyesight in heaven: “If you would know how the earth appeared in June and August, look at that seventh layer of the heavenly _ wall, the green of the chrysolite.” And while we stand there and talk, spirit with spirit, that old color of-the earth which h|d more sway than all the other colors put together, will bring back to us our earthly experience, and noticing that this green chrysolite is the seventh layer of crystalized magnificence we may bethink ourselves of the domination- of that numeral seven over all other numerals, and thank God that in the dark earth we left behind us we so long enjoyed the light of the seven golden candlesticks, and were all of us permitted to shine among the seven stars of more or less magnitude, and that ail the seven sec,ls of the mysterious future have been broken wide open for us by a loving Christ, and that the seven thunders having done their work have ceased reverberation, and that the numeral seven, which did such tremendous work in the history of nations on earth, has been given such a high p'ace in tnat Niagara of colors, the wall or heaven, “the first foundation of which is jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite” “When >-hall these eyes thy heaven-built wall* And nearly gales behold. Thy bulwarks with salvation strong, Aud streets of shining gold?’’ The prison night school at Trenton, N. .J., which was opened last summer by Keeper Patterson, has , proved to be a gratifying success. The men have be come greatly interested and the disci pline of the prison has greatly improved. All the 194 convicts who have been un der instruction have made g-eat pro gress, and a few have developed great patitude for Jearniug. The school will be continued. A CITY WITUm A CITY. INTERESTING TX'FAS'U'RES AND FEATURES OF MOSCOW.' The Kremlin's Threw Poeuliar Pictures— A Russian's Fondness for Horses ar»*A Boots. Moscow, says a writer «r the .Detroit Free duress, is a lively, bustling' cl. *7 of nearly 1,000,000 of people, and one charm of it consists in the ooaiuiingl.’ng of the new and the old. It is a ciYy within a city, and this latter is sur rounded by a city greater still. For there is the Kremlin, with its moat and its wall, and its many towers and gates. At some distance outside of this stands another wall, pierced by gates here and there, while further out still is the greatet part of thebusine>s and residence portion of the city. Like Rome, it is built upon seven hills, but here the likeness ends. To an American, of course, the greatest interest centers in the Kremlin, and doubtless to the Russian, too, for everything connected with it to him is of the most sacred character. One of the main approaches is through the “Redeemer’s Gate,” so called because Napoleon endeavored to destroy it in vain, and the Russians believe that it was the direct interposition of Christ himself that drove him back and saved the citadel. From that day to this no cne, Czar or peasant, Asiatic, European or American, goes through without uncovering his head. Inside the Kremlin are three cathe drals; the Cathedral of the Annuncia tion, where all the Czars are baptized, the Cathedral of the Assumption, where all are crowned, and the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael, where all the Fmoerors were buried up to the time of Peter the Great. These are all, ai are most of the churches iu Mom otv, built in the Moorish style of architecture and m >st elaborate y decorated, l ecentiy,. in the Church of the Assumption, which was being renovated, several very ancient pictures were brought to 1 ght on the walls, and these have been carefully pre served. One of them represents several s enes from the life of Jonah, and is very unique in its way. On one side the prophet is being thrown overboard from an exceedingly rickety-looking ship. Then a creature with big eyes and a big mouth and a tail (in ail about Jonah’s size) is doing his best to “take him in.” Rut the clowning masterpiece of the whole picture is where Jonah —now safe on land —is bidding the whale good-bye in the most elaborate and polite Russian manner. Near by these churches is the Tower Oi Ivan the Great, very lofty and con taining some fifty-two bells, many of them of very large size. At the foot of the tower is the “Tsar Kolokoi,” or the “King Bell,” “thegreat bell of Moscow,” of which we have heard all our lives. It is immense, there is no doubt of that! It is twenty feet high and sixty feet in cir cumference, and is about two feet through in the thickest part. Resides these cathedrals and towers and this bell, there are also the palace, the treasury, where are many valuable crowns and jewels and other articles of interest, the arsenal and Other buildings, all inside the Kremlin, and forming a part of its wall. Rut the finest modern church in all Russia, aud, it is claimed, in Europe, is the Church of St. Saviour, or “the New Church,” as they call it. It was built to commemorate the defeat of the French in 1812, and has only recently been completed. Ev(*ty archi tect, every builder, every workmau and every artist employed upon was a Russian. More than forty years’ con tinuous labor, and over 40,000,000 of roubles, they say, were spent upon it. aud the result is magnificent. It is well worth a journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow to see this one building alone. The frescoes are by Russia’s two most celebrated painter--, and will not suffer by comparison with any, be they ancient or modern. Near by is the Cathedral of St. Basil, which was built in 1554 by Ivan the Terrible. It is a very unique, mosque like looking structure, and the story goes that Ivan was so anxious that no other should ever be erected like it, that, as soon as it was completed, he destroyed the plans and put out the architect’s eyes—a little pleasantry which, it seems, he often indulged in with his friends, and which is certainly in keeping with his character. Rut he need have had no fears that any one would have copied his old church, for it is hideous in the extreme. In Moscow, ns well as everywhere in Russia, the horses are very fine and very fa<t. They have the build of race horses, with their slim legs and far reaching necks. Even some of the droskies have full blooded horses, and their drivers are able to obtain a fancy price for their use. Horses and boots are the two things that Russians seem to pride themselves u; on.. They may not have any stock ings—and few of the lower classes wear them at all—but boots they must and will have- Boots with high morocco tops, and worn wilh the pantaloons tucke 1 into the tops, so that every inch shows; and then, like the Mexican with his spurs, they are dressed. They are a very polite people, even down to the children. I saw one little fellow in Mos cow, not over six or eight years old. take off his hat to another boy of about the same age and then shake hands with him. Host a Dapper Broker Got “Pointers.” Here is an amusing instance of some of the methods employed by Wall street brokers to get information that is sup- Sosed to affect the price of stocks. A Tew street house that deals largely in St. Paul learned through the society columns of the public prints that a niece of “Phil’’ Armour, virtually President of the St. Paul road, was visiting friends in Philadelphia. It happened that a dapper young clerk in the employ ot the New street concern had met Miss Armour at a tennis tourney at Elberon. One of his employers knew this and he directed the clerk to travel post-haste to the Cam den suburb, call qu the young lady, and get from her in a ni< e. unsuspected way all information passible about the great pork packer’s health and in regard to the likelihood of his resignation from the St. Paul directory. The clerk dis charged his mission satisfactorily, and the result of his call on Miss Armour enabled his firm to make a speedy and profitable change of base in the great granger stock.— New York TeUgram. HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS. Renovating Clothing?. Cleanse men’s dark-colored clothing with a quart of coffee, to which a tea spoonful of ammonia has beeit added. Very strong coffee may be diluted with half its quantity of water. Use a sponge, first cleaning spots, then going over the whole garment, which should afterward be hung on the back of a chair and dried in the shade. Paint spots are removed with ammonia and turpentine; e jual parts. Old spots may need saturating two or three times. Mash in soap suds. To Make Cottage* Cheese. Cottage cheese is best when made a» soon as the milk is thick and firm, be fore' it becomes disagreeably acid.' Heat the milk by placing the par* over boiling water, or by pouring boiling water slowly into the milk, stirring constantly in both cases. Heating to ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit, or, if you have no ther mometer, about as warm as r*w milk, will coagulate the albumen statliciently to separate it from the whey. Pour in a cloth to drain. To each pint <of tiie drained curd, add butler one-li»lf the 3ize of an egg, and one half pint of sweet cream; then add salt or l not as suits your taste. Place iu molds or bowl?, which should be previously dipped in cold water, and, when wanted, turn out and serve. Made in this way, it is as much superior to that which has beau heated till the albumen is tough, as a nicely boiied egg is to a hard-boiled one. The principle is the same with both these articles of food. Too great heat renders the albumen tough, in soluble, unpleasant to the taste and difficult of digestion. —Prairie Fanner. Good Bread a Family Necessity. The health and happiness of a family depend, to a certain extent, on good, weil-baked bread. At all events, our enjoyment would be greater if bread were only better prepared. The best breatf is made from a mixture of flour— such as is generally sold iu our markets —water, salt and yeast; nothing else. To make good yeast, take as many dry hops as-you can grasp in your hand, boil in two quarts of water for twenty min utes; peel and grate four good-sized raw potatoes; strain the hop water while boiling hot over the potatoes, stirring until well cooked or the mix ture thickens like starch; a.id oue-halt cup of sugar,one-fourth cup of salt, and, when cool, one cup of good yeast. Stir in one quart and a half of Indian meal, set to rise (about six or seven hours is sultcient) in a warm p ace, and when light mix in more meal, press into cakes, put in the sun to dry. Dry as quickly as possible. When perfectly dry put up in air-tight pails. This yeast is much more handy and quite as reliable a 3 the liquid yeast. To make the bread take three quarts of flour, a teaspoonful of salt and one cup of yeast dissolved in a quart of water; mix into a dough. Knead this until it is perfectly smooth. Set in a warm place to-rise at night. In the morning divide into loaves and put into the pans; let it rise light, about an hour. Rake one hour in a steady oven. To t#ll when bread is perfectly baked break off one loaf after it has been baking one hour and press wilh the finger; if it springs back quiekly%t is done; if it retains the impression like putty it is not. To keep bread from running over, pin a narrow strip of brown paper round the pan, letting it come an inch above the edge. The should be cool when put in the bread box, otherwise it will mould. —Sew York World. Household Hints. Powdered borax sprinkled on shelves will drive away ants. Soda crackers are much nicer heated in the oven bel'o:e using. Lye made of wond ashes will soften hard putty in a few minutes. Put a pail of water into the tubs directly after using, and they will not leak when wanted for use. To clean nickel on stoves usp soda wet with ammonia. Apply with an old tooth brush and rub with a woolen cloth. Knife handles should never lie in water. A handsome knife, or one u ed for cooking, is soon spoiled in this way. A speedier and cleaner way to remove the slun of new potatoes, than the com mon practice of scraping with a kniie, is to “use a scrubbing brush.” Milk and butter should be kept en tirely away from other articles of 4ood, as they absorb odors and flavors so rapidly they soon become unfit for use. A little turpentine added as they boil will whiten and sweeten c.othes without injuring the most delicate fabric. For garments very much soiled, use a spoon ful of kerosene. Turpentine mixed with carbolic acid and kept in open vessels about the room will, it is said, greatly lessen the risk of contagion in scarlet fever, diphtheria and kindred diseases. If a new broom be immersed in boiling water until it is quite cold, and then thoroughly dried in the air, it will be far mo e pleasant to use and will last much longer. Frequent moistening ol the broom is couduc ve to its usefulness and also saves the carpet. New stove or range furniture is some times so much rusted as to make the use of it very inconvenient. Put into a rusty kettle as much hay as it will hold, fill it with water and boil many hours. At night set it aside, and the next day boil it again. If it is not entirely fit for use, repeat the process. It will ceriainly be effectual. The experienced chef wraps his fish in a sheet of paper beforn boiling it. Square napkins of cheese-cloth are better. A sheet 6f paper may be placed inside the napkin, which should be pinned ir ■ place. In this way the fish may be lifted out of the pot with danger of breaking apart, and be serve 1 without being mangled with the fork. Growing a Tree in His Windpipe. Alvey Clabaugh, a youth of about twelve years, residing with his father in Frederick, Md., ab ut four years ago swallowed a persimmon -eed. which was supposed to have lodged in his throat, and which at times caused h m consid erable inconvenience. Several days ago it became quite painful and a doctor was called in, who stated that the seed was sprouting where, it had lodged ia h;4 wind pi pe, — Pk iladel)>h ia Times. I CHILDREN’S COLUMN. A ft by ft Rhyme. A queer little boy who had been to school, And was op to all sorts of tricks, Recovered that 9, when upside down,- Wouid pass for the figure 6. So when asked his age by a good old datßA The comical youngster said, “I’m 9 when I stand on my feet like this, . But 6 when I stand on my head I” —[Harper’s Young People, n ullfml OroDiv. Sometimss a grouse loses all hei brood but one, and, on one such occa* *ion, the mother’s actions were mucb like those related si the chuck-will’s Widow. At the appearance of the gun ner she threw herself at his feet as Usual, and for a moment exercised all her arts and wiles;, butt tho little one, not daring fo leave her, rendered them useless. Seeing this, sh» hesitated a moment, then seizing tine chick by its down feather? with her bill and rising, she fliew away with it. She disappeared in a thicket, leaving the gunner wonder ing at her ingenuity. Tho hrantcr who noted Shis was Wilson,, the famous American ornithologist,, and he sav3: “It would have' been impossible for me to hare k-illsd this affectionate mother, who hadiexhibited such an example of presence of mind, reason and sound judgment as must have oonviaeed the most bigoted advocates of mere in stinct. Nicholas. Jin Bitg-lti’a Go-Dinar'. On Achill island, on the west coast of Ireland, a tamo eaglo adopted two goose eggs—sat on them and hatched one of them, rearing the little gosling with all tho affection of a real mother. This happened soma timo ago. The gosling grew up, fl mrished, mated it self, and finally anade the oagle the hap py grandmother of throe other little goslings. Now tho eagle resumes all her old cares. She is even more fussy and anxious over this brood than she was over their mother. She bogs them to share her food; they shelter under her wings alternately with their own mother; and, indeed, they spend more timo in the cage than roaming about with their own parent. Tho goose and goslings have free access to the eagle; and when they are with her she is always very much excited if strangers approached in her desire to prefect them. The eagle’s mister, Mr. Pike (in whoso lovely grounds she has lived for fifteen is the only person she allows in her cage. He may caress her and rub her legs, while she flutters with pleasure; and she seem - quite happy except when troubled with feara about her foster grandchildren.—(Pic ayune. Send'anti tile R.ibies. It was tho last day of vacation, yet Betty was very happy tor she had found some new babies—play babies. She had been out in the tall corn that morning with grandma, and they had come upon some tiny green pumpkins, and grandma had told her that she used to dress them up in little pinafores and play with them for dollies when she was a little girl. So that afternoon Betty had a whole row of them set up on the big, Hat rock at the edge of the wood where she had played “keep house’’all summer. There was Sarah Jane and Ann Miria and Tabittra, beside a Polly and Patty and Catherine. Grandma named them. Cousin Tim came over to p ay with. Betty, and he brought Scud along. Scud was a goat. Now Scud was always hungry, which was not to be wondered at, being a goat, but to have . him in a family of babies, especially when the babies were as toothsome as were Betty’s, was some thing of a trial. He would keep nibbling thenj whenever Betty’s or Tim’s eye was not upon him. First,he bit a piece out of Sarah Jane, then nipped Ann Maria, and finally gnawed the green all off one side of Patty. Then Betty got a string and tied Scud to a bush, aud he bleated so loudly that Betty and Tim ran down to the orchard to get him some sweet apples. They were not long away, they thought, but when they came back Scud was gone, and tliero was nothing left on the rock but six little pinafores and a few pumpkin soeds.--[Youth’s Companion. Wonders ol Modern Invention. There is an establishment in Philadel phia where some of the wonders of modern invention are illustrated by a combination of patents. A person may talk into tho graphophone, and while he is sitting in front of the instrument, see the operator tran-cribc his words from the graphophone to the keyboard of a type-setting machine, from the casting-oox of which an automatic ar rangement carries the typo to a small printing press, where tho impression is at once struck off. Literal Construction. Irate father (to young B.nks) —Se« hero, young man, didn t I tell you nevor to enter my gate again? Young Binks—Ye?, sir, and I didn’t; i Cium over the fence.—[Ju ige.