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REV. DR. TALMAGE.
•t
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S
SUNDAY SERMON.
Subject; “Sewards for the Dull a?
Well as the Brilliant.”
Text: “ Unto one He gave five talents, to
another two, and to another one; to every
vian according to his several ability."—
Matt. xxv., 15
Many of the parables of- Jesus Christ were
more grapic In the times in which He lived
than they are now, because circumstances
have so much changed. In olden times, w hen
a man wanted to wreak a grudge upon his
neighber, after the farmer had scattered the
seed wheat over the field and was expecting
the harvest, his avenger would go across the
same field with a sack full or the seed of
darnel gress, scattering that seed all
over the held, and of course it would sprout
up and spoil the whole crop; and it was to that
that Christ referred in the parable when He
spoke of the tares being sown among tho
wheat. In this land cur farms are fenced
off, and the wolves have been driven to the
mountains, and we cannot fully under
stand the meaning of the parable in
regard to the shepherd and the lost
sheep. But the par ame from which 1 speak
to-day is founded on something we all under
stand. It is built on money, and that means
the same in Jerusalem as in New York. It
means the same to the serf as to tho Czar,
and to the Chinese coolie as to the Emperor.
Whether it is made out of bone or brass,
or iron or copper, or gold or silver, it
speaks all languages without a stammer.
The parable of the text runs in this wise:
The owner of a large estate was about to
leave home, and he ha t some money that he
wished proper iy invested, and so he called to
gether his servants, and said:
“I am going away now, and I wish you
would take this money and put it to the very ;
best possible use, and when i come back re- j
turn to me the interest.” To one man he
gave sl*4oo, to others he gave lesser sums of
money: to the least he gave SIBBO. He left '
home and was gone for years, and then re- :
turned. On hi 3 arrival he was anxious to
know about his wordiy affairs, and j
he called his servants together to j
report to him. “Let me know,” said he, j
“what have you been doing with my prop- j
erty since I have been gone.” The man who
had received the $9400 came up and said: “I
invested that money. 1 got good interest for
it. 1 have in other ways rightly employed
it; and here are SIB,BOO. You see i have
doubled what you gave me.” “That’s very
good,” said the owner of the estate; “that’s
grandly done. 1 admire your faithful
ness and industry. 1 shall reward you.
Wei done —well done.” Other servants
came up with smaller accumulations. After
a while, I see a man dragging himself
along, with hLs head hanging. I know from
the ivay he comes in that he is a lazy fellow.
He comes up to the owner of the estate and
says: “Here are those $1,880.” “What!”
says the owner of the property, “haven’t
you made it accumulate anything”’
“Nothing—nothing.” “Why, what have you
been about all these years:” “Oh, I was
afraid that if I invested it, I might somehow
lose it. There are your $1880.” Many a
man started out with only a crown in his
pocket, and achieved a fortune; but this
fellow of my text,with SIBBO, has gained not
one farthing. Instead of confessing his in
dolence, he goes to work to berate his
master, for indolence is most always im
pudent and impertinent. Of course, he loses
his place and is discharged from the service.
The owner who went out into a far country
is Jesus Christ going from earth to heaven.
The servants spoken of in the text are
members of the Church. The talents are our
different qualifications of usefulness given
in different proportions to different people.
The coming back of the owner is the Lord
Jesus returning at the judgment to make
final settlement. The raising of some of
these men to be rulers over five or two cities,
is the exaltation of the righteous at the last
day, while the casting out of the idler is the
expulsion of all those who have misimproved
their privileges.
Learn first from this subject.that becoming
a Christian.is merely going out to service.
Jf you have any romantic idea about becom
ing a Christian, I want now to scatter the
romance. If you enter into the kingdom of
God, it will be going into plain, practical,
honest, continuous, persistent Christian
work. I kuow there are a great many people
who have fantastic and romantic notions
about this Christian life, but ho who serves
God with all the energies of body, mind, and
Bo*l is a worthy servant, mid he who do s not
is an unworthy servant. When the war trum
pet sounds, all the Lord’s soldiers must
march, however deep the snow may be, or
however fearful the odds against them. Under
our Government we may have Colonels, and
Captains, and Generals in time of peace, but in
the Church of God there is no peace until tho
last great victory shall have been achieved.
But I have to tell you it is a voluntary ser
vice. People are not brought into it as
slaves were dragged from Africa. A young
man goes to an artisan and says:
“Sir, i want to learn your trade. I,
by this indenture, yield myself to your care
and service for the next four, or five, or
seven years. I want you to be my master,
and I want to be your servant.” Just so, ii
we come into the kingdom of God at all, ra
must come, saying to Christ: “Be Thou my
master. 1 take Thy service for time and for
eternity. I choose it.’'lt is a voluntary service.
There is no drudgery in it. In cur worldly
callings sometimes our nerves get worn out,
and our head aches, and our physical facul
ties break down; but in this service of the
Lord Jesus, the harder a man works the bet
ter be likes it, and a man in this audience
who has been for forty years serving God en*
joys the employment better that when he first
entered it. Tne grandest honor that can ever bi
bestowed upon you, is to have Christ say to
you on the l>st day: “Well done, good and
faithful servant!”
Learn also from this parable that different
qualifications are given to different people.
The teacher lifts a blackboard, and he draws
a diagram, in order that by that diagram he
may impress the mind of the pupil with the
truth that he has been uttering. And all the
truths of this Bible are drawn out in the
natural world as in a great diagram. Here
is an acre of ground that has ten
'talents. Under a little culture it yields
twenty bushels of wheat to the acre. Here
is another piece of ground that has only one
talent. You may plow it, and harrow it,
and culture it, year after year, but it yields
a mere pittance. So here is a man with ten
talents in the way of getting good and doing
good. He soon, under Christian culture,
viekls great harvests of faith and good work.
Here is another man who seems to have only
one talent, and you may put upon him
the greatest spiritunl culture, but he
yields but little of the fruits of
righteousness. You are to understand that
there are different qualifications for differ
ent individuals. There is a great deal of
ruinous comparison when a man says: “Oh,
if I only had that man’s faith, or that man’s
monet r , or that roan’s eloquence, how f would
serve Uod.” Better take the faculty that
God has given you and employ it in
the right way." The rabbis used to
say, that before the stone and
timber were brought to Jerusalem for the
Temple every stone and piece of timber was
marked; so that before they started for
Jerusalem the architects knew in what p'aco
that particular piece of timber or stone
should fit. And so I have to tell you we are
all marked for some one place in the great
temple of the. Lord, and dp not let us
complain, saying: “1 would' like
to be the foundation stone or
the cap stone.” u? go into the very
place where God intends U 3 to be, and be
satisfied with the position. Your talent may
be in large worldly estate; your talent may be
in personal appearance; your talent may
be in high social position; your talent may
be in a swift pen or eloquent tongue; but
whatever be the talent, it has been given only
for one purpose—practical use. You some
times find a man in the community of whom
you say: “He has no talent at all ;”snd yet that
man may have a hundred talents. His one
hundred talents may be shown in the item of
endurance. Poverty comes, and he endures
it; persecution comes, and he endures it;
sickness comes, and ha endures it. Before
m-u nn l augois hois a specimen of Christian
.patience, and he is really illustrating the
power of Christ’s Guspel, and is
doin'; qs much for the Church, and more
tor the Church, than many more positively
active. If you have one talent, use til it; if
von have ten talents, use them, satisfied with
the fact that we all have different qualifica
tions, nivi teat the Lord decides whether we
shall have one or whether we shall have ten.
I learn also from this parable that the
grace of God was attended to be accumula
tive. When God plants an acorn, He
m ans an oak, and when lie plants a small
amount of grace in the heart. He intends it
to be growthful and enlarge until it over
shadows the whole nature. There are parents
who, at tiie birth of each Mb Id lay aside an
amount of money, investing it, expecting by
accumulat:on and by compound interest that
by the time the child shall come to mid life
this sma'l amount of money will be a for
tune, showing how a small amount of money
will roll up into a vast accumulation. Well,
God sets aside a certain amount of grace for
each one of His spiritual children at his birth,
and it is to goon, and, as by compound in
terest, accumulate, until it shall become an
eternal fortune. Can it be possible that you
have been acquainted with the Lord Jesus for
ton, twenty, thirty years, and that you do
not love Him more now than you did before?
Can it be that you have been cultured in the
Lord’s vineyard, and that Christ finds on you
nothing but sour grapes? You may depend
upon it, if you do not use the talent that Gcd
gave you it will dwindle. The rill that breaks
from the hillside will either widen into a
river or dry up. Tho brightest day started
in the dim twilight. The strongest Christian
man was once a weak Christian. Take the
one talent and make it two; take five and
make them ten; take teu and make them
twenty. The grace of God was intended to
be very accumulative.
Again I learn from the text- that infe
riority of gifts is no excuse for indolence.
This man, with the smallest amount of
money, came growling into the presence of
the owner of the estate, as much as
to say; “If you had given me S9IOO I would
have brought SIB,BOO as well as this other
man. You gave me only slßßo,and I hardly
thought it was worth while to use it at all.
So 1 hid it in a napkin and it produced no
result. It’s because you didn’t give me
enough.” But inferiority of faculties
is no excuse for indolence. Let me say
to the man who has the least qualifications,
by the grace of God he may be made
almost omnipotent. The merchant, whose
cargoes come out from every island of the
Bea, and who, by one stroke of the pen, can
change the whole face of American com
merce, has not so much power as you may
have before God. in earnest, faithful and
continuous prayer. You say you have no
faculty. I)o you not understand that
you might this afternron go into your place
of prayer, and kneel before God, and
bring down upon your soul, and the souls of
others, a blessing so vast that, it would take
eternal ages to compute it? “Oh,” you say,
“I haven’t fleetness of speech. I cant
talk well. I can’t utter what I want to
say.” My brother, can you not quote
one passage of Scripture? Then, take
that one passage of Scripture; carry
it with you everywhere; quote it under
all proper circumstances. With that one
passage of Scripture you may harvest a
thousand souls for God. lam glad that the
chief work of the Church in this day is being
done by the men of one talent. Once in a
while, when a great fortress is to be taken,
God will bring out a great field-piece and
rake all with the firey hail of destruction.
But common muskets do most of the hard
fighting. It took only one Joshua, and the
thousands of common troops, under him, to
drive down the walls of cities, and, under
wrathful strokes, to make nations fly like
sparks from the anvil. It only took one
Luther for Germany, one Zwinglius
for Switzerland, one John Knox
for Scotland, one Calvin for
France, and one John Wesley for England
Dorcas as certainly has a mission to serve as
Paul has a mission to preach. The two mites
dropped by the widow into the poor-box will
be as much applauded as the endowment of
a college, which gets a man’s name into fho
newspapers. The man who kindled the fire
under the burnt offering in the ancient temple
had a fluty as imperative as that of the
high priest, in magnificent robes, walking
’ into the Holy of Holies under the cloud of
Jehovah’s presence. Yes, the men with one
talent are to save the world, or it will never
be saved at all. The men with five or ten
talents are tempted to toil chiefly for them
selves, to build up their ovfn great name,
and work for their own aggrandizement,
and dp nothing for the alleviation of the
world’s woes. The cedar of Lebanon s and
ing oa the mountain seems to hand down the
storms out of the heavens to the earth, but it
oears no rruit. wmre some dwarf pear tree
has more fruit on its branches than it can
carry. Better to have one talent and put it
to full use than five hundred wickedly
neglected.
My subject teaches me that there is go
ing to come a day of solemn settlement.
When the old farmer of the text got home,
he immediately called all the servants about
him and said: “Here is the little account I
have been keeping. I want to see your ac
count, and we will first compare them, and
I’d pay you what I owe you,and you’ll pay mo
wiiafc you owe me. Let us have a settlement.”
Tho day will come when the Lord Jesus Christ
will appear, and will say to you: “What
have you been doing with my property ?
What have you been doing with my facul
ties? What have you been doing with what
1 gave you for accumulative purposes*"
There will be no escape from that settle
ment. Sometimes you cannot get a settle
ment with a man, especially if he owes you.
He postpones and procrastinates, and says:
“i’ll see you next week,” or “i’ll see you next
month." The fact is, he does not want to
settle. But when the great day comes
which I am speaking, there will be no escape
We will havo to face all the bills.
I have sometimes been amazed to see
how an accountant will .rut) up or
down a long line of figures. If I see
ten or fifteen figures in a line, and
I attempt to add them up, and I ad 1 then
two or three times, I make them different
each time. But I have admired the way aa
accountant will take a long line of figures,
and without a single mistake, and with great
celerity, announce the aggregate. Now, in
the last great settlement, there will be
a correct account presented. God has
kept a loug line of sins, a long line of Broken
Sabbaths, a long line of profane words, along
line of discarded sacraments, a long lino of
misimproved privileges. They will all be added
up, and before angels, and devils, and men,
the aggregate will be announced. Oh. that
will be the great day of settlement. I have
to ask the question: “Am I ready for
it?” It is of more importance to me to
answer that question in regard to myself
than in regard to you: and it is of more
importance for you to answer it in regard to
yourself than in regard to me. Every mau
for himself on that day. Every woman for
herself on that day. “If thou be wise, thou
Shalt be wise for thyself: if thou scornest,
thou alone shalt bear it” We are ant to speak
of the last day as an occasion of vocifera
tion—a great demonstration of power and
pomp; but there will be on that day, I think,
u few moments of entire silence. I think a
tremendous, an overwhelming silence. I
think it will be such a silence as the earth
never heard. It will be at the moment when
Ml nations are listening for their doom-
I learn also from tins parable of the cexu
;bat our degrees of happiness in heaven will
De eraduated according to our degrees of
jsefulness on earth. Several of the com
iipiitutors agree in making this parable the
same one as in Luke.whereone man was made
ruler over five cities and another made ruler
»ver two cities. Would it be fair and right
that the professed Christian man who has
lived very near the line between the world
and the Church—the man who has often
somproraised -his Christian character —the
man who has never spoken out
for God—the man who has never
been known as a Christian only on
communion days—the man whose great
struggle has lieen to see how much of the
world he could get and yet win heaven —is it
right to suppose that man will have asf
jrand and glorious a se it in heaven as the
man who gavd all his energies of body, mind
md soul to the service of God? dying
tine entered heaven, but not with
the same startling acclaim as that
which greeted Paul, who had gone
under seorchings, and across dungeons, and
through maltreatments into the kingdom of
glory. One star differs from anther star in
glory, nml they who toil mightily for Christ
on earth shall have a far greater reward than
those who have rendered only half a service.
borne of you are hastening on toward the
reward of the righteous, i want to cheer
you up at the thought that there will be some
uiud of a reward waiting for you. There are
Christian people in this house who are very
near heaven. This week some of you may
pass out into the light of the unset
ting sun. I saw a blind man going
along the road with his staff, and he
kept pounding tho earth and then
Stamping with iiis foot. Isaid to him: “What
do you do that for;” “Oh,” he said, “I can
toll by the sound of the ground when lam
near a dwelling.” And some of you can tell
by the sound of your earthly pathway that
you are coming near to your Father's house.
I congratulate you. Oh, weather-beaten
voyagers, the storms are driving you into the
aarbor. Just as when you were looking for a
friend, you came up to the gates of his house,
and you were talking with the servant, when
your friend hoisted the window and shouted:
“Come in! come in 1” Just so, when you come
to the gate of fhe future world, and you are
talking with death, the black porter at
the gate, methiuks Christ will hoist the
window and say: “Come in! come in! I will
make thee ruler over ten cities.” In antici
pation of that land I do not wonder that
Augustus Toplady, the author of “Rock of
Ages,” declared in his last moment: “I have
nothing more to pray for: God has given
me everything. Surely no man can live on
earth after the glories I have witnessed.” Oh,
my brothers and sisters, how sweet it will be,
after the long wilderness march, to get! homo.
That was a bright moment for the tired
dove in the time of the Deluge when it
found its way safely into the window of
the ark.
GRANT’S FIRST STEP TO FAME.
How the Great General Drilled. His
First Volunteer Company.
Mr. Wallace Pringle, an attorney ot
Indianapolis, was a member of the first
military company organized in Illinois
after Sumter was fired on. This was
the first company which General U. S.
Grant prepared for service in the field.
Mr. Pringle tells an interest ii#? story of
the great captain’s relations with Com
pany F, Twelfth Illinois Infantry. “The
day after Fort Sumter was fired on, the
young men of Galena,” said Mr. Prin-
I gle, “met to organize a military com
; pany. Excitement was at fever pitch,
i At first call five of us stepped forward
and enlisted. I was not 17 years
old, but I was strong and full of fight.
In a few minutes the full company num
ber was enlisted. We were as green as
: country boys ever got to be, but we were
, patriotic. None of us knew a single
military movement. We couldn’t form
a straight line.
“It was suggested that we go down to
Captain Grant, whom we knewas a West
Point graduate, and ask him to become
captain of the company and put us
through tho necessary preparations. We
went to his house in a body and called
him out. Of course he was willing to
serve us, and we were put into the drill
j at once—four hours a day. Meantime
! the citizens procured us uniforms. We
j had no guns, and were obliged to go
' through the manual without arms, but
we were soon ready to go to Springfield.
Gen. Grant knew us all personally, but
he made us work like Turks, just the
same, and the result was that we were
quite soldierly in bearing wliem we em
! barked for the capital.
[ “Everybody in town that could walk
j came down to the train to see us off.
1 That night we missed connections at
i Decatur, and had to lie over six Lours.
| The boys began to scatter, and General
j Grant, seeing that they would fall into
! the hands of the Philistines, called us
; together the common, and for six
i mortal hours kept us going through the
j manual. He held us toge ther by so do
ing, and the entire town came out to see
! us drill. We finally reached Spring
; field, and were presented to the Gover
| nor with a flourish by one of the com
i pany who was oratorically gifted. The
! Governor said it was the best looking
i company that had offered its services,
! and lie was so much taken with our drill
| master, General Grant, that he took him
! from us and made him a member of his
staff’. This was our first experience with
i the great commander.”
The Inventor of Yolapuk.
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Father Schleyer, parish priest of Con
stance, and inventor of the universal
language known as Volapuk. whose
death was erroneously reported a short
time ago, is a scholar and linguist of
celebrity. His birthplace is the Grand
Duchy of Baden, and he first saw the
light in ls:;i. As the inventor of a
language adapted to universal use, he
will live in history.
\ olapuk has been recognized bv many
authorities as an attempt to achieve a
most desirable end, and in its present
incomplete form, consisting of only 17,-
000 words, has been adopted as a means
of intercourse with the outside world by
many houses of business in France, Italy
and Germany Whether it will ever be
come a universal language, taught in
all schools in place of foreign tongues,
remains to be proved. It was introduced
in the year 1880.
Making It Right.
Customer (to head waiter) —“Here,
sir, this clumsy fellow has spilled over
half of my cup of tea down my back.”
Head Waiter (to clumsy waiter,sternly)
“Bring this gentleman a full cup of
tea, instantly.”— New York Sun. .
A Berlin paper openly charges that
Emperor William IS tu« prosecutor of paper*
which pnblishe 1 Emperor Frederick s diary.
BIRDS AS MESSENGERS.
KEEPING and TRAINING THE CAR
RIER PIGEON
»
How This Swift Bird is Boina:
Trained For Both Pleasure and
Utility—Some Speedy Flights.
The keeping and training of carrier
pigeons, says a writer in the New York
fijpoch, is a sport which is growing gradu
ally into popular favor in this country,
and fine pigeon lofts have been estab
lished in many prominent places in and
around New A T ork. The exhibition of
trained homing pigeons at the American
Institute fair last year, and the experi
ment with the birds in carrying messages
during the International yacht races, ad
ded a great stimulus to this interesting
pastime of bird fanciers, and the pretty
winged messengers have received any
amount of attention and sympathy since
that time. That the sport will be more
interesting and popular with the edu
cated portion of our people than the
fascinating, yet apparently barbarous
fashion of shooting pigeons from traps
for stakes, is manifest from the great
strides which the work of training the
birds has made during the last two
years. Many cannot endure the sight
of a pigeon-shooting match; but the
most sensitive man or woman would not
refuse to see a pigeon race or a winged
message bearer going about its duty.
The birds have been utilized in various
ways in New York, and private lofts are
speejal features of the work. Recent
experiments have shown that a bird may
be so trained that it will take its food
at one station and water at another, thus
flying readily from one station to the
other once or twice or day. Many
private letter posts are established in tLis
way, connecting city offices with coun
try homes or factories.
Homing pigeons are used more or less
generally in newspaper offices, and they
are destined, in time, to save reporters
and correspondents of large dailies the
trouble aud expense of telegraphing on
many of their items of news. By having
pigeon lofts in all of our large cities,
news could be obtained easier, and by a
more direct route, during heavy winter
storms, than by the present system.
Wires are often down or out of working
order at such times, and quite frequently
dispatches reach New York from Boston
by way of Chicago.
The Franco-lbussian war of 1870 first
brought the homing pigeon into univer
sal favor. Shut up in Paris by the
enemy, the French soldiers had no
means of communication with the outer
world, until the experiment of using
homing pigeons as messengers was first
tiled. Three hundred and sixty-three
birds were sent out of the beseigfed city
by means of sixty-four balloons, fifty
seven of which returned to Paris bear
ing 150,000 official dispa ches and over
1,000,000 private messages. Such a
mass of matter could only be carried into
the city by the birds through the aid of
photography. Ordinary print, covering
a space of ten feet square, was photo
graphed so as to occupy space on a deli
cate collodion film about the size of a
postage stamp. These films were tied
to the feathers of the birds, and carried
back to the lofts i« Paris. the aid
of a magic lantern they were easily de
ciphered.
This work was another illustration of
the old saying, that “necessity is the
mother of inventionfor within a
month the pigeon service for war pur
poses wa3 brought almost to perfection.
Since then several of the European coun
tries have established lofts at their mili
tary outposts, perfecting the service an
nually by con-taut practice and experi -
ment.
In Belgium anip portions of France,
pigeon races might be said to bo the
national sport. Public trials of the
speed of the homing pigeons are almost
of daily occurrence, and some remarka
ble records have been made. For short
distances the birds have averaged more
than a mile a minute. In longer races
the average decreases, as the flight of the
bird lessens gradually after the first 300
miles have been covered. Tiie bird “Ar
noux" carried a message from Pensacola,
Fla, to Newark, N. J., a distance of
1010 miles in twenty-six days, while an
other bird from Newark returned from
Montgomery, Ala., a distance of 800
mi'es, in four and one-quarter days.
Other records of longer flights have been
published, but these two serve as an ex
cellent illustration of the wonderful
powers and endurance of the birds.
The “correct” homing station is a
model of perfection in itself. Every
thing for the convenience and comfort
of the pigeons is there, and the birds are
made to feel that it is their “home.”
When a bird returns from a race, it has
to light upon a trap before entering the
loft. This act operates an instantaneous
camera which photographs the bird and
a clock to the right of it. The precise
moment that the bird returns is thus
automatically recorded.
“Old Hickory.” •
The story of how General Andrew
Jackson happened to be called “Old
Hickory” may be new to some of our
readers:
During the Creek WaT he had a bad
cold, and his soldiers made for him a
shelter of hickory bark. The next
morning a tipsy soldier, not knowing
who was under the bark, kicked it over.
As the General, speechless with rage,
struggled out of the ruins, the soldier
yelled:
“Hello, Old Hickory! Come out of
your bark and take a drink!”
When the soldiers saw Jack on shak
ing the bark from his uniform they gave
three cheers for “Old Hickory,” and the
same stuck.”
Cupid's Fatal Wounds.
Seraphine Roth, a girl of twenty
three, suddenly died at her home in New
.York a short time ago. The physicians
say she died of heart disease. For the
past six months a young man has been
paying her devoted attention. On the
day of her death he made an offer of
marriage which she blushingly accepted,
and lie promised to call that evening to
make arrangements for the ceremony.
After he had gone her heart began to
flutter and for a short time she seemed to
be treading on air. Then she became ill
and laid down, thinking it would pass
away. But the illness never left her, for
two hours later she was dead. Her sud
den joy at her sweethearts proposal had
killed her. Cincinnati Enquirer.
Scientific and industrial*
A patent has been finally issued for an
electrical typewriter.
Dr. Tanner, of Boston, says that
chemical tests to determine the purity of
water are valueless.
It is said that within the last 500
years the hight of the Engligh aristoc
racy lias considerably increased.
A Paris firm has produced porous
glass for window panes. The pores are
too fine to admit a draught, but they as
sist in ventilation.
Tho sticking-plaster treatment of
erysipelas is highly recommended.
Strips of plaster, about the breadth of
the thumb, are applied over tne affected
surface.
The Technical Society at Bradford,
England, is experimenting at painting
by electric light, which is derived from
a Pilsen arc lamp and passed through a
ground glass globe. It is said that
colors can be selected as well as by day
-I’ght.
The German military authorities have
experimented successfully w-th night, at
tacks by the aid of electric light. The
beam of the light is reflected from a
mirror ”00 yards distant from the lamp,
so that the enemy cannot tell where the
battery is.
What is said to be the best and
promptest acting remedy for burns and
scalds that is known is made by mixing
equal parts of sweet oil and lime water,
which must be shaken thoroughly each
time before applying to the burned or
scalded place.
AVhfn the great gun which has thrown
a ball eleven miles happens to be aimed
north, a lateral deviation of two hundred
feet must be taken into account for the
difference in rotating speed between the
spot where it is fired and the spot where
the missile will strike.
The Iloniton lace industry is dying
out. The rage lor variety and cheap
ness has driven the hand-made laces
from the market, machine imitations
having taken their places. Iloniton lace
received a terrible blow when brides took
to draping themselves with tulle.
According to Dr. Erasmus Wilson, the
great authority on hair, any one who is
threatened with baldness, if it has not
made much headway, can check the
tendency by rubbing a little mixed
vaseline and sulphur on the spot at night
and soaking it with quinine every morn
ing.
In the course of some experiments
made under the direction of the Northern
Railroad of Florida, it has been ascer
tained that soft steel plates can be cov
ered by a process of rolling with nickel,
and so effectually as to render them
valuable for lamp reflectors as silvered
copper.
Naphthaline is now largely used in
Scotland as a preservative of wood, its
aetion being to destroy all albuminoid
compounds in the wood, leaving it dry
and clean to handle, and with only a
faint aromatic smell. The naphthaline
I is melted in a vessel capable of being
sealed, and in this the wood is saturated.
A novel electric railway has been com
pleted, running from the shorq of Lake
I Lucerne, Swit. erland, over a bed cut in
the solid rock to the summit of the Ber-
I genstock, one thousand three bundled
1 and thirty ieet up. It has a gradient
j from thirty-two to fifty-eight per cent,
j The electricity is generated by a water-
I wheel in the river Aar.
American Graphophone Company
ms decided to locate permanently in
Bridgeport, Conn., and is making the *
necessary alterations and additions to 1
the fine buildings formerly occupied by
the Ilowe Machine Company. They
twve one of the finest properties in
Connecticut for manufacturing purposes, !
and are putting in the special machinery J
and apparatus required to produce the ;
graphophone. - 1 /
WISE WORDS.
/
Beware of the first disagreement.
Contradiction animates conversation.*
Beware of msddiers and tale bearers.
"Woman is a miracle of divine contra
dictions.
Narrow waists and narrow minds go
together.
la wishing to extend her empire
woman destroys it.
Learn to govern yourselves and to be
gentle and patient.
Equality can never be until human be
ing sare molded to a gauge.
It is easier to give medicine than to
take it, and this is true of advice.
If you desire to reform the world be
sure you come up to the standard.
The King’s sanction may give value to
coin, but it cannot control thought.
True greatness is as often shown by
silent endurance, as by great actions.
Statesmen have broad minds and nar
row ambition; politicians the reverse.
Who has authority to govern man
kind: None but those who are delegated
y the governed.
The means of obtaining knowledge
should be uniformly taught, but knowl
edge obtained is an ind.v.dual right.
Selfishness that never considers others
is meanness, but sel.ishncss that means
growth rises to the dignity of a virtue.
The reason some people think they are
superior to others i 3 because they are ig
norant how much others think of them.
Split Bamboo for Fishermen.
“By far the best fishing rod in the
market is the split bamboo,” said Mr 1
George Paddock, an expert, of New
York, to a Sun man. “It combines
beauty,” he continued, “with elasticity
and durability. But this delicate instru
ment, like a Cremona violin, should be
only in the hands of a master of the
gentle art. Not ten per cent, of those
who own split bamboos know how to
handle or to take care of them. Now
that the fishing season is drawing to a
close these incomparable rods should be
revarnished and laid away carefully
wrapped in something calculated to pro
tect them from changes of temperature.
The genuine angler thinks of his baby
first and then of his rod, and even as he
tucks the bedclothes under the dimpled
chin on a cold winter night, so will he
tuck his rod away in some cosey rook
where neither rust doth corrupt nor heat
invade and dry up the glue. I have
spoken.
' MONEY IN THE ALLIGATOR.'
seeking the saurian for era
HIDE AND TEETH.
an Hunter Tells How Ho
Makes a Diving by’Gator Hunt
ing and Pelican Flshinjr.
“Feven barrels of hides, -about forty
bunches of feathers, a dozen hams,
eleven pounds of teeth and one eight
foot’gator. How does that strike you,
senny, for a two-months’ take on the
coast! I’retty large and luminous, eh?”
He stood on the wharf at Baton Rouge
with his hides and feathers and teeth
piled around him.
“Of course I had a half-breed helping
me most of the time; in fact, he caught
the big’gator all by himself. He saw
her’young ones first, caught one of them
and' then tolled her into the noose. But
as he was working Tor board wages his
work don’t count, and the whole take is
mine.
“How much is it worth? Well, you.
1 can figure it up for yourself. The hides
will run about ten to a barrel, and will
average $1 apiece; that’s S7O, ain’t it?
I The feathers run about two bunches for
; sl, whichmakes sl3 more. The hams
are worth #25, and alligator teeth
market in the rough at #1 a pound. I un
derstand there is a standing order down
herefrom a New A'ork dealer for a big
’gator, and if there is, mine will bring
S3O in the local market. If there is not,
I may sell her for S2O, and I may have
to kill her for hide. That makes S7O,
and sl3, and $23, and sll, which is
$11!) sure, and maybe S3O more. Every
dollar made in two months’ time by just
paddling around with a gun and a rope
on the lower Bayou la Fourche. There
is another big industry down there that
I did not touch at all this year —and that
is oyster shoveling. The whole coast
line is a bed of oysters, and the New
Orleans market is always hungry for the
bayou oysters. But ’gator and pelicau
fishing is good enough for me.”
He moved the muscles of his face into
a smile of simian content, while he
leaned against a barrel and scratched his
bare ankle with one of his big sun-baked
big toes. He was a member of the army
of nomads who pepper the Mississippi
and its tributaries with their floating
homes, locally known as “shanty boats.”
July and August invariably find them
above Cairo, aud as the weather moder
ates they follow the summer south,
spending the winter and spring in the
bayous or on one of the southern lakes
which teem with every species of wild
fowl, game and vegetation, taking their
ease in their castle. As a rule, they 1 toil
not, neither do they spin, and it is an.
undisputed fact that Solomon was never
arrayed like one of them.
“Fire hunting at night is the best
plan, and the one most followed when
hides are the object. The fire in the
bow of the canoe lights up the shores
and blinds the eyes of the ’gators so
that we can paddle close to them and
put a ball into oae eye without trouble.
The big beast always throws himself
ashore and lashes about among the reeds
with his tail, after an eye shot, dymg in
about five minutes. We never stop to
pick them up, but keep on down the
bayou until we have killed half a
or more, and the next day we hunt then!
up, strip off the skins, cut out the jaw
hones and sometimes a part of the tail,
which is as good eating as pork. After;
being buried a week or so the teeth drop
out of the jaws, and are ready for
market.
“Now about the feathers. You want
to know what they are. They are peli
can feathers. Every pelican has a bunch
of these fine, hair-!ike feathers in each
wing, and each bunch is worth about
thirty-five cents. The simplest way of
catching them is with a hook and line
baited with a minnow, which is kept on
top of the water by means of a float.
The pelican sails close to the water, sees
the minnow, swoops down and is
hooked. It wants to be a stout hook
and a strong line, or the bi» - bird will
break it away, and you will not only
lose your seventy cents worth of feathers,
but your tackle as well. —Detroit Free
Press.
Phosphorescent Waters.
Lieutenant ITabasham, in his account
of the North Pacilic Surveying and Ex
ploring Expedition, describes some
strange appearances of the water seen
about the Gape of Good Hope. The
whole surface of the harbor would at
times be colored by a greasy, frothy,
variously covered substance, that gave
the water a most uncleanly appearance
during the day, butwhi h at night caused
it to resemble a cake of molten gold.
Ilow deep it extended, ihe Lieutenant
says, we could not tell, possibly the
whole depth of the harbor. We had ob
served the same phenomenon while ap
proaching the coast, and had at first
been at a loss to what to attribute it.
The whole sea was wrinkled with the
variously hued patches, and as we sailed
nhrough them, we left a wake of fire
that was apparent even under the mid
day sun.
It was like sailing over a painted sea
in the daytime; and at night, when the
seas lifted up their lambent crests in
all directions, the effect was truly grand.
We subsequently attributed their exist
ence to the presence of vast masses of
a migrating infusoria, the minute and
pho phorescent forms of the largest of
which we could readily detect in a drop
of water by placing it under an ordinary
maguitier.
A Serpent Due!.
Here is a Kentucky snake story from
the Comm r ini Ulrcrtiicr: Near Hop
kinsville a man found in a tobacco field
a copperhead and a chicken snake so
engrossed in mortal combat that they
gave no heed to him, nor loosed their
deadly coil when he lifted them upon a
pole's end out into a clear space. There,
after half an hour of strenuous wrilh ng,
the chicken snake was victor, when it at
once 100-ed its coils, and after thoroughly
besliming its antagonist, proceeded to
swallow it, and then crawled off the
picture of blinking content.
Mastery.
A mighty wrestler .walking through n wood.
Frond of hi- woui’rous strength and
prowess spoke:
“()u,etc could I hurl, were I but in the mcod.
To the four winds, you century-rooted oak!
“A sorry figure in my hold’t would out.
Although defiant in the cyclone’s track—”
His lieei then came in contact with a nut.
That quickly turned and stretched him ou
his hack.
it. K. Munki: trick-