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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. I <wl I 4,\sf r# r^~ J@ri, :4-'~>, I |#»'» SrtMiW wMfw 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-