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REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE’S SUN DAY SERMON. Subject: “ Slanders Against Religion Answered.” Text: “ And I took the little book out of the angel's hand , and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey ; and as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter. And He said unto me: Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, anddongues, and kings.”—Rev. x., 10-11. Domitian, tho Roman Empjror. had in his realm a troublesome evangelist who would keep preaching, and so he exiled him to a barren island, as now the Russians exile con victs to Siberia, or as sometimes the English Government used to send prisoners to Aus tralia. The island I speak of is now called Patmos, and is so barren and unproductive that its inhabitants live by fishing'. But one day the evangelist of whom I speak, sitting at the mouth of a cavern on the hill-side, and perhaps half asleep under the drone of tho sea, has a supernatural dream, and before him pass as in panorama, time and eternity. Among the strange things that he saw was an angel with a little book in his hand, and in his dream the evangelist asked for this little book, and the angel gave It to him, and told him to eat it up. As In a dream things are sometimes in congruous, the evangelist took the little book and ato it up. The angel told him before hand that it would be very sweet in the mouth, but afterward he would be troubled with indigestion. True enough, the evangel ist devours the book, and it becomes to him a sweetness during the mastication, but after ward a physical bitterness. Who tbe angel was and what the book was no one can tell. The commentators do not agree, and I shall take no responsibility of interpretation, but will tell you that it suggests to me the little book of creeds which skeptics take and chew up and find a very luscious morsel to their witticism, but after a while it is to them a great distress. The angel of the church hands out this little book of evangel ism, and tho antagonists of the Christian Church take it and eat it up, and it makes them smile at first, but afterward it is to them a dire dyspepsia. All intelligent people have creeds—that is, favorite theories which they have adopted. Political creeds—that is theories about tariff, about finance, about civil service, about government. Social creeds—that Is, theories about manners and customs and good neigh borhood. Aiisthetical creeds —that is theories about tapestry, about bric-a-brac, about styles of ornamentation. Religious creeds— that is, theories about the Deity, about the soul, about the groat future. The only being who has no creed about anything is the Idiot. This scoffing against creeds is always a sign of profound Ignorance on tne part of the scoffer, for he has nimsalf a hundred creeds in regard to other things. In our time the beliefs of evangelis tic churches are under a fusilade of carica ture and misrepresentation. Men set Up what they call orthodox faith, and they rake it with the musketry of their denunciation. They falsify what the Christian churches be lieve. They take evangelical doctrines and set them in a harsh and repulsive way, aDd put them out of the association with other truths. They are like a mad anatomist,who, desiring to tell what a man Is, dissects a hu man body and hangs up in one place the heart, and in another place the two lungs, and in another place an ankle bone, and says that Is a man. They are only fragments of a man wrenched out of their God-appointed places. Evangelical religion is a healthy, symetri es!, well-jointed, roseate, bounding life, and tho scalpel and tho dissecting knife of the in fidel or the atheist cannot tell you what it is. Evangelical religion is as different from what it is represented to be by these enemies as the scarecrow which a farmer puts in the cornfield to keep off the ravens is different from the farmer himself. For instance, these enemies of evangelism say that the Presbyterian Church believes that God is a savage Sovereign, and that He made some men just to damn them, and that there are infants in hell a span long. These old slanders come down from generation to generation. The Presbyterian Church be lieves no such thing. The Presbyterian Church believes that God is a loving and just Sovereign, and that we are free agents. “No, no; that cannot be,” say these men who have chewed up the creed and have the con sequent embittered stomach. “That is impos sible; if God is a Sovereign, we can’t be free agents.” Why, my friends, we admit this in every other direction. I, Do Witt Tal mage, am a free citizen of Brooklyn. Igo when I please and I come when Iplease, but I have at least four sovereigns. Tne Church court of our denomination; that is my ecclesiastical sovereign. The mayor of this city; he is my municipal sovereign. The Governor of Sew York; he is my State sovereign. The President of tbe United States; he is my national sovereign. Four sovereigns have I, and yet in every faculty of body, mind and soul I am a free man. So, you see, it is possible that the two doctrines go side by side, and there is a common-sense way of presenting it, and there is a wav that is repulsive. If you have the two doctrines in ■a worldly direction, why not in a religious di rection ? If I chcose to-morrow morning to walk into the Mercantile Library and im prove my mind, or to go through the conservatory of my friend at Ja maica, who has flowers from all lands growing under the arches cf glass, and who has an aquarium all asquirm with trout and gold fish, and there are trees bearing oranges and bananas—if I want to go there, I could. lam free to go. If I want to go over to Hoboken and leap into a furnace of an oil factory, it I want to jump from tbe platform of the Philadelphia express train, if I want to leap from the Brooklyn Bridge, I may. But suppose I should go to-morrow and leap into the furnace at Hoboken, who would be to blame ? That is all there is about sovereignity and free agency. God rules and reigns, and He has conservatories and He has blast furnaces. If you want to walk in the gardens, walk there If you want to leap in the furnaces, you may. Suppose now a man had a charmed key with which he could open all the jails, and he should open Raymond Street Jail and the New York Tombs and all the prisons on the continent. In three weeks what kind of a country would this bet all the inmates turned out of those prisons and penitentiar ies. Suppose all the reprobates, the bad spirits, the outrageous spirits, should be turned into the New Jerusalem. Why, the next morning the gates of pearl would be found off hinge, the linohpin would be gone out of the ebarot wheels, the “house of many mansions” would be burg larized. Assault and battery, arson, libertinism and assassination would reside in the capita! of the skies, Angels of God would be insulted on the streets. Heaven would be a dead failure if there were no great lock-up. If all people without regard to their character when thoy leave this world go right into glory—l wonder if in the temple of the skies Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth occupy the same pew! Your common sense demands two destinies! And then as to tho Presbyterian Church be lieving there are infants in perdition, if you will bring me a Presbyterian of good morals and sound min i who will say that he believes there ever was a baby in the lost world, or ever will be, I will make hun a deed to the house Hive in and he can take possession to-morrow. So the Episcopalian Church is misrepre sented by the enemies of evangelism. They say that church substitutes forms and cere monies for heart religon, and It is all a mat ter for liturgv and genuflexion. False again. All Episcopalians will tell vou that the forms and creeds of their church are worse than nothing unless the heart go with them. _ . . . So also the Baptist Cbnroh has been mis represented. The enemies of evangelism say the Baptist Church believes that unless a man is Immersed he will never got into heaven. False again. All the Baptists, close communion and open communion, be lieve that U a maw accept the Lord Jesus ( hrist ho will be saved, whether he bj bap- Uzed by one drop of water on tho forehead, or be plunged into the Ohio or Susquehanna, although immersion is the only gate by one enters their earthly communion. Ihe enemies of evangelism also misrepre sent the Methodist Church. They say the Methodist Church believes that a man can convert himself, and that conversion ia that eiiurch is a temporary emotion, and that all a man has to do is to kneel down at the altar and feel bad and then the minister pats him on the back and says: “It is all right," and t.uat is all there is of it. Raise again. The Methodist Church believes that the Holv Ghost alone can convert a heart, and in tha't church conversion is an earthquake of con viction and a sunburst of pardon. And as to mere “temporary emotion,” 1 wish we alj had more or tho “temporary emotion” which lasted Bishop Janes and Matthew Simmon tbr a half century, keeping them on fire for God until their holy enthusiasm consumed their bodies. Bo all the evangelical denominations are misrepresented. And then these enemies of evangelism go on and hold up the great doc trines of Christian churches as absurd, dry and inexplicable technicalities. “There fs your doctrine of the Trinity,” they say. “Absurd beyond all bounds. The idea that there is a (rod in three persons. Impossible. If it is one God He can’t be three,and if there are three, there can’t be one.” At the same time all of us—they with us—acknowledge trinities all around us. Trinity in our own make-up—body, mind. soul. Body with which we move, mind with which wo think, soul with which we love. Three, yet one man. Trinity in the air— bght, heat, moisture—yet one atmosphere. 1 rinity m the court room—three judges on the bench, but one court. Trinities all around about us, in earthly government and in nature. Of course, all the illustrations aro defective, for the reason that the natural cannot fully illustrate the spiritual. But suppose an ignorant man should come up to the chemist and say. “I deny what you say about the water and about the air; they are not made of different parts. The air is one; I breathe it every day. The water is one; I drink it every day. You can’t deceive me about the elements that go to make up the air and the water." The chomist would say: “You come up into my laboratory and I will demonstrate this whole thing to you.” The ignorant man goes into the chemist’s laboratory and sees for him self. He learns that the water is one and the air is one, but they are made up of different parts. So here is a man who says: “J can’t understand tho doctrine of the Trinity.” God says: “You come up here Into tho laboratpry after your death, and you will seo—you will see it explained, you will see it demonstrated.” The ignorant man cannot understand the chemistry of the water and the air until he goes into the la boratory, and we will never understand the Trinity until we go into heaven. The igno rance of the man who cannot understand the chemistry of the air and water does not change the fact in regard to the composition of air and water. Because we cannot under stand the Trinity, dpes that change the fact? “And there is your absurd doctrine about justification by faith,” say these antagonists who have chewed up the little book of evan gelism, and have the consequent embittered stomach—“justification by faith; you can’t explain it” I can explain it. It is simply this: When a man takes the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour from sin, God lets the offender off. Just as you have a difference with someone; he has injured you. he apolo gizes, or he makos reparation, you say: “Now that’s all right, that’s all right” Jus tification by faith is this: A man takes Josui Christ as his Saviour, and God says to th« man: “Now, it was aU wrong before, tut it Is all right now; It is all right” That was what made Martin Luther what he was. Justification by faith, it is going to conquer all nations. “ There is your absurd doctrine about re generation," these antagonists of evangelism say. What is regeneration ? Why, regener ation is reconstruction. Anybody can under stand that. Have you not seen peoplo who are all made over again by some wonderful influence ? In other words, they are just as different now from what they used to be as possible. The old Constellation, man-of-war, lay down here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Famine came to Ireland. The old Constellation was fitted up, and though it had been carrying gun powder and oullets it took bread to Ireland. You remember the enthusiasm as the old Constellation went out of our harbor, and with what joy it Whs greeted by the famish ing nation on the other side the sea. That J 3 regeneration. A man loaded up with sin nud death loaded up with life. Refitted. Your observation has been very small in ieed if you have not seen changes in charac ter as radical as that. A man came into this church one night, and he was Intoxicated, and at an utterance of the pulpit he said in a subdued tone: “That’s a lie.” An officer of the church tapped him on tho shoulder and said: “You must be silent, or ycu must go out.” The next night that stranger came and he was converted to God He was in the liquor business. He resigned the business. ‘The next day he sent back the samples that had just been sent to him. He began to love that which he hated. I baptized him by immer sion in the baptistry under this platform. A large salary was offered him if he would return to his former busi ness. He declined it. He would rather suffer with Jesus Christ than be pros pered in the world. He wrote home a letter to his Christian mother. The Christian mother wrote back congratulating him, and said: “If in the change of your business you have lack of means, come home; you are always welcome home.” Ho told of his conversion to a dissolute companion. Toe dissolute companion said: “Well, if you have become a Christian, you had better go over and talk to that dying giri. She is dying with quick consumption in that house.” The new con vert went there. All the surroundings were dissolute. He told the dying girl that Jesus would save her. “Oh,” said she, “that can't be, that can’t be! What makes you think so?” “I have it here in a book in ray pocket,” he replied. He pulled out a New Testament. She said: “Show it to me; if I can be saved. 6how it to me in that book.” He said: -“I have neglected this book as you have neglected it for many years, and I don’t know where to find it, but j know it is somewhere between the lids.” Then he began to turn over the leaves, and strange and beautiful to say, his eye struck upon this passage: “Neither do I condemn thea; go and sin no more.” She said: “It isn’t possible that is there!” “Yes,” he said, "that is there.” He held it up before ner dying eyes, and she said: “Oh, yes, I see it for myself; 1 accept the promise: ‘Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.’” In a few hours her spirit sped away to the Lord that gave it, an 1 the new convert preached the funeral armon. The man who a few days before pad been a blasphemer and a drunkard and A hater of all that was good, he preached th« sermon. That is regeneration, that is re generation! If there are any dry husks ol technicality in that, where are they? All made over again by the power of tho grace of God. A few years ago a ship captain came in here and sat yonder under the gallery. He came 1b with a contempt for the Church of God and with an especial dislike for Talmage. When an opportunity was given he arose for prayer, and as bs was more than six feet high, when he arose for prayer no one doubted that be arose! That hour he be came a Christian. He went out and told tho Bhlp owners and the ship commanders what a great change had been wrought in him. end score* and scores have been brought to God through his instrumentality. A little while after his conversion he was on ship off Cape Hatteras in a thick and pro longed fog. and they were at their wits’ ends and knew not what to do, the ship drifting about hither and thither, and they lost their bearings; and the converted sea captain went to his room and asked God for the sal vation of his ship, and God revealed it to him while he was on his knees that at a cer tain hour, only a little way off, the fog would lift; and the converted sea captain came out on the deck and told how God heard his prayers. He said: “It is all right, boys, very loon now the fog will lift,” mentioning the hour. A man who stood there laughed sloud in derision at the idea that God would ins ner prayer; bus at jus; the hour when God had assured the captain the fog would lift there came a Hash of lightning through the fog, and the man who had jeered and .aughed was stunned and fell to the deck. The fog lifted. Yonder was Capa Hatteras lighthouse. The ship was put on the right course, and sailed on to the harbor of safety. When in seaport the captain spends most of his time in evangelical work He kneels down by one who has been helpless in the lied for many months, and the next day she walks forth in the streets well. He kneels heside one who has long been decrepit, and he resigns the crutches. He kneels beside Dne who had not seen enough to lie able to read for ten years,and she reads the Bible that day. Consumptions go away, and those who had diseases that were appalling to behold come up to rapid convalescence and to com plete health. lam not telling j’ou anything second-handed. I have had the story* from the lips of the patients in this very house, those who were brought to health of body while at the same time brought to God. No second-hand story this. I have hcaiil tlia testimony from men and women who have been cured. You may call it faith-cure, or you may call it the power of God coming down in answer to prayer; I do not care wuat you call it; it is a fact. The scoffing sea captain, his heart full of hatred for Christianity, now becomes a follower of the meek and lowly Jesus, giv ing all the time to evangelical labors, or all the time he can spare from other occupations. That is regeneration, that is regeneration. Man all made over again. “ Thera is your absurd doctrine of vicari ous sacrifice,” say these men who have chewed up the little book of creeds and have the consequent embittered stouiaoh. “Vicari ous tarn rice I Ret every man suffer for him self. Why do I want Christ to suffer for me ? I’ll suffer for myself and carry my own bur dens." They scoff at the idea of vicarious sacrifice, while they admire it everywhere else except in Christ. People see its beauty when a mother suffers for her child. People see its beauty when a patriot suffers for his country. People see its beauty when a man dentes himself for a friend. They can see the beauty of vicarious sacrifice in every one but Christ. A young lady in one of the literary insti tutions was a teacher. She was very reti cent and retired in her habits, and she formed no companionships in the new position she occupied, and her dress was very plain— sometimes it was very shabby. After a while she was discharged from the place for that reason, but no reason was given. In onswrar to the letter dischaßghlS ha? from tho position, ehe said: “Well, if I have failed to please, I suppose it is my own fault” Bile went here and there for employ ment, and found none, and in desperation and In dementia she ended her life by suicide. Investigation was made and it was found that out of her small means she had supported her father, eighty years of age,and was pay ing tbe way for her brother in Yale College on his way to the ministry. It was found that she had no blanket on the bad that winter, and she had 110 fire on the very coldest day of all the season. People found it out, and there was a large gathering at the funeral, the largest ever at any funeral in that place, and the very people who bad scoffed came and looked upon the pale face of the martyr, and all honor was done her; but it was too late. Vicarious sacrifice. All are thrilled with such instances as that. But many are not moved by the fact that Christ paid His pov erty for our riches, His self-abnegation for our enthronement, and knelt on the sharp edges of humiliation that we might climt> over His lacerated shoulder into peace and heaven. Be It ours to admire and adore these doc trines at which others jeer. Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and kno evi edgeofGod! How unsearchable is His wis dom. and His ways are post fiuding out! Oh tho height, tbe depth, the length, the breadtit; the Infinity, tho immensity, the eternity of that love! Let our earnest prayers go oqt In behalf of all those who scoff at these doc trine* of grace. When the London plague was ragtng in the year ltst>s, there was a hotel noar the chief burial-p’ace that exoited much comment. England was in fright and be reavement. The dead carts wont through the streets day and night, and the cry: “Bring out your dead.” was answered by the bringing out of the forms of the loved ones, and they wore put twenty or thirty in a cart, and the wagons went on to the cemetery; and these dead were not buried in graves, but m great trenches, in great pits; in one pit eleven hundred and fourteen burials! The carts would come up with their great burden of twenty cr thirty to the mouth of the pit, and the front of the mrt was lifted and the dead shot into the pit. All the churches in London were open for prayer day and night, and England was in great anguish. At that very time at a note!, at a wayside inn near the cuter burial-p’aces, there was a group of hardened men. who sat day ' after day and night after night blasphoming God and imitating the grief-struck who went by to the burial-place. These mors rat there day after day and night alter night, and they scoff«d lit men, an I they scoffed at women, and they scoffed at God. But after a whilo one of them was struck with the plague, and In two weeks all of the group were down in the trench from the margin of which they had uttered thair ribaldry. My friends, a greater plague is abroad in the world. Millions have died of it. Millions are smitten with it now. Plague of sin, plague of Rorrow, plague of wretchedness, plague of wop. And conse crated women and men from all Christendom are going out trying to stay tne plague and alleviate the anguish, and there Is a group of men in this country case enough to sit and deride the wore. They scoff at the Bible, and they scoff at evangelism, and they scoff at Jesus Christ, and they scoff at God. If these words shall reach them, either while they are sitting here to-day. or through the printing press, let me tell them to remember the fate of that group in the wayside inn while the plague spreads its two black wings over the doomed oity of London. Oh, instead of be ing scoffors let us be disciples! “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the aounsel oi the ungodly, nor standeth In tho way oi sinners, nor sitted in the seat of the scorn ful.' Japanese Railroad Building. Railroad making is not equally easy in every country. We have had some rough experience on this continent and iu our own section of it. We can tne better sympathize with the Japanese, who seem to have to go through some tough work in building their roads. Tho report of the Japanese Railroad Bureau* for tho last year, just publish ed, reveals some striking facts. Of course, every one, even with a limited knowledge of geography, knows that tho topographical features of the count ry are peculiar. Hills and valleys and rivers abound. One line of 205 miles in length involves the construction of 16 tunnels, 16,000 feet long, and tho bridging of eleven rivers. One of these rivers has a velocity iu timo of flood of 27 feet per second; in another, such is the character of the bottom, the hriok piers Lave to bo sunk to a depth of eighty feet. A range of mountains is crossed at a height of 1,468 feet. Part of another line ascends to a height of 3,144 feet, and during five months of the year is completely blocked by tho mow. Picturesque traveling!—such railroads should afford.—J fail and Ex press. Support in the work of improving and cheapening* the food of the people ia asked by tho Swiss Society for the Pro motion of Public Good. An extension of the use of milk and cheese is urged by the society a* an important advance; while Dr. Wolt*ring, of Munster, rec ommends a greater use as an article ol diet of the inexpensive and extreme 1 } j uutritive gluten. EDUCATING FIRE HORSES. HOW THEY ARE TAUGHT IN THE NEW YORK DEPARTMENT. Marvelous Speed Drought, Out and Great Things Accomplished in a Few Seconds. There are many interesting things in New York, writes l- oater Coates, in the Brooklyn Citizen, but there are few things more interesting than the school from which fire horses are graduated. It is situated in the upper part of New York, and is under the management of several veterans of the Fire Department, commanded by a well known veterinary surgeon, who is practically principal of the school. This New York horse school has been in operation since 1882, and in that length of time has graduated some four hundred horses. There are employed in the fire service in New York nearly five hundred herses. These supply the fifty five engine houses of the city, the seven teen hook and ladder companies, beside the various water towers and wagons of the chiefs of battalions, with motive power. It is hard work, too. Horses, no matter how strong and hardy, sutler from it, despite the care that is taken of them. The horses are all picked, but they are seldom of auy use for fire work after five years of service. They are selected by cxpeits from among the best horses that are to be found at the Bulls Head horse market, the chief horse market of the United State*. The horses selected come mainly from the West. It requires some skill to pick out horses for use in the Fire Department. Big and clumsy horses are of no use. But the horse must be speedy and strong. The horses selected are usually about sixteen hands high, weighing from 1200 to 1450 pounds, and their ages range from four to six years. Younger horses are not strong enough to drag heavy tire engines, and older ones are too old to traiu. As soon as the horse is bought he is sent to school, and l)r. Shea, who is in charge of this institution, says that, in his opinion, horses and boys are very much alike, and must be managed iu very much the same manner. But Dr. Shea believes in kindness as a means to get control of his pupils and teach them. It is marvelous how quickly these young horses learn what is necessary for them to know befote they can be put to work. The men who handle them know their business thoroughly, and are in love with it. Under their careful hand ling the green horse understands his duties in little more than a month. No whip is used iu this school. The first test is that which establishes the sound ness of the animal s wind. Then he is put in his stall. He is led backward and forward to where the harness hangs until he becomes used to the engine, and until he also becomes accustomed to ducking or lowering his head to get it into the collar. When he accomplishes his task well he is given apples or candy or lumps of sugar, and is petted and made much of. He is next taught to rush to his place in front of the engine at the clang of the gong. When he becomes expert at this his education is complete and he is ready for serious work, aiul«ft week later can run to a fire as welt wffe moit thorough going veteran, Am There are always a dozerihorses j- 1 mg put through their paces which is constantly becom -1 more of a about S3OO each, inW after five years they are disposed of street peddlers and cartmeu for any from SSO to $l5O. These horses are so well taught that they never forget their train ing, It is not an uncommon thing wheu a fire engine dashes through the streets of New York to see some dilapidated looking nag attached to some huckster’s wagon prick up his ears and join in the race to the scene of the tire. It is an old and broken-down fire horse, who cannot forget the stirring days when he helped draw an engine. It is the same spirit that led broken-down hunters to join in the hunt at the sound of the cry of the hounds. There are some wonderful horses in the New Y r ork Fire Departments, but the champions are “Joe” and “Charley,” the splendid team that are attached to Engine Company 17, at Chambers street. These were the prize winners at the Word’s Fair, at the American Institute in 1885, and they are still the champions. They are the two most famous scholars ever turned out from New York’s school. Joe is the champion of champions, and he entertains many visitors who come daily to admire his intelligence. Joe is a roau, and a hand some one, too. His mate, Charley, is a bay, and this team can drag a heavy fire engine over the ground faster than any team in the United States, and probably in the world. At the World’s Fair, when they won the medal which they still hold, they were tried on a dash of 2(5 feet (5 inches. They made three tests, one at 10 iu the morning, another at 2 in the afternoon, and yet an other at 8 o’clock in the evening. The time for the first dash was 1 5-6 sec onds, for the second 2i seconds and for the last 2 seconds. The intelligence of these horses is simply remarkable. Chief Shaw, of London, could scarcely believe that they could do what was said of them until it was done before his own eyes. Even then it was hard to believe. On three ordinary trials the other night Joe and Charley got into their harness and had their engine on the street and on their way to a lire in an average time of 11 seconds. And there was no special effort to make extraordinary speed, either. But these are not the only speed horses in the department. There are scores more of them. Dr. Shea, who is also Captain Shea, pays great attention to the making up of the teams in the department- He buys all the horses for the department himself and he studies his pupils very closely before making them up into pairs. It is to his system that is due the wonder ful intelligence of the horses and the smoothness with which they work to gether. Captain Shea is careful to mate his horses in size and color as well as in temper and the effect is good. He is also an enthusiast in the matter of im proving the harnesses in use. The col lar formerly worn by the fire horses was a clumsy affair, weighing some thirty five pounds. Captain Shea has had in troduced a light weight steel collar weighiug but seven pounds that is quite as stiong as the old one. This training school is also a hospital for horses. All the sick or disabled horses used in the department are tended here by the same men who taught them all they know. SELECT SIFTINGS. nawarden, Gladstone’s country scat, is pronounced Harden, In France a seventh son in direct suc cession is called a marcou. Edward Schmiedemann has made a fortune as a professional beggar iu New Y'ork. A horse at Waynesboro, Ya., kicked a pumpkin with such furce that it few and broke a man’s leg. A single gold dollar can be made into a sheet that will carpet two rooms six teen and a half feet square. Adam’s needle is so-called, because the leaf has a needle-like point, and the sides of the leaves are frayed out like cotton. A hen which is said to have hatched and raised sixteen chickens from fifteen eggs, is one of the curiosities of With lacoehe, Fla. At his own request, Spurgeon Perry, aged eighty-nine years, at one time worth $1,000,000, lias been sent to the Brooklyn poor-house. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were the two Presidents who died on the same day. July 4, 1826, is the date of the death of each. Captain John Miller, who recently died in the Indian Territory, aged seventy years, had taken thirty scalps during his eventful life. The king of robbers (Robin Hood) was, tradition says, ultimately captured by a wily enemy, wno disabled him by throwing a hand full of flo :r in his face. The football team at Durham, N. C., has had powerful electric lights suspend ed over its grounds, and proposes to play the game during the evenings here after. There are fourteen different towns and cities in the 1 nited States named Au gusta, and there is never a day that freight and mail matter is not going wrong. A Cincinnati man advertises for sale “a business paying slo,Out) a year and no capital needed to run it. Reasons for selling: Police are becoming suspicious of me.” There are only two ways to get out of India. One is by the most miserably constructed and unccriain railway on the face of the earth, and the other is by English vessel. In Russia ancient usage prevents the presence of the parents of the bride at the ceremony. In their place two of their oldest friends represent them, and escort the bride to the church. Turnpike roads were first established in the reign of Queen Anne. Till then all roads were repaired by the parishes. Turnpikes were so called from poles or bars swung on a staple, and turned either way when dues were paid. Joseph Bonaparte's bedstead is now in possession of Miss M. IT. Nutt, of Bor dentown, N. J. It is qf solid mahog any, set in chased brass, with two col umns, at the head between which ap pear mirrors of the very finest plate glas3. City of Panama. The City of Panama, tho principal seaport of the Colombian Republic ou the Pacific side, presents an imposing aspect from the sea. It stands ut the head of the bay, on the southern shore of the isthmus, occupying a rocky peninsula, which extends some distance out into tbe shallow waters. Though tbe famous Panama harbor is one of the safest and most commodious in the world, vessels of more than eighty tons burden cannot approach the shore, but must anchor at Perico Island, three miles distant. This old fortified town, whose wide, clean streets extend across the tongue of land from sea to sea. is quaint enough to interest the most blase tourist. Though now crumbling to de cay, its impressive buildings show traces of former grandeur, being constructed in the ancient Spanish style, of solid stone, with inside patios, or courtyards. Previous to 1746 (when the trade to the Pacific first began to be carried around Cape Horn), Panama City was the principal entrepot between Europe and the western c-oasts of America. From that date, however, it began to decline, and since the independence of the Spanish American States and the open ing of other Pacific ports, its down-hill progress has been very rapid. Immedia tely after the discovery of the California gold mines, in the historic days of ’49, Panama recuperated to a considerable extent, though to nothing of its former consequence. population is now about 20,000, and it is chiefly important as being the terminus of the Panama railway. It has some trade of its own, principally with Europe, in pearls, pearl shells and mother of pearl and gold dust (all found in the vicinity), besides fruits, nuts, dye stuffs, hides and other products of Colombia and the isthmus.— Philadelphia Record. Tite Eastern Shore of Maryland. it is the oldest section of Talbot (’ounty, and many would say the least progressive. As yet the locomotive has Lot penetrated there, the steamboat conies but three times a week, and the farmer looks to the slow returns of wheat and corn for his income, but it is a land of beautiful situations, of comfortable, well-kept homes and generous living. Many of the people still live in the houses which their fathers or grand fathers built, and a race of fine old-time country gentlemen they were, whose abundant life and generous hospitality made the bayside of their day famous. As yet there has been but little immigra tion. The people arc most of them de scended from ancestors who established themselves there when they came from England in the early days of the colony; the Lowes and the Lambdens, the Kemps and McDaniels, Wrightsons and Caulks still live down there, and grow up and marry their cousins and their neighbors’ daughters, as their fathers and grand fathers and great-grandfathers before did. The ruddy complexions, the ro tund, compact figures, still bespeak the English blood. A people nourished on oysters and terrapin, who have known how to entertain their friends and to enjoy themselves. —Baltimore American, NEWS AND NOTES FOR WOMEN. In England there are 347 female black smiths.. The very latest thing is the plaited muslin bodice. Cornell has 1174 students, 132 of whom are young women. Pale shades of blue are second in favor to the all prevailing greens. The Presbyterians have decided to have an order of deaconesses. Long, fingerless mitts are a novelty. They are worn with dinner gowns. Mme. Hess, of Paris,has refused SIOOO for her hair, which is six feet long. Cloth gowns are made up in combina tions of cream white, brown and green. A Brighton (Mich.) woman digs forty five bushels of potatoes a day. and comes up smiling. Mink-tail trimmings are used on gar ments of mink or sealskin, furnishing an effective contrast. Ex-Empress Frederick has bought a site at Steglitz for 100,000 marks to build a hospital for orphan girls. A new trimming of dark green, blue or brown dresses is an embroidery of silver threads on bands of scarlet cloth. A new collar for the corsage is of tho high military style, over which falls two broken points, usually in a contrasting color. Black costumes are meeting with so much favor just now that they may bo said to be restored to their old time popu larity. Buttons in the form of a good-sized padlock fitted with a key were very con spicuous upon a recently imported cos tume. Gray and fawn color was the color combination recently noted in a cloth costume. Although odd, it was very effective. Most of the new sleeves have trans verse or longitudinal puffs,or are gathered into a deeply pointed cuff of velvet or embroidery. The authorities of Vanderbilt Uni versity are considering the propriety of admitting women to the privileges of the University. Novel earrings are in the form oyster shells, held together by a dia mond or pearl, and having slender gold wires attached. Bonnet strings are now attached to the lower middle portion of the crown, from whence they are brought around and tied under the chin. There are still living six wives of Presidents, viz.: Mrs. Tyler, Mrs. Polk, Mrs. Grant, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Garfield and Mrs. Cleveland. A new make of hosiery is double faced, being of spun silk on the outside and Balbriggan underneath. They are said to be very durable. Whistling girls are springing up all over the country with a promptness and spontaneity that indicate an appalling and altogether unsuspected amount of previous practice. It is said that women have discharged the greatest part in the commercial busi ness of France. Parisian trade in parti cular owes much of its reputation to the enterprise of business women. Ex-Queen Isabella, of Spain, lias be come fascinated with the American game of poker. At her house in Paris she holds poker parties which are exciting enough to satisfy even an Arizona cowboy. Something new in furs is the sealskin peicrine, square and short at back, with its fringe of tails just reaching to tho waist, and square and so long as to come near the knee, and give the effect of a stole. The cause of women's rights in France has progressed to the point of the intro duction of a bill to grant to trades women paying licenses the right to vote at election of Judges of the Tribunal of Commerce. In his speech at Edinburgh recently, Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, de clared himself in favor of woman suf frage, and said he hoped the day was not far distant when women would be allowed to vote. In collars and cuffs a pretty novelty is to have a double collar and cuff, the up per one narrow and encircled with a Gaud of satin-stitched embroidery. They are sometimes in colors, pink turning over blue and so on. A new foreign fancy is the wearing of black neck fichus in place of veils. The widest part is draped over head and face, the ends cross the back, and then come under the chin, and the effect is wonderfully soft and pretty. A Spanish General of Barcelona has bequeated $-00,000 to found a refuge for the orphan daughters of poor officers, a proviso being that each must be beautl tiful in face and form, “because the more lovely a woman is the more she is ex posed to danger in this world.” Philadelphia has a large training school for colored teachers, and its head is Miss Fanny J. Coffin, one of the most notable colored women in the country. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island State Normal School and Oberlin Col lege, and has taught since 1865. Mme. Le Ray contemplates another voyage of exploration. This intrepid French woman, who have traveled all over Asia Minor, is about to start for Teheran, from whence she intends mak ing excursions into the least accessible portions of the Persian dominions. A correspondent writing from New Y’ork says that Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt lrequently prepares the dessert for her family, and that Mrs. Sloane is said to have no rival as a salad maker. Mrs. Colonel Ingersoll is noted for her choco late puddings, and Mrs. Sherwood can cook a tenderloin steak to perfection. A good many influential women are considering whether it would not be well to start some sort of a ribbon society for temperance in dress, just as there is a blue ribbon society for temperance in drink. Every year the amount of money the average women spends for dress in creases, until extravagance seems to have reached nigh water mark. Coralie Cohen is claimed by the European Jews as a second Florence Nightingale. She is a Jewish lady, who was an angel of mercy during the late Franco-German war and passed un harmed among the wounded in the two hostile camps. She is a Knight of the I egion of Honor and has been elected President of that patriotic body, the Association des Dames Francaises.