The Columbia sentinel. (Harlem, Ga.) 1882-1924, March 11, 1886, Image 3
DB. TALMAGE’S SERMON.
DUTIES OF WIVES TO HUS
BANDS.
The seventh in the series of Dr. Talmage’s
sermons on the “Marriage Ring’’ was
preached upon the subject of the “Duties
of Wives to Husbands.”
The text was: “The name of his wife was
Abigail, and she was a woman of good un
<ier-tmiding and of a beautiful countenance.”
1. Samuel, xxv., 3.
The ground in Carmel is white—not
with fallen snow, but the wool from
the backs of three thousand sheep,
for they are being sheared. And I
hear the grinding of the iron blades together
and the bleating of the flocks, held between
the knees of the shearers while the clipping
■'oes < n. and the rustic laughter of the work
men. Nalal and hi.s wife Abigail preside
over this hoint stead. David, the warrior,
sends a delegation to apply lor aid at this
prosperous time of s’ueep-sheai ing, and Nabal
jiereniptotily declines his request. Revenge
is the cry. "1 under over the rocks come David
and four hundred angry men with one stroke
to demolish Nabal,.anil his sheep-folds and
vineyards. The regiment march in double
quick and the stones of the mountain loosen
and roll down as the soldiers strike them with
ih ir swift feet, and the cry of the commander
is Forward! Forward!
Abigail, to save her husband and bis prop
erty. hastens to the foot of the bills, She is
armed not with sword or spear, but with
her own beauty and self-sacrifice, and
when David sees her kneeling at the base of
the crag he cries to his storm of men. “Halt!
Halt!” and the caveous echo it, “Halt!
Halt!” Abigail is the conqueress! One
woman in the right mightier than 400 men in
the wrong. A hurricane stopped at the sight
of a water-lily. A dew-drop dashed back
Niagara. By her prowess and tact she has
,-aved her husband and saved her home, and
put before all ages an illustrious specimen of
what a wife can do if she be godly and pru
dent and self-sacrificing and vigilant aud de
voted to the interests of her husband,and at
tractive.
As Sabbath before last I took the responsi
bility of telling husbands how they ought to
treat their wives, and though I noticed that
some of them squirmed a little in their pew,
they endured it well, I now take the re
sponsibility of telling how wives ought to
treat their husbands. I hope your domestic
alliance was so happily formed that while
married life may’ have revealed
in him some frailties that you did not sus
l>ect, it has also displayed excellencies that
more than overbalanced them. I suppose
I hat if I could look into the hearts of a hun
dred wives here present and ask them where
is the kindest and best man they know of, and
they dared speak out, ninety-nine out of a
hundred of them would say “at the other end
of this pew.” Though sometimes you may
have snapped each other up a little quick, I
think the most of you are as well paired as a
couple of whom I have read. The wife said
to her husband: “I have made up my mind
to be submissive notwithstanding all the mis
fortunes that have come upon us.” They had
lost their children, he had lost his health, and
hence the income of his profession, and the
wife had temporarily lost her eyesight
“Yes,” said the husband, “we ought
to be submissive. Let me see what
we have to submit to: First,we have a home;
we can submit to that. Then we have each
other; we can submit to that. Then we have
food and raiment; we can submit to that
Then we have a great many friends: we can
submit to that. We have a heavenly Father
to provide for us—” “Stop! Stop!’"said the
wife, “I will talk no more about submis
sion.”
I hope, my sister, you have married a man
as Christian and as well balanced as that.
But even if you were worsted in conjugal
bargain, you cannot be worse off than this
Abigail in my text. Her husband was coarse
and ungrateful and inebriate, for on the very
evening after her heroic achievement at the
foot of the hill where she captured a whole
regiment with her genial and strategic be
havior, she returned home and found her
husband so drunk that she could not
tell him the story, but had to
postponed it until the next day; so, my sister,
Ido not want you to keep"saying within
yourself as I proceed. “That is the way to
treat a perfect husband,” for you are to re
member that no wife was ever worse swindled
than this Abigail of my text. At the other
end of her table sat a mean, selfish, snarling,
contemptible Sot, and if she could do so well
for a dastard how ought you to do with that
princely and splendid man with whom you
are to walk the path of life.
First I counsel the wife to remember in
what a severe and terrific battle of life her
husband is engaged. Whether in professional
or commercial or artistic or mechanical life
your husband from morning to night is in a
Solferino if not a .Sedan. It is a wonder that
your husband has any nerves or patience or
suavity left. To get a living in this next to
the last decade of the Nineteenth Century is a
struggle. If he come home and sit down pre
occupied you ought to excuse him. If he do
not feel like going out that night for a walk
or entertainment remember he has been out
all day. You say he ought to leave at his place
of business his annoyances and come home
cheery. But if a man has been betrayed by
a business partner or a customer has jock
eyed him out of a large bill of goods,or a pro
tested note has been flung on his desk or
somebody has called him a liar and every
thing has gone wrong from morning till
night, he must have great genius at forget
fulness if he do not bring some of the perplex
ity home with him. When you tell me he ought
to leave it all at the store or bank or shop,
you might as well tell a storm on the Atlantic
to stay out there and not touch the coast or
ripple the harbor. Remember he is not
overworking so much for himself as he is
overworking for you and the children. It is
the effect of his " success or defeat on the
homestead that causes him the agitation. The
most of men after forty-five years of age live
not for themselves but for their families.
They begin to ask themselves anxiously the
question- “How if I should give out, what
would become of the folks at home' Would
my children ever get their education? Would
my wife have to go out into the world to earn
bread for herself and our little ones? My
eyesight troubles me, how it my eyes should
fail? My head gets dizzy, how if I should
drop under apoplexy?” The high pressure of
business life and mechanical life and agricul
tural life is home pressure.
.. & oni ® time ago a large London firm decided
that if any of their clerks mar
ried on a salary less than
pounds, that is $750 a year, he should be
discharged, the supposition being that the
tern; tation might be too great for misappro
priation. The large majority of families in
America live by the utmost dint of economy,
and to be honest and yet meet one’s family
expenses is the appalling question that turns
the life of tens of th msands of men into a
martyrdom. Let the wife of the overbourne
and exhauste ! husband remember this, and
do not nag him al-out this and nag him about
that, and say you might as well have no hus
laiid. when the fact is be is dying by inches
that the home may' be kept up.
I charge also the wife to keep- herself as at
tractive after marriage as she was before
marriage. The reason that so often a man
ceases to love his wife is because the wife
2*® fes to be lovely. In many cases what elabo
r-jll toilet before marriage, and what
“ klesmess of appearance after. The most
thing on earth is a slatternly
I mean a woman who never combs
fr . i?' r she goes out or looks like a
ri2a , nt *' somebody calls. Thataman mar
these creatures stays at home
_s“»aa Possible is no wonder. It is a
t ° at su,) h a man does not go on a
shir vo y a ge of three years and in a leaky
I 1 - costly wardrobe Is not required, but,
if you are n °t Willing, by all that
T toi.'jy °f refinement can effect to make
attractive to your husband, you
c , ' ‘ 1 ”°t to complain if he seek in other so
deny P^ ea3ant surroundings which you
♦„ Ag . a ’°. 1 charge you, never talk
others about the frailties
of your husband. Some people have away
in banter of elaborately describing to others
the short--omin rsor imhnnpv oxeenfrieities of
a husband or wife. Ah. the world will find
out so n enough nil the defects of vour com
panion: no need of your advertising them.
Better imitate th >se women who.having made
mistake in affiance, always have a veil to
hide imperfections and alleviations of eon
duettomenton. We must admit that there
are rare cas ~ where a wife cannot live longer
with her husband, aud his cruelties aud out
rages are the precursor of divorcement or
separation. But until that day comes keep
the awful secret to yourself. Keep it from
every l-e'n r in the univers? except
the God tn whom vou do well to tell your
trouble. Trouble only a few years at most,and
then you go up on the other side
of the grave and say: Oh Lord. I kept the
marital secret. Thou Knowest how well I
kept it. ami I thank the- that the release has
come at last. Give me some place where I
can sit down and rest awhile from the horrors
of atsembruted earthly alliance 1-efore I be
gin the full raptures of Heaven. And orders
will he s >nt out to the-usher angels saying;
“Take this Abigail right up to the softest seat;
in the best room of the palace, and let twenty
of the brightest angels wait on her for the
next thousand years!*’
Further, I charge yon let there be no out
side interference with the conjugal relation.
Neither neighlior, nor confidential friend, nor
brother, nor sister, nor father, nor mother
have a right to come in here. The married
gossip will come around and by the hour tell
you how she manages her husband. You
tell her plainly’ that if she will attend to the
affairs of her household you will attend to
yours. What damage some people do with
tbeir tongue! Harare indicates that the
tongue is a dangerous thing by the fai t that
it is shut iu, first by a barricade of teeth aud
then by the door of the lips. One insidious
talker can keep a whole neighl-orhood badly
stirred up. The apostle Peter excoriated
these busy bodies in other people’s matters
and St. Paul, in his letter to the Thessa
lonians and to Timothy, gives them a sharp
dig, and the good housewife will I® on the
ookout for them and never return their calls
la id treat them with coldest frigidity. For
this reason better keep house as soon as possi
ble. Some people are opposed to them,
out I thank God for what are
called flats in these cities. They put a
separate home within the means of nearly all
the population. In your married relations
you do not need any advice. If you and
your husband have hot skill enough to get
Uong well alone, with all the advice you can
import you will get along worse. What you
want for your craft on this voyage is plenty
of sea room.
I charge you also make yourself the intel
ligent companion of your husband. What
with these floods of newspapers and books
there is no excuse for the wife's ignorance
either about the present or the past. If you
have no more than a half hour every day to
yourself you may fill your mind with enter
taining and useful knowledge. Let the mer
chant's wife read up on all mercantile
questions and mechanic’s wife on all
that pertains to his style of work,
and the professional man’s wife on all the
legal or medical or theological or political
discussions of the day. It is very stupid for
a man, after having been amid active minds
all day, to find his wife without information
or opinions on anything. If the wife knows
nothing about what is going on in the world,
after the tea hour has passed or the husband
has read the newspaper he will have an en
gagement and must go and see a man. In
nine cases out of ten when a man does not
stay at home in the evening unless positive
duty calls him away it is because there is
nothing to stay for. He would rather talk
with his wife than any one else if she could
talk as well.
I charge you, my sister, in everv way
to make your home attractive. I have
not enough of practical knowledge
about house adornment to know just what
makes the difference, but here is an opulent
house containing all wealth of bric-a-brac,
and of musical instrument, and of painting,
and of upholstery, and yet there is in it a
chill like Nova Zembla. Another house with
one-twentieth part of the outlay and small
supply of art and cheapest piano purchasable,
and yet as you enter it there comes upon
body, mind and soul a glow of welcome and
satisfied and happy domesticity. The holy
art of making the most comfort and bright
ness out of the means afforded, every wife
should study.
At the siege of Argos Pyerhus was killed
by the tile of a roof thrown by a woman, and
Abimelech was slain by a stone that a
woman threw from the tower of Thebez,
and Earl Montfort was destroyed by
a rock discharged at him by a
woman from the walls of Toulouse. But
without any weapon save that of her cold,
cheerless household arrangements, any wife
may slay the attractions of a home circle.
[A wife and mother in prospered circum
stances and greatly admired, was giving her
chief time to social life. The husband spent
his evenings away. The son, fifteen years of
age, got the same habit, and there was a
prospect that the other children, as they got
old enough, would take the same turn. ()ne
day the wife aroused to the consideration that
she had better save her husban 1 and her boy.
Interesting and stirring games were intro
duced into the house. The mother studied
up interesting things to tell her children. One
morning the son said: “Father, you ought
to have been home last night. We
had a grand time. Such jolly games and
such interesting stories.” This went on from
night to night, and after a while the husband
stayed in to sea what was going on, aud ho
finally got attracted and added something of
his own to the evening entertainment, and
the result was that the wife and mother saved
her husband and saved her boy ami saved
herself. Was not that an enterprise worth
the attention of the greatest woman that
ever lived since Abigail, at the foot of the
rock, arrested the hundred armed warriors?
Do not, my sister, be dizzied and disturbed
by the talk of thos3 who think the home cir
cle too insignificant for a woman’s career,
and who want to get you out on plat
forms and in conspicuous enterprises.
There are women who have a spec
ial outside mission and do not dare to in
terpret me as derisive of their important mis
sion. But my opinion is that the woman who
can reinforce her husband in the woi k of life
and rear her children for positions of us 4ill
ness is doing more for God aud the race aud
her own happiness than if she spoke on every
great platform and headed a hundred great
enterprises. My mother never made a mis
sionary speech in her life and at a missionary
meeting 1 doubt whether she could have got
enough courage to vote aye or no, but she
raised her son John, who has b • *n preaching
the gospel and translating religious literature
in Amoy, China, for about forty years. Was
not that a better thing to do.'
Compare such an one with one of thcr.c die
away, attitudinizing, frivolous, married co
quettes of the modern drawing room, her
heaven an opera Injx on the night of Meyer
beer’s “Robert le Diable,” the ten command
ments an inconvenience, taking arsenic
to improves her comnlexion and her appear
ance, confused result of belladonna, bleached
hair, antimony and mineral acids, until one is
compelled to discuss her character and win
der whether the line between a decent and
indecent life is, like the equator, an imagi
nary line.
What the world wants now is
about 50,000 old-fashioned mothers,
women who shall realize that the
highest, grandest, mightiest institution
on earth is the home. It is not neces-ary
that they should have the same old-time
manners of the country farm house or wear
the old-fashioned cap and spectacles and
apron that her glorifie 1 ancestry wore, but I
mean the old spirit which began with the
Hannahs and the mother Lois and the Abi
gails of scripture days and was demonstrated
on the homestead where some of us were
reared, though the old house long ago was
pulled down and its occupants scattered
never to meet until in the higher home that
awaits the familes of the righteous. While
there are more good and fa.thful wives and
mothers now than there ever were, society
has got a wrong twist on this
subject and there are influences
abroad that would make women believe that
their chief sphere is outside instead of inside
the home.
Hence irrmany households children instead
of a blessing are a nuisance. It is card case
versus child’s primer, carriage versus cradle,
social popularity versus domestic fidelity.
Hence infanticide and ante-natal murder so
common that all the physicians, alloftathic,
hydropathic, homeopathic and eclectic are
crying out in horror and it is t'm> that the
pulpits joined with the medical profession in
echoing and re-echoing the thunder of Mount
Hinai which says “Thou shalt not kill,” and
the Book of Revelations which says “All mur
derers shall have their places iu the lake which
burneth with fire and brimstone.” And the
man or the woman who takes life a minute
old will as certainly go straight to hell as the
man or woman who destroys life forty years
old. And the wildest, loudest shriek of the
judgment day will be given at the overthrow
of those who moved in the high and respected I
circles of earthly society vet decreed by their i
own act as far as they could privately affect
it,.the extermination of the advancing gener- 1
atious. Mighty G<xl! Arrest the evil that is j
overshadowing this century.
I charge you, my sister, that you take your
husband along with you to heaven. Os
course this implies that you yourself are a
Christian. I must take that for granted. It
cannot be possible that after what Christiani
ty has done for woman and after taking the
infinitely responsible position you have as
sumed at the head of the household that you !
should lie in a position antagonistic to Christ.
It was not a slip of the tongue when I spoke ;
of you as lieing at the heal of the household. |
We men rather pride ourselves as being at the
head of the household, but it is only a pleas- !
ant delusion. To whom do the children go
when they have trouble? When there is a
sore finger to be bound up or one of the first
teeth that needs t< > be removed to make wav
for the one that is crowding it out, to whom
does the child go. For whom do children
cry out in the night when they get fright
ened at a bad dream ? Aye. to
whom does the husband go, when he lias a
business trouble too great or too delicate for
outside ears? We, the men, are heads of the
household in name, but you; oh, wives I are the
heads of the household in fact, and it is your
businfess to take your husband with you into
the kingdom of God and see that house pre
pared for Heaven.
You can do it! Os course God’s almighty
grace alone can convert him, but you are to I
be the instrument. Some wives keep their
husbands out of heaven and others garner
them for it. If your religion, oh,- wife, is
simply the joke of the household, if you would
rather go tc the theatre than the
prayer meeting, if you can beat
all the neighborhood in progressive
euenre, ir your nusoand never sees you kneei
at the bedside in prayer before retiring, if
the only thing that reminds the family of
your church relations is, that on communion
day you you get home late to dinner, you
will not be able to take your husband to
heaven, for the simple reason that vou
will not get there yourself. But
I suppose that your religion is
genuine, and that the husband realizes there
is in vour soul a divine principle, and that
though you may be naturally quicker tem
]>ered than he is, and have many imperfec
tions that distress you more than they can
any one else, still you are destined for the
skies when the brief scenes of this life
are over. How will you take
him along with you? There are two oars to
that boat—prayer and holy example.
“But,**yb« d-y. oetongs to a worldly
club, or he does not l>elieve a word of the
Bible, or he is an inebriate and very loose in !
his habits.” What you tell me me shows 1
that you don’t understand that while you
are at the one end of a prayer the omnipotent
God is at the other end. and it is simply a ques
tion whether Almightiness is strong enough
and keeps his word. [I have no doubt there
will be great conventions in Heaven called
r cel brative purposes, and when, in some
I'-'t’al ’ussembl ige the saints shall be telling
hat brought th‘in to God, I believe |
that ten thousand times ten thousand
will say, “My wife.’’
I put beside each other two testimonies ol |
men concerning their wives and let you see
the contrast. An aged man was asked the I
reason of his salvation. With tearful emo
tion he said: “My wife was brought to God
some years before myself. I per
secuted and abused her because of
her religion. She, however, returned
nothing but kindness, constantly manifesting
anxiety to promote my comfort and happi
ness, and it was her amiable conduct when
suffering ill-treatment from me that first
the arrows of conviction to my soul.” The
other testimony was from a dying man:
“Harriet, lam a lost man. You opposed our
family worship and my secret prayer. You
drew me away into temptation and to
neglect every religious duty. I believe my
fate is sealed. Harriet, you are the cause of
my everlasting ruin.”
As you stood in the village or city church,
or in your father’s house, perhaps under n
wedding bell of flowers, to-day stand up,
Sisband and wife, lieneath the cross
jf a pardoning Redeemer, while I
i proclaim the banns of an eternal
marriage. Join your right hands. I pro
| nounce you one forever. What God hath
joined together let neither life, nor death, nor
time, nor eternity put asunder. Witness men
and angels, all worlds, aliages! The circle if.
an emblem of eternity, and that is the shap?
of the rn%rriajxe ring.
A New Denomination.
ft? 1 >» 'W.
'wi r\
A little girl, a regular attendant at one
of the Presbyterian Sunday-schools of St.
Paul, went out with her mother to spend
the day. A young lady, a visitor like
wise, asked her what church she at
tended. “I don’t know exactly,” the
little girl replied, “Pm not a Methodist
and lam not a Baptist. I guess I must
be an advertisement.— Pioneer Preu.
Saved His War Record.
A strapping big fellow was pulled cut
of the Ohio river after a steamboat ■ x le
sion.
“Lost much?” asked a sympathizing
bystander.
“I should say so,” said the dripping
pilgrim; “lost all my baggage.”
“Much of it?”
“Well” (hesitatingly), “there was a
nair of stockings and a shirt.” Then,
brightening up, he added, “But, thank
God! I have saved my war record.”
With this he pulled out of his breast
pocket a very wet provost marshal’s cer
tificate—that he had furnished a substi
tute.— Chicago Ledger.
The Key That Fitted.
“Badgely, what curious thing is this?”
“That’s a scalp-lock, old boy.”
“Ugh! What a sharp knife must have
b““n used!”
“Oh, I don’t know. That one was
lifted by a key.”
“A key! What kind of a key?”
“A Chero-kee.’’— Ctll.
Beyond.
limited with bln. moonUini
Oft, when ■ little lad,
Dreamed I of aomething g
Hidden beyond;
Ships and shining sea,
Towns and towers haunted
Dreams made me glad—anc
Life lay beyond!
Ringed with blue welkin,
Olt now, as when a lad,
Dream I of something glad
Hidden beyond;
Something I cannot see
Haunts and entices me;
Dreams make me glad—and sa
What liea beyond I
-Wdliam Canton in Good IVordi.
SCARRED FOR LIFE.
Some classes of men, like rival can
didates, seem to be born enemies, just
ag it is with some animals—cats and
dogs, for instance. When troops are
stationed in a German university city,
the officers and students are certain to
quarrel. The same cordial relations ex
ist between them that might be expect
ed to prevail if a few Texas centipedes
and tarantulas were placed in a bottle
and shaken up well. In the year 1861
the students at the Polytechnic School
of Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, and
the army officers stationed at that city
were in perpetual session, »>to speak.
They were fighting almost every day.
There were several students’ societies
at the Polytechnic School; the Saxonia.
the Franconia and Bavaria, and when
the members were not fighting duels
among themselves or drinking beer,
they were having “personal difficulties,’
as David Crockett used to call such
joint discussions, with the officers of
the army of the Grand Duke of Baden.
During one of these street exhibi
tions a. corps bursch of the Saxonia
came very near being made aeorpse by
an officer, who made use of his sword
on the street and on the person of his
antagonist. As it was, the student’s
coat, a borrowed one, was' cut and
slashed in several places. Whenever
the students and officers met in the
beer saloons, if they were sober
enough to converse at all, they used
language towards each other that
would not be tolerated in this country
outside of the halls of congress.
The bad feeling finally culminated
in a duel between Lieut. Von Holz and
a student named Baum, a member of
the Bavarian society, which unpleas
ant affair is the subject of this sketch,
the wrjfer being an eye witness. The
quarrel started at a masquerade ball.
They called each other bad names, and
slung diatribes and beer bottles, mak
ing good line shots across the table at
each other. Next morning Baum sent
a challenge to the lieutenant, who re
plied that it would afford him pleasure
to murder Baum, but it was below the
dignity of an army officer, who was
also a baron, to fight with a plebeian;
he, therefore, was compelled promptly
and defiantly to refuse the challenge.
Several more street fights occurred,
all of which failed to calm the excite
ment. When the dueling societies
heard that Lieut. Von Holz would not
fight there was a wild yearning on the
part of the students to challenge him
and all his friends. A secret caucus
was held, and the students sent a com
munication to the colonel of the regi
ment, begging him as a special favor
to pick out seven of his officers who
needed exercise anil excitement, and
the students would pick seven of their
number who were suffering from the
same cause, the idea being to have
seven duels with sabres.
The dueling sabre is not a safe thing
io fool with, as it never misses fire,
and in the hands of inen who are not
careful, accidents are certain to occur.
The officers appreciated this fact and
refused to go into joint session at all,
with sabres, but they offered a com
promise. There was In Carlsruhe at
"that time an army officer who besides
enjoying the high reputation of being
a blackleg and a blackguard, generally,
was also remarkable for being nearly
seven feet tall. Now, in a sabre duel
the man with the long arm has all the
advantage over the man with the
i short arm. The former can carve up
I the latter at his ease, while the othsr
candidate cannot reach far enough
with his sabre to make the connection,
j The army officers were so kind and
considerate, and so utterly opposed to
anything savoring of unfairness, that
they relaxed their dignity to the extent
of proposing that their blackleg, Count
Leiningen—that was his name-
should with his long arm, fight the
whole seven scholastic gladiators. This
offer was about equivalent to a man
with a long range rifle requesting an
antagonist with an Indian club to
tackle him at a thousand yards. The
students met again in secret conclave
and sent back a very sarcastic commu
nication, suggesting that when Count
Leiningen’s friends had sawed him in
tern the proposition would be taken up
from the table on which it had been
laid. Then some more street fights
' followed as a matter of course.
One afternoon a few days after the
proposition for Count Leiningen to
offer up the short-armed students in
succession I happened to be strolling
down the principal street of Carls
ruhe when a carriage stopped in front
of me and a head was stuck out
through the window. I recognized
the head as being the porsonal proper
ty of the senior of the Bavaria. “Come
in here.” he called motioning with his
hand. I obeyed without hesitation.
The carriage door was closed, and the
vehicle rolled on. There was in the
carriage, besides the senior of the
Bavaria, Herr Giesen, another mem
ber of that dueling club, and Herr
Baum, the student who had the row
with Lieut. Von Holz. In the bottom
of the vehicle were three or four bask
et-handled dueling sabres.
“We want you as a witness to the
duel that is coming off right away.
You are the first corps bursch I’ve
seen on the street, and as there is no
time to lose I’ve just picked you up,”
said the senior.
“So Baron Lieut. Von Holz has
changed his mind about fighting with
plebeians,” I replied.
“No, he hasn’t changed his views,
bnt Prince William, the brother of the
grand duke, changed them for him.
Prince William gave our little lieuten
ant to understand that if he did not
. fight he would be kicked out of the
army. That’s what brought him to
his milk. So he went over as soon as
possible. He is waiting for us now,
with his seconds and an army doctor,
in the gasthaus zum adler. It is going
to be a very serious matter and I want
a witness to see that they don’t crowd
us or lie about us afterwards. These
military men are grsat strategists.”
In a few minutes we drove into the
court-yard of the hotel and carried the
weapons up stairs. On the large danc
ing seal, where the dispute was to be
arranged, where three gentlemen,
Lieut. Von Holz, his second, and a
doctor. The latter was unconcernedly
threading a curved needle to sew up
wounds. On the table was a basin of
water and a sponge, also an open case
of instruments. The Germans are
very business-like in all their under
takings.
Lieut. Von Holz, the cause of this
prospective trouble, did not impress
me very favorably. He talked through
his nose, which he held up in the air,
possibly to facilitate his flow of elo
quence. It was a very large nose,
with large nostrils that looked as If
they were looped up at the sides. He
was rather short and stout, and looked
far from enjoying himself. On the
other hand, the lieutenant’s second
presented an interesting appearance.
He was a fierce-looking, little old man
with shaggy eyebrows, a hooked nose
that gave him tne appearance of
being a cross between a rat terrier and
a bird of prey. He was a venerable
surgeon relic of the Napoleonic era.
Os our party Baum supplied the
good looks. He was a dark-haired,
blue-eyed young fellow, and as
strong as a lion. Giesen, the senior of
the Bavaria, was a big, broad-should
ered, red-whiskered giant, whose face
was adorned with various and sundry
scars that he had acquired at different
universities. Giesen approached the
Napoleonic veteran and informed him
that Bauin would be ready in a few
moments. There was a brief consul
tation in a corner of the large dancing
room.
“Now, my dear boy,” said Giesen,
laying his hand on his principal’s
shoulder. “If I had known about this
before, I would have taken it off your
hands; but It is too late now. You
have never practiced with a sabre, and
unless you do precisely as I tell you,
you will be cut all to pieces, for your
opponent knows how to fence. You
must not fence him at all. You are
stronger and quicker than he is, and if
you climb right on him, and cut away
at him as hard as you can, you
will throw him off his guard. Don’t
give him time to cut back at you. As
soon as I give the word, run right up
to him, and make use of your natural
advantages.”
Baum nodded his head. There was
a look of determination in his knit
brow and set mouth. The opponents
t iok their places in silence opposite
each other about fifteen feet apart.
The program was that at the word of
command they should advance on
each other. It was agreed that Giesen
should give the word.
“Fertig-los," said Giesen In a loud
voice.
The words seemed scarcely uttered
before Baum was upon his antagonist,
dealing out a succession of terrific
blows that could not be parried. Lieut
Von Holz began to move backwards,
but Baum followed him more furious
ly than ever, until the lieutenant had
reached the opposite side of the room.
•■Halt,” called out the Napoleonic
veteran, interposing his sabre. The
combatants paused and took their for
mer places.
“I had supposed this duel was to be
carried on according to the code, but
I see I am mistaken. Your man
should keep his proper distance,” said
the old veteran.
"And I," retorted Giesen, with a
magnificent sneer, “supposed that this
room, which is nearly fifty feet square,
was big enough for these gymnastic
exercises, but I see lam mistaken. If
Lieut. Von Holz cannot find room
to maneuver, 1 expect he will have to
go out in the open air, where there is
more scope for his strategic ability.
As it is I have no objection to the door
being opened, if it will make him feel
more comfortable."
The old veteran snapped his eyes at
the audacious Giesen, and then whis
pered a few words to his principal,
probably suggesting that he use his
sabre more and his legs less. The lat
ter nodded assent and said he was
ready.
"That was splendid,” whispered
Giesen to his man, who was eager for
the second round. “Just hit a little
quicker, if you can. He will stick
this time. The next round will settle
it.”
Once more the word was given.
Once more the student rushed at his
adversary. This time the lieutenant
did stick. There was a fierce clashing
of blades. The lieutenant uttered an
exclamation of pain and reeled back
wards. His white shirt was covered
with blood, which gushed from his
head in streams. One of the sledge
hammer blows of the student, had
caught him-fair and square on the left
temple, the wound extending around
the outside corner of the left eye,
through the cheek across the nose,
which was laid open the breadth of a
finger, and into the right cheek. The
cut was at least an inch wide, and
probably much deeper, several large
arteries being cut. The doctor, assist
ed by the old veteran, had his hands
full to stop the flow of blood.
‘•1 presume,” said Giesen, leaning
over to look at the wounded man,
; “that there will be no more military
exercise today,” and leaving Lieut
Von Holz in the hands of his friends
we retired from the room.
That night there was a “commers,”
or general jollification, at the club
room of the Bavaria, at which, there is
reason to fear, more wine was drank
than was good for the health of those
who participated.
It was six weeks before Lieut. Von
Holz shewed his aristocratic face in
public places, and if he is still In ths
land of the living he can be readily
identified at long range by the scar
across his face, which Is convincing
proof, if any is needed, that occasion
ally main strength and awkwardness,
when backed up by pluck, triumph
over skill.
Dyes from Cemmon Plants.
The great variety of colors and dyes
obtained from common plants, grow
ing so abundantly almost everywhere,
Is apparently known to but few per
sons except chemists. The well-known
huckleberry or blueberry, when boiled
down, with an addition of a little
alum and a solution of copperas, will
develop an excellent blue color; the
same treatment, with a solution of
nut galls, produces a clban dark brown
tint, while with alum, verdigris and
sal ammoniac various shades of purple
and red can be obtained. The fruit of
the elder, so frequently used for color
ing spirits, will also produce a blue
color when .treated with alum. The pri
vet, boiled in asolution of salt, furnish
es a serviceable color, and the overripe
berries yield a scarlet red. The seeds
of the common burning bush, “euony.
mous,” when treated with sal ammoni
ac, produce a beautiful purple red.
The bark of the currant bush, treated
with a solution of alum, produces a
brown. Yellow is obtainable from
the bark of the apple tree, the box, the
ash, the buckthorn, the poplar, elm,
etc., when boiled in water and treated
with alum. A lively green is fur
nished by the broom corn.
A Duck Hunter’s Odd Craft.
A man in South Bend, Ind., goes
duck shooting in an odd craft, which
he calls an “invisible boat.” He has
cut one-third of an entire boat’s length
down to the waterline. The remain
der is made water-tight, and in the
stern a mirror (twenty-eight inches
high and forty-eight long) Is placed so
that the glass reflects the water in
front and the decoys. Behind the mir
ror the hunter sits and paddles his
boat toward the ducks, making his ob
servations through a small spot in the
mirror, from which the amalgam has
been removed. As the boat moves up
to the ducks they can see their own
reflections in the mirror, and in some
instances swim toward the boat.
When the hunter is near enough to
shoot he drops the mirror forward by
loosening a string and gets two effect
ive shots—one at the ducks on the
water and one as they rise.