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A Blues mROMANC By Miss Ann CHAPTER XIV. Continued. *'I may have said many things ten years ago that would be misplaced now," she murmurs. "Misplaced?yes. And untrue also?" "Naturally." "H> carries her across the water, sets her down in safety upon the firmer Bands, and they proceed along their way in silence. Miss Hardcastle breaks it first. "Mrs. Chester is undoubtedly a most amiable and meritorious person. She reminds me always of one of Thackeray's good women, poor thing, and there can be no manner of doubt that she has a pretty face. That kind of red-and-white complexion is so pleasing, before time renders it coarse, and, though not one of the features ;would bear criticizing, the white teeth and general animation give you the impression of beauty. Never were good looks more of the beauti di diable order; still " "Ah, that 'still* brings us to text! The rest is marginal." "To think of Felix Broughton, the most difficult of spoilt human creatures, passing the remainder of his days with her?Felix Broughton, in reality unamusable, yet who constantly nvnoofc +lint wnmiin lie an proaches shall be a nineteenth century Mme. de Maintenon and amuse him! Tell me, Felix, for you have had a good many hours' experiences, does Daphne ever originate an intelligible remark on any subject .whatever?" "I have not the slightest recollection," answers Felix promptly. "That Mrs. Chester has under all circumstances looked charming, I am positive." "And you think the art of looking charming, even in a woman who had no friend of the soul, and who could remember the dinner hour, would render a life-long tete-a-tete endurable." "I think nothing would render a lifelong tete-a-tete endurable," is Mr. Broughton's reply. "A tete-a-tete of any kind is the very last thing I look forward to in marriage." "Not when you live upon mutton chops in the farm house, give up ices and Monte Carlo, and grow your own roses?" "Ah, that farm house?is in Spain! Abandoning metaphor, let us talk, Clem, of the one thing that really concerns ourselves, and ourselves alone? of your marriage." She winces under the woyl as under a blow. Felix Broughton goes on calmJy, and with deliberation." "Your intended husband is undeniably a young man of ability. As time goes on, it strikes me that he has a ,very fair prospect of r-aking a name in politics." "Politics!" echoes Clementina, drearily. "Yes, Sir John and I have had one tor two serious talks of late, and I am (convinced (or he is convinced) that ke lias a future before him. You know <Clem, the nothing-new, nothing-true treed of idle fellows like me. Severne frolds the picturesque belief, not only ithat life should be the verb 'to do,' but that he, Severne, will infallibly leave puman affairs in general straighter than he found them. He also believes in getting into Parliament and working out reforms there for a grateful teountry! Depend upon it, when he leaves the army he will go in for school boards or th* British workman; in time, perhaps, write pamphlets. There you could help him." "I hate pamphlets," exclaims the feoor little bluestocking. "I have been stifled with books and writers, and cleverness of all kinds, ever since I icould run alone. It is not generous of you to tease me like this." "You spoke with frankness concerning the object of my choice, Clementina." "Your choice! Do you mean to tell tne that Mrs. Chester " "I mean," says Felix Broughton, with * summary change of tone, and once more making himself master of her fcand, "I mean to talk no more either of Mrs. Chester or Sir John Severne, but of you and of me. Clem, my darling, how many years is it, I wonder, 'since first we fell in love with each other?" ; "In love!" she stammers, shrinking timidly away from him, and with a pathos in her voice to which Felix :Broughton is not insensible. "We?we 3mve been affectionate cousins all our flives, I hope." . "We have been nothing of the kind," *ays Cousin Felix, decisively. "Do you remember a children's ball you went ito once in Eaton Place?oh, half a cen. jtury ago, and when I still wore a sword In Her Majesty's service?" "A fancy dress ball, half juvenile, half grown up. My invitation came through you. Any pleasure that ever entered my life, when I was a child, came through you! Yes, I remember it all as though it were yesterday." "You were dressed as Minerva, poor, email over learned Minerva that you iwere, and I?appeared in my natural character?a young simpleton of the nineteenth century in his scarlet jacket and gold trimmings." "You wrote your name down for every one of my dances, giving me leave to throw you over?me throw you over!?if I got a chance of better partners." "Clementina, can you deny that you firere in love with me that evening?" "How could I help myself? You were a full grown officer, sir, and I a partnerless, neglected girl of eleven." "Well, and afterward, when I came to grief, and had to give up my scarlet jacket, trimmings, and all (and England, too, for the matter of that), who 1 of all my friends wrote me the kindest f letters? My dear," says Mr.. Brough| ton, tenderly, "I have those little letters of yours now, a vast deal too well spelt and written for a child of elevs ?en; that was not your fault, but brim TOCKING;! - L; !E J REALITY, c^ ie Edwards. ful of love and pity, and offeringyes. Clem, it is a fact?offering to save your pocket money, if I thought sixpence a week would be of any substantial advantage to me." "All that is past and over," she says, under her breath. "I loved you, I know, with a childish love. It would be ridiculous to deny it." "Then there came a long lapse. Through good-natured relations, anxious to settJe me as far away from . * T UAiry. I tnemseives as pussiuie, 1 yut m,? uhjlomatic post." with nothing to do, and proportionate pay, in Vienna, and during five years, I believe, only came to London twice. And then?one fine morning I received a letter from Mrs. Hardcastle telling me of your engage-1 ment to Severne." "I was a schoolgirl, not eighteen years old," says Miss Hardcastle, apologetically. "I thought being engaged ( would take me away from the 'isms' and 'ologies' of Fraulein Schnapper. I ?I was a fool! Why hesitate to use the fitting word? As for you, Felix, I believed you had forgotten me long before. More than once, remember, we had heard that you were going to be 1 _ _ ? -t tf marneu, anu "I bore the news ns stoically as I could. As far as birth and money prospects went, I felt you could not have made a wiser choice than young Severne, and I told myself it was best so. Then, when I saw your face again, and every day that I have seen it since I have known, Clem, that we love each other. Don't be afraid; I shall not transgress against moralities," adds Mr. Broughton, quickly. "When you are once Lady Severne I shall be silent enough, depend upon it. I have the right, like the poor wretch who will be hanged to-morrow, to speak now." "Oh, Cousin Felix!" And she lifts her face, quivering with emotion, to his. "If you had only spoken sooner, I have always, always cared " And then Miss Hardcastle's utterance is choken by tears. Hardly learned philosophers, enlightenments of the pure reason and of Teutonic governesses, you have come to this; the flutter of a girl's heart?"the thrill of a ganglion"?has proved stronger than you all! CHAPTER XV. A Bluestocking. The time of roses is gone by, the green and flowery year turned russet. Crimson heaps of apples in every orchard betoken that cider making is at hand. The cornfields are bare; the latest harvest of vraic is dried and stacked. As you pass along the cottage gardens no longer greet you with home, ly sweets of lavender or of gillyflower; their borders are gay with autumn's scentless blooms, with hollyhocks, dahlias and chrysanthemums. Summer has got its death warrant, yet (like some human hearts) carries a brave front to the last; so brave that but for the shortening days, the songless hedgerows, you might half believe that the pulses of spring were a-beat, the vanished delights of May and midsummer still to come. It is a mellow October afternoon, and Fief-de-la-Reine once more lies bathed in sunshine; the lichened walls of the old farm and outbuildings, the yellowing gardens, the pearly sky, all blending in a single note of color, exquisite as transient. Among the flower pots, trimly kept as in June, the bees hum, ignorant of their doom. Golden pumpkins, in rows, are laid to ripen on the dairy roof. Herbs and lentils for winter use lie outspread on linen sheets before the entrance of the house f>lace. - Little Paul's laughter rings merrily on the still air from the orchard, where he and Aunt Hosie are busy over the last gathering of medt " ? ^ T* V? mn rrli tho lcll.fi> UUU VClUUCi pcaio. jluiwu^u open kitchen windows may be heard, as of old, the warblings of Margot? Margot, who is to be married at Christmas?the tale of spoons and house linen completed, and whose fancy with legitimate lightness turns to thoughts and songs of lov?. Belle diguece, Belle diguedaine. Belle diguidon, Dondon, Dondon, "Quite an Arcadian scene," remarks a voice, curiously attuned and softened since we heard it last, as a carriage pulls up before the wicket gate of Fiefde-la-Reine, the wicket gate at which Severne and Mrs. Chester so often used to linger ere they parted. '"If ever we do give up this wicked world, Sir John, I shall assuredly come to Quernec to seek our hermitage. Now for Daphne's surprise?if she has neither emigrated nor married the village curate in the Interval! Daphne?genus moiogynia, class ortundria. How good it is to feel that one need never call anything by its Latin name again." And in another minute Clemeit-ina, her face brighter than the October sunshine that riots on it, is walking up the path, full in view of the parlor windows, Sir John Severne at her side. Her voice, I said, has become attuned. Her smile is ueart-wliole. Clementina's very step seems to have grown lighter, more youthful, since the evening when last she visited Fief-de-laReine. The newness perceptible in every detail of her ettire would suffice to stamp her as a bride, in feminine eyes, even were lier stfft liand, .with its shining wedding ring, not ungloved. And feminine eyes arc watching her, eyea within whose clear depths tears of exceeding bitterness are hardly kept from overflowing! Rigidly Daphne has steeled herself against this hour, the cruel, inevitable hour of meeting Severne and his wife; yet, now that it has abruptly come upon her. the fierceness of the ordeal ssems beyond her strength to bear. During the three past months she has, in some measure, been kept up by the remembrance of her self-sacrifice. In the hour of passionate temptation. IIIMH--II-- I when immediate personal happiness might have been attained, had she held out her hand to grasp it?in that hour Daphne Chester found strength, was able to stand between the man she loved and her own weakness. And tie consciousness of duty bravely held to has upheld her even while her pillow has been nightly wet with tears, white her eyes have lost their lustre, her cheeks their bloom. Under the first great trouble of her youth, Barry Chester's desertion, she succumbed without an effort; crushed by the deadening sense of her insig! nificance, the feeling that she was as little able to act a part in her own destiny as could the cog in a wheel disarrange the machinery in which it is placed. Love, the great educator, has lifted her to a higher plane of experience. She has learned how loss, viewed otherwise than as the mere blind operation of law, may, aided by nature's slow healing, turn into spiritual gain for the losei\ And yet Yet in this moment?oh. contradictory woman's heart!?in this moment, when the abstract has become concrete, when she may see embodied the net result of her virtue, of her abnegation, Daphne shrinks with agony from be- j holding it! They might have waited, so she tells herself, as with fast-beating, heart, with ice-cold, clammy hands, she watches them approach, gay, carele:s, as though their own selfish happiness comprised the universe. They might have waited a year, six months. They need not have shown her their new life in its very spring. Nay, if they were bent in coming hither, Severne, at least, might fitly wear a graver countenance! Whatever his ligbt-heartedness as a bridegroom, there must be some painful recollections, surely, connected with Fief-de-la-Reine, some j slight regret, which, though he felt it { not, he might have the common deli- j cacy to dissemble! The two elder Misses Vansittart, as it chances, are abroad, in the "barouche." paying their half-yearly round of calls on Island notabilities. Aunt Hosie, as we have seen, is at her outdoor T?*nrb Kn rinnhne must drink her cup of bitterness, must pass through the bad quarter of an hour thnt lies before her, unsupported. To her relief, the bride, after some futile attempts at French talk with Margot, makes her entry into the parlor alone. Severne's courage, it may be [ supposed, has failed, or his conscience [ pricked him at the last moment. "You never thought to see us here again so soon!" cries Clementina, advancing with an outstretched hand, j with far more cordiality of manner than she ever displayed in former days | toward Daphne Chester. "The fact is, I spent such happy, happy hours at Fief-de-la-Reine in the summer I could not resist the temptation of paying | you a flying visit on our way to Paris." Daphne responds to the bride's hand j [ shake with as much warmth as she can command. Her power of speech seems frozen. What form of greeting shall she choose, what meaningless commonplace utter, remembering freshly as she does that those happy, happy days were spent -by Miss Hard| castle in society?not of Sir John Severn, but of Cousin Felix. "I ought to have written you a line, I know, but our whole journey was, at j the last, planned so hastily. To begin at the beginning." Clementina seats I herself by the open window, precisely j in such a light that her artistic travelj ing costume (the latest bridal fashion, of course?was not Elsie to make the [dresses?), her smiling, cheerful face, i come into cruelest juxtaposition with Daphne's everyday country gown, with Daphne's altered complexion and thin "T.- 1 !- etnnf I JLU utr^ill LUC iuuiauLi\. oivij at the beginning, I have been married a very long time, Mrs. Chester. Our wedding day was August the 15th." | "We?we had never beard tlie news?" Fain would Daphne call the bride by her own name, but cannot. Her lips, as yet. refuse to pronounce that unfamiliar "Lady Severne." To be continued. Women Not Meaner than Men. Are women meaner in. giving then men? It cannot rightly be urged that they are. Women, after all, in buying or in giving, are commonly making use of money that others have earned They liave heen trustees ror otner people's money for 2000 years, and long use Las made them careful of their trust. Of course, the petty meannesses of a certain kiud of women have afforded infinite opportunities for men's jests and contempt, but those petty meannesses are nothing in comparison with the great meannesses of really sordid men.?The Spectator. The Amazing Student* of Missouri. At a mass meeting at Columbia, Mo., the students of the University of Missouri petitioned the faculty to serve them only two meals a day instead of three. The petition states that experiments recently conducted by six of the dormitory students proved that when eating only two meals a day a student j is in better health and spirits and better prepared for hard mental work. It was demonstrated that the luncheon, was the least essential, and the petition requests that the noon meal be eliminated.?New York Sun. Souml Enjoyment. The spirit of modern life is to plunge into experiences vigorously and get the most from them. This was the spirit that animated the man who preferred tough beefsteak because there was more "chew to it." Similarly virile was the attitude of Mr. Shillings, who had come to town to order a new family carriage. "Now, I suppose you want rubber tires?" said the agent. "No, sir," replied Mr. Skillings. "My folks ain't that kind. When we're riding we want to know it." Had Seventy-five Great-Grandchildren. Mrs. Elizabeth McLean is dead at Scammon at the remarkable age of 107 years. She was probably the oldest person in the State, and was the mother of twelve children and the grandmother of eighty-four grandchildren, most of whom are living in the community of Scammon and Frontenac. Seventy-five great-grandchildren are known to be living in this country, besides those in Ireland, whtfw she was born.?Tapeka Capital. Chestnuts are an important article of food in Ualv Several uranium minerals have shown radium directly proportional in ' quantity to the amount of uranium, which tends to eonlirm the suggestion that radium is formed by the breaking flown of the uranium atom. j The average height of man is found 1 by A. Dastre to have continued the j same for thousands of years, as shown In primitive man. prehistoric man. and 1 historic man. The great size ot an- 1 eient man is imaginary, Ono of the most singular of the many 1 curious fossils yielded by the famous ' opal fields at White Cliffs, N. S. W.. is an opalized shark. It is three and a half feet long and eighteen inches in greatest circumference and is encircled 1 from tip to tip with thin veins of par- , pie opal. Some plants go to sleep every night. The mimosa, or sensitive plant, in J daylight opens its fragile leaves which' are hard at work eating, absorbing the carbonic acid of the air into plant food. t * +1iq tnimncn slAtms und di n.1 ilijjUL IUC IU11UVMM ? ! gests what it lias eaten, and the leaves J fold up double against each other, the j stem droops and the leaf is limp and ! apparently dead. Experimenting on the influence of metal containers on the fermentation of liquids, Leopold Nathan has shown that German silver, copper, zinc, brass and bronze have a decidedly strong in- ! hibitory effect, while tin and lead have moderate action. Polished iron, silver, gold, polished tin, aluminum, nickel, as well as celluloid, glass and j hard rubber, have little or no effect, i The smoothness of the surface of metals seems to have decided influence. A striking instance of the change j which the cultivation of natural science | is capable of causing in the face of tlio j earth is afforded, hy a remark of Mr. Andrew Murray concerning the results achieved by horticulture in England. They have, he said, affected the appearance of all England. "Nowhere can a day's riile now be taken where the landscape it not beautified by some of the introductions of the Royal Horticultural Society.*' A FRAUD DETECTED. How Mrs. Leonard Saves the Governinent's Money. "If it is not a coincidence, it is a fraud." The chief clerk of the note counting division of the United States Treasury Department, Washington, D. C., looked up from a pile of official documents. Beside his desk stood a short, middleaged woman. Her air was businesslike. In her hanu she held a package. of Treasury notes, from the end of each of which a piece had been torn. "What is it, Mrs. Leonard?" inquired the chief clerk. t "In the first place," she said, "these notes are comparatively new. Yet you see a piece of each is missing. I have received several batches containing such notes during the past three J uiinuus. x uavc iuuiicu m# and I find in every case the notes have come from the same bank."' "Ah! Then you suspect something .wrong?" i "Well, .some one has deliberately torn the ends from those notes. It would be the easiest thing in the world for the person who has the scraps to burn the edges and then send them here for redemption. Hadn't we better be on the lookout?" In this manner did Mrs. Willa A. Leonard, the expert money-counter of the United States Treasury Department, detect a fraud which might have cost the Government many thousand? of dollars. Investigation justified her suspicions. A detective shadowed all of the clerks employed by the bank j named by Mrs. Leonard, and finally ( found one who had been making it a < practice to tear off the ends of notes that passed through his hands. When Kv rim pnnfosset] < Ll/l UCl CU k/j luu uvi.vx.iov ? ~ that it had been bis intention to burn i the edges and send tliorn to Washington with an affidavit that the remainder of each had been consumed by fire accidentally. ? Theodore Waters, in Everybody's Magazine. How Indians Telegraphed. With their body robes of finely i tanned buffalo hide held, raised, lowered, dropped and swung in certain well known peculiar ways, the Indian ( scouts and watchers used to telegraph thence to the distant village of the presence of strangers or enemies in J the country, of the approach of the I buffalo bands, and of the return of war 1 and hunting parties. , If the camp was too distant for the j blanket signal to be made out, the in- I formation was communicated by fires 1 at night and by pillars and balloon shaped puffs of smoke by day, descernible to the distance of at least fifty i miles. When the traders came up the 1 Missouri River the Indian scout added j the small circular hand mirror to his i meagre but all sufficient outfit, and in < time learned to communicate with his ' distant friends by flashes of sunlight. ' The first Indian hunter or horse herder who caught, the danger signal from the lookout station repeated it to tne j village by riding his horse furiously in a circle or by some .'similar sign.?Field x and Stream. i TIic T.arj?e?t Diamond. ] Unfortunately, the largest diamond t in the world is not of the crystalline sort used as a gem. If it were its val- ' tie would hi? fabulous, for it is seven- 0 teen times larger than Hie famous Victoria diamond, the largest of modern t linds, which was sold of $ 1 ,."ii)0.000. Its true value depends upon the use to p which it can be put when broken up, ' for it is of the amorphous kind, known ? technically as carbon. u> To Gauge :t Conductor. i The French Society of Manufaetur- f ers is oiTering a prize of 0000 francs t for the invention of an apparatus for I gauging the current cf an electrical 1 conductor. The competition closes on December 31. 15)04. and particulars can [ be obtained from M. Le President. As- h social ion des In-lustriels do France. 3 IiiH' ue Lutcre, Paris.?London i?ugi- r ceeiv CHE GREAT DESTROYER ' >OME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT 1 THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE. rales About Men TVho Have Become th? I Victim* of the saloon "Wolves ? The Carpenter and the Wild Beast* Which Devoured Him?Baits For Frey, One who becomes a patron of the saloon s often worse than a prey of mid' beasts. One cannot read of a man's being torn jy the wolves without desiring two things, to help the man in his fight and to wish ;o destroy the wolves. I have known many a man to become the victim of the saloon wolves, and have j tried to help free him from them. But J they would pursue him as relentlessly as j ivild beasts would. 1 A man whom I knew was elected to the Legislature of Ohio. lie owned a farm worth $10,000. But as he got into politics tie began to drink with other politicians, md the appetite for drink became strong. He made numerous efforts to break away from the habit, but the liquor men were liter his money, and they invented al! sorts of devices to get him into the saloon so that they could cause him to break his pledge. Again and again he tried to become free from them, and again and again they captured him. In less than ten years from the time he entered the Legislature in honorable, upright citizen they had gotten all his money and involved him heavily mid tiip sheriff sold his beautiful farm to pay his debts. It left him 'with little money?no home?covered with disgrace and lxis proud spirit broken. He had been the prey of the wolves. He took his family and went to the prohibition State of Kansas and settled where there were no saloons, to begin life anew ] at fifty years of age. I knew a mechanic in Indiana who 1 earned $4 a day as foreman for a house building company. Of course with his wages wisely expended lie could have kept his family in comfort. But he had an appetite for drink, and ? the wolves were ever ready to devour him. I When he would receive his $24, a week's ! wages, he would go to the saloon and pay i out the greater portion of it for his drink ' ( and treating bills. Then sometimes, if he j had a few dollars left after '"settling" he j would treat some of the "boys," and the j ' saloonkeeper would "mix" his liquors so as I to render fyim incapable of knowing how i much change he should get, then take his last $5 bill for fifty cents' worth of drinks, and hand him back fifty cents instead of I $4.50. Then the carpenter would go to his home with fiftv cents left out of his 824. Of course fifty cents would not go far toward feeding a family for a week, hence there ( would be distress in the house and various expedients used to get food and clothing. The mechanic often quit drinking and would save his money for awhile. But the wolves behind the bar would send other drinking men with a bottle of liquor to get him to drink and break his pledge. If he took one drink after h^ had reformed for months they knew tne.v were sure of their prey. They cared nothing that the man cut up the bedstead ana i burned it in the stove to Keep nis iamny from freezing one bitter cold night after the saloon had gotten all his money and left not a penny with which to buy wood. On one occasion this mechanic had a ( ?100 bill paid him on a job he was doing. His family was destitute, needed every- | thing. On his way home with the money i he stepped into a saloon to buy one glass ( of beer, thinking he would then go immediately home and purchase the many things the family needed. Ah! The wolves! Their fat prey! What a meal they made i of him! i He told me himself: "I don't know what happened during the next three daya | after I drank the glass of beer. I only know that when my distressed wife sent some one in search of me three days later they found me in the back room of the sa- ( loon, with no money and just 'coming to' from the effects of the drugs put into that beer." , Ah! mv young friends, the wolves of northern ^Michigan never gnawed the bones of an unfortunate hunter more greedily than these wolves in human shape devour j the blood of their unfortunate victims.? | W. G. H., in Dial of Progress. Abstinence and tonpeTlly. "How Abstinence Pays" is the title of a | little pamphlet received recently by the Herald. Their author attempts to show, : and he does show, that abstinence from intoxicants pays higher dividends in health, wealth and happiness than any other form of self-denial. Especially interesting are the mortuarv tables taken from the report of a life insurance actuary who has made a careful study of the subject. Comparisons are made, not between excessive drinkers | and total abstainers, for excessive drinkers cannot secure life insurance, but between total abstainers and moderate drinkers. j The table shows, for the cases investi- ; gated, that the deaths among moderate 11 drinkers between the ages of twenty and ' thirty years were heavier by eleven per j cent, than among the total abstainers, Be- i ( cween thirty and forty years of age the difference in favor of the total abstainers was 1 sixty-eight per cent. Between fifty and sixty the abstainers were forty-two per > cent, better off, and between sixty and sev- | enty the difference was nineteen per cent. The figures show conclusively, therefore, that the man who drinks not at all has a j far better chance to arrive at mature years I ! than the man who drinks moderately. The small percentage of difference between the ages of twenty and thirty years is ac- t < ;ounted for that the habit of drinking, even in moderation, can hardly be said to i be fixed until after the individual has passed the age of thirty years. But even then there.was a difference. It will be generally conceded, we be- ' Seve, that the average man's period of real asefulness and influence, his greatest capacity for work, lies between the ages of thirty and sixty years. It will be noted i that the average of deaths of non-drinkers > during those years is sixty-one and one- ! third per cent, less than among moderate ! drinkers. That is to say, out of every 100 j deaths of men between the ages of thirty ?nd sixty years something like sixty-three | ire moderate drinkers and thirty-seven are i lotal abstainers, a proportion of not far j from two to one. There are enough other reasons why men , should not drink at all, but these figures , ire more illuminating than anything of tlic sind we have recently come across.?Salt Lake Herald. Thp Clmrch Arouned. I : At last the church is rousing ilself to iirect contest with the one great evil that nore than all others has hindered its adranee and negatived its work. We are to lave pledges instead of platitudes, .speech ( nstead of silence, direct action instead of ague negation. The young people's sooieies are going to work against the young >eople's destroyer. ' The Crupnriu In ttrief. Of 32.152 persons arrested in Xew York 7ity for disorderly conduct 18,770 admitted jeing intoxicated. "Buffalo Bill" is a strict total abstainer, vhicli is doubtless the secret of his tireless nergy and splendid physique. Hotels and drug stores in Boston selling iquor to women have suffered the penalty ; if withdrawal of their licenses. The Total Abstinence Society of Copanlagen. Denmark, reports a membership of iver 100, 000, among whom arc thirty-seven Ministers and 10.1 teachers. Last year the ' ocicty arranged for 39SI temperance lee ures at a cost ot aunm jsw.wo. i , A. II. !3ci;i, .1 Swedish <Joed Temp'.ir. is aid to have ijiven 10,U(ii) temperance iceurea in the past thirty-two years. < The French Government is having put ip in all army baraeks an illuminated post* ] r with the legend, "'Alcohol is your oneny." Similar diagrams arc being displayed a the schools. The Swedi-ii Triripcrniice Vubli.-hing "oinpanv has published a r;>)Iac:ioii of all he temperance liivruture v.fit tin by Kew ( 'er Wieseluren, the iVher < f t!:e modern . emperanee mo.ei'icnt in Sweden. j Whose wife and children <!o yo:t wafti o see well urrs.v'd Llii;, yor.r. yoi::* . ho ."aloonkeepcr's? If you help <. > .\.i!ic lis family first you will not li.-.vt: i;!i:!-h ioi't i'ith \vhie!i to clotiio yot<r If you 1 liink his fp.n.ilv is baur than yc::i\. Jive I t ill'..- yivfcren'.e. ' ' 1 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS FOR DECEMBER II. Subject? Captivity of the Ten Tribe*, II King* xvil., 0-18?Golden Text, I Peter 111., 12?Memory Verses, 14, 15?Commentary on the Day's Lesson. I. Israel carried away captive (v. 6). C. "Ninth year of Hoshea." Hoshea was merely a vassal of Assyria and paid tribute to Shalmaneser (v. 3), but seeing what appeared to be a. favorable opportunity"lie made a bold dash for liberty. He formed an alliance against the Assyrians with So, the Pharaoh of Egypt, and refused longer to pay the tribute. This brought Shalnianeser and the Assyrian army upon them and for three years they besieged Samaria (v. 5). The lengch of the siege shows the strength of Samaria. Its horrors may be inferred from Isa. 28:1-4; Hosea 10:14; 13:16; Amos 6:9-14. "Took Samaria." The end at last came, and the city was obliged to capitulate. From the Assyrian inscriptions it appears that during the siege Shal maneser was succeeded by Sargon, one of his generals, and that it was Sargon who finally took Samaria. "Carried Israel away." What became of the Israelites? Many thousands were carried away into the northern districts of Assyria, while the poorer ones who remained were mingled with foreigners deported there by the Assyrians ana became the Samaritans. Those carried away *to Assyria never returne'd as tribes. Doubtless many would lose their nationality by intermarriage with the heathen; while the more sturdy and religious ones probably'joined with those who returned with the Jews to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah. "Halah." etc. See dictionary. II. The cause of Israel's downfall (vs. 7-12). 7. "Sinned." Here was the secret of their downfall. They forgot God and His mercy toward them and walked in the | ways of the heathen and worshiped heath- | en deities. 9. "Did secretly." They were j hypocritical. Literally, they concealed Jehovah so that He could not be recognized. They worshiped God in'the ways of their own invention and made Him like idols. ! "The tower." Erected on lonely spots to i guard vineyards and flocks. The meaning j is that idolatry was general. 10. "Images and groves." "Pillars and J Asherim." JR. V. The pillar or obelisk j was placed by thfc altar as a symbol of the god worshiped at the altar. Asherim or i Asheroth is the plural form of the proper , name of the heathen goddess of the Zidonians. The singular form is Asherah or , Ashtoreth. Asherah was the female and Baal was the male divinity. "High hill," j r.tr* Hn ovon' ominonro f Knra wptp im? ages of heathen gods, and under the trees ] booths were built for the purpose of en* ! gaging in abominable practices in honor of ; these deities. 11. "As did the heathen," I etc. They were doing the very things that i caused the Lord to destroy heathen nations | before them. "Anger." God's anger is His indignation against sin. 12. "Idols." ! Literally, "filths, a term of contempt. ] "Shall not." The prohibition is in tne commandments and elsewhere (Exod. 20:4). j III. God's efforts to save Israel (v. 13). j 13. "Testified against Israel." Israel had been warned with tremendous emphasis by Amos and Hosea. Kepentance, on the one hand, and destruction by Assyria, on the other, had been set before them in the aatiie of Jehovah as the only possible j courses. "Prophets?seers." Though both I of these names are used for prophet they have a distinct designation; perhaps some- | thing like ordained and lay preachers in modern days. Seer was the older and apparently less dignified name. "Turn ye." Compare Jer. 7:3; 18:11. But all the prophets from Samuel to Malachi delivered the same message. IV. Israel rebellious and wickcd (vs. 14-18). 14. "Hardened their nccks." Deliber- | ately chose their way of wickedness in the face of all light, warning and entreaty. "This is a metaphor derived from those oxen who, in spite of all efforts to guide them, hold their necks set in the way they determine to go. It expresses unbending obstinacy and selt-wili." sec fcxou. as:*, 9; 2 Chron. 36:13; Isa. 48:4. "Did not believe." This laid the foundation of all their sins. They did not believe God's prophets, but harkencd to deceivers, lo reject God through unbelief is one of the worst sins of which mention is made in the Bible, j The unbeliever will be destroyed (Rev. 21:8). 15. "Covenant." The whole body of the Mosaic law (Exod. 19:4; 24:4-8). They agreed to keep this law, and God promised to bless them on that condition (Deut. 29: 1, 9. 13). "Testimonials." His law is the testimony for truth and against iniquity. "Followed vanity." "Literally, "breath'or 'vapor'?a familiar image for nonentity." See Jer. 2:5; 8:19; 14:22. "Became vain." As idols are "vanity".and "nothingness," so idolaters are "vain" and impotent. Their energies wasted, their time misspent; they have missed the real object of existence, and the result is utter powerlpqcnps^ 16. "They left." "Forsook." R. V. The sin of the calves is connected with the I casting away of all the divine law. As soon as any other obect is set up instead of God j all He values has perished from man's worship (Rom. 6:16). "Worshiped?host of heaven." The Assyrian astral worship. Prohibited (Deut. 4:19; 17:3). That God's people did fall into this sin we know (Jer. 8:2; 19:13: Zeph. 1:5). 17. "Through the fire." Desperately cruel and wicked they stood before the great man-headed ox. and amidst the cries and shrieks of their babes, cast them into his outstretched arms, to be carried thence rorrintr incirlp "YfrtSPfi illtli ULC i iuiaeo warned against this abomination (Lev. 18: 21; Deut. 18:10). "'.Sold themselves to do evil." Surrendered themselves into complete slavery to idolatrous practices. 18. "Removed them." That is, the Lord removed Israel out of the Holy Land where Jehovah had His dwelling place. "None left but?Judah." "All of Benjamin and Levi and all the Israelites who abandoned their idolatries joined with Judah. The ten tribes were carried away by the Assyrians. This ended the kingdom of Israel, after it had lasted 24.3 years, from the death of Solomon and the schism of Jeroboam."' '"The disaster was overwhelming. Israel lost her country, her national existence, lier identity as a people, and was cast off from the gracious care and loving favor of God." They that forgot God were forgotten; that studied to be like the nations.. were buried among them; that would not serve God in their own land, served their enemies in a strange land. Yet we find a number sealed of each of the | twelve tribes except Dan (Rev. 7:5-8). James writes to the twelve tribes scattered J abroad (Jas. 1:1). Paul speaks of the | twelve tribes which instantly served God anr! mVJif (Arts 2(5:7). Coromantee Proverbs. To him who runs full honor pay, Though he be last. Though you may fail the eateh each day. Yet may you east. If you would trap the agile game, Go softly, brother. Look on a child and judge the same: Don't ask its mother! Beware when o'er th? wine he says. "I am your friend." Sive what you have and name no days Sooner than Ic-nd. The Evil One wV> seems most fair Knows most wiles. Woe shall be his who works great good Exi-ectir.g smiles. N'one but the tiling that knows no birth Knows no strife; S'one but the dead be'.ow the earth. May laugh at Life. -Stephen Chalmers in Mew York Times. Polite Conductors. The reason why London omnibus conduc;ors are so polite and so eager to pick up lassengers js that they are discharged if ,heir lares fall below a certain sum. Dog Cars on Parisian Underground. The managers of the Paris Metropolitan Underground IIail way have been induced :o install specials can in which dogs and :heir owners can travel together. The AtlieUt* JB ST ALICB T. TILDK9, /fl Courage of heart an<^ of soul, of mind nsd jH of sense; jflj Courage to work in the dark ind clainfll no reward; jgyj Courage to strain in the toil, each nerri^H still tense, Facing the final silence, knowing no God<^H Courage to live out a life on the terrible 3 road, 13 Knowing that at the road's end all things' U must cease; 4fj Other with self at strife, not feeling the S goad Of punishment following wrong, nor r? Vj ward of peace; 81 Courage to give of his best, when put toifl the touch; jH Courage not once over-ridden by sloth Uj leaden-shod; sR Courage to bear and to die. Ah, but how^fl much More might his courage avail, harnessed H[ with God! fSjj ?For the Christian Register. ,H| The Sacrament of Love. 3j| Lovinsmess is not so easv an acouirement H as we sometimes suppose.' It comes not altogether by nature like breathing, or, as the old adage says, like reading and writing. It is easier to acquire the habit of* hating than that of loving, as it is easier to acquire a squint-eyed, perverted view of life than a sane and healthy one. Loving enters into the religious consciousness of believers in varying degrees, but it i* safe to say that God prefers in His children one ounce of love to a pound of dogma. 'Ihe soul is like a garden that cannot r Hy be left untended; for weeds grow'1* . faster than wholesome plants, and there is no beauty or holiness that can bo expected to come up of itself and keep it-Beli free from contamination and evil con~ tact. The sacrament of love is that flower on the holy life. It irradiates the souM with beauty, it fills it with fragrance and sheds peace and rest upon the nature. It is the secret of the highest, devoutest na- ' tures. We look up to them with awe and "* longing, feeling that their gifts cannot be* ; attained by us, but the power of love la open to us all. It is e* ecially the a""i? J bute of the humble hears.. To be sure it require! discipline, suVju gation of the grosser parts of the being before it yields mellowness and ripeness, an atmosphere more than act or word. The nature becomes, as it were; solvent in tiresreligious element, so pervasive that nothing, however small, escapes its touch. Ceasing to be an occasional thing of cu?-.* torn and world, love so vivifies it, makes it eo beautiful and radiant, it is like a whitewinged angel shaking fragrance and light (mm lrinm Tf iQ lnvp nlnne that can eave a faith from fossilizing. Habit indurates our feelings, lays them out, eorpselike,' where often there is no Jesus to raise this Lazarus. Love alone can . do it. It was the sentiment with which Dante conJ templated the divine in Beatrice, thus I knitting earth to heaven. The exaltation of beauty passed insensibly into the mystical passion of love, which perhaps ne alone of all men was capable of feeling. But his revelation of the highest office of this passion has been of great value, not -7 only in purifying the earthly sentiment, ' but in connecting the religious .nature in a permanent union wjtV God. The sacrament of love is a recognition o? , heavenly gifts, the gratitude this recognition awakens, the peace it' brings in the contemplation of the universe, tend those broader views that show us the all-containing power of the divine thought and the reconciliation of seeming opposites. It if the sentiment that-makes of life worship. 5 Oftentimes life is cold, the sentiments are I moribund, praver spring from the lips, the 6ense of duty has no illumination. But to ' \ partake of the sacrament of love is to send a glow through all parts of the nature, and j to change the habitually dull into the conI secrated, to hallow all relations, and to lift j them to a higher level. It is the inner meaning and power of religion, and renders it easy, nay, natural* 1 to know God as friend, companion ana communion with Him like the breath we j draw. It is the ideal for which we should 4kn-c/in1 in thp sunshine of ' His presence; for having partaken of thq sacrament of love, everything is easy. Not always can we find that enchanted gardei* .? of the heart where human love blends with' the divine and is part of the tender overbrooding of the spirit. If we wander away, let us be careful that we do not for- i get the path of return. ? j Having this inestimable treasure of love,.' it matters not much what we are denied* Soul rest and quietude will come of themselves. We cannot hide away from aifiic* i tion, but the strength to bear will come a? a holy visitation, as if God Himself should I stoop and overshadow our littleness, oui incompleteness, with the sense of the alt., sufferingness of His presence. For love if like a dove that has made its nest under our roof, and soothes us with its tender ? cooing. We may not see it, but we know,, | it is tnere. The great heart of things beats responsive to our own. ^We are' never alone, for God it the constant, the unchanging friend. Such love breathed in the soul of Mary, sister of Lazarus, as she sat at the feet of the Master. It was well that she put away > the trifles of life for a time, to be witn Him who v.-ould visit her only on a favored day, and was soon to depart, leaving tha holy gift of His spirit, fcuch a visitation changes the current of life. What was once all absorbing falls >nto secondary relations. 'After partaking of the holy bread and Wine of a loving spirit a great experience revealing infinite things takes us whence we may never return to our frivolities. To partake of this sacrament we must b? made worthy. Galahad could only behold, after many trials and long wanderings, the Holy Grail. There is a Holy Grail for each of lis if we are worthy to possess it, a * cup filled with divine love that God presses to the lips of His children when they come to commune in the right spirit. ? The Christian Register. Ministering Ansel.*. It is in the path where God has bade us walk that we shall find the angels around us. We may meet them, indeed, on paths 1 of our own choosing, but it will be the sort of angel that Balaam met. with a sword in his hand; mighty and beautiful, but wrathful, too, and we had better not ' front him! But the friendlv helpers, the . emissaries of God's love, the apostles of His grace, do not haunt the roads that w? make for ourselves.?Alex. Maclaren. Xo Chrlat or No Home. In the city of Kuang-uen, Si-chuen, ?- ? ?-J ? Hi* irl nln f rnM a WHICH 15 gam iu uc a oycwlunt city, a woman recently burned all her idols and her ancestral tablet at the crave of her deceased husband, who during his lifetime forbade her destroying the idols. When she became released from his yoke she embraced her earliest opportunity of giving effect to her long cherished desire. The position ox women in China being what it is. it is not often easy for them to follow their convictions when the7 are out of harmony with those of their husbands. When the question of believing the gospel is involved it is frequently a choice bet wonu biuiie and reiicion.?China's M/lliona. Rabbits in Paris and London. No less than 12,000,000 rabbits are consumed in Paris annually, while the city of London consumes half a million every week. The rabbits for the London market come from Australia. , A Hasty Marriasre. After uininz at a Staten Island hotel Ralph D. Sloane, of Brooklyn, >i. Y., senc i messenger boy for a preacher and married Miss Lydia Bennett, also of Brooklyn. A 1'lch Minister. The Turkish Minister of ihe Xuvy k said to be worth ?12,099,000. llis salary is >20,U00 a year.