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I * REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN* DIVINE'S SUN DAY SERMON Subject: "What is the Moral Effect of Secret Societies?" Text: "Discover not a secret to another t> u, ?? n. rrwcim, ?., *?; It appears that in Solomon's time, as in all subsequent periods of the world, there were people too much disposed to tell all they knew. It was blab, blab, blab; physicians revealing the case of their patients, lawyers exposing the private affairs of their clients, neighbors advertising the faults of the next door resident, pretended friends betraying confidences. One-half of the trouble of every community comes from the fact that so many people have no capacity to keep their mouths shut. When I "hear something disparaging of you my first duty is not to tell you. But if I tell you what somebody has said against you, and then go out and tell everybody else what I told you, and they go out and tell others what I told them that I told you, and we all go out, some to hunt up the originator of the story and others to hunt it down, we shall get the whole community talking about what you did do and what you did not do, and tbere will be as many scalps taken as though a band of Modocs had swept upon a helpless village. We have two ears but only one tongue, a physiological suggestion that we ought to hear a goal deal more than we tell. Let us join a conspiracy that we will tell each other all the good and nothing of the ill, and then there will not be such awful need of sermons on Solomon's words: "Discover not a secret to another." Solomon had a very large domestic circle. In his earlier days he had very confused notions about monogamy and "polygamy, and his multitudinous associates m tne matrimonial state kept him too well informed as to what was going on in Jerusalem. They gathered up all the privacies of the city and poured them into his ear, and his family became a Sorosis, or female debating society of 700, discussing day after day all the difficul ties between husbands and wives, between employers and employes, between rulers ani subjects, until Solomon, in my text, deplores volubility about affairs that do not belong to us and extols the virtue of secretiveness. By the power of a secret divulged families, churches, neighborhoods, nations fly apart. By the power of a secret kept great charities, socialities, reformatory movements and Christian enterprises may be advanced. Men are gregarious?cattle in herds, fish in schools, birds in flocks, men in social circles. You may by the discharge of a gun scatter a flock of quails, or by the plunge of the anchor send apart the denizens of the aea, but they will gather themselves together again. If you, by some new power, could break the associations in which men now stand, they would again adhere. God meant it so. He has gathered all the flowers and shrubs into associations. You may plant one forget-me-not or heart's-ease alone, away off upon the hillside, but it will soon hunt up some other forget-me-not or heart's ease. Plants love company. You will find them talking to each other in the dew. A i ealaxv of stars is only a mutual life insur- | ance company. You sometimes see a man with no out-branchings of sympathy. His nature is cold and hard like a ship's mast ice-glazed, whith the most agile sailor eoiua never climb. Others have a thousand roots and a thousand branches. Innumerable tendrils climb their hearts, and blossom all the way up, and the fowls of heaven sing in the branches. In consequence of this tendency we find men coming together in tribes,in communities, in churches, in societies. Some gather together to cultivate the arts, some to plan for the welfare of the State, some to dik?uss religious themes, some to kindle their mirth, some to advance their craft. So every active community is divided into associations of artiste, of merchants, of bookbinders, of carpenters, of masons, of plasterers, of shipwrights, of plumbers. Do you cry out against it? Then yon cry out against a tendency divinely implanted. Your tirades would accomplish no more than if you should preach to a busy ant-hill or bee-hive a long sermon against ecret societies. Here we find the oft-discussed question whether associations that do their work with closed doors and admit their members by pass-words, and greet each other with a secret grip are right or wrong. I answer that it depends entirely on the nature of the object for which thoy meet Is it to pass the hours in revelry, wassail, blasphemy and obscene talk, or to plot trouble tn th? Sfjifo or fcn HAhnimh tli a in. nocent, then I say with an emphasis that no man can mistake: No! But is the object the defence of the rights of any class against oppression, the improvement of the mind, the enlargement of the heart, the advancement of art, the defense of the governrpent. the extirpation of crime or the kind- i line Of a pure^fiearted sociality, then I say, j with just a3 much emphasis: Yes. There is no need that we who plan for the conquest of right over wrong should publish to ail the world our intentions. The General of an array never sends to the opposing ? troops information of the coming attack. Shall we who have enlisted in the cause of God and humanity expose our plans to the enemyl No! we will in secret plot the ruin* of all the enterprises of Satan ana his cohorts. When they expect us by day, we will fall upon them by night. While they are strengthening their left wing we will double up their right. By a plan of battle formed in secret conclave we will come suddenly upon them crying: "Hie sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Secresy of plot and execution are wrong only when the object and ends are nefarious. Every family is a secret jsutiofcjr, every uiuauees IUIII mm OYOIJ banking and insurance institution. Those men who have no capacity to keep a secret are unfit for positions of trust any- ' where. There are thousands of men whose vital need is culturing a capacity to keep a secret. Meo talk too much, and women too. There is a time to keep silence as well as a time to speak. Although not belonging to any of the great 1 secret societies abcut which there has oeen j so much violent discussion, I have only words of praise for those associations which have for \ their object the maintenance of right against j wrone, or the reclamation of inebriates, or, ' like the score of mutual benefit societies, J called by different names, that provide temporary relief for widows and orphans, and for men incapacitated by sickness or accident from earning a livelihood. Had it not oeen for the large number of secret labor organizations in this country monopoly would long ago have, under its ponderous wheels, ground the laboring classes into an intolerable servitude. The 'man who want the whole earth to themselves would havo got it before this, had it not been for the bending together of great secret organizations. And, while we deplore many things that have been done by them, their existence is a necessity, and their legitimate sphere distinctly pointed out by the providence of God. Such organizations are trying to dismiss from their association all members in favor of anarch}* and social chaos. They will gradually cease anything like tyranny over their members and will forbid violent interference with any man's work whether he belongs to their union or ir outside of it. and will declare their disgust with any such rule as that passed in England by the Manchester Bricklayers' Association, which says auy man found running or working beyond a regular speed, shall be fined two shillings and sixpence for the first offense, five shillings for the second, ten shillings for the third and if still persisting shall be dealt with as the committee think proper. There are secret societies in our colleges that have letters of the Greek alphabet for their nomenclature, - and their members are at the very front in scholarship and irreproachable in morals, while there are others the scene of carousal, and they gamble, and they drink, and they graduate knowing a hundred times more about sin than they do of geometry and Sophocles. In other words secret societies, like individuals, are good or bad, are the means of moral health or of temporal and eternal damnation. All good people recognize the vice of slandering an individual, but many do not see the sin of slandering an orsranization. ~ There are old secret societies in thi3 and other countries, some of them centuries old, which have been widely denounced as immoral and damaging in their influonce, yet I have hundreds of personal friends who belong to them, friends who are consecrated to God, pillars in the church, faithful in all relations of life, examples of virtue and piety. They are the kind of friends whom I would have for my executors if I am so happy as to leave anything for my household at the time of decease, and they are S>e men whom I would have carry me out to the last sleep when I am dead. You cannot make me believe that they would belong to bad institutions. Ihey are the men who would ' -.v. ".1 stamp on everything: iniquitous, and I would certainly rathjer take their testimony in regard to such societies than the testimony of those who, having been sworn in as members, by their assault upon the society confess themselves perjurers. One of these secret societies gave for the relief of the sick in 1873, in this country, $1,490,274. Some of theso societies have poured a very heaven of sunshine find benediciion into the home of suffering. Several of them are founded on fidelity to good citizenship and the Bible. I have never taken one of their degrees. They might give me the grip a thousand times, and I would not recognize it. I am ignorant of their pass words, and I must judge entirely from the outside. But Christ has given us a rule by which we may judge not only all individuals, but societies" secret and open. "By their fruits ye^shal^ know them." Bad societies raaKe uuu no. vx?aai sucieues mtiK.o kwu men. A bad man will not stay in a gooa societj-. A good man will not stay in a bad society. men try au secret societies toy two or three rules. Test the first: Their influence on home, if you have a home. That wife soon loses her iufluence over her husband who nervously and foolishly looks upon all evening absence as an assault on domesticity. How are the great enterprises of reform, and art, and literature, and beneficence and public weal to be carried on if eveiy man is to have his world bounded on one side by his front doorstep, and on the other side by his back window, knowing nothing higher than his own attia, or lower than his own cellar? That wifafho becomes jealous of her husband's attention to art, or literature, or religion, or charity is breaking her own sceptre of conjugal power. I know an instance where a wife thought that her husband was giving too many nichts to Christian servlco, to charitablo service, to prayer-meetings, and to religious convocation. She systematically decoyed him away until now he attends no" church, waits upon no charitable institution, and is on a rapid way to destruction, his morals gone, his money gone, and I fear his soul gone. Let any Christian wife rejoice when her husband consecrates evenings to the service of humanity, and of God, or charity, or art, or any- | tiling elevating. But let no man sacrifice home life to secret society life, as many do. I can point out to you a great many names of men who are guilty of this sacrilege. They are as genial as angels at the society room, and as ugly as sin at home. They are generous on all subjects of wine suppers, yachts and fast horses, but they are stingy* about the wives' dresses and the children's shoes. That man has made that which might be a healthful influence, a usurper of his affections, and he has married it, and he is euiltv of moral bigamy. Under this process, the wife, whatever her features, becomes uninteresting and homely. He becomes critical of her, does not like the dress, does not like the way she arranges her hair, is amazed that he ever was so unromantic as to offer her hand and heart. There are secret societies where membership always involves domestic shipwreck. Tell me that a man has joined a certain kind, and tell me nothing more about him for ten years, and I will write his history if he be still alive. The man is a wine* guzzler, his wife broken-hearted or prematurely old, his i fortune gone or reduced, and his home a mere name in a directory. [' Hero are six secular nights in the week, i 'What shall I do with them ?" says the father and the husband. "I will give four of these nights to the improvement and entertainment of my family, either at home or in good neighborhood. I will dovote one to charitable institutions. I will devote one to my lodge." I congratulate you. Here is a man who says: ''Out of the six secular nights of the week I will devote five to lodges and club3 and associations and one to the home, which ' night I will spend in scowling like a March ] squall, wishing I was out spending it as I have spent the other five nights." That man's I obituary is written. Not one out of 10,000 that ever gets so far on the wrong road * ever stops. Gradually his health will fail * through late hours, and through too much , stimulants he will be first-rate prey for ery- J sipelas and rheumatism of the heart. The doctor coming in will at a glance see it is not only present disease he must fight, but years of fast living. The clergyman, for the sake of the feelings of the family, on the funeral day will only talk in religious generalities. The men who got his yacnt in the eternal rapids will not be at the obsequies. They have pressing engagements that day. They will send flowers to the coffin, will send their wives to utter words of sym pathy, but they will have engagements elsewhere. They never come. Bring me mallet s and chisel, and I will cut on the tombstone , that man's epitaph: " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." " No," you say, "that t would not be appropriate." " Let me die the , death of the righteous and let my last end be like his." "No," you say, 11 that would not t be appropriate." Then give me the mallet , and tne chisel and I will cut an honest epi- 1 taph: "Here lies the victim of dissipating associations." Another test by which you can find whether 1 your secret society is right or wrong is the I effect it has upon your secular occupation. I can understand how through such an institu- " tion a man can reach commercial success. I \ know some men have formed their best business relations through such a channel. If the 3 secret society has advantaged you in an lion- g orable calling it is a good one. But has your credit failed? Are bargain makers c more anxious how they trust you with a bale , of goods? Have the men whose name were down in the commercial agency A 1, before i they entered the society, been going down since in commercial standing? Tneu look out. You and I every day know of commercial t establishments going to ruin through thb social excesses of one or two members, their fortune beaten to death with ball player's bat, or cut amidships with the prow r.f the regatta, or zoing down under the swift hoofs Df the fast horses, or drowned in the large potations of Cognac or Monongahela. That secret society was the Loch Earn. Tba_baaiaee8 was the Ville de Havre. They struck ana tne Ville de Havre went under!"' The third test by which you may know whether the soiety to which you belong is ?ood or bad is this: What is its effect on your sense of moral and religious obligation? Now, if I should take the names of all the people in this audience this morning and put them on a roll, and then I should lay that roll back of this organ, and a hundred years from now some one should take that roll and call it from A to Z there woukl not one of you answer. I say that any society that makes me forget that fact is a bad society. When I go to Chicago I am somewhat perplexed at Buffalo, as I suppose many travellers are, as to whether it is better to take the Lake Shore route rtr t.hp Miollitrfln Pnnfrol arm n IK* arrw)ifi/Mic _ v? VMW XSA.A4V?(*?v VA|/VVUVtVU?l ^ g, and equally safe, getting to their destination at the same time. But suppose that I hear ' that on one route the track is torn up, the , bridges are down and the switches are unlocked, it will not take me a great while to ] decide which road to take. Now, there are , two roads in the future?the Christian and c the un-Christian, the safe and the unsafe. Any < institution or any association that confuses my ideas in regard to that fact is a bad institution and a bad association. I had prayers before I joined that society, did I have them afterward? I attended the house of God be- J fore I connected myself with that union, do I i absent myself from religious influences? Which would you rather have in your 1 hand when you come to die?a pack j of cards, or a Bible? Which would you rather have pressed to your lips in the j closing moment?the cup of Belshazzarcan ] wassail or the chalice of .Christian communion? Who would you rather have for your 1 pall-bearers?the elders of a Christian church, or the companions whose conversation wa^ full of slang and innuendo? Who would you rather have for your eternal companions? j those men wbo spend their evenings betting, gambling, swearing, carousing 1 and telling vile stories, or -your little child, that bright girl whom the Lord took? Oh, you would not have been away so much nights, would yon, if you had known she was going away so soon? Dear me, your house has never been the Fame place since. Your wife has never brightened up, she has never got over it. She never will get over it. How lonz the eveninsrs are with no one to put to bed, and no one to whom to tell the beautiful Bible stories. What a pity it is that you cannot spend more evenings at home in trying to help her bear that sorrow. You can never drown that grief in the wine cup. You can never break away from the little arms that used to bo Hung around your neck when she used to say: "Papa, do stay with mo to-night. Do stay with me to-night." You will never be ablfl to wipe away from your lips the dying kissr-^M^ your little girl. The fascination of a bad secret society is so great that sometimes a man has turned his back on his home when his child was dying of scarlet fever. He went away. Before he got back at midnight the i eyes" had been closed, the undertaker had done his work, and tie wife, worn out with fltaree weeks' watching, lay unconscious in the next room. Then the returned father comes upstairs, and he sees the cradle gone and the windows up, and says: "What is the matter?' On the Judgment Day he will find out what was the matter. Ob, man astray,God help you! I am going to make a very stout rope. You know that sometimes a ropemaker will take very small threads and wind them together until after a while they become ship cable. And I am going to take some very small delicate threads and wind them together until they make a very stout rope. I will take all the memories of the marriage day?a thread of laughter, a thread of light, a thread of music, a thread of banqueting,a thread of congratulation,and I twist them together and I have one strand. Then I take a thread of the hour of the first advent in vour house,a thread of the darkness that preceded,and a thread of the lightthatfollowed; and a thread of the beautiful scarf that little child used to wear when she bounded out at eventide to greet you; and then a thread of the beautiful dress in which you laid her away for the resurrection; and then I twist all these threads together, and I liave another strand. Then I take a thread of the scarlet robe of the suffering Christ, and a thread of the Thite raiment of your loved ones before the throne, and a string of the harp cherubic, and a string of the harp seraphic, and I twist them altogether, and I have a third strand. "Oh," you say, ' 'either strand is enough to hold fast a world." No; I will take these strands and I will twist them together, and one end of that rope I will fasten, not to the communion table, for it shall be removed; not to a pillar of the organ, for that will crtfmble in the ages; but I wind it round and round the cross of a sympathizing Christ, and, having fastened one end of the rope to the cross, I throw the other end to you. Lay hold of it! Pull for your Life! PuU for Heaven I TEMPERANCE. Strensth, Beauty and Gladness. Oh! do we wish for beauty? What makes the flowers bloom? What sprinkles all their loveliness irofin/1 onronf narflimo? ? ? 1VU tauui OVTWVV A uuiV . The dew that creep at evening's close, The pearly raindrops bring The perfume and the beauty That glad the bowers of spring. Is strength the gift we long for? What rears the proud oak's form, "Whose brawny arms brave sturdily The tempest and the storm? He quaffs the pure, fresh moisture By rootlet and by leaf, And stands up in nis greatnew, That stout old forest chief. Oh! do we wish for gladness? What makes the wild birds sing? Their drink is but the running brook, The flower-clad crystal spring. Then do we wish for beauty, That mirth and strength be ours? Our drink should be the heaven-sent drink Of birds, and trees, and flowers. ?G. Lawson. Dangers of Alcohol. In a recent lecture before his class, Dr. William Tod Helmuth, of New York, said: Now shall I tell you what, in my opinion,has blighted more brilliant minds in the profession than anything else? What has wrecked the high hopes and noble aspirations of hundreds of bright men, such as you are? It is alcotoU I need not enter here upon the physiological question as to action of alcohol as food or in disease. In my opinion, especially in surgical practice, it is necessary; what [ refer to now is the use of alcohol as a beverage, as a stimulant taken by healthy roung men to excite their nervous systems. Let me illustrate this to the point. Every man and woman in this issemblage I am sure knows of some friend, some relative, some one perhaps near and dear to them, whose lives have been sacrificed to alcohol. Fix such an 5ne in your mind and ask yourselves the question, what was the character and temperament of that man? "Was he a fool, a dunce, a man whose mind worked lowly, whose perceptions were obtuse, whose intellect was plodding, whose Elections were cold* Uli, no! it was ;he bright boy, the loving lad, the youth it the head of hi3 class, the boy who loved lis mother, whose capacities of mind vere large, whose heart was big, whose ispirations were high, the idol of his xousehold, the admiration of his friends ?who allowed this monster to take out of lim all that was good and honest and true md noble and brave in life's battle; that ' | mothered his morality, killed his mind, iiseased his body and sent him, perhaps lisgraced, to a premature grave, or, what 3 ten thousand times more deplorable, nade him an outcast and a wanderer on lio f-ion nf fho pnrtll There is a predisposition, and perhaps in hereditary tendency to alcoholism, that , enders alcohol dangerous to tempera- , nents such as I have described, and when ( jve remember that nearly eight-tenths of ill the crimes that are committed in this ( country can be attributed either directly , >r indirectly to strong drink, and when rou are made aware of the seductive na- j :ure of the habit, you will see tbat to j tome alcohol is the rankest of all poisons, j ;he very bane of existence, the smotherer j >f all manly sentiment, the desolator of 1 lome, the ruiner of reputation, the father i )f poverty and shame, a disease-producer 1 ind a soul-destroyer. And you will agree 1 with me when I say to you that such ab- 1 itinence is far easier than temperance? ' :hc former being possible, tiie latter aito- i jcthcr impossible. If you desire any 1 aroof of such assertions, look around this Treat city to-day and you will find con;lusive cvidcnce of every word I speak. . 1 Liquor Drinking in France. The French Academy of Medicinchas lately rounded an alarm concerning the prevalence of alcoholism as a public danger in that country. The Government is urged to take strong measures to , prohibit artificially alcoholized wines, to reduce the number of taverns and winejhope, and to strictly enforce the laws for the repression of drunkenness. ( An official voice of this kind from a , scientific body of so influential a character is in itself striking testimony that, though France is a wine country, the "wine cure" for drunkeuuess, which , America is from time to time urged to adopt, is a signal and disastrous failure. , The free use of wine in France has but prepared the way for a largcly-increascd consumption of the stronger liquors. ?National Advocate. A Cure for the Drink Aunetite. An exchange prints tlie following: "An old doctor in Philadelphia says that any man or boy who lias not lost his will- 1 power can cure himself of the habits of u^oxicattng drinks, and even of tobacco, by chewing a pinch of simple hops at times. That the hops are a fine mcdicine, and also will cleanse the liver and kidaeys, is a fact. All persons should try it who want to cure themselves from such sinful and expensive habits." MHBBBnBBiMMMaaBHMBHHHBBaal RELIGIOUS READING. The Sovereign "Will. A man's heart deviseth his way; but tho Lord directeth his steps. ?Prov. 21:1. A plan is in this life of mine Despite its sun and wroug; Beyond my will a hand divine Hath led my steps along. I'vejtravelled oft a thorny way Which I couldn't refuse, But mercies followed, day by day. More than my heart could choose. Man's prido iu youth ha:a j/t proposed Which way his course should tend. To find a sovereign will disposed The journ ;y uud the en J. Man's way, I find, is not iu ma 1 To order and control There lies above his partial plau A larg?r, grandor whole. .uoarn thou, my soul, without debate. God's voici and hand to heed; In faith to labor and to wait, foment to let him lead. A Word for the Seaiott. It 13 April, and the time of seed-nowing. But the agriculturist who now is putting his seed into the field is not expecting an immediate harvest, but one only in due time. The 6ced must germinate; it must grow into a plant; the plant must be cultivated. Then at last is the fruitage and the gathering. It is a good deal so in spiritual husbandry. There must be time for the ripening of the grain of the kingdom. We are sometimes tempted, because we cannot gather fruit immediately upon the planting, to neglect the planting. Of course it i9 gratifying when results follow at once upon such labor. But this is not always, perhaps not generally, the ease. The parent docs not see immediate results from his watchful and faithful training of his child. The Sabbath school teacher does not have the joy of beholding his scholars at oncc brought to Christ. "What pastor is there who sees all his congregation turning to God? And yet parent and teacher and pastor must push on their work diligently and faithfully. Every season in spiritual husbandry la a time for seed-sowing. Wc can always be scattering the "good seed of the kingdom." But in the ordering of divine providence not every season is a time of ingathering. Wo must sow the seed in faith, and then in faith we must wait till the harvest-time appears. Only let us be faithful in the seed-sowing. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious 3eed, shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."?[American Mcs:cnger. The QneMlon of the AgeYarious opinions are expressed as to what is "the great question of the age." One may speak of foreign missions, another of home evangelization, another of temperance, and another, perhaps, of Christian union. A thoughtful and observing writer, however, hns said that the great question of the day is, "How to reach the church membership with the gospel of Christ;" that is, to make the entire church feel the full power of the gospel and cherish and live up to its full spirit in their daily life and conduct. ThA orrpnt; mass of our church mem bers are outwardly moral and correct also in their theoretical belief. And many of them are devoted in heart and lift: to the service of the Master, more, perhaps, than in almost any previous age. But, alas, how little of deep spirituality nnd self-denial nnd earnest and prayftil eflort to bring others to Christ! Ho\? large a number of the male membership of our churches are never seen in the prayer meeting 1 How few speak to the impenitent on the great subject of personal salvation, seeking continually, like Hailan Pace, to win men to Christ! How many neglect the worship of God in the family and give almost nothing to the great causes of benevolence, and, in a word, so live that no one would take them for church members but that now and t hen they are seen at the communion table! T .1 x i-it- --J is mere not iruiu, uuu wua-.< uuj-uk lu lie felt as startling truth, in the manifest fact that so many in the church are falling in with worldly influences and fashions, rather than overcoming such influences by the Spirit of Christ; that, 03 3ome one has said, "The church is materialistic, rather thau truly spiritual; rationalistic, rather than fully believing; self-indulgent, rather than self-denying" in the cause of the Master and for the good of men ! Is it not true, as the venerable ex-President Hopkins has said, "that the essential inherence of self-denial in the Christian system is a doctri ne that has faded or is fading out hom the consciousness of the Christian church," and that so many are satisfied wirh singing, "Hold the fort," and, "Here, Lord, [ give myself aw.iy," wiii'c they still live on very much as the world lives, giving but faint evidence th:it the Spirit of Christ is the controlling spirit of their lives? The avenues of usefulness are more numerous and more widely open than over before, and our missionary and tract and Bible societies are doing a great/ and glorious work, for the salvation,<>f men. And if the entire church would but rise superior tu worldly influences, and in the spirit of Chr st devote themselves to doing liis wotk the wide world might soon be brought to the Saviour'* feet. Temperance Note# Twelve hundred of the draJi He-- vf Elolland have been abolished by law. Sir Andrew Clark, a distinguished r 1 -- _t V.of JLOIKIOII payaiciau, aujo kuab oc?v;iiL> uui svcry 100 patients in the London Hospital owe their ill-health to alcohol. Queen Victoria has expressed much pleasure in receiving a Woman's National Jubifca Memorial from the Liverpool Ladies' Temperance Association, requesting her Majesty to use her influence for I enforcing a bill for Simday closing of j public-houses. i *V;: - -S FACTS FOB THE CUBIOUS. r A' Tg\e Chinese alphabet contains thirty thousand characters. ' In a Corean city at night every wayfarer carries a bamboo and a paper lantern with I candle in it. The flea, grasshopper and locust jump 200 times their own length, equal to a quarter of a mile for a man. The first copyright bill passed by Congress in the interest of American authors became a law in 1790. Scott Bar, Cal., has the tallest postmaster in the United States. He stands over seven feet in his stockings and weighs 280 pounds. The Chinese are said to manufacture an ana;sthetic not unlike cocoaine in its action, and claim that the anaesthetic property is the juice of the eye of the frog. A small boy in Old City, Pa., is credited with having trained a pair of big Cochin China roosters to drive double to harness. He hitches them to a little wagon, and it is said that they draw it easily aud willingly. A returned missionary from India says that during ten years she never saw a Hindu child receive a caress from its mother. Girl babies are looked upon as a disgrace, and are often left to die or murdered outright. The camel in the East is the most valuable servant of man. It eats little and drinks less; the milk makes cheese and butter; shoes and harness are made of his skin, and of his hair tents and clothing. For burden, he is the ship of the desert. "What is the oldest university in Hie world?" The Universitv of Paris. established A. D. 1140. Some authorities, however, state that it was not founded before 1215, but it is generally acknowled that the University of Paris is the oldest. The word assassin, as applied to a murderer, comes from the Assassinians, a branch of fanatical Mahometans that settled in Persia in 1090. They trained up young people to murder such people aa theft chief had marked for destruction. They were extirpated in Persia about 1258 and in Syria about 1272. The United States Treasury was established by law September 2,. 1780. A financial department had existed under the Articles of Confederation, but as no power then existed to collect revenue from the States the Treasury was usually empty, and the duties of its head wer# but light. But upon the establishment of the new Government this department re-organized, and the title of its head changed from Superintendent of Finance to Secretary of the Treasury. Hints to Swimmers. "When the bathing season arrives," remarked a Natatorium professor the other dav. "we'll hear of the usual maximum. of drowning cases, and among them, as usual, a fair share of expert swimmers. The chief reason why good swimmers are eq. often drowned when they are accidentally thrown into the water is because the shock causes them to lose their presence of mind. The loss of presence of mind leads to paralysis of body, or to such wild exertions as accelerate drowning instead of contributing to preservation. The ability to behave wisely in case of sudden accidents can only be acquired by experience, just as everything else has to be acquired. The theory of the matter can be taught in swimming schools, but the practice must be acquired by experience. Hence, in some of the European swimming schools the pupils are taken out boat-riding and purposely upset, as though the upsetting were accidental. They are also suddenly pushed overboard, and subjected to all manner of prepared accidents, so as to accustom them t? n/tfinnr in nmnrfronfMPq Til thi9 WaV theV :v""6 -'s ? ? -v ?? learn how to behave in case of real accidents, and are protected against the loss of their presence of mind on occasions of danger on the water. They are also taught to have faith in the sustaining power of the water itself. They get to know that the water will sustain them if they will only render it the least help. A linger laid upon an oar, or the gunwale of an overturned boat, or a board, or almost any floating substance, will sustain the human body in calm water. Persons who have been properly taught, and have acquired the habit of acting with self-possession in the water when they are upset, do not attempt to climb upon the overturned boat, but simply take hold of it and quietly support themselves. A boat, half filled with water, or completely overturned, will support as many persons as can get their hands upon the gunwale, if they behave quietly. Ia a case of accident, a person who understands and acts in accordance with these facts would stand a better chance of being saved, even if he were a poor swimmer, than an expert swimmer would stand who should lose his presence oi mina.? Philadelphia Call. Hedgehog and Tiper. The hedgehop of Southern Europe is an inveterate enemy of the vipers which abound in the forests there. A forest guard, not long ago, had an opportunity to watch an interesting combat between one of the hedgehogs and a viper. Seeing a particularly large snake asleep in the sun, the gaard was approaching to kill it, when he saw a hedgehog creeping up to the reptile over the soft moss. As soon as the hedgehog had got within reach of the viper it seized the reptile's tail with its teeth and, quicker than thought, rolled itself up into a ball. By the time the viper had awakened it found nothing but a ball of sharp quills to fight against. It struck viciously at the mass, but without touching tlic neagenogs skin. Then the suake dragged its bod; to its full length, without escape; it writhed and turned and then thrust itseli again and again upon its enemy. At the end of five minutes the snake was pierced and bleeding iu several places.. It fell exhausted to the ground, and after sev.eral throes and renewed attempts at resistance it fell dead. When it was satis' ficd that the viper was quite dead, the hedgehog quietly unrolled itself and would undoubtedly have made a meal upon the snake if the guard had not approached. The hedgehog, seeing him, rolled itself up into a ball ngam, and remained thus until he had disappeared through the woods. The animal had not killed the snake, but had compelled it to kill itself upon its sharp qaills. A Destructive Little Gnat. The buffalo gnats appeared in the lower part of the parish last week on Thursday, and within forty-eight hours of their appcarence they had done much destructive work. We are told that at least seventy-five heads of mules and horses were killed in the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Wards by the seemingly unpretentious little gnats. We have not i heard of the lose of auy stock by the I gnats lately. We suppose that their uncharitable work is over, as they seem to be thinning out s#mcwhat.?Morehouet j (La.) Clarion. THE GARROTE. A VIVID PICTURE OP CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN SPAIN. Crowds of Gaily Dressed Men and Women at the Place of Execution ? The Prisoner's Iron Collar of Deatli. A Madrid letter to the Paris Figaro describes the* garroting of Alvarez Oliva for the murder of JuanXimenes. a notary. Says the writer: The foreigner who this morning saw the Puorto del Sor the first time would have thought Madrid had gone wild with noisy merriment?just as upon the occasion of some royal ceremony at the ancient church of Antocha, or of some great bull tight exhibition under the management of Cartijo Mazzantini. Riding superb Andalusian horses "with small heads and finely arched necks? horses that seemed to have stepped out of some canvas by Velasquez?the elegant young men of the city passed by at a canter, all delicately gloved and wearing tuberoses at their buttonholes, as if they were going to the Retiro to wait for the advent of the open carriage of some belle. It was 9 o'clock in the morning when I left my house. Although the heat was already overwhelming, I resolved to go on foot from the corner of the Calle de Alcala to the place of execution. The nearer I approached the square the more compact became the crowd. To proceed at all soon became impossible. The crowding and pushing, however, only increased the merriment of the mischievous ; girls of Madrid. Suddenly the crowd halts and a great silence falls. A close carriage, with blinds down, escorted by a picket of civil guards, slowly passes through the press. We can follow it without hurrying our selves. In a little while the place of execution appears before me, thronged with a multitude swaying like a tide, and up from the sea of heads emerges the white mast of the scaffold. I approach. Lying upon a stool, covered with a snow white cloth, is the garrote itself? shimmering like a crown of steel.' In a little while the executioner will attach it to a post against which the criminal is to be fastened. The final preparations consumed considerable time, so that I was well able to make a leisurely examination of the sinister locality whither curiosity had drawn me for the purpose of studying the physiognomy of the great pushing or squeezing crowd. As always, and in all places, the women were the most numerous. The plaza where the execution took place is on very high ground, and the pure air one breathes there must increase the criminal's regret for life at the r*rliAn V*Co vmrvi'fi/\n ia alianf fr\ UiUUICUt ITUtU tC^il(H4VU AM ui/vuv vv be cut short forever. The houses surrounding it, mostly of humble aspect, are widely interspaced. Between them a stranger who loves classic landscapes cau obtain a good view of the sunburned and yellow plains of Nucva Castilla and the bluish mountains of Guadamara in the horizon. The deploy of military forces about the scaffold was considerable. I counted no less than six detachments of different corps. There were lancers with Prussian shaped helmets of brass, gendarmes in black with yellow straps and belts and white trimmings, blue uniformed light cavalry, infantry, provincial guards with red caps. The martial deportment of men, nearly all young, strong and handsome, impressed" me very much. Now there is a great movement around the scaffold. The soldiers close their ranks and three men approach the scaffold. One of them ascends it. It is the executioner. He is thin, low-sized and looks about forty years old. "WTiile waiting for his victim he keeps walking nervously to and fro with his hands behind his back and his head down. From time to time he stops and looks at trie argoua (the "garrote") with a suspicious expression of countcnance. Perhaps he is afraid of the power of resistance possessed by the cervi' *1 vertebrae of Alvarez, and is therefon afraid of losing his bounty. Noisy as it was a little while ago, the crowd now suddenly becomes silent. Some T/omen ore turning pale; and one can feel that a nervous excitement weighs upon the crowd. A low rumbling is heard. It is the black carriage that bears the condemned man. It stops at the foot of the scaftold; and the criminal is soon painfully climbing the twelve high steps of the dismal scaffold, leaning on the arm of a priest. Another priest precedes him, lifting very high an immense oruciflx, toward which the condemned man strives to turn his terror-stricken face. Alvarez Oliva is not yet twenty-five years old; and it was believed that the savage energy he had displayed in committing his crime, together with his vigorous youth, would rrive him strength to face death. But O* - nothing of the kind is now shown by him; and really it was too much to expect of a man who knew his fate fortyeight hours ago, and who, while listening to the funeral chants in the prison chapel, must have beheld all kinds of hideous visions passing before him. As I stood on an elevation overlooking the scaffold, I was able to observe all the details of the last scene of the tragedy. The condemned man mechanically yielded himself up to the executioner. The latter sat him down at the foot of the post, with his back to it, aud then tied his hands and feet hard and fast. He did all this without hurrying himself in the least, and with all that dignified winVli rh nm ot erizes the iiJUlUVlwUV,V ?? UWM ? Spanish functionary in the discharge of his duty. If the preparations had lasted even a few seconds longer I believe I should have lost all my own self-control. I could hear my heart thumping in my breast, and every moment or two something like a veil came before my eyes. You could not hear even a whisper in the crowd. 'While one of the priests pressed a crucifix to the colorless lips of the sufferer, another was murmuring words of consolation and hope into his yar. But the wretched mau was not listening. Ilis expressionless face had a waxen pallor, and his eyes, as they wandered over the ocean of faces before him, already seemed dim with the dimness of death. He started considerably when the executioner placed the iron collar about his ncciv, ana l ooscrveu insmoum i-uunon. Then, however, ft white covering thrown over his features hid them from further observation. The executioner theu gave two or three turns of the screws connected with the instrument of death. The bones of the neck cracked, a long trembling ran through the whole body, the arms twisted outward. Alvarez was dead. Forty years ago an old lady in Baldwin, Fla., about to die, made her children promise not to bury her body. She threatened to haunt them if they did,aud so when she was dead they piaced the body in a stout coffin of Florida pine, placed it on the surface of the ground in the graveyard and built a strong pen around it. The log house is in good condition now, and so is the coffin within it. ' - ' r...- ' - , -#wm \. J; Jots About Food Fish. American catfish, introduced into New Zealand in 1879, are now abundant aftd of large size. < The number of shad caught during 1886 in the Hudson River is placed by Fish Commissioner Blackford at 1,174,835, of which 796,312 were sold in the New York market. "With an average price of $15 per 100 the total value wa3 $176,225. * mc saimon industry is on tne aecune on the Columbia River, Oregon. Last year somewhat more than 430,000 cases of salmon were put on the market, against ?.. 565,000 cases in 1885 and 620,000 cases in 1884. The scarcity of fish is accounted for by the blocking of the river hy means of traps, seines ana nets. ; J^B The red-snapper is now a standard fisli in New York markets. The fisharc found on both sides of Florida, those on the west coast being the larger, though big fish is not as desirable as the smaller ones. Connecticut vessels engage in the busi, ness, and the favorite ground is on the east coast, off Cape Canaveral, south- ^ : ^ wardly to Indian River, in from twelve to fifteen fathoms of water. Few fish are taken north of the Cape. The favorite dish of the Chinaman, trepang,* or beche de mer, is eaten as a soup, and a very good soup it makes. The fish commission calls attention to the , ^ holohuria, found in immense quantities in the region of the Queen Charlotte islands and Alexander islands of Alaska, as well as on the west coast of Vancouver's Island. When properly cured the trepang would be worth $45 a ton in Canton. During 1886 the United States Fish Commission has placed in the various waters of the United States, from the v tributaries of Narragansett Bay to those of the Columbia River basin, 92,404,000 shad fry. M. McDonald, who has under his immediate charge the obtaining of the eggs of the shad and the rearing of the fry, states that "as the entire num- . "^?|g ber of shad taken for market is less than . six million it will be seen that for every shad taken from the waters this season : for market there have been artificially hatched and returned to the waters fifteen young shad." The total consumption of salted and dried codfish has occupied the attention of the German Fishery Association, and the following figures are presented: Nor- .. way exports 63,600,000 cod?as klip fish or stock fish?Canada 36,600,000, and ' ^ Newfoundland 33,500,000. The total from all the fisheries is 124,500,000, the United States, Iceland, France and Hoiland making up the rest. Catholic countries are the greatest consumers of cod. spain uses iw,suu,uuu, uie nest xuuxcs ? 37,700,000, Italy and Austria 18,400,000, the Brazils 12,500,000, Portugal 8,000,000. and Great Britain and Ireland 7,100,- % 000. An estimate of the value is $16,600,000. " : v How Bothschild Made Money. When Rothschild came to Paris in 1812 he possessed $20,000. At his death his private fortune amounted to $55,000, 000 and that of the firm to over $500,? 000,000. He owed his success to his happy knack of always "taking fortune at the flood," and to his careful observation of all political events that might tend to make or mar his prosperity. Once he was suffering from some cerebral complaint and had to undergo a difficult and dangerous operation. His surgeon, Dr. Dupuytren, had strictly forbidden Wm all mental excitement as likely to have fatal consequences. Bothschild lay half conscious on liis bed when tidings were brought of the assassination of the Duke of Berry. The patient immediately jumped up, though the blood was streaming over his face, the bandage having - ??| come undone in the excitement, and, dragging himself across the* room, rang the bell with great violence. "The Duke of Berry is murdered I sell out! sell out !'* ho cried out to his alarmed attendants, as they rushed into the room and then he fell back in a swoon. By this transac- ~J tion he saved considerable sums of money.?La Chronique du Temps. Tattooing in the South Sea Islands v .J* Among the natives of the South Sea Islands the tattoo process has a religious and social meaning as significant as the draw which tells of a man's occupation ? in 1* J ITflrl -Vt ur U lituv 9 JJU31UVU 111 uigu vif uv. The Kin^s or high chiefs have their peculiar insignia tatooed on their bodies as also have the chiefesses. Then come the petty chiefs, who are marked according '-11 to their rank. The common natives have their own ear-marks, so to speak, and the ' priests have their bodies mystically punctured. A common native dare not, under penalty of death, place the insignia of * chief upon his body. The marks of * priest are inviolable, and even a King must not counterfeit them. Besides cer- ' tain tattooing indicating rank and office, bodies arc frequently covered with th? ' designs of birds, fish, shells and fantastic conceptions, which are purely the inspiration of the artist.?San Francisco Examiner. ? Volcanic Phenomena. strancro Yrtl/?Anic disturbances are said to have been frightening the people living along the Blood River, near New Concord, in Calloway county, Ky. The phenomena was first noticed a short time ago, when all the wells suddenly ran dry, and at night there was a deep rumbling noise resembling the muttering of distant thunder, which seemed to come from the - ' 'M earth. Occasionally there would be an explosion like the booming of a far-off gun, and recently a column of fire has been seen to shoot up at intervals during the night from Stonger's bluff, two miles from the town. Citizens who went out to investigate the disturbance say thai lhc heat near the bluff was so intense that they could not approach it. The . yfy scene of the phenomena is one of the wildest and most rugged parts of the State, and is remote from communication by mail or telegraph. " Preserving1 a Stair Carpet. A quaint lesson in economy was given by an English woman of wealth and position to an American friend. It relatcd to the method of preserving a stair carpet. To maintain the elegant carpet in its entirety as long as possible tie owner said that she and the lord of the mansion had agreed to traverse certain routes on the stair carpet, the one to keep always to the right in going up and down, and the other to walk only upon " - Tl the left hand siac or tue carpet, it ?? expected that company would keep exclusively to the centre of the stairway, and that as a result of the arrangement the stair carpet would grow old with equal rapidity in all its parts. The world is the great tempter; but at the same time it is the great monitor. It stimulates our pride by its pomp and show, its fleeting honors and prizes; it | goads men to tho race, and inspires them with covetousness and rapacity, b,ut, on the other hand, it is the "great memento and evidence of its own vanity, and of the emptiness of everything it offers to us. . It ia the great saddener, tho great waruer* the great projjhet.