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'V ^ REV. DR. TALMAGE. | THE BROOKLYN' DIVINE'S SUN DAY SERMON Snbject: "Behind the Counter." Text : "/Ikc? a certain woman named Ljidia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyaiira, which uorshipjted God, heard us,whose heart the Lord opened."?Acts xvi. 14. ilSeest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings."?Proverbs xxii., -1'. encouragement to those^who are occupied as clerks in the stores and shops and banking houses of the country. You say: "Why select one class, and talk to one specially this morningf" For the . same reason that a surgeon does not open the door of a hospital and throw in a bushel of prescriptions saying: "Come, now, aud get your medicine." He first feels the puls^watches the symptoms, and then prescribes for that particular case. 80 to-day I must be specific. The people in this audience who are clerks are not an exceptional class. They belong to a great company of tens of thousands who aru, in this country, amid circumstances which will either make or break them for time and for eternity. I should be very slow to acknowledge that the clerks, male and female, of other cities, are any more honest or faithful than the clerks of our own city. Many of these people have already achieved a Christian manliness and a Christian womanliness which will be their passport to any position. I have seen their trials. I have watched their perplexities. There are evils abroad which need to be hunted down, and dragged out into the noonday light. ? In the first place, I counsel clerks to remember that for the most part their clerkship is only a school from which they are to oe graduated, it rates aowui eigm, ??ir3 w i get one of the learned professions. It takes | about eight years to get to be a merchant. Some of you wi!l be clerks all your lives, but the vast majority of you are only in a transient position. After a while, some December day, the head men of the firm will call you into the l?ck offce, and they will say to you. "Now you have done well by us; we are going to do well bv you. "We invite you to have an interest in our concern." You will bow to that edict very gracefally. Getting into a street car going home, an old comrade will meet you and say: "What makes you look so happy tonight r "0," you will say, "nothing, nothing." But in a few davs your name will blossom on the sign, fiither in the store or bank where you are now, or in some other store or bank, you will take a higher position than that which you now occupy. So I feel to-day that I am standing before people who will yet have their hand on the helm of the world's commerce, and you will turn it this wav or that; now clerks, but to be bankers, importers, insurance company directors, shippers, contractors, superintendents of railroads ?your voice mighty "on 'Change"?standing foremost in the great financial and religious enterprises of the day. For though we who are in the professions may, on the platform, plead for the philanthropies; after all, the merchants must come forth with their millions to sustain the movement. Be, therefore, patient and diligent in this transient position. You are now where you can learn things you can never learn in any other place. What you consider your disadvantages are your grand opportunity. You see an affluent father someday come down on a prominent street with ins son, who nas just graduated from the University and established him in business, putting one hundred thousand dollars of capital In the store. Well, you are envious. You say: "Oh, if I only had a chance like that young man?if I only had a father to put one hundred thousand dollars in a business for me, then I would have some chance in the world." Be not envious. You have advantages over that young man which he has not over you. As well might I come down to the do-ks when a vessel is about to sail for Valparaiso, and say: "Let me pilot this ship out of the Narrows." Why, I would sink crew and cargo before I got out of the harbor, simply because I know nothing about pilotage. Wealthy sea captains put their sons before the mast for the reason that they know that it is the only place where they can learn to be successful sailors. It is only under drill that people get to understood pilotage and navigation, and I want you to understand that it takes ho more skill to conduct a vessel out of the harbor and across the sea, than to steer a commercial establishment clear of the rorks. You see every day the folly of people going into a business they know nothing about A man makes a fortune in one business; thinks there is another occupation more comfortable; goes into it and sinks all. Many of the commercial establishments of our cities ar9 giving to their clerks a mercantile education as thorough as Yale, or Harvard, or Princeton, are giving scientific attainment to the stud cuts matriculated. The reason so riiany men are foundering in UUOUiTOJJ iivm ICOt IV juII, w uwmmov vuv.. eariy mercantile education was neglected. AA these men high iu commercial circles, and they will tell you they thank God for this severe discipline of their early clerkship. You can afford to endure the wilderness march if it is going to end in the vineyards and orchards of the promised land. But you say: "Will the womanly clerks in our stores have promotion?" Yes. Time is coming when women will be as well paid for their toil in mercantile circles as men are now paid for their toil. Time is coming when a woman will be allowed to do anything she can do well. It is only a little while ago when women knew nothing of telegraphy, and they were kept out' of a great many commercial circles where they are now welcome; and the time will go cn until the woman who at one counter in a store sells ten thousand dollars' worth of goods in a year, will get as high a salary as the man who at the other counter ff the same store sells ten thousand dollars' worth of goods. All honor to Lydia, the Christian saleswoman. And in passing, I riay as well say that you merchants ffeo have female clerk= in your stores ought to treat them with great courtesy and kindness. When they are not positively engaged, let them sit down. In England and the United States physicians have protested gainst the habit of compelling tho womanly clerks in the stores to stand when it was not necessary for them to stand. Therefore, I add to the protest of physicians the protest of the Christian Church, and in the name of good health, and that God who has made the womanly constitution more delicate than man's, I demand that you let her sit down. The second counsel I have to give to the elerks who are here to-day, is that you se.'k out what aiethe lawful regulations of your establishment, and then submit to them. Rwrv well ordered house has its usages. Iu military life, on ship's deck, in commercial life, there must be order and discipline. Those people who do not learn how to obey will never know how to command. I will tell you what young man will reach ruin, financial and moral; it is the young man who thrusts his tumb into his vest and says: "Nobody will dictate to me, I am my own master; I will iu>t submit to the regulations of this house." Between an establishment in which all the employes are under thorough discipline and the establishment in which the employes do about as they choose, is the difference between success and failure?between rapid accumulation and utter bankruptcy. Do not come to the store ten minutes after the time. Do not think anything too insignificant to do welL Do not say: "It's only .. . ... ;.v - Christian merc-hantess. Her business is to deal in purple cloths or silks. She is not a giggling nonentity, but a practical woman, not ashamed to work for her living. All the other women of Philippi and Thvatira have been forgotten; but God has made immortal in our text, Lydia, the Christian saleswoman. The other text shows you a man with head, and hand, and heart, and foot all busy toiling on up until he gains a princely "success. "Seest thou a man diligent in his business.' he shall stand before kings.'' Great encouragement in these two passages for men and women who will be busy, out no solace for those who are waiting for good luck to show " them, at the foot of the rainbow, a casket of buried gold. It is folly for anybody in this world to wait for something to turn up. It will turn down. The law of thrift is as inexorable as the law of the tides. Fortune, the magician, may wave her wand in that direction until castles and palaces come; but she will, after a while, invert the same wand, and all the splendors will vanish into thin air. There are certain styles of behavior which lead to usefulness, honor and permanent success, and there are certain styles of behavior which lead to dust, dishonor and moral default. I would like to fire the ambition of young people. I have no sympathy with "those who would prepare young folks" for life by whittling down their expectations. That man or woman will be worth nothing to Church or State who begins life cowed down. The business of Christianity is not to quench but to direct human ambition. Therefore it is that I crime out this mornin? and utter words of just once." From the most important transaction in commerce down to the particular stjie iu which you tie a string around a biuidle, obey orders. Do not get easily disgusted. Wnile others in the store may lounge, or fret, or complain, you go witfi ready hands, and cheerful face, and contented spirit to your work. When the bugle sounds, the good soldier asks 110 questions, but shoulders his knapsack, fills his canteen and listens for the command of "March!" Do not get the idea that your interests and those of your employer are antagonistic. His success will be your honor. His embarrassment will your dismay. Expose none of the frailties of the firm. Tell no store secrets. Do not blab. Rebuff those persons who come to find out from clerks what ought never be known outside the store. Do not be among those young men who tako on a mysterious air when something is said against the firm fU?f iKant oc mnr?h flq to SaV! IUUU O mvui, vw *UMVW - could tell you some things if I would, but I won't." Do not be among those who imagine they can build themselves up by pulling somebody else down. Be not ashamed to be a subaltern. Again I counsel clerks in this hduso to search out what are the unlawful and dishonest demands of an establishment, and resist them. In the six thousand years that have passed, there has never been an occasion when it was one'3 duty to sin against God. It is never right to do wrong. If the head men of the firm expect of you dishonestv, dssappoint them. "O," you say, '! should lose, my place then." Better lose your place than lose your soul. But you will not lose your place. Christian heroism is always honored. You go to the head man of your store, and say: "Sir, I want to serve you; I want to oblige you; it is from no lack of industry on my part, but this thing seems to me to be wrong, and it is a sin against my conscience, it is a sin against God, and I beg you, sir, to excuse me. He may flush up and swear, but he will cool down, and he will have more admiration for you than for those who submit to his evil dictation; and while they sink, you will rise. Do not, because of seeming temporary advantage. erive up your character, young man. Urder~God, that is the only thing yon have to build on. Give up that, you" give up everything. That employer asks a young man"to hurt himself fortime and for eternity, who expects him to make a wrong entry, or change an invoice, or say goods cost so much when they cost less; or impose upon the verdancy of a customer, or misrepresent a style of fabric. How dare he demand of you anything so insolent? There is one style of temptation that comes on a great many of our clerks, and that is upon those who are engaged in what is called "drumming." Now. that occupation is just as honorable as any other, it it be conducted in accord with one's conscience. In this day, when there are so many rivalries in business, all our commercial establishments ought so have men abroad who are seeking out opportunities of merchandise. There can be no objection to that. But there are professed Christian merchants in the week-night prayer-meeting who have clerks abroad in New York, conducting merchants of. Cincinnati, and Chicago, and St. Louis, through the debaucheries of the grrtit town, in order to secure their custom for the store. There are in stores in New York and Brooklyn, drawers in which there are kept moneys which the clerks are to go to and get whatever they want to conduct these people through the dissipations of the city. The head men of the firm wink at it, and in some places actually demand it?professed Christian merchants. One would think that the prayer would freeze on their lips, and they would fall back dead at the sound of their own song. "What chance is there for young men when commercial establishments expect such things of them? Among all things infernal I pronounce that the most damnable. Young man, how will that firm treat you when you are utterly despoiled, and dragged out with sin, going through the naunte of iniquity for the purpose of getting customers for their store? How will they treat you? 0, they will give you a pension! They will build you a fine house! They will get you a horse and carriage! Will they? No. Some day you will go to the store, shabby, intoxicated, worn out in their service,and they will say: "John, you are a disgrace to our house. Now, just look at youriself. "Accountant, how much do we owe this man?" "A dollar and thirty cents." "Well, now, here?here it is; a dollar and thirty cents. Go off. Don't hang around the store." Magnanimity superb! They stole the lustre from his eye, and the color from his cheek, and the honor from his soul, and then they kicked him out. If such professed Christian merchants do- not go straight to hell, I don't know any use of having such a place. Oh, young men, disappoint t.h? flrn^cfcation of that firm: disarmoint those customers, if these things are expected of you. You may sell an extra case of goods; you may sell an extra roll of silk; but the trouble is, you may have to throw your soul to boot in the bargain. Again: I counsel all clerks to conquer the trials of their particular position. One great trial for clerks is the in consideration of customers. There are people who are entirely polite everywhere else, but gruff and dictatorial and contemptible when they come into a store to buy anything. There are thousands of men and women who go from store to store and price things, without any idea of purchase. They are not satisfied until every roll of goods is brought down and they have pointed out all the real or imaginary defects. They try on all kinds of kid gloves, and stretch them out of shape, and they put on all styles of cloak and walk to the mirror to see how it would look, and then they sail out of the store, saying: "I will not" take it to-day;" which means: "I don't want it at all," leaving the clerk amid a wreck of ribbons, and laccs, and cloths, to smooth out five hundred dollars' worth of goods?not one cent of which did that man or woman buy or expect to buy. Now I call that a dishonesty on the part of the customer. It a Ooy runs into a store and takes a roll of cloth off the counter and sneaks out into the street, you all join in the cry pell-mell: ''Stop thief!" When I see you go into a store, not expecting to buy anything, but to price things; stealing the time of the clerk, and stealing the time of his employer, I say, too: "Stop thief!'' If I were asked which class of persons most need the grace of God amid their annoyances, I would say: "Dry goods clerks." All the indignation of customers al>out the high prices comes on the clerk. For instance. A grent war comes. The manufactories are closed. The people go off to battle. The price of goods runs up. A customer comes into a store. Goods have gone up. "How much is that worth?' "A dollar." "A dollar! Outrageous. A dollar!" Why, who is to blame for the fact that it has got to be a dollar? Does the indignation go out to the manufacturers on the banks of the Merrimac, because they have ? closed up? No. Do?s the indignation go out toward the employer, who is out at his country seat? No. It comes on the clerk. He got up the war! He levied the taxes! He put up the rents! Of course the clerk! Then a great trial comes to clerks in the fact that they see the parsimonious side of human nature. You talk about lies behind the counter?there are just as many lies before the counter. Augustine speaks of a man who advertised that he would, on a certain occasion, tell the people what was in their hearts. A great crowd assembled, and he stepped to the front and said: "I will tell you what is in your hearts; To buy cheap an 1 se!l dear!" O, people of Brooklyn! lay not aside your urbanity when you come into a store, "treat the clerks like gentlemen and ladies?proving yourself to be a gentleman or a lady. Remember, that if the prices are nigh and your purse is lean, that it is 110 fault of the clerks. And if you have a son or a daughter amid those pei-plexitios of commercial life, and such a one comes home all worn out. be lenient, and know that the martyr at the stake no more certainly needs the grace of God than our young (leople amid the seventimes heated exusperations of a clerk's life. Then there are all the trials which come to clerks from the treatment of inconsiderate employers. There are proftssed Christian men in this city who have no more regard for their clerks than they have for the scales on which the sugars aro weighed. A clerk is no more than so much store furniture. No consideration for their rights or their interests. Not one word of encourgement from sunrise to sunset, nor from January to Decern Dor. cui wnen any tmng goes wrong? i a streak of dnst on the counter, or a box with the cover off?thunder showers of scolding. Men imperious, capricious, cranky towards their clerks?their whole manner as much as to say: "All the interest I have in you is to see what I can get out of you." Then there are all the trials of incompetent wages. Some of you remember when the war broke out and all moi chandi e went up, and merchants were made millionaires in six months bv the simple rise in the value of goods. Cid the dtrk get advantage *? that rise? Sometimes, not always. I saw estates gathered in those times, over which the curse of God has hung ever since. The cry of unpaid men and women in thosa stores reached the Lord of Sobaotn, nnd the iiij dignatkm of God hag been around fy.'iu,.-'j&j. those establishments ever since; rumbling in the carriage wheels, flashing in the chandeliers, glowing from the crimson upholstery, thundering in the long roll of the ten-i>in alley. Such men mav build up palaces of merchandise heaven liigh, Lut after awhile a disaster will come along, and put one hand on that pillar, and throw itself forward until down will como the whole structure, crushing the worshippers as grapes are mashed in a wine-press. Then there are boys in establishments who are ruined?in prosperous establishments? ruiaed by their lack of compensation. In how many prosperous stores it has been for the past "twenty years that boys were given just enough money to learn them to steal.' .Some wereseizel by Iho police. TLe vast majority of instances were not known. The head of the firm asked: ''Where is George now?"' ''0, he isn't here any more." A lad might better starve to death on a blasted heath than take one cent from his employer. Woe be to that employer who unnecessarily puts a temptation iu a boy's way. There have been great establishments in these cities building marble palaces, their owners dying worth millions, and millions, and millions, who made a vast amount of their estate out of the blood, muscles, and nerves of half-paid clerks. Such men as?well. I will not mention any name. But I mean men who have gathered np vast estates at the expense of the people who were ground under their heel. ' 0," say such merchants, "if you don't like it here, then go and get a better place." As much as to say: "I've got you under my grip, and I mean to hold you; you can't get any other place." 0,what a contrast we see between such men and those Christian mercants of Brooklyn and NewYork who to-day are sympathetic with their clerks?when they pay the salary, acting in this way: " This salary that I give you is not all my interest in yon. You are an immortal man; you are an immortal woman; I am interested in your present and your everlasting welfare; I want you to understand that, if I am a little higher up in this store, 1 am beside you in Christian sympathy." Go back forty years to Arthur Tappen's store in iSew York?a man whose worst enemies never questioned his honesty. Every morning, he brought all the clerks, and ttie accountants, and the weighers into a room for devotion. Th.?v sAiisr. Thev craved. Thev exhorted. On Monday morning the clerks were asked where they had attended church on the previous day, and what the sermons were about. It must have sounded strangely, that voice of praise along the streets whero the devotees of mammon were counting their golden beads. You say, Arthur Tappen failed. Yes, he was unfortunate, like a great many good meu; but I understand he met all his obligations before he left this world, and I know that he died in the peace of the Gospel, and that he is before the throne of God to-dav?forever blessed. If that be failing, I wish that you might all fail. There are a great many young mon in this city?yea, in this house?who want a word of encouragement, Christian encouragement. One smile of good cheer would be worth more to them to-morrow morning in their places of business than a present of fifty-thousand dollars ten years hence. Oh, I remember the apprehension and the tremor of entering a profession. I remember very well the man who greeted me in the ecclesiastical court with the tip ends of the lojg fingers of the left hand; and I remember the other man who took my hand in both of his, and said: "God oiess you, nty Drotner; you nave entered a glorious profession; be faithful to God and He will see you through." Why, I feel this minute the thrill of that hand-shaking, though the man who gave me the Christian grip has been in heaven twenty-five years. l nere are oia men wuay mi<j t-an iwh. uuck to forty years ago, when some one said a kind word to them. Now, old men, pay back what you got then. It is a great art for old men to be able to encourage the young. There are many young people in our cities who have come from inland counties of our own State?from the granite hills of the North, from the savannas'of the South, from the prairies of the West. They are here to get their fortune. They are in boardingnousss where everybody seems to be thinking of himself. They want companionship, and they want Christian encouragement. Give it to them. My word is to all clerks in this house: Be mightier than your temptations. A Sandwish Islander used to think when he slew an enemy, all the strength of that enemy came into his own right arm. And I have to tell you that every misfortune you conquer is so much added to your moral power. With omnipotence for a lever, and the throne of G?d for a fulcrum, you can mo /e earth and heaven. While there are other young men putting the cup of sin to their lips, stoop down and drink out of the fountains of God, and you will rise up strong to thresh the mountains. The ancients used to think that pearls were fallen rain drops, which, touching the surface of the sea. hardened into gems, then dropped to the bottom. I have to tell you to day that storms of trial have showered imperishable pearl into many a young man's lap. O, young man, while you have goods to sell, remember you have a soul to save. In a hospital a Christian captain, wounded a few days before, got delirious, and in the midnight hour he sprang out on the floor of the hospital, thinking ne was in the battle, crying: ''Come on, boys! Forward! Charge!'' Ah! he was only battling the spectres of his own brain. But it is no imaginary conflict into which I call you, young man. to-day. There are ten thousand" spiritual ioes that would capture you. In the name of God up and at them, After vhe last store has been closed, after the last bank has gone down, after the shuffle of the quick feet on the Custom House steps lias stopped, after the long line of merchantmen on the sea have taken sail of flame, after Brooklyn, and New York, and London, and Vienna, have gone down in the grave whero Thebes, and Babylon, and Tyre lie buried, after the * great firebells of the Judgment-Day have tolled at the burning of a world?on that day, all the affairs of banking-houses and stores will come up for inspection. O, what an epening of account books! t ide by side, the clerks and the men who employed them?the people who owned thread-an 1-needle stores on the same footing with the Stewarts, and the Delanos, and the Abbotts, and the Barings. Every invoice made out?all the labels of goods?all certificates of stock?all lists of prices?all private marks of tho firm, now explained so everybody can understand them. All the maps of cities* that were nevor built, but in which lots were sold. All bargains. * " ' All nr>A*\ (vmonfo All fa 1 CO Ali gOUglllgS. All Oiinp juutmia.i? <u. . entries. All adulteration of liquors with copperas and strychnine. All mixing of teas, and sugars, and coffees, and syrups, with cheaper material. All embezzlements of trust funds. All swindles in coal, and iron, and oil, and silver and stocks. All Swartouts, and Huntingtons, and Ketchums. On that day, when the cities of this world are smoking in the last conflagration, the trial will go on; and down in an avajancho of aestruction will go those who wronged man or woman, insulted God and delied the judgment. O, that will be a great hnnnsfc Christian clerk! No get ting up early; no retiring late; no walking around with weary limbs; but a mansion in which to live, and a realm of light, and love, and joy over which to hold everlasting dominion. Hoist him up from glory to glory, and from song to song, and from throne to throne; for while others go down into the sea with their gold like millstone hanging to their neoic, this one shall come up the heights of amethyst and alabaster, holding in his ri^ht hand the i>earl ef great price in a sparkling, glittering, flaming casket. A Gallery of Horsc-Thieves. An ingenious way of chocking horsestealers, which are the plague of the Baltic provinces, has been adopted by the Courland authorities. They have supplied all rural police agents and other village functionaries with albums containing the portraits of all notorious cfoalnru nf ttin nriH'incn find of UU1W.51VUIV1.J V* Vt?W their accomplices, with detailed particulars of their residence, and notes of tlio cases in which they have been involved. The albums contain 807 portraits of persons of many different nationalities. The youngest of the thieves is seventeen years j old, and the doyen of the "corporation" is seventy-eight. Whole families live by the trade, and women and young girls swell the curious gallery. Since the police have been in possession of the albums it appears that horse stealing has been less frequent, the thieves becoming more careful, since each of them may be included among the portraits.?Pall Mall Gazette. I There are 1,193 BrusSeTs looms in tlio United States, making fifty yards per day on an average; total productive capacity, 18,000,000 yards; value of product, $18,000.000. AQDTmrTTTTtt AT AUlUVUlJl UXIAJU. TOPICS OF INTEREST RELATIVE TO FARM AND GARDEN. Tlic Potato Hurvest. A high, bare field, brown from the plow, and borne Aslant from sunset; amber waste of sky Washing the ridge; a clamor of crows that fly Iu from the wide flats where the spent tides mourn, To yon their rocking roosts in pines wind-torn; A line of gray snake-fence, that zigzags by A pond, and cattle; from the homestead nigh The long deep summonings of the supper horn. Black on the ridge, against that lonely flush, A cart, and stoop-necked oxen; ranged beside, Some ban-els; and the day-worn harvest folkj Here emptying their baskets, jar the hush With hollow thunders; down the dusk hillside Lumbers the wain, and day fades out like smoke. ?Prof. Robsiger. Selling Batter Promptly. No farm product of equal value is more unsatisfactory to hold for a rise than butter. Its price, when newly made, is nearly always the best. It is subject to greater deterioration in quality than any other product, and, no matter how carefully protected, must suffer some in comparison with that which is freshly made. n^l. ZanVtAnA<1 /3aS?*?T Kllffftt* morlfl in 1 lie ViU-iadUlUUUU. UUiiJ uuitu umuv iu | June used to be good for a twelvemonth if packed in sweet crocks and covend I with salt brine to exclude any odors. There is little such butter now. That made by the creamery process is first- ] class while fresh, but lacks keeping qualities. As nearly all enterprising dairymen have creameries, there is less really good butter made from mflk set in the old-fashioned way than formerly.?Chicago Herald. The Best Seeds for Propagation. Nursery men are well aware that seeds of the best and choicest apples are not best for planting. All that is wanted is strong, vigorous stock, and this is best secured by planting seeds of the small, inferior varieties, too poor for anything except making cider. These artj generally used not alone because they arc easiest to get, but because they are the best. If we wished fruit from these seedlings only seeds from the best flavored varieties would be planted; but. as the propagator invariably grafts these, then the kind of fruit the seedling might bear is immaterial. The chief drawback to this method of getting trees is that it gives little opportunity for valuable chance seedlings which used sometimes to be obtained. Perhaps, however, it is as well that improved varieties of fruits should be bred, for by selecting seeds from the choicest kinds, and by cross fertilization, much of improved stock is bred. This will make two kinds of seeds, each best for its respective purjjose, one including the great bulk of seeds from inferior fruit for producing stocks, and the other the carefully selected few seeds for the amateur and specialist seeking new varieties. Feeding Young Pigs. It does uot take long for a good litter of young pigs to outgrow the capacity of the sow to furnish enough milk to keep them thrifty. This milk from its dam is the best possible nourishment for young pigs as for all other young animals; but from eight to twelve or fifteen hungry stomachs to be filled the sow cannot possibly give enough milk to satisfy them, however well-fed she may be. By the time the piffs are ten days or two weeks old they will begin to eat, and they should be helped to all they can devour. A handful of oats or cracked wheat is excellent for the young pigs, and scarcely anything is better for the old sow. Corn should not be given at this tender age, nor, in fact, in any quantity \mtil their growth i3 pretty well made. It is a great loss to fail to feed young pigs well, as they take more growth from the same amount of nutriment than at any subsequent time in their lives. And yet, relying wholly upon what they can get from the sow, many pigs become stunted even before they ate weaned, and their growth so checked that it costs- nearly all they are worth to get them started in growing again. Uuless the owner is willing to take some extra paitis in feeding the weaklings a large litter of pigs may prove less profitable than a small one.? Cultivator. Feeding Bees. Large quantities of brood are reared this mouth, and after the red buds of the soft maple have put forth their heads there will be plenty of natural pollen for the bees to gather. If there are no maples or willows in your immediate vicinity, take some unbolted rye flour, mix it with saw dust or cut straw, and set in a sunny corner, sheltered from the wind, when, if the bees require it, they will carry it freely. In localities where there is honey iu the blossoms at this season, the bees will gather it very rapidly, and the more honey they get the faster the stock increases. Where there are not - a _ ? i _ 11 enough honey-procxuciug nowers, uy t,u means feed, at the entrance, say about a gill of ho: feed every night. By feeding thus, your stoc ks will increase very rapidly, and when the honey commences to flow, you will have strong stocks to gather it. Agaiu, should there be honey in the blossoms, and cold and rainy weather set in. feed as above, for should the weather continue cold, the b?es would naturally commence to destroy the work already accomplished, by tearing out and destroying the hatching brood. If you keep your bees for increase alone, feed them every night, and continue to do so until honpy can be gathered in abundance.?American Agriculturist. To Grow Strawberries. The main points involved in the successful culture of this fruit, as recognized by our best cultivators, are as follows: 1. Prepare the ground by deep plowing and subsoiling;applya dressing of rotted manure equal to twenty cords per acre; spread it over the ground and mix with the surface soil by repeated and thorough disintegration with a harrow. The best crops are produced on strong, loamy soils; if somewhat clayey it will be all the bet tcr, provmeu it is mamu, 2. Give the plants plenty of space. The rows should not be less than thirty inehes apart, and the plants about half that distance between each other in the rows. 55. Remove all runners as they appear, and keep the surface well pulverized and clean during svmmer after the crop lias been gathered in old plantations?the same cleanly treatment applying to newly set out plants. If young plants are wanted, keep a portion of the plantation for the purpose. 4. Cover the plants in winter, after th? freezing weather sets in, with straw, leaves, or other similar material, ;is a partial protection from injury by frosts. 5. Do not disturb the roots by any process of cultivation ttom the moata of September uutil after the crop has been gathered. 6. M ike a new plantation every year, and destroy tbe old plants after they have produced a second crop. The Canker Worm. Ben: Bcrley Poorc says in the CultU tutor: The caukcr worm, which does so much harm, is what is callcd a measuring worm; that is, instead of crawling as ordinary caterpillars do, it straightens e r ..j. r U. lisuii, iJisieiiN us line uti, iimujuii^; vi booking Its back in so doing; it then goes through the same process again, and so seem;, to measure its way along. It is about an inch in length, and is of a general ash gray color above, the sides darker, while beneath it is of a yellowish cast. The specimens vary greatly, however, in color and workings. Each one is provided with a silk gland in the undei lip, from which it spins a fine thread of silk, by means of which it suspends itself when frightened or shaken from the tree. The male is light ard active and has wings to fly, but the female is sluggish and cannot fly, but crawls up the trunk9 of trees, and deposits her eggs in protected places, and generally near expanding buds. There the eggs hatch in the early Spring, as the leaves are young and tender, and the young worms begin their work of destruction. Mr. Bessey mentions several plans for destroying these pests, but rather inclines to the pian recommended by Lo Baron County, III., to take a piece of inch rope (old rope is as good as new), ltfng enough to go round the tree, tack it a foot or two from the ground, being careful to make it fit close to the bark. Get strips of new tin, four inchcs wide, and long enough to go around the rope band when in placc on the tree; fasten by driving small nails through tho tin and rope band so that the tin will extend equally above and below the rope. The females will find it much more difficult to pass this barrier than one described by Mr. Bessey. Many will lay their eggs on the under side of the ropo band; these may be destroyed by applying kerosene. Cultivation of Crops. After a seed has come up, the frequent stirring of the soil will prove beneficial. It is not generally necessary to caution any one against stirring the soil too frequently, still this may, not impossibly, bo sometimes overdone, at least as regarded from a financial point of view. Following a rain, and after the land is dried sufficiently to be in ^ood working condition, is the best possible' time for giving the soil a thorough stirring; for then it will be left in a fresh, lively condition, that will give the growing crop a sur prising start. It may be well to note here that it is not profitable to stir the soil when it is too wet, or to hoe crops when they are dripping with water, a9 some people do; even cabbages, celery and turnips are not benefited, if indeed they escape serious injury, under such treatment. In cultivating crops of any description, it is necessary to bear in mind that, when they arc young and growing rapidly, it will be proper to cultivate deeper and nearer to the plants than at a later stage, when growth is not so rapid. Atthelatei stage, such active cultivation would have a tendency to ripen off the crop, rather than promote its growth. Durinor a drv season, or a neriod of ex tended drought, the more frequently the soil is stirred around a growing crop the better, as the loosening up of the surface soil will draw the moisture from below upward, within reach of the feeding roots of the plants, and thus enable them to absorb it. In the case of any crop planted in rows, it is a good plan to stir the soil and cut down the weeds, immediately after the plants come up, in the following manner: Take an ordinary harrow and remove the front tooth; then drive along each row of plants, keeping it exactly between the horses and central to the harrow. This harrowing will not disturb them in the least, and just at this stage will promote their growth surprisingly. The weeds, of course, will not be exterminated entirely; but their first early growth will be effectually destroyed, and they will more easily be kept under during the rest of the season. Parasitic insects and vegetable parasiter (to which latter class belong smut, blight, mildew, etc.) cause.heavy losses and disappointments to all cultivators of the land both on farms and in gardens. The more thrifty the habit and condition of the plants, the less will they be liable to such ravages. Thorough and constant cultivation disturbs and destroys the larvae, reinforces the plant, and enable it to withstand parasatic attacks, both animal and vegetable to good advantage.? W. W. Bamon. Floral Wonders from Japan. A New York florist, says the Evening Sun, has just succeeded in getting a collection of thirty varieties of chrysanthemums direct from the famous garden of the Mikado, where heretofore all species of this flower have been held exclusive. The colors of the blossoms are as marvellous as are their forms. Many flowers measure thirty inchas in circumference. Soms are shaped liked parasols, their thready petali forming tassels. In the garden of the Mikado the chrysanthemum is the leading flower, it beiug the emblem of Japan, as the rose is of I England and the fleurjde lis of France. In this garden chrysanthemums arc I trained to represent animals?scarlet I cows, eolden horses, white elephants arc the taste of Japanese royalty. Every one grows chrysanthemums in Japan. "When a rural swain desires to pay his attentions to some dark-eyed daughter of the flowery land he places a chr3'santhemum upon her doorstep. If she waters and cares for it he may come again, but if it is neglected and left to wither, so must the hopes of the unfortunate lover. A Great Place for Railroad Trains! There are thirty-live tracks in the Pennsylvania Railroad yard in Jersey City, which are just three more than there aro in i hc gridirons at Edgchilll, Liverpool, on the London and Northwestern Railway. Edgehill is the spot where George Stephenson began his first railway sixty years ago. One hundred and sixty-two lights were counted last night at the Jersey City yards, half of them just above the level of the tracKs. Many more were swinging to and fro, as if in the hards of lunatics. One hundred and seventy-five trains daily pass in and out, while the bobtail engines run back and forth about oncc a minute. The curved steel rails gather in the rays and flash them back. Altogether that depot at night is a striking picture.?Neio York ' Sun. A Family's Occupations. Tho maid sits in the parlor, Working worsted rugs: The brother's at the bench show, Chattering of bugs. The mother, in the kitchen At her washing, tugs,, The old man's in the lower patch lbilhng t&fcur bugs. ?GoodaWa Svm I RELIGIOUS "READING" A Little While. What is this that he saitb? "It is but a little while," And trouble and pain and death Shall vanished before his smile. "A little while," and the load Shall drop at the pilgrim's feet, Where the steep and thorny road Doth merge in the golden street. But what is this that he saith? "A little while," and the day Of the servant that laboreth Shall be done forever and aye. Oh, the. truth that Is yet untold! Oh, the songs that are yet unsuing! Oh, the sufferings manifold, And the sorrows that have no tongue! Oh, the helpless hands held out, And the wayward feet that stray In the desolate paths of doubt And the sinner's downward way! For a silence soon will fall On the lips that burn for speech, And the needy and poor that call Wi 1 forever be out of reach. 14 For the work that ye must do Before the coming death There remaineth. 0 faithful few, But a little while," he saith. ?[Eev. Washington Gladden In Sunday Afternoon. llltla Thlntti. No man is fit for God's service who is not -willing to do little things. The people who are alwaj* waiting for an opportunity to no some great tuing never accomplish anything. If you want to be wise in winning souls you must be ready to do ju.t what the Spirit prompts you to do. It may be he will call you to go to the homo of the drunkard, and stay there and mind the children while he or his wife goes out to listen to the Word of God. If this were done by Christians generally streams of salvation would break out in every quarter. If you are going to work for God you must let him take care of your reputation. If you look for your reward there you will be doomed to disappointment. The reward will come hereafter. This is the time of Christ's humiliation, and we are to go "outside the camp bearing his reproach." The nearer you 1 ve to Christ the meaner will be the ihings that worldly people will say about T# A it - 1 r Al you. ii you warn xno appiause 01 me world you had I etter give up Christian work, because you cannot be useful in God's vineyard without the world beginning to slander and abuse you.?[D. L. Moody. Opportunities. Bear in mind that vre all hare our opportunities, if we will look out for them, opportunities of doing good, opportunities of beneSting our fellow creatures, opportunities of doing some work for God; and for every one of these opportunities we m'.:st give an account. If neglected, great will be our loss; if seized, what great things may be done; how much may be accomplished; God may be honored; souls n ay be saved? our own souls, or the souls of others. Again, our time is very, very short, and all depends upon tbe right employment of it These striking words might once have been seen, written in large letters on the wall of an Italian house: "A God, a moment, an eternity. A God who sees theo, a moment which lliesfiom thee, an eternity which awaits thee." And remember that our time is cont acting, and becoming shorter every day. One of the cruel tortures said to have been invented in some heathen country was that of a cell which ai the prisoner's first entrance presented an appear * '?^ -J Dw r] n/vt?nao ance oi comiori uuu ctuc. jjj uegiw, however, he observed the dimensions of his chamber beginning to contract, and the fact became more appalling every day. Slowly, but terribly, the sides drew closer, and the unhappy victim was at last crashed to death. What an emblem docs this suggest of the sinner's contracting day of grace! Oh, what would the poor victim in such a cell have given to see the door open? Would he have lingered for a moment, think you? Would he not have seized I the opportunity, and escaped for his life? We have, many of us, done but little in the way of "redeeming the time." VVe have allowed it to pass by unimproved. We have lived *too long in Sodom. Oh, that we may arise as Lot i did, and be gone; and while wc linger, j may the angels of God lay hold of our hands, and bo merciful to us, and bring us forth, and set us without the city; so I that we may never look back any ir.ore, but may escape to the mountain, and dwell safely upon the Rock of Ages. If youDg, redeem the time whilst it is yours; and all the more so if old, for but a short moment or two remains ior you. Old and young alike, we have not an instant to lose. Let us redeem the time, before the evil days come, when our dilliculties will perhaDS increase an hundred-fold. Let us take the tide at the flood, knowing that perhaps no more tides will come, at least for us; for there are but twelve hours in the day, and our last hour may be very near.?[Bishop Oxenden in "Touchstones.'" j A congregation creatcs the conditions ! of failure, and then holds the preacher responsible. To a man or body of men with such a temper, how enn any good come from sermons!?'Dr. Deems. Temperance Xotes. Sam Small says that in five years the South will be solid for Prohibition. Stephen A. Douglas, the son of the 4-Utile Giant,"' who used to be very in temperate, has now become a total abstainer and lias made speeches in temperance meetings. A mammoth temperance meeting was held at Elmira, N. Y., recently by "The Old Guard," an organization of more than 100 former drunkards who reformed under the Murphy crusade and are no^ i Droaneroiw citizens. _ __ TEMPERANCE! 1 Guardthe Home. Every true heart on earth, wheresoe'er he may roam, fi :3| Finds that life's dearest idol is home, sweet, sweet home; But so many homes' sweetness is changed Into And the dear dream of pleasure arises in Home, home, sad, sad h<5me, he deadly destroyer has blighted the home 3m Not long shall we barter our hearts' hope* And give the destroyer o'er all things full Not long, for the hosts to the battle now come, And this is the war cry: "For God and the ?Home, home, sweet, sweet home, We pledge now our manhood to fight for the Sweet home! yes, 'tis dearer than all else beside, And we will defend it whatever betide, And speed on the day when the cause is re- . moved That places in peril the homes we have loved. Home, home, sweet, sweet home, The Lord God of heaven preserve us the ?Herbert Whitney, in the Voice. A Little Lower Than the Beaitai Try to ?*ive a dog whisky to drink andl you will see him fehudder with fear m4 . % run away. A rabbit, which was given .{'ym whisky, one spoonful every day for th? sake of experiment, died in a few days \ jptfSi with terrible cramps of the stomadti Place a good microscope over one drop of water and you will see hundreds of little animals living and swimming lustily and cheerfully in it, but place the same instrument over a drop of whisky and you will find no life whatever, death _ reigning there. Then mix them together and you will witness the following spec- n tacle like this: The poor animalcule, lively and cheerful though they were but : one moment before, at once begin to move about most frantically; they are taken with spasms, with which they suffer a little while, until death relieves them. Hence you may realize the nature of Jwhisky and the horror which Nature ^ herself has instilled into every creature against it. But what are these in comparison with the susceptibility of the human body to the ruinous effects of alcoholic drinks, the traces of which are often and unmistakably found in the dif- ' ferent disorders of the stomach and bowels, the heart, the liver, the kidneys, the throat and the larynx, the brain, the skin, the five senses, and the mind itself ? . ' ?? Who can tell the amount of trouble and pain and misery caused by only one of "'y|| these afflictions? How terribly ruined qpd deformed by drink is the human body, the most noble work in the whole of God's visible world, that "temple of the Holy Ghost," as the great St. Paul has so grandly styled it! A short time ago I < saw eight representations of a man's stomach laid open and affected with those disorders of which alcohol is so prolific. They were taken from Nature and so dis- m gusting that people who were shown them could neither eat nor drink on that day.?Father Loison. An Insurance View of Beer-Drinking We are surprised to note that some of the foreign insurance journals have been copying the absurd conclusions of one J. Thomann, in a pamphlet recently published in New York, to show by statistiral figures that 1 'beer is the healthiest ?" ?? 1 'atn^ drink known." That writer declares, a$ .4$ the result of his investigations, that "the #3 risks incurred in insuring the lives of habitual beer drinkers are less by forty per cent, than the ordinary risks of such transactions." Thomann simply proves what he did not start oufttTprOYV&ai---? ? sj the robust men employed in the breweries, who drink from forty to fifty glasses of beer daily, remain in robust health for some years by virtue of their large amount of vital force and tenacity; not by virtue of beer, but in spite of it. "We have closely watched the heavy beer drinkers in this community with reference to their mortality ratio, for more than twenty years, and our observations show that out of every hundred who saturate themselves in this immoderate way, not more than five pass the age of fifty-three. . . Those that escape Bright's disease or uremic poisoning become victims of I nr foftv rl#><rpneration. or erv v* D , ^ .. . sipelas, or apoplexy. One or other of these fatal diseases invariably gives the finishing touch to the "splendid physique" about which Thomann rants long before the period of natural expectation. If beer drinkers choose to satisfy their thirst with their favorite beverage, that is one thing; but if they are led by Thomann's lying statistics into the belief that beer will prolong their lives, or that life companies can be fooled into acceptance of walking beer-barrels as healthy risks, that is quite another.?Baltimore Underwriter. Alcohol in Food. Not long ago a man who had been a "hard drinker** in his youth told me that after five years of total abstinence from fhirqfc fnP 311 intoxicating' ununs mc un? liquor came over him as he smelled the brandy in the pudding sauce at a table where he was an invited guest. "Call it weakness if you will," be said, "but I dared not taste that sauce. I knew that the taste of the brandy would steal my senses away, that the maddening thirst for drink would again overpower my will, and the work of years be undone in an instant. My only hope was in total abstinence, and I knew it. As it was I had a hard fight to get by a saloon that night on my way home, and once home I asked my sister to lock me in my room until 1 could feel sufw of myself again.? Ohio Farmer. Dr. B. W. Richardson, at a rccent railway tcmperancc meeting in England, ? i is reported as saying that alcohol ex. ercised injurious effects on the sense of . sight, and that the range at which a [ set of figures could be read across a room was shortened by three feet aftei taking alcohol. _ 4