The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, May 11, 1887, Image 3
'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