The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, September 05, 1888, Image 3
f
Si Tilliffi SEBII.
HOW EMPLOYERS OUGHT TO
TREAT EMPLOYES.
Text: "If ye bite and devour one another,
"take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."?Galafcuins
v, 15.
UTaaIt ?Af nvortr won nn hl'fl AWH t.hin^T
<>ut every man also on the things of others."
?Phillippians li, 4.
The labor agitation will soon cease, and all
the mills will be reopened, and all the railtrains
resume traffic, and all our national
prosperities start again. Of course it will be
some time before the country recovers from
the damage of the strikes. Strikes always
damage laborers more than they do capitalists.
During thL strike the laboring classes
have lost?never to recover?one hundred million
dol'ars. It does not make much difference
to eveiy successful capitalist whether he
has fifty thousand dollars less or fifty
thousand dollars more; but when a
man is dependent upon the day's
warres it makes the difference between
bread and no bread, between home
and no home. Spasmodically wages may be
higher, but as a result of such things wages
get lower. BoycottiDg, violence and murder
never pay. They are different stages of anarchy.
The poorest use you can put a man
to is to kill him. To-morrow, blow up all tho
fine residences on the Hudson River, and all
the great houses on Brooklyn Heights and
Brooklyn Hill and Ritterl-.ouse Square and
Beacon street, and all the stones and timber
and brick will merely fall back on the bare
head of American labor. The worst enemies
of the working classes are their
demented coadjutors. The assassination
of Lord Cavendish and Mr. Burke in Phoenix
Park, Dublin, Ire'and, to avenge the wrongs |
of that unhappy country, had no result except
to turn away the sympathies of millions |
of people from that afflicted land. The attempt
two or three years ago to blow up the i
Pnrliamnnfc TTrmsfls nf Enirlftnd had OnlV OnO'!
resuit, and that to turn out of employment j
thousan is of the Irish who had work iu I
England. In this country the torch applied I
to factories that have "discharged hands, I
whether for good or had reasons; obstacles !
put on the rail tracks in front of midnight |
?xpress trains because they do not like the j
President of the company; the sudden I
throwing up of work on shipboard just be- |
fore they are going to sail, or in printing
office, just.before they are going to press, or
in the mines just before they are to deliver
the coal, or on the house scaffolding so that
the builder cannot meet his contract?all this
only cripples American labor and pierces its
heart. All the sudden traps set for employers
never yet put one farthing in the callous
palm, never yet untied one knot from the
Jmuckles of hard toil. In other words,
barbarism can never cure the wrongs
of civilisation. Mark that, my brother,
my sister. Frederick the Great j
admired a farm near nis palace at
Potsdam. The farm was owned by a miller.
The King offered him three times "the value
of tha farm, but the miller would not sell it,
because it was the old homestead, and he felt
about it just ns Naboth felt about the vineJard
when Ahab wanted it The King orered
the miller to come into his presence.
Tha King with a stick in his hand with which j
he sometimes struck his officers of state, said J
| to the nvller: "Now, if you dont sell that to
me I'll take it anyhow." "No you won't,
jour Majesty," said the miller, "no
you won't." "Yes I will," said the
King. "I am King and I've a
right to take it" "No, you won't." said the
I miller, "if your Majesty takes my farm, I'll
sue you in"the Chancery Court" And the
Jaw loomed up and the king backed down.
But I have to tell you that the most outrageous
wrong inflicted upon the working
classes will yet come before the law. Violence
and arrainst the law achieves nothing,
but righteousness and according to law will
achieve everything. It is most important
at this point in the discussion, in this series
of sermons which I am preaching on Sabbath
mornings, and which I shall continue i
for three or four iSabbath mornings more, to
set forth the fact that the honest, industrious
workingmen of this country have no
sympathy with anarchy or outlawry, and
to prove it I read from the newspaper organ ,
of the Knights of J-abor. I read from the I
first rage in large letters this vehement dis- I
claimer:
."Let. it be understood by all the world that )
the Knights of Labor have no affiliating as- i
80ciation. sympathy or respect for the band |
of cowardly murderers, cutthroats and robbers
known as anarchists,who sneak through j
the <?ountrv like midnieht assassins, stirring I
tip the passions of ignorant foreigners, un- I
furling the red flag of anarchy and causing
riot and bloodshed. All their followers, sympathizers,
aiders and abettors shall be summarily
dealt with. They are entitled to no
more consideration than wild beasts. The
leaders are cowards and their followers are ,
fools." I
So declares the chief organ of the Knights j
of Labor. "Well, all the agitation, as I say,
will soon be grone, but there are some very !
Important things to be uttered. Now, all
this discussion of the philosophv of the subIbct
does not touch me a bit I simply want to I
know what is my duty and what is your
duty in the crisis. Tne vast majoritv are
divided into two classes?employers and employee
The chasm between the employer
and the employe is getting wider and wider.
You know the time was when the master
builder, the boss workmen and the capitalist
toiled side by side with the laborer at the
same bench, and there are many people in
this house who remember the time when
the clerks of great commercial establishments i
boarded with the head man of the firm; that |
the chasm between the employer and employe ,
is getting wider and wider, and the temota- ,
tlon is for the laborer to say: "My boss- I
woikiran, my capitalist, is wronging me by I
all that he succeeJs," and the tendency is for !
the employer to say: "Now, the e men in
my employ are merely so many beasts of
burden, and it is my business to give so much
money for so much labor, so many dollars
salary for so many beads of sweat,'' and the
trouble is that the bri ige is broken down at
both en 's. Thomas Carlyle, in his quaint
but for oful wav, put it when he said:
"Togson, of St. Dolly Undershot, says to j
his men: "Noble spinners, this is the hun- |
dred-thousandth we have gained, wherein I j
mean to drill awl plant my vineyards. The
hundred-thousandth poun 1 is mine. The daily ]
wage was yours. Adieu, noble spinners. \
drink my health with this groat each which I
givo you over ami above."
Now,what we want is to rebuild the bridge, i
and I put the trowel this day to on3 of the I
abutments, while I tell employers how they '
ought to treat employes. As many laborers 1
during the past three months have maltreated
their employers and deserve condign punishment
for their behavior, the tendency is now
that em j lovers shall forget their duty to
their employes. The old recipe, that some
of you have heard, for getting wealth was
this: Three rules. First, get all the earnings
of others that you can get, rnd keep them.
Second rule. Go right on without regard to
the hardships or suffering? of other people.
Thirdly. Have no appi e nation of the fact
that your accumulation mav I e the impoverishment
of many* others. Now, I will undertake
to say there is no employer in this house
who would want to start out aud achieve a
fortune upon such an outrageous theorv.
You want to know what your duty is, and I
am here in the name of Almighty God and
as a religious teacher to tell you.
First, I charge you, oh employer, pay as
large wages as ar? reasonable and as you can
afford. Not necessarily what others pay;
certainly not what an employe demands you
shall pay, for that is a tyranny unbearable,
and the right of an employe to" tell you what
you shall do implies vour right to tell him
what be shall do, and either idea is despicable.
He who yields to the demands of a
man who :-ays "you must pay me so much,
or I'll ruin your business''?the employer who
yields to such a demand wrongs every business
man in Brooklyn, and he yields to a theory
which would, 'if carried out, dissolve
society. You find out by looking over your
affairs what you can do. You put your
self in imagination iu tne place or your la- |
borer and then before Go?l and in the presence
of your conscience dccide what you
shall pay. Because my neighbor pays too
much or too little, that does affect me in my
relation to the person that toils for me.
Suppose he pays too little, that is no excuse
for my paying too little. Suppose he pays
too much, "that is no excuse for my paying
more than I can afford. Having made
up your mind what you can righteously and
cnnstianly pay, remember that ''God
bless you's" do not amount to anything. They
will not buy shoes, they will ,not pay the
rent. At least once a year go among your
employes and find how they live and see the
fcnportance of your prompt payment. You
Will find that young man supporting an invalid
parent, or a sick sister. You will find
hat young man in winter in a place where
he has no fire, and in the summer in an illventilated
apartment sweating. When you
eome on Saturday morning to draw your
check for your wages, you will have a thrill
sf satisfaction not onlv in knowing you meet
that young man's wants but that you relieve
k host of dire necessities standing behind
him. It is not,my brother, a matter between
you and your employe more than it is a matter
betwopn you and Almi^htly God. The
Bible is very explicit on this subject and
leaves no man in doubt. Pay wages and pay
them promptlv. MaHchi: "I will bo a
jwift witness against all sorcerers and against |
ill adulterers and against those who ODoress j
the hireling in his wages." Ijeviticus: "Thou
thalt not keep the wages of the hireling a!l
aight unto the morning." Colossians: '"Mailers.
give unto your servants that which is
just and equal, knowing that ye have a master
in Heaven." Do not ?ay as it is oft*n
taid now: "It you do not like your place get
mother," when you know he cannot get another.
Thon T pVinrtrA vnii also to be or.raful about
She physical health and about the financial
iverare, the future financial welfare of the
3ien who are under your charge. You are
so moid their ideas, you are to tell them
ibout savings banks, about investments,
ibout life insurance. You .cay they have not
*ny surplus now; but thev will have. What
rou teach them will affect their who'e lives
iipon this subject. It is your business,
it is your solemn obligation to
teach them these things. I am clad
there are men who appreciate this. Such as
Ma-shall in Leeds, such as Lester in Bradford,
such as A in Halifax, such as men
in our midst whom I might mention but
will not, lest I offend their modesty?men
who build concert halls for their employes,
organize choral societies, open cricket
grounds, provide for them lawn tennis, crive
them reading rooms and libraries and afford
them all kinds of opportunity, so that these
employers are not merely paying
wages now due, but through the contentment
and good morals of their
amploves they are paying from generation to
generation and forever. Now, you are to
look after the physical welfare of those in
four employ. There are banking houses and
there are factories and there are workshoos
in this country which simply mean death by
th?ir atmosphere. You are supposed to be
more intelligent on subjects of ventilation
a^d sunshine and all the laws of hygiene.
This afternoon at half past 2 o'clock will be I
KtirioH ? man who hAs done more for the
health of this century than any ten men in
it?ray glorious friend, Dio Lewis. I have
known hira !n this country and I have known
him in other countries,and he has been doing
but just one thin??trying to mike the world
itronger and better and happier. His books
jiving advice to boys and advice to girls and
idvice to workman and advice to all classes
>f people, old and young, have increased the
on gevity of this race, of the human race.
3is influence willbe felt for all time. Oh, employer,
interest yourself in the physical health
>f those who are in your employ; somelimes
it mav not be appreciated, as in the
-ase, mentioned by Charles Reade, where a
freac fan was built to blow the dust from the |
netal and the stone, the dust rising from the
nachinery in a factory, and these men defined
to pet the great fan in motion, seeming
X) nrefer the filings, the poisonous filings,
rather than to have this great fan working.
But while here and there there may be some
nappreciative of your tcils in thoir behalf,
the vast majority of people
in employment in this country will
thank God and thank you for anything you
may do for them. Do not put on them any
unnecessary burden. I never could understand
why car drivers should have to stand
when they could just as well sit down and
drive. It seems to m? that all intelligent
employers ought to befriend, the shortening
of the hours of toil in this country. Some
time ago there were a thousand grocers'
clerks in this city who worked from five
o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock
at night. Now that is simply inhuman.
These employes oucht to nave time
to go to the mercantile library, to
rm tn t.hp cvmnasium. to 20 to the
Young Men's Christian Association, to
?0 to choral societies, togi to churches. If
th?y can do th?ir work in eicht or ten hours,
why employ them seventeen? It seems to
me that the intelligent employers of this
country ought to become sympathetic with
the early closing movement and with the
movement in a1! parts of this land to compress
into shorter time the work that is to
te 'lone in this country.
Then I charge you, oh employer, that you
look after the moral and spiritual welfare of
those whom you employ". Find out where
they spend their evenings. What does that
mean? It means everything. You do not
want in your store that young man who went
last night to see Jack Sneppard. You do not
want in your store a young man who shall
come with face ghastly from midnight revelry.
The young man who spends his evenings
in the society of refined women, or in
musical circles, or in literary employment
and the improvement of his mind?that's the
voung man you want in your store. Not
by disgusting inquisitiveness; not by prying
into other people's affairs, but in legitimate
ways you can find out where that young
man spends his evenings. Aye, if he knows
that you are interested in his welfare,
he will gladly and franklv tell you. I j
never shall forget Arthur Tappan. There |
have been a great many differences of opiu- j
ion about his politics, but no man that j
ever knew Arthur Tappan well doubted his
earnest. Christian character. In the morn'
ing of e very day he gathered all the employes
of his establishment in a room, gave out s
hymn, united with them in prayer, and read
the Scriptures. Samuel Budget, the wealthiest
man in the west of England, had a room
furnished for the especial purpose, and h(
had in that room "Fletcher s Family Devo
tions," and Wesley's hymn books. Ther j
they would all kneel in prayer, employer and
employe. How many strikes did he have' I
When would they strike him? Befor< j
prayer or after prayer, or while he wasdowr
at prayer? Do you wonder that though thai
man thirty years before had been a part
nor in a small shop in a smal
village, he died worth his millions, contributing
them to all kinds of charity and
philanthropy? But (Jr.d can trust such a
man as that" with money. Sir Titus Solt har
wealth bevond computation, and at Sultairo
England, he built and endowed a church and
a chapel?the church for those who preferred
the Episcopal service, and the chapel foi
those who preferred the Methodist service.
He was about to open one of the factories
and he had a great banquet, at which there
were 3.500 men. the most of them workmen.
In the after dinner speech of that banquet,
he said: 4,I cannot look around me
and see this vast assemblage of friends and
work people without being moved. I feel
greatly honored by the presence of the nobleman
at my side, and I am especially delighted
at the presence of my work people. I hoi*
to draw around me a population that will
enjoy th9 beauties of this neighborhood, e
]>opulation of well-paid, contented, happj
operatives. I have given instructions to mj
architects that nothing is to be spared toren
der the dwellings of the operatives a patterr
to the country, and if my life is sparec
by Divine Providence, I hope to sea content
nient and satisfaction and happiness al
around me." Ah! that is Christian charactei
demonstrated. Many of these employers re
member their own early struggles. They re
member when the first j-ard of nankeen wa*
measured by their hands, and the first pounc
of tea weighed, and the first baluster turned
and the first roof shingled. Thoy know a'
sixty or seventy years of age just how a bo)
feels between ten and fifteen. They know a
sixty or seventy or eighty years of age jus
how a young man feels between twenty au
thirty. Ah! these employers were not
originally let down out of heaven on pulleys
of silk in a wicker basket, ratin liue J, fann *;1
by cherubic wings. No, no. They started in
the roughest cradle, on the rocker of which
Misfortune put her violent foot and tipped
them into tne cold world. It takes an old
man who has been through the struggles of
life to sympathize with a boy. Oh, my
friends, not only bo kind and sympathetic to
those who are in your employ, but see that
your boss workman, your head clerks, do not
abuse and maltreat those under them. There
are things going on in the cellars and lofts of
our great manufacturing and commercial
n i'a o! rv?T\l v nil h rn fronil :
OdkaUllSVUiOUlO IUUU UiV VUVIM^V M .
There are some men who get a litt''.*
brief authority in store or factory, and ttie
strut about as though the world belonged u>
them, and they maltreat those under them.
It is your business, oh employer, to kn nv
what goes on in your store. These poor fellows
cannot fight their own battles, their
arms are weak now. After a while they can
take care of themselves. You look after
them now. Let no one, however significant,
in your employ be imposed upon. And as
you look into the faces of your clerks remember
that some of them have a history.
Ah! that boy was pitched out into
the world. He is an orphan. He
has been struggling for himself. He was
thrown into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean,
a plank was thrown after him and he was
told to swim ashore. That young man has a
history?that other young man. He is worse
off than the orphan. His father was a
drunkard. He remembers his father
coming home?and that is about his
first remembrance of him?intoxicated,
and many a time ha3 that boy stood between
his father and mother keeping
her from the brutal blow. He looks prematurely
old, for he has to support the family.
He may look like all other youn~ men. He
is here to-day. He mav look like nil other
younp: mon, but God and his mo*h?r know he
is a hero. Do not tread on him. d> not swear
at him and do not send him on a useless and
senseloss errand. Say to him "good morning."
"cood evening:," "good bye." You have that
man's destiny for two worlds in your keening.
Do not say: "If he does his work h?'e
tint is all I have to do with him." God has
made you his eruardian. You trrat him as
you would like your boy to be treated if vou
were dead. My soul sometimes boils With
utter in<ii?nation as I see the way emp'oves
are treated in these cities and elsewhere.
May God pity them and God keep them.
There are hundreds of people hero
who know what I speak about, and the
truth of what 1 spea'*. Ah, my rrlendj. go
further than this. Look after the positive
spiritual welfare of vour employes. You
have their intrrests in your hands. You
can address them as no one else can They
are bound to respoct yon. You have the
keys of the establishment. Now, you go
around among them illustrating the beauty
of the Christian religion. You f*o among
the mill hands, you go among the factory
hands with a hard spirit They
can tell. They know. Yon eo
around with that spirit among your
employes, aud the wheel of fortune will
turn and you will be a pauper, and your
daughter will go to the workhouse, and your
son will die on the scaffold. But you go
among vour employes in kindly, loving, symthetic.
Christian snirit and say to this young
man with pale cheeks and hacking cough:
'You had better go away for two or threi
days, or a week, and get a breath
of the hills: get fixed up and then
come back. Your wages will go right
on. You hardly .ire able to stand up. Just
go off for a few days." When a young man
loses his mothsr do" not demand that he come '
back the next day after the funeral. Give
him at least one week to get over tbat wbi"h
he will never get over. At the foot of this
pulpit, when I came to the close of a
service years ago, a man stood,
a young man, very Dale. He said:
"This is the first day I have been out
for a month." "Ah," I said. "I am sorry
you have been sick." ''Yes," he said, "I
heard you preach a sermon on restitution
about a month a?o. I bad taken mon?v
from my employer and my conscience
wrought upon me so mightilv that I have
been down sick." I said: "How much did
you take of the money?" He said so
much. I said: "Have you put any of it
back?" "Oh, yes." he said, "I have paid it
nearly ail back. If I live a month I would
pay it all back; but what would become of
ma in +>iA mnnfch hofnro T frot the monev naid
back if I should die? Wfrat would you advise
me to dor' I said: "Are you trying
rieht hard to pay it back?1' He said:
"Yes, I have paid it almost all back
and in a month I know I shall
pay it all back. What shall I do' Tf i
should po to my employers and tell them?
they are hard men?I know they would throw
mo out and disgrace me and my wife and my
little baby. What shall I do?" Isaid:*'You
are sure you will pay it back?" " Ye?, I have
it nearly all paid back." You are sure you
can pay it ina month?" "Yes." I said: "Yon
go on and pay it back. Live with the utmost
economy until you pay it back. You will not
die in thus month?you will not." About a
month after, the man stood at the foot of tbo
pulpit, his face radiant. The roses had come
rack to bis cheek. He said: "It is all right.
I have paid it all back." I said: "I knew you
would. I knew the Lord would let you
live nntil you paid it back." Oh, do not
be hard. "Do not put temptations in the
way of young men. Do not have money
lying around which shall tempt them in their
necessities. Do not have much cash in the
drawer. What would become of us if God
had not given us another chance? Now,
you give that young man another
chance. Do not be hard on those
who have fallen. Give them another
chance. Do not spring on them like a hyena.
- *- 11 !? rT1?-? !? <"? +V?af VAIITlff
JL)0 noc call Ul l<UtJ JJU11UC. icmo l/oav j """o
mail who ha< done wrong; take him home;
take him home; give him another chance.
There is many a young man who
has done wrong who will never do
wrong again if you will only give him a
chance. "We can afford to give others a
chance. We would have been in perdition
before this if God had not given us another
chance, aye, ten thousand chances. 1 look
into the faces of a great many employers
to-dav, and 1 beseech you not only go
to heaven yourself, but take your employes
with you. In some establishments it
is almost impossible for a younsr man to be
a Christian. Oh, bow theyscoff at him,how
they deride him, how they caricature him.
You eo into your store, employer, and put
your foot down on such imposition. General
Zethon was one of the old military commanders
of Frederick the Great. "He was a
Christian. Frederick the Great was an
infidel. One day this old General,
white haired, asked to be excusnd
from military service for a little
while because he wanted to sit at the Holy
Communion, He was granted absence. A
few days after, General Zethon, the old commander,
was dining with the King and other
notables, and the King jocosely said:
"Well, Zethon, how did the Holy
Communion last Friday digest?" Old
General Zethon, his hair as white as
the driven snow, arose and said: ,-Your
Majesty, I have imperiled my life a hundred
times on the battlo field for you. and there
has not been a time in the last thirty vears
- - - ' * ' ? "*r_
whm I woulrt not nave iougnc ior your juajesty;
but I think you do wrong when
you insult the Christian religion, and
forgive me, your Majesty?I, your
old commander?for I cannot sit in
silence and hear you insult my Lord
Jesus.'' King Frederick the Great leaped
from his seat, threw out his hand, and said:
"Forgive me, father; you will never be
bothered again." There are in the establishments
of these cities men who are
just as brave as that old General. They
are trying to serve God, but what
a time they have of it! "What
derision and what caricature come
noon them. I know young men in New
York and Brooklyn who have been most outrageously
maltreated by employers and by
their associates ju?t because they loved the
Lord Jesus and were thorough Christians.
Oh. the time will come when
you will be done with your buying and
so ling and manufacturing and building, and
God will ask you about those people wno
have been in your employ. He will sav:
"Are they here; will they be here?" Oh,
shipbuilders, where will the crew be at the
last? Will they come into the celestial harbor?
Those men who have been tossed on
the seas, will they come into the haven
of rest? Oh, ye bankers, are those
men who are running up and
down the long lines of figures, and handling
the drafts and the checks and the government
securities, are they keeping their accounts
right with God? The credit account
of mercies received and the debit account of
sins pardoned. Oh, ye drygood merchants,
are those young men who are dealing
out fabrics ot apparel for the foot,
the hand, the back?are they to
go unclothed into eternity,? Oh, grocery
merchants, shall your young men who are
dealing out the fabrics, dealing out the food,
the food for the body and the food for the
community, shall they at last starve to
death? Oh. manufacturers, with so mauy
wheels flying and so many bands
pulling, and so many new patterns
turned out, and so many goods shipped,
what are the car men, what are the spinners,
what are the draymen to do? What will be
their destiny in the eternal world? I put
this morninsr udou the brow and upon the
shoulder and the heart of every manufacturer
in this assembly the solemn obligation
of looking after the present and the eternal
welfare of your employes. You cannot escape
from it. God puts it upon you. Oh, let
us live less for ourselves and live more for
others. I think it was three or four years
ago I was in San Francisco and a man had
just arrived from the Sandwich Islands, and
he said one of the Sandwich Islands is
called the Isle of the Lepers, and all
who get sick with the leprosy in other
islands are sent, to that island, and
all who die thore die of leprosy. Ho said a
physician on one of the other islands always
had a glove on h:s hand, and people wondered
why he always wore that glove. None
had seen him without that glove. One day,
this physician came to the city authorities
and withdrew his glove, and said: ''"ihore
is the spot of the leprosy. I am doomed lo
die. I could hide this longer, but I am a
physician. It is selfish for me to hide this
any longer. Let me go to the Isle of Lepers,
and while my life lasts let me tako care of
those who are worse off than I am. Send
me to the Isle of the Lepers." The city
authorities seeing this, of course were
bouud to take charge of him, Jand
the physician bade good-bye to his
family. It was a sad good-bve.
He knew he would never see them again. He
went to the Is!e of Lepers and there toiled in
the alleviation of suffering until God took
him to the eternal rest. Ah, it was magnificent,
was it not, for that physician to live and
die for others Nothing ever surpassed it
save the conduct of Him who cams
from his home on high to physician our
wounds and weep our griefs and die our
death-s and turn this Lepyr's Jsle of a world
into a paradisaical garden. Whetherjemplo/er
or employe may we acknowledge that spirit I
POPULAR SCIENCE.
The young of the condor, at their homo
in the heights of the Andes, remain in
the nest for a year, being fed by the parents
until they are able to fly.
A gigantic sea-weed, more thin 1,500
feet long has been found near the equator
by the ship "Clever," Captain John
Stone, portions being taken to Montevideo.
A calculation made of the figures of a
mile-long railroad train drawn by a single
locomotive, establishes that there
were 3,252 tons weight on this train,
which was drawn by a single tifty-tiveton
engine. This -would be more than
the we'ght of many steamships with
their cargoes.
It has been found by Dr. Tait that the
ear in women can perceive higher notes,
that is, sounds with a greater number of
vibrations per second, than the ear in
men. Th? highest limit of human hearing
is somewhere between 41,000 and
43,000 vibrations per second. Few persons
have equal sensibility to acute
sounds in both ears, the right ear usually
hearing a higher note than the left. The
lowest continuous sounds have about sixteen
vibrations per second.
A new French clock contains a novel
application of the magnet. The clock
appears like a tamborine with a circle of
flowers painted on its parohment head.
Around the circle crawl two bees, the
larger requiring twelve hours to complete
the circuit, while the smaller makes it
every hour. The flowers represent four
divisions, and the bees, which are ol
iron, are moved by two magnets, carricd
just under the membrane, by the clockwork
inside the tamborine.
According to the calculations made by
a scientific writer lately, it requires a
prodigious amount of vegetable matter
to form a layer of coal, the estimate being
that it would really take a million years
to form a coal bed 100 feet thick. The
United States has an area of between
300.000 and 400,000 square miles of coal
fields, 100,000,003 tons of coal being
mined from these fields in one year, or
AnAn/vV win o rinr* orrtimd fho 4>n.rfVt fit:
the equator five and one-half feet wide
and five and one-half feet thick; the
quantity being sufficient to supply the
whole wcrld for a period of 1,500 to
2,000 years.
The four feet of an ordinary ox will
make a pint of neat's foot oil. Not a
bone of any animal is thrown away.
Many cattle's shin bones are shipped-.to
England for the making of knife handles,
where they bring $40 per ton. The
thigh bones are the most valuable, being
worth $80 per ton for cutting into toothbrush
handles. The fore-lig bones are
worth $30 per ton, and are made into
collar buttons, parasol handles and jewelry,
though sheeps' legs are the staple
parasol handles. Ths water in which the
Dnnes are boi!ed is reduced to glue, and
the dust which comes from sawing the
bones is fed to cattle and poultry.
Obe?iii? Orders.
On the Russian frontier it once happened
that au officer was playing at cards
ivith a friend, when a Jew was trying to
smuggle himself into the Russian empire
without prop r vise of his passport. The
sentinel on guard arrested him and reported
to the otticcr. "All right, "said)he.
Hours afterward the sentinel auainasked
what he was to do with the Jew. The
Captain, furious at being interrupted,
shouted: "Why, deuce take the Jew!
Hang him!" The Captain went on playing
until the morning, when, suddenly
remembering the prisoner, he called the
soldier and said: "Bring m the Jew!"
"The Jew?" said the amazed soldipr;
"but I hanged him, as you ordered."
"What?" said the Captain, "you have
committed murder!" He arrested him,
and the judgment?death?went to the
Emperor. Inquiring, before signing so
serious a document, and learning how
matters stood, the Emperor decided that
the soldier, who, without reasoning, had
implicitly obeyed so extraordinary an
order of his superior, was to be made a
corporal; that the officer, who, while on
duty, for the sake of gamblinghadgiven
the murderous order, was to be sent to
Siberia, and that his pay was to go to
the family of the poor Jew who had so
iniquitously been murdeied.?New York
Sun.
New York's Leisure Clas?.
London, says a New York letter to the
San Francisco Argonaut, has many morning
concerts, fisheries exhibitions, horticultural
exhibitions, private views, the
everlasting Zoo, and an endless array of
n 51/1 nnrl fol'i'nrv nliaro
UlllUSeillCllbd VI U 111 1 AVA C441V4 IttlV.ll^ VMUa UWter,
calculated to assist the leisure class
of the English metropolis in killing time.
New York, which apes London in its
amusements, is showing a tendency in the
same direction. We are now forming a
leisure class here. It goes slow, but it
goes. Just now it consists largely of
gamblers, with a sprinkling of night
editors, younger sons, ruined financiers,
club men who can not afford to play
Wall street, actors, college boys home for
vacation, government employes and
rounders. The younger sons form a picturesque
element. They seem to be useful
to the ladies and they wear very good
clothes, so that the gamblers and rounders
do not object to them particularly.
That this leisure class will in time grow
large is evident. The number of younger
sons and society men who have nothing
to do but amuse themselves increases
every day. There is now a very considerable
number of them -who have no more
arduous aim in life than that of killing
time. The women who have leisure are,
of course, limitless as to numbers. They
are the strong^t factors in promoting
morning entertainments. The lectures,
readings and concerts given in the middle
of the day are 100 per cent, greater
than five years ago.
The Currying l'ower of Water.
The carrying or transporting power of I
water incrrascs as the sixth power of the
velocity?a prodigious rate of increase,
as may bs inferred from the fact
that a stream having a velocity six
times as great as another will be able to
transport material weighing 46,650 times
as much as that carried by the slower
stream. The data from which engineers
commonly calculate the effect of a scour
on a river bottom are abcut as follows: j
A stream flowing with a velocity of three !
inches per second barely produced an ef- j
i feet on fine clay; six inches per second I
will raise fine sand; eight inches per scg- i
ond will raise sand of the coarseness of |
linseed; twelve inches per second will j
sweep along fine gravel; twenty-four !
inches per second for one and one-third |
miles per hour) will carry pebbles of j
about one inch diameter; thirty-six j
inches per second (which is about two
miles per hour, or about two-thirds the
rate of speed of a moderate walk) will
sweep along fragments the size of an
i egg.?Boston Budget.
Biff Gold Nuggets.
Nuggets are the delight of a miner's
heart. Some pretty big fellows have been
Found now and then, and there is no
?ood reason why gold picked up in
chunks weighing one and even two
pounds should not some day turn up in
lumps and huge bowlders of fifty pounds
ar more. The largest gold nugget ever
found in the world was discovered in
1858 in the Ballaret diggings, Victoria,
Australia, and weghed 2,106 ounces
troy. It was very pure gold, and sold
for $43,580. This mammoth nugget was
:alled the "Welcome," and for many
pears was reckoned one of the modern
jeven wonders of the world.
Since the finding of the ""Welcome"
many big nuggets have b'.en picked up
in various parts of the world, lot none
equal to the great wonder of Ballaret.
Two have been found worth $21,000, one$10,000,
two $8,000, one $6,500, four
$5,000, twelve worth from $3,000 to
$4,000, and eighteen from $1,000 to
$2,000. California must be credited with
the greatest number of nuggets, the anaals
of gold-mining in that State during
the last thirty years showing numberless
others, besides some of the large one9
above mentioned, worth from $100 to
$500. One nugget was found in Snowshoe
Gnlch, in Montana, in 1865, which
weighed 178 ounces, and was sold for
$3,250. Another large lump of simonpure
gold was picked up in the summer
of 1865, in Nelson Gulch, worth $2,073.
An Indian boy found another shining fellow
in Scratch Gravel bottom in 1875,
which brought him about one-third its
valine?viz., $500.
The fest piece of gold found in California
was worth fifty cents and the second
five dollars. This first treasure is
no larger than a pea, but it is perhaps
the most remarkable piece of metal in
the world's history. It is the identical
glittering particle t'.hat first caught the
eye of James Marshall in Sutter's millrace,
in California, t'lirty-nine years agd.
That tiny, glittering particle has added
to the gold of the wsrld nearly a billion
and a half. This historical nugget is
now among the eolI1it:tion of gems in the
?zniinsonian lnstitut? at vv usmiigLuii.
The total production of gold in the
world during the four years ending with
1885, was 10,396 tons, equal in value to
$7,411,797,850. Valuing gold at $18.09
per ounce, a cubic inch of gold is worth
$210, a cubic foot $362,885, and a cubic
yard $9,797,762. A cubic foot of gold
weighs 1,200 pounds avoirdupois, and
$1,000,000 would, therefore, be a little
less than a cube of three feet. At the
commencement of the Christian era there
was in the world only $427,000,000 in
gold. At the time America was discovered
this had dim'nished to $59,000,000.
Then the new world opened up
her vast treasure-vaults and a constant
stream^ of wealth came pouring forth
which has not ceased yet.
Lord Byron on America.
A discussion having arisen between
two friends, the other evening, as to
whether Lord Byron had ever written
anything eulogistic on America, search
was made, and the following eloquent
tribute, says the Argonaut, was discovered
in the "Ode to Venice," written in
the year 1819:
The name of Commonwealth is past and gone
O'er the three fractions of the groaning
globe;
Venice is crushed, and Holland deigns to own
A sceptre, and endures the purple robe;
If the free Switzer yet bestrides alone
His chainless mountains, 'tis but for a time,
For tyranny of late is cunning grown,
And in its own good season tramples down
The sparkles of our asbes. One great clime,
Whose vigorous offspring by dividing ocean
Are kept apart and nurseu in the devotion
Of Freedom, which their fathers fought for,
and
Bequeathed?a heritage of heart and hand,
And proud distinction from each other land,
Whose sons must bow them at a monarch's
motion,
As if his senseless sceptre were a wand
Full of the tragic of exploded scien -e?
atill one great clime, in full and frv defiance,
Yet rears her crest, unconquered and sublime,
Above the far Atlautic!?Sue has taught
Her Esau-brethren that the haughty nag,
The floating fence of Albion's feebler crag,
May strike to those whose red right hands
have bought
Rights cheaply earned with blood. Still,
still, for ever
Better, though ea?h man's life-blood were a
river,
That it should flow, and overflow, than creep
Through thousand lazy channels in our veius.
Dammed like the dnllftaual, with locks and
chains, t
And moving, as a sick man in nis sieep,
Three paces, and then faltering. Better be
Where the extinguished Spartan3 still are
free,
In their proud charnel of Thermopylae,
Than stagnate in our marsh; or o er the deep
Fly, and one current to the ocean add,
One spirit to the souls our fathers had,
One freeman more, America, to thee!
A Rule for Runaway Horses.
President Beckmin, of the New York
Park Commissioners, .iaid to a Sun reporter:
"One rule for persons behind
runaway horses would be of great value
if they could ouly remember and adopt
it. That is to stay in the vehicle as long
as possible. That, like every other rule,
of course, has its ex ceptions. No sensible
person will st:iy in a vehicle that is
about to plunge over a precipice, or be
dashed to pieces against a wall of rock,
if escape from it is possible, even at
great hazard. But in every case I can
now recall of fatal runaway accidents in
the Park, the persons would have saved
their lives, and probably have escaped
any serious injury, had they refrained
from jumping out. The sad accident by
which Mrs. Pendleton lost her life is a
case in point. In this, as in other instances,
the runaway horses were stopped
within a minute after the fatal le ip was
made, and without even injury to the
1"' A- 1- J ? L ii> AW vwVSVMA nffd AVlO/1
VCD1C1C 10 WU1UU LUU > ncic a^av,uvu.
Above all things, then, I would recommend
to persons behind runaway horses
?don't jump. Unfortunately, however,
people seem to lose their heads in the excitement
of the moment, and appear to
think only of parting company with the
team."
The Bishop's Question.
Modesty is an attribute of true greatness,
and men of real learning are never
pompous. Any freckled and saturnine
school-loy can ask questions that it
would puzzle a ten volume encyclopedia
to answer; and confusion is ant to overtake
the pretentious individual who tries
to impress his hearers with the false idea
that he "knows everything in ail the
books."
A storv is told of a certain bishop who
addressed a large assembly of Sundayschool
children and wound up by asking,
in a very paterual and condescending
way: "And now. is there a-a-n-y little
boy or a-a-n y little girl who would like
to ask me a question?"
After a pause he repeated the question:
'Is there a-a-n-y little boy or a a-n-y litlu
girl who would like to ask me a
ucstion?"
A little shrill voicc called out: '-Please,
ir, why did the angels walk up and
down Jacob's ladder when they had
wings?"
"Oh, ah, yes, I see," said the bishop.
"And now, is there a-a-n-y little boy or
a-a-n-y little girl that would like to answer
little Mary's question ?"?Youth's
Companion.
v- "v . v .<> " -rr.? .
RELIGIOUS READING.
A Prayer.
God of the mountain,
God of the storm,
God of the flowers,
God of the worm,
God of the sun,
God of the beautiful,
God of each one,
Breathe on our spirits thy love and thy healing,
Teach us content with thy fatherly dealing;
Teach us to love thee,
To love one another, brother his brother;
And make us all free,?
Free from the bondage of old superstition,
Free from contempt of our comrades and
neighbor,
Help us each one to fulfil bis true mission;
And teach us 'tis noble, 'tis godlike to labor.
A TTt?ialn? nr a l^nrfln.
Two Scotchmen emigrated in the
early days to California. Each thought
to take with them some memorial of
their beloved country. The one of them
an enthusiastic lover of Scotland, took
with him a thistle, the national emblem.
The other took a small swarm of honey
bees. Years have passed away. The
Pacific coast is on the one hand, cursed
with the Scotch thistle, which the dinners
find it impossible to exterminate on
the other hand, the forests and fields are
fragrant and lauen with the sweetness of
honey, which has been and is still one of
the blessings of the western slope of the
Rocky mountains. Even so docs every
Christian carry with him some thistle
plucked from the old man, or honey
from the new man, with which to ble33
or curse men, according as he makes
choice for God. How precious is our
influence; how we should watch and
guard it.?Words and Weapons.
Tlie Bible a Book for Worker*.
It in one of the characteristics of the
Bible, that it is written as if its object
were 1o get work out of men. It exhorts
every lacuity to action, it senas its
charge thrilling along every fibre. It
worries indolence into action. It sends
a strong, crisp current of oxygen into
shrunken lungs. It shocks spiritual
paralysis into life. Has it never occurred
to you that it is among an activc-minded
and a quick-handed people that the
Bible finds its home? The south, with
its slumberous atmospheres, its lazilymoving
vapors, its case and lassitude,
with its heavy abundance of vegetable
life, does not seem the proper abode of
the Bible. It was written by men who
were born and reared in a cooler air.
From their earliest growth they had
lived in a land of mountains and torrents
and waves; and through their images and
similtudes they carried the stir and action
of nature into the sacred books.
There are entire chapters in the Bible
that are full of winds and waves and the
roarings of tempest. There are passages
in the New Testament that sound like
the splashing of rain and the shriek of
circling winds. Here you find the fragrance
of a lily, and anon a verse which
rises upon the mind as a breeze comes
| to the senses when it has blown through
and taken to itself the fragrance of a
pine. The Bible is therefore, as you see
even in its verbal expression, a book of
action. It is full of stir and rustle and
movement. It is quick, lively and active,?more
like a sanitary commission
than a nunnery, more like a battle-field
than a convent.?Qolden Rule.
Christ has taught us that if our eye be
single, our whole body shall be full of
light. By this beautiful figure he pre?
A- ... ai? u:_i.
I scuwj tu ua luc vuijr u^uwt a^tuuiucuv
of Christian charactcr. By the single
eye we understand singleness of purpose,
a constant, undeviating aim in all things
to please God and to do his will. It is
the same thought expressed by the apostle
when he exhorts us, "whether we eat
or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all
to the glory of God." What higher state
of perfection than this?a state in which
the heart and mind are true to God as
the needle to the pole?can any man attain?
The fullness of blessing, promised
as resulting from this state, shows that it
embraces all we can hope to attain in this
life. Singleness of purpose and fullness
of blessing in the service of God is our
highest attainment and our purest joy on
earth.?Christian Union.
There is a certain class of unbelievers
who are forever telling us that the reason
why they do not become Christians is that
n-ra cn m?nv livnnr-rites in the
church. This is the strangest excuse,
for it is not a reason. Suppose there are
hypocrites in the church, what of it?
They won't be in heaven, but in hell,
when the judgment is concluded. And
if a man refuses Christ, no matter what
viay be his reasonj he will at length be
in hell, and then ne and the hypocrites
will be together. It i;i in effect to say,
"Rather than be a Christian and church
member in which there are some hypocrites,
with whom I must live in outward
fellowship for a few years, I will
reject Christ, lose my own soul and live
in hell with the hypocrites forever."?
Children's ltecord.
Christ is the key to the history of the
world. Not only docs all harmonize with
the mission of Christ; all is subordinated
to it. "When I saw this it was to me as
wonderful and surprising as the light
| which Paul saw on his way to Damascus
? Von Muller.
In Springfield, Mass., on a recent Sunday,
ten clergymen called on their parishioners
for an expression of opinion in
regard to restricting the liquor traffic.
Slips of paper were distributed in the
pews with the words: "The undersigned
desires to sustain the aldermen m the
utmost restriction of license," and received
many hundred signatures.
The Hon. B. Fl. Hill, of Atlanta, Ga., |
;avs that of the 700 criminals he has con- |
victcd, U00 committed their crirncs while
under the influence of whisky.
' ' ' " .. mm
j TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT.
:. v .?
An Adage From the Orient.
At the punch-bowl's brink,
Let the thirsty think
What they say in Japan:
"First the man takes a drink,
Then the drink fcake3 a drink,
Then the drink takes the manP
?K R. Sill, in IndeoendanL
A Temperance IiecCnr?'
The old colored manfe illustration'
would not stand the test of rhetoric, since
it was evidently invented for the occasion,
but if the Pittsburg Chvonidt has
reported the story correctly, tie moral
was of the right sort. Said the-old man;
".Mind me, my bredern an' my sistern,
of a annecote I wonce heerd when I wa3
nigh about a pickanniny. Dar was a
sho't ho'n kalf a ram1 ling ob hisself down
a-shady lane, when wot should he see bat
Mr. Snaik a lying on de ground with a
K!r? rnnL; An Kfa Ifn TTaI#
wr??j ivviv VU uig UCU. KJOTJ O ilil* AJhftHy
'Wat's de matter of you?' Says Mr.
Snaik: 'Please, Mr. Kalf, to- take dia
stone offen myhed.' 'Dunno,' says Mr.
Kalf. "Spec'you'll bite-me;' "Deed,
no,' says Mr. Snaik; 'you take- de stone
off, an' fo' de Lo'd I'll nebber bite you.*
So Mr. Kalf he knockcd' de stooe offen
Mr. Snaik's head. 'Which way you
gwine, Mr. Kalf?' says Mr. Snaik. lDown
dis way,' said Mr. Kalf. So-diey started
off togedder. Bime-by Mr. Soaik say:
'Mr. Kalf, guess I'll bite you.' 'Why,*
said Mr. Kalf, 'you said you wouldn't
bite me if I turned you loose.1 1 know
dul,' says Mr. Snaik, 'but I kaint help it;
it's my nature.' 'Well,' saya Mr. Kalf,
'we'll leave dat queschum to- do fust pusson
we meet.' Well, de fu^t pusson dey
met was a fox. 'Mr. Fox,' says Mr. Kalf,
'I tuk a stone offen Mr. Snaik's hed a
while back, an' he promised he wouldn't
bite me. An' now he wants to bite anyhow.'
'Well,' says Mr. Fox, 'de only
way dat I can arborate the matter is to
see de 'rig'nal persishuns of de parties.'
So dey went back anr Mr. Snaik laid hisself
down, and Mr TTalf nut rie ntnna on
his hed. 'Now,' says Mr. Fox, 'dat am '
de 'rig'nal persishuns ob de 'sputants, am
it?' Dey boff said it was. 'Well,' scd
Mr. Fox, 'Mr. Kalf, you just go 'bout
yo' bis'ness an' Mr. Snaik won't bite you.'
Dessit, my bredern, dessit. You mus*
put de- stone on de hed an' gwine about
yo' bis'ness, an' the snaik won't bite
yon."'
Labor and Liquor.
In Master Workman Powderly'a latest
address to the Knights of Labor throughout
the country, he used the following
noble, and what' we regard, historic
words:
To our drinking members I extend the
hand of kindness. I hate the uses to
which rum has been put, but it is my
duty to reach down ana lift up the men
who have fallen viatims to the use of
liquor. If there is such a man within the
sound of the secretary's voice when this
is read, I ask him to stand erect on the
floor of his assembly, raise his hand to
heaven, and repeat with me these words:
"I am a Knight of Labor. I believe
that every man should be free from the
curse of slavery, whether the slavery appears
in the shape of monopoly, usury or
Intemperance. The firmest link in the
chain of oppression is the one I forge
when I drown manhood and reason in
drink. What if one moment's forgetfulness
or inattention to duty while drunk
brings defeat to the least of labor's plan,
a life-time of attention to duty alone can
repair the loss. I promise never again to
put myself in such a position."
! Mr. Powderly wields a vast influence
over the laboring people of this country.
If he can direct that influence so as to
measurably decrease the amount oi
drunkenness among the working classes
he will earn the right to be called one of
labor's greatest benefactors. Doubtless
laboring men have suffered indignities at
the hands of monopolies; but there has
been no evil which they have struggled
, under which can compare in its malign
effects and devastating influence with the
evil of the alcoholic appetite. In the
general growth of temperance sentiment
that is now observed throughout the
country, it is gratifying to see this new
and powerful adjunct of the labor organization
keeping abreast with the advanced
positions of the day. The cause
of temperance is the cause of labor.
Every step of advancement in this direc- #
tion marks a stage in advance of the
emancipation of the laborer from the
? Ai-.i. C?
vilest and most abject slavery mat ua?
ever enthralled the race.?Lynn {Mass.,)
Union.
Church and Saloon.
There are twelve saloons to every
church and twelve bar-keepers to every
minister. The church opens its doors
two or three days in the week. The saloon
grinds on and on with its mill of
destruction all the days of every week,
all the months of every year. That we
are out-numbered is not all. "We are out
generaled as well. The people of the
rum shop propose in their hearts not only
to mar and neutralize, but to obliterate
and displace the lessons of church and
Sunday-school. They have studied
carefully the tastes, tendencies and preferences
of boys and young men, their
natural and innocent taste for variety,
J 'A" omuoomnnf rvroforonona
ioncilll'83 IWi ttlUUOViUVMWj 1/lViVIVUVWW * ??
young company, and they pander to all
these in ways that take hold upon death.
?Frances E. Willard.
Temperance Notes.
A drunkard is defined to be a man
who tried to be a moderate drinker and
failed.
General Nenl Dow is preparing a book
)n the topic of Prohibition.
Judge Fitzgerald, of the police court
of Cincinnati, in an outspoken letter to
the Saloon-keepers' Association on the
terrible curse of drunkenness, says: "Out
of the 2,0#0 persons whose cases I have
disposed of since the 1st of last January,
over ninety per cent, of their crimes ia
chargeable to intemperance."