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THE PECCARY. A FIERCE LITTLE ANIMAL ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT FEAR. The Biggest Grizzlies and Other Wild Animals Give Him a Wide Berth ?An Instance of Their Vindictive Fury. A New Yorker, who has traveled much in the far West, says in the Sun: "A peccary is a solid chunk of his kind if he ?oma : i_ weigiis puuiius. uui ict or silver-tip, swaggering along iii offensive self-consciousness of his superiority, come in sight ol' one of these little chaps nosing aiound after his dinner among the fallen mast. Instantly the swagger is gone. The bear suddenly acts as if he wishes he wasn't so big. lie tries to draw himself into as contracted a space as possible, and puts all the speed he can into his enormous legs as he turns his tail upon the grunting peccary and seeks a new domain to do his swaggering in. "As a rule the peccary isn't looking for a fight. He doesn't prey on other animals, and a dozen men may ride past a feeding drove of them without their paying any attention unless some one of the party is so unwise as to fire a shot into the drove. If one peccary is hurt the whole drove, and there may be a hundred or more in it, instantly abandons all other business as one peccary, and never does another thing until the injur}- done to one of its number is avenged, if vengeance is possible. A man who has thus brought down upon himself the enmity of a drove of peccaries needs be well mounted if he would escape their fury. They will follow him at an amazing pace for miles, and will not relinquish so long as there is any hope of overtaking the object of their pursuit. If he is overtaken and surrounded, it will not be the work of ten seconds for the peccaries to strew the plain with infinitesimal fragments of himself and his horse. If a man on foot should be foolhardy enough to fire into a drove of peccaries, and one of them should give the peculiar snort that calls for vengeance, it is hardly necessary to say that the smoke of his gun would ; have scarcely cleared away before he i would be separated into bits so small that < one big enough to make the proverbial ] grease spot could not possibly be found. < Experienced plainsmen know this pecu- i liorifrr nf tho on/1 nornr crix'n tV*n 1 """-J C..VI ~V.V* b?.v- ? I animal reason for even the slightest sus- 1 picion that they would disturb its serenity. Like the mountain lion, the grizzly, and J the silver-tip, the wise Western hunter ] or ranchman has instant business else- 1 where when he comes upon peccaries. ; Many mysterious disappearances of tender- 1 foot hunters and tourists in Southern California, New Mexico and Southern Texas can be explained in no more plausible way than by the assumption that ] they had tried their guns on peccaries. But while the peccary is not, as a rule, 1 aggressive or inclined to fight either dumb brute or man, it invariably makes : an exception to the rule in all cases where i the mountain lion or bear family is con- 1 cerned. Peccaries and lions or peccaries and bears can't live in the same woods, and it is always the peccaries that remain. If a bear sees a drove of peccaries before any of them see him he may be able to sneake away and make his escape; but if he is discovered by the peccaries there is just as sure to be one bear less in a very short time, no matter whether he is grizzly, silver-tip, cinnamon, brown, or black, as it is sure that the sun will set to-night. The peccaries surround him in a second almost, and, although he may _ rip and pound the life out of a half dozen of the implacable little beasts before it is accomplished, it is only a question of a very short time when he is torn his entire length by the sharp, curved tusks of the wild hogs, and he falls among the attacking horde, disemboweled and with his flesh hanging in ragacd strips from hip to nozzle. Once down the hated bear is instantly torn limb from limb. His flesh is chopped into fragments and quickly devoured. Every bone is crunched aud ground so tine that a piece two inches long would be a large one to find after a drove of peccaries have dealt with a bear's carcass, to sueli destructive length do they invariably carry their hatred of the bruin family. I was once a witness to an attack on an immense California brown bear by a drove of perhaps fifty peccaries, and that convinced me of the futility of any attempt of a bear to escape from these unrelenting little fiends when they once set out to do him up. "It was one early fall day near the northern boundary line of Lower California. I was taking a stroll about in the chapperal with no particular purpose in view, when I heard a peculiar snort in a hollow that sank rather abruptly off to . my right. I made my way to the edge of the depression, which was but two or three yards away, and parting the bushes looked'down. The hollow was iu a large opening in an amphitheatre of timber. Within three rods of me, and putting forth every nerve and muscle, the biggest brown bear I ever saw was bearing up the gradual slope toward a tree that stood near the top of the declivity, the nearest I and most accessible tree to him. Behind him, and not two jumps away, was a plunging mass of little dumpy animals, seeming to be all fore shoulder, head and 6nout. I had never seen a peccary, but I didn't need to be told that these animals tearing along in the wake of the bear were representatives of that vindictive and unforgiving race. Their bristles stood ercct. and they were so many living pictures of unrestrained fury. I had been made familiar with the bitter feud that i .1 1 A Ah. ? !1- 1 exisrea oetweeu me peccary mujiiY ami the bruin family, and as soon as I saw this race between the bear and the wild pigs, I felt that he had no more chance - of getting up the trunk of that tree than he had of taking wing and soaring out of the hollow. "I hated bears myself, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for that doomed representative of his race. He reached the tree, grasped the trunk, aud had put at least four fer-t between his i^reat rump and the ground before the drove of pcecarics swept up to the tree like a wave. I began to think that my fears for the bear were unfounded, and that at least one member of the bruin family couid go on record at last as having got away from a drove of pursuing peccaries. But I found that I didn't know peccaries yet. That mad rush of humpbacked demons struck the tree, and seemed to rise upward like surf that strikes the base of a rock and throws its broken column of foam spitefully toward the summit of the obstacle. I never could tell just how it was done, but like a flash at least half dozen of those merciless beasts were hangng to the flanks, the sides and the back of the bear, their tusks sunk deep in his j thick hide, while the? tugged and jerked I and threw their weight against his clutch upon the tree. The bear's progress was not only stopped, but his powerful grasp upon the bark was broken, and he fell back to the ground. Instantly every pair of tusks that could find a place to rip and tear on the great body of the bear was slashing furiously. The bear hurled the swarm of peccaries right and left with a sweep of his enormous paws, disembowelling two, and throwing them clear to the bottom of the hill. Another swoop of his paws sent others of the drove flying in all directions, and the bear made another dash for the tree. Again he was pulled back, and again he scattered the peccaries and tried to escape up the tree. "But all in vain. The third time lie was snatchcd to tlic ground, ins coat was red with blood from head to tail, and his thick hide was torn asunder in a dozen places, showing great red patches of lacerated flesh, from which the blood spurted in jets, or like water dripping from the caves during a heavy storm. The peccarics threw themselves upon him wherever there was a place to inflict a wound, until the bear was completely hidden by the furious little beasts. I saw the plunging, tearing mass rise up four feet from the ground twice after the bear was pulled down the last time, showing that bruin was struggling to cast of! the savage horde. Then the bear's struggles were over. For a minute or two the drove tore, and crunched, and tossed about on the spot where the bear had last been thrown, and I could hear the snapping of bones and the sickening sound of the flesh as it was ripped and chopped to pieces by the teeth and tusks of the peccarics. Then the drove went back into the hollow, grunting in a contented way, and paying no attention to the five of their number that had died in the combat. But there was not a vestige left of the immense bear that less than ten minutes before had loomed up before me in such enormous proportions. "When I went back to my companions I related to them the capture and frightful fate of the bear, and told them how nearly the bear had succeeded in escaping from the peccaries up the tree. " 'You think he'd have escaped, do pu!' said an old plainsman. 'Well, let me tell you that if the bear had climbed ilear to the top of the tree he wouldn't! have escaped. He would only have gained a respite. Peccarics never let up 5n an enemy they have gone out to lay !/"* ??? nc- ]/-? ?>rr o.c + Annmr ic in fclfrhfc. Tf LU.?, M IVU5 HO O ? that boar had got up the tree the peccaries svould would simply have sat down at the foot of the tree and waited. No matter liow long they might have had to stay there?a week, a month, three months, a rear?there they would have stayed until, that bear either came down or fell down,; ind they had scattered him to the winds.] Peccaries never give up. When they have set their death watrh on a bear, or a hunter, or a mountain lion, or whatever it may be, a strong guard is always left to see that the victim does not escape." While some are on guard others are off feeding, and their reliefs are regular and comtant. If that bear had got into the tree chere would have been 110 minute of the day or night that he could not have looked down upon a group of peccaries sitting around the tree, each with his eyes fixed immovably upon him. If the bear could possibly have fastened himself in the tree he might starve to death, with the satisfaction of knowing that his carcass would not fall to the ground to be torn into nothing by the tireless wretches below; but as the bear could have had no way to secure himself a fixed tenant in the tree it would have been only a ques/v?.ATrn rt-oolr frnm LiUU U1 liiiiv; u wun iwu. hunger, he must have lost his grip 011 the branches and rewarded the patience of the peccaries by tumbling among them to be supinely annihilated, instead of getting some little satisfaction, as he did, out of the affair by making a few of his enemies bite the dust.' " t Dakota's Indian Population. Dakota's Indian population is much larger than that of any other State or Territory, except that inhabited by the Five Nations, and practically the whole of it is in South Dakota. Here,, upon a domain of the richest and most productive land on earth, 24,000,000 acres in area, a territory nearly as great as the State of New York, quite as great as Indiana, and five times greater than Massachusettes, lives a body of 23,000 Indians who, with immeasurable resources at their command, lead an utterly idle and shiftless life, and cost the Government $1,720,000 a year for their food and clothing. Ouc-halt of the Sioux arc in a certain degree civilized, but as many as 12,000 of them live far within thenreservation, where they lead as wild a life as ever, and few of them come personally to the agencies. Their animosity against'the whites is held in check only because they have learned the lesson of an outbreak, and know a hostile attempt will end in their punishment. But they are bitter and savage, and a source of constant vexation to the agents, for their influence over the more enlightened Indians continues to be strong, and is always exerted agaiust everything that tends to improve them.?JVew York Tribune. Tall Junketing in Cliina. The Brother of the Sua aud Moon, known to infidel foreigners as the Emperor of China, has just been married to a youthful Queen possessed of tiny feet and almond eves, and the Celestial Kingdom is standing on its him! legs in rejoicings over the event. It will surprise intending bridegrooms in this country to learn that on the wedding-day the Emperor presented his mother-in-law and her husband with $1,500,000 in gold, and silks and satins to the amount of ?750,000, and Congress cannot too soon pass a law prohibiting the introduction of this custom into the United States. The satins used for the young bride to walk upon cost $750,000, and $150,000 was expended in treating the Aldermen of the City of Pekiu to wines and cigars. It was "a big thing'' all around.?Xctc York Mercury. A Justice's Fine Physique. Justice Horace Gray, of the Supreme Court, always insists upon doing his own marketing. Justice Gray, by the way, is an unusually conspicuous figure in "Washington wherever he goes on account of his great height. He must be at least six feet four inches tall, and many a smile has been caused at receptions where he has met men of small stature. The Justice is a keen expert on all matters pertaining to the market, especially in the selection of game. It is said at the stalls there that he waits before purchasing a bird until the feathers have begun tc drop out and fall upon the floor. Then it is ripe and goes into his basket at anj price.?Philadelphia Times. <, -s ./-.U -V*' WORDS OP WISDOM. Nothing so immutable as trutli. Any kind of courage is desirable. A great, strong heart is never overcome. Hypocrisy and knavery arc Siamese twins. Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy. Let your anger set with the sun, but never rise with it. Many a man who tries to ride a hobby gets thrown finally. Some people are so constituted that they would kick at a football match. Nothing is so indicative of deepest culture as a tender consideration of the ignorant. No books are so legible as the lives of meu; no characters so plain as their moral conduct. The grandest and strongest natures are ever the calmest. Restlessness is a symbol of weakness not yet outgrown. There is no beautifier of complexiorc or form of behavior like the wish to Asxr- on/1 Tlftf nmiltlfl 115. I owuv,. 2 Perhaps tlie secret regrets of life are the weightiest, and chiefly on this account?that they are incommunicable. There may be times when silence is gold, and speech silver; but there are times also when silence is death and speech life. A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury, for he has it then I in his power to make himself superior to j the other by forgiving it. If you want to have a man for your J friend, never get the ill-will of his wife, j Public opinion is made up of the average i prejudices of womankind. The condition of the world would be improved, if men were to think less of the dishonor of submitting to -wrong and more of the dishonor of doing it. There are degrees of contentment; but it will be found that the most contented are those who are engaged in useful work of some kind, down into which thought flows, and that the least contented arc those who are idle. Incubation in Egypt. The Hon. John Cardwell.late editor of the Texas Farm and Ranch, and United States Consul at Cairo,Egypt, contributes ( the following points in relation to incubators in Egypt, which will be interest- j iag: , No moisture is used in incubators during the time of incubation. Its use is | considered destructive of egg vitality. The first object is to drive out all mois- , ture and then to sedulously keep it 1 out. Temperature in the incuberators is i kept two or three degrees above blood i heat, hardly ever above 100 and never be- J yond 101. The attandant within is himself as reliable as mercury. The eggs are i turned four or five times daily, beginning i * +Vio umrc nvt> til nrnnrrll 1 v ^ ilULU U1W WliiW IU.U VpiyU UkV ??v??-J?.J J warmed and continuing until the chicks j begin to break the shells. The infertile < eggs are detected while turning the ' masses during the first three days. When the chicks are out of the shells i they remain in the ovens to be strengthened by their warmth. Wet and cracked J grain is scattered on the floors for then: j as soon as they can walk. They begin l to pick at it and soon eat well. Water is also placed for them as soon as they are ] strong. The chicks, when taken away, | arc reared by hand. A woman sometimes I i looks after a brood of 120 or 20U or more, j I They soon learn to follow her into the , field. I have seen them thus working for i a living. They know the woman's call and abide it. To give the clucks to hens ( would destroy the economics of the t Egyptian system. Some Egyptian women < are worth but little more than hens, j They, too, keep away the kites and look s after the health of the broods. There are s no artificial brooders for the young chicks. 1 The incubatory keeps them warm,and the sl women, when they are taken away,attend 3 to their comfort in their dwellings, such t as they are. The houses of the fellahs are J dwelling-houses for people, cattle, sheep, 3 goats, camels, donkeys and fowls; and s brutes and fowls are more carefully f watched over than the children. Disease is almost unknown. The dry- r ness of the climate is the cause of almost f universal health among fowls?at least, that is my opinion. Mites and lice are, I , i think, produced mostly by fowls while e I sitting; and as fowls arc rarely permitted 1 to perform the process of incubation, this ' is a decided exemption in this respect. \ The growing chicks are carefully s watched, and if parasites appear, the j whole brood may be seen minus all ^ feathers, except those of head, wings and j tail. I have seen the proccss of denuding being performed. Each chick is taken ( and absolutely picked alive. \ mm ( Do? Portraits. It is, perhaps, not generally known i that more money can be made nowadays j by painting the portraits of dogs than by ( limning the features of the human ani- 1 mal. The extent to which dog portrait- j ure is being carried is almost incredible, ( and is a remarkable sign of the times. | There is one well-known painter, whom * the public would no more suspect of dog ' painting than they would of designing { pictorial advertisements for somebody's I soap, who makes a large income in this way. Of course there is nothing dis- ^ creditable about it, but it shows that a E curious fancy has taken hold of the dog- i owning public. Many a man who would J not dream of having his own portrait or , that of any of his children painted.would i pay readily and handsomely for a good < portrait of his favorite uog. i nc natural | ; result is that the demand creates c sup- ( ply,'and the number of artists who de- < vote themselves to this branch of art is ; very large.?London Life. . Tesnvins Clad in a 3Iantle of SnowNaples, Italy, and the country round j ] about have been treated to a phenomenal ( meteorological experience. A violent j storm of wind, sleet and suow came j from the north. Vesuvius was completely | wrapped in a mantle of white. The! ! olive and orange orchards of Sorrento were badly damaged. Many olive trees were uprooted or broken off, while the fruit of the trees was blown to the ground in immense quantities. Had the I storm come two weeks later the olive crop of the season would have been entirely destroyed, for the trees would then hnve been in bloom.?Sun Francisco Chronicle. I "Why do you use paint?" asked a violinist of his daughter. "For the same i reason that you resin, papa." "How's that?" "Why to helpme draw my beau.' ! . \ i At:: : ' . '. REV. DR. TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUNDAY SERMON. Subject: "Other Days Dived Orer." Text: "Thou shall remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee.v? Deuteronomy viii., 2. Before entering on my subject I wisb to say that some newspaper correspondents, referring to a reecnt sermon in which I welcomed foreign nationalities to this country, ' have said that I advocated as a desirable thing the intermarriage of the white and black races. I never said so, I never thought so, and any one who so misrepresents that sermon is either a villain or a fool, perhaps both. But to open this morning's subject I have to say God in the text advises the people tc look back upon their past history. It will do us all good to rehearse the scents between this May morning and our cradle, whether it was rocked in country or in town. A few days ago, with my sister and brother. I visited the place of my boyhood. It was one of the most emotional and absorbing days of my life. There stauds the old house, and as I went through the rooms I said: "I could .iiiiu. ujj ??tij uuic >?ihi 111 j cjw suui, although I have not been here in forty years." There was the sitting room where a largo family group ever}' evening gathered, the most of them now in a better world. There was the old barn where we hunted for Easter eggs, and the place where the horses stood. There is where the orchard was, only three or four trees now left of all the grove that once bore apples, and such apples too. There is the brook down which wo rode to the watering of the horses b;ireback, and with a rope halter. "We also visited the cemetery where many of our hind red are waiting for the resurrection, the old people side by side, after a journey together of sixty years, only about three years between the time of their going. There also sleep the dear old neighbors who used to tie tneir horses under the shed of the country meeting house and sit at the end .of the pew, singing "Duke Street," and "Balerma," and "Antioch." Oh, they were a glorious race of men and women who did their work well, raised a splendid lot of boys and girls, and are now as to their bodies in silent neighborhood on earth, but as to their souls in jubilant neighborhood before the t.hrone of God. I feel that my journey and visit last week did me good and it would do you all good, if not in person then in thought, to rovisit the scenes of boyhood or girlhood. "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee." Youth is apt too much to spend all its time in looking forward. Old age is apt too much to spend all its time in looking backward. People in mid-life and on the apex iook both ways. It would bo well for us, I think, however, to spend more time in reminiscence. By the constitution of our nature we spend most of the time looking forward, and the vast majority of this audience live not so much in the present as in the future. I find that you mean to make a reputation, you mean to establish yourself, and the advantages! that you expect to achieve absorb a great deal of your time. But I see no harm in this if it does not make you discontented with the present or disqualify you for existing duties. It is a useful thing sometimes to look back, and to see the dangers we have escaped, and to see the sorrows wo have suffered, and the trials and wanderings of our earthly pilgrimage, and to sum up our enjoyments. I mean this morning, so far as God may help me, to stir up your memory of the past, so that in the review you may be encouraged, and liumbled, and urged to pray. There is a chapel in Florence with a fresco by Guido. It was covered up with two inches of stucco until our American and European artists went there, and after long toil removed the covering and retraced the fresco. And I am aware that the memory if the cast, with manv of vou. is all covered up with ten thousand obliterations, and I propose this morning, so far as the Lord nay help me, to takeaway the covering, that the old picture may shine out again. I want to bind in one sheaf all your past Advantages, and I wont to bind in another sheaf all your past adversities. It is a precious larvest, and I must be cautious how I swing the scythe. Among the greatest advantages of your last Jife was an early home and its surroundugs. The bad men of tho da}', or the most part, dip their heated jassions out of tho boiling spring of j m unhappy home. "\Vc are not surprised to j ind that Byron's heart was a concentration >f sin, when we hear his mother was abanloned, and that she made sport of his intimity, and often called him "the lame irat." He who has vicious parents has to ight every inch of his way if he would mainuin his integrity, and at last reach the home >1' the good in heaven. Perhaps your early home was in the city, [t may have been in the days when Canal itreet, New York, was far up town and tho ;its of this present church was an excursion uto the country. That old houso in the city nay have been demolished or changed into tores, and it seemed liko sacrilege tc -ou, for there was more meaning in hat plain house, in that small house, han there is in a granite mansion or a tur eted cathedral. Looking back this morning ,rou see it as though it were yesterday?the itting room, where the loved ones sat by the >lain lamplight, the mother at the evening tand, the brothers aud sisters, perhaps long igo gathered into the skies, then plotting nischief on the floor or under the table, your ather with a firm voice commanding a silence hat lasted half a minute. Oh t.liwpva crnrirl rlnvs! Tf villi li.i row foot hurt, your mother always Lad a ioothing salve to heal it. If you were tvronged in the street, your father was ilways ready to protect you. The year was me round of frolic and mirth. Your greatest rouble was like an April shower, more sunshine than shower. The heart had not been ansacked by troubles, nor had sickness jroken it, and no lamb had a warmer sheeptold than the home in which your childhood lestled. Perhaps you were brought up in the :ountrv. You stand now to-day in memory luder the old tree. You clubbed it for 'ruit that wns not quite ripe because you :ouldu't wait any longer. You bear the jrook rumbling along over the pebbles. Sou step again into the furrow where j'our lather in his shirt sleeves shouted to the lazy )xen. You frighten the swallows from :he rdfters of the bani, and take just me egg, and silence your conscience jy saying they won't miss it. You ake a drink again out of the very bucket bat the old well fetched up. You go for tlie :ows at night, and find them wngging their leads through the bars. Of times in the dusty incl busy streets you wish you were homo igain on that cool grass, or in tho rag car)cted hall of tho farmhouse, through which hero was tho broath of now mown hay or the >losRom of buckwheat. You may liavo in your windows now bcau:iful plants and flowers brought from across ;he seas, but not 0110 of them stirs in your >oul so much charm and memory as tho old vy and tho yellow sunflower that s tood scu;inel along tho garden wall, and the forgetne-nots pln3'ing hide-and-seek mid tho long p-acs. The father, who used to corr o in suntiurnt from the fields and sit domi on the ioorsill and wipe the sweat from his brow, may have gone to his everlasting rest. Fhe mother, who used- to sit at the :loor a little bent over, cap and spectacles on. her face mellowing with the vicssitudes of many years, may have put down her gray head 011 the pillow 111 the valley, but forget that home you never will. Have you thanked Gud for it? Have you rehearsed all these [ blessed reminiscences? Oh, thank God for a Christian father; thank God lor a Christian mother; thank God for an early Christian i rcltar at which yon were taught to kneel; thank God for an early Christian home. I brine: to mind another passage in the history of your life. The day came when you set up your own household. The days passed along- in quiet blessedness. You twain sat at rh2 table morning and night and talked over your plans for the future. The most insignicant a .'lair in your life became the subject of mutual consultation and advisement. You were so happy you felt you never could be any happier. One day a dark cloud hovered over your dwelling and it got darker and darker, but out of that cloud the shining messenger of God descended to i'.ieajtate an immortal spirit. Two little feit started on an eternal journey, and you were to lead them?a gem to flash in heaven's coronet, aud you to polish it; eternal ages of light and darkness watching the starting out j Dt a newly created creature. You rejoiced and you trembled at the re- | sponsibility that in your possession an immortal treasure v;as placed. iTou prayed and rejoiced, and wept and wondered, and prayed and rejoiced and wept and wondered; you were earnest in supplication that you 1 might load it through life into tho kingdom of God. Thoro was a tremor in your earnestness, There was o double interest abiv 2 that home, There was an ndditional intofOst why you should stay thoro and be faitiiful, and whon in a fow months your houso was filled with tho music of the child's laughter, you were struck through with tho fact that you bad a stupendous mission. Have you kept that vow? Have you neglected any of these duties? Is your home as much to you as it used to be? Have those anticipations been gratified? God help you to-day in your solemn reminiscenco, and lot His mercy fall upon your soul if your kindness has been ill requited. God have mercy on the parent on tho wrinkles of whoso faco is written tho story of a child's sin. God have mercy on the mother who, in addition to her other pnngs, has the pangs of a child's iniquity. Oh, there are many, many sad sounds in this sad world, but tho saddest sound that is over heard is the breaking of a mother's heart. Are there any here who remember that in that home they were unfaithful? Are there those who wandered off from that early home, and left the mother to die with a broken heart? Oh, I I stir that reminiscence to-day. I find another point in your life history. You found one day you were in tho wrong road; you couldn't sleep at night; there was just one word that seemed to sob through your banking-house, or through your office, or through your shop, or your bed-room, and that word was ' 'Eternity." You said: 4 'I am not ready for it. 0 God, have mercy." Tho Lord heard. Peace came to your heart. In the breath of the hill and the waterfall's dash you heard the voice of God's love; tho clouds and the trees hailed you with gladness; you came into the house of God. You remember how your hand trembled as jrou took up the cup of the Communion. You remember the old minister who consecrated it, and you remember the church officials who carried it through the aisle; you ro member the old people who at the close of the service took ]'our hand in theirs in congratulating sympathy, as much as to say: "Welcome home, you lost prodigal;" and though those hands are all withered away, that Communion Sabbath is resurrected this morning; it is resurrected with all its prayers, and songs, and tears, and sermons, and transfiguration. Have you kept thoso vows? Have you been a >ackslider? God help you. This day kneel at the foot of mercy and start again for heaven. Start to-day as you started then. I rouse your soiU by that reminiscence. But I must not spend any more of my time in going over the advantages of your life. I just put them all in one great "shear, and I tvrap them up in your memory with one loud Harvest song, such as the reapers sing. Praise the Lord, ye blood bought immortals of earth! Praise the Lord, yo crowned spirits of heaven! But some of you have not always had a smooth life. Some of you aro now in tho shadow. Others had their troubles years ago, you aro a mere wreck of what you once were. I must gathor un the sorrows of your past life; but how shall I do it? You say that is impossible, as you havo had so many troubles aud advorsities. Then I will just take two, tho first trouble and the last trouble. As when you arc walking along tho street, and there has been music in tho distance, you unconsciously fiud yourself keeping step to tho music, so when you started life your very life was a musical timebeat. Tho air was full of joy and hilarity; with tho bright clear oar you jnndo tho boat skip; you went on, and life grow brighter until nftor a while suddenly a voice from heaven said: "Halt!" and auick as the sunshino you halted: you grew pale, you confronted your first sorrow. You had no idea that the flush on your child's chcek was an unhealthy flush. You said it can't be anything serious. Death in slippered feet walked round about the cradle. You did not hear the tread; but after a whilo the truth flashed on you. You walked tho floor. Oh, if you could, with your strong, stout hand, have wrenched that child from the destroyer. You went to vour room and you said: "God, save ray child! God, save my child." The world seemed going out in darkness. You said: "I can't bear it; I can't bear it." You felt as if you could not put the long lashes over the bright eyes, never to see them again sparkle. Ob, if you could have taken that little one in your arms and with it leaped the grave, how gladly you would, havo done it! Oh, if you could let your property go, your houses go, your land and your storehouse go, how gladly you would have allowed them to depart if you could only have kept that one treasure! But one day there arose from the heavens a chill blast that swept over the bedroom, and instantly all the light went out, and there was darkness?thick, murk}*, impenetrable, shuddering darkness. " But God didn't leave you there. Mercy spoke. As you took up the cup and 'was rbout to put it to your lips, God said: "Let it pass," and forthwith, as by the hand of angels, another cup was put into your hands; it vas the cup of God's consolation. And as you havo sometimes lifted the head of a wounded soldier, and poured wine into his lips, so God put His left arm under your head, and with His right hand He poured into your lips the wine of His comfort and His consolation, and you looked at the empty cradle and looked at your broken heart, and you looked at the Lord's chastisement, and you said: "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight." Ah, it was your first trouble. How did you get over it? "God comforted you. You have been a better man ever since. You have been a better woman ever since. In the jar of the closing gate of the sepulcher you neard the clanging of the opening gate of heaven, and you felt an irresistible drawing heavenward. You have been purer of mind ever since that night when the little one for the last time put its arms arouudyour neck and said: Goodnight, papa; good-night, mamma. Meet me n lieaven." .But 1 must como on down to your latest sorrow. 'What was it? Perhaps it was your own sickness, The child's tread on the stair, or the tick of the watch on the stand disturbed you. Through tho long weary days you counted the figures in tho carpet or the flowers in the wall paper. Oh, the weariness, tho exhaustion! Oh, tho burning pangs I Would God it woro morning, would God it were night, were your frequent crv. But you are better, or perhaps oven well. Have you thanked that Clod to-day you can como out in the fresh air; that you are in this place to hoar God's name, and to sing God's praise, and implore God's help, and to ask Gou's forgiveness? Bless the Lord who healoth all our diseases, and rodeemeth our lives from destruction. Perhaps your last sorrow was a financial embarrassment. I congratulate some of you on your lucrative profession or occupation, on ornate apparel, on a commodious residenco?everything you put your hands to seems to turn to gold. But there are others of you who are like the ship on which Paul sailed, where two seas met, and you are broken by the violence of the waves. By an unadvised indorsement, or by a conjunction of unforeseen evonts, or by fire, or storm ?r a senseless panic, you havo been flung headlong, and where you once dispensed great charities, now you have hard work to make ttie two ends meet. Have 3'ou forgotten to thank God for your days of prosperity, and that through your trials some of you have made investments which will continue after the last bank of this world has exploded, and the silver and gold are molten in the fires of a burning world? Havo you, amid ail your loises and discouragements, forgot that there was bread on tout tabic this morning, and that there shall bo a shelter for your head from the swjrcn, ami mere is ;ur iur .your blood for your heart, mid light lor your eye, and a glad and glorious aud triumphant religion for your soul; Perhaps your last trouble was a bereavcment. That heart which in childhood was your refuge, the parental heart, and which has been a source of the quickest sympathy ever since, has suddenly become silent forever, and now sometimes, whenever in sudden annoyance and without deliberation you say "I will go and tell mother." the thought flashes on you: "I have no mother;" or tin; father,* with voice less tender, bur as stanch and earnest aud loving as over, watchful of all your ways, exultant over your success without saying much, although the old people do tail: it over by themselves, his trembling hand 011 that staif which you now keen as a family relic, his memory embalmed "in grateful hearts, is taken away forever. Or, there was your companion in life, sharer of your joys and sorrows, taken, leaving the heart an old ruin, where the chill winds blow over a wide wilderness of desolation, the sauds of the desert driving across the place which ouce bloomed like the garden of God. And Abraham mourn;, for Sarah at the cave of Machpelah. Going along your path in life, suddenly, right before you was an open grave. People looked down and they saw it was only a few feet deep and a few feet wide, but to you it was a cavern down which went all your hopes and all your expectations. But cheer up in tho name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Comforter. He is not going to *' ? . /; : . 4 ' ? ....... forsake you. Did the Lord take that child out of your arms? "Why, He isgoing to shelter it better than you could. He is going to atf if m a itnlvA 3 UAAUjr AUAAA ? "U1W A WW, U11U VVltU JXUU1 branch it will be all ready to greet you at your coming home. Blessed the broken heart that Jesus heals. Blessed the importunate cry that Jesus compassionates. Blessed the weeping eye from which the soft hand of Jesus wipes away the tear. I was sailing down the St. John River, Canada, which is the Rhine and the Hudson commingled in one scene of beauty and grandeur, " and while I was on the deck of the steamer a gentleman pointed out to me the places of interest, and he said: "Ail this is interval land, and it is the richest land in all the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia." "What," said I, "do you mean by interval land?" ""Well," he said, "this land is subOAtjq 410AI03 jo spoog etn qatqAv uaAO pi03 aqj ^nq 'Ajuadsojd ^sajtfajS eqi jo ouaos aq} si pijo'av siqj jo sjqSiaq aqi ion si ;i puu qojnqo oq; jo sjqSiaq oq^ rjon si ,, 'iqSnoqj ii?uw)sin j pay u-p3db3.i .ioao SBAi ?uqi ^S3Ajuq ^sapaDjS eq; si DJ3q; put? 'dn sSouds ^saAJtrq oqi 8U03 axe sjajuji oq^ uoqii ptre tysodop qou u s3atra[ em ptro 'jojtjav aqj'qiui paaop -j9ao oju stmqcl esau^ [[o ptro 'tLuop oraoo sjeqsaaj Sauastjuai e'qq. jo 5-rccI v jpj pa3.iara gone, the soul over which the freshets of tribulation have torn their way, that yields the greatest fruits of righteousness, and the largest harvest for time, and the richest harvest for eternity." Bless God that your soul is interval land. But these reminiscences reach only to this morning. There will yet be one more point of tremendous reminiscence, and that is the last hour of life, when wo have to look over all our past existence. What a moment that will be! I placo Napoleon's dying reminiscence on St. Helena Wside Mrs. Judson's dying reminiscence in the harbor of St. Helena, the same island, twenty years after. Napoleon's dying reminiscence was one of delirium "Head of the army." Mrs. Judson's dying reminiscence, as she came home from hei missionary toil and her life of self-sacrifice for God, dying in the cabin of the ship in th< harbor of St. Helena, was: '"I always did love the Lord Jesus Christ." And then, the historian says, she fell into a sound sleep foi an hour, and woke amid the songs of angels I place the dying reminiscence of Augustus Coesar against the dying reminiscence of the Apostle Paul. The dying reminiscence of Augustus Caesar was, addressing his attendants: "Have I nlnved mv Dart well on the stage of life ?" an of they answered him in the affirmative, and ho said: "Why, then, don'1 you applaud me J" The dying reminiscence oi Paul the Apostle was: "I have fought e good fight, I have kept tho faith; henceforth tnere is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give mo in that day, and not to me only, but to all them that love Hit appearing." Augustus Caesar died amic pomp and great surroundings. Paul utterec Lis dying reminiscence looking up througt the wall of a dungeon. God grant that oui last hour may be the closing of a useful life, and the opening of a glorious eternity. TEMPEKMCE. WEBS AND FLIES. Whisky spiders great and greedy, Weave their webs from sea to sea; They grow fat and men grow needy, Shall our robbers rulers be? "Sweep the webs away!" the nation In its wrath and wisdom cries; Say the fools, with hesitation: "No! but educate the flies!" We do both, twin wings, who sunder, Let the schools fill out their sphere; Let the Church sound seven thunders, But the webs must disappear. Up! the Webs are full of slaughter, Sweep away the spider's lair; Uu! wile, husband, son or daughter, Make the vexed earth clean and fair. ?Rev. Joseph Cook, TUB WORK OF A CIDER DRUXKARD. The horrible parricide in Westfleld, Mass., the other day, which was followed by the suicide of the murderer, was the work of a cider drunkard. The crime was one of the most brutal on record, as the father had shown unremitting kindness to the son, ai>d the only differences between them grew out of the tatter's dissolute habits. It is a curious fact that the hard-cider drunkard is peculiarly morose, stubborn and yixy dictive.?New York Tribune. A MISTAKE. The belief in the facility of that "control" is the principal mistake of the compromise sonhists. A man of strong: will cower, who bas contracted the stimuTant habit late in life, may manage to keep his appetite in check, under favorable circumstances, though any unforeseen vexation may tempt him to "drown his misery" in the Lethe of his tipple; and, at all events, his fight against the power of such temptations will make his life a ceaseless pull against the stream of perverted instincts. Younger and more emotional persons, on the other hand, will sooner or later surrender themselves to the current of that stream Their power of resistance decreases as the insidious appetite grows, and before long the "goc-d familiar spirit" of their "harmless stimulant" assumes the sway of a relentless despot,?Voice. LIFE INSURANCE AND LAGER-EEER. Rev. Father Cleary, of Wisconsin, President of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, in an address in Philadelphia said: "Now the statement I am about to make will be new to a great many in this large audience. I come from the State of Wisconsin. I live in the suburbs of the great city of Milwaukee, where the best lager-beer is brewed that is brewed in America. They tell us that this lager-bcer is especially "ood for a man's health, that it conduces to longevity, and is a health-giving and inspiriting liquid. Now, the Northwestern Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, that was established in Milwaukee about thirty years ago, all of whose directors are, I think, wealthy men in the city of Milwaukee, and in the State of Wisconsin, having lived neighbors to this large beer business, they have watched its growth and its influence ou the consumers: and what conclusion has the Northwestern Life Insurance Company come to? Knowing ail about the healthfulness of lager-beer, it has come tc the conclusion that, for the protection of its own business, it can no longer ^rant a life insurance policy to a lager-beer brewer, to hii clerk, to his book-keeper, or to anv man employed In a lager-beer brewery. tVhy? Be cause they say: Our statistics show that oui business has "been injured by the shortened lives of men who drink lager-beer. In m} opinion there is no stronger argument thai this against indulging in lager-beer oranj alcoholic stimulant. If the life insurance companies, familiar with this subject, have come to this conclusion, what must not sensible men conclude who have regard foi strength and length of days''" TEMPERANCE NEWS AND NOTES. In New Zealand no married woman can legully keep a saloon. The natives of Damascus call drunken men victims of ''The English Disease." An Eastern whiskj trust has been tormea, to co-operate with tha Western trust to force up prices. Tiic New York r>'onccr says that 40.000 tickets at ?each were soid for the annual reception of the Wine. Liquor anil Beer Dealers' Association of New York city. Of all our industrial classes.says Neal Dow, one man in twenty i-i unfitted by the liquor traffic for steady and continuous work; uutitt'.'d, indeed, for an;,* work at all. Twenty-five State Legislatures, besides the National Government, nave made scientific temperance a compulsory school study in their respective Stat, s and Territories. "Walter Thomas Mills says: Tlic closing of the Civil War turned out of employment mora men, a dozen to one,than will the destruction of the saloon. The saloon is an enterprise devoted to the destruction of life and property and like the Civil War, it will bean occasion for rejoicing when its devastations shall cease, 110 matter how many men should lose a place in its work of ruin. A temperance speaker in Evanstou recently said that one sin-cursed town in Illinois has :fl>00 inhabitants. >(?> children of school age, thirty saloons, and not one Protestant or Catholic church spire. The forces of evil in this town pay ?r}o,(!U0 a year for the privilege of ruining souls while the Christian church sends one young man'to preach the Gospel once a week paying only his car fare. More than two-thirds of the present population of the United States are now under temperance education laws. Accepting the admitted estimate that the entire present school population of this country is 18,000,000, twotlnrds would be 12,000,000 children for whom law has provided the education in favor of total abstinence that results from learning the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics, 4 \ RELIGIOUS READING. > ? m THE LIVING FOUNTAIN. I hear the.tinkling camel's bell Beneath the shade of Ebal's mount, , And man and beast at Jacob's well, Bow down to taste the sacred fount. Samaria's daughter too doth share The draught that earthly tbirst can queQ; But who is this that meets ner there? "What voice is that at Jacob's well? "Ho! ask of me, and I will give, From my own life, thv life's supply; I am the fount! drink, drink and live; No more to thirst, 110 more to die." Strange, mystic vrords, but words of heaven. And they who drink today, as then, To them shall inward life ba given: Their souls shall never thirst again! ?Prof. T. C. Upham. TRUE TO GOD. Koror lntrnr rnn r*rinr?ir?lo<i thtx trnrl/f si standard. Never let sin, however popular it may be, havo any sanction or countenance from you, even by a smile. The manly confession of Christ., w hen His cause is unpopular, is made by Himself the condition or His confessing us before m >n. If people find out that we are earnestly religious, as they soon will if the light is shining, lot us make them heartily welcome to the intelligence. And then again, in order that the lights may shine witrout obstruction, we must be simple, and study simplicity. This is by no means so easy as it at first sight appears; for in this highly artificial and pretention* age all' society is overlaid with numerous affectations. Detest affectation as the contrary of truth, and as hvpocrisy on a small scale, and allow yourselves to be seen freely by those around you in tru > colore. There is an affectation of inlifference to all things, and a lack < f sensibility* whic'i is beaming very prevalent in th s age, which is the sworn foe to simplicity of charact. r. The ' poisons who lab r under this moral disorder pretend to have lost their freshness of interest in everything; for them, as they would have it believ d, there is no "surpri-e and no enthusiasm. As Chris- . v tian--, we must eschew untruth in every form; we must labor to seem just what we are, neither better nor worse. To bs true to .7? Gotland tjthe thought of 'ispresence all day long, and to let self occupy as little as possible of our thoughts; to caro much for His approval und comi aratively little for the ; impression we are making upon others; to ; feed the inward light with oil, and then fr e'y to let it s- ine?this is the great secret of edification. Slay He indoctrinate us into it, and di pose and enahle us to illustrate it in our practice.?Dr. Ooulburn. . vl THE NOBLEMAN'S GREATEST COMPLIMENT. ' ^ One wet, foggy, muddy day a little girl was standing on one side of a street in London waiting for an opportunity tj cross over. Those who have seen London streets on such ' a day, with their wot and mud, and have watched the rush of cabs, hansoms, omnibuses, and carriages, will not wonder that a little girl should be afraid to try to make her way through such a Babel as that. So she walked up and down, and looked into the faces of those who passed by. Some looked careless, some harsh, some were in haste; and she did not find the one she sought until at length an aged man, rather tall and spare and of grave yet kindly aspect, came walking down the street Looking in his face, she seemed to see in him the one for whom she had been waiting, and she went up to him and whispered timidly: * ?v "Please, sir, will you help me over?' me oici man saw ioe iiiaio gin sunny across tbe street; a d when he afterward / !.'>& told tli? story, he sad: "That little girl's * trust is the greatest compliment I ever had in my life." That man was Lord Shaftesbury. He received honors at the hands of a mighty na- .. v-C' tion; he was complimented with the freedom of the greatest city on the globe; he received the honors confeiTed by rovalty; but toe greatest compliment he ever liad in his life ^ was when that little unknown girl singled him out of the jostling cr . wd of a London street, and dared to trust him, stranger though he was, to protect and assist her. Men carry something of their character written in their fac.?s. Day by day i he acts of life chisel their impress on tue human countenance; and the record there kept re? veals the character of the man, and the histoiy of his life and deeds. If worldliness, aad selfishness, and sin, are written there, tiie keen eyes of childhood will not fail to find the record; while if there beams in thai countenance the grace aud peace of Christ, and the gentleness and kindness of the Lord, even the children will be attracted by such a face.?TAc Christian. . -&S TIIE TOREK WOMEN'S PRAYER-MEETING. In the town of Woodstock, Conn., inJTSO, there was not a Christian church or institution. The inhabitants numbered about 300, scattered over a farming territory. In some way, three women found out that they professed to be Christ ans and members of the same church?the Congregational church. One woman, advanced in years, lived in the centre of the town, a woman in middle life lived three miles away, and i younger woman lived three miles th? oth?r way. They bad moved into tbc town at different times, > and from different places, but i>' sviie way got acquainted, and each found out that the others were Christians. The old lady s--*d to herself: "I have not long to li ?e. Hav-* T done my whole duty? My hus* and and family know I have been fa!thful,but aro t'-.cra uj; others whom I mijiht benefit?' She sent an invitation to the two other women to visit her, ai.a tney me: at ner house and prayed and talked about matter?, and finally decided to come toother the next Thursday afternoon at 1 o'clock in the school house and have a meeting. The old lady said to the younger woman: "Xv "You can sing: will you sing ?" "I will." she replied. She said to the middle-aged woman: "You can read; will you read *wo or three chapters from the Bible ?" " I will," was the reply. "Then/' said the old lady, "I will pray." So on Thursday afternoon thoy camo to* getlser. O119 came three miles fmm the ca.% another came three miles from the wes4; and the younger lady sang, and the middleaged lady read t'uo Bible, ana the old lady prayed. A"woodman, coing by oa r. load of wood, and seeing the d<o~open. fliought he would close it. He went to the door and heard the old lrdy praying. It vao a new :evelatioD to him. He listened ti'l she said "Amen," . >' and th.'ii heard !.er r.s!; the others: Shall we come auaiu ?" "Yes," they answered, "lit us come noxt Thursday at 1 o'clock." Tlie woodman mounted his lead and told . ) everybody lie met. TJ10 next Thursday when the three "women got tlie.e they found the house full. There were three chairs provided for them. They went in, and the young woman said: "I am too diffident to sing before all these peop'e." "You mu-t sing." said the oil indy. "I cannot read before all these psople," said the oth-.r woman. "You mu t read,'" said the old lady. r. _ : f"'"* rtiwl 4-iiia vntrim* vafiA k)0 lilt? Slllgvi ?UU VUV and the o:d lady prayc I. and before she had ( nt half through her prayer there was sobbing all over the h<>use. In a few days they sent for a minister from the next town to lab t in the fields that were white and ready lor the harvest. Today there stands where the schoolh-uiso s'o?d a little white churjh. I have preacln'd in it. It is tl:o result of the faithful efforts of those three women.?Dr. L. 15. liatcs. Never intentionally wound the feelings of a human being. Never talk or laugh aloud in public places or upon the stiejt. ANTI-PROHIBITION" DEVICES. There are many ingenious devices to evade the Prohibitory hquor laws. One of these in Iowa, near Mount Pleasant, was the erection of a shanty, with a board partition, making therein ouc large room and "one smaller one on the other side. A barrel was set in the partition and the customer could deposit his money and get his drinks without seeing the man in the other room. This made it possible for the customer to swear that he did not see the liquor-seller and did not know who he was. A telegram mentions that, under the ruling of Judge Travers, the proprietor of this shanty is now in jail serving a sentence of four months. He is probably persuadeel that Prohibition really does prohibit!?i National Advocatc. i