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r ; A IAD MARRIAGE; ? OB, The Heiress of Lawrence Park. I STORY OF ABSORBING INTEREST. BY MKS. S. B. COLLINS, i 1 CHAPTER XI7. ONLY MASK. Arthur glanced up with a Blighl emile. "I believe it will be wise to heed the advice of 'A Friend,' he said, "and jkeep my eye upon Mr. Mark Alleyne, las well as the 'nu airess.' " And although his heart was heavy, (he laughed heartily, for the absurdity of the orthography was mirth-provoking. "And I believe," he went on,thoughtfully, the smile vanishing from his handsome face, and the gravely hopeless look coming back, which was irrowing habitual to it, "that I had better make a call at Lawrence Park Bow. Ah, I see my own wisdom in accepting Mrs. Gabrielle St. Cyr's invitation to call there." But if Arthur Wynne had dreamt for - ft single moment of all that his acceptance of said invitation was destined to east him, he would have hesitated before the next step was taken. He made up his mind to call without delay. Adelo was out, he knew, and he would thus be spared the sight of her usurping Euby's place in Ruby's home, and perhaps he might be able to find a stray clew. He re-entered his carriage and -was driven to Lawrence Park, rang the bell, and sent in his card to its misteess. He was shown into the grand drawing-room, and loft alone, while the servant went to acquaint Mrs. Lawrence (so Arthur must force himself to call her) with his presence there. A shrewd detective never allows any possible chance to him to pick up odds and ends of information. Arthur glanced curiously around the room to see if any change had been effected in its arrangements since the interlopers bad taken possession. The first new object upon which his eyes fell was a portrait of Adele. A lovely, girlish face it was, with sunny hair and great, dusky eyes like velvet; a bewildering face, which he studied with eager gaze. Slowly a strange, inexplicable feel ing crept over him. Something familiar in the features of the portrait before him touched his memory. "I have seen that face before, long ago," he muttered under his breath. "I have seen that face somewhere before, surely; but where, or when ?" He could not. decide. He could not recall the time or the place; but that he had seen it before, that he had even been some time presented to Adele St. Cyr, grew gradually to impress itself upon Lis mind. Give Arthur Wynne a clew, be it ever so slight, and he would work it np to a starting point before he was done with it. A book lay upon a tiny gilded stand ' at his side, a copy of Meredith's poems, elegantly bound. Arthur turned it over carelessly as he stood there, vaguely taking in the -fact that there was nothing to remind one of Ruby in the apartment. That everything pertaining to the unfortu- j nate girl had been banished?as though j disgrace, black disgrace, trailed itseli j over everything which had been hers.' Glancing carelessly at the book ha j foecame aware that, in his abstraction, jhe had opened it, or, rather, the leaves had fallen apart at the poem "Aux {Italians," "which bore the marks of much reading, the first lines being marked lightly in pencil: At Paris it 'was. at the opera, there J And she looked like a queen in a book, that ' night, With the wreath of pearl in her raven hair. And the brooch on her breast, so bright 1 He stopped short. A vision arose before him; avast, crowded theater, in a blaze ot brilliance, anH upon the stage a light, airy figure in white, spangled tulle, with a lovely face, framed in by waves of floating, dusky liair, flitted over the boards like a bird. Then the vision vanished, and he at Ruby's side in the flame-wrapped box, tearing lier away from the grasp of death; while all the time, from the , Btage near bv. those mocking, dark eyes, that lovely face with a dazzling smile?that face which never once, in that lile and death struggle, held a look of pity or sympathy, or any human attribute of sorrow or regret. Ruffling the leaves of the book under his hand he turned carelessly to the fly leaf. A name had been written there?the name of the owner. The book had been presented to Adele by one of her admirers, who had written her stage name (not knowing any other) upon the fly leaf, and she ha:l subsequently erased it, with the assistance of a bit of india-rubber. Arthur Wynne drew a tiny magnifying glass from his pocket and placed it over the name. "L?B?lie." That was what he deciphered. Still the truth did not come home to his brain. The enormity, the :?*-> wwiVialiilifir nf cn/^ll a thin<r was too v* wmv? ? 0 immense to easily take possession of any one's mind, even to tne astute detective's. He closed the book, and turned his eves upon the lovely grounds outside the window, his heart aching with tlioughs of the lovely girl who had reigned there so short a time before; the petted idol of her father, queen of the household, beautiful Ruby Lawrence ! "My darling! My poor, wronged darling! I will right your wrongs; I will refute this awful calumny, though the effort cost my life!" He stopped short. The door of the drawing-ioom opened slowly, aud Adelo stood before him. She had returned from her drive, ud donning a violet silk house-dress, trimmed with swan's down, which made her fair face dazzingly fair, she had hurried down to the drawing-room. He glanced up with a startled look. For an instant he had half believed it to be Ruby standing there before him. both white hands extended in greeting, a sweet smile upon her perfect face. "So good in you to call, Mr. Wynne 1" she began, graciously. "Mamma is out; I have just returned from my drive, and so took the liberty of representing mamma upon this occasion." What couia he cTo but murmur some low words of flattery, which made the color rush to her face for au instant, and she seated herself upon a silken couch close at his side. A chill passed over Arthur Wynne at the contact. How did he know what hand this beautiful enchantress might have had in Euby's downfall ? "Who was yonr escort this morning, Miss Lawrence?" (he choked a little over that name) "who wa3 the gentleman with whom you were driving, if it's a fair question?" She smiled sweetly. "Oh, that, of course!" she returned quickiv. "It was only Mark i xou see, Mark Alleyne has been like a brother to me all my life! I cannot remember a time when I did not know Mark! He has always escorted me, is always at my command! He is?just Mark, that is all!" And the sweet smile grew into a lauga. It was evident to her that Arthur Wynne was really interested, or why should he trouble himself to ask such a question. And the belief was strengthened by Arthur's murmured observation that Mark was to be envied, and must be a verv happy man! Ui course Arthur "Wynne despised himself for the part he was playing; but it must be played. He must lose no chance to find a clue to the awful mystery which he had sworn to unravel. And he watched the fair face beside him as a cat watches a mouse, as ho put another question: "Miss Adele, have you heard anything? Is there any news of?of? Miss Ruby ?" She turned away with a little shiver of disgust. "No, none!" she replied, so harshly that it made him start. "Don't speak of her!" she added, hoarsely. He arose to go. "I will do myself the honor of calling again scod," he said. "I would like to see your mother and hand over to her the key of the rQom up-stairs. It has been in my possession long enough, since no clue can be obtained. And I prefer returning it to her direct!" he added. Adele smiled assent. It was so easy to see that the key was a mere pretext to repeat his call at the earliest possible opportunity. "What a bright idea it had been for her to represent mam ma! And all the time Gabrielle, np-stairs in her own chamber, was patiently awaiting the termination of the interview. Some one else was waiting, too! In the music-room, which was separated from the drawing-room by heavy portieres, Mark Alleyne had overheard nil that had passed. His face was like a corpse; his eyes flashed like fire as he muttered silently: "Only Mark! Like a brother to her, all my life! Ah! my dear little sister Adele, you shall live to learn that there is no fend like that between brethren! She shall remember that while Cain was the first murderer, it was his brother whose life he took! "But I have made up my mind to one thing! I shall know her decision ?her final decision?soon! Ah!" as he heard Arthur Wynne's retreating footsteps, "she shall answer me now I She shall not make a mook or a plaything of me any longer! I will know my fate?happiness or woe! It is better to know the worst! And, if she refuses me! Bah! I hold her?and hers?in the hollow of my hand!" And Adele, smiling a last adieu to Arthur Wynne, turned when tne ouier | door had closed upon him, and found herself standing face to face with Mark Alleyne?the only living creature on earth -whom she and her mother feared and had good reason to fear. " Come in to the drawing-room, Adele," he began, sternly, his eyes burning into hers. "I have something to say to you!" CHAPTER XV. THEEE DAYS OF GRACE. Trembling in spite of herself, Adele obeyed his command, and followed Mark into the drawing-room once more. He closed the door behind them, and fated her, white and stern. She had never seen him so angry before ia her life; aud her heart sunk with a premonition of coming trouble. "The time has come," he began, slowly, his black eyes burning into hers like flames, "when a certain question mu3t be settled for all time! Adele St. Cyr, are you going to become my wife? No more evasion; no more postponement. The answer must be given me?now!" Ho laid his hand upon her shrinking shoulder with a grasp of iron as he spoke. She started, shivering violently, and her eyes were averted from his face. "I?I cannot now!" she faltered, brokenly. "Oh, Mark, Mark, don't be so cruel! I cannot answer you to-day! And?I do not wish to marry yet! I have already promised to give you my answer soon. Mark" (with a sudden assumption of courage) "you must wait!" He frowned darkly, his eves blazing with a lurid light, liia hands clenched savagely. "Wait!" he panted angrily. "That is the only answer I can ever look for, T .1 A T ^.Aim X SUppoSB r AUe:e, JL iiu > tj ucou j vui humble slave for years. Has it never occurred to you that the slave might tire of his -bondage and burst his shackles and assert his rights? ''You are mine; you shall be mine? my wife; I Lave sworn it! To that end I have waited?toiled?sinned! Think you, then, that I will relinquish you without a struggle ? lou must be mad! Never! "You shall be my wife or I will crush you as I would crush a serpent in my path! You shall disappear from the gilded society into which you have launched yourself through the might of yo;ir ill-gotten wealth! You shall vanish from it all, and the world shall laugh your memory to scorn. "For I have it in my power, Adele St. Cyr?I have it in my power to ruin your game?yours and your mother's! I must have my answer?I will have it now?yes or no ? "MarK r Big, tearful, black velvety eyes uplifted to his face, perilously near, while red lips quiver, and a bit of a white hand steals into his own. "Dear Mark!" (in a tender, appealing whisper) "I want you to give me a little moref time for reflection! Just a little more?even three days!" For a moment he holds the white hand in his clasp, showering kisses upon it; then lie?gazes down into the tender, beseeching eyes. "I will give you three days, then, you little witch!" lie made answer. "Three days of grace I grant you?no l more! * * ' "Adele, do you care for tliat meddling fool, Arthur Wynne, so much? He, whose whole heart, whose every thought belongs to Ruby Lawrence ? He loved her living, and he will mourn her dead! "Ah! your face betrays you, and tells the secret! Now, Adele St. Cyr, listen to me. I am a desperate man, and I mean what I say! You will never mar*y Arthur Wynne?never?so help me heaven! "Should he be beguiled by you (which I doubt) into an offer of marriage, and should you accept said offer ''which goes without saying), as I live, it win do your ruin?yours, ana Gabrielle Sfc. Cyr's! "I know more than you think, more than you know yourself, of this dark game that you are playing my friend I It is a wheel within a wheel. "Ah! did you but dream all that I know concerning this matter, you would fly from here this very night! "Adele, to-day is Tuesday; I give you three whole days in which to make up your mind! On Friday I shall come for my answer?my final, irrevocable answer; no more evasion, no more tricks or putting off I I hope you understand me, Adele?" He had spoken rapidly, his eyes burning with a fevered light, his form quivering witli excitement. Adele lifted her eyes to his face, and a shiver of fear passed over her slight frame. She bowed her head. "You are cruel, Mark," she said once more. "Yon are cruel, and harsh, and relentless; but I promise you I will give you my answer?my final answer?on Friday." And low under her breath she was saving: ""I will give you my unswer? something, anything?so that it will keep him quiet for the present, until Arthur Wynne has proposed. He shall ask me to marry him, and, once his betrothed wife, I need not fear what Mark Alleyne can do." As thfse unspoken thoughts passed through her mind, he was gazing into her face with eager, devouring eyes. He stooped and pressed his lips uuon her small hand. "My life will be a? void utterly without hope until Friday," he murmured, passionately. "Oh, Adele! Adele! I will make you happy! I swear I will make you a happy wife, my darling!" sAnd as he left the room, and the house, the passion deepened in his eyes, and he set his teeth together savagely, as he hissed between, them: "I will put that troublesome detective out or tne way at once, and be done with it! I have a plan in my mind which shall sweep Arthur Wynne from my path! And with him out of the way, the rest will be easy. I will win Auel? far my wife! She shall marry me1" Arthur Wynne left the house after his interview with Adele with a strange feeling of having been outr wit ted. "I was so hopeful of finding some - ' ? ' ^ it. 1 II L. clew wnen x emarea iue uuuse, 110 said to himself; "yet Heave just about as wise as when I came." As the thought flitted through his mind ho turned his head and in the spacious flower-era rden which lay spread out like a variegated carpet all round the Lawrence mansion, he. saw the girl Maggie Willett. She was busy gathering flowers to make into bouquets for the house. At sight of the detective her sallow face grew white as death, and her eyes fell before his steady gaze. Arthur "Wynne had come prepared for this emergency. He went straight to the girl, and bade her a kindly good-morning. She oourtesied humbly. "Good morning, sir!" she made answer. "And, if vou please, sir, have you heard any news yet of the poor young lady?" He shook his head, drawing from' his pocket at the same time the coral comb. "This is your property, Maggie!" ha said, tersely. "I found it in Miss Ruby's room, after it had been locked to keep out all intruders. Now, tell me, Maggie, what is your price?how much do vou ask?in short, how large a sum must I pay you for telling mo bow that comb came into Miss Ruby's room?" Tha girl was staring into bis face with great, wide-open, honest black eyes. "Me, sir!" sbe ejaculated, frankly; "why, sir, I never was in that room siuce the day?you remember the day,. sir ?" Aye, tbat be did! He remembered it, to bis sorrow; be would remember it to tbe day of bis death. "The comb's not mine," added Maggie, shrinking from contact with the article as though it were poison. "I have just such a comb," she went on, glibly, "and I mislaid it; but I found it again, yoiu see, sir." And she dexterously whisked off her big sun hat, revealing a comb, the counterpart of the one in Arthur's hand, confining heir ietty braids. He nad no reason but to take his departure, which he did, with a feeling of defeat. Without a backward glance he left the place, re-entered his carriage, and was driven home, sad,weary, heart-sick. That very night he received a written message, in a straight hand, as follows: "If Mr. Arthur Wynne will go down to the lake, and out to the end of the pier, to-night, at nine precisely, he will learn where to look for Ruby Lawrence. " it-r, V - _ i. Mil. .M .1 "IE may oe a wapi no saiu, bwwij, us lie laid the note aside; "but I must leave no stone unturned which may hide a clew to my darling's fate! I will go to the pier to-night V Nine! tolled from the clocks in all the church towers, and the darkness of Erebus had settled down over all things, when a tall figure stepped upon the pier which jutted out into the black waters of the lake. Close behind that figure another form'loomed up, a black patch against the inky darkness of the sky. On, on to the very end of the long pier the first form made its way. with that black shadow following, unsuspected, in its wake. A pause, and silence follows. Then a sickening thud, as a heavy blow is dealt; a dull splash, as the dark waters open hungrily; and there is only one person standing above Upon the pier, in the night and in the darkless. Surely, murder has been done I Ito'be continued.] .Father Hayseed's custom of blowing out the gas was reversed by a girl brought up in London when she first went out to service. After she had gone to bed her mistress noticed that her candle had been left burning, and when asked why she didn't put "it out she replied: "Please, ma am, I do not I know how to turn it off." ' -. - 4 , ^ - --Lt-'i*vi- t?rk..-J-'-. THE TELEPHONE. AN HOUR WITH TEN THOUSAND TALKERS. Scenes in a New York Telephone Exchange?How Subscribers are Brought Into Communication With Each Other. We busy people who live in cities and who cry "Hello Central!" fifty, nay, one hundred times a day, never give a thought to the perfect machinery and admirable system by which we are enabled to talk ? <V ~i. - ousiness wicn our neiguours m u uibuuwg of many miles, and even with our betterhalves if only to enquire after the baby, or to announce that business most unexpectedly detains us in town. "What is the central office like?" I asked myself one day last week after I had uttered the stereotyped "good-bye" to an invisible female with a very charming voice. "By Jove, I'll go and see." I! "hello! what number?" In New York there are several exchanges, each exchange having its hundreds of subscribers. I was elevated to the top floor of ap enormous building on ID./vn/lmATT 'rkifl- fnn Aaai* io ronrnoonforl JDlUUllYVajr . lUXO UVUi XVJ ivpvuvuKuvfc by a single room, a room which the gushing novelist could not say was sumptuously furnished. On the contrary it is monastic in simplicity, and almost as bare as a ball alley. When John Smith subscribes John receives a number, and this number represents him on a great black-board, called the "switch-board." A metal flap attached to the "switch" agitates itself when John Smith wants to speak with Ed. Brown, or anybody with whom he may be desirous of conversing. Around this loft are desks, opposite the desks a high screen, and at the desks a number of young women, each armed with a writing pad and pencil. i The murmur of subdued talking by many tongues greeted me on entrance? this murmur being created by the young A LOXG REACH ladies at the desks, who were engaged in the busy feminine occupation of asking questions and returning replies. These young ladies are adorned with a not unbecoming headdress, composed of two bands of steel somewhat like a pair of silver combs. These combs are connected with a telephone transmitter, which is pressed by them tight to the left ear, pad fashion. This transmitter is attached to the wires, so that when John Smith wants to talk with Ed Brown, the operator in charge of him can listen, reply, jot down the number he wants, and adjust Jus peg on the particular "switch." m PEGQENG. The screen opposite which the operators perch is covered with metal flaps. These flaps are perpetually dropping down, as on the electric register behind the qlerk's desk at a swell hotel. A flap falls! A pair of bright eyes glance at it. A lily white hand snatches a hanging cord ornamented with two pegs or plugs. The lily white hand by a rapid motion plugs the hole revealed by the fallen flap, and disposes of the other peg by pushing it into another hole on the screen, the cord connecting both. I stood behind these operators, and be came fascinated by /the extraordinary rapidity and precision -with which they worked. Flap! flap! flap! flap! Peg! peg! peg! peg! "Four, fifty, John." "Yes, sir." "Not yet. Wait a minute?" "What did you say?" "No." "Yes." "One moment." "Are you through?" "Seventyeight?what?" "No such number." "Forty-four, Broad?'' "Yes ma'am." "Speak lower, please!" "Idon't understand you!" By such sentences as these is the buzz and murmur and hum kept going. Now rising, now falling, but never for a second silent. A. grave, thoughtful, | concentrated man, the superintendent, with a hawk's eye, sits at a desk called the "monitor." He is argus-eyed, for nothing would seem to escape his glance. A peg out of sorts, a cord entangled, a pad not in its place, an operator talking too loudly,- and he is on the qui vive. The superintendent can, at any moment, without the knowledge of the operators, place his desk in circuit, and catch whatever may be going on upon the wires. TAKING CARE OF THE BATTERIES. This kills all chances for gossip or for incivility. "This is a much better way of earning a living than standing behind a counter all day," exclaimed one of the operators. "We work ten hours, but we sit, and are not at the beck and call of every person calling herself a lady who comes into the store merely to toss over things, ancl give poor girls no end of trouble and worry." "Do you ever receive rude or coarse messages?" I asked. "Well, yes," replied the superinten dent. "JNot so many now as at nrst. We send a complaint to the office right away, and that ends it in that quarter." jfiBj* ' LxW^f" I THE SUPERINTENDENT. An operator requires to be very quick in her movements, and above all to keep on the track of John Smith after he has opened a conversation with Ed Brown. John cries, "Hello Central." Central seeing the flap fall, pegs and replies to John. : "Give me sixty-five Warren, please!" says John. "All right," cries Central, and she pegs sixty-five Warren, leaving John to his gossip. Ishould mention that right opposite the mouth of each operator swings a telephone receiver. The operator must follow up John Smith so that when the. conversation is ended the pegs may be withdrawn and the flaps fly back. It now amuses me to know what takes place when I call "Hello Central!"? Once-a- Week. General Jackson's Tomb. The tomb of Andrew Jackson is in the' Aiuthweat comer of the garden, three' hundred feet or so from the Jackson monument, near Nashville, Tenn. The material used in the construction is solid limestone, and the flight of years has made but slight impression on it. The dome is supported by eight columns of the Doric order and three large steps serve as well-proportioned base. Upon either side of the monumental piece in the centre are two heavy slabs of stone, lying horizontally upon the floor of the tomb and in them are cut the inscriptions. Nothing could be simpler than one, "General Andrew Jackson. Born March 16,1767. Died June 8, 1845." History ANDREW JACKSON'S TOMB. tells and will ever tell the rest. Poor Rachel, who never saw the White House | to live in it and who never cared to go there except to be with her illustriuus. husband, has one of the most beautiful; inscriptions ever cut in stone or graven, in bronze: "Here lie the renains of Mrs. Rachel Jack-1 son, wife of President Jackson, who died the; 22d of December, 1828, aged sixty-one years.: Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her; temper amiable, her heart kind. She delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow-' creatures, and cultivated that divine pleasure] by the most liberal and unpretending: methods. To the poor she was a benefactor,, to the rich an example, to the wretched aj comforter, to the prosperous an ornament.! Her Dietr went hand in hand with her benevo-; lence, and she thanked her Creator for being permitted to do good. A being so gentle and! so virtuous slander might wound but could! not dishonor. Even death, when he bore her' from the arms of her husband, could but transport her to the bosom of her God." . Jackson might have had a more pretentious monument. A short time before his death Commodore Elliott brought home from a cruise in the Mediterranean the sarcophagus of a Roman Emperor, minus the remains. He offered it to the ex-President, who sent him this reply: "I have received your kind letter with its accompaniment, and you must pardon me if I do not accept it, for I do not think the sarcophagus of a Roman Emperor a fit receptacle for the remains of an American Democrat." The sarcophagus then went to the museum of the Smithsonian Institution at TVashiDgton.?New York World. The Lunatic of Ealing. kraatic living at Ealing, Declared he could walk on the ceiling. There is no need to tell When he tried it he fell. And hits wounds took a long time m healing ?Harpers Young People. , ,.-t : / , - . "\ '' j?.aMSsiS*#, i^HUhi RELIGIOUS READING WHAT JESUS IS. O Lord, Thou art so much to mo! I marvel and adore; My heart's enamored of Thy lore, Aud panls to love Thee more. The truest, purest human lofre Is taint compared with Thine: That love, unchanged through changia year.-", Is fathomless, Divine. What Thou hast been in days gone by, What Thou art now to me. What Thou wile be while time shall last, And through eternity. It baffles all my powers to think, Dazzles my mental sight; The finite cannot comprehend Nor grasp the Infinite. All types and emblems joined in one, Fail to lell half Thy worth; Thy glory cannot be conveyed By imagery of earth. But Thou art everything to me; Be all things else forgot? In Thee I have sufficiency, There's nothing Thou art not. LOVE MIGHTIER THAN LOGIC.' You may hammer ice on the anvil or bray it in a mortar. What then? It is pounded ice still, except for the little portion melted by heat of percussion, and it will soon congeal again. Melt it in tbe sun and it fiowa down in sweet water, which mirrors the light which loosed its bands of cold. So hammer away at unbelief with'your logical sledge-hammers, and you will change its shape perhaps, but it is none the less unbelief because you have ground it to powder. It is a mightier agent that must melt it?the fire of God's love, brought close by a will ablaze with the sacred glow. PERSONAL OBLIGATION. I recently heard a very intelligent lady say that she would not unite with the church because' she would not dare to take solemn vows upon herself for fear she might break them. She failed to realize apparently that her own personal obligation to serve her Lord remained the same even though she were "out of the church." Obligation was born long before the church was. The Lord wis "King," and all people His subjects, before church organization was thought of. Right is right and wrong is wrong, to all people under the sun. It is a deplorable mistake to think that "belonging to a church" makes our obligations to God, but it is a happy fact, nevertheless, that it is a most delightful and satisfying help in performing them. It is Henry Ward Beecher, I think, who said, "Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and man's obligation to God would bo unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his. guide would be pone; he would have the same voyage to make, only his compass and charts would be overboard." ; In I Cor. 4:1, it reads, "Let a man so account of us. as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." In Matt 23: 8, we have this verse, "Be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." In 1 Peter 4:10, wo find this inlo "is flvonr man hath raneivad the flrift. even so minister the same one to another, as gjod stewards of the manifold grace of Dr. Camming in speaking of personal obligation, says: "It is by each soldier feeling his obligation in doing his part that the army conquers; it is by each bee doing its work that the hive is stored with honey; it is by each insect putting forth all its might, that the coral reef becomes an island, and cities rise upon the bosom of the main." Personal obligation has its source back of consciousness. Whether Christians or not, we are the Lord's for we have been bought with a price. Therefore our personal obligation demands that we serve our Saviour, that we surrender ourselves to Him soul and tody. Spencer relates a story of a beggar who asked something of a lady. She gave him a sixpence, saying: "ThU is more than ever God gave me.* "O madam!'' says the beggar, "madam! you have abundance, and God bath given all that you have; say not so, good madam." "Well," said she, "I speak the truth, for God hath not given but lent unto me what I have, that I may bestow it upon such as thou art." There are few sights, as lovely in this world as a person who deeply feels his or her obligation to the Lord (ana the wdfrld which of course is necessarily included), and resolutely and earnestly and unswervingly performs itj no matter what discouragements are in his way.?Christian at Work. THE RESOURCES OF THE CHT7RCH. God has given to the church of our day a material equipment for this work of evangelism which is as far in advance of apostolic days as the speed of steam and lightning is ahead of camels and horses. Every resource is divinely at our disposal. We can go round the earth in 90 days, and. girdle it with electricity in 90 seconds. Steam cars wait to carry us wherever engineering can construct a track, and steamboats are ready to float xis wherever rivers run. The printing pross will multiply the healing leaves .of the tre3 of life as fast as we can scatter them, and the common school, now fast becoming universal offers to fit every man to read the Scripture in his own tongue. God has flung open all the doors, and every land is now a Macedonia whose voice is, "Come over and help us." Back of the missions of a century stacd results so amazing that even unbelievers confess the finger of God. Id front of the mission band lie unoccupied lerritories, inviting the plowman and the sower, and white harvest fields demanding the reaper with his sickle. As to money, if one-tenth of the treasure now in the coffers of Christians in England and America was put on the altar of sacrifice?, it would suffice to multiply all that is now spent on .the entire mission field two hundredfold. Do we realize what that means? It means 1,200,000 missionaries in the fleH, or one 'to every 800 of the unevangelized; it means churches, schools and colleges; in every heathen, pagan, paoal and Moslem community; it means the blessing long since promised, when all the tithes are brought into the store-house,?a blessing poured out, until there be none left to pour out. (Mai. iii, 10, according to the Hebrew.) Here is a magnificent mat?rial equi- ment, but it is a machine without ail adequate motive power. All the combined energv of the flesh will never set this huge mechanism in motion. There is but one Power equal to the emergency; it is the vital spark that flashes from above, and only prevailing prayer can brine that spark down. The whole church of Go 1 should bo on her lenses, pleading and waiting for the celestial fire. Let that descend, and every who?l will m >ve and everv lever play; money will be outpoured like water; life will offer its vitality and vigor, and better than treasure or life, love will count no cost dear, no toil hard, no burden heavy wlun Jesus leads and souls art dvincr.?Dr. Piersoiu in tne course or me voyage you may, ana will, encounter cross winds and cross currents; baffling dispensations. But God is faithful. Thus the story of the shipwreck will, in a spiritual and eternal sense, be ful filled?"And so it came to pass, tint they escaped all safe to land.' ?J. R. Macduff. D. D. If it were only the exercise of the body, the moving of the lips, the bending of the knee, men would as commonly step to heaven as they go to visit a f riend; but to separate our thoughts and affections from the world, to draw forth all cur graces, and engage each in its proper object, and t<J hold them to it till the work prospers in our hands, this, tlm is the difficulty.?Baxter. ' TOTAL ABSTINENCE INSURANCE. The addition of total abstinence depart- 1 ments to several American and European companies has materially cheapened insurance. The Total Abstinence Life Associa- ' tion of America, formerly a department in a : Chicago co-operative company, has recently I withdrawn by a unanimous vote of its mem- . bers, and organized under the above name as a separate co-operative institution. It begins business with a membership of 3700, and 8 is the first insurance company ever organ- < ized, devoted entirely to the interests of } total abstainers. It would be of interest to 1 hear what can be said on the other side of 1 this particular phase of insurance. Thus far 4 we are unable to find a writer who will ? attempt the absurdity of trying to prove { that insurance in a sober company,or even a * total abstinence company, is not the cheap- s est.-rThe Statesman. y TEMPERANCE. . BO!HCBO?r^-CHILD. ~s 1 When piteotft' plight of a mssjou observe, J In vassalage vile to the demou of drink, | 'Twill better the purpose of charity serve Than ottering epithets calmlyto think. His artlessnees once a charmed mother beguiled; Besotted, degraded, he's somebody's child. To a bacchanal bound with a martial vow, Yonder woman with children in poverty1* ' clothes, With want on her face and with care on her brow, 1 The shoes of the little ones out at the toes, In the arms of a father seductively smiled, And gleefully prattling, was somebody'* chUd. When^on youth's native countenance token* Of tracing of Bacchus's bewildering art, I reflect, though himself from contrition be _ free, 'Twere happy he break not some other one's heart, "i" And I grieve for his father with woe on him Ji piled, I weep for the mother of somebody's child. For a pittance of coin a man earnestly plead That he might relief for his burning thirst claim; * On his person was Alcohol's livery spread, -1 Unmistakable badge of inebriate's shaine; V With my hand on bis shoulder I said: 'Though defiled, Not evil but good Fd do somebody's child." Then spread o"ver his features a spasm of pain t An ci burst forth the fountains by memory / . fed, Hot tears of remorse from his eyes fell like rain. While he Grazed at a bar as of something in dread" His tone vu despairing, bis countenance ,s wild X As he said: "Sir, don't tell me I'm some- \ i body's child." A Oh! terrible thought, that my boy should V become Such a curse to himself, to his raoe saoh ? shame; His face foully bloated, breath reeking with rum, Dishonor and odium marring his name 1 Homeless and wretchisd, despied and reviled, With few to consider he's somebody's child. ?C. A. Ingraham^ in the Pioneer. TO THZ INDUSTRIOUS EVERYWHERE. Do you want increased sales of products, increased prices, increased wages? I can tett you how to get them. Nearly $1,000,000,000 are wasted annually iu strong drink! Abolish the saloons and this vast sum will be spent for more food, more clothing, more comforts, more luxuries, so that there will be greater demand for the. special line of goods you are interested in; and iu capacity to purchase .increases, a more excellent quality will be demanded, and you will, If a manufacturer or merchant, not only sell more goods, but getu higher average prioe for them. If a laborer or clerk you win not only be more steadily employed, but at ai> increase of wages. street-^ab placard A placard in a Chicago street-car reads as follows:. : CHICAGO'S BEER BILL, : ; . ! : hobs than *. : 126,800,000. : : population, 1,100,000. : .average, ??*.?> I FOE EACH MAN, WOMAN AJTD ' I CHILD 117 CHICAGO. > ,y;V; : ; >: ": >( THE LEAK IN THE THOUGH. A great many persons cannot understand now it in, when there appears to be plenty money in the country, that there is nevartheof hard times. It puts me in minS^m, story I once read about a farmer and his hogs. He had a lot of hogs, of a good breed too, which ho could not get fat. Hegaya them milk everyday, and plenty of it/and yet, in spite of all they got poorer continuously. fie concluded those hogs had some; uew and strange disease. -He wrote, to an agricultural journal about them. A veterin- , as y surgeon thought it a strange case, and determined to investigate. He went to look at the hogs; they were a sorry looking set indeed. He climbed into the hogpeax to investigate, and, lo, the mystery was solved?there jvas a large leak in the troughs If society, tirishes to exist and prosper, this leakage, the liquor traffic, must be. stopped.?5amu?f; Schwarm. i HOW HARn DRINKERS MAT BE REFORMED. 1. Sign the pledge. ' . * 2. Join an organization holding weekly meetings. 3. Faithfully attend the meetings when- ever possible. ? v_-.? i MVinn all Hn'nHnff rosnr+.q us VOI1 would a pest-house. 5.. Carefully avoid all drinking companions except to reform them. 6. Select an old drinking friend, and do jour utmost to make him habitually sober. 7. If greatly tempted, go to God in prayer three tunes a day; the attitude of prayer sincerely taken implies humility and consequent docility. This condition enables us to be insensibly influenced by unseen spiritual agencies. 8. Have charity for all offenders, remembering that Christ came to save sinners and not use righteous; we will succeed only through the medium of kindness. 9. Remember, always, the first glass is the most dangerous of all glasses. Avoid the first glass and you are safe. 10. The reformed man, feeling his weakness, should cut this slip, carry in the poc ind read daily or weekly as may be conveaafl^n ient.?Goodalfs Sun. TKMPEiiENCE NEWS AND NOTES. VK The Armenian Church at Berlin started a total abstinence society. 39M It is said that there are thirty temperance^^B societies in the Hawaiian Islands. HH Intoxicating liquors in India are called by the natives "Uovernment Shame Water." A Good Templar Lodge has been formed among the Manchester (England) police force. Of five hundred men Released from the Birmingham (England) work-house on a recent holiday, not more than fifty went back sober. Sir Matthew Hale declared, even as long ago as 1670, that eighty per cent, of the crimes committed in England were due to drunkenness. . If the AY. C. T. U. lives?fives with the* love of a stainless wifehood and a pure motherhood at the heart of it, the saloon will die, says th9 Rev. H. A. Delano. Michigan W. C. T. U. has a popular ^'chart lecturer" in Mre. M. M. weeks, of Laingsburg, wno not oniy invented ner caarc herself, but lias also made it a great success in temperance object lessons for children. The Southern Journal says: "Under whisky liberty in Shelby County, Tenn., one out of every 374 citizens makes the most of life in State prison. Under Prohibition in Union County, not a single convict out of 10,260 citizens peers out of prison bars." Rum in the United States makes more than 1200 funerals of inebriates every day, and you help to pay for the coffins and graveliggars?you pay fcfr the board, washing and clothes of "the men who staeger out from the ram-saloons to fight, or snoot, cr debauch society, and are imprisoned. Lord Shaftesbury, in his evidence before a select committee on lunatics, in 1839, expressed his opinion that fifty per cent, of the. * 'nsane admitted to English asylums owe their :ondition to intemperance. ?>r. T. TV. Pish- ^ jr, of the Boston Hospital for the Insane, ilaiius that alcohol acts more potently to nake the children of those who arink crazy ;han themsolves. This being true, alcohol ias more to answer for concerning insanity ;han is commonly supposed. Alfred H. Love, President of the Univeral Peace Union, urges the W. C. T. U. to establish a national annual "Mothers' Peace Day," and admirably says in connection vith this suggestion: "Ours is a work of pro oluticn, for I am not satisfied with revoluion, a rolling backward, nor with evolution, irolling out of; I must coin a word that neans rolling forward and upward." To lelp hasten this great provolution of univwal" reform, the "Mothers' Peace Day" ia warmly advocated, . < ,4 ..