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THE BIRTH OF SPRING. All night the sobbing wind k-spt pace With the sad rain's unmeasured tramp; All night on nature's patient face Gleamed lightning's weird and fitful lamp. But sunbeams rent the clouds iu twain. A soft breeze kissed the expectant morn; A bluebird sang a witching strain; A crocus bloomed;?aud spring was born. ; ?Emma C. Doud, in Youth's Companion. Joseph Kendall's Brother, j BY ARTHUR MERRICK. There was a snow storm on the morn-; ing of the day fixed for the execution of Jonas Toms, who had been convictcd of * the murder of the old farmer, Joseph; Kendall. The down train on the branch j from X to the county scat had come j through without great difficulty, and the ! up-traia?with a load of morbidly-curious men, who had taken passage for the purpose of witnessing the hanging?was at last reported as having reached the county seat, oo tue roau was ujn.-u, auu i if the snow did not drift iato the cuts, [ there would be no need of sending out j the snow plow. Jonas Toms was looking through the grating of his ccll when the whistle of I the up-train reached him, and, for a half J hour, he waited expectantly, hope not failing him until the Sheriff came to the cell door and shook hands with him in , * silence. "She did not comc?" the condemned i said, desparingly. "No. She was not on the train, but i there are two hours yet and I have put a 1 L? deputy at the telegraph office with orders ! to run here at once with any message." "You are very kind, Sheriff," Jonas ! faltered and turned away from the grated I door. "It wouldn't be human not to try to i make an ugly job like this as easy as possible," muttered the Sheriff, "and I never was sure Jonas was guilty, tnougn ; he couldn't prove he wasn't.1' The Sheriff's opinion of the case was shared by a great many citizens of the county of and they had signed a petition to the Governor for a respite for the prisoner, and a commutation of his sen- { tence, if the Governor could not see his way clear to grant a pardon. With this ! petition Mrs. Jonas Toms had gone to the ; capital to make use of it in pleading for i her husband's life. That morning the t prisoner had looked for her return with v definite information concerning him? whether he was to die or not. As no word had been received from her, he ! was cot hopeful, and he had really expected her to come buck to him only for j a final leave-taking. Yet, when the Sheriff spoke of the telegraph, hope asserted itself again and Jonas was buoyed with imagining his devoted wife wrestling still the Governor and refusing to abandon the struggle for her husband until it was useless to plead longer. And while the condemned was thus catching at a straw, and his heart was ! overflowing with love and gratitude to i his devoted, tireless wife, the deputy left ( the telegraph office and. hastened to tne \ jail. The Sheriff seeing him coming, j ran to meet him but paused abruptly ' when he could see clearly his subordi- j nate's face. "The operator can't git X said ( the deputy. "The wire must be down." j j The Sheriff groaned and trembled as if!, shaken by a strong wind. "Go back," | he said,"go back and wait, for if there's j: Rf word to come it will get here." The Sheriff spoke as if he expected a i miracle to be wrought to deliver him , from the awful legal duty of taking a ' man's life to satisfy the vengeance of the j law, but yet he, having once more ob- ; tained control of his nerves, walked firm- j ly back to jail, where he proceeded at once to conclude the preparations for the i -solemn act. Meauwhilc a crowd of men wa? surg- j ing about the jail entrance, and some | boys had climbed a tree to look over the 1 wall at the scaffold. The deputy in , charge of the door admitted those who j T 1 i. 1 1- 4-1, ~ I iiau passes, ituu itupi uui;&. mc uuia^, i who nevertheless clamored to be let in. j Those who were within the gates by per- i mission trampled the snow in the yard and impatiently wished the Sheriff would ' "hurry up,'' while the other prisoners in their cells were silent and curious and j glad?not glad because one who had been with them in compulsory associa-; tion was to be hanged, but glad because their crimes were not so heinous as his; j and they r.H vowed to reform lest they, i too, should end on the gallo vs. But at X the telegraph operator was frantic. He had called the operator at the county seat and could not get a reply ?he was in despair and he thumped the key. There before him lay a message j from the Governor of the State. "To the Sheriff of County: "Respite of ten days granted to Jonas Toms." The telegram was signed by the Gov- j ernor's Secretary, but apparently it was as useless as if it had never beer vritten. ! The county seat was thirty mil js distant, ! and there was but an hour to get word . ... of the respite to the Sheriff before it would be forever too late. A restless man stalked up and down i the long platform?he seemei to be wait- ! ing for a train and impatient because it was delayed, tie noticeu -ne teiegrapn , operator's agitation and made inquiry j concerning the cause. The operator j showed him a message and the man s ; face blanched as he demanded tremul- j ously: "Why don't you send it?" "I can't, I say, for the wire is not working." The man paused a moment irresolutely I and then said: "Give the message to me, seal it in an envelope with wax. I will take it to the Sheriff." "How?" On that engine." He pointed to a lo vmotivc that was standing on a siding ith steam up, but was not manned? .e engiueer being at his home, and the j eman having made a trip to the round j use. i Give me a switch key," the stranger | .0, nervously," and be ready with the ! iegram when I come past the plut- j -.n." iue operator gave the man the key,but j .stautly rcached for it again as he ex- i !:>imed: '-The gravel train?it is up the ' . ,iad." "Never mind. I'll scare it on a siding, j You have the message ready." Quickly the strauger ran to the switch ' and turned it for the siding. A yard man noticed him. but at the distance thought him the station agent, who, at the time, was away from his office, fortunately for j the stranger's plan. The engine re- ; ponded to the throttle and came out on | the main track slowly?the yardman looking after it in astonishment, then ! starting-on a run to see what mad man's impulse seemed to control the man at the lever? The telegraph operator was rapid in his movements, and when the engine steamed past the platform on the track that led to the county seat he delivered to the man, whom he now regarded as a hero, the message properly sealed and authenticated. "God bless you,v he called after the unknown, "and save you from the gravel train." The road to the county seat was a single track ana the gravel train sent out to keep the road-bed clear of drifts was liable to be collided with upon any curve by the engine running without schedule or orders, but the stranger merely smiled as he pulled the throttle lever further back. The engine dashed up the track, the engineer standing iu the door-way of his home and looking at it aghast, while the sta:iou agent and train dispatcher hastened to the telegraph office to learn the reason of the eugiue's departure on a "wild cat" trip. The engineer rushed up to the platform where stood the operator explaining to the dispatcher how it happened that the stranger cook out me engine. "But he will not get through," said the dispatcher, "for he has no fireman." "Yes, lie has," exclaimed the engineer, "he's doin' the firin' too. He's just lettin' her run, he'll just fire and whistle." And, as if to confirm the engineer's statement, the scream of the steam J reached their ears?the whistle shrieking a frantic demand for a clear track. At the jail the Sheriff's jury were drawn up in the corridor, solemnly waiting for the conclusion of the last conference of the condemned with his spiritual adviser. The Sheriff restlessly paced the flagging, while one of the deputies nervously fingered a black cap and the other toyed with the cords to be used in pinioning the prisoner. The Sheriff, who had repeatedly looked at his watch in a way that seemed to beg time to go more slowly, glanced at it at last with a heavy sigh and went to the jail entrance for a final look toward TKo nmiftt cfn- 1 II1C UJJll VSllXV.^* xuw V*W|/UI,J wvt* tioncd there was not in sight and the executive official turned with a heavyheart to the prisoner's cell. "Come," he said, and the heavy footfalls of the jury sounded dismally through the corridor. "It is time," he said gently to the prisoner, who courageously stepped into the corridor and bravely faced the jury while the deputies bound his arais and slipped the cord of the capoverhis head. He was eeady, but just when the word to move to the yard was given, lie turned a longing glance toward the main entrance, as if he hoped to see his wife appear there suddenly. Slowly the procession moved, the prisoner leaning on the arm of the clergyman, his back toward the main entrance, his temples throbbing many beats between the footfalls of his executioners, who stepped heavily and in time with him, as if to deaden to him the sound of his own feet, which shuffled in spite of him, the nails in the heels of his boots rasping on the stoue floor. And then camc shrieking through the corridor the whistle of a locomotive? strideut scream on scream rising higher each second and indicating that the engine was approaching at terrible speed. The heart of every man in the jail leaped. The prisoner stood still and his lips moved as if in silent thanksgiving, for to him the shrill sounds were trumpeting his freedom. The Sheriff rushed to the jail entrance, a commotion rose among the visitors who had grown cold in the snow, and they began to crowd into the jail. The deputies momentarily forgot the prisoner, while they contended with the impatient and excited spectators, forcing them back to the yard. The conductor of the gravel train wa3 startled when the whistle penetrated his ears with its cry for a clear track, and he was glad that he had reached with his ' " - _ i- XL. tram tnc saiety 01 me siaing at me count}- seat -when be saw the engine leaping toward the town on a steep down grade. The deputy stationed at the telegraph office ran out on the track to learn the meauing of the terrible shrieking. The operator ran with him, and the crowd around the jail stampeded toward the station. The whistle ceased its screams and a man was seen standing between the cab and thy tender, as the engine, with unabated speed forged toward the station. The crowd stood still in silence as the man lowered himself on the step to the cab. "Heavens! he is going to jump," said the deputy, and the crowd fell pell-mell back out of the way, but every one heard the man cry: "Take this to the Sheriff." T T<-? *V*ie Vl O r? in T?7Vll/*Vl VlA clutched something yellow. "A man's life depends on it," he shouted again. Then he jumped aud rolled to the feet of the deputy, who wrenched an envelope from the grasp of his twitching fingers. Without pausing to see whethet the man was alive or dead, the crowd ran after the deputy, amd no one looked around when the engine crashed into the dump and was totally wrecked. The Sheriff in trembling, eager haste, opened the envelope and read aloud the telegram. The crowd shouted and returned to the station where a physician with the calmness due to his profession was endeavoring to lestore the senseless man to life. At last he succeeded. The straugei opened his eyes and looked in a bewildered manner at the crowd of curious meu and boys. But presently his eyes lighted with intelligence and he asked it a whisper: "Was I in time?" 4 l es, saia tnc surgeon. j "Thank God. I killed Joseph Kendal and this is my expiation. I am Josepl Kendall's brother." With great presence of mind the physician wrote the coufession in his note book and then read it aloud. "1.3 that correct?'' he asked. The stranger nodded and his lip; moved, but they uttered uo souud. lie died while the doctor was having one 01 two reliable witnesses sign his confession. ? The Epoch. A Queer Bird. The Opisthocomu8, a bird of the Island ot Marajo, in the Amazon, is fourfooted when young. Its wing has two fingers, each with a claw which drops ofl after a time, and these are used in scrambling about. As the wings of birds are supposed to have been evolved from prehensile hands, this is, as Mr. F. E. Beddard states, "a curious instance of a partial retention of an earlier condition. AGRICULTURAL. TOPICS OF INTEREST RELATIVE TO FARM AND GARDEN. GROOMING COWS IX TIIE STABLE. Much of the comfort and thrift of a cow tied up in the stable depends on frequent brushing and rubbing to clear off the dirt that will otherwise accumulate. In the field, at pasture, cows manage this matter themselves, rubbing against a post or tree: but iu the stable there is more need of the currycomb and brush, and they gat less of it. The diversion of blood to the skin keeps the cow'warm in cold weather, and answers many of the purpores of exercise. Now that so large a proportion of cows are J kept in stable the year through, their grooming becomes a matter of increasing I importance. Try your cow with the brush, and see if she does not like it,and respond by better condition in every way. ?American Cultivator. APPLE TREE BORER. When an orchard has become badly infested with borers, it will require considerable labor to exterminate the pest. The trees must be carefully examined every year during the winter or spring months, and every grub-cut out or otherwise destroyed. We prefer cutting away the bark over each burrow, and following it up until the borer is found and killed, than to trust to the probing with a wire. The wounds made in the stem in the operation may be filled with clay, wax, or the 'exposed wood smeared with thick paint. Banking up the trees in the autumn will do no good, for the female beetle will deposit her egc;s above the mound of soil, no matter \ how high it may be. You might try nrranninnr fhr> afpms with t.ir-n.iner. whifih we have used with success ou peach trees to keep out the insect known as-the peach tree borer, an insect quite distinct from the apple tree borer.?American Agriculturist. DANGER IN SEEDING. The greatest danger threatening a new seeding of grass and clover, or either of them, is the drying of the soil by a cold wind or a dry, hot spell after the seeding. If the sowing has been superficial and the seed has thrown out roots on the surface one hour's drying will be fatal. But if the seed has been covered au inch, before the seed leaves or the spire appear above the surface, the root has goue down three or four inches and side roots have spread as far on each side. A dry surface does not injure such plants. Two weeks of dry weather will not kill them, and if protected by the shade of a growing crop they are entirely safe from any ordinary drought. One other point should not be ignored: This is the adequate feeding of the young grass, all the more requisite if another crop has been sown with it. Immediately after the grass seed has been covered in, 300 or 500 pounds of complete artificial manure should be sown on the surface, or it might be sown by another hand as the seed is sown and both covered in together.?New York Times. ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. Order and simplicity arc chief elements of all true beauty, and it is not unusual to sec gardens of pretense that are complete muddles of grass, trees, walks, drives, arbors, ctc. In nothing will order and simplicity count for more than when 1 using garden making materials with a view to creating beautiful effects about our homes and grounds. Through a desire for display one is liable to overdo by bringing too many objects into the garden and scattering them unduly. Simplicity implies neither poverty in materials or in design. A garden or the parts of a p?rdon iji>y be essentially sirjnle in design and elaborate in detail. A uuity of the objects of a garden for contributing to a complete whole, a harmonizing of these, one with another and a. balance of the different features and sections are important things to secure in planning an ornamental garden. Where marked features and bold contrasts are sought there should also be agreeable, easy transition from one to another, without abrupt breaks to interfere with the harmony. Let it be remembered that gardens are for use as well as ornament, hence they should be accessible and convenient, and this should always be kept in mind in locating different objccts, walks and drives. Elias A. Long, the well-known landscape architect, says there is no more conflict between utility and beauty in the garden than elsewhere, and we may always aim to have it very convenient and at the same time very handsome.?Maryland Farmer. TOP FIRST?THEN' TUBER. To get the large yield of potatoes we must have a strong, stocky top-growth, and this in as early a stage of development (i. e.* as soon after plauting) as possible. The latter is one of the most important points; and if secured, the plants will have time to concentrate their energies upon formation of tuber. We may get this "plenty of top-growth in early season" in large individual plants by planting large seed-pieces, preferably whole tubers, in rows about three feet apart, and about one foot apart in the row. This plau invariably gives the largest top-growth, and earlier in the season than it can be secured by any other method of planting; and it also usually gives the largest yield of tubers. Plenty of aggregate top-growth, bat later in the season, can also be obtained by planting cut-seod, even to single-eye, very closely, makiug two or three times the number of plants on a given area than when whole seed is used. The individual plant is smaller at the start, remains at a disadvantage all through the seascm, and will yield less than the stronger individual plant from whole seed; but as there are so many more such plauts, they may equal, perhaps even outyield, the same area planted on the other plan. But close planting calls for close attention and a good deal of hand labor, and either method require* the backing of a sufficient quantity of the mineral plant-foods in available form, at the disposal of the plants during tuber formation. Without this requisite, the use of whole seed, or the method of close planting of cut-seed, will be merely a waste of seed. It is not unlikely we can secure the necessary large top-growth ia early season, even from cut-seed, by feeding a trifle of nitrate of soda right at or shortly after planting time, if necessary repeating the dose. This is worth a trial; for if so, we would be enabled to secure all the advantages of both methods without any of their objections.?Next York Tribune. ONION SETS. For sets, says Joseph Harris in the : American Agriculturist, the essential : points are rich, clean land; the best of seed; sowing as soon as the frost is out of the surface of the ground, and dropping from twenty to thirty seeds in each inch of row. Keep the ground well hoed and absolutely free from weeds. Do not embark too extensively in tfr<" business at first. I have grown them for many years, and am perfectly willing to tell all I know about the matter, but there are many little things absolutely essential to success that can be learned only by experience. One year I lost a crop because the soil was too dry at the time of sowing. Seeds have to absorb moisture from the soil before they can germinate. The land may be moist enough to start two or three seeds in an inch of row, but not to furnish moisture for ten times that number. This is one reason why very early sowing, while the ground is moist and we are likely to have | frequent rains, is so desirable. I sometimes obviate the difficulty by soaking the seeds for forty-eight hours before sowing?changing the water two or three times. I ijave Kept tne seea, auer soasing in a warm room covered with moist sifted moss till they sprouted. If they sprout before the ground is ready for ifiem, put the seed in a cold place so as to rctai i the growth. I have grown fine sets in this way. Last year I grew equally good sets by drilling in the seed in rows fifteen inches apart with a seed drill. In any case do not fail to put on seed enough, unless you want more bushels of pickling onions than bushels of sets. Sandy land is considered best for sets. But they will do equally well, and sometimes better, on a well drained and well pulverized clay soil. The trouble is to get the seed into the soil early enough in spring. It is here that good judgment and previous preparation of the laud are required. The crop is a profitable one, and it is well worth while to learn how to grow it successfully. It is a great mistake to suppose that poor land is desirable. On the contrary, onion sets require, in my experience, very rich land. A ton of high grade fertilizer, or 500 ? * 1 1- -A- 3 rnn pounds or superpnospuaie aim uuu pounds nitrate of soda per acre, cau be used with great advantage. FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. There is as much in planning as in doing farm work. An early, healthy growth of a plant wards of! many evils. Never mind about the color of the cows; it is the color of the milk that tells. If you have to buy some cow feed try linseed meal. Get some for the calves anyway. If you have sale for a regular quantity : of milk or butter all the year breed accordingly. Don't feed all of your best hay now, but keep some till spring?just before , grass is a hard time on the cows. I Don't be afraid of wishing out the flavor of your butter; ycu can wash out ' the buttermilk taste, but not the true butter flavor. Feed two or three times a day, but ! feed enough each time. "Not quite j enough" won't do, no matter how many I times a day you try it. Better let your calves get potbellied on i /JrfT foorl than nn -wpalr skimmfid milk: v..J , linseed meal will take the place of cream in the milk fed to calves. Doa't put off planting the garden until every other bit of spring work is finished?it might be a good thing for the spring work, but "it's mighty hard lines" on the garden. Every dairy farm ought to produce all the grain fed on it and grow more pro- j ductive all the time. The help to caro J for the cows can do the necessary work : to grow the grain. If a hen lays soft-shelled eggs, give her | plenty of gravel, oyster shells, sea shells and crushcd bones (which material she ' needs to make hard eggs shells of), and this evil will oftentimes be corrected. If the saying be true that "the early i bird catches the worm," it is no less true that early breeding operations bring; early chicks, which, if line, wiil catch j the prizes at fall shows, or exchange for : a good price for that purpose. When a farmer knows the capacity and qualities of each cow under his care, he is on the road to success. Guess work , will no more pay in dairying than in : other pursuits. The farmer's guessing j habits is one reason for farm depression. To make a good, warm breakfast for forty fowls: Boil a heaping half-peck I of potatoes; mash them; add one quart! each of shorts and bran, a teaspoonful ' each of salt and pepper, and finished by ' adding hot water enough to mix into a stiff dough. It is not generally known among farmers that the same food that makes a pound of dressed beef would make a pound butter. At the present price of cattle, the farmer gets about five cents a pound for his dressed beef, while butter is worth fifteen cents. Roup is a mean disease and kills many valuable fowls every year. An ointment made of one tablespoonful each of lard and kerosene and twenty drops of carbolic acid, melted together and applied twice a day with the finger on the part effected will cure. If you have never tried this it is worth a trial. Fowls need far more care during damp. rainv wcatncr tnan aunng me ciear, com | weather of -winter, or the dry, warm weather of summer. Dampness engenders numerous disorders, many of which are difficult to cure. Therefore, it is better to use preventive measures than to administer medicines when too late. Bound to Put Things Through. Judge Peters tells the following story. "Sheriff Brown had been elected in j Peuobscot County, and had made his son ! the page or messenger in court. Judge J Peters presided at the first term, and in ( the middle of the forenoon announced a recess of fifteen minutes. He retired to ( the library and soon became immersed in some legal books, looking up some points of law. "When the time mentioned had expired the jury came in, but the Judge did not. The Brown boy, who was anxious to have everything go off in good | shape under his father's administration, grew nervous and at last made a bolt for the library. Wal'-iing in and pulling out his watch, he tapped the Judge upon the shoulder and said: "Come, Mr. Peters, you've got to hurry. Your time is up and the folks are a-awaiting." The Judge "hurried."?Ltwitton (Me.) Jour nal. i " * ' : T'-':n ' - . ' " . ' - REV. DlT TALMAGE. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN_ DAY SERMON. Subject: "Parents' Treatment of Children." Text: "A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."?Proverbs x., 1. All parents want their children to turn out well. However poorly father and mother may have done themselves, they want their sons and daughters to do splendidly. Up to forty years of age parents may have ambitions for themselves, after that their chief ambitions are for their children. Some of the old time names indicate this. The name of Abner iudicates his "father's lamp." The Dame Abigail means "her fathers joy." And what a parental delight w?.s Solomon to David, and Samuel to Hannah, and Joseph to Jacob! The best earthly staff that a father has to lean on is a good son and the strongest arm a mother has to help her down the steep of years is that of a grateful child. But it is not a rare thing to find people uafilial, and often the parents are themselves to blame. Aged persons sometimes become auerulous ana snappy and tho children have tneir hands full with the old folks. There are old people so disagreeable that they have nearly broken up some home?. The young married man with whom the aged one lives stands it because he has been used to it all his life, but the young wife, coming in from another household, can hardly endure it and sometimes almost cries her eyes out. And when little children gather in the house they are afraid or the venerable patriarch, who has forgotten thai; ie ever was a child himself, and cannot understand why children should ever want to play hide and seek or roll hoop or fly kite, and he becomes impatient at the sound from the nursery and shouts with an expenditure of voice that keeps him coughing for fifteen minutes afterward: "Boys! stop that racket J" as though any boy that ever amounted to anything in the world did not begin life by making a racket! Indeed, there arc children who owe nothing to their parents, for these parents have been profligates. My lamented friend, good Christian Henry Wilson. Vice-President of the United States, in early life changed his name. Henry Wilson was not his original name. He dropped his fatliar's name because that father was a drunkard and a disgrace and the son did not feel called upon to carry such a carcass all bis life. While children must always be dutiful, I sympathize with all young people who have disagreeable or unprincipled old folks around the house. Some of us, drawing out of our memories, know that it is possible after sixty or seventy or eighty or ninety years cf age for the old to be kind and genial; and the grandest adornment of a home is an aged father and an aged mother, if the process of years has mellowed them. You cannot hurt your name of John or George or Henry or Mary or Frances or Rachel, because there have been thousands of people, good and bad, having those names, and you cannot improve or depreciate the respectaomcy 01 inose given names, xsuc i it is your last name, your family name, that is at your mercy. All who bear that name are bound, before God and man, not to damage its happy significance. You are charged, by all the generations of the past and all the generations to come, to do your share for the protection and the honor and the integrity of that name. Carrying out the idea of my text, I remark that a reckless or dissipated son makes a heavy-hearted parent because it hurts the family pride. You have no right, my young friend, by a bad life to blot the old family Bible containing the story of the marriage3 and births and deaths of the years gone by or to cast a blot upon the family Bibles whose records are yet to be opened. Thera are in our American city directories names that always suggest commercial dishonesty or libertinism or cruelty or meanness, just because one man or woman bearing that name cursed it forever by miscreancy. Look out how you stab the family name! It is especially dear to your mother. She was not born under that name. She was born under another name, but the years Eassed on and she came to young womanood, and she saw some ote with whom she could ti-ust her happiness, her life and her immortal destiny, and she took his name, took it while the orange blossoms were filling the air with fragments, took it with joined hands, took it while the heavens witnessed. She chose it out of all the family names since the world stood, chose it for better or worse, through sickness and through health, by cradles and by graves. TT -1 i- -CO l.M ,U 9 X tJil, bUO put UJJ I'Zm 'JILL LtXlllllJ XIULUO IV VU&9 the family ,name you now wear, and she has iond uor part to make it an honorable name. How heavy a trouble you put upon her when, by misdeeds, you wrench that name from its high significance! To haul it down from your mother's forehead and trample it in tha dust would be criminal. "Your father's name may not be a distinguished name, but I hope it stands for something good. It may not be famous, like that of Elomer, the father of epic poetry, or Isaak Walton, the father of angling, or yEschylus, the father of tragedy, or Etlielwold, the father of monks, or Herodotus, the father of history, or Thomas Aquinas, the father of | moral philosophy, or Abraham, the j father of the faithful, but your father i has a name in a small circle as precious to j him as theirs in a larger circle. Look out how you tarnish it!" Perhaps it is a good thing .that cruel treat- j ment by a child abbreviates a parent's life; j for what is there desirable in a father's life j or a mother's life if its peace is gone? Do you not think death is something beneficent if it stop3 the mother's heart from aching ind her eyes from weeping, and says: "You need not bear the excruciation any longer. * ?JIT 4-UA Ar\C/\MPA A# a uo ana sieep. x wui jjui mo uu..u? v> ? marble slab between you and that boy's outrages. Go now where tho wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." A.t the departure of such mothers let the music be an anthem instead of a dirge. While you and I hear no sound, yet there are at this moment tens of thousands of parental hearts breakiug. All care was taken with the boy's schooling, all good counsels given, and the equipment for a sober and earnest and useful life was provided; but it has all tone, and the foolish son has become the eaviness of his mother. Much of the poignancy of the parental grief arises from the ingratitude of such behavior. What an undertaking it is to conduct a family through tho ailments and exposures of early life I Talk about tho skill demanded of a sea captain commanding a ship across the ocean! That requires less skill than to navigate a young soul in safety across tho infantile and boyhood years. The sicknesses that assault, the temptations that entrap, the anxieties that are excited ! Young man, you will never know what your mother has suffered for you. You will never know how your father has toiled for you. You have been in all thoir thoughts, in all their plans, in all their prayers, from tho time your first breath was drawn to this moment's respiration. "But," says some young man, "ray mother is gone; my behavior will not trouble her any more." Then perhaps you havo her picture. Hang it up in your room in the place where you oftenest look. Go and study her features, and while you are looking the past will come back, and you may hear ner voice, which is now so still, speak again, saying: "From my heavenly homo, my dear boy, I solicit your reformation and salva tion. Go to the unnsc who paraonou mo, and He will pardon you. My heaven will not be complete till I hear of your changing. But I will hear of it right away, for there is joy up hero when one sinner repenteth." Swifter than telegraphic wire ever carried congratulations to a wedding or a coronation would fly heavenward the news of your deliverance; and whether the one most interested in your salvation were on riverbank, or in the temple, or on the battlements, or in the great tower, the message j would be instantly received, and before this i service is closed angel would cry to angel: "Have you hoard the news? Out yonder is a mother who has just heard of her wayward I boy's redemption.- Another prodigal has got ' home. The dead is alive again and the lost is found." There is a great deal of laughter in ' Europe just now at the expense of M. i Trivier, the French explorer, who won! i J through all sorts of dangers in central i Africa, and, coming home with his , j travels all written out in manuscript, i lost the valise containing them and hif j notes at the depot at which he arrived 1 in Paris. It really wasn't worth while j J to be an explorer for auch a result at j < that. .. ! | REL1GI0USJEADING. A MEDITATION OF SAINT AUQIVSTINE. "Woe to that soul which having let Christ go, Some better thing than he is hopes to find! For in uncertain wanderings to and fro (As one whose eyes are blinded walks behind A groping leader that himself is blind). Its hunger, still unsatisfied, shall grow, Its cry shall ring unanswered on the wind. And only endless sorrow shall it know. 3e not, O soul of mine! this lost, sad thing; But.ns a bird flees to the mountains, flee Rejoicing to the cross on Calvary, And find thy refuge with thy Lord and Kin sr. Only the Crucified can make thee whole. Fix there, fix there thy resting-place, My soul! ?Sunday School Times. WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE? "You forgot yourself today, did you not? You preached forty-five minutes," said a member to his pastor, after the sermon: "Maybe I did; but oh. the human souls before me?their value and their danger! It may be, in my zeal for their Salvation, I talked a few minutes over my time." I thought so," said the member. "Such a speech! I never heard the like of it before. I stood for two hours, the crowd being so great I could not find a seat, and I believe I could have stood another hour without getting tired." So said the same member to his pastor a few days after the complaint at the length of his sermon. The speech referred to was made by a Mr. A a nnli^m'on tl,? ?I i:..l J..u -1 A*., Ok j'UiuiLiau, MCiUl C IUC U1UU U1 his ward. The pastor thought?On one hand the question of salvation, the cause of humanity, of the church, of God; the great verities of life, death and judgment, and tired at 45 minutes with a comfortable seat! On the other band, the success of a political party, and two hours, no seat, and not tired!? Mtthodint Monitor. RELIGION OK STILTS. This is a poor kind of religion; none of it for me, if you please, and it I had my way, there would be none of it for you. The idea of putting the promises and the power, and the preciousne^s of Christ, and the comforts of the Comforter, up so high above the walks of everv-da.v life, that there is no sweetness nor utility in them for this world. No, no. Christ walks with the humble over dusty roads. He will as soon help a washer-woman at the tub as a preacher in the study. The Holy Ghost will lead ploughmen as well as philosophers. A Monday religion is much better than a Sun-, day profession. The coal digger and the capitalist stand on par when it comes to the benefits of the Gospel. There is ofttimes more piety in the kitchen than in the parlor. For power in prayer, do not look always to the middle seat in the center aisle. Let the preacher take a glance in the amen corner, or gallery, or back by the door, and he will find religion on its knees. Some people have lots of religion and no Christ, and these folks always own stilts. I. am getting in that mood when I want less And loss tft flrt tvifli n mfcr*. formal roliiyirm I any way. Give me Christ. That is better j than all else, for He is precious and walks on the same level with poor tempted me.? licv. C. H. Tatman, in i\ew York Observer. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE GOSPEL. tVhat a happy thing it is that tiie Gospel comes into so little compass! Often have I felt this when visiting the sick and the dying.?When I have found the mind incapable of vigorous, expansive or continuous thought, how thankful have I been that the Gospel is so short and so simple; that the elementary truths which give peace to the conscience and hope to the Heart can be stated in so few words! There is divine wisdom and divine kindness in thi*.?There are short sentences which contain essentially all that a sinner needs to know, to give him a sense of pardon and confidence towards God: "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief."? This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life; and thi3 life is in his Son. He that hatb the Son hath life; he tbat hath not the Son of God hath not life." These and others of a like description, are precious ociikcinco. xiicj aic ?uai iuc ujxlik ill a LI of God," Dr. M'All, so emphatically denominated the core, the very core of the Gospel. Connected with this is the striking fact that, in the hour which is sure and common to all?the hour of nature's last conflict and most pressing exigency?the hour when the mind is sent up to one point, and that point peace with God and hope for eternity?that j in that hour all minds come to be so very ) much on a level, in regard to what imparts j their confidence. It is the same truth in j all its simplicity, that gives it to the greatest ] as well as to tnc least, and to the least as i well as to the greatest. It is more instructive and interesting to see how minds of the largest grasp and mightiest power, when they come to this hour of trial and of final decision, when passing throuh the valley of the shadow of death, anticipating eternity, and conflicting single-handed with the laist enemy, have recourse to the same simple elements of divine truth that are thesprings ( of peace to the very weakest of the "babes i in Christ." I have been struck by this in the biographies of some of the most distinguished of our modern divines. Look to the terms in which they expnss the ground of their everlasting hopes. Although, from previously knowing the character of their minds, you, of course, conceive thoughts of a higher order associated with those terms, and although at times there may be coruscations of brilliant stntiment emitted, that indicate the undying light within, jet substantially they are WC >CIJ OU111C Hi >V illCll J/UU1 l? VAJw ^'U VA" I pressed the ground of liis: "It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; and why not Joseph?" What dying sinner can say more? I mean not that the minds are equal?that were follv: but that, as the greatest and the least stand on the same ground 0f condemnation, they must stand al-o on the same ground of acceptance; so that he who has traversed the whole round of theological learning, has explored its depths, and scaled its heights ? has argued with metaphysical acumen, and illustrated with matchless eloquence all its points; has read and has written volumes upon volujnes, when | he comes to the test of a dying hour, is shut up to all the simplicity of the "faithful sayng." This is what he needs, equally with the least; and this is what the least, equally with him, enjoys. And the perfectly childlike submissiveness with which masterminds in Israel have avouched their reliance on the most rudimental elements of the truth, is among the marks of its divinity. It shows that in the one point of need, in which all are alike, and which, in all cases equally, the Gospel is intended to meet, the adaptation of means to the end, is perfect. ?Dr. TVardlaw. The lover of the soul is the true lover. The lover of the body goes awav when the flower of 3'outh fades; but he who lovcst.be bouI goes not away, as long as the soul follows after virtue. ? Socrates, B. C. 470. To the use of ardent spirits is to be attributed much tvil legislatiou. If I were again placed in a position to do so, my first question to a candidate for office would be: "Do von drink ardent spirits?"?Thomas Jeffcr >Otl. If you want to have a stalwart Christian character, plant It right out of doors in the great field of Christian usefulness, and though the hot sun of trial may try to consume it, It will thrive until it becomes a ?nat tree in which the fowls of heaven may have their habitation.? 2'ahiiage. "FANATICISM." ; Edward Everett Hale says: "I am ready to acknowledge that the clergy are apt to be | i little fanatical in this matter of temperiuce. Why not. indeed? They see the skeletons in the closet, which other people do not | see. They receive the confidence, and tliey j mow why this lad never kept the fond promise with which he enteral college. They {now wliat is the hidden cause of the ruin ! n this household, and the fond hopes of that poung married pair. If you want to make in active temperance member of any indif- ' ferent friend, set him to work in prisons, in , :harity organirations, in education; you will won find that he says less about moderate lrinking, that he looks less doubtfully on strong legal measures for keeping; men out of temptation." '' f :JM/ fJlfe temperance; i *'papa, be true to me." A New York State Senator, when asked ^ at a social gathering why he would not take anything stronger tnan water, is said to hare responded with the following verses: r j|H "What makes me refuse a social glass? Well,^? I'll tell you the reason why? Because a bonnie, blue-3yed lass is ever standing by; And I hear her voice above tho uoise of the jest and merry glee, As with baby grace she kisses my face, and J says "rapa, be true tome.*' What then can I do to my lass to be true better than let it pass by? I know you'll not think my refusal to drink a breach of your courtesy; For I hear her repeat in accents sweet, and ' her dear little form I see, As with loving embrace she kisses my face, " and says, "Papa, be true to me." Let me offer a toast to the one I love most, whose dear little will I obey, Whose influence sweet is guildiag my feet over life's toilgome way; May the sun ever, shine on this laaie of mine, from sorrow may she bo free, For with baby grace sne hath kissed my face, and said "Tape, be true tome." aLco'hol killed him. , . A Maine coroner's jury lately found that a Michigan man, James L, Hurley,of Grand Rapids, who died recently at Waterville, Me., came to his death by "a disease of the sbuuiauu rtsnuung 111 severe mnammanoo or H mortification, caused or aggravated by long- . H continued and excessive use of alcoholic fl liquors." It is a hopeful sign of the times fl that at least one coroner's jury has been fl found willing to recognize and officially de? fl clare alcohol an active cause of the death of H one of its numerous victims.?National Ad- fl vocate. fl GREELEY AND DICKENS. fl Murat Halstead in the Contemporary tells fl of Horace Greeley, that presiding at the din> fl ner given Charles Dickens at Deimonico's by B the press in 1868, while "Dickens partook. fl freely of the wines, Greeley did not turn hif fl glasses down, but thrusfc them out of hit "fl way, with a single exception, and in that^fl f'laced a beautiful red rose, which had bee^^^H urnished for his boutonniere, and during tfeflHI dinner lifted his glass to his nose as often ttfl others raised glasses to their mouths, and th? ^fl fragrance of the rose was all the stimulant V he wanted." ' fl CONVERTED BY EXPERIENCE. fl One of the most remarkable utterances ' fl made at the recent State Convention of tern- I perance people at Des Moines, Iowa, was thft fl declaration of the outgoing Governor Larra- H bee that his experience as Governor of the State had made him favorable to prohibi- ifl tion. He said that he had formerly opposed Hi B as impracticable, but that in eighty counties in the State the jails had been emptied, and the number of persons in the State Penitentiary reduced by one-half during his admin istration, and that court and people were agreed that the cause of this was prohibition. Ha said that the taxes were less and the markets better, and that observing all these things in the administration of the affairs of the State he could not help but become a H| Prohibitionist. Governor Larrabee was distrusted by the temperance people when elected, lest bis known opposition to prohibition at the time of its submission should lead to the use of bis position as Governor to be little and defeat the law. But his conversion to prohibition while administering a law I contrary to his personal convictions is not H less a compliment to the character of the law H| than to the sincerity and candor of the con* vert.?Union Signal. INEBRIATE ASYLUMS. Just how much of inebriety is due to moral obliquity and just how much to dis ease of a physical character may never be determined. In the light of successful ex- MB perimentation in the cure of inebriety the advocates of inebriate asylums bape encourgement that is not to be despised bH by the opponents of such institutions. The # number of the latter, once considerable, * is now steadily diminishing. The subject is H interesting in view of the effort to establisIw^Mj an inebriate asylum in Washington. Fror^fc^H Ulpian. the Roman jurist^Of the second cen^^^H tury wno urged the necassity for treating inJ^^H ebriates as diseased persons, down to present, there has been a learned and philo sophic circle composed of lawyers, physicians, scientists ana literary men in favor of o f??nm t.Vift nnnnlftP nnininn thflii drunkenness is entirely a vice. It is stated by the Secretary of the American Association for the Cure of Inebriates that more than . ^Bj fifty inebriate asylums have beeu established in America, and that more than thirty of these are now in successful operation. There are said to be twenty asylums tor inebriates HBj in England and Scotland, two in Germany, one in Switzerland, and a number have been projected in France, Norway and Sweden. The results are declared to bo highly grati- ^Hj tying in the face of much discouragement duo HN to the imperfect trial which mauy persons |B| make of the asylums. Out of a thousand let- H ters from the friends of inmates of the in* H9 stitut inn at Dinghamton, New York, thev HH percentage of total abstainers or tcmperate among the inmates after live years HU was 62%; at Washington Home, Boston, HB after ten years, out of two thousand cases thero was a percentage of apparent cures of thirty-four. And so in other institutions. The legal control of inebriates being so slight the wonder is that the success has been so great as it appears by these figares. Most of the inebriate asylums have beeu private institutions receiving some State aid. The appropriation asked of Con gress, if granted, would placo the Wasiucg- nj ton institution ou a solid foundation. The advocates of this method of treating inebri- HB| atcs contend that their plan has passed the experimental stage, and that public benefits from it are assured.?Washington Star. |^B TEMPERANCE NEWS AND NOTES. BB A drunken nuui sees everything double but BH his money. It is only the man who saves who sees his money double. The Ohio State Grange declares that all BK legislation on the liquor question should be toward the immediate suppression of the liquor traffic. Rfl In Hungary the State has acquired ten ^^9 thousand public-houses and inns, a very large number of which are to be closed, and th^M^^f after reopened as schools. It is found that forty-one per cent, of crimes for which prisoners ar* held, in MB thirty-two German jails, were committed under the influence of alcohol. I^B The Congross of the United States can well afford to listen and affirm the plea from Massachusetts that "the United States shall send no more American Medford rum to ^Bi Africa." The Catholic Total Abstinence Society is ^^^B raising the money to establish a Father ^^B Mathew Professorship of Temperance in coq- HB nection with the great Cathecfral University ^^B at Washington. 9H| The Temperance Society of the Free Church of Scotland has only been three years ^^9 in existence: yet it already includes 632 personally pledged ministers and possesses a HH| ?uo nro B^B uiemuei SUIJJ ut w,via. The Reformer, of Glasgow, notes the fact IH of the proposed World's Temperance Concress, to be hejd during the progress of tho ^H| World's Fair in 1832, nnd adds: "Scotland should seud a good contingent." Dr. R. H. Plumuier, of San Fraucisco, re- BBB cently returned from a year's journey' BHM around the world, accompanied by his wife and two sons, using water freely, and no alcoholics, during the entire journeying in HH distant countries. It is intended to lay before the International Anti-Alcoholic Congress to be held ^^9 next year in Christiana, Norway, a proposal to form an International European Temperauce Union, with the object of promoting the consolidation of the movement in other countries, the headquarters being in It transpires that, the loss of 10) terrible Hassayamjn disaster in when a dam burst away and mountain of water rush down sweeping everything before it, the drunkenness of the messenger^m^XH^^H sent in ample time to warn the peo^BH^^^^E valley below, but who exercised Ii'KotH-it" in ?t-.r>nnin<r nt. n c?)ivin so drunk that he forgot to ? The Brooklyn Women's Prohibit^ complain that despite their efforts ? hav^^^M the compulsory scientific temperance lessons taught in the public schools, the work is not done thoroughly. Several of the members of this league are authority for the stato^^^H ment that the school number of children who^^M drink beer is increasing rapidly, and thaf^HH the afternoon school work is hindered by thj^HH beer lunches which children are accustomed^HK to take regularly. fl 1