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> The Press and Banner ^Wednesday, Nov. 18. 1891 Twelve "Pages, 9 to 12 Tfflf GINNING (If finT'THN iuu UAi.ixii.xiu ui uuiiuiii SOLID SENSE ON A MATTER OF VITAL IMOPORTANCE TO PLANTERS. The Whole farm In Surveyed, and Everything- Troin Potatoes to Ter9 racing; Is Discussed. Southern Cultivator. The month of September was as remarkably favorable to l he rapid opening of the bolls and the harvesting of -the cotton crop that it is probable as large, if not larger, proportion of the entire crop has been gathered up to this date as was picked of last .year's crop at the same date, notwithstanding the geueral lateness of the crop. A large part of the gathered product is yet to be ginned and baled for market. It is not yet too lute to olTer what we intended to offer in last month's "Thoughts," a suggestion or two about ginning and packing. The greater part of the cotton crop is nowadays pre?ared for market at public ginneries, his is an it should be. Immediately after tne war we abandoned the use of our old ginhouse and its mule-killing appliances, and gladly patronized a newly erected ginnery within one mile of houie. The ginning of cotton is really the first step in its manufacture and while it is apparently a simple operation its proper performance requires an amount of capitol, skill and trained operatives not generally available on the average cotton farms. The point we wish to make is now, that farmers, as a rule do not require of the ginnery man that care and skillful manipulation which they have a right to demand. The difference between the market value of samples of the same cotton ginned at different ginneries is often eoual to the charees for the services rendered. The greal aim of the ginnery is to gin as much cotton as possible duriug the season. The makers of gins advertise the merits of their gins, laying stress upon the rapidity of their work. The ginneries, generally operated by steam, and having usually a surplus of power, are too often tempted to overtax the capacity of their gins to do good work, by running them too fast. Every farmer who sends his cotton to be ginned should insist upon the work being done in the best manner. Quality, not quantity, ot work should be the test of merit. The ginnery should operate a sufficent number of gin stands to do promply without running too fast. It should also be insisted that the bales bp neatly put up, using the best bagging, ties and twine, and completely coverin? and protecting the lint from expos ure to trash and dirt. We go further and say that romething should be done (why not by Alliance effort?) to prevent the barbrous treatment the cotton bales receive at the hands of the sampling knife, or gioilet, and the ripping, tearing hooks?to say nothing of the enormous samples that are frequently taken, and afterward repressed into bales as somebody'9 perquisites. The gathering of the cotton being about over, the cotton farmer may now turn his attention to other matters, long neglected, perhaps. Corn yet in the field should be at once put into the barn and now is the time to DIO POTATOES. We hardly need to repeat that it is worse than foolish to make a crop of potatoes, and then lose them for want of the small amount of care and skill required to keep them through the winter?under ordinary conditions. ' According to our experience and observation potatoes will sometimes rot regardless of ordinary precautions, notwithstanding the occasional detailed description of aplun that "never fails." We think potatoes should be dug, as a rule, before the vines have been more than nipped by the first frost. For many years our practice was to dig potatoes the last week iu|October?if the ground was not wet. Use a turned plow to bar ofl'the ridges; then a narrow-winged sweep, set rather "digging," and pulled by a strong and wilT: 1~ ...: II oil iiu^ mint: v> ill e-xpv/ou iicanj an iuu potatoes that are big enough to save. Use no hoe to mangle and cut the tubers. Let them dry in small heaps until the afternoon. Then hall to the place selected for banking, wich should, ' it possible, be slightly elevated, well drained, gravely or sandy spot. Drive d >vn a stout stake, and saw off three and oue half or four feet high. Lay dry pine straw around the stake, so as to make a bed two inches thick \yhen pressed nown by the weight of the potatoes. Put twenty or thirty bushels of potatoes around the stake, piling them up as steep as thew will lie. Cover with plenty of pine straw, or dry cornstalk thatchiug. Then cover with soil taken from the base of the hill all around, so as to forn a drain ditch. Cover lightly at first but increase the depth of soil as (he weather grows colder until it reaches a depth of ten or twelve inches. Leave an opening at the top, lightly covered with a board or a few pieces of pine bark to keep out the rain. This simple plan is followed by thousands ot farmers, and ig usually successful. SOWING WHEAT. The writer is not an old mar, but we can remember when nearly every farmer in the country produced wheat enough for home use. On nearly every farm large enough to require a ginhouse and the old fashioned "gin gear," there was also a thresher and fan for cleaning the wheat, oats and rye. Theu came the traveling thresher; first, those run with horse power, then the steam engine. Now, very few farmers grow wheat, and the days of traveling threshers and "one-tenth" tolls have well-nigh pasted. We bid goodbye to some of these old practices and customs with sincere regret, as if we were almost parting from the memories of boyhood. Sometimes farmers, as well as other folks, revolve backward?doing away with old ways that were good, and adopting new ways that are uot so good. But generally speaking, the changes are for the better. It is a prevailing impression that our soil and climate are not so well adapted to the production of wheat as they were long ago. This is certainly a mistake, except that our soils are more worn. The climate has undergone no changp. Yet those who have given up wheat culture are wont to assign this supposed change of climate and soil as a reason for their action. They know that it does not seem so necessary to produce wheat as formerly, and are'hard up for a reason. The true solution is involved in the great improve ments in transportation, in connection with the opening and settlement of the great wheat fields of the Northwest. In the good old time, before every merchant kept flour for sale, a farmer had generally to go without biscuit if he did not produce his own wheat, and carry it to mill. Many's the time, when a boy, have we gone ten miles with a load of wheat tor grinding. But presto! What a change! Now we buy the very best of Hour at six or seven dollars a barrel. In 1843 cotton was five cents a pound, and flour five pnllars a barrel. Now cotton is eight cents a pound, and flour only six dollars. There is still another reason. The flour we buy is far better than the eld country mills could make. We used to make "homespun" cloth for clothing, sheeting, etc. We don't do it any more, and no one is found to denounce this departure from the old way. Not to disguss the question in further detail, we want simply todrop the above "Thoughts" in defence of those farmeis who have given up the culture of wheat simply to supply the wants of theirfamilies. where it will not pay to grow wheat for market it is doubtful if it would be expedient to produce it at all except in case wnere a iarnier nas so large a family that the quauitv of Hour required makes it a matter of considerable importance. Our remarks are intended now to apply to the South Atlantic and Eastern Gulf States. In the northern portions of this territory there are few farms that cannot supply at least a few acres of land especially well adapted to wheat: and in the middle hill country this is also true to a less degree. On such soils it will be found that wheat will yield just as well as it ever did in similar soils. A farmer with a large family will find it a paying crop in the long ruu, provided he can get the product converted into Graham fiour. According to our taste and long experience, there is no better bread that comes to a farmer'n table than nice Graham pone and Graham griddle cakes, made of home grown wheat. HOGS AND COTTON. The transition "from "hominy" to u hog" is easy, but the same arguments are not applicable. We mean to say that cheap transpotation is not a sufflcent excuse ior aDanooning an efforts to "raise our own bacon."\ While there may be but few farmers who ought to grow wheat, there are I but few farmers who can be excused for not raising hogs. They are so easily managed, so cheaply fed, so generally except from fatal diseases, and withal so profitable that we would rather?as an individual?give up producing com than raising hogs. What is true of hogs is more strictly and generally true of milk and butter, beef and mutton, chickens, eggs. The trouble is our inclinations are too strongly in favor of cotton. "Cotton is King" should read " Cotton is Master," and the cotton planters are his slaves. Jt is 1 he slavish devotion to cotton as the sole resort for a money income that has impoverished so many Southern farmers, and bound them in debtors'chains. Think for a moment of the cheap and fertile soil, the mild n uxiioMa i?nnta Ihporrp&f. VJiritftV tiwu muuuiv ? .~, 0.? of forage and fattening crops of the .South?cowpeas, sweet potatoes, chufas, peanuts?not one of which can be produced in the North and Northwest to say nothing of Bermuda grass, crabgrass, corn, oats, rye, clover, collards, sorgum, etc., which we can produce just as well as they can be produced anywhere. Why talk about limiting the area devoted to cotton by co-operative effort, or resolution*, or what not? What do the farmers do with most of the money they get for their cotton, after paying for the labor that produces it? Why, they buy bacon, lard, canned beef, canned milk (they do without butter), a good deal of corn or com meal, tons of hay, seed oats and rye, syrup, flour, mules and horses, etc., nearly all of which they may and ought to produce at home, What if every farmer would produce all of these thines at home, and then add fruits and vegetables, all in quanities sufficient to supply the country, including the towns ? He would find that he could make cotton at eight cents a pound, if neccessary; fortius back revolution of methods would so reduce the area in cotton, and the total production would be so much dcminished, that the price would go at once to ten or twelve cents. Iiut we were talking of hogs, and, generally, what is true about bacon is true of home products. We have gone astray from the good old paths. In some things we have done well, in others we have acted unwisely, and in none more unwisely than in giving up the breeding of hog?, horses and mules; cows, sheep and poultry.Let us resolve to soek again these old paths to get back iuto the prudent ways of our lathers and grand fathers?avoiding their mstakes, but reaffirming and readopting their wisdom. DITCHING AND TERRACING. Hillside ditching has apparently had its day, aud is giving away to new ideas?the terracing system. The old style hillside ditches, however, would do just as well as they ever did. The question is did they ever serve their purpose, and the answer is at least doubtful. Terracing is now as ditching was forty or llfty years ago. Will former!nor ??vp nnr ln.nria niton. lutely from washing away? We unhesitatingly answer uo, not without helpful conditions, such as grass and small grain culture, and proper rotation. It is doubtful if half the terrace lines that have benn run in the last ten years were run on a dead level, as they necesssairly must be run if they are to what is expected of them. Very few farmers possess the neccassary skill and judment to use even the simplest form of leveling instrument without first gaining some experience. It is really a work that should be done by a professional farm topographical engineer. One suggestion we wish to make as to helpful conditions and rotations: Let the different terraces be treated as many different fields, planting one in oats, the next in cotton, the next in rye, then corn, then cotton, then grass, and so on, proceeding from the lower terraces to the upper. The idea is arparent: If you plant the upper, or higest terrace, in cotton, which conduces most to washing away the soil, there will be less water to control?none running on it except what falls from the clouds. Then the next below in small grain or grass; then corn,|a washing crop; then cotton; then small grain or grass, and so, -always following in the succession down the hill, a clean cultured summer crop, with a grass or small green crop. Another suggestion: Sow the terrace banks in orchard grass after raking end. This forms a very thick and enduring sod, and does not spread a I , all. There must bo a time when thf vista of the future, with all Ha pos sibilitiesof glory and of shame, first opens upon the vision of youth. Then is he summoned to make his choice between trutlr and treachery; between honor and dishonor; be tween purity and profligacy ; betweei moral life and moral death. 1 The wisest thing to do with cne mies is to do without them. Women and War. For n sober estimate of the real nature of war, apart from the romance of the drum and bugle, the words of Guy de Maupassant, the greatest liv ing French writer, seem to me the best I have ever read : "When I but think of this word war, there comes upon me a feeling of astonishment, as if one were speaking of witchcraft or the Inquisition, something long ago ended, abomniable, monstrous, against nature. When we speak of cannibals, we miile with pride to think of our superiority to these savages? Who are the savages,?the real savages? Those who fight in order to eat the conquered, or those who fight in order to kill, merely to kill? Those little conscripts who are marching by yonder aie destined to death as certainly as the troops of sheep the shepherd drives alone the same road. They are going to fall in some meadow, with a head split open by a sabre-stroke, or a chest pierced by a bullet; and they arc young men who might be working, producing, being useful. Their fathers are old arid poor; their mothers, who for twenty years have loved them, adored them as mothers adore, will learn in six montns or uyear, pernaps, mat uie sod, the big boy brought up with such care, so much money, so much love, has been thrown into a ditch, like h dead dog, after having been ripped open by a cannon-ball, and trampled on, crushed, pounded into pulp, by charges of cavalry. Why did they kill her boy, her handsome boy, her only hope, her pride, her life? She does not know. Yes?why? War? To fight, to murder, to massacre men! And we have to-day. in our epoch, under our civilization, beneath the aome of science and of philosophy to which we flatter ourselves human-kind has attained, schools where they teach how to kill, to kill from great distances, with accuracy quantities of men at once,?to kill without judicial sentence poor innocent men with families dependent on them A genius at massacre, Von Moltke, replied recently to some peace delegates iu these incredibie words : " 'War is holy, of Divine origin ; it is one of the world's sacred laws; it arouses among men all the noble sentiments, honor, disinterestedness, virtue, and courage, and, in one word, hinders them from sinkiug into the most hideous materialism.' "So, then to gather in armies of four hundred thousand men, to march ! without rest, night and daj', thinking I ntai/l ?! m rw i?an/)Slwv Ui LltJLll I lig, 911IUJ uwtuiu^, lvauiu^ nothing, useful to nobody, coverea with filih, sleeping in mud,*living like brutes in continued mental vacancy, pillaging towns, burning villages, ruining people ; then to meet anotner agglomeration of human flesh, to charge upon it, to make lakes of blood, fields of battered flesh trampled into the mud and muddy earth; to have your arms or legs carted off, your skull smashed, without profiting anybody, and then to die in some fence-corner, while your wife and children perish of hunger?that is what is called 'not sinking into the most hideous materialism!' Soldiers the scourge of the world. We struggle against nature, against ignorance, against obstacles of every kind, to make this wretched life of ours less wretched. Men, philanthropists, scientists, use up their days in working, searching for something to save or soothe their brothers. They go enthusiastically about their useful labors, piling discovery on discovery, enlarging human wisdom, broadening science, giving their country every day some new piece of learning?prosperity, gladness and vitality. Then comes war: in six months the generals have destroyed twenty years of effort, of patience, of genius. This is what iscalled 'not sinking into the most hideous materiailsm!'.... To enter a country, to murder a man who is defending his house, because he wears a blouse, and hasn't a helmet upon his head, to burn down the dwelling of wretches who have no bread to give, to smash furniture or steal it, to drink the wine you find in the cellars, violate the women you find in the streets, burn up millions of francs into ashes, and then march off, leaving behind you desolation and the cholera?that is what is called 'not sinking into the most hideous materialism !'"?Win. Lloyd Garrison. The Camcl'N Hninp*. Structurally, of course, the humps are nothing but mere lumps of fat, collected under a convenient fold of the skin and unprovided for in the framework of the'skeleton. When the animal is well fed, tbey are full and plump, standing on his back firm and upright; but on a long journey they are gradually absorbed to keep up the fires that work the heart and legs, and, in the caravan camels which arrive at the coast, the skin hangs over, an emty bag, upou the creature's flank bearing witness to the scarcity of external food duringthe course of bis long forced march from the interior. A starved, oninll nomol ill tlliu flf more closely resembles a Peru vail llama than any one who has only seen fine, well-kept beasts in European menageries or zoological gardens could readilj' imagine. But water is even scantier iu the desert than food; and against want of water, therefore the camel has had to provide himself, functionally at least, if not structurally, quite as much as against want of herbage. His stomach has accordingly acquirod the power of acting as an internal reservior, and he can take in as much water at the Bahrs or Wadys, where he rests for a while on his toilsome march, as will supply his needs for four or five days together. There are some differences in this respect,b owever, between the two chief varieties of the camel. The Africian kind is most abstemious, and best adapted to sandy deserts; the Bactrain a product of a more varied and better watered country, is larger and stronger but less patient ofhunger and thirst, while at the same time it can manage to subsist aud to make its way into somewhat rockier and more rugged , country. *B> * ? A Very Nodrfil Girl. Speaking of legs and arms suggests to me one of the most inexcusable pieces of prudery possible to conceive, which is the avoidance of the good, honest, and clean old Anglo-Saxon word leu, [ to describe that member of the body. ; I take a malicious satisfaction in using it whenever I am in the presene of the ultra-nice people, who tell about some ; one having broken his "limb," leavj ing less sensitive persons to guess as to , whether it was an arin or a leg that ' met with the mishap. When I was a good deal younger than I am now I was making a stay at a country house > and trying to catch any simple-minded . fish there might be iii the neighbor* ; hood. The farmer wilh whom I boarded had a daughter who taught l school, and was certainly the- most ; painfully proper young person it was ever my'misfortu ne to meet. One evei ningwewere playing cards when she suddenly looked up from her hand and said: "I beg your pardon." "For what?" I asked. "O, it must have been the limb of the table." ? . < i? r wp?w?f! When the Day is Gone. Kow quiet the house is at midnight. The people who talk and laugh and sing in it every day are asleep, and the people who fell asleep in .it long ago come back into it. Evsry house lias these two classes of tenants. Do we love best those with whom we can talk and laugh and sing, or the dear silent ones who come so noiselessly to our side and whisper to us in faint, sweet, far away whispers that have no sound, so that we only hear their very stillness. I am not tired but my pen is weary. It falls from my lingers and I raise my head. I start to leave the table and my eyes fall upon a little book lying on the floor. It is a little "First Reader." He left it there this afternoon. I remember just how I was impatient because he could not read the simple little lesson, such an easy lesson, and I told him it was a waste of my time to teach him, and pushed him away from me. I remember now. I see the flush come into the little tired face, the brave, cheerful look in his eyes, his mother's brave, patient cheerfulness, struggling with his disappointment and pain. I see him lie down on the floor and the little face bend over the troublesome lesson, such a simple, easy lesson, any baby might read it. Then, after a little struggle alone it has to be given up, and the baffled little soldier, with one more appealing look toward^e for re-inforcements, sighs and goes away from the it'ssou ne can not reau 10 tne piay uiai comforts him. And there lies the little book just as he left it. Ah, me, T could kneel down and kiss it now, as though it were living and loving. Why, what was my time worth to me to-day ? What was there in the book I wanted to read, one half so precious to me as one cooing word from the prattling lips that quivered when I turned away. I hate the hook I read. I will never look at it again. Were it the last book in the world, I would burn it. All its gracious words are lies. I say to you, though all men praise the book, and, though an hour ago I thought it excellent, I say to you there is poison in its hateful pages Why what can I learn from books that baby lips can not teach me? Do you know I want to go to the door of his room and listeu; the house is so still; maybe he is not breathing. Why, if between my book and my boy 1 choose my book, why should not God leave me with my books? My hateful books. lJut I was not harsh. I was only a little impatient. Because his lesson was so easy, so simple. Ah me, there were two of us trying to read this afternoon. There were two easy, simple lessons. Mine was such a very simple, easy, pleasant, loving one to learn. Ju9t a line, just a throb of patieuce, of gentleness, of love, that would have made my own heart glow and laugh and sing. The letters were so large and plain, the words so easy and the sentences so short. And I? Oh, pity me. I missed every word. I did not read one line nright. See, here is my copy now ; all blurred and blistered witb tears and heartache, all marred and misspelled and blotted. I am ashamed to show it to the Master. And yet I know that he will be patient with me; I know how loving and gentle he will be. Why, how patiently and loving all these years he has been teaching me this simple lesson I failed to learn to day. But when my pupil stumbled on a single word'?is my time, then, so much more precious than the Master's that I can not teach the little lessons more than once? Ah, friends, we do not waste time when we plait scourges for ourselves. These hurrying days, these busy, anxious, shrewd ambitious times of ours are wasted when they take our hearts away from patient gentleness, and give us fame for love aud gold for kisses. Some day, then, when our hungry souls will seek for bread, our selfish god will give us a stone. Life is not a deep, profound, perplexing problem. It is u simple, easy lesson, such as any child may read. You can not find its solution in the ponderous tomes of the old fathers, the philosophers, the investigators, the theorists. It is not on your hook-shelves. But in the warmest comer of the most unlettered heart it glows in letters Ihat the blindest may read; a sweet, plain, simple, easy, loving lesson. And when you have learned it, brother of mine, the world will be better aud happier.?It. J. Burdetto. Fun Willi a Water Glicss. The mother of a large and enterprising family, gives the New York Tribune the following suggestions: "The children had no end of fun, as well as profit, last summer with a water glass a very simple contrivance, which they took with them on all their aquatic excursions, and which Ihe.v found particularly delighted while bathing in still water. "The idea whs suggested by a friend who had been a great deal in the West Indies, where they use the glasses continually. Our little machine was an elongated box, one by one and a half feet square, open at the top, with a clear bottom for con* venience. Any carpenter can make such a contrivance. By sinking the glass below (he rullled surface of tinwater, the bottom, with all its growth of strange vegateble life and the innumerably queer aquatic creatures, can be distinctly seen as through the glass of an aquarium, and this too at a very considerable depth. t*T?* Hm Wocf TinJnci r*ni? fiMOll/1 told us, they carry out the panic principle by having a glass panel set in their flat-bottomed pleasure boats. This is projected by a sliding panel of wood when not. in use. The effect* must be very beautiful in those tropical regions, where the gorgeous coloring of the "flowers of lhe sea' rival those of the flora of our element, and where the pure white Mind of the bottom gives a wonderful radiance and light." In Favor ok Ducks.?It is printed that Mr. M.K. Boyer, a well-known Pennsylvania poultry breeder, claims that, aside from the meat and egg ducks are valuable on the farm for their manure. It is ofthe richest quality, and ranks next to hog manure. For gardening purposes he finds it excellent. His experience has been that a duck will make a good wheelbarrow load of manure in a year. Every famer should keep a few ducks. The Pekin, Rouen, Cayuga, and Aylesbury ducks are land fowls, and need no bathing water. They are by far the best fowls for a farm. A fricm* induced me to try Salvation Oil for my rheumatic foot, I used It and the rheumatism is entirely gone ignne. John H.. Anderson, Ba'.tmore, Md. Superintendent Talbert of the Pen itentiary has appointed I)r. J. Eugene Jarnigan to succeed Capt. W. H. Sliglt as Captain of the guard at the 1 institutibn; the appointment to take j effect November 1. - ' ' ' " r . ? 1 'ILL! iJ^JL-L^LLt I .'jgGo in to Win. In New York city alone are constantly 40,000 persons out of employment. In other cities the proportion is the same according to population. All ILlCSt! UIIIW1 IUUUIC luvuviuuain pn/ivoo their anxiety to work, to toil for al- . most any price, that they may keep soul and body together. The sole reason why they do not work, they would have it believed, is because the world is against them and will not suffer them to earn an honest living. Try them. Give them employment. It will be found that not one sewing woman in five can run a decent seam. Not a girl in ten of those who profess to do housework can kindle a fire properly. Of the men, not one carpenter in four can be trusted to perform a simple task in woodwork. Not one iron worker in four can do exactly what he professes to do. In large printing offices it is with great difficulty that satisfactory proof readers are secured. Among stenographers and ti pew Titers undoubtedly not one in twenty knows the proper construction of the English 1?, ah nnnitrvK r\f nurrnnf ot/unfe lUII??UUgCy wi CUWU^II V* VUilVIIU W?VUU3 and literature to make a toleroble business letter writer. Probaly a third of them are shaky in their spelling. This is why three-fourths of the unemployed in America are out of work. They are out of work because they have not gone in with all their might to prepare themselves in the best way for what they hava chosen. They did not go in to win. It one who has a task to do puts his soul into it, and resolves that he will do it as well as it can be done, no matter how simple it is, that person will not be long out of employment. The world has its soul vexed out of it because of slovenly work. Life is a burden to those who hire employees, because of things half done. All depends on the spirit with which one starts in life. The winner selects his guture occupation carefully, He ip bound down to no particular rut of success. He only knows that whatever task he hos selected he is going to accomplish it as well as it is possible to do it, and that in the long run he is going to win. He may be forced to change his occupation. But he still knows that in him is good, and faithful work; that there is a field for it some where, and it is his place to find that field. The winner is he who never does slovenly work and never lets himself run down. ??=>?. A Boy's Manner. "His manner is worth a hundred thousand dollars to him!" That is what one of the chief men of the na*: ? J a l.~,. 1 (r? IIWLI 1UICIJ Oil 1 tl UUWUl a WUJ. XI would'nt be worth ho much to one who meant to be a farmer, or who hail no opportunities, but to a young college student with ambitions it is worth at least a hundred thousand." The boy was a distant relati ve of the man, and had been brought up by careful parents iu a far-off city. Among other things he had been taught to be" friendly and to think of oilier persons before himself. The boy was on a visit in the town where the man lived. They met on the street, and the younger, recognizing the elder, proiuply went to his side and spoke to him in his cordial, happy, yet respectful, way. Of course the man was pleased, and knew that anybody would have i een pleased. The sentence bove was the outcome of it. A littie later the boy came into the room just as the man was struggling into his overcoat. The boy hurried to him, pulled it up at the collar, and drew down the wrinkled coat t eneath. He would have done it for any man, the haughtiest or the poorest. Do not misunderstand, boys. You may he'truly unselfish and yet not have this boy's prize. You may wish to do things for others and yet feel that you do not know how. The onlv w!iv fo learn is to trv: to hesitate Cor no feeling of bashfulness or awkwardness, but to put into direct and instanttnneous practice whatever kind, helpful thoughts occur to you. WHY SHOULD NOT MEN SEW ? A Branch or Importnt Knolwortgo lTnfnmilinr to Them. Man's inability to sew has been clasped among his great weakuess ; and if the matter be attentively considered, this proposition will be found hardly so absurd as it at first slight appear.-". Sydney Smith, who wished that he could sew, gave as his reason for coming to the concision that all men should sew, that women are much more cheerful generally than men. This, he said, is because they can work and vary more their employments. Scott also thaught that men should sew. "Ladies are, T think," wrote the Wizzard of the North in ;i letter to Lady Douglas Stewart, "very iortunaie in naving a resource in work at a time when the mind rejects intellectual amusement. Men have no resource but striding up and down the room, like a bird that beats itself to pieces against the bars of its cage; too mechanical to worry Hie mind by distracting it from the pel tits on which its musings turn, yet gradually assisting it in regaining stt adiness and composure." White Hairs. White hairs have been called "flowers of the cemetery;" but is it not better to think of them as a "streak of ihe dawn of the eternal day?" And will not this thought tend to make us more patient and considerate towards those aged servants among whom our lot is east? Often their waiting time is dreary. Old friends and companions have parsed away, and these survivors are among the loneliest of the lonely. Their ways and their habits of thought, cannot be exactly those of younger folk. It will help us to brighten the close of their pilgrimage if we accustom ourselves to look upon them as having already seen "the dawn of the eternal day."? The Quivcr. A true friend is a real pleasure. He who has one friend 011 whose love and fidelity he can rest unquestioningly, is rich above the average of his fellows. l)o you say that >ou have never known such wealth as that, and that you are questioning whether you can ever hope to? Then see to it that at least one person whom you know is thus favored in friendship. Whether you have a friend or not; you can be one; that is your privilege and your duty, in the plan ot God. Positive and unsolicited testimony from every section confirms every claim madefor wonderful the efficacy of Dr. Hull's Cough Syrup. Price 25 cents. A law in Basle, Switzerland, forbids the occupation of a new house until four months after its completion. Good. There are different sorts of human nature. Some are given to discontent and longing, others to securing and enjoying. And let me tell you the discontented, longing style is unpleasant to live with.?Fell'/ Holt. Extracts from the Christian "Neighbor. i Strnlnliif?. Not straining milk, not straining ^ the eyes looking at something, not straining the back lifting at a log, not straining the mind to understand an absurdity nor straining at a guat and swallowing a camel, but sraining at several other things among which may be mentioned, 1. Preachers straining the theme of their discourse beyond its relative importance in the system of doctrine , and duties, 2. Straining voices in preaching, songs and prayer ahead of the leadings of the Spirit. 3. Strained reports about preachers, sermons, meetings and results. "Powerful sermon." "Congregation spell bound,"?strains more or less on this wise. 4. Strained obituaries and funeral sermons, so much so that some of the dead "(if they know such things)" might be in doubt as to whether they or some body else were being written or talked about. There may be, doubtless there is, truth in what is done and said but * it is so often strained?stretched in { width and length that it becomes | thin?two thin. "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God : for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth : therefore let thy words be few." Ecc. v : 2. "Let me notv I pray you, accept auy man's person : neither let me give flattering titles unto man. For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away." Job. xxxii: 22. ? There are many other strains: Straining to acquire riches; straining for office; straining after fashion: straining to outshine competitorsstraining, straining. The world in general is on a strain?a political strain, a"commercial strain, a military strain, a strain of enterprise, a strain of inventions and of numberless organizations. The American world is on a very great strain. So will the world be going when the end comes. With county, State, municipal, national and world's exeihbitions and fail's filling so large a place in the life of American people, it is a quetion of the gravest importance what shall be the relation of these enterprises to die cause of good morals and religion. ( Uxctmnge. Besides those who exhibit in hope of prizes, people go to see and hear; some spend money, others make money; some gamble and lose, others gamble and, win; some pick pockets ; others have their pockets picked; some think the fair on the whole rather a poor thing, others, pronounce it a success; acquaintances are glad to meet one another and exchange their ideas on the exhibits, and they get hungry and thirsty for something to eat and drink?something stronger than water; tliey are suplied, and now what? Horse racing-the excelsior standard of gambling. The smaller gambling concerns do the best they can with the slim?wallet fools who and their money soon are parted, provided the pick pocket does not get his work ahead of the gambler. All this does not help the morals of the people. In point of morals each successive fair lowers the morals of the people so that the praiseworthy exhibits become secoudaryl to' horse racing and other gambling. A State fair should exclude all , exhibits which are not produced ] or manufactured within the State, i even as a County fair should restrict 1 exhibits to its own boundaries. . ? The Trouble With Chill. 1 A dispatch from Valparaiso, Oct. 31, ( states that two of the Baltimore j [Oapt. Schley] sailors had been killed I by the police and others seriously ' molh'aotflii oo thm' vtrora Ar*rrcM*ti to uiaiiivauuu mvj ?? v*v ^ prison. Be thig as it may it will not i do for the United States and Chili to get into war. If the trouble cannot be settled by the diplomats then , let the matter be submitted to arbitra- i tion. Ic would be a downright and lasting disgrace to all concerned if tbe , fray between a few sailors and police- i men cannot be settled neither by diplomacy nor arbitration. Fight? J war? The first thing disputing dogs do is to fight, and that may settle the question as to strength and J endurance, without touching the ' question of right. Let not these two governments act the role of dogs before exhausting wise diplomacy and arbitration. ; Ex-President Hayes and Dr. J. L. 1 M. Curry arrived in Columbia, Nov. 4. J and spent next day in visiting the ] colleges and schools of the city. 4^# The New York Presbytery has dismissed the charge of heresy against, Dr. Briggs. Notice was given of an appeal. A fire in Darlington, Nov. 4, at 4 p. m., caused it is supposed, a loss of $30,000 in buildings and damage to goods. Two|Gfrman|bankers father and son, committed suicide because they had hopelessly involved their bank by gambling. 4^* The truest joy we have in life is in making others glad. The South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is to meet in the town of Darlington, December 2. Bishop Granberry ij expected to preside. Happy is he who speaks little, for words beget accidents, gloom, and interior trouble. War Unnecessary. 3y Augustine Jones in American Advocate of Peacc. Most of us are inclined to take a tindly and charitable view of the last var in the United 8tates. We rejoice n what we conceive to be its results, uch as the destruction of slavery, the jreservation of the unity and integriu nf t.liu nnMnn an^ unociKlv nf i>nn. lituliouai liberty in tYie earth. But ve seldom measure the real cost of the neans used. We lost six hundred ind fifty-six thousands of men, or ibout one-sixth as many as there vere slaves, and three billions and ieven hundred millions of dollars, lot including the loss of the labor and ndustry of tfie vast armies, North and South, during the four years of var. The valuation set on the slaves, at he request of Abraham Lincoln in ? 1862, by members of Congress from he border States, was three hundred lollars each, and assuming their num>er at four millions, which is an over!?tiniute, the value of all the slaves in he United States was one billion and wo hundred millions of dollars, or e99 than one-third of the money cost >f the war. But it is questionable whether the * o9sof men and money was our great* !9t detriment. The subtle moral evil " vhich pervades society and invades ?very household, and is clearly traceible to this source: the record of intreasing crime which blackens the ournals or the land, and takes its date md beginning from 1862; the feversh war spirit which survives in rnilinrv organizations nnH th? mind# /it nen, producing an imminent tenden:y to war, which did not previously jxist; the sectional hatred between the Sorth and South, outlasting generaions:"the contention and bitterness >f conflicts between races and beween castes, makes an accumulation, i sum total of evil, beyond calculaion. The citizens of the whole country lad participated in the proceeds and -esulis of slavery, aud there was an dement of justice in their sharing in he loss. Waving the question or the ,itle or right of property of the elavelolders, and remembering that comjromise must be made where interssts conflict, even in the construction )f governments, and for a stronger . easou iu incidental matters, we reach, he conclusion that compensated 'mancipation was the only wise and proper mode of ending the controversy. It is true that the slaveholders vould not sefl, and we would not juy ; but what either did do, or would lo, is not the question. It is rather what both ought to have done. If >oth sides were proud, passionate and perverse, and for those reasons missed lie true way of adjustment, then their | nistake ought to be held up to the g ieliberate judgment of mankind forever, as a beacon and a warning. The experience acquired should henceforth save its full effect in human affairs! It was largely a struggle for the freeiom of others, and not for our own. [f it might have been avoided, then it 'urnishesa strong foundation for believing that war is an unnecessary ? iviL Abraham Lincoln, wise and far-see- /'< Ing, blessed with special opportunities for clear and distinct views of the issue, and a true understanding of affairs, gave the weight of his great same and judgment to compensated jmaneipation in 1862. He was overjorne by the passions of men, and the Jin of war. But subsequent events have vindicated his wisdom. Our risk was great; we approached much nearer to financial exhaustion than tvas then publicly known. It was a unique war. Slavery whs ? ihe cause. But Slavery itself was a fruit of war, beginning with the cap- & :urein Africa, continuing through tne niddle passage, and the cruel bondage in America. It began, went on, and jnded in violence, and produced vioIpnf. men It has now ceased in nearly every ?|| Christian land; it remains for war, its 'twin relic of barbarism," to follow, md for every sincere Christian to has;en its departure. Recognize High Aspiration. Deep down in the hearts of chiliren of men there are nobler and truir standards of living than their outward lives are wont to exhibit. Many fi persons wait for their fellows to recogaize their higher and better aspirations. He whose higher motives and jeeper longings are unknown may have his best acts misinterpreted j but he whose best spirit is appreciated is more likely to have his acts interpreted by the spirit. A school-teacner, an seeing a young scholar misbehave, 3aid to him ; "I'm sorry you did this, because I had formed a very good opinion of you." The boy went home "? ind confessed to his mother that if he had known wbat a good opinon his teacher bad held of him, be would not have done wrong. Had this teacher said, "I've had my eye on you for 't some time, and now I've caught you," the boy would simply have been confirmed in his suspicion that no one expects a boy to do any thing but the 4Utrt<? T4- ^/\ k.\ a almnlA. WlUllg LlliUg* JLt ULIKUb IU UC ?* oiliiuto matter to show a child or a mau that our first impulse toward him is that of j trust, rather than distrust. And ' ^ when one has gone wrong, he will be ] better helped by our showing that wor 1 appreiate the fact that he has gone wrong in spite of the good we believed 1 him capable of, rather than in accor- * ilauce with our suspicions of him.? Sunday-school Times. rjs How to Keep Your Temper. Ruskin in a letter to young girls J~j says: "Receive the thing that is provoking or disagreeable to you, as coming directly from Christ's hand, and the more it is like to provoke you, thank Him for it the more, as a young soldier would His General for trusting him with a hard place to hold on the rampart. And remember that it does uot in the least matter what happens to you?whether a clumsy echool-fel- J low tears your dress or a shrewd one laughs at you, or the teacher doesn't understand you. The one thing that does matter is that none of these J things should vex you. "Soy to yourself each morning, just after your prayers, 'Whoso forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be | my disciple.' This is exactly and "i completely true, meaning that you j are togive all you have to Christ to ? take care of it for for you. Then, if | He doesn't take care of it, of course | you know it wasn't worth anything. \ And if He takes anything from you, { you know you are better without it. You will not indeed, have to give up houses and lands, or boats or nets; j but you may, perhaps, break your favorite tea-cup or lose your favorite thimble, and might be vexed about it, j but for this second Saint George's pre- -l cept." . While you live right nothing goes wrong. A soul at peace with God ^ cannot be grealy disturbed by the world, for it has its pleasures in God land its blessings from God. "Xjj