Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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o IN CALICO. They've gun* the song of the girl in pink, And the song of the girl in white, But the singers are few who have praised the true Goddess of love and light; The household fairy whom we all know, And knowing her love her the better so? The girl in the garment of calico, Dainty and sweet and bright. The bloom of her cheeks, the light in her eyes,. To hpmitv and title of health: And day after day in a modest way Her neatness is better than wealth. Old-fashioned ? Yes, and we wish her so, For just like her mother in calico. With the gentle traits of the years ago She's taken our hearts by stealth. So, in a nectar of roses, I pledge Our dear girls in pink and white; To their eyes and their hair and their ways debonair I offer my homage to-night; Yes, deep in my heart I feel and know, A loftier feeling continues to grow For the girl in the wrapper of calico, Dainty and sweet and bright. ?John H. Braccland. ?doooooooooooooooooooococc ? ADVENTURE WITH MINIM I o o ooooooooooooooocooooooocoo /.t i f TIE scenes of that night I will never fade froui my | memory," said iny dear friend Parker, as. one evening not long since, he sat. the centre of a pleasant circle at urange. 2sTe\v Jersey. Poor Justin Harrington! How I loved that bojr! For months I had seen that insanity?the dreadful disease that had. wrought so much trouble in the Harrington fam' 1ly?was showing itself' in Justin. There seemed to be actually nothing that friend or relative could do to ar- i rest the fatal disease. To have spoken one word of warning, .or proposed any precautionary measures. would only have driven the poor fellow at once to desperation; so we were compelled to watch him drift out into the sea of hopeless Insanity. He had been giving a succession of .cotfterts In several cities and towns w England, and had made a veKfcuccessful tour, both professionally "And pecuniarily. * That Justin was a natural musician, rrho hurt PVPr t JLiU UUV WU1U UVt??/?. ? hoard him sing or play the violin. As the insidious disease progressed ho seemed to become more and more attached to the little instrument, and it would lmve ma^e your heart ache to have listened to the wails which, in his moments of sadness, he brought forth from the strings. Every emotion the soul is capable of enjoying, suffering, or enduring, he was able to portray. Di tanti paiplte was his favorite instrumental piece, and sometimes I have been compelled to leaVe the room to hide the tears which this faithful delineation of the performer's spiritualized conception of the theme ' would bring to my eyes. One evening, after having delivered a lecture in Worcester. Mass., on my in hnfol nf tlii? nl;jp<v T TVflS informed that Justin was stopping at the same house?that he was us wild as a hawk, and had been calling for me. I went immediately to his room, never for a moment supposing hut what I could soothe and control him. Two of his brothers were below, but he persistently refused to see them. I tried the door and found it locked. "Justin." said I; "Justin, my dear fellow, let me in. It is Parker." t t 1 4\? i 1/*/%! i iH'uru iue nt-j ]/uivcv< iu in*.- iwi\ and in a second u:ore the madman seized my hand, and drew me quickly into the apartment, a'id. to my horror, Immediately locked i lie door, removed the key and placvu it in his pocket. It would not do to betray the least symptom of fear. His eyes shone with a light which was almost demoniacal: and I realized that I had very foolishly thrust myself into a scrape which might furnish a very exciting item*for the morning newspapers. "Well, Justin, how have you been since I saw you last':" I remarked in the usual offhand manner which had always marked cur previous intercourse. "Parker," said he, without deigning to notice my remark, what do ycu keep looking at that door so wistfully for? You are not afraid of your friend Justin?of course not;" and then followed a succession of tantalizing laughs, so infernally fraught that 1 could not help asking myself if devils do not help overthrow the reason in order to take possession of the empty head, and perform their cruel ami vindictive acts. "Why. old fellow," I replied, taking care to look him steadily iw the eye. "did you ever see the man I was afraid of? I think not. And why you should use that word in reference to me, I am at a loss to understand." "Tut. tut, man!?nonsense! Who said anything? It wasn't Justin!?oh. no! It was that ugly devil that slips into my shoes once in a while anil gets the best of inc." "All right." said I. "Now, let's have some music." And I passed him liis violin, hoping it would, as I often had known it to before, soothe and comfort him. "Shall I? Shall IV" he asked, looklug up, while the demon-like expression of liis face chanjjjd to one of in expressible sadness. "Shall I play for Parker?" "Oh. yes." I replied.- "Everybody up there is fond of melody. Why. heaven, my dear boy. is all one grand harmony." "But we are not there yet." was his practical reply; "consequently don't know much about it." He took the violin, petied it a moment. as a mother ?:ii.irlit a slumbering infant, then turned it earet'ully and. with another unturne*. imniorin^ look. commenced to move his how. but not once, through the Ions half-hour that followed, did he allow the how to touch tiie strings. He was just as carnest. just as impassioned, just as full of his subject as 1 had ever seen him. but not one sound came forth. ' "There." said he. as he "nished. "I played thorn!"?(This in a sepulchral whisper). "They asked me. Parker. You-can't sing here, hut the moment your foot touches the green grass over yonder you will sing like a bird. Parker?a bird uncaged?a bird set free, , and everybody will listen. Parker," lit continued, and I wish I could describe that instantaneous change of expression from sadness, almost hopelessness, to defiance and madness. "Par , t 1 ker, how long do you suppose it would j take me to send you to kingdom-come ?that is. to send you in first-class i style, in a masterly manner? To be- J gin with, I should have to take this." uud he drew from his pocket a large jaek-knife and opened the glistening blade, "and get at your heart. I have always believed that the soul was there." And then followed a long disquisition upon the different opinions entertained by philosophers and transcen-. dentalists in regard to the abode of iv.11 ton TT?rh' \fv hlnnil runs oold to think of it. All tli? while his lingers played -with the glistening blade. "In the first place. I shall insert this very delicately, and in a scientific manner dig your heart out and send it home to God. That will be the first i operation. And then (you see I have studied anatomy), I shall unhinge | these fellows." And he caused the I joiuts of the elbow to snap iu a manner truly professional. "And, Parker, you'll never know what hurt you." "I think not," said I, laughing. But, oh. heavens! how I shook inside. "But, what do you think"?and I kept his eye firmly?"what do you think I should betlohig while you are attempting to make mince meat of me? That looks like.;real Damascus." And I threw;4Ui Adjnhgng glance at the horrid thing he* brandishing round his /ace. , "It is." said he,' evraealjjffipssessed with a new idea.' -"Na^^rabb. jj?e what a good marksmj^THS^." tie stood opposite the mirrSr: "T nlm of mm in ihof HflCQ *- UiUi "1. UXJ Upai V Ul . IM4MV See!'' And thfe maniac with a strange, rotary movement of his arm, sent the point of 'the knife .whlzzinp into the very centre of the glass, shivering it into innumerable pieces. . Yon can imagine how I must have felt. He had-now. apt only one weapon he-coi^d^-nise, foc?)Hy destruction, but a thousand. Whflfe should I do? I realised, that I flmst work quickly. With ?? Ilth?gg||X^ movement I picked ap and, muttering raised thfe. iwwsh and dropped it iuto M?Tbstm," sesa i, sternly. "every inmate of this ISpse will think you are di$U!tiL 35foW,^? down on that bed, w6fle ^I/jjlrfck up this glass, You are in iy?far 'stocking feet, and likely to be cut every step you take." [ "Albright," he replied, immediately (obeying. "The devil got the upper hand that time." | I guess I neveif did so much work [ In slxt? seconds, before or since. There I was no knowing how soon he might change his mind. I gathered up every fragment and threw them after the knife. . "NOW I'm going to ring the bell and order something to eat,'' said I, approaching the wire. "This ^8 my room, and I will do that," he replied, jumping from the bed and giving the bell rope a twitch, then stationed himself by the door and called to the one who obeyed the summons: ; "Toast and tea for two, iu a hurry." And then, turning to me, while a sardonic smile overspread his face: "Hygiene, Parker, hygiene! I am a slave to hygiene. A man should always die with his stomach in gofid order. A dyspeptic can never know anything about the kingdom of heaven." "I will take the things," said I. as I hoard the man returning, hoping, in this way, to slip out unharmed and unsuspected. "No, you don't! I'm quite capable ???Anilin<r */. nil* n\\*Il hllsinPSK." | ui aucauiujt, iv ? -,? v .. .. ? He removed the key from his pocket, unlocked the door, stud.with quickness ot' lightning, seized the waiter of eatables, turned and withdrew the key, before 1 could make the least motion to escape. I poured out :i cup of tea and hand| ed it to him. Again that longing, awestruck expression overspread his features. "Shall 1? Shall IV" he moaned, looking heavenward. "No. sir; they say not. They say. 'Justin, you must never more eat." and never more it is." And in tuo twinkling of an eye toast and tea found a resting place beneath the window. Imagine my horror when I found the careless attendant had left the large iron toasting fork beside the plates. 1... n|,?n,?.,?l tlilu O rrlnom nf U llt'll 11'.' WU.Tl ? VVI lliio ?i i?it> v? i fiendish satisfaction shot from his wild j eyes. "Now. Parker." ho hissed elosc tc | my oar, "we'll now see what you wil' j be doing while I am making, not attempting to make mince-meat of your carcass." How the poor fellow had remembered my exact language. "Of course," he continued, "I can not do it as scientifically with this i pronged affair as with the knife, but j you might as well say your prayers, J my boy. Two minutes from this time j 1 shall hold your soul in my baud." "Justin, my dear fellow, that's a nasty weapon to kill a fellow with. I Lot me give you my revolver." "No. you don't!" he roared. "No, j you don't! Now or never! With this j or nothing!" And the maniac bounded j to my side. I seized his wrist and shrieked for j iM'lp. Ill a second more uu* tiuor whs broken in l?,v a party of friends and I was released l'roni my perilous position. and let me tell you I have been mighty shy ever since of crazy folks. ?New York News. "The Allies." Novor. since Xerxes' time, liavo tlift nations of the world gathered their varied armies together as is now the case at Tien-Tsin. Under the walls of that grim old Chinese town English and American, French and German. Japanese^itml Russian, Austrian and Italian fought side by side, hereditary enmities forgotten, vengeance in iheii hearts and the great world's approval I ar their backs. At Leipsie.' in 181!$. Napoleon, with his Fivneh and Polish | troops, faced Hermans. Ausirians.Ilus* j siaus and Swedes, while at Waterloo ' - '* : ' "I mn"l Rllflisll rnc wurMcaii u?u< w ...v.. ?0 Germans. Belgians and Hollanders. In the Crimean war Russia stood against English. Freucli, Turkish and Italian armies, but in none of these conflicts ' were so many or such heterogeneous forces lirought together as in China. The battle of Tien-Tsin might well be t called the l)iittle of the nations, and i the great war now at hand should go down in history as the war of the world against Mongolian barbarism.? Chicago News. DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON. SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE 8f THE NOTED DIVINE. Snbjeot: Profligate Literature?Evil Publication! tli* Greatest Scourge of the TTorlr1_Tt Fills the Prisons and Insane A*ylain??Powrr of the Press. [Copyrf?lit iwou.1 Washington, D. C.?Dr. Talmage sends the following report of a discourse, which j will be helpful to those who liayean appetite for literature and would like some rules to guide them in the selection of books and newspapers; text, Acts. xix, 19 "Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before- all men, and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver." Paul had been stirring up Ephesits with some lively sermons about the sins of that place. Amonc the more important results was the fact that the citizens brought out their bad books and in a public place made a bonfire of them. I see the people coming out with their arms full of Ephesian literature and tossing it into the flames. I hear ?n economist who is standing by saying "Stop this waste! Here are $7500 worth of books. Do you propose to burn them all up? If you don t want to read them yourselves, sell them." "No," said the people; "if these books are not good for us, they are not good for anybody else, and we shall stand and watch until the last leaf has burned to ashes. They have done us a wotld of harm, and they shall never do others harm." Hear the flames crackle and roar! -Well, my/friends, one of the wants of the^cities ia < a great, bonfire of bad books and ' newBpariers. We have enoueh fuel to nyike a blaze 200 feet high. Many of , the to&ljshing houses waold dtf Fell t* throw into the blaze their entire atbekr-or goods. luring forth the insufferable trash and put it into the fire and let it "be known in the nresence of God and aneels and men that you are going to rid your homes of the overtopping and underlying course of profligate literature. The printing press is the mightiest agency on earth for good and for evil. The minister of the gospel standing in the pulpit has a responsible position, but I do not think it is as responsible as the position of an editor or a publisher. At what distant point of time, at what far out cycle of eternity, will cease the influence of Henry ,T. Raymond or a Horace Greeley, of a .Tames Gordon Bennett, or a Watson Webb, or an Erastus. Brooks, or a Thomas Kinsella? Take the overwhelming statistics of the circulation of the uailv and weekly newspapers and then cipher, if vou can, how far up and how far down and how far out reach the influences of the American printing presses. What is to be the issue of all this? I believe the Lord intends the printing press to be the chief means for the world's rescue and' evangelization, and 'I think that the great last battle of the world will not be fought with swords and guns, but with types and presses, a purified and gospel literature triumphing over, trampling down and crushing out forever that which is depraved. The only way to overcome unclean literature ia by scattering abroad that which is healthful.'' God speed the cylinders of an honest, 1n-: telligent, aggressive Christian printing press! I have to tell you that the greatest blessing that ever came to the nations is that of an elevated literature, and the greatest scourge has been that of unclean literature. This last has its victims in all occupations and departments. It has helped to fill insane asylums and penetentiaries and almshouses and dens of shame. The bodies of this infection lie in the hospitals and in the graves, while their souls are being tossed over into a lost eternity! The London plague was nothing to it. That counted its victims by thousands, but this modern pest has already shoveled its millions into the carnal house of the morally dead. The longest train that ever ran over the tracks was not long enough or large enough to carry the beastliness and the putrefaction which have been gathered up in bid books and newspapers in the last twenty years. Now, it is amid such circumstances that I put a question of overmastering impor tance to you ana your iammes. tvn.ii, books and newspaoera shall we read? You see I group them together. A newspaper is only a book in a swifter and more portable Shape, and the same rules which aonly to book reading will apply to newsoaper reading What shall we read? Shall our minds be the receptacle of everything that an author has a mind to write? Shall there be no distinction between the tree of life and the tree of death? Shall we stoop down and dring out of the trough which the wickedness of men has filled with pollution and shame? Shall we mire in impurity and chase fantastic wiil-o'-the-wisps across the swamps when we might walk in the blooming gardens of God? Oh, no! For the sake of our present and everlasting welfare we} must make an intelligent and Christian choice. Standing, as we do. in chin-dcep fictit ous literature, the nuestion that young peonlc are asking is, "Shall we read nove s?'' I reoly there are novels that are pure, good, Christian, elevating to the heart and enobling to the life, but I have s:ill further to say that I believe that seventy-five out of 100 novels in this day arc baleful and destructive to the last degree. A pure work of fiction is history and poetry combined. It is a history of tilings around us, with the licenses and the assumed names of poetry. The world ran never pay the debt which it owes to such writers of fiction as Hawthorne ana MeKenzie and Landon and Hunt and Arthur and others whose names are familiar to all. The follies df high life were never better exposed than by Mis3 Edgeworth: the memories of the past were never more faithfully embalmed than in the writings of Walter Scott. Cooper's novels are healthfully redolent with the breath of the seaweed and the air of the American forest. Charles Kingsley hos smitten the morbidity of the world and led a great many to appreciate the poetry of sound health, strong muscles and t fresh air. Thackeray did a grand work in caricaturing the pretenders to gentility and high blood. Dickens lias built his own monument in his books, which are a plea for the poor and the anathema of injustice, and there are a score of novelistic pens to-day doing mighty work ior Uod and righteousness. Now, I say, books like these, read at right times and read in right proportion with other books, cannot help but be ennobling and purifying, but, alas, for the loathsome and impure literature that has come in the shape of novels like a freshet overflowing an the banks of decency and common sense! They are cominz from some of the most celebrated publishing houses; they lie on your centre table to curse your children and blast with their infernal fires generations unborn. You find these books in the desk of the school mis^, in the trunk of the young man. in the steamboat cabin, on the table of the hotel reception room. You see a light in your _ child's room late at night. You suddenly go in and say, "What are you doing?' "I am reading." "What are you reading?" "A book." Where did you get it?" "I borrowed it." Alas, there are always those abroad who would like to loan your son or daughter a bad book! Everywhere, everywhere. all unclean literature! I charge upon it the destruction of 10,000 immortal, souls, and I bid you wake up to the magnitude of the evil. T . I stand aloof from all books that give false pictures of life. Life is neither a tragedy nor a farce. Men arc not all either knaves [ or heroes. Women nre neither angels nor 1 furies. And yet, if you depended upon I much of the literature of the day, you would get the idea that life, instead of beinn something earnest, something practical, is a fitful and fantastic and extravagant thing. How poorly prepared are that young man and woman for the duties of to-dav who spent last night wading through brilliant passages descriptive of magnificent knavery and wickedness! The nrmn will be looking all day long for his heroine, in the office, by the forge, in the factory, in the counting room, and he will not firtd her, and he will be dissatisfied. A man who gives himself up to the indiscriminate reading of novels will be ncyvcless, inane and a nuisance. He will be fit neither for the store, nor the shop, nor the field. A woman wire gives herself up to {he indiscriminate reading of ^novels will se unfitted for the duties of wife, mother, lister, daughter. There she is, hair dis I heveled, countenance vacant, cheeks pale, hands trembling, bursting into tears at midnight over the fate of some unfortunate lover; "in the daytime, when she ought to busy, p'ariag by the half hour at nothing: bitin' er finger nails into the quick. The c; t that was plain before will be plainei after having wandered through a romance all night long in tessellated halls of_ castles. And your industrious companion will be more unattractive than ever, now that you have walked in the romance through parks with plumed princesses, or lounged in the arbor with polished desperado. Oh, these confirmed no*. 1 readers! They are unfitted for this life, which is a tremendous, discipline. They know not how to go through the furnaces of trial through which they must pass, and they are unfitted for a world where everything we rrm'n wo nrhiove hv hnrd ami lorn? eontinu ing work. Again, abstain from all those hooks which, while they have some good things, have also an admixture of evil. You have read books that had two element* in them?the good and the bad. Which struck yon? The bad. The heart of most people is like a sieve which lets the small particles of gold fall tffrough. but keeps the great cinders. Once in awhile there is a mind like a loadstone which, plunged amid steel and brass fillings, gathers up the steel and repels the brass. But it is generally exactly the opposite. If you attempt to plunge through a hedge of burs to get one blackberry, y?.u will get more burs than blackberries. You cannot afford to read a bad book, however good you are. You say, "The influence is insignificant." I tell you that the scratch of a pin has sometimes produced lock-jaw. Alas, if through curiosity, as manv do, you pry into an evil book your curiosity! is as dangerous as that of ,the man who would take a torch into a gunpowder mill to see whether it would really blow up, or not! , In a menagerie in New York a. man i Cut his arm through the bars of a black leopard's cage, l'hq animal's hide looked so sleek and bright and beautiful. He just stroked it once. The monster seized him, and lie'drew forth a hand torn and manglpd and bleeding. Oh, touch not, evil with the faintest stroke! Though it may be glossy and beautiful, touch it not lest you puli forth your soul torn and bleeding under the clutch of the leopard. , "But." you say, "how can I find out, whether a book is good or bad Without j : reading it?" There is alwavs something i suspicious about a bad book. 1 never ] , knew an exception?something suspicious in the index op style of illustration. This venomous reptile alWays carries a warning ' rattle. Again, absftun from those books which 1 are apologetiejof crime. It is a sad thing 1 that some ofcthe best and most benytiful bookbindery and some of the finest rhet- j ' oric have btta brought to make sin at- i ' tractive. is a horrible thins any* j < how. It is *born in shame, and it dies 1 howling in .the darkness. In this world . I it is scourged with a whip of scorpions, i 1 but afterward the thunders of God's wrath ! < pursue it across a boundless desert, beat- j i ing it with ruin and woe. When you come : < to paint carnality, do not naint it as look- j \ ing from behind embroidered curtains or j through lattice of royal seraglio, but as j writhing in the agonies of a city hospital. Cursed be the books that try to make j impurity decent and crime attractive and ' hypocrisy noble! fhirsed be the books 1 that swaraj with linertines and; despera- j ' does, .who make the brain of the young I people whirl with villainy! Ye authors ] who write them, ye publishers who print 1 them, yetbooKsellerg who distribute them, I shall be cat to pieces, if not by an aroused t community, then at last by the hail of j TTAn/Manrtn wKirtK oVtnll QU'APn t.hP ^ uivmc v uigvauw f ttiiivu owwi? w .. lowest nit of perdition all ye murderers of ( souls. I tell you. though you ma^ escape ) in this world, you will be ground at last ] under the .hoof of eternal calamities, and , you will be chained to the rock; and you ? will have the vultures of despair clawing j at your soul, and those whom you have j destroyed will come r.round to torment j you and to pour hotter coals of fury upon ' your head and rejoice eternally in the j j outcry of your pain and the howl of youi ! | damnation. "God shall wound the hairy . scalp of hira that goeth on in his ties 1 passes." > Much of the impure pictorial literature . is most tremendous for ruin. There is nc J one who can like pood pictures better I j than I do. The quickest and most con- I. ' densed way of impressing the public mind , 1 is by a picture. What the painter does ' by his brush for a few favorites the en- | 1 graver does by his knife for the million. | 1 What the author accomplishes by fifty < pages the artist does by a flash. The best ; ] part of a painting that costs $10,000 you i may buy for ten cents. Fine paintings I 1 belong to the democracy of art.* You do well to gather good pictures in your ( homes. But what shall T say of the prostitution ! of art to purposes of iniquity? These ' death warrants of the soul are at every j street corner. They smite the vision of the young man with pollution. Many {'^ a young man buying a copy has bought hia , 5 pfprnal rlisoomKtnre. 1 There may be enough poison in one bad picture to poison one soul, and that soul ; may poison ten and fifty ana the fifty ; hundreds and the hundreds thousands until nothing but the measuring light of , eternity can tell the height ard depth and : ghastliness and horror of th'. great undoing. I The work of death thot the wicked j author does in a whole bojlc the bad engraver may do on a half side of a pic- I torial. Under the guise o( pure mirth the j young man buys one of these1 sheets. He ; unrolls it before nis companions amid : roars of laughter, but long after the paper j is gone the result may perhans he seen in | the lilasted imaginations of those who : saw it. j The queen of death holds n banquet i every night, and these periodicals are the ; invitation to her guests. Young man, buv not this moral strych- J nine for your soul! Pick not up the nest of coiled adders for your pocket! Patronize no newsstand that keeps them! Have your room bright with good engravings, but for these outrageous pictori- ' als have not one wall, one bureau, not ' ' one pocket. [ j A man is no better than the pictures ; . he loves to look at. If your eyes are not j < pure, your heart cannot be. At a news- : stand one can guess the character of a I man by the kind of pictorial he pur- | . chases. j . When the devil fails to get a man to | ; fnnd rt Imrl hnrtlr. hp sometimes succeeds I ' iii getting him to iook at a ba?l pietu-^. j ! When satan goes a-fishing. he does not ! care whether it is a long line or a short ! line if he only draws his victim in. Be- 1 ware of lacivious pictorials, young man, | in the name of Almighty Cod, I charge > you! 1 Cherish good books and newspapers; j I beware of bad ones. The assassin of Lord i Russell declared that he was led into 1 crime by reading one vivid romance. The consecrated John Angell .Tames, than whom England never. produced a better , man. declared in his old nge that he had f never got over the evil effects of having : for fifteen miuutes once rend a bad hook. I , Hut I need not go so far cfT. I could tell | . you of a comrade who was great-hearted, r.r?ht? nnrl rrmiprivis. He WilS stlldvinz for \ an honorable profession, but lie had an 1 infidel book in his trunk, and iie said to me one day, "De Witt, would you like i ' to read it?" I said, "Yes; I would." I ! took the book and read it only for a few ' minutes. I was really startled with what ' 1 saw there, and I handed the book back 1 to him and said, "You had better destroy that book." No; he kept it. lie read it. He reread it. After a while he gave up i religion as a myth. He gave up God as : j a nonentity. He gave up the Bible as a | , fable. He gave up the church of Christ | as a useless institution. lie gave up good ( morals as being unnecessarily stringent. I have heard of him but twite in many years. The time before the ln<t I heard of him he was a confirmed inebriate. The last I heard of him he was coming out of an insane asylum, in body, mind and soul an Rwful wreck. I believe that one infidel book killed him for two worlds. ( Go home to-day and look through your library, and then, having looked through 1 your library, look on the stand where you I keen your pictorials and newspapers and apply the Christian principles i have laid l down this hour. If there is anything in < your home that cannot stand the test, do riot give it a way. for it might" spoil an i immortal soul. Do not sell it, for the i i 1 . n?.ioa n f I S money you got wouui ol- mc ? .blood, but rather kindle a fire on your i ' kitchen hearth or in your back yard and I i then drop the poison "in it, and tjie bon- i ! fire in your citv shall be as consuming I I as that oae in fipheaua i GOD'S MESSAGE TO MAN. PRECNANT THOUCHTS FROM THE . WORLD'S CREATEST PROPHETS. TJio Heavenly Lif? of Love?Cli rial ianlt.r It* Own 1'roof?Skilled Labor for tlio -Muster? Hotter to Avol<l Than HchtA l'rayer of SI. Auselm?Out of the Knt Do yoti long f?r heavenly life, Free from blighted sin and strife? You can have it here. Iu it.you-can live today; Take it with you all the way To a higher sphere. Heaven may in your spirit rest Day by day to make it blest, Filling life and soul, With God's overflowing love; Holding you from sin above In love's sweet control. Would you Christ's disciple'be? (Man divinely gifted hei. Would'.vou follow him? Seek not in professions long, Not in spoken prayer or song, Nor in pious hymn; But by living in the light, His example keep in sight, Resting in his love. .Toying in this gift of God, Earthly life, where Christ has trod, Leading souls above. ?The'Rev. Mary C. Billings in Universalist Leader. Christianity Its Own I'roof. Christianity is essentially life, and life is essentially indefinable?its one proof i3 itself. It is proves that it is. So Christianity is proved by the Christian. The fruit proves the tree. Many are scum mm i?r jiruuia <uu</u^ iuum w*. buried cities, in fragmentary records of ilead empires, in the cuneiforms and h?'iroglyphs of lost tongues, and are try ing to trace its beginning in moral protoplasm and its development through all moral and religious evolution. But essential life is not proved that way. No man can afFord'to wait and delay action till he can settle for himself all the questions that are raised concerning the Hook of Books. "Life is too short and the process too wasteful. "By. J heir fruits ye shall know them." Tin? Christian is the living fruitage of Christianity. He stands the most advanced and liighpst of the foremost phalanx of humanity. He is the miracle of spiritual life, lie ia t>f purest morals, firmest integrity, truest benevolence, broadest philanthropy, ind deepest self-sacrifice. The world has noted this spirit in men for centuries, and has come to give to it the title >f Christianity. It demands these proofs ot genuineness in those who call themselves Christians. As Jesus pointed to His Works, such as "none-other man iid," as proof of Plis divine character ind mission, so now He points to His liscinles and says. "These are they that testify of Me:" and to His followers He says, "Ye are My witnesses." Skilled I-ubor for the Master. Phillips Brooks was the chosen one to tell Helen Keller of God. With one soul as his parish, he did as faithful Intellectual and spiritual work a* when he preached to the crowds under the great an tern of Trinity. His letters to that aright soul shut up in a maimed physical organism will be read when many of his jreat sermons are out of print. From pillage and country congregations have :omc great statesmen, great generals, jreat preachers, who told, as Patrick Henry did of Samuel pavies, that the nifhtiest intellectual and spiritual inspiration of their lives came from the nan of God who fed both brain and leart from the pulpit of a small parish. Such preachers are the tutors of kings. S'athan never spoke with more power ;hai\ when he turned David's thoughts jack to his flocks, and to just such a ewe amb as he had often borne in his bosom ivhen caring for those "few sheep in the wilderness"; for there he had first earned of God. How much of the moral safety of the nation is in the keeping of :he faithful preacher whose parish is his world! It was just such a man as Chau:er paints in iniperisable Hues that moisten many an eye with their tender memories, as he tells of "his good man )f religion," whom lie calls "the poor Person of a town," of whom it is said,? 'Chr'st'* lore, and his apostles twelve, tie taught, and first he followed it him seitv ?Bishop Eugene R. Hendrix, in "Skilled Labor for the Master." Better to Avoid Than Fight. c If n temptation can he honorably Lvoided, it is far better than to meet it n a face-to-faro fight?and less likely to esult in lifetime scars. There were two ivays in which the ancients kept from riclding to the music and ultimate de(triiclion of the Sirens. One was that of L'lysses, who fortified himself with jonds that heid him fast t*> the mast ivhile his boat carried ?him, listening, by :he tempting strains. The other was ;hat of the .Argonauts, who carried Orjlieus with them in their boat, and who svere so engrossed in listening to his nusic that they never heard the sounds 'roin the fatal shore. They bore through ife no memory of the tempters' allurenents, as Ulysses did. The man who van keep his mind and body so occupied ,vith tin; botior things that he has no :ime for unnecessary conflict with the levil is going to be the greatest power "of good in the Lord's service. Hut if he ti?rht must bp fought, then let him brow himself against the foe with all he strength that legions of angels can five.?S. S. Times. A Prayer of St. Anfu*!m. O God, thou art Life, Wisdom, froth, Hounty and Blessedness, the Internal, the only true fJond! My ind my Lord, thou art my hop* and my leart's joy. I confess, with thanksgiv.. _ *1 i. . .* .. 1..... ii.:.... iiiai i in mi hum mane nsc hi 1:11:11: mage that I may direct all my thoughts :o thee, and !ovi> tlito. Lord, make me :u know thee aright, that 1 may more ind more iove and enjoy and possess liee. And since, in the life here below, [ cannot fully attain this blessedness, let t at least grow in me day by day, until t all lie fulfilled at last in the life to omo. Here be the knowledge of thee ncrease'J, and there let. it lie perfected. [Icre let my love to thee grow, and here let it ripen: that my joy being here jr<*at in hope may there in fruition be nade perfect. Amen. The only reason that many people give lor dolmr anything in a certain way is hat it has always been done so. And that s often no reason, or the poorest reason iiat can l?e given: for. following out to ts logical conclusion. tli:if would make ill change impossible and carry us hack :o the I>ark Ages. when nearly everything was not only wrong. l>ut was done ii a wrong way. A disposition to resist -hauge in (bought am! practice is the miuovable impedimenta that stands in the way of Christian thought and reform. Many Christians live and do in this tvorhl as if religion was hut a by-business and 'his world the one thing necessary: when indeed, all the things of the world are but things by tin* by. ami relisrion only the one thing needful.? ighn liiinyan. A NOISELESS ftOWDER NQW. It in Also Smokeless, ?ncl it Mould?r In an Iron Works lift" Invented It. A noiseless and smokeless gunpowder has been invented by .John Hohnenengel, a Ueriuan, of Hazlelon, 1'enn. lie is employed as a moulder in the llazleton Iron Works, nut is ot an inventive vum 01 mind, and has some knowledge of chemi. pais and explosives. At a private exhibition given a few days ago the practicability of his discovery was made apparent. A shell loaded with his powder was tired at ii target lifiv yards away. The only sound indicating the explosion was the falling of the nlungcr on the shell. The bullet struck the target, an inch board, and went clear through it. I THE"SABBATH SCHOOL I ?.,?ru IN I tHNAIIUNAL LtS3UN wvwiivicri i .a FOR AUGUST 19. Subject: The Man Born Blind, John !* , 1-17 ? Golden Text: John 1*.. 28 ? Memory Veriei, 4, 7 ? Commentary on the Day's Lesson. 1. "As Jemis passed by." When the JewB took up stones to stone Him (Chap. 8:59) Jesus eluded them and passed out into the city where He was joined by His disciples. "Saw a man." Jeaua.waa most observant. He also knew where to look to find those who needed His help. "Blind from his birth." Of the six miracles connected with blindness recorded in the gospels thid is the only case described" as blindness from birth. Blindness is common in Palestine. At Gaza, for instance, it is said that one-third of the population have lost one or both eyes, but it is difficult to find any born blind. 2. "Who did sin." Scripture teaches that all disease, and even death, is the result of sin. The Jewish error consisted in believing that all special afflictions were divine visitations for special sins. This error Jesus corrected. "This man." If this man had sinned before his birth it must have been in a "pre-existent" state. The doctrine of transmigration of souls was quite general both among the Greeks and Asiatics. The idea is absurd. What the Bible teaches is that the race is fallen be cause ot Aoam 3 sin. 3. "Neither." Our Lord does not assert the sinles8ne3H of the man's parents, nor his own, by these words: He denies that his calamity sprang from the sin of either. "Works of God?manifest." Not that this man wan boYn blind for the sole purpose that a miracle might be wrought but that his blindness furnished the occasion for Jesus to perform the divine work of healing him. God is not responsible for sin and its consequences, but both afford Him an opportunity to show His grace and . power. 4. "We must work," etc. (R. V\) By the plural "we," as given in the R. V., Jesus associates Ilis apostles with Him in the work. It is encouraging to think that "we," poor, weak men, can be "workers together with Christ." "While it is day." The day of life's opportunity is rapidly passing; the night of death will soon be here, and our work will be ended. What we do must be done quickly. 5. "As long as I am in the world." Christ was the light of the world while He was here, and He has continued to be the light of the world since He went into glory. He still opens blind eyes and gives both the abilitv to see and also furnishes il.. 1*1. j. U L i.1 ulc likm, uy which cney sec. 6. "Made clay?annointed." Jesus shows His power by proceeding, in His own way, to heal the man. Notice, 1. There is no connection between the means used and the effect produced. 2. Christ came into physical contact to attract attention and to stimulate faith; where fcith was in lively exercise He healed by.His word, and at a distance. Christ appeals to two of the man's senses, his hearing and feeling, thereby arousing faith. 7. "Go, wash. Hero was a test of his faith and obedience. "Siloam." A fountain under the walls of Jerusalem toward the east, between the city and the brook Kidron. "By interpretation, sent." The pool,by its very name was a typQ of Christ. "He went?and washed." He believed and obeyed. We frequently lose God's best gifts because we fail to act in time. "Came, seeing." The cure was iostanta- ; neous. What a wonderful deliverance! 8. "Which before had seen him." There was an immediate stir among the neighbors; they noticed the great change in the 'man. The same is true when Christ gives spiritual eyesight. "And begged." This is the first mention of the fact that he was a beggar. He must have been well-known, i 9. I am he." Jesus had met and healed the man on Friday night, at the beginning of the Sabbath (McFarland), and the neighbors had not seen him go to pool, so that on the next morning they were hardly able to believe their senses. But the man himself gave a positive testimony. . , 10. "How?opened." His neighbors gathered around him and asked for an explanation. Many are anxious to know how things are done, even though they have no faith. 11. "He answered." He had never seen his neighbors before, but now looking j ricrht at them he delivers this wonderful ! testimony to the power of Christ. It ig I short, clear, positive. "A Man." First he knew Him only as "the Man" (R. V.) called Jesus, then as a prophet (v. 17), then as a man with whom God was (v. 3133), then He was the Son of God. Vs. 35-3&. 12. "I know not." Had lie known where Christ was he would, no doubt, have gone at once to see his Deliverer. 13. "Brought to the Pharisees." The neighbors finding the ease involved in mystery took the man to the Pharisees, perhaps to the Sanhedrin, who proceeded to investigate the miracle by questioning the man and by calling hid parents to testify. 14. "The Sabbath day." They hated Jesus, and were continually trying to find something against Him. The hypocritical rulers pretended to take great offence because our Lord performed this act of mercy ?n the Sabbath day, and thus ignored their traditions. 15. "Then again." They were crossquestioning him and trying to get him confused, but he knows what has been done j and is able to tell it. 16. "Kcepeth not." Jesus kept the Sab- i bath according to the spirit and letter of the law, but He did not and would not I L-ni-.n it ncporflintr to their traditions. "A ! division." And so it will always be; Christ j causes a separation between those who receive and those who reject Him. 17. "He is a prophet." He decided that ; He must be a prophet or He cojjld not have opened his eyes. This did not satisfy the I Pharisees. They try to discredit the facts, I and to prove that the cure was impossible, because on the Sabbath. But, thanks to J the Jews, they established the miracle beyond a doubt, and by excommunicating the man they opened the way for him to find Christ. Teachings.?This blind man was a type of a sinner receiving spiritual sight. Jesus is the light of the world and is able and willing to enlighten the darkened mind i and let the sunshine of His love flood the soul. We lose a great deal by not obey- I ing God at once. Let us always be ready j to bear faithful testimony to Christ. .Jesus ' used means to aid the faith of the blind man, and it is our duty to use the means God has put within our reach. HICH KITE FLYING. An altitude of 15,000 Feet Reached at itlue Hill? Hreaks the Record. Another record for high kite flying was established at Blue Hill, near Boston, when a height of IS,000 feet, or sixty feet more than three miles, was reached with a line of six kites in tandem. Five of the kites were of an improved box pattern ' and one a ribbed kite. The greatest height was reached with four ana threequarter miles of steel piano wire used as a flying line. The temperature .at the highest point was about thirty degrees, while at tiie sea level it was eighty. The velocity of the wind was about twenty-six miles an hour and the atmosphere was very dry. No clouds were encountered by the kites, which could be seen from the observatory. WARHEAD TORPEDO TEST. Clew Up a Itoek OfT Kewpntr, una nxpertinent Cont $"500. For the first time in the history of the use of torpedoes by the navy a W hitehead fitted with a warhead, charged with ninety pounds of guneotton, has been fired for a test. The firing was done off the south end of Prudence Island, near Newport, R. I., the target being a rook on the shore. The range was 600 yards, and the torpedo made a fine run, striking the rock under water, and blowing it all to pieces. The test cost the Government in the neighborhood of $2500. .rCotnnftnlnn Jew* Coining to America. The majority of the young folks among the Roumanian Jews appear to have made up their minds to emigrate to North and South America. A number of them have started to make the journey as far as Hamburg on foot. , ? - s\ ????? MkJ TIE GREAT DESTROYER^ , SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE. Cost Faith In Each Other?How the Firs* ( Drink Destroyed Human Confldenc* and Wreelced ProuaUInc Careers? Dan? Kets That Beset a Man In Political Lit? A Springfield politician tells a queer jtory of how two former members or the Legislature took to drink. "Two young fellowa from the Congressional .district where I used to live/' said ae, "were elected to the las&iriature from idjoimng counties. One--w*9Elected one term ana re-elected the'-tte*t;< 'The other was first elected at tne.. beginning of his friend's second term. Th?"-two-term man was Bill?I won't tell you his last name.* The other's first name was Joe. "Bill and Joe had been playmates in jouth?they were related distantly, I ;hink?and each had a high opinion of the >ther. Neither drank?that is, before they took their first drinks?but I am getting ihead of my story. -If anyone had said a nean thing about Joe, Bill would have (nocked him down. If anyone had told Toe that Bill had ever taken a drink, the ^former's head would have been punched. Sach thought the other incapable of a nean act, and, as a matter of fact, it would have been hard to find two finer foung fellows. "Bui had a bad cold the. first day of the lew/session, and I advised him to take a lot whisky. He didn't like the idea, and I have never forgiven -myself for insisting ;hat it was the only thing to brace him up. We can't go to the saloon, though,' said le, and I agreed with htm. I then took lim t9 a place in behind a grocery store, a lamou's resort for politicians who want to jet a bit without being seen in a saloon. "Piled up along every wall of the rear oom were Darrels. There were a hundred >arrels of strong drink in the place. The jartender?if you could call the man that vhcre there wasn't any bar?drew a fairlized whisky for Bill and one about the uze pf a house for me. Just as we ilinked our glasses and put them to our ins I saw a look of ashv paleness come >ver Bill's face. I followed his eyes, which vere toward the door, and there was Joe, vith a glass in his hand, ready for a drink. \ remark from a man near Joe did the uisiness. " 'I told you we'd find Bill here,' he aid to Joe, intending it as a joke. Both nen looked white, and nothing oould have :onvin?ed Joe that Bill hadn't been in the labit of spending his time among all those >arrels boozing. I later learned that Joe lad also had a cold, and that his friend brought him in the same way I had Bill. I found it out too late, however. I'he mischief. had been done. From that I .ime forward each doubted the other. Both tried to explain, but neither believed :he other. The upshot of it was that both ost their faith in human nature, and ultinately both really took to drinking. It vas a little at a time at first, but the tmount increased until finally they became nerely good fellows. Both voted for a bad >iece of legislation later, and were de'eated for renomination.' ?Chicago Daily N'ews. Total Abntlnence Desirable. The London Clinic says: "Recentlv a ihairman of a hospital DCjatJlfr-refused to :onfirm the appointment oi V^noted physician on the staff of the hospital, because t was found that he was a moderate and I :ontinuous drinker. He gave as a reason ;hat his pecuniary interests had always luffered when placed in the care of drink;rs, and he could not consistently vote to five larger and more sacred responsibilities ;o the care of similar persons. "This sentiment distinctly outlines tha . growing conviction in all business circles, jutside of moral considerations or theories. vVithin a few years a great change has I :aken place in all the Eastern cities concerning the competency of men who us^ ipirits. The manufacturer, the jobber, the retailer, even the distiller, brewer and re;ail liquor dealer, demand total abstainers :o do their own work. On the great ocean iteamers total abstinence was the rule when at sea, but recently several large :ompanies have enforced rigid laws, makng it part of the officer's qualifications :hat he be a total abstainer, ohoyld he be .een drinking anywhere, on duty or off / luty, he is to be discharged'at once. The Vlayor of an Eastern city announced to the Common Council in his first message that i le would oppose every nomination of offi:ials who were not total abstainers. "He also said that for years he had re- 7, 'used to employ drinking men in his busiiess, and the public was entitled to the tame careful service. These examr' is are ncreasing yearly in every part o! the iountry, and are above all sentiment, and ire simply the dictates of bitter expediences and facts that have only one meanTiff."' t Corn For Dmnkenn?*?. No one can he cured of drunkenness?ot iny kind?until he really wants to be :ured. His body may be pumped full of lostrums, but he will remain a drunkard it heart until he takes the will-cure, and leases to look longingly after his sin and iee how close he can get to it without 'ailing into it again. Second, keep away from temptation. If / our sin came through the dance, do not ;ven look at a dance again. If from gambing, do not touch a pack of cards even when no stake is played for. If from itrong drink, do not even read tne papers that advertise liquors. Third, cram your life with healthy interests. Hard work is one of the best spe:ifics against intemperance?a veritable ?old-eure. Fourth, and finally, though first of all in importance, do not trust in your own Dwn strength. Appetite is a fearful thing. 3od, who made it, is the only one that can master it, as any one may prove. No drunkard has falien farther into beastliness than many of those who have "stretched lame hands of faith" out of their pits, and have met the answering hands of God. There is no depth of sensuality, of passion, of folly and despair that His mercy can not sound. ? American Friend. A Comparison. In 1877 it was found that over twenlytwo persons in the million died from typhoid fever .'n-Liverpool. There was great excitement ever it. and better sanitation ,,",e wif-li tl?r* rfwuit that the per centage was reduced in 1S!W to two in the million. In 1877 the s;trne investigation showed that over fifty-throe in the million were being killed by alcoholism, and this dpes not include diseases resulting from drink, such as cirrhoses, amounting to 300 in the million, but instead of excitement and the adoption of means to stop this the number of saloons has been increased yearly. The killing off of people's near relatives by drink does not appear to stir them to action. And if the family crimes, cruelties and heartburnings will not rouse people, what win??Royal Templar. The Cruftade In llrief. The Sons of Temperance, an English society, has an adult membership of 42,775, a gain on the year of 2309. Every moderate drinker could abandon the intoxicating cup if he would, every inebriate would if he could. Dunns; the last twenty years the deaths from alcoholism in Great Britain have increased eighty-two per cent, among men and 14-3 per cent, among women. A New York paper wants drunken men kept out of street cars. Why limit the exclusion to street cars? asks the Chicago Times-IIerald. Why not bar drunken men out of everything, everywhere? Every saloon at Tullahoma, TVnn., lias been placed under the legal ban charged with Sunday liquor selling. Horace Greeley once said: "Show me a drunkard who does not use tobacco, and I will show you a white blackbird." Rev. C. D. Crane, of Portland. Me., thus explained the other day why so many Maine officials nermit the illegal sale of liquor: "They know that we will continue to vote as we pray?that is. with our eyes shut." Through the aggressive work of the Illinois Christian Citizenship League the vote against license in Hloomington. a city of 25,000. was increased last year from 17." to 1760. The liquor vote was only 130 greater. The work of the lcazii.? '? being extended to othef cities.