The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, June 05, 1901, Image 7
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C81l?ITIi IMPRISON
Convicts Say That Their Attorney
Aided,and Advised Them,
LAWYER PLACED UNDER ARREST
J. L. Semjilc, of Camden, X. J? Accused
of Inducing Two Members of the Jacobs-Itendlc
Gang to Make Eojjrns
Money in Moyamenslng Prison ? SI
Xotes Washed and Issued as 820 Bills.
Philadelphia.?An alleged conspiracy
to hoodwink and defraud the Government
was unearthed when Secret Service
Chief Wilkie arrested John L.
Seraple, a prominent criminal lawyer,
of Camden, X. J., on a charge of conspiring
with others to make counterfeit
twenty-dollar Hamilton head silver
certificates.
At a hearing before Commissioner
Edmunds, Arthur Taylor and tfaiawm
S. Brcdell, who are awaiting sentence
for complicity in the famous KendigJacobs-Ingham-Newitt
counterfeiting
case, testified that upon Semple's advice
they have been engaged in counterfeiting
while in Moyamensing Prison.
Upon their evidence Semple was
held in $10,000 bail.
Taylor and Bredell are regarded as
amoug the most expert engravers in
the world. They were arrested April
20, 1S9D, and committed to Moyamensing
Prison as counterfeiters. Just after
their arrest, in the presence of Semple.
the prisoners told Chief Wilkie
that the plates for a ten-dollar Sheridan
note were at Snow Hill, Md. These
were dug up by Sccret Service men,
but the Government refused to take
this surrender as an act which should
be reciprocated with a small sentence
for the Kendip-Jacobs affair.
Later, according to their story. Sem
pie visuea xayior ana oreueu iu prison.
and advised them to start making
twenty-dollar Hamilton head counterfeit
note. They were furnished materials
anu stealthily engraved the
plates right in jail. The job was begun
in December, 1S99, and ended in
April, 1900.
Piece by piece a small press was
smuggled into the cell, and while
guards paced the corridor the prisoners
kept it going, turning out bogus
money. Then Harry Taylor, Arthur's
brother, it is said, would smuggle the
notes from jail, and pass them, in company
with Daniel R. Hayes, both of
whom are also under arrest. The
paper upon which the $20 notes were
made were one-dollar silver certificates
that had been treated to a process
of "washing out."
"One 'day Mr. Semple was down,"
said Taylor, in the course of his testimony,
"and we had several impress
sions on Japanese paper of the twentydollar
Hamilton-head note. He asked
us if we could print more. We told
. him we could print twenty-dollar notes
from the new one-dollar notes. He
said if we could give him a check for
$150 he would get us $150 worth of
one-dollar notes with which to print
the twenties. Semple gave us the $150
WAiifK in fhrna lrvtc Thic "TTH Q QOmO
time in April, 1000.
"The bills wore cleaned off, making
practically new* paper. Then we went
to work and made 100 new $20 bogus
bills. About fifty of these were destroyed
in experiments. We showed
some to Semple. He said they were
very good, and that no trouble would
be experienced in selling them. Ten
of those same notes were missed when
he left the cell.
"I gave the bills to my brother to
Circulate. He came down on Monday
or Tuesday. A few days later my
brother was arrested for circulating I
some of the notes. Semple came to
me and asked me not to tell anybody
of his (Semple's) conucction with the
case.
"Bredell and myself made up a
scheme to hide the plates and send a
letter to the authorities. Then, when
they came to see us. we would refer
iuc omciuis iu uur uuuiuc>, ocuijwc. .
Semple advised us as to various steps
we should take in tlie scheme."
Scrapie absolutely denied the charges
at the hearing.
PINE TREES ATTACKED BY WORMS. I
Said to Be as Dangerous to Human Being*
ai Moccasin Snakes.
White Plains. Va. ? The pine trees
throughout this section of Virginia are
being attacked and the leaf or tag
eaten by countless numbers of a species
of "worm, the identity of which is
at present unknown. '
A boy bitten by one of them recently
was thrown into convulsions and his
life was saved only by the aid of a
physician. The doctor says they are
as dangerous as a moccasin snake.
Specimens have beeu forwarded to
"Washington to determine if possible to
what species they belong. It is feared
that the trees may be killed by these
jests.
Battleship Ohio Launched.
The battleship Ohio was successfully
launched at the Union Iron Works,
at San Francisco, Cal. It was estimated
that fully 50.000 people saw the big
Ship plunge into the water, President
McKinley attended the launching and
made a speech to the employes of the
Iron works.
Manuscript Bible Brings 86000.
A manuscript Bible, richly illuminated,
of about the year 1410, was sold
at auction in London for about $0000.
Yacht Independence Takes the Water.
Thomas W. Lawson's cup yacht, the
Independence, was successfully
launched at Boston.
Japan Gets Korean Lease.
According to advices from Seoul,
the Korean Government has leased to
Japan 450 acres of land to form a settlement
at Mesampho. The land in
question was formerly sought by Russia.
Ends Onr Campaign in China.
General Chaffee, at Pekin, issued his
farewell order ending the American
. relief expedition in China. The American
troops board the transports at
Takn, and sail direct for Manila.
Labor World.
The striking carpente.s at Waterbury,
Conn., have won.
Cotton mills of importance in France
will close on June 15 indefinitely, to
lessen the output.
The tramway strike, which has continued
at .vladrld, Spain, for some
weekB, has been declared off.
The Pauguzett Textile Mills, at De"by,
Conn., have shut down as the result
of a strike of women workers.
An amicable settlement has been
reached with the Illinois Central machinists
who had threatened to
tfcrlka.
DYNAMITER SELF-KILLED
Man Suspected of Wrecking- the
Cambridgeport Bank a Suicide.
Tolice Pay He Tried to Destroy a Clicck?
for which no tiau ^ciiusu
in the Institution.
Cambridge, Mass.?While iu the custody
of Chief Inspector Murray on
suspicion of being the man who
wrecked the interior of the Cambridgeport
National Bank with dynamite.
Fred C. Foster, a carpenter,
shot himself through tho breast, and
died a few minutes later. Suspicion
was directed against Foster first
when Theodore Raymond told the
police that he had seen Foster on the
stairway df the bank building shortly
before the explosion occurred.
In consequence of the statement
of Mr. Raymond and other circumstances
the police visited the home of
Foster and asked him to accompany
them to police headquarters. The
man went willingly enough, and was
in consultation with Inspector Murray.
Chief of Police Cloyes and Special
Officer Cox.
The detained man was asked di
rectlv if he had anything to do with
the blowing up of the Cambridgeport
National Bank, and he answered
firmly that he was responsible in no
way for the explosion. He admitted
that he had been purchasing stock
lately. Recently he purchased 1100
shares of the National Tire Inflater
Company stock, and as payment for
this drew a check for $1100 on the
Cambridgeport National Bank. This
check, it was learned at the b#nk.
passed through the usual channels,
and arrived in Cambridge, where it
was declared worthless.
Foster also admitted that several
weeks ago he drew up a check for
$450 on the Cambridgeport ban": as the
receiver of the Harvard Lodge. Ancient
Order of United Workmen, and was
payable to the Treasurer of the Supreme
Lodge. When it came into the
' possession of the Cambridgeport bank
the officials discovered that the funds
llnm?nn/1 T a/Iata intmcfo/1 +f* thOTTl
were not sufficient to meet a check for
$450. and they protested the paper.
After the consultation Foster expressed
a desire to see his wife and
Inspector Murray accompanied him
home. On reaching the house Foster
kissed his wife and asked her to take
good care of the children. He also
told her that the police could never
prove that he was the man that had
caused the bank to be blown up. In
a few moments he remarked that he
would like a drink of water and wont
into the dining room with Murray
about two yards behind. Suddenly
Foster pulled a revolver from his
pocket and Shot himself. He made
no statement at the hospital.
Assuming that the man had placed
the dynamite on the stairway of the
bank building the police are unable to
say whether it was done with the intention
of destroying the protested
check for $1100 or with the expectation
of being able to obtain money
with which to meet the payment of
the check. They are inclined to accept
the former theory as the more
Dlausible.
PUNISHMENT OF THE CADETS.
Men Dismissed and Suspended Leave the
West Point Military Academy.
West Point, N. Y.?Captain Edward
Anderson, officer in charge for
the day. notified five cadets of the
Military Academy that they had been
summarily dismissed, and six others
that they had been suspended for one
year. All of the men immediately
left West Point, with scarcely an opportunity
to say good-bye to their
comrades.
Those dismissed were Henry L.
Bowlby. of Crete. Fourth Congressional
District of Nebraska; John A.
Cleveland, of Linden. First Congressional
District of Nebraska: Traugett
F. Keller. New York City, First Congressional
District of New York: Raymond
A. Linton, of Saginaw. Eighth
Congressional District of Michigan:
Birchie 0. Mahaffey, of Texarkana,
Fourth Congressional District of Texas.
Those suspended were Olan C. Ale
shire, of La Harpe, Fifteenth congress
District of Illinois; Benjamin E.
McClellan, of Tallulah. Fifth Congress
District of Louisiana; James A. Shannon.
of Duluth. Sixth Congress District
of Minnesota; Charles Telford,
of Bountiful, Utah; Thomas N. Gimperling,
of Dayton. Third Congress
District of Ohio; Harry Hawley, of
Troy, Nineteenth Congress District of
New York.
The technical charge against the
suspended men is that of taking part
in. aiding, and abetting the "mutinous
demonstration of April 10." Those dismissed
are now upon the same footing
as men dishonorably discharged from
the regular army.
The K?v. M. D. IJobcock a Sniclde.
Further investigation into, the case
of the American clergyman who committed
suicide in the International
Hospital at Naples, Italy, by severing
an artefry of his wrist and swallowing
corrosive sublimate, and who was
mentioned in previous dispatches as
Mr. Maltie, an American evangelical
minister, proves the suicide to have
iikvu me nev. iuuuuie uuvt'upon naucock,
pastor of tho famous Brick Presbyterian
Church, of New York City.
Corn Planting Almost Completed.
Cora planting In all but the more
northerly latitudes is completed, but
the season generally is a little backward.
Arabl Pasha Pardoned.
Arabi Pasha, the famous Egyptian
rebel, who was banished to Ceylon in
1S82, has been pardoned.
Six Years For Trust Fand Embezzler.
Percy L. Johnson, an attorney;
pleaded guilty in the Superior Court,
at Bridgeport, Conn., to embezzlement
of $30,000 from three trust funds, and
was sentenced to six years' imprisonment
in the State prison. Johnson recently
returned from Mexico and gave
himself up to the authorities.
Turkish Postal Affair Settled.
The Ottoman postal affair has been
finally settled, and ne foreign mail
bags will again be enirusted to the
Turkish traveling postoffice.
?nr?y Gleaning*
There are 00,000 telephones in Xct
VfAflr P!tv
There are 150 miles of electric railways
in Spain.
Marconi's wireless telegraphy is being
utilized in the Soudan.
A tax of ten cents a ton is to be
imposed by Wisconsin on ice exported.
A French Gcodetic Commission has
arrived at Colon on its way to Ecuador.
Radical changes have been made in
the conduct of the royal household hi
England.
DK. TALMAGE'S SERMON"
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: The Benefits of Rational Amnsomrnts
? Evils of Straitjackct Religion
?Depraving Influences?Warm Hearted
People Most Tempted.
fCnnrrlifhf loni i
Washington, D. C.?This discourse of
Dr. Taimage is in accord with all innocent
hilarities, while it reprehends amusements
that belittle and deprave; text, II Samuel
ii. 14, "Let the young men now arise and
play before us."
Ihere are two armies encamped by the
pool of Gibeon. The time hangs heavily
on their hands. One army proposes a
game of*sword fencing. Nothing could be
more healthful and innocent. The other
army accepts the challenge. Twelve men
against twelve men, the sport opens. But
something went adversely. Pferhaps one
of the swordsmen got an unlucky slip or
in some way uud his ire aroused, and that
which opened in sportfulness ended in violence,
each one taking his contestant by
the hair and then with the sword thrusting
him in the side, so that that which
opened in innocent fun ended in the massacre
of all the twenty-four sportsmen.
Was there ever a better illustration of
what was true then and is true now?that
that which ia innocent may be made destructive?
What of a worldly nature is more important
and strengthening and innocent
than amusement, and yet what has counted
more victims? I "have no sympathy
with a straitjacket religion. This is a very
bright world to me, and I propose to do
all I can to make it brisrht for others. I
never could keep step to a dead march. A
book years ago issued 6ays that a Christian
man has a right to some amusements.
For instance, if ne comes at night weary
from his work and, feeling the need of
recreation, puts on his slippers and goes
into his garret and walks lively round the
floor several times there can be no harm
in it. I believe^ the church of God has
made a great mistake in trying to suppress
the sportfulness of youth and drive out
from men their love of amusement. If
God ever implanted anything in us, He
implanted this desire. But instead of providing
for this demand of our nature the
churcn of God has for the main part ignored
it. As in a riot the mayor plants a
battery at the end of the street and has it
fired off so that everything ia cut down
that happens to stand in the range, the
good as well as the bad, so there are men
in the church who plant their batteries of
condemnation and fire away indiscriminately.
Everything is condemned. But
Paul, the apostle, commends those who
use the world without abusing it, and in
the natural world God has done everything
to please and amuse us.
And I am glad to know that in all our
cities there are plenty of places where we
may find elevated moral entertainment.
But all honest men and good women will
agree with me in the statement that one
of the worst things in these cities is corrupt
amusement. Multitudes have gone
itn^an flio Kloofinn> infliionna r?orar
to rise. If we may judge o? what is going
on in many of the places of amusement by
the pictures on board fences and in many
of the show windows, there is not a much
lower depth of profligacy to reach. At
Naples, Italy, tney keep such pictures
locked up from indiscriminate inspection.
Those pictures were exhumed from Pompeii,
and are not fit for public gaze. If the
effrontery of bad places of amusement in
hanging out improper advertisements of
what they are doing night by night grows
worse in the same proportion, in fifty
years some of our modern cities will beat
Pompeii.
I project certain principles by which
fou may judge in regard to any amusement
or recreation, finding out for yourself
whether it is right or wrong.
I remark, in the first place, that you can
judge of the moral character of any amusement
by its healthful result or by its baleful
reaction. There are people who seem
made up of hard facts, lhev are a combination
of multiplication tables and statistics.
If you show them an exquisite picture
they will begin to discuss the pigments
involved in the coloring. If you
show them a beautiful rose they will submit
it to a botanical analysis, which is only
the post-mortem examination of a flower.
They have no rebound in their nature.
THpv npvpr Hn nnvfhinc mnrp fchnn cmilp.
There are no great tides of feeling surging
up from the depths of their soul in billow
after billow of reverberating laughter. They
seem as if nature had built them by contract
and made a bungling job of it. But
blessed be God, there are people in the
world who have bright faces and whose
life is a song, an anthem, a paean of victory.
Now, it is these exhilarant and sympathetic
and warm hearted people that are
most tempted to pernicious amusements.
In proportion as a ship is swift it wants a
strong helmsman, in proportion as a horse
is gay it wants a stout driver, and these
f>eople of exuberant nature will do well to
ook at the reaction of all their amusements.
If an amusement sends you home
at night nervous, so that you cannot sleep,
and you rise up in the morning not because
you are slept out, but because your
duty drags you from your slumbers, you
have been where you ought not to have
been. There are amusements that send a
man next day to his work with his eyes
bloodshot, yawning, stupid, nauseated^and
they are wrong kinds of amusement. They
oic vuicuaiuiucaia iuau ^ivc a xnau uw
gust with the drudgery ol life, with tools
because they are not swords, with working
aprons because they are not robes,
with cattle because they are not infuriated
bulls of the arena.
If any amusement sends you home longing
for a life of romance and thrilling adventure,
love that takes poison and shoots
itself, moonlight adventures and hairbreadth
escapes, you may depend upon it
that you are the sacrificed victim of unsanctified
pleasure. Our recreations are
intended to build us up, and if they pull
us down as to our moral or as to our physical
strength you may come to the conclusion
that they are obnoxious.
There is nothing more depraving than
attendance upon amusements that are full
of innuendo and low suggestion. The
young man enters. At first he sits far
hack, with his hat on and his coat collar
up, fearful that someboc'y there may know
him. Several nights pao3 on. He takes off
his hat earlier and purs his coat collar
down. The blush that first came into his
cheek when anything indecent was enacted
comes no more to his cheek. Farewell,
young man! You have probably started
on the long road which ends in consummate
destruction. The stars of hope will
go out one by one until you will be left in
utter darkness. Hear you not the rush of
the maelstrom, in whose outer circle your
boat now dances, making merry with the
whirling waters? But you are being
drawn in, and the gentle motion will become
terrific agitation. You cry for help
in vain; you pull at the oar to put back,
but the struggle will not avail. You will
be tossed ana dashed and shipwrecked and
swallowed in the whirlpool that has already
crushed in its wrath 10,000 hulks.
Young men who have come from the
country residence to city residence will do
well to be on guard and let.no one induce
them to places of improper amusement. It
is mightily alluring when a young man,
long a citizen, offers to show a newcomer
all around.
Still further, those amusements are
wrong which lead you into expenditure
bevond your means. Money spent in recreation
is not thrown away. It is all folly
for us to come from a place of amusement
feeling that we have wasted our money
and time. You may by it have made an
investment worth more than the transaction
that yielded you hundreds or thousands
of dollars. But how many properties
have been riddled by costly amusements.
How brightly the path of unrestrained
amusement opens! Ihc young man says:
"Now I am off for a good time. Never
mind economy. I'll get money somehow.
What a fine road! What a beautiful day
for a ride! Crack the whip, and over the
turnpike! Come, boys, fill high your
glasses! Drink! Long life, health, plenty
' < > ?w>T>
oi riaes gust uite uus; uam
hear the clatter of the hoofs and look up
and say: "Why, I wonder where those
fellows get their money from? We have to
toil and drudge. They do nothing." To
these gay mei life is a thrill and an excitement.
They stare at other people and
in turn are stared at. The uxiicK chain
0
?-X-vy-\C.fjingles;
the cup foams; midnight hears
their guffaw; they swagger; they jostle decent
men off the sidewalk; they take the
name of God in vain; they parody tho
hymn they learned at their mother's "knee,
and to all pictures of coming disaster they
cry out, "Who cares?" and to the counsel
of some Christian friend. "Who are you?"
Your sports are merely means to an end.
They are alleviations and helps. The arm
of toil is the only arm strong enough to
brinz up the bucket out of the deep well
of pleasure. Amusement is the only bower
where business and philanthropy rest
while on their way to stirring achievements.
Amusements are merely the vines
that grow about the anvil of toil and the
blossoming of the hammers.
I go further and say (hat all those
amusements are wrong which lead into bad
company. If you go to any place where
you have to associate with the intemperate,
with the unclean, with the abandoned,
however well they may be dressed, in the
name of God quit it. They will despoil
your nature.
I had a friend in the West ? a rare
friend. He was one of the first to welcome
me to my new home. To fine personal
appearance he added a generosity,
frankness and ardor of nature that made
mc love him like a brother. But I saw
evil people gathering around him. They
came up from the saloons, from the
gambling hells. They plied him withv a
thousand arts. They seized upon his social
nature, and he could not stand the
charm. They drove him oa the rocks, lika
a ship, full winged, shivering on the breakers.
I used to admonish him. I would
say. "Now, I wish you would nuit those
bad habits and become a Christian."
"Oh," he would reply, "I would like to,
I would like to, but I have gone so far
I don't think there is any way back." In
his moments of repentance he would go
home and take his little girl of eight
years and embrace her convulsively, and
cover her with adornments, and strew
around her pictures and toys and everything
that could make her happy, and
then, as though hounded by an evil spirit,
he would go out to the inflaming cup ana
the house of shame like a fool to the correction
of the stocks.
I was summoned to his deathbed; I
hastened; I entered the room; I found
him, to my surprise, lying in lull everyday
dress on the top of the couch. I put
out my hand. He grasped it excitedly
and said: "Sit down, Mr. Talmage; right
there." I .sat down. He said: "Last
night I saw my mother, who has been dead
twenty years, and she sat just where you
sit now. It was no dream, I was wide
awake. There was no delusion in the
matter. I saw her just as plainly as I
see you. Wife, I wish you would take
these strings off me. There are strings
spun all around mv body. I wish you
would take them off me." I saw it was
delirium., "Oh," replied his wife, "my
dear, there is nothing there; there is
nothing there!" He went on and said:
"Just where you sit, Mr. Talmftge, my
mother sat. She said to me, 'Henry, I
do wish you would do better.' I got out
of bed, nut my arms around her and
said: 'Mother, I want to do better. I
have been trying to do better. Won't you
help me to do better? You used to help
me?' No mistake about it; no delusion. I
saw here?the cap and the apron and the
spectacles?just as she used to look twenty
years ago. But I do wish you would
take these strings away. They annoy me
so I can hardly talk. Won't you take
them away?" I knelt down and nrayed,
conscious of the fact that he did not
realize what I was saying. I .got up. I
said: "Goof'by! I hope you win r>e Better
soon." He said, "Goodby, goodb.v!"
That night his soul went up to the God >
who gave it. Arrangements were made
for the obsequies. Some said: "Don't
bring him in the church. He was too
dissolute." "Oh," I said, "bring him. He
was a good friend of mine while he was
alive, and I shall stand by him now that
he is dead. Bring him to the church."
As I sat in the pulpit and saw his
body coming up through the aisle I felt
as if I could ween tears of blood. I told
the people that day: "This man had his
virtues and a good manv of them. He
had his faults and a good many of them.
But if there is any man in this audience
who is without sin let him cast the first
stone at this coffin lid." One one side
of the pulpit sat that little child, rosy,
sweet faced, as beautiful as any little
child that sat at your table this morning,
I warrant you. She looked up wistfully,
not knowing the full sorrows of
an orphan child.
Oh, her countenance haunts me to-day
like some sweet face looking upon U3
through a horrid dream! On the other
side of the pulpit were the men who had
destroyed him. There they sat, hard visaged,
some of them pale from exhausting
disease, some of them flushed until it
seemed as if the fires of iniquity flamed
through the cheek and crackled the lips.
They were the men who had done tne
work. They were the men who had bound
him hand and foot. They had kindled the
fire9. They had poured the wormwood and
gall into that orphan's cup. Did they
weep? No. Did they sigh repentingly?
No. Did they say: "What a pity tnat
such a brave man should be slain?" No,
no. Not one bloated hand wa9 lifted to
wipe a tear from a bloated cheek. They
sat and looked at the coffin like vultures
gazing at the carcass of a lamb whose
heart they had ripped out! I cried in
their ears as plainly as I could: "There
is a God and a judgment day!" Did they
tremble? Oh, no, no. They went back
from the house of God, and that night,
though their victim lay in Oakwood cemetery,
I wa3 told that they blasphemed,
and they drank, and they gambled, and
there was not one less customer in all the
houses of iniquity.
This destroyed man was a Samscm in
physical strength, but Delilah sheared him,
and the Philistines of evil companionship
dug his eyes out and threw him into the
prison of evil habits. But in the hour
of his death he rose up and took hold
of the two pillared curses of God against
drunkenness and uncleanness and threw
himself forward until down upon him
and his companions there came the thunders
of an eternal catastrophe.
Again, any amusement that gives you
a distaste for domestic life is bad. How I
many bright domestic circles have been )
broken up by sinful amusements! The
father went off, the mother went off, the
child went off. There are to-day fragments
before me of blasted households.
Oh, if you have wandered away, I would
like to charm you back to the sound of
that one word "home."
I saw a wayward husband standing at
the deathbed of his Christian wife, and
I saw her point to a ring on her finger
and heard her say to her husband: "Do
you see that ring?" He replied: "Yes, I
see it." "Well,' said she, "do you remember
who put it there?" "Yes," said
he, "I put it there." And all the past
seemed to rush upon him. By the memory
of that day when, in the presence
of men and angels, you promised to be
faithful in joy and sorrow and in Bickness
and in health; by the memory of
those pleasant hours when you sat together
in your new home talking of a
oiight future; by the cradle and the joyful
hour when one life was spared and another
given; by that sickbed, when the
little one lifted up the hands and called
for help, and you knew he must die, and
he put one arm around each of your
necks and brought you very near together
in that dying kiss; by the little grave in
the cemetery that you never think of
without a rush of tears; by the family Bible,
where, amid stories of heavenly love,
is the brief but expressive record of
births and deaths; by the neglects of the
past and by the agonies of the future:
w a iiwlormpnt dav. when husbands and |
wives, parents and children, in immortal
groups, will stand to be caught up
in shining array or to shrink down into
darkness?by ail that I beg you give to
home your best affections.
Ah, my friends, there is an hour coming
when our past life will probably pass
before U3 in review. It will be our last
hour. If from our death pillow we have
to look back and seQ. a life spent in sinful
amusement, there will be a dart that
will strike through our soul sharper than
the dagger with which Virginius slew hi*
child. The memory of the past will make
us quake like Macbeth; the iniquities and
rioting through which we have passed
will come upon us weird and skeleton aa
Meg Mcrrilies. Death, the old Shylock,
will demand and take the remaining pound
of flesh and the remaining drop of blood,
and upon our last opportunity for repentance
and our last chance for heaven
the curtain will forever drop.
I
; 7 \ ,4/ *; ? ' *
THE SABBATH SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS
FOR JUNE 9.
Subject: Jesuit Appears to Paul, Acts
xxll., C-10 ? Golden Text, Acts xxvl.i
19 ? Memory Verses, G-8 ? Commentary
on the Day's Lesson.
G. "As I made my journey." Paul,
whose Hebrew name was Saul, was on his
way to Damascus, with letters from the
high priest granting him authority to arrest
the Christians and brine them bound
to Jerusalem. "Damascus." The oldest
city in the world, situated one hundred
and forty miles northeast of Jerusalem.
In Paul's time it contained about forty
Jewish synagogues, and between 40,000
and 50.000 Jews. At present it is under
Turkish rule and has a population of
about 150,000, chiefly Mohammedans.
"About noon." When the sun was shining
so there could be no deception. "A
great light. It was "above the brightness
of the sun."?Chap. 26: 13. It was in the
midst of this glory that Christ was seen
by Saul (1 Cor. 15: 8), so that he could
enumerate himself among those who had
beheld the Lord after His resurrection.
7. "Fell unto the ground." The whole
company fell to the earth. Acts 26:14.
"Heard a voice." In the Hebrew tongue.
The voice was clear and distinct to Saul,
but to those with him it was onlv a mysterious
sound. See on v. 9. "Why persecutest
thou Me." Canst thou give any
good reason for it? Must I afresh be
r>nipifif>rl hv tlipp' TVinop wVio noraprnt.p
the saints, persecute Christ Himself, and
He takes -what is done against them as
done asrainst Himself.
8. "Who art Thou?" Jesus knew Saul
before Saul knew Jesus. "Lord." Used
to denote respect for some unknown,
august person. "I am Jesus." He takes
the name which was the object of Jewish
hate. The enmity is against Me and My
religion. He whom you persecute is the
Lord of life and glory; not simply poor
fugiti\'e disciples. It was at this point
that Jesus said to him, "It is hard for
thee to kick against the goad." Acts 26:
14. E. V.
9. "They heard not the voice." We
are told by Luke (Acts 9:7) that those
with him heard the voice. What is
meant is clearly that they did not hear
the words as words?could attach no
meaning to the sounds. t We say that aperson
is not heard, or'that we do not
hear him, when, though we hear his voice,
lie speaks so low or indistinctly that we do
not understand him.
10. "What shall I do?" Where is now
the fury of the oppressor? Convinced
"that he had in reality persecuted Christ
the Lord, and that his religious views and
character were wrong, and knowing not
what the future held in store for him. he
submits himself to the will of Him who had
arrested him in his blind career; as though
he would entreat Him to be his guide and
ruler, with the consent that he would be
obedient to ail His directions. Beintr all
wrong; ho must be entirely changed. Who
could work this in him, but Him who saw
the utter hopelessness of his case without
divine help? "Go." Go into Damascus to
be instructed by a disciple whose life and
happiness you had hoped to destroy. By
this Paul would learn that the disciples
had that same forgiving spirit that their
Master had. This requirement would test
Saul's real sincerity and faith: it also gave
him something to do. ''Which are appointed."
Saul was a chosen vessel unto
the Lord (Acts 9: 15). and throush him
the gospel was to be carried to the Gentiles
and to kings, as well as to the children
of Israel.
11. "Could not see." He was blind for
three days (Acts 9: 9), and during that
time was so fully absorbed about his spiritual
condition that he neither ate nor
drank, but spent the time in fasting and
praying. Without doubt this was a eeasom
of intense inward conflict, alone and in
darkness. Could he give up all his ambitious
hopes? Could he leave rank, wealth,
honor, friends? Could he enter the service
of One so despised, and suffer reproach
and danger and death? And all for what?
Gradually the conflict ceased, and light
dawned into his soul. "The blindness of
Saul was no doubt mercifully intended by
providence to cause him to attend to the
great matter of his soul's salvation."
12. "One Ananias." We know nothing
about this man except what we find in this
verse and in chapter 9: 10-17.
13. "Came unto me." Ananias had received
explicit directions in a vision from
the Lord. Saul had also seen in a vision
a man named Ananias coming in and restoring
his sight. "Brother Saul." Knowing
to what sacred office the Lord had
chosen Saul (verse 15), Ananias felt a resoect
for him and an interest in hh salvation.
"Receive thy sight." And immediately
tnere fell from his eyes as it had
been scales. This shows that the blindness
as well as the cure was supernatural. At
this time Saul also received spiritual
sight. "Looked un upon him." The verb
signifies not merely to look up, but to recover
sight; the clause might be translated,
I received sight and looked up on
him.
14. "Hath chosen thee." "Hath appointed
thee." (R. V.) God chose and
'I. J CI 1 1 O 1 1 1 _t
aopoimea oaui Decause oaui nau cnosen
the Lord. Saul might have rejected
Christ instead of accepting Him. "Know
His will." Was Saul favored above others.?
No, all who will come to Christ with tfie
whole heart may "know" God's will. "See
that Just One." Here is conclusive proof
that Jesus actually aopeared to Saul. 1
Cor. 9: 1; 15: 8. He heard "a voice from
his mouth." (R. V.)
15. "His witness." L'he preaching of
the gospel must be backed up by the experience
of the preacher in order to be
really effective. God's people are a witnessing
peoole. They are ready to testify
in behalf of the One who has saved them.
"Unto all men." To the Gentile, to governors
and kings.
16. "Baptized." He was baptized by
Ananias. "Wash away thy sins." In
Luke's account before Saul was baptized
Ananias said that the Lord had sent him
that-. S'mil micht. rpppive his siffht and "be
filled with the Iloly Ghost." The baptism
or outward washing could not wash away
his sins; the spiritual regeneration and the
renewing in the Holy Ghost had already
taken place before the baptism. Bantism
was a public profession of faith in Christ,
and in taking this step Saul proved his
sincerity, and the settled conviction he
had of the truthfulness of Christianity.
"Call on?the Lord." It is the Lord and
the Lord only who can save the soul, and
every sinner should call mightily on Him
for complete deliverance from ali sin. We
should trust to no outward ordinance for
salvation. I desire to emphasize the fact
that at this time the Holy Spirit was given
to Saul, through the imposition of the
hands of Ananias (9: 17), and, thus qualified
and prepared for work, Saul immediately
entered the synagogues and "proclaimed
Jesus" (9: 20, R. V.) as the Messiah,
the Son of God.
New Gun to Fire Twenty-one BHIei.
There will be on exhibition at the PanAmerican
Exposition, in Buffalo, during
the summer the most marvelous piece of
ordnance ever manufactured, and the superior
in range and striking energy to any
gun built in the history of the world. The
gun can easily destroy any ship afloat at a
distance of twenty-one miles. It is to be
mounted at some point commanding the
entrance to New York Harbor. The calibre
is sixteen inches; its weight, 130 tons,
and its length forty-nine feet three inches.
In ranging to the distance of twenty-one
miles the shell, weighing 2370 pounds,
would reach the maximum elevation of
30,516 feet, higher than the combined
heights of Pike's Peak and Mont Blanc.
? - ?J r~a
The charge required is y/o |?iuuua ui
smokeless powder, and the coat of firing is
several thousand dollars.
Potato Spirit a* an Illnirilnant.
The German railway officials have for
some time past been carrying out a series
of experiments to determine the value of
potato-spirit as an illuminant. Their official
report, which has just been made public.
states that provided the lamps are kept
perfectly clean and that denatured spirit
of sufficient strength is used, the light is
valuable for out-door lighting. The draw- J
back in regard to interior lighting is the j
unpleasant odor given off. The experiments
have been sufficiently promising,
however, to warrant their continuance for
aaather year. _ '
. %
< ' * '
' - : i. * -.V - *
' ' -
GOD'S MESSAGE TO MAN.
PRECNANT THOUGHTS FROM THE
WORLD'S CREATEST PROPHETS.
Cavalry ? T3ie Right Armor ? Consecration
? Bid Us lie Glad ? The Two
Law* ? Al! Loot Save Love ? I Want
\o Live, if God Will Give Ale Heir
What docs it mean, this wood
So stained with blood;
JLiii* licc nnui/ui a. tvub
That bears such fruit;
This tree without a leaf
So leaved with grief!
What does its height proclaim
Whose height is shame;
Its piteous arms outspread
Whexe death lies dead;
And in the midst a heart
Cleft wide apart!
Though fool I cannot mis3
The meaning, this:
My sin's stupendous price;
His sacrifice;
Where closest friendships end
One friend?my Friend.
?Harriet McEwen Kimball in The Co
gregationalist.
The Right Armor.
We are exhorted by Peter to be armed
with the mind of Christ. The expression
is somewhat striking and very suggestive.
He speaks ia the previous
chapter of "the ornament of a meek
nnd quiet spirit," and Paul also exhorts
Christians to "adorn themselves with
shamefacednsss and sobriety through
good works." That graced and virtues
of various kinds make us more beautiful
and attractive in the sight of God
and man. is a familiar thought; but
that th^ey make us stronger and better
fitted to fight, is a reflection of another
kind, even more important. Is there any
particular nsnoet or nhase of the mind
of Christ which can b? regarded as especially
referred to in this exhortati in
and especially fitted for the equipment
of the Christian soldier? We think
there is. The context shows that "living
to the will of God" was what the
apostle had in his thought as the express
mind of Jesus. And surely nothing
more exactly meets the case b th in reference
to him and to lis. How often
did Ho say. "I came down from heaven,
not to do My own will but the will of
Him that sent Me;" "My meat is to do
the will of Him that sent Me and to accomplish
His work;" "I seek not Mine
own glory;" "I do nothing of Myself;"
"I do always the things that are pleasing
to Ilim." This, then, plainly, was
the very mind of Christ?aGsolute devotion
to the will of God, even if that
led to the severest suffering. The spirit
of the cross was the spirit of Jesus, the '
spirit of ministry and self-surrender for
the good of others.?Zion's Herald.
Coimecration.
To be accepted, it must he entire?
that is, in wish and intention; but if
made in youth, it takes nearly all our
lives to discover what was meant or
comprehended in it. A small chud may
he truly consecrated, but no child can
know what it means to be thoroughly a
Christian as the mature man or woman
knows it after the slow, hard years have
tested and disciplined the character.
We resolve to give ourselves to the
good, but we only dimly know what we
are giving until time and experience
have sounded the depths within us.
What revelations the-io sometimes make!
It is a strange thought that God can
do His will with us in outward things,
and yet not benefit us. The heart can
rebel, and annul the blessing even of the
Divine gifts. It is only when we accept
these just as they are and come into
harmony with them, that we get the
good intended. So helpless, yet so
mighty, is a. human bein?!? Zion's
Herald.
Rid Us Ro Glad.
Father of Light and Life, we thank
thee for the things which cannot die.
Throughout thy blessed world we see
with the eye of faith the power of thy
Resurrection and catch sweet glimpses
nt tne immortal, me eieiuai, me juvisjble.
O Thou who malcest the mornlug
splendid with sunlight and the evening
beautiful with starlight, we rejoice that
in thee is 110 darkness at all. Light up
our hearts, cast down by their mourning
over the decay of the flesh, and bid
us be glad in the beauty of thy countenance,
in the glory of thy victory over
death, in tho sweetness of thy strength
to save oven from tho last great enemy.
We believe in thee because thou art
eternal. Help us to believe in ourselves
because wo are made in thine image.
Blessed be thou, Lord of Light and Life,
forever! Amen.
The Two Lawa.
We are the crentures of law in this
world, and in all worlds. The whole
creation is governed by it; every force
is instinct with it. In the midst of this
universal power which guides and
.shapes things, making one fine accord, a
strange spectacle is seen. Man, the
highest earthly creation, does not join
in the harmony. The animals are controlled
by one law. From the first they
obey, with consistent action, the instinct
of self-preservation. The angels live by
one law?a divine principle, in which
gooduess, strength and beauty find conslant
and unvarying expression. But
the human creature lives by two laws?
the earthly and the heavenly; two opposing
forces are ever at work in his
nature, one drawing him upwards, the
other dragging him towards the earth.
All Lo?t Suva Love.
So it seemed. The men who had fled
at the arrest of the Master could hardly
be trusted to do anything noble in the
efforts to rescue His cause from ruin.
Less could J>e hoped from the women
who had lingered hearest the cross, and
were the last to leave it. All was lost.
Rut not all. Nothing is lost so long as
love remains. And the women who kept
together and the men who came back
from their skulking were saved because
they loved. Love rescued the cause of
Jesus from defeat, and love rescued the
hearts of His friends from despair. The
richest menning is gathered up in this
one truth?love makes the immortal life
sure.
I want to live, if God will give me
help, such a life that, if all the men ia
the world were living it, this world
would be regenerated and saved. I
want to live such a life that, if that life
changed into new* personal peculiarities
as it went to different men, but the
same life still, if every man were living
it, the millennium would be here:
nay, heaven would be here, the universal
presence of God.? Phillips
Brooks
The Chinese In California.
Ho Yow, Chinese Consul-General at San
Francisco, replying to inquiries by H. H.
North, United States Commissioner of Immigration,
estimates that there are about
35,000 Chinese in California; in San Francisco,
15,000; employed in laundry business
in California, 6000; in San Francisco,
1000.
Work of the Geological Survey.
Nearly 900,000 square miles, or about
thirty per cent., of the area of the United
States naa been mapped bj' the experts ot
the United States Geological Survey during
the last twenty years.
- . . ... : ..
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLINC FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE.
t m I
A Sermon From the Bench ? Judge
Thomas's Temperance Talk to the
Chickasaw Grand Jnry?The Most In*
sldlous Agent Far Mischief is Rom.
In his charge to the Grand Jury at
Paul's Valley, Chickasaw Nation, the other
day, Judge .John R. Thomas, of the United
States District Court, delivered a scathing
indictment of unlawful liquor selling as
well as a quaintly put temperance sermon.
"About eight-tenths of the crimes com
mitted in tne Indian territory, said His
Honor, "can be traced directly to the immoderate
use of intoxicating liquor. If the
devil has been able to find one agent for
mischief more potent than all the others,
it is intoxicating liquors. I don't drink
myself, but if a man wants to take a drink
I don't object to it, if he feels that he can
stand it. I used to drink some, and I am
a pretty thorough American. I never
liked to go up against a game that I could
not beat sometimes, and they always could
make whisky faster than I could drink it.
That was not all that made me quit its
use, either. When I came to preside as
Judge, and had to sentence men to the
penitentiary for introducing liquor, I felt
and knew that in order to maintain my
self-respect I had to be on pretty good
terms with the fellow I slept with, and I
could not be guilty of the same crime and
conscientiously enforce the'law.
"It is against the law to introduce intoxicating
liquor into the Indian Territory,
whatever its name, whatever its composition;
if it intoxicates it is against the law
to introduce it; it is against the law to sell
it; it is against the law to give it away.
Suppose you buckle on the armor good and
strong this morning, and looking back to
the solemn oath you have taken, conclude
that you will help the officers of the law
in driving out, exterminating, if we can,
the sale of intoxicating liquors. The man
who steals my horse?and I think a horse
thief is a pretty bad man?is a gentleman
and a good citizen compared to tne whisky
seller, to the man who deliberately steals
my brain, my sense and the bread of my
wife and children; not of me alone, but of
hundreds of men in every community
where homes are blighted through the
greed and crime of men who sell whisky.
"Why, the man who will sell whisky ia
so much meaner than a thousand horse
thieves that he is not to be. mentioned in
the same year, to say nothing of the same
week or month. A man who sells whisky
is the meanest animal of his kind. If a /
man wants to get a bottle of whisky and
take a drink himself, I have nothing to
say about that: that is a matter of taste,
and if a man happens to be over in Arkansas
or Texas or Oklahoma and puts a
bottle of whisky in his pocket for his own
use, the law was never intended to reach
cases of that kind. We can't fool away
time on such ca3es as that. The cases intended
to be reached by the law are
where men bring in intoxicating liquor for
the purpose of selling it."?Kansas City
Journal.
A Mechanic's Now Idea.
'A mechanic about thirty years of age,
having a wife and four children, was wont
to step into a beer saloon close by twice a
day and pay five cents each for two glasses
of bser. For many months he did this,
under the impression that it tfas necessary
for a hard working man. But one day,
while toiling at his bench, a new and better
idea took possession of his mind.
"I am poor," he said within himself;
"my family needs every cent I earn; it is
?rowing more expensive every year; soon
shall want to educate my children. Ten
cents a day for beer! Let me see?that is
cixty cents" a week, even if I drink no beer
on Sunday. Sixty cents a week! That is
$31.20 a year! And it does me no good:
it may do me harm! Let me see,' ana
Sere he took a pieA of chalk and solved
the problem on a board. "I cair buy two
barrels of flour, 100 pounds of sugar, five
founds of tea and six bushels of potatoes
or that sum." Pausing a moment, as if
to allow the grand idea to take full pos1
- . ? . -i ?i.! i. ?T ;?:ii
session ot nim, ne men exciaimcu. x ?m
never waste another cent on beer!" And
ho never has.
~ V'
Drink or Leave It Alobe.
A man staggered into a pavmbroker's
shop in New York the other day, and laying
down a package on the counter, exclaimed:
"Give me ten cents!" The proDrietor
opened the parcel and found a pair
of little red shoes so slightly soiled as to
indiate that they had seen but little wear.
"Where did you get these?" he asked.
"Got them home," said the man; "mf wife ,
bought them for the baby." Mad with '
thirst he c?ed: "Give me ten cents! I
must have a drink!" "You had better
take them back to your wife," said the
pawnbroker, "the baby will need them."
"No, she won't," said the man, "because
she's dead. She's dead, I &y: died in the
-:-L*" a?>/1 iio KnivpH his head on the
Zllglll* AI1U UV wv ...M
counter and wept like a child.
Yet it is only a few years since that
same man when invited by a friend to sign
the total abstinence pledge and join a
Good Templar Lodge declined, saying,
"Whv should I deny myself the use of the
cheering wine, because some people abuse
it? I can drink and leave it alone."
England'* Shame. ?
A writer in the Standard tells of what
he saw in a reccnt visit to London. H3 ?
says:
"During the past summer I spent several
weeks in the old country, and having lived
in London twenty-one years I was no
stranger there. The drink evil never
seemed so gigantic, its curse so widespread,
its woe3 30 numerous as there this
past year. Not in London only, but
throughout England. It was pitiable to
see in the better part of London little children
in the beer shops with their parents
as late as 11 o'clock p. m., while in the
poorest parts of London the scenes beggar
description. I rode night after night on
the "bus.' It was the safest place and afforded
the best opportunity to see for
oneself. I saw children barefooted and
scantily clothed going into and coming
from these beer shops with tin cans, so
that their drunken parents could drink so
long as they could keep awake."
TVhr I am a Teetotaler.
First, I believe that Sir William Gull
was right when he said that alcohol was
the "moat destructive agent" known to the
faculty, and I had no wish to destroy myself
prematurely. Secondly, I think that
even one's individual example, so far as it
goes, may lead others to abstain from taking
this destructive agent into their systems.
Lastly, as I have taken, and still
take, some part in the attack on the legalized
liquor trade, I think that I can do so
more effectively by showiug that I consider
alcohol to be my own enemy as well as the
enemy of the nation.?Sir Wilfrid Lawson,
in Cumberland Presbyterian.
lYln*-Drlnking in France.
Even Franc-, wine-drinking France, ia
beginning to wake up to the perils involved
in the increasing use of alcoholic
drinks. The French Government has
started an anti-alcoholic crusade by increasing
the tax on non-alcoholic beverages,
and now the Minister of Public Instruction
lias directed that in both primary
and secondary schools reguiar lessons
shall be given on the subject of temperance,
placing it on the same footing as
grammar and arithmetic. In Switzerland
an r>r<y.ini7ed attack on the citadel^ of in
temperance is being made under Governmcr.t
auspices.?Christian Work.
The Prophet Mohammed and Wine.
"Wine brings a tenfold curse. It bring*
a curse
"On him who makes it fpr another's use,
"On him who makes it f\r himself alone,
"On him who drinketh of the poison
draught,
"On him who carries it from place to
place,
"On him to whom the poisoned grape ia
Krrt'ifflil:.
"On him who serves it to the ea^er guest,
' On him who sells it to another's hurt,
' On him who profits bv the harmful sale,
"On him who buys it for himself alone,
' On him who buys it foranother's use:? ,
"These ten shall be accursed," Mohammed
said, -*
.. .. ,.*.3+*.: .'jj