Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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^orab De Being the Trie Story That Srandmothe Thanksgiving "1 -was eight and your great-aunt Virginia ten when we had the Thanksgiving and birthday in one, which we never forgot. Our mother was a Southern woman. She gave to her first child the name of her beloved State. If Virginia had been a boy his name would have been George Washington. When I was born two years later to a day I was named Georgie Washington. Your HioH thrpfl mnnths before I was born. Our birthday came the 20th of November, so near to Thanksgiving that mother always celebrated the two days in one. "This that I am going to tell happened long before the Civil War; for the first time in our lives the Thanksgiving Day for Massachusetts was appointed on the 20th day of November. We all went early to the meeting-house the Sunday before, for we knew we were going to hear the Thanksgiving proclamation. All the children in the meeting-house kept wide awake that morning, and Virgie J * J 3 ~ T?T V* ATI f Hn tuia X UUUgtU tJciUIl UL11C1 "UCu vuv minister- opened the proclamation with a rattle and spread it on the desk. "We knew -what -was coming. We could repeat the conclusion word for word. 'Given at the Council chamber In Boston this day * by His Excellency the Governor, George N. Briggs, and by the advice and consent the Council.' That sounded great, and when the minister repeated slowly, 'God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,' it was grand! I felt as if I filled the meeting-house, because if George Washington had not been the 'father of his country,' where would Massachusetts be? "The night before the great day we were standing at the kitchen ta V,7 fjB # 'v'^ .?'' v'\.) ;i? a ^ fteju Didn't ri ___ "Urj? rt<5 j ble, watching mother unjoint the boiled chickens for the chicken pi", when the clock struck 8. She lighted a tallow candle and gave it to Virgie. It was our bedtime. 'Oh,' said I, as I dumped down in the feather bed, 'isn't it beautiful, Virgie, to have birthdays and Thanksgiving all together? And isn't mother kind? I'm Just as happy!' " 'So am I,' said Virgie. giving me a hug. 'I know something.' " 'What is it, Virgie?' I asked in a whisper. "Then she told me that she was going to get up before anybody else in the house and steal out softly, and go to the north pasture and get some red berries to hang over George Washington's portrait in the front room, to please mother, and because it would be aDDropriate to my birth day. " 'Let's,' said I. 'It will be splendid,' and then I told her, what was true, that she was always thinking of something to please somebody, and then we said our prayers and cuddled down to sleep. "It didn't seem but a minute after that when I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Virgie was already tying her leathern shoestrings. 'Georgie Washington Howe, get up this minute; it's as light as a cork,' she said. 'I'm not going to put up my hair, it will take too much time, and it will keep me warm,' and she let fall a cloud of gold over her shoulders." Grandmother Gibbons' voice always trembled a little here. "You've seen the portrait of your great-aunt Virginia, children. It's true what I told you. TTlk? ififejlkTo CrnrrTurll. ir Gibbons Told Her Grandchildren Every and Birthday. She was the most beautiful woman I ever saw; her hair was like spun gold. "We put our surtouts over our thick woolen dresses, tied on our warm woolen hoods and tiptoed out for fear of wakfng Ponto in the shed. Vlrgle asked me to wait on the stone step while she brought a bowl of mother's chicken broth. It was thick and nourishing. It tasted good. "We drove the cows to the north pasture every summer morning; we knew every nook and corner of it, but we didn't know the difference between broad daylight and moonlight, and great was our surprise when we reached the pasture bars, to see the moon going down, and no sign of morning, but Virgie kept hold of my hand and said, 'Never mind, Georgle Washington, we can find the path, and the flat rock by the black walnut tree, if the moon doesn't shine.' " 'Yes,' I said, 'but how can we 2nd the berries if it's pitch dark, Virgie?' 44 'Oh,' she said, 'it won't be .dark long; X, cull l, utjuau&o cvci juvuj | knows it's time for the sun to rise when the moon goes down; and lots of times I've seen the sun and moon shining both together in the sky, haven't you, Georgie Washington?' 44 'Yes,' I said, stumbling into a thorn bush and beginning to cry, 'but, Virgie, this doesn't seem like the path; where's the black walnut tree, and. flat rock? They ought to be here, but they aren't here!' w 'We may be a little out of the path, Georgie Washington,' she said bravely, 'but anyway, we are in the right pasture, and here's a rock with a back to it, so let's sit down and wait,' and she put her arm in a motherly way around me, and pil-1 HIS REPENTANCE:. Dy Laura fc Richards to"dinner When foe roidn \3civin5 day Billy boy \ Incle dona^ Had to take a i$ the way. And a bro\ at two o'clock, "/Mother, a mi5e till fi^e, Sipbcd the I edtino all tfop time,, ^taujc I though ['r? atWe. Bi9per than lowed my red hooded head upon her shoulder. 'I'm glad 1 didn't put up my hair.' " 'So'm I, Virgie,' said I, as I nestled against the soft cushion. 'Your hair is the loveliest I ever saw, Virgie, and mine is short and stiff like bristles. I hate it.' " 'But you're real good, Georgie Washington, and as soon as ever we get home, I'm going to give you a real boughten doll,' she said, 'to have 1 for your very own birthday, and to keep always.' " Grandmother Gibbons did not need to tell the children tnat she had kept the "boughten doll;" they had all seen it. "Well, children, the next thing, it seemed the stars all faded, and the darkness deepened around us. I don't know how long we waited, while I lay with my head pressed against your great-aunt Virginia's shoulder, but I neard her calling to me, 'Gecrgie Washington, this will never do. You must not go to sleep; we must get up and walk around.' " 'I don't want to walk around, Virgie,' I said. "I want to go home, tnat's what I want.' " 'We'll walk toward home,' said Virgie, taking hold of my hand, and starting up. 'We're not in tli3 path, but we can't be far from it, and we must keep walking, for you must not go to sleep. Here's the black walnut tree.' "Virgie gave a sudden spring forward, and fell. She told your greatgrandmother Howe, after it was all over, that it seemed as if she fell | miles and miles. Then it came over h' r like a flash, we had come through the wrong bars, and were over the gorge! That dreadful gorge where we were never allowed in broad daylight! Virgie fell till she stopped on ? ' ?5?? -?* Vtot? + Ttrr\ f Qot ci LIU L lea Liiaa cnu a.w\-, but her hair had been caught by an out-reaching tree branch, and it held her. True to her nature, her first thought,even then, was for me. " "Georgie Washington, are you up th<ye?' she called. Her voice sounded through the darkness far away. " 'Yes, Virgie, I am here!' I think my teeth chattered. 'Where are you?' " 'Stand still! Don't stir a step! Don't go to sleep, we're over the gorge. I'm caught by t?e hair and we must wait!' "No one will ever know, children, how long we waited. It seemed to me as if all at once I grew to be a woman. It seemed to me as if God had given Virgie's life into my keepintr t kent calline down to her, telling her tha'; it would soon be lighter, and thr.t I felt sure that some way, somehow, I could save her. "At last it came, children, the first streak of the morning! I stooped over, and looked down that awful abyss, but the si^ht only gave me courage. 'Virgie,' I cried, and my teeth didn't chatter this time, for when God wants us to do anything, children, no matter how difficult, He will give us the will and the strength to do it. 'Virgie, I can see you, you are not half way down, but keep still , a i??w minutes, and I can savo you'." "How did you do it, grandma?" always asked the children. "I didn't know how I ^as going to do it, at first, but I began, very slowly, to make my way, not straight, but in a zigzag fashion, slowly and carefully down to the shelf over which Virgie hung. There was a little platform of rock, on which I stopped. It was growing lighter everjSminute, as I reached up to the twisted tree branch. Then God let me see how I was going to be able to save my sister. You know how I did it, children." - .*?** lll> m-:bl bitter draft 4$/}/ jpiii- mm ' jfake I xn&deVfif ij itile sinner. f&w X tbar I was ?? / rt->c dinner!"^ "You untwisted her hair," from the children in chorus. "Yes, those beautiful, strong locks of hair, all kinked and snarled arra held as in a vise, partly with my teeth, nartlv with my fingers, I loos ened evory golden thread. " 'Now,' I said, 'Virgin, you are freer Catch hold of this limb that I swing down to you! Catch hold and climb!' " 'Oh, Georgie Washington,' she cried. 'I can't! I'm dizzy! I shall faint.' "I could see that her strength wa3 failing, but I wouldn't give up that I could save her; so I put all of myself into my voice, and I may have prayed, but I didn't know It, then. " 'No, you won't faint, Virgie,' I called. "You won't faint; you won't fall! You can't; you've got the limb. Now here's my hand; let's climb! We can see every step now, Virgie.' "We climbed slowly, step by step, zigzagging, picking cur way up, and gaining courage till at last we fell in each other's arms, on to the level at the top, and that is the way I met an emergency, the Thanksgiving and birthday we never forgot. And that is the way I saved your great-aunt Virginia."?From Good Housekeeping. A property owner in Kingston, a London suburb, has posted a notice that "no grandchildren or cats" will be allowed on his premises. Monkeys are remarkably keen or sight, but deficient in sense? of arael? X Household /* ^ Matters, j? How to Cut Eias Bands. Take a ruler, and with a piece of chalk for dark colors and a lead pen cil for light mark the bands on the material. Then carefully join the two ends of the cloth so the chalk linea exactly meet, having the first lina on one end meet the second line on , the other, thus forming a spiral. Stitch the seam on the machine; then with a needle put a few stitches each side of the chalk lines, to make the stitching secure. With scissors begin at the place where the first band extends beyond the second, and cut round and round, following the chalk line, until the material is cut into one perfectly joined piece.?Woman's Home Companion, " T! Planting Daffodils Indoors. The 6pring flowering uulbs are sc *** oa in + oroct 1*7 <r t C CcL5y Ui UUlll vablUU) ?JU luvvt VUV?UQ ?%. handle, require so little window room and yield such varied types oi beauty that one might depend entirely upon them for the winter display of flowers. In the great grouf which is generally included in the genus Narcissus there is available a wonderful array of flowers which wil] easily grow indoors; the Daffodih and Jonquils and the -Starflower 01 Chalice flower and the Paper-white Narcissus are the more important types of these. The bulbs of good varieties of all of these flowers maj be obtained of the florists early ir the autumn at comparatively little expense. As a rule they may be bought much more cheaply by the hundred than by the dozen, so it ma> be worth while to form a club of youi friends to take advantage of this fact When the bulbs arrive they should either be planted at once or stored In a cool, damp cellar where the: will not dry out. They may be planted in almost any kind of receptacle although for most purposes nothing is so satisfactory as the paper flowei pots. In the case o? most bulbs, one mn-v ho nioniaH in n thrpp-innh no1 Uia/ UC ptuurwu AM M W.~mm _ t or three or more in a four inch po*t In planting it is only necessary t< use good garden 6oil, placing a bii of broken pottery over the hole ir the bottom of the pot. The bull should be just buried and the eartt around it packed firmly in place thai it may not be pressed up as the root: develop. Water thoroughly and sel away in a cool basement where th? temperature will be low and equabh though not freezing. Sometimes ii is desirable to throw over the pot; two or three thicknesses of burlai or old carpet to prevent the evapora tion of moisture. Water occasional!] as may be necessary to keep the soi moist but otherwise leave undis turbed for six or eight weeks. The purpose of putting these bulb; away in a dark, cool place is t< enable them to develop such a growtl of roots as would occur in autumr were the bulbs beneath the soil out doors. Under the latter condition! a large root growth would have taker place in autumn so that the plam is able to send up its leaves anc blossoms in spring very soon aftei the frost is out of the ground. Ir the indoor garden we attempt to imi tate these conditions just as nearl] as possible; consequently the bulbf are to be left in the cellar until srcJ a root growth takes place, that it ii evident the plant can be forced intc blossom successfully. Then is th< time to bring the bulbs into the ligh' and heat of the living rooms. Many of these bulbs may also b< brought into blossom successfully ir water. Wide shallow jars may b< utilized partially filling them witi coarse gravel or broken stone, anc adding water to cover such material The bulbs of the Paper-white Narcis sus or the so-called Chinese Sacrec Lily may be set in such receptacle: and placed in a cool dark room unti the roots are well started.?Th< House JJeautiful. Tflci'StHcwt*/ Wcip^f Cherry Tarts.?Make a paste ol one pint of pitted cherries, one cupful of sugar and half a cupful ol water. Fill tart shells nearly full with this mixture, and serve witb cream. Cherry Toast.?Cook one pint ol seeded cherries with a cupful ol 6ugar until the fruit is tender. Have buttered slices of toast ready; poui this mixture over tnem, ana, wueu cold, serve with whipped cream. Nut Squares.?Beat well one eg* with one cupful of brown sugar and a pinch of salt and 3oda. Add on* cupful of good nut meats chopped fine. Drop small portions of this oe buttered tins and bake about tec minutes. Rice njid Apple Pudding.?A cupful of rice, six apples, a little chopped lemon peel, two cloves, sugar. Boil the rice for ten minutes; strain il through a hair sieve until quite dry, Put a cloth into a pudding basin and lay the rice around it like a crust Cut the apples into quarters and la> them in the middle of the rice with a little chopped lemon peel, cloves and some sugar. Cover the fruil with rice, tie up tight and boil for an hour. Serve with melted butter, sweetened and poured over it. Veal aiul Kicc Pie.?Boil a teacupful of rice in boiling water ten minutes, strain it quite dry. peel a Spanish onion, chop fine with a buncli a liftlo lemnn thvme. DeD per and salt. Cut four rashers ol rather fat bacon, line a pie dish with the bacon, then the rice and onion; cut up two pounds of the breast ol veal in small pieces, lay those on tTir seasoned rice. Three parts fill the dish with quite boiling water, cove: with a nicely mashed potato crust, und bake in a moderately hot oven one hour and lvUf. OUR TEMPERANCE COLUMN. REPORTS OP PROGRESS OP THE BATTLE AGAINST RUM. Sobriety the Road to Riches, Snys ! I)r. Peters?Clergyman Declares That New York City's Daily Liquor Bill is $1,000,000. ^ "How to enrich the people? Make 1 them sober." This was the conclusion of the J Rev. Dr. Madison C. Paters, in his j sermon, "Where the Money Goes," i given in the Majestic Theatre. Dr. Peters presented some remark- I | able statistics to account for the dis- ! sipation of wealth in New York City. 1 "The city's daily drink bill," he said, ' "alone is estimated at more than : $1,000,000. This is more than onehalf the amount required to run the i entire Government of the United . States. The annual drink bill of the city is more than half the national debt. It is two-thirds as much as the total receipts of the Federal Government, outside of customs. It is nearly one-half the total capitalization of the national banks of the , country." Dr. Peters says that New York spends enough yearly for liquor to pay more than twice over the salaries of all the teachers in the public schools of the country, and twenty times the income of all the missionary societies of the world. In conclusion he said: "Jacob Riis in his 'Battle With Slums' has pointed out districts in New York where there is a saloon to anoftt 101 nf tho nnnnlation: that is. l thirty families of poorly paid men j find money to support a saloon, which I requires an ordinary outlay of, say, j 5515 a day, or thirty-seven cents for 1 each family; thirty-seven cents a day, if saved, at four per cent, would In i twenty years fcuild a good home in a > near-by suburb. ? "If the money thrown away by New I . Yorkers in the last ten years had been put into homes every renter in I [ the city might be living in his own j house in a near-by suburb. "Neither open mints nor open mills < ' will do so much to abolish poverty, J stamp out crime, insure general pros5 perity and guarantee our people their ; inalienable rights in the pursuit of happiness as the closed saloons. s "The catechism of social economy I Is brief, true and easily learned. How to enrich the people? Make them sober."?New York American. ) The Look of a Child. j "The look of a little child is sometimes a wonderful thing," said a man ' who had risen high on the ladder,of ' success. "I remember that the great-! ' est lesson I have ever learned in my | t life was pointed out to me by my j ? daughter, who was only five years j > old at the time. That was fifteen t years ago, when I had just attained , some measure of success in the bust- , ' ness world, and I felt I could afTord to rest on my oars awhile. | "I had never been a drinking man; ' but frequent conference at hotel lob1 bies and after the theatre, or talks with my associates began to tell on me, and I am ashamed to confess that ? i came home many a night slightly j the worse for wear and liquqr. The , habit grew on me, in spite of tearful entreaties from niy wife. I took a bottle of whisky home one afternoon. After dinner I made for that bottle, which I had left in my study, poured 1 out a glass and raised it to my lips t when I caught a reflection in the I polished woodwork of the wall. I r turned quickly, and there was my j little daughter standing in the door. way looking at me. f "I could never describe the expression on her face. If one might say 3 it of a child, it was a commingling of 1 reproach, pity and disgust. Probably ! she had overheard conversations be) tween her mother and myself; per? haps the mother had instilled that t feeling; perhaps it was instinct. I have not taken another drink from } that day to this."?New Orleans j Times-Democrat. ? 1 His SelM)eniaI. ' Not long ago we heard a man's little daughter say to him: "Papa, can't I have a nickel to buy some I gum?" 3 He was a good, kind man, and he j didn't refuse her roughly. He patted , her on the head and said: "Daughter, your old dad can't afford such things. It takes all our money to buy bread and meat and keep you and mamma in shoes." She looked disappointed and walked away. Presently he started home. He felt as if a hot one would help his appe- I AJX" J ? *? ? ? nKaarfiil I IllC iXULL "O^iu 1U a uxuic vugcxiui frame oFmii>d4a which to greet hie familjff ;?o he walked in and put his right, s^oQ uP?n the foot-rail. "What'l! ypu have, boys?" he asked. "I'll take.^jfffom and Jerry myself.* Some of tirem took *er straight; some took.it diluted .with seltzer. Nobody condescended to take beer. Our friend planked do^n a dollar. When the barkeeper rang up the register it ' showed sixty-five cents. ? Lamar Democrat. ; i Presages a New Time. 1 Dr. Popert, the Hamburg judge who is well known for his advocacy 1 of abstinence, has just been elected member of the German Reichstag? | the first militant abstainer, as far as I has been reported, in that body. This is a presage of the new time in Ger1 many. The fact that in a very few years a powerful body of organized j "sentiment has been growing up in [ that land is encouraging. The Ger, man Good Templars now number over I 30,000, gathered in 1000 lodges, with an additional 10,000 members in 1 young people's lodges, i Too Sad to Be Fnnny. Three tired citizens?a lawyer, a [ doctor and a newspaper man?sat in I a back room recently in the gray light of the early dawn. On the table | were many empty bottles and a j couple of packs of cards. As they sat I In silence, a rat scurried across the ; hearth into the darkness beyond. The j three men shifted their feet and ! i looked at each other uneasily. After ' ; a long pause, the lawyer spoke: "I ;1 know what you fellows are thinking," I he said; "you think I thought I saw a rat, but I didn't." 1 \V. C. 1*. U.'s Latest Attempt. An attempt is now being made by 1 the W. C. T. U. to eliminate from the 1 mails "books in which the uero, her- J 1 oine or any character presented as worthy of admiration, is pictured as , ! an habitual user of liquors without , i condemnation of such habit." I i Tribute to the Church. I ! Bar and Buffet says, editorially, ! "Nine out of every ten reform move ments which are directed against the saloonists of this country originate | in ilie church, or among church workers." \ Religious Truths \ I From the Writings of Great Preachers. ENNOBLED. In my deep grief most querulous I grew, And vexed myself with futile questioning Why he who in his life would never brine iught info mine, well guarded, which he knew Might chance to give me pain, and gladly drew From many a wound its most-envenomed sting, Should, in his death, straight to my heart let wing &.s deadly aimed an arrow as e'er flew. And yet on saner thought 'twould seem, "for me Who am so sorely wounded, he hath won As recompense an honor truly great; For am I not the mother now of one Who'6 early come into his high estate, And wears the crown of immortality? ?Alice Crossette Hall, in the Chris Register. Life's True Meaning. For what is your life??James, 4: 14. Life, it is said, is not a "blind alley," but a thoroughfare; death, a bend in the road that stretches through the undiscovered country. Belief in God and in the future life makes man patient in suffering, calm under calumny, philanthropic, selfsacrificing, patriotic and heroic. The chief discoverers and inventors first saw by faith the invisible world. Socrates, Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Farraday, Watt, Fulton, Morse and Edison?the nearer they approacnea tne ureaior in xneir vast researches the more they believed the future to be a life for unfulfilled ambitions, for the adjustment of inequalities, for the continuance of development, of studies and discoveries ?5nd for the reunion of souls. The tendency of those who decry fce future as so problematical as to ae unpractical is to sink down into materialism and animalism, desiring only food, fire, clothing and housing, reducing life to "getting a living," whereas life here is only the husk; life beyond, the corn, the husk being valuable till the corn is garnered. Life should mean the possibility of unending bliss, or it is not worth living. The gates of God must open, or all Is a failure. Life must mean character, stereotyped in time for us and joy forever more. If character dies it is the catastrophe of the universe, the failure of creation, the fall of the Godhead and the enthronement of chaos. Then the physical becomes grander than the spiritual. The sequoias of the Yosemite and the rocks from which they grow become nobler than man, the masterpiece of God. Robert Ingersoll said he did not believe in living here on skim milk that he might have cream in heaven, but Paul exclaimed, "I have suffered the loss of all things that I might win Christ and the crown." Jesus Himself endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him and now awaits our coming to His many maneioned home, where we may have "life more abundantly." This world cannot satisfy t?e longings of the soul any more than a cage can satisfy a bird with wings. Life is truly called a voyage, a journey, a dressing room, a vestibule, and therefore must have a destination, a home, a palace in the capital city of all worlds.?Rev. EdwiD Whittier CasweH, Beekman Hill M. E. Church, New YorK, in sunaay ntfaid. A Mother's Lost Opportunity. "I was speaking in a meeting wheu a mother came up to me and asked me to pray for her boy. I agreed to do this, but she came the second day and made the same request, and then her minister told me he thought it would be well if I knew the woman's Btory, and the next day I heard it from her lips. "A year before, her boy, seventeen years of age, came to her and said he had been attending some meetings in one of the city churches; that he had about made up his mind to confess Jesus Christ, and wished her to gc with him that night to the services. She told him that she would do so, but that shfl had a previous engagement. 'To my shame,' she said, 'the engagement was at a euchre party, * "" * A x1 ? TKMxr ana 1 Kepi ine engagement, iixj uuj did not go to the'church, and, so far as I know, he hasn't been to church 6ince. I have pleaded with him Id these days without avail. * 'Last night I wrote him a letter, in which I told him of an event in his baby days, when father told him he should sleep alone, and he cried himself to sleep. When the morning light was breaking I saw him with his little tear-stained face up against the bars of the crib, and his little hands reaching out to me, and I said to him, "My little boy." The picture is now changed. It is your mother's white face looking out to you, and her hands stretching forth to you. And ahe said, 'Although I pleaded with him in the tetter to come, he would not.' "Years later I inquired concerning him and found be had still not turned, but on the contrary, he had given himself up to a life of dissipai tion and sin."?J. Wilbur Chapman. Providence Aids Prayer. We have duties which are perilous. Wj meet surprises of evil. We feel perplexities of conscience. We encounter disappointments which throw us back from our hopes rudely. We have an unknown experience opening upon us every hour. Providence is thus continually calling for the aids of prayer.?A. Phelps. Prayer Makes One Holy. Prayer, continually lived in, makes the presence of a holy and loving God the air which life breathes, and by which it lives, so that, as it mingles consciously with the work of the day 1 ? n norf nf ovprv HrPflTTl IL uccuiuca axov a. yc*4 w V V? V.^ To us, then, it will be no strange thing to enter heaven, for we have been living in the things of heaven.? Stopford A. Brooke. Becoming Like God. God coming to man means man besoming like God. Use of .Pneumatic Hammers. In connection with the pneumatic hammers, ordinary work is now done at a price for labor equivalenr to a reduction of from thirty-five to sixty per cent, from hand labor rates. The engineers of Great Britain and the Continent are now as fully alive to the very important advantages to be lerived from the use of pneumatic tools as the American engineers, who were the first to use such tools oi: an sxtensive scale. At present pneumatic tools are to be found in practically all engineering works, shipyards and mines throughout Uio ivorld. t ?, THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS FOR DEC. 1 BY THE REV. I. W. HENDERSON. Subject: The Death of Samson, Judges 10:21-31?Golden Text, Epb. 6: 10?Memory Verses, lawtv?? Read Judges 13-16. Samson is a warning to humanity of the consequences that inevitably follow the misuse of God-given capacities. His life is a tragedy. His death is a result of the life he lived. In his commentary on the death of Samson the Rev. R. A. Watson, D. D., says: The last scene of Samson's history awaits us?the gigantic effort, the awful revenge in which the Hebrew champion ended his days. In one sense it aptly crowns the man's career. The sacred historian is not composing a romance, yet the end could not have been more fit Strangely enough it has given occasion for preaching the doctrine of seif-sacriflce as the only means of highest achievement, and we are asked to see here an example of the finest heroism, the most sublime devotion. Samson dying for his country is Ilk- < ened to Christ dying for His people. It is impossible to allow this for a moment. Not Milton's apology for?" <"> --J. 11.. oil Iha oaujsun, uui uie auiuuinj vi >? tw illustrious men who have drawn the parallel can keep us from deciding that this was a case of vengeance and self-murder, not of noble devotion. If this was truly a fine act of selfsacrifice what good came of it? JFhe sacrifice that is to' be praised does distinct and clearly purposed service to some worthy cause or high moral end. We do not find that tWs dreadful deed reconciled (the Philistines to Israel or moved them to belief in Jehovah. We observe, on the contrary, that it went to increase the hatred between race and race, bo that when Canaanites, Moabites, Ammonites, Midianites no longer vex Israel these Philistines show more deadly antagonism?antagonism of which Israel knew the heat when on the red field of Gilboa the kingly Saul and the well-beloved Jonathan wert together stricken down in death. If there was in Samson's mind any though of vindicating a principle it was that of Israel's dignity as the people of Jehovah. But here his tes- < timony was worthless. Much is written about self-sacrifice which is sheer mockery of truth, most falsely sentimental. Men and women are urged to the notion that if they ( J can only find some pretext for renouncing freedom, for curbing and endangering lite, for stepping aside from the way of common service that they may give up something in an uncommon way for the sake of any person or cause, good will come of it. The doctrine Is a lie. The sacrifice * of Christ was not of that. kind. It was under the influence of no blind - * Its- V .?4> desire to give up mg me, um u?o<, under the pressure of a supreme providential necessity, then in renunciation of the earthly life for a clearly seen and personally embraced divine end, the reconciliation of man to God, the setting forth of a propitiation for the sin of the world?for ? this it was He died. He willed to be our Saviour; having so chosen He bowed to the burden that was laid < upon Him. "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief." To the end He foresaw and \ desired there was but one way?and the way was that of death because of man's wickedness and ruin. Suffering for itself is no end and i never can be to God or to Christ Or | to a good man. It is a necessity on j the way to the ends of righteousness* and love. If personality Is not a delusion and salvation a dream there must be in every case of Christian renunciation some distinct moral aim in view for every one concerned, and there must be at each step, as in the action of our Lord, the most' distinct and unwavering sincerity, the most direct truthfulness. Any' thing else is a sin against God and | humanity. We entreat would-be | moralists of the day to comprehend - n-.xa ??r J before they write 01 seii-Bam The sacrifice of the moral judgment is always a crime, and to preach needless suffering for the sake of ' covering up sin or as "a means of atoning for past defects is to utter most unchristian falsehood. Samson threw away a life of which he was weary and ashamed. He threw it away in avenging a cruelty;, but it was a cruelty he had no reason to call a wrong. "O God, that I might be avenged!"?that was no prayer of a faithful heart. It was the prayer of.envenomed hatred, of a soul still unregenerate after trial. His death was indeed self-sacrifice? the sacrifice of the higher self, the true self, to the lower. Samson should have endured patiently, mag- * nifying God. Or we can imagine something not perfect yet heroic. Had he said to those Philistines, My people and you have been too long at enmity. Let there be an end of it. Avenge yourselves on me, then.cease from harassing Israel?that would have been like a brave man. But it is not this we find. And we close the story of Samson more sad than ever that Israel's history nas not i taught a great man to be a good I man, that the hero has not achieved * the morally heroic, that adversity has not begotten in him a wise patience and magnanimity. Yet he had a place under Divine Providence. The dim troubled faith that was in his soul was not altogether fruitless. No JeI hovah-worshiper would ever think of bowing before that god whose temple fell in ruins on the captive Israelite and his thousand victims. To withhold from God is to cheat yourself. ?_ Fossilized Fruit 10,000 Years Old. M. Gaston Bonnie has presented to the Academy of Sciences some fossil flowers and fruits which have been discovered in the neighborhood of Lezanne, France, by M. Rene Viguier. These wonderful vegetable relics are calculated to be 10,000 years old, nnri thev are so Derfectly nre3erved that the ingenious botanist was able to classify them with absolute certitude. Doing Away With White Lead. t Both the Italian and French Government are encouraging the use of antimony pigments, which have the advantage over white lead of being inocuous, and over *.inc paint of being permanent and sun-proof. Antimony is also obtaining a wide application in the manufacture of bearing metal and other alloys. Twenty Thousand Convicts in Prance. There are in France to-day 20,000 convicted criminals?6000 in the Cli.'tH [jrisuns, sei Viilg ??ug scuicnuro, and in the minor prisons and others , aboui. 14,000.