University of South Carolina Libraries
UK TALMA ' SERMON cursing and .8wearira.. "'O' went SatAn forth from tho presence' of t1(. t"rtl, and smote Job with sore bolts from t hd t" of his foot unto 'his grown. And he t'-i' him a potsherd to,0orapo hhiself withal - aitti lwt" at down among the ashes. Then said hk wit' unto pim, Dost thou still retain thipo iutprity y? Curse Gtod, and dio."-Job 2 : 7-9. A r-rORY oriental and marvellous. Job was the richest'man in all the East.' He had camels and oxen and asses. and sheep, anq,.wliat would have made him xich without anything else, seven sons and three daughters. It was the habit of these ohildron tb gather together for family reunion. One day, Job Is think ing of his children as gathered together at a banquet at the elder brother's house. While the old man is seated at his tent door, he sees' some One running, evidently from. his manner bringjug bad news. What is the matter now? "Oh," says the messenger, "a foraging iarty of Sal ans have' fallen upoirthe oxrtidnd tbe'ases, and.de troyed them and bu:'chefed all ti det1a is except myself." Stand aside! Andther me& seig. r running. What is the matter now? "Oh,'. says the mal, "the light ning has struck the shep and the shop ' herds, and all the shepherds are destroy ed except myself." Stand asidel An other it;essenger running. What is the matter now' "Oh," he sa's, "the Chaldeans have captured the camels, and slain all 'the' camel-drivers except myself." Stand asidel 'Another mes senger running. What is the matter now? "Oh," he says, "a inrricane strut:k tl( four corners of the tent where your children were assembled at the banquet, and they are - all dead," llt. TIlE CHAPTER OR CALA ;,TY has not ended., Jol '. w s to with elephantiasis, or black' ep, oay ?. Tum ors from head to fot- orehea ridged with tubercles-eyelashes fall out nostrils excoriated-voice destroyed intolerable exhalations. from the entire body, until, with none to dress his sores, he sits. down in 'the - ashes . with nothing but pieces of broken pottery to use in the surgery of his wounds. At this mpment, when he. needed all gn couragenent and all consolation, his wife comes in, in a fret and a rage, and says: "This is intolerablef Our prop erty lone; our childrgn slain, and nov# you covered up with this loathsonle and disgusting disease! Why' don't 'you swear? Curse God and diel" Ah, Job knew right well that swear iQg would not cure,, one of the tumors of his agonized body, would not bring' back one 'of the" destroydd camels, would not restore one of his dead chil dren. . He knew that profanity would 9y make the, pain more unbearable A d-the overty more distressing, and th revemet more excruciating. BEnt, udging from 'f rE P.OaANiTY ABROAD in our (lay, you might come to the con clusion that there was some great ad vantage to br reaped from profanity. Blasphemy is all abroad. You hear, it in every direction: The drayman swear ig at his cart, the sowing girl impre ciVing the tangled skein, the'ac'count ant cursih thelong lin o of troublesome figures. Swear,ing af, the store, sweptr ing in the loft,, ewearing in the cellar, swearing ozpithe street4 swearing in' the factory; Children swear. Men swear, Women swear! Swearing, frorg the rough callhng on the Almighty in the low restaurant, clear up to the reckless "0 Lord!" of a glittering drawing room; and the one is as much blasphemy as-'the other. There --are times when we must cry out to the Lord,by reasoni of our physi -cal agony or ouo mental distf~ess, and that is oily throwing ott our weak - and to.wardt the strong arm of a faith'er. ~twas no profanity when James A. Garfld, shot-in-theaWashington depot, cried out: ."My God1 Wybati does this mean?" There is no profanity'in call ing out upon God in.the day of trouble, in the day df darkness, in the day of physical anguisb, in the day of ber.ave ment; but I am speaking nowv of the triviality and of the4'en'klessness with which the name of God is sometimes used. 'rH10~ WHOLE LAND Is CURED 'with It. A gentleman coming from the far W~est sat in the car day after day behind two persons who were in dulgikhg in .profanity; and lhe made up his mid that hie would make a record of their profanities, and at the end of .two days - several sheets of paper were .covered .with these imprecations, and .at the 'close of ti4e -journey lie handed the manuscript to one of the persons it front or him. "Is it possible," said the man, "that \ye hav.e uttered so many profanities the last fewv days?" "It is," replied tho'gentleman. "Thon," said the' man-who had taken the paper. "I will never swear again." Biut it is.a comparatively unimport ant thling if a man.mokes record of our improprieties 'of speech. The more memorable consideration is th'at every improper word, every oath uttered, has a record in the book of God's reme~m branco, and Lhat thi 'kay wvill come when. all our crimies.of Aspeech, if unre peruted of', ill be our condemnation. I shall not to-day deal in abstradtions. I hate abstractions. I am going to have a' pidfh' talI'with you, 'my .brother, about a habit that you adinit to be wrong. ~T4ie habit grows in the community, PEOPLE T'IbTKING IT MANLY to swear. Little children, hardly able to wgik stra1gl on the street, yet have enough dlistltc ess of ue'teraiice to let, you knowv t)iit they are damning their own souls, or 'dalmning the souls of others. It is an awful thing the flrst time the lijtlefeet are lifted, to have them set doWfPon~ the burning pave nen of lie,g, Beotween sixteen and twenty years of age,' there is apt' to come . 4(nq 'when' a . young man is as niilf "amed of not' being able to swear gracefully as lie is of the dizzi ness of his first cigar. Hle has his hat, his boots, and his coat of the right t tern, and now, if he can onlya r without awk*ardnuis#,, nd as well as his comrades, heO believelt he is in the fashion. There are young men who walk in an atmospherm of imnreanatnn -oaths oh their lips under their ton. 'gues, nesting in their shock of hair. They .abstain from. it in the elegant drawing-room, but tha street and the club-house ring with their profanities. They have no regard for Uod,,lthough they have great respect for the ladiesI My young btotber, there is no manli ness' in tJu t. The most ungentlemanly thing a man can do is to swear. FATIIEIS .OSTER TIS CRIME. There are parents who are very cautious not to swear in the . rIle o their children; in a mome of su tewger, they look around to'se if the children are present when they indulge in this habit. Do you -not know, 0 father, that your child is aware of the fact that you swear? He overheard you In the next room or someone has informed him of your habit. He is practicing now. In ten years he will swear as well as you do. Do not 0 father, be under The delusionlhat you may swear and your son not Know it. It is an awful thing to start the habit in n fatlier-tlle father to be profaig, and,,hen to hlae thle ecAo.of ia exomple come back from other generations; so .th tbgenera ns after generatiobs curse tl 6-Lord. The crime is also fostered by master mechanics, boss carpenters those who are at the head .of men in hat factories and in dock-yards, and at the head of great business establishments. When you go down to look at the work of the scaffolding and you find it is not done right, what do you say? It is not pray ing, is it? The - employer' swears-his employee is tempted to swear. The mtin,says: "I don't know why my em ploy'r, worth $50,Q0"r $100,000, should have any luxury;, lWould.,be deuied, simply because I am poor. flecause I am poor and dependent on. a day's wages, haVen't I as much right to swear as he has with his large income?" Em ployers swear, and that makes so Inany empiqyees swear. The habit plso con}e I 'ROM INFIItMIT, OF TEMPER. There are a good many people who, when they are at peace, have righteous ness.of. speech, but when angered they blaze with imprecation. Perhaps all the rest of the' year they talk in right langui, 1r' now they pour out the fury of a whole year in one- red-hot paragraph of five minutes. I knew of a man who excused himself for the habit saying: "I only swear once in a gredt while. I must do that just to clear my self out." The habit comes also from the profuse use of. bywords. The transition from a byword, which may be perfectly harm less,- to iipprecation and profanity, is not a very lttrge transition. It'is "my stirs!" and mercy on me!" and "good graciousl"and "by Georgel" and "by Jove!" arid.you go on with that a little while, And then you swear. The words, perfectly harmless in themselves, are next door to imprecation and blasphemy. A profuse use of bywords always ends -in profanity. THE HABIT IS CREEPING UP into the highest styles of society. Women have no patience With flat and upfarnished profanity. They will order a man out of the parlor Indulging in blasphemy, and yet yoq will sometimes find them with. fairy fan to the lip, and under-chandeliers which bring no blush to their cheek, taking dn -their lips the holiest of names in utter triviality. Why, my ' friends, the Ena-lish language Is comprehensive, and espable of expressing all shapes of feeling and every degree of energy. Are you happy -Noah Webster will give you ten thousan4 words with which to express your exhilaration. Are you righteously lndignant--there are whole armnories In the vocabulary, righteous vocabulary whole armies of denunciation, and scorn, and sarcasm, aind irony, and caritatuIe, and wrath. You express yourself against siome meannesqs or hypocrisy, in all the oaths that ever smoked up from the pit, and I will come right on after you and give you a thous, andfold more emphasis of denunciation, to the same meanness and the same hypocrisy, in words across . which no slime has ever trailed, and into which the fires'of hell have never shot their forked tongues--the pure, the innocent, God-honored Anglo-Saxo'n in which Milton sang, and John Bunyan dreamed and -Shakespeare-dramatized. THLERE Is NO EXCUSE FOR I"ROFANITY when wve have such a magnificent langs age--suchi a flow of good wdrds, potent words, mighty words, words to suit every crisis and every case.. Do you knovv/tlat this trivial use of Gad's name results In perjury? Do you know that people who take the name of God on their lips in recklessness and thoughtlessness are fostering. thir'crime of perjucry? Make the name of God a foot-ball in the community, and it has no .power.whvlen in -court-room and in legislatite assembly it is eniployed ini solemti .adjurationI See the way, sometimes, they administer the oath: "S'holp you God--kiss the book!" Smug ghing, which is always a violation of the oath, becomes in sonie circles a grand joke. You say to a man: " How is it possible for you to sell these goods so very cheap? I can't understand it." "A,hi" he replies, with a twinkle of .the eye, "Lhe Custom-house tariff of these goods isn't, as much as it might.?be." An oath does not men as much as it'would were the name of God used in reverenice and in solemnity. Why is. it that po often jurors render unaccountable ver dicts, and judges give unaccountabie charges, and useless schemes pass in our State capitals? What is an oath? Anything dolomn? Anything that calls upon the Almighty? Anything thuAt marks an eveilt in' a man's history?. Oh, no! It is kissing the book! There is no .habit, I tell you plainly-and 'I talk to hundreds and $ hdusands of mett to-day who will thank me for my utterance-I tell you, my brother-I talk to you nbt profes sionally but just as one brother talks to Another on some very important theme 4-I tell you there is no :habit that so depletes a man's nature as the habit cf profanity.. You mrighit a.A well try to raise'vme yards and orchards on the sides of blech ing Stromboli, as to raise anything good on a heart. from which there pours out the scotia of profanit'. You knay sweai foursel( down; you cannot.swyear your self uip. When the Mohammedan findi a piece of paper he cannot read, he puts it naie very 'nautionsly for fear t.hi name of God may be on it. That Is one extpme. .We goto the otjier. WHAT IS' TUE CURE of this habit? It;" a mighty nim t. Men have'stiuggl 4r years to get' var It. There are nen in this house of God who would give half their fortune to get rld-of it. An aged man was in the do lirium:of a .fe.ver. ,He ha' for.-many years lived a most upright life and was honored in all the, community ; but when'he came Into the delirium of this (over he -w 'full ,og imprecation' .ad profanity, athe'.icould not unkler stand it. -".1ie.:came to his'Ight reason he explained it. 'He. said.: "When I was a young man I was very profane. I conquered, the habit, but I, had to struggle all through life. You haven't for- forty years heard me say an improper word but It has been an awful struggle. 'l'he tige:' is chained, but he Is alive yet." If you would get rid of this habit, I want you, my friends, to dwell upon riHE VSLLESSNESS Ok IT. Did a volley of oaths ever start a'heavy .load?Did they ever extirpate meanness from a customer? Did they ever collect i bad debt? Did they ever cure a tooth ache? Did they over stop the twinge of the rheumatism? Did they over help you forward one stop in the right direc tion? Come now,tel me, ye who have had the most experience in this habit hdw much have you made out of it? Vive thousand dollars in all your life? No. One thousand? - no. One huit dred? No." One dollar? No. One cent? No, If the habit be so utterly useless, away with it ! But you say : "I have' struggled' to overcome the habit i long while, and I hao hnt been successful." You strug gled in your strength, my brother. If ever a man wants God, it Is in such a crisis of his history. God alone, by His grace, can emancipate you from that trouble. Call upon Him day and night, that you may be delivered from this crime. Remember, also, in the cure of this'iabit, that it arouses God's indig nation. The Bible rei.terates, from chapter to chapter, and verse after verse the fact that it is aecurs-d for ,this lIfe, and that it makes a man mis erable for eternity. There is not a sin in all the catalogue that is so' often per emptorily PUNISHED IN THIS WORLD as the sin of profanity. There is not a city or a Village but can give an illus tration of a man struck down at the moment of imprecation.' A couple of years ago, briefly referring to this in a sermon, I gave some instances in which God had struck swearors dead at the moment of their profanity. That -ser mon brought to me from many parts of this land and other lands statelnents of similar cases of instantaneous.visitation from God upon blasphemers. My opin ion Is that such cases occur somewhere every day, but for various reasons they are notseported. In Scotland a club assembled every week for purposes - of. wipledness, and therewas'a competition asto which could use the most horrid oath, and the man Iao succeeded was to be president of the club.. The competition went on. A man. uttered an oath .which con founded all his comrades, and lie was made president of the club. His tongge began to swell,'and it' protruded from the mouth', and he could notdraw it in, and he died,- ,und the physicians said : "This is the strangest thing we ever saw ; we never saw any account In the books like unto it ; we can't under stand it. I understatid it. lHe cursed God Ignd( died. At Catskill, N. Y., a group of men stood in a blacksmith's shop during a violent thunderstorm.. There came a crash of thunder, and some of the men trembled. One man said: "Why, I don't see what you are afraid of. I am not afraid to go out in front of to shop and diefy the Almighty. 'I am nt afraid of lightning." And he laid a wager on the subject, and oe -went out, and lhe shook his fIst at the heavens, crying, "Strike, if yon' dare I" and instantly he fell undler a bolt. .What destroyed him? Any mystery about it? Oh, no. HIE CURSED ClOD, AND DIED. Oh, m'y brother, God will not allow thmis in to go unpunished. There are sty1 of wvriting with manifold sheets, so that a man writing on one leaf, wvrites clcar through ten, fifteen, or twenity sheets ; and so every p)rofanity we utter goes right down through the leaves of the book of God's remem brance. It is no exceptional sin. Do you suppose you could count the pro fanity of last week-the profanities of office, store, shop; factory? They cursed Go'd, they cursed His Word, they cursed His only Begotten Sop. *One morhuing, on Fulton Street, as I wvas passing along, I heard'a man swear b)y the name of .Jesus. My hair lifted. My bjood ran cold. . Miy breath caught. My foot halted. Do you not suppose that God is aggravated? Do you not suppose that God knows about it? Dionysius used to have a cave in which his culprits were incarcerated, and he listened at the top of that cave, and he could hear bvery groan, he could hear every sigh, and lie could hear every wvhlspoef of'those who were Imprisoned. He was 'a tyrant. God Is .not a tyrant ; but he, bonds over this world, and lie hears everything-every voice of praise, every voice of impr.ecation. Hie hears it all.. The oaths seenm to die dn the mir, but THE.Y HAVE ICERNAL hTCC[O, They come back from the ages to come. is8ten.! listen I "All blasphemers shall havd their.place in the lake which burn eth with fire and .brinistone, -which is the scond death." And if, accordhing to the theory of son'ie, a nman commits .in the nexte world th~e s(ns which he commits mn this world--if unhiardoned, 'imregenerated-thuink of a man's going .on cursing In the nam9 of God to all enternuity I. -' - . *The haU.it grows. You' start with1 a 'small oath, you will come. to the large oath. I .saw a man die with an oath between his teeth. Voltaire only grad.. ually 'came to his tremendous impre cation ; but the habit (reW on him until at the last moment, supposig Chrisi stood at the bed, ho exclaimed "Crush that wretch I 'Crush* that wretcih :" Oi my brotheor, you begin to swear, anti there Is nothiing -impossible for you in the wrong direction. Who is this God whose name you are uineg in swearing? Whuo I s o?.. He a tyrant? Has He purstted you all your life long? Hal; he starved you frozen you, tvratinited.over 'you? No l He. has lovet yot,' He has sheltered you. .O, wptched "you last night. He \vill whatch you tot-night. He wants to love you, wants to help you, wants to save you. He was YOUR FATIIERfs GOD, and your mother's God, lie has housed th1em from the .blast, and le wants to shelter you. Will -you spit in his face by an imprecation? Will you ever thrust Him back by an oath? Who is this Jesus whosq name I heard in the' imprecation? -Has I4e pursued you all your life long? What vive thing has He done to you tiat you should so dishonor His name? Why; He was the Lamb whosoblood siimerea in the fires of sacrifice for you. He is the Brother that took off. His crown, that you might put it on. He has pur sued you all your life long with mercy. Ie wants you to love imn, wants you to serve Him le comes with streaming eyes and broken heart, and blistered feet to save you. Where is the haqad, that ivill e1,er bQ Jifted in imprecation again?. Let that. hand, now -bloddtipped, be lifted, that I may see it. Not one. Whore is the voice that will ever be uttered in dis honoring the name of that Christ? Let' it speak now. Not one. Not one. Oh. I am glad to know that all those vices of the community, and these crimes of our city, will be gone. Society is going to be bettered. 'I'iie world, by the power of Christ's Gospel, is going to be saved, and this crime, this ini quity,iand all the other iniquities, will vanish be fore the r1sing of the Sun of Righteous ness uponi the nation. - - There was one day in New England memorable for storm and darkness. I hardly ever saw such an evening. The clouds which had been gathering all day unlimbered- thor batteries. The Housatonic, which flows quietly, sav as the paddles of pleasure-parties rattle the oarlocks was lashed into foam, and the waves hardly knew where to lay themselves. 011, WIHAT A TIM IT WAS I 'Ihe hills jarred under the rumbling of God's chariots. Blindi)g sheets of rain drove the cattle to' the bars or bo'at against theb window pane as though to dash it in. ' The grain fields threw their c'owns of gold at the feet of the storm king. When night came in, it was a double night. Its' mantle was torn with the lightnings, and into its looks were twisted the leaves of uprooted oaks and the shreds of caiivas torn froii the masts of the beached shipping. It was such a night as 'makes you thank God for shelter, and open the doog to let in the spaniel howling outside with terror. We ivent to sleep under the full blast of heaven's great orchestra, the forests with' uplifted voices; in chorus that filled .the mountainq, prais ing the Lord. We woke dot until the fingers of the sunny morn touched our eyelids. We looked out the window, and th Iousatonic slept as quiet as an infant's dream. .The trees sparkled as' though there had been sde great grief in heaven, and each leaf had Peen God appointed to catch an angel's tear. It seemed as if our Father had looked upon the earth, His wayward 'child and stooped to her tear-wet cheek and kissed It. So will THlE DARKNEsS OF SIN' and crime leave our world before t,he dawn of the morning. Tile light shall gild -the city spire, and.strike thle forests of Maine and tile masts of Mobile, and 'all' between. And one end resting oni the Pacifle beach, God wvill sprinIg a great rainbow arch Qf peace, in token of everlastinlg covenant* that the world shall nevermore see a deluge of crime. "But,'" says sotne one, "preaching against the evils, of society' Will accom plish nothing. Do you not see that the evils go right on?" I answer, we are not at all discouraged. It seemed insignificant for Moses 'to stretch is hand 'over the lRed Sea: What power could thlat hlave over tihe waters? But the east wind blew all nighlt; the water gathered int'o two glittering palisades on either side. Th'ie billows reared as . God's hand pulled back upon their crystal bits. Wheel intq line, 0 Israel 1 March I March I Pearls crash under the fqet. The shout of hosts mouting the beach answers the shout of hlosts mid-sea ; un t il, as the bust line of tile Israelites have gaied the beach, thle sh!e,lds clang, anld the cymbals clp; and as tile waters whelm the pursuing foe, tile' swift fingeu'ed winlds on the whlito keys of tile foam play the granld march of Israel deliv ered, and the awful dirge of Egyptian overthrow. So we go forth,'and'stretch out tile hand of prayer and Christian effort'over thlese dark, boiling. waters of crime and sinl. "Aha I Aha l'" say tIle deriding world;' But wait. Tile winds of divine hlelp will begin to blow ; tile way will clear for the great .army of. Christian philanthuropihts ; the glittering treasures of the wvorld's beneficence wvill line thO p)athl of -our feet ; and to the other shore wve wJll be greeted with. the clash of all lheaven's cymibals' wile 'those who resist and deride and pursue us wvill fall under the sea, and the.re will' be nothling left cif them but here and there, cast high and dIry up~on tihe beach, tile splintered wheel of a chariot, anid, thIrust out from the surf, th'e breathlless -nostril of a riderless chlarger. A Bottle 1)1aking Machine. Like many othei' industries, the work' of bottle making hlas of late'-years suf fered so rpuch from foreign competition that it has almost been driven from this country, Germany an.d Blelgimhi be ing the largest producers. It is ho'ped, howevei', that the lost -industr~y thay be again revived here, these -hopes being founded upon a lately invsnted ma chine, whlich will turn out bottles far more .expeditionsly thlan thley can be made by hland, and at a tithe of the cost. This machine Is tihe invention of Mr. Howard Ml. Ashley, and is being worked at 'the glass manufactory of Messrs. Sykes, Macvay &Co., of Cas tieford. .In this machine the molten glass is poured into a mold, and1 theap plicistion of air under pressure distends the-glass and causes it to flil the Iiter for of that mold. It is believed that when this macilne is complete, with six or eight molds, it will be possible by it to make twenty-four bottles por minute. ERAIjaDING SHIPS, fow,tio Maritime News in Colleoted and Distributed I)aiy. All the news lovers of New York do not road the two or three columns that make up the marine intelligence in most of the great dailies. -The coming and going of ships over the great seas have not much. of special 'interest for the ordinary citizen, ahd yet there are thousands who watch that corner of the paper with an attention that they pay to no other portion of the news. , It is easy enough to' ascertain the time of the prrivals and departures of vessels fromi their docks itlong the piers, but how is the history of the incoming ship's voyage ;read out before the people in the journals long before the ,yessel has anchored safely in the bay? Overhanging the water'down In Bat tery park, just away from the surge and bustle.around Castle .garden, is a little square-built, brown-stone building with a big sign on the entrance tllat tells the passer-by that there is the "ship news. office.". - Brown-faced Men with sunlu,ned noses, .weather-beatep ' -faces, and, a. general air of loosenss and 'hitpliing about their attire, lounge in and out oc casionally, and the stairs and rooms of the little place have a salty, shiplike look about them. There re two or three reporters and a superintendent, who look a good deal like amateur pea dogs themselves, and there is a general sprinkling of tobacco juice and em phatic expletives in the air thhat gives one some idea of a. ship's forecastle. The happenings of the seas is gathered together, told in columns or condensed into a paragraph in this watered build ing. This is how it is done: Down at Sandy Hook, on the best point of observation along that part of the coast, there is a watch-tower that is ne.er left untenanted. Day aiid night a lone sentinel turns his -eyes , toward thoe.blue waters -and iotes the coining and the going-of ships. The daintiest little pleasure yacht catches his -eye and so also does the great transatlantic steamer, - and the operator beside him sends on the wings of lightning the news'of the incoming craft to the ship news office long bgforo the vessel's spars have shadowed the hook. As the ship fasses up toward Quar antine the Associated Press tug swings out to meet her, and from the deck of the boat the captain of the craft is hailed and questioned. Where does ie come from? What cargo has he .on board? To whom consigned?. IIa he any' prominent people on board, and what kind of weather did he have? Did he meet any other vessels, and what did they tell him ? These aid a dozen more qu'estions are thrown upon the deck of the vessel and at, its master in a voice in which only the ship reporter can shriek them forth. Anid they are, 'answered promptly, cheerfully, and gladly, for every mas ter of a vessel knows the- Owners, 'coil signees, :and his own friends are watch ing the column of ship news carefully' to note his safe arrival and' to learn the story of his voyage. bometimes, especially from the great ocean steamers, a package is hove to the news boat and no questioiis are neces sary. A.'passenger list, a copy of. the ship's log, memoranda of everything ret m~arkable or of. a newsy nature on the voyage, letters .to editors,- from* pas sengers who want. especial notorjety, and whose friends have not called down with a tug and a brass band to mpet them, everythh.i worth telling to the public is one way Or- anothier gathered up by that lIttle boat dancing~ along the" choppy and often stormy waters in dAy-' Light or darkness by the side lof the home coming ship. -The news once gathered, the press boat pwings away to the StAiten island shore, and if time Is pressing the wvitole budget sings over the wire to the little brown house in Battery park, where it Is edited, manifolded, and laid.- upon. editorial desks in the newspaper offices, put into typo, and printed for millions of readers before the ship comes within sight of the- big city. It is a cheerless life for the boys in, the - tall observatory on the coast at Sandy Hook for there-is no mo're - tes alate.outlook on the -Atlantic coast than that same spot. Yet the corps of news gathers, there and at the Quarantine which is an alm5st equally cheerless spot, seldom changes. Most of them, are,.men in middle age, without families, and 'have growin to li.ke the rough, careless, and sea-dog life bhey live on thd c'oast or in the cabin of bheir little tug, or lounging on the sea ihore watching the far-away horizon ~nd its vision of coming hips.--.. Persian Cavsary_iRepujsed by Prayer Mr.,Saltet, a German -Diissionary, was righly . blessed in gathering a little ihurch of converts in Shushi, a Per sian town, ceded to Russia,' In his inemorials John Venning relates that "one morning, I think iii 1826, the bown was struck with dismay on per ielviing the hills. coyered with a body of Persian. cavalry,.,0,00 'in nuniber, unXder the command 'of Abbas Mirza, who had thqs inva'ded the dountry withQut provocation, .in a tAme of peace, when -the Rtussiins'were unpr& paredl to meet such a force. *A 'herald was sent by the Persian Prince, using menaces like thode of Rabstrakeh, bi ling the heretics open their gi4tes. and adding, 'See if your King Jesus can help you, whomn w6 defy? The few troops in the town were called to arms; all was confusion and dismay. Zaltet called his little .Christian bana to rcether, and.saId, \Let usp go into our hbuse of prayer, and there lay the t'er sian's blasphemies before Hezekiah's Iod.' They went into the sanctuary, and laid the words and meniaces of the Mahometan herald before their 'King Jesus,' and continued in prayer to Him who .is -a very .present 'help in trouble. Towards the close of tlie af ternoon, the P'ersians thought they heard -the approagh .of a Russian atmny (which was not the case), andl they de samped; not a Persian was to be S.een. M!r. Saltet Wtote me a long account of this, with many other details of the; goodness of God in their sore distress." J. O7ialmere Robertson li. D. relates in the Lance& the case of a family who were poisoned by eating moldy bread. The symptoms were diarrhea and 'pain In the n ennatrium. THE WORST AND 'L Cost the Same Money--Ho ter Dealer Has Built Large Trade. A carriage drove up to the do small and unpretentigus grocer do)n town skeet not far froiG Wich avenue yesterday afternoon. lady picked her way among the Jostl crowd of children who. swarmew o the dirty pavement like ants at a picln and entpred the door. "1 want ten pounds of ydur bes butter." . , The grocer did'the bitter up. ."How much?" "Forty cents a pound." "Now give me teir pounds of your common butter." The grocer executed this order. "How much is this?" "Forty cents a pounid, madam..". "But I don't want your best. I want your second grade butter for cooking. -r I can't afford. to cook with 40-cent but- Ie ter in my boardibg-house." "I'm sorry, madam, but I only keep one grade of butter. It Is thb best I can buy, and I sell no other." "I was recommended to .come to you by a friend of mine w4o says you have sold her butter for ten years, and I v111 take ten pounds for my table use. I don't want the last package.". "Does it pay to keep only one kind of butter?" asked a reporter who had over heard the colloquy. "It pays me. I see more butter than half a dozen ordinary grocers. put to gether. I have customers frpm all over the city! As much of ny trad i is on Murray 1I111 as anywhere b1se. I sup ply over a hundred Walt-htreet men .with butter and have a man who visits their ofllces every day for orders. I have two wagons and tWo canvassers who make daily trips among my up town families, -taking their orders and dc' hvering the butter. I only keep one quality andl'I charge the loWest price I cai afford." "Where do you get your butter?" "I take the entire product of almost a whole township in Orange couity. I was raised there, a boy, and know every farmer in that neighborhood. I have bought their butter for over twenty years. and take all they can make, I never could have held my trade if I sold an inferior grade of butter, and I don't, care to cater to the trade that buys it. There is moremoney in handl ing the best.'? What a liizzard'Is. A blizzard Is simply a strong, cold wind moving unchecked over -leagues of unpacked snow. It sweeps up that which has 'previoualy fallen, carries it away in the color of. a vast shaken fleece, distributes it so that almost each atmospheric atom has its little particle, and drives along all with a steady fury. Whether fresh snow -is falling can seldom be determined by people out in a real blizzard. As far as the eye can gee upward,. and that is but a little space, the hurry of minute pellets hurl-. Ing across an unrevealed sky prevails, and the hurrying sameness on every side is varied oply by ogcasional tall and bending wrAiths whexe the wind whirls hi shifting, columns. A confusion of the senses, comparable to none produced otherwise; appalls one submitted to the enormous and blinding force of such a naow-filled wind, and scarcely.a distin3t thought remains except that the awful cold' forbids crouching .for rest .and. shelter. To our personal knowledge, opie in queb a storm keeps with difficulty ifpon a railway track lifted three feet above ths surrounding prairie, and may be lost by five steps thie wrong way after st.umbling down -from the em bankmnent, which, being white, becomes instantly invisible. .It is recorded on good a-uThority that bands of teamsters halting with their horses hauve been snowed over thirty feet deep by bliz 'zards, and have survived by beating out. breathing chambers till the ces-. sation of the storm enabled .them to ilig themselyes tp upper air. The formation of a drift about a halteid' man, or llorse, or sleigh, is sometimes wonderfully speedy, and the @1fift, once established, grows by virtue of Its obstructiveness. In.some well authenti cated cases lost persons. have been found by the drIfts over them and dug. out alive, in others the ppring has .revealed corpses still unthawed alnong the last white relics of winter. In blizzards people have often .been unable to see across the street of a northwest town, and sometimes men lose their direction in trying to readhi the opposite side of a well-built way. A Bright Ittle Okinamanm. The Chinese Embassy has With it a boy of 12. lHe has a pleasing counton anice, with bright,- black eyes. Hie wears the dress of his country, not onmitting the gueue.. The long gown is .mnade of the finest silk and is a most picturesque Costume, He' is bashful, like all boys, when conversing with the "pretty: ladies, ".and is as much at loss for a reply as his American brothers. 110 is' attending school here and, it is said, is a veky bright pupil:' TiDsy Moeking Birds. A letter. written from Orange Cal., says that the'mocking birds in tilat lo cality feed on the berries that grow on the Chinese umbrella tree, and that this sort of food makes them tipsy. They act very foolishly just after a hearty meal und stagger- about badly intoxi cated. A 'recent French law makes re-vac cination indumbent upon every student received into the lyceums and colleges. Since the experiment was made At the Lycee&Louis le.Grand not a single. case of variola or varioloid has appeared. Somi'TRUTgI IN~ IT.-Tominly--Say, mamma, uyhy Aon't you have some.col or in your cheeks, nowadays? Mother-I have loane4 it to your father to paint his nose with. JUDC*m B, (with emphasis) -Clara, is that George fellow coming around here to-night? Clara opelessly)-I believe so, papa. Judge D.-Well,daughmter remember this: this house closes at ten sharp and. Clara. (hastily)-Oh, George will b~e here be fore that, papa; please don't;