The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, May 15, 1888, Image 4
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,
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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;