The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, October 21, 1897, Image 7
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n. lll'S SERMON.!
NOTED WASHINGTON DIVINE'S j
SUNDAY DISCOURSE.
Mighty Influence of Prayer For the
World'* Good'?It Comes From Secret i
Places?The Christian Home the Foan- |
tain of Pious and Gracious Influences. 1
Text: "I answered thee in the secret j
place of thunder."?Psalms 81: vii.
It Is past midnight, and 2 o'clock In the
morning: far enough from sunset and sunrise
to make the darkness very thick, and
the Egyptian army in pursuit of the escaping
Israelites are on the bottom of the lied
Sea, Its waters having been set up on either
~J 1- -
S1UU 1U lU^UUl y KJl I'J'UHU, w* uvu vuii
make a wail as solid out of water as out of
granite, aud ?lie trowels with which these
two walls were built were none the less
powerful because invisible. Such walls
had never before been lifted. When I saw
the waters of the Red Sea rolling through
the Suez Canal they were blue and beautiful
and flowing like other waters, but as
the Egyptians look up to them built into
w.alls, "now on one side and now on the
other, they must have been frowning waters,
for it was probable that the same
power that lifted them up might suddenly
fling them prostrate. A great lantern of
cloud hung over this chasm between the
two walls. The door of that lantern was
opened toward tho Israelites ahead, giving
them light, an I the back of the lantern
was tow tr I the Egyptians, and It growled
and rumble.; and jarred with thunder; not
thunder like that which cheers the earth
after a drought, promising the refreshing
shower, but charged aud surcharged with
threats of doom. Tho Egyptian captains
lost their presence of mind, and the horses
reared an 1 snorted and would not answer
to their bits, and the chariot wheels got interlocked
and torn off, and the charioteers
were hurled headlong, and the Red Sea fell
..II K ? rPko ? ~ r, fJ i rw, nn>1 /?nn.
VU cm I.UU xug vvuiujiu^
founding thunder was la answer to the
prayer of the Israelites. With their backs
cut by the lash uud their feet bleeding and
| their bodies decrepit with the suffering of
whole generations t hey had asked Almighty
God to ensepulcher their Egyptian pursuers
in oue great sarcophagus, and the
splash and the roar of the Red Sea as it
dropped to its natural bed were only the
shutting of the sarcophagus on a dead host.
That is the neaniug of the text, when God
says: "I answered thoo In the secret place
of thunder."
Now. tnuuder, all up and down the Bible,
Is the symbol of power. Small wits depreciate
the thunder, and say, "It Is the
lightning that strikes." Bat God evidently
thinks the thunder of some importance
or He wonld not make so much of It. That
man must be without imagination and without
sensitiveness and without religion who
can, without emotion, see the convention
of summer clouds called to order by the
tailing gavel of the thunderbolt. There is
nothing iu the natural world that awes and
solemnites me as the thunder. The Egyptian
plague of hail was acoompanied with
this full diapason of the heaven. While
Samuel and his men were making a burnt
offering of a lamb, and the Philistines were
about to attack them. It was by terrorizing
thunder they were discomfited. Job, who
was a combination 01 tae juantesque ana
the Miltonio, was solemulzed by this reverberatioa
of the heavens, and cried: "The
thunder of His power, who can under tand?"
and He challenges the universe by
saying; "Uau'st thou thunder with a voice
like Him?" and he throws Rosa Bonheur's
"Horse Fair" into the shade by the Biblo
photograph of a war horse, when he describes
his neok as "clothed with thunder."
Because of the power or James and John,
they were called "the sons of thunder."
The law given on the basaltio crags of
Mount ssinai was em phusied with this cloudy
ebullition. The skies all round about St.
John at Patmos were full of the thunder of
f war, and the thunder c! Christly triumph,
and the thunder of resurrection, and the
thunder of eternity.
But when my text says, I answered thee
. , in the secret place of tnunder, it suggests
there is some mystery about the thunder.
To the ancients the cause of this bombarding
the earth with loud sound must havo
peon inure ui t% iuvsuty luau u u iv us.
The ligntniugs, wuich were to them wild
monsters ranging through the skies, in our
time have been domesticated. We harness
electricity to vehicles and we cage it in
?- lamps, and every schoolboy knows something
about the fact that it is the passage of
electricity from cloud to cloud that makes
. 4 < the heavenly racket which we call tliuar
der. Bit, after nil that chemistry has
taught the world, there are mysteries about
this skyey resonance, and my text, true fn
the time of the psalmist, is true now, and
always will be true, that there is some seIcret
about the place of thunder.
Now, right along by natural law, there
is always a spiritual law. As there is a
secret place of natural thunder, there is
a secret place of moral thunder. In other
words, the religious power that you see
abroad in the church and in the world has
a hiding place, and in many cases it is
never discovered at all. I will use a simil.
ltude. I can give only the dim outline of
a particular case, for many of the remarkable
circumstances I have forgotten. Many
m*t: years ago there was a large ehuroh which
g?v was characterized by strange and unaccountable
conversions. There were no
t great revivals, but individual cases of
spiritual arrest and transformation. A
K young man sat in one of the front pews.
He was a graduate of Yale, brilliant as
the north star and notoriously dissolute.
Everybody knew him and liked him for
his genialty, but deplored his moral errantry.
To please his parents he was every
Sabbath morniDg in church. Ope day
. . there was a ringing of the door beli of the
pastor of that church, and that young man,
whelmed with repentance, implored prayer
r and advice, aud passed into complete reformation
of heart and life. A.11 the neighborhood
was astonished and asked, Why
il.J 1 ITS- /* - a U ~ J -iU
was ims: nis tuiuer uuu mutual- uau miu
nothing to him about his soul's welfare.
On nnoth?r side of the same church sat an
sfc old miser. He paid his pew rent, but w;is
hard on the poor and had no interest In any
phil&nthropy. Piles of money! And people
said: "What astrugglehe will have, when
he quits this life, to part with his bonds
and mortgages." One day he wrote to his
minister: "Please to call immediately. 1
have a matter of great importance about
which I want to see you." When the paster
* came in the man could not speak for emotion,
but after awhile he gathered self-control
enough to say:
"I have lived for this world too long. I
want to know if you think I can be saved,
and, if so, I wish you would tell me how."
Fpon his soul the light soon dawned, and
tha old miser, not only revolutionized in
. heart but in Jife, began to scatter bener
factions, and toward all the great charities
of the day he became a cheerful and
I?' \ bountiful almoner. What was the cause of
this change everybody asked; and no one
was capable of giving an intelligent
answer. In another part of that same
chnrch sat Sabbath by Sabbath a beautiful
and talented woman, who was a great
society leader. She went to church because
thut was a respectable thing to do,
and In the neighborhood where she lived
~ It was hardly respectable not to go.
Worldly was she to the last degree, and u!l
her family worldly. She had a: her house
the finest germans that were ever danced
and the costliest favor3 that were ever
given, and though she attended church
she never liked to hear any story of pathos,
and as to religious emotion-of any kind
she thought it positively vulgar. Wines,
cards, theaters, rounds of costly gayoty
were to her the highest satisfaction. Ouo
day a neighbor sent in a visiting eard and
this lady came down the stairs in tears,
_ and told the whole story how she had not
slept for several nights, and she feared she
was goiDg to lose her soul, and she wondered
if some one would not come around
and pray with her. From that time her
entire demeanor was changed, and though
m
- v
f
/.
she was not called upon to sac: '.floe any of
her amenities of life, she con'-crated her
beauty, her sociat position, her family, her
all to God and the church and usefulness.
Everybody said in regard to her: "Have
you noticed the change, and what in the
world caused It?" And no one could malte
satisfactory explanation. In the course of
two yearsi though there was no general
awakening in that church, many such isolated
cases or unexpected and unac,
countable conversions took place. The
very people whom no one thought would
be affected by such considerations were
converted. The pastor and the officers of
the church were on the lookout for the
solution of this religious phenomenon.
I "Where is it?" they said, "and who is it,
and what is it?"
At last the discovery was made and all
was explained. A poor old Christian woman
standing in the vestibule of the church
one Sunday morning trying to get her
breath again before she wont upstairs to
4.L- 11^-.- Kaov/1 flm innnirv nnri fnM tht*
lilt? gailCIY, umiu kuv iu.ju.4j ? ?
secret. For years she had beon in the
habit of concentrating all her prayers for
particular persons iu that church. She
would see some man or woman present,
and, though she might not know the person's
name, *ho would pray for that person
until he or she was converted to God. All
her prayers were for that one person?just
that ono. She vaited and waited for communion
days to see when the candidates
for memberf hip stood up whether her prayers
had been effectual. It turned out that
these marvelous instances of conversion
were the result of that old woman's prayers
as sat in the gallery Sabbath bvSabbath,
bent and wizened and poor and unnoticed.
A little cloud of consecrated humanity hovering
iu the calleries. That was the secret
place of the thunder. There is some hid- :
den, unknown, mysterious source for almost
all the moral and religious power demonstrated.
Not one out of ten million :
prayers ever strikes a human ear. On public
occasions a minister of religion voices <
the supplications of an assemblage, but the 1
prayers of all the congregation are in i
silence. There is not a second in a century !
when prayers are not ascending, but my- i
riads of them are not even as loud as a i
whisper, for-God hears a thought as plainly 1
as a vocalization. That silence of suppli- <
cation?hemispheric and perpetual?is the
secret place of thunder. i
The dav will come?God hasten it?when i
people will And out the velocity, the majesty,
the multipotence of prayer. We brag .
about our limited express trains which put i
us down a thousand miles away in twenty- I
four hours, but here is something by which
in a moment we may confront people 5000
miles away. We brag about our telephones,
but here is something that beats the telephone
in utteranoo and reply, for God says,
"Before they call, I will hear." We brag
about the phonograph, in which a man can
speak, and his words and the tones of his
voioe can be kept for ages, and by the turning
of a crank the words may come forth
upon the ears of another century, but
prayer allows us to speak words into the
ears of everlasting remembrance and on
the other side of eternities they will be
heard. Oh, ye who are wasting your breath
and wasting your nerves and wasting your
lungs wishing for this good and that good
for the church and the world, why do you
not go into tne secret place of thunder?
"But," says some one, "that is a beautiful
theory, yet it dees not work in my case,
for I am in a cloud of trouble or a cloud
of persecution or a cloud of poverty or a
cloud of perplexity." How glad I am
that you told me that. That is exactly the
place to which my text refers. It was from
a cloud that God answered Israel?the i
cloud over the chasm cut through the Red
Sea?the cloud that was light to the Israelites
and darkness to the Egyptians. It
was from a cloud, a tremendous cloud, j
that God made reply. It was a cloud that
was a secret place of thuader. So you
ortnonlfiH/ln ftf
UUUUVSb ?inn; uvot ?uv w*mv?m?.vm v.
my text by talking that way. Let ali the 1
people under a cloud hear it. "I answered '
theo in the secret place ol thunder." ]
This subject helps me to explain some <
things you have not understood about cer- ]
tain useful men and women. Many of them i
have not a superabundance of education. ]
If you had their brain in a post mortem ex- \
animation and you could weigh it it would <
not weigh any heavier than the average, i
They have not anything especially impressive
in personal appearance. They are not 1
very fluent of tongue* They pretend to <
nothing tinusual in mental faculty or so- 1
ciai influjnee, but you feel their power, j
you are elevated in their presence, you are !
a better man or a better woman"having .
confronted them. You know that in in- j
tellectual endowmeht you are their su- 1
perior, while in the matter of moral and <
religious influence they are vastly your superior.
Why is this? To And the revelation
of this secret you mu9t go back
thirty or forty or perhaps sixty years to j
the homestead where this man was
brought up. It in a winter morning, and
the tallow candle is lighted and the
Ares* kindled, sometimes the shavings l
hardly enough to start the wood. The <
mother is preparing the breakfast,thoblue- !
edged dishes are on the table, and the lid of
tho kettlb on the hearth rattles with the
steam. The father 13 at the barn feeding I
the stock?the oats thrown into the horses' 1
bin and the cattle crunching the corn. The <
children, earlier than they would like and J
after being called twice, are gathered at
the table. The blessing of God is asked on 1
the food, and, the m?al over, the family Bi- j
ble is put upoivthe white table cloth und a <
chapter Is read and a prayer made, which 1
includes all the interests for this world and
the next. The children pay not much at- 1
tention to the piayer. for it is about the 1
same thing day after day, but it puts upon 1
them an impression that ten thousand i
years will only make more vivid and tremendous.
As long as the old folks live
their prayer is for their children and their
children's children. '
Day in and day out, month in and month
out, year in and year out, decade in and
decade out, tho sons and daughters of that
family aro remembered in earnest prayer,
and they know it and feel it and they caunot
get away from it. Two fanerals after
awhile?not more than two years apart, for
it is seldom that there is more than that
lapse of time between father's going and
mother's goiDg?two funerals put out of
sight the old folks. The daughters are in
homes where they are Incarnations of good
sense, industry and piety. The sons, perhaps
one a farmer, another a merchant,
another a mechanic, another a physician
another a minister of the Gospel, useful,
consistent, admired, honored. What a
power for good those seven sons and
daughters! Where did they get the power?
From the schools and the seminaries and
the colleges? Oh, no, those these may have
helped. From their superior mental endowment?
No; I do not think they ba l unusual
meutal caliber. From accidental circumstances?
No, they had nothing of what
is called good luck.
i itunic we win mice a i?iu auu n.io ?.w
the depot nearest to the homestead from
wbioh those men and women started. The
train halts. Let us stop a few minutes at
the Tillage graveyard and see the tombstones
of the parents. Yes, the one was
seventy-four years of age and the other
seventy-two, and tho epitaph says "that
after a useful life they died a Christian
death." 0:i over the country road we ride
?the road a little rough, and once down in
a rut it is hasd to get the wheels out again
without breaking the shafts. But at last
we come to the lune in front of the farm-,
house.
Let me get out of the wagon and open
the gate while you drive through. Hero
is *he arbor under which those boys and
girls many years ago used to play, but it is
quite out of order now, for the property is
in other hands. Yonder is the orchard,
where they used to thrash the trees for
apples, sometimes before they were quite
ripe. There is the mob, where they hunted
for eggs before Easter. There is the doorsill
upon which they used to sit. There is
the room in which they had family prayers,
and where they all knelt?the father
there, the mother there, and the boys and
girls there. Wo have got to the fountain
of pious and gracious influences at last.
There Is the plaoe that decided those seven
earthly and Immortal destinies. Beholdl
Behold! That Is the secret place of thunder.
The reason we ministers do not aocompllrh
more is because others do not pray
for us enough, and we do not pray for ourselves
enough. Every minister could tell
you a thrilling story of sermons, sermons
hasty and impromptu, because of funerals
and "sick beds, annoyances in the parish,
yet those sermons directing many
souls to God. And then of sermons
prepared with great care, and
research and toil uninterrupted; yet those
sermons falling fiat or powerless. The
difference was probably in the amount of_
private prayer offered for the success of"
those services.
Oh! pray for us! Poor sermons in the
pulpit are'the curse of God on a prayerless
parish. People say, "What is the matter?
with the ministers in our time? So many!
of them soem dissatisfied w'th the Bible,e
and they are trying to help Moses and
and Christ out of inconsistencies and con-,.
tradietlons by nxtng up me ui uie. aswell
let the musicians go to work to fix upli
Haydn's "Creation" or Handel's "Israel inc
Egypt," or let the painters go to fixing up
Raphael's "Transfiguration," or architects
go to flxing up Christopher Wren's St.ti
Paul's. But I will tell you what Is the mat-s
ter. There are too many unconverted,,
ministers. Their hearts have never been?
changed by the grace of God. A mere in-"
tellectual ministry is the deadest failure
this side of perdition. Alas
for the gospel of Icicles! From apologetics,
and hcrmeneutics and dogmatics,p
good Lord deliver us! They are trying to*
get their power from transcendental the-*'
ology, or from profound exegesis, or fromti
the art of splitting hairs between north anda
northwest side, instead of getting theiru
power from tho secret place of thunder.
We want the power a man gets when he is?
alone, the door locked, on his knees, at p
midnight, with such a burden of souls up-jj
on him that makes him cry out. first in.i
lamentation and then in raptures. We wantr^
something of the consecration of John!
Knox, who, when his wife heard him pray-t<
ing in the cold night in another room, and?
said to him, "How can you endanger your
life praying there in the cold when you8
ought to be asleep?" responded, "Woman!
How can I sleep when my country is not8
saved? Lord God give me Scotland or I
die!"
Dear brethren and sisters in Christ, our?
opportunity for usefulness will soon bet<
gone, and we shall have our faces uplifted ^
to the throne of judgment, before which we
must give account. That day there will be 9
no secret place of thunder, for allthethun-t!
ders will be out. There will be tho thunder t,
of the tumbling rocks. Thero will be*,
the thunder of the bursting graves. .
There will be the thunder of the do-*'
scending chariots. There will be the
thunder of the parting heavens. Eoom!a
Boom! But all that din and uproar and.
crash will find us anaffrighted, and will11
leave us undismayed, if we have madeti
Christ our confidence, and, as after anp
august shower when the whole heavens
have been an unlimbered'battery cannonading
the earth, the fields are moio green, 9
and the sunrise is the more radiant.andthea
waters are the more opaline, so thethun-^
ders of the last day will make the trees of i
life appear more emerald, and the jasper of
the wall more crimson, and the sapphire a
seas tho more shimmering and the sunrise
of eternal gladness the more empurpled. ^
The thunders of dissolving nature will be ,
followed by a celestial psalmody, the sound *
cf which lit. John on Patmo's described, M
tvhen he said. "I heard a voice like voice of t<
mighty thunderings!" ^
TRULY A C03VI03DLITAN TOWN. j
Red Jacket, Mich., With 8000 Population a
ar.d Thirty Nationalities. d
What is perhaps the most cosmopolitan ti
town in the United States, if not in they
ivorld, is the little city of Red Jacket, y
Houghton County. Mich. The town is un- ,
Jermined and honeycombed by vast artery-^
tike shafts, drifts, cross-cuts, levels and a
dopes. Each twenty-four hours sees a
fortune brought to surface in this little x
mining town. The adult foreign residents
of the town outnumber the nRtive-born Q
more than a hundred to one. C
Red Jacket, the town proper, has a popu- a
Intlon of SOOO, including no less than thirty
different nationalities, represented as fol-?
lows: Americans, Welsh, French, German, a
English. Italian, Aus.riaD, Russian, Scotch, o
Finlanders, Polish, Hungarian, Irish, v
Arabians, Greeks, Swedes, Danes. Norwegians,
Swiss, Africans, Brazilians, Belgians,8
Dutch, Jews, Spaniards, Turks, Persians, a
Chinese, Mexicans and Moors. v
MANY BURIED ALIVE. T
Prizes For a Solution of the Problem to t
Be Offered In Italy. I
The subject of premature burial is just c
aow attracting great Interest In Italy, ac-a
:ording to a reoort of United States Con- 8
ml Mantius, at l*urln.
He says that realizing that there is atpres- f
snt no infallible test that may be applied n
to prevent the horrifying cases of persons t
burled alive, a namber of prominent physi- x
clans and laymen are at work preparing,
reports on the subject. *
nnuwill Kia mclfl tliA. cfrlUniy fAAfcnrA R
IUC9X7 rw 14 W ???-0 ?
of the Medical Department of the National t
Exposition next April at Torln. Reports
of a similar kind are expected from all over ?
the world. *
Prizes will be offered for the best sola-1
tlon of the problem, and the Consul says
Inestimable good to the cnuse will result If
the people of the United States interest
themselves in it.
a
CUT HIS CORN AT NICHT.
s
Pennsylvania Farmer* Pleasantly Sur- _
prise a Sick Neighbor.
Washington Sands, of East Robeson,
Berks County, was the most surprised
farmer in Pennsylvania the other morning.
Mr. Sands has been in ill health for somo
time, and in consequence his farm work
has not been attended to as it should have
been. His corn, in an lmmenso Held, being
over ripe, required speedy shocking, but
farm labor is scarce and this work was
neglected.
All day Friday Mr. Sands worked as hard
as his poor hea th permitted, and quit very
tired that night. After the moon had risen e
about thirty neighbors gathered in his corn
field and industriously worked until after
midnight, when the corn was all in shocks.
Next morning, when Mr. Sands went to the '
field, he was astonished to find his task
completed.
Georgia'* Prosperous (1. A. K. Colony.
In 1895 a number of Indiana Grand Army
men resolved to colonize in Irwin County,
Georgia, upon the spot where Jefferson <
Davis was arrested as He was trying to escape.
They founded the town of Fitzgerald. *
Within two years they have grown so strong
that they are now moving the county site
from its old place, Irwinville, to Fitzgerald..
The assessed valuation of the county in.
1395 was something more than $1,000,000,3
which has been increased in the last twot
years to nearly $3,000,000. j
Series of Shocking Crimes.
Gastave Muller surrendered himself to j
the police of Rotterdam, Holland, confess-*
ing the murder o:' his wife and child. As J
proof of the truth of his confession he pro-J
duced from his pocket four human ears, j
and the police on searching his house
found two bodies. Muller subsequently J
confessed that be had also killed his par-1
ents, and fourteen wives whom he hadt
married in various parts of the world, G
Sheep Raising Booming.
Sheep raising in eastern Oregon has im-*
proved to such ap extent that whereas1
lambs in any quaiMty could be bought a{
year ago at seventy-five cents a head,i
they command now $1.50 a head, and herd-:
ert are not anxious to sell at that price.
i^pim
- -" - - - J-M-'.l. .I.f.r.l-f-i-ujr-l
Management of Late Cabbage.
There is nothing better than frequent
ultivation of cabbage to make it grow.
Jvery time the soil in stirred, and
specially is such warm, wet weather
s the whole country has lately had,
here is liberation of plant food in as
urge amounts as even a gross feeding
rop of cabbage can require. It is in
uch seasons as this that care must be
jken to upset late cabbage and loosen
ome of their roots so as to check
rowtli. Without this the largest cabage
will split open and will soon spoil.
Managing Swarm*.
Swarming is always a sure sign of
rosperity in the apiary, anil is ateniletl
with profit if given good at-1
eutiou. The first swarms that issue '
re always the best bees, as they are
suallv strong in numbers, anil they
ontain the old queen, which is the
rincipal object, as she is already ferile
and will begin laying as soon as
liey arc ready to begin housekeeping,
'irst, or "Prime" swarms, as they are
armed, are the cream of the colony,
ud are more valuable than the pareut
tock they issue from.
First swarms usually store more
urplus honey than any other, and in
very respect keep in the lead thronghut
the season, and the only objection
j them is that, as they always conain
tli9 oldest oueens. sometimes the I
neen is too old to successfully carry
be colony through the following winsr.
There is a wide difference beween
first and second swarms from
he same colony.
Second swarms are accompanied by
young queen, and one that is not ferile,
and she takes the chances of ferIlization
after beginning housekeepng,
and as this requires her to take
ring away from the hive, she stands
ne chance out of ten of becoming lost,
nd if so, the colony will do no good
rhatever of its own account, as they
ave no brood from which to raise
nother.
Since exploring the interior of a
ee-hive we are no more at a loss to
now when to expect swarms. The
reather being favorable, we can tell
3 a certainty the day, and almost the
our they are likely to issue. Bees
egin to construct queen cells eight
ays previous to swarming, and at
ny time during this period we make
.iscovery of these cells, we can ascerain
their time bf maturity by the adaucement
of construction. The cells
-*ii i 1 - j -i A.
in ut? seuieu uvci uuuut iuo ci^iua
ay, and at this time the swarm is
ho.
Second swarms will issue eight days
hereafter, at which time tho young
ueeas will hatch. If we desire the
olony to ,swarm but once, and not
gain after the first swarm has come
ff, we can prevent it by taking out
11 but one cell, or take all the cells
ut, and introduce a queen. It will
>e seen that the cause of second
warms in Ihe surplus of young queens,
nd to deprive them of these, will preent
further swarming.
Swarms when not interfered with,
rill usually settle and hang in a cluser
near their hive for several hours
iefore leaving. It is only a rare exeption
that they go directly away,
nd it is best not to molest them, but
imply keep in sight of them until they
ettle, and when well settled get them
a the swarming box and take them to
he hive. 1'or arresting swarms a iitle
force pump and a pail of water is
he best, but it is necessary unless the
warm takes wing the second time, and
hen it is but a small per cent, that
an be induced to settle again with any
:ind of prevention.?Farm, Field and
Preside.
The Snow Gooae.
Snow geese are exceedingly graceful
,ud beautiful birds, of about twentyight
inches in length. They are
ometimes known as White Brant and
''
sxow GEESE.
Slue Winged Geese. Their range Is
rery extensive. They have been noted
n Texas, are abundant on the Colum)ia
River, and Audubon notes that he
las seen them in every part of the
Jnited States which he has visited.
|?he young geese are gray. At what
>eriod they become w hite is not defnitely
known. One that had been
;aptured while young remained gray
or six years, when in two months'
ime it grew to be a pure white. Every
ipring these birds migrate to the
tforth, and it is a curious fact that the
>ld, white birds go first, followed a
veek or two later by the young or
jray ones. Dr. Richardson is authorty
for the statement that they breed
n the barren grounds of Arctic Amer
J.VJ-'.l - '.^.'-1 1
ica. The young are able to fly in .
August, and by the middle of September
they have departed for the South.
They mainly feed on rushes insects
and berries, and in turn are very excellent
eating themselves, but are
rarely domesticated.?New I. tgknd ,
I Homestead.
i
Protecting: Tomatoes From Frnst. I
By exercising a little extra care. the i
season for ripe tomatoes may be pro- j
longed for two or three weeks beyond
the usnal period. As soon as there j
are indications of frost, cover the toma- :
toes in the evening with some kind of .
! canvass or old blanket. Between the '
j rows of tomatoes drive sticks about
four feet apart and nail strips of hoards
on the top at the height of the tomato ;
COVER FOB TOHATO VINES.
vines. Place the covers over these,
letting the edges extend to the ground,
where they must be fastened so that
the wind will not blow them off. Leave '
no opening or the frost will get in. I
prefer a heavy cover made of blankets,
as this will often protect the vines
when light canvass will fail. If the j
work is carefully done the tomatoes
will stand a great deal of cold weather.
?Lewis O'Fallow, in American Agriculturist.
Csbbsce.
The cabbage docs not rank high in
nutritive food value, consisting as it .
does almost wholly of woody fiber and j
water. Yet it has an important place ?
among the vegetables handled by the 1
grocers and in the home vegetable garden,
for the housewife would hardly
know how to arrange her winter menus
without including it. Moreover, it is
to the interest of the farmer to give a
space in the garden or cornfield to
cabbage, for any surplus not n?de U3e ,
of in the house is very acceptable to
the stock, and greedily eaten by it. It
does not really pay to raise cabbage
for feeding purposes, but a little extra |
supply needn't be wasted.
The most inexpensive way of rais
ing cabbage for the home demand, and
one that is at the same time the least
troublesome, is to take it ont of the
garden and plant among the potatoes
in the cornfield. Simply sow the seed j
where the cabbage is to grow, and I
avoid all the trouble of transplanting,
watering, etc., which are important
factors in farm work and apt to prevent
the cabbage patch from attaining
adequate dimensions. The average j
man dislikes to break his back over a '>
\ few cabbage plants, and the tAsk is I
apt to devolve on the women, who, of I
course, haven't backs to break. The
crop will not be as early, but there
will likely be plenty of it, which is a
compensation.
The seed maybe sown when the corn
is planted, or earlier if desirable; later
also if more convenient. Sow in hills,
same as corn or potatoes.
Eighteen inches or two feet is the '
proper distance in the garden, where !
space is to be economized. The cab- j
bage will of course receive the same !
cultivation as the other crop, and very j
little hand work will be necessary as
the cultivator will keep the weeds
down.
For the ordinary grower, or the man
who merely grows a home supply, it is
not necessary to bother about early |
and late varieties. A quick-growing;
variety may be sown the last of June 1
or even, with a little coaxing, the first
cf July, and make good heads. Or
seed of an early sort sown late answers
every purpose of a late variety.
The cabbage worm and the flea
beetle are the chief insect pests of the j
cabbage, though aphides or plant lice
sometimes attack the heads and prove !
troublesome. For the flea beetle, '
which works on the young plunts, a j
dusting of fine road dust, or Scotch'
snuff, is effective. The worm is a more 1
troublesome foe, and years when it!
abounds one might as well sui mder ;
the cabbage patch. The best i oedy j
is sprinkling (spraying) with paris '
green in solution before heading be-1
gins. Afterwards, of course, it should :
not be employed. Sometimes the ,
butterflies can be trapped early in the j
season, thus diminishing the supply, i
The cabbaze prefers a rich soil, i
generously supplied with mauure. By
gratifying its preference we get mam-;
moth heads, but invoke a danger. It
is awfully aggravating to have the
heads fill up and keep on growing till .
they burst and turn themselves inside
out, being then of no earthly use. ;
The usual remedy advised for this is
twisting or loosening the roots, the
idea being that the plant devotes itself
to repairing the damage done to its ,
root system, aud the head stops en-;
larging. But in actual practice this '
often fails, and I have come to the
conclusion that when the bursting has
once begun there is no use trying to
stop it, and the only way to save the
head is to pull it up and feed it to the
hens, cows or sheep. The safest and
surest way is to take the heads in
charge before the bursting begins, and
as soon as they are solid and full tip
them to one side, or loosen the roots
by twisting th& roots a little. This
will stop growth and hasten maturity,
and the heads will remain firm and
solid all winter. *
... i
POPULAR SCIENCE.
English scientists declare that the
chewing of gam is a solace for grief.
The light-giving power of acetylene
has been accurately measured, and is
found to be twenty-one times that of
ordinary gas, under the same pressure.
Though Trowbridge wrote this year
that electromagnectic waves could not
be detected more than one hundred
feet from their source, Marconi's wireless
telegraph has already sent signals
eight miles.
Veneer cutting has reached such
perfection that a single elephant's tusk
thirty inches long is now cut in Lon- ,'i
don into a sheet of ivory 150 inches
long and twenty inches wide, and . ^
some sheets of rosewood and mahogany v ^
are onlv about a fiftieth of an inch $2
thick.
A yellow or orange-yellow coloration
of glass is found by M. Lemal to take
place when the glass is heated to 550
degrees or 600 degrees C. in contact . *3
with any salt of silver. Glass into
whose composition salt ha9 entered is
especially susceptible of coloring in
this manner.
Experiments have lately been car- ' 'jS
ried on at the Paris Academy of Sci- tfg
ences with a view of ascertaining the
influence exercised on the human ' >!
voice by giving the singer electrical ' Jj
treatment. As the result, Dr. Moutier
has established the fact that the
influence is a beneficial one, the voice
gaining both in amplitude and quality
and"being less subject to fatigue. ijJ
The observations of Professor Golu
boff, of Moscow, have convinced him vug
that appendicitis is not only a oontagious
disease, but that it sometimes : V;
occurs in epidemics. It was unusually
prevalent in Moscow last year. To
illustrate, Professor Goluboff mentions
that in a small boarding school, where v 'wjk
in several years there had not been a
single case of appendicitis, he treated seven
cases within two months.
It appears from the experiments of .j&j
a French scientific man that oak trees
are in more danger than other trees of ^
being struck by lightning. Beeches, *
on the contrary, are not good oondncr .
tors of electrioity. The danger of
trees from lightning is great in proportion
to the electrical couductibility of ,l;(?
their wood. Dead trees and dead wood
generally form a much better conductor
than living growing wood,
which offers great resistance.
Snperstltlona Turks. . Hps
Some of the Turkish superstitions
are of the mo3t extraordinary nature.
For instance, if by any chance a sparrow
or swallow flies in at the window
and circles three times around the
room it is a sign that a blood relation
of some one present is about to die. ;
There are many signs and happenings
that are supposed to predict marriage.
When in summer a bee fliM in at
the window it is regarded as a hexbinger
of good news, as is also a this- .
tledown or a beetle. A moth at night
flying about a light means thoughts
and good wishes from immortals; the ^
nnexpected braying of a donkey, a - ^
visit from an unpleasant acquaintance
If a man leaves his home for business ,39
and walks along the street and a bird
alights exactly in front of him three ?. I
times, he turns on his heel and^ goes
home, and no power short
penal firman will make him pase ^Qlit, . place
again that day, for he is /rare
that if he attempts to do so something v.
unpleasant will happen to him. A
dog running three times across his
nalh will also turn him back.
When a Turk is starting ont On an
important venture he will sa7 to himself
: ' 'The issue will be as I deeire it
if the first three persons I meet have
blue eyes." Blue eyes being far less
common than black, he takes the v:
chances, and sometimes sees three " ',!;?
blue-eyed ones 'first. Augury is also
made from the forms of the clouds and
by the entrails of fish, animals and
fowls, from orange pits and the odd.
and even number of divisions in the
pulp. If a red orange be peeled by
accident the person feels grest pleas* . >3,
ure, as that betokens prosperity and
gold. [m
The Pig Deer. <
Among ^he more recent and important
arrivals at the Zoo are twc ' -?9
young babirussas, presented by the
Duke of Bedford?comparatively rare :
animals, and the only examples seen /
at the Zoo for abont fifteen years.
The word babiruasa means pig deer, if
and the animal has been so called by
the Malays on account of the remarkable
development of the tusks of the f.
males, where emerge close together y jBB
near the middle of the face and sweep
frA. . ,.' j
W It a a nti uiijj u^md uM.an.1,., \jtz
quently attaining a very great length. *'
The tusks of the lower jaw arise like
those of the boar. What the male -babirussa
needs the upper pair for is
a point which nobody apparently can 'j
satisfactorily settle.
Another peculiarity of the animal is .
that it falls short of the number ol vjsi
teeth usually p-.^essed by the ordi- '".'S
nary pig, having only thirty-four in ,v
all, a fact which indicates that it ,
must be directly descended from one * yij
of the extinct genera of pigs marked
by a similar type of dentition. In
other respects the babirussa is not * *
very different from other wild swine.
It is a splendid swimmer, has a somewhat
lighter gallop than that of the
wild boar, and when hunted will fight
gamely and ferociously to the last.? *
Loudon Graphic.
High Price For a Book.
The highest price ever paid for a ;
single volume was tendered by a number
of wealthy Hebrew merchants of . .
Venice to Pope Julius II. for a very
ancient Hebrew Bible. It was believed
to be an original copy of the
Septuagent version of the Scriptures,
translated from the Hebrew in Greet
in 277 B. C. The sum mentioned tc >Julius
was $(*00,000, but the Pope de- 1
clmed the offer.
' "J!