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SONG OF THE I We are the toilers from whom God barred The gifts that are good to hold. We meant full well and we tried full hard. And our failures were manifold. And we are the elan of those whoso kin Were a millstone dragging them down. Yea, we had to sweat for our mother's sin. And lose the victor's crown. The seeming-able, who all but scored, From their teemiug tribe we come; ?ni?l \v;? mrrw ? mm ?t?.u u.-, v ? Thai oar lives wore dark aud dumh? The men ten-talented, who still Strangely missed of the goal. < Of them we are: it seems Thy will | To harrow some in soul. We are the sinuers, too, wiioss lust Conquered the higher claims; We sat us prone in tlio eotnnion dust And played at the devil's games. tnS \xr?\. I The Itineram ^ Cv C. A. 5 $? SW'XVv.nvvvvvn-xvxvjvwvvvvvL'} ^/j-w.T .'.7/.//j/^Ji./y.//v//u/j /.i fF any one hail asked mo, tv. en>0^ ty years ago, to pick from all the young meu my acquaint% <n anco the one |a** least likely to i/tO become a minis*er Gospel, I should, iji , w v without hesita^' tion, have: named Jackson Williams. For Will-1 iams was a very plain youth, of a ; shrewd, practical turn of mind, sharp at a bargain and given to acquiring ; property. He was of that typo of j vouug man who eventually oecomes wealthy in small village communities; lie was ufilicted, moreover, with a confirmed defect of speech, which in itself would seem a fatal obstacle to sue- j ce?s as a clergyman. At tho age of twenty-two, "Old i .Tacky,'' as we called him, married Rosilla Cahill, whom we all knew as I the brightest, qnickest-witted girl in ! town, although not, perhaps, the most i beautiful. In mind she was not a lit- j tie like Jackson, but was more merry- | hearted and humorous. In discuss- i ing, at their wedding, their prospects ; in life, their friends were agreed that they were certain to prosper; or, as one expressed it, "Nobody need worry about Jack and Rosy! "Why, they will owu the whole town by the time they are fifty!" A few months later Jackson Williams attended a series of meetings, presided over by a great revivalist. Ho experienced a profound change in his convictions of duty, and deter- 1 mined to devote his life to the active f promotion of religion. In the fol- \ lowing autumn he began to study for the ministry at a seminary, and in due course entered on his labors as an itinerant minister. It was suspected that his young wife was much dissatisfied with their changed prospects; but if so, she re*?* 5 It At* fool i n n*c iraiueu uuui cajjicooiu^ uv*. . eveu to her intimate friends, and set ! herself faithfully to become a help- j meet to her husband in his chosen vocation. ( The ideal, popular clergyman of the present generation appears to be a personally graceful, eloquent, emo- ' tional man. Jackson Williams was no such man. In the pulpit he was con- i servative and dry in all that he said or advised, and his defect of speech 1 helped his cautious words iu making 1 him appear lackiug in zeal and elo- ' quence. The ideal minister's wife, too, ! seems to be an easygoing woman of a social, sympathetic nature, not muoh distressed about house or home, but :?1,'fo nolmlr nnrl float ' lUL'ilUCU IV ic*u.v iuv vmmm.j ?? ~ ? , with the tide. Rosy Williams was the reverse of that type. She longed i for something permanent and stable i in life, and lay awake nights planning how she might save twenty-live dol- i larsayear from her husband's meagre, uncertain salary. When their children, Dolly and Jackson. Jr., began to goto school, shobecame.even more i solicitous to shield them from the ill consequences of their itinerant life. But fate seemed against her. Jacksou Williams rarely remained for more than a vear 011 one "circuit" or parish. Tue presiding elders of his con- : ferenee had discovered his useful qualities as well as his defects as a preacher. Wherever there was a church which was financially weak or lacked a parsonage, or was in need of repairs or of reorganization, there they sent Jackson Williams. In such a place his shrewdness, thrift and good hard sense came into play, with the result that oiten in a single year, always in two, the church was repaired or rebuilt, or a new par mittees reorganized and stimulated to ; f activity, as the case called for. But [ as a consequeuce of the expenditures ; which he got his parishioners to make , on the church, he usually left to go to another similarly degenerate place, , with half his small salary in arrears j and his wife in despair. For there were numerous "run down" churches j UNSUCCESSFUL We aro the hard-luck folk, who strove Zealously, but in vaiu: We lost and lost, while our comrades throve. And still we lost again. We are the doubles of those whose way Was festal with fruits and flowers; Lsooy ana Drain we were souwi jis iuey, nut the prizes were not ours. A mighty army our full ranks make, We shake the graves as we go; The sudden stroke ami the slow heartbreak, They both have brought us low. And while we are laying life's sword aside Sj cut and dishonored and sad. Our epitaph this, when once we havo died; "The weak lie here, and the bad." We wonder if this can be really the close, ] Life's fever cooled by death's trance; A.uU we cry, tuou^u it seem to our nearest of foes: "God, ::ive ns another chance!" ?Richard Burton, in the Outlook. rr/r,/r/e/rrr//,r*'/frr/'r/r/r//'M | t Parsonage. | i jk Stephens. j LVxvxvuiwtv^iX'tvtvw^mvM /J/.//, & ? in our State, and tbe presiding elders kept my poor frieud going. At Link's Mills, where the Will- \ iamses were stationed during the year i 189S, the condition of affairs had, as usual, been bad. The old parsonage i had burned in October, 1S97; and after the fire it was discovered that, owing to the neglect of the church stewards, the insurance had hecu allowed to lapse months before. Yet during that year Jackson Williams had contrived to get a snug little parsonage of live rooms built and paid for, at a cost of only live bun- ( dred dollars besides his own labor, i On the other hand, when he went to attend the annual conference at Lan- ; caster on April -1th, his salary was J j l'nllv five hundred dollars in arrears. ! | Mrs. Williams stayed at home to care for her family, in some faint hope ] that they would not be sent to another circuit, since they had but re- ' cently moved into the new parsonage. These hopes were short-lived. On the evening of the seventh a ] letter from Williams informed his j ( wife that she must again pack their i < household goods. "But we have not ! < far to move this time," he added. "It! j is only five miles. They are going to ] send me to Marston, down at the foot ? of the lake. But the church there ] has no parsonage," he added, "audi j suppose that we shall rent a house ; until I go ahead and build one, as I ] did at the Mills." It would be difficult for any one, except an itinerant minister's wife, to realize the bitterness of soul which fell ou Mrs. Rosy Williams as she re- , folded her husbaud's letter. But as calmly as possible she explained to Dolly, aged fifteen, and Jackson, Jr., aged thirteen, that they must stay at limviA from school on the next dav to help her in packing. Dolly burst forth in lamentations, ' "Onr new, pretty house that papa made! Have we got to leave it, mother?" she cried. "Yes, " replied the mother, sadly, 1 "and leave the most of your father's 3alary, too, I fear." "And live in some old dirty place . down at Marston, as we did a year ago at Simouton!" cried the little girl. , "I don't care! I think it is too bad! I think this house belongs to us?or j ought to!" Mrs. Williams thought so, too. Something of her girlish spirit sml denly revived, and it Dore iruu mat evening in an exploit which will not j soon be forgotten in that part of the State. | The weather was still very cold < Snow lay on the ground, and the two feet or more of ice on the lake had not as yet been broken up, or thawed perceptibly. Just across the lake ] from Link's Mills, a crew of loggers | with their teams were "browing" Bpruce logs. At sunset they were not a little surprised to see the minister's wife approaching on the ice. Her ^ errand was soon made known. She ] wished tohiretnemto draw the new , parsonage to Mars ton, and she want- \ ed to have the job done before six ] o'clock on the following morning! , The foreman of the crew laughed, < and returned au evasive answer. Find- j ing that the men could not be induced } . to attempt such a queer and doubtful I job, merely for hire, Mrs. Williams I; then told the whole story, and an- j j pealed to them to help her through with her project. This appeal put a | different complexion on the affair. It \ tickled the humor and, no doubt, . touched the hearts of the lumbermen. ; "We'll do it, ma'am!" exclaimed the \ foreman, grinning broadly. "You get . your crockery down off'n the shelves : and your stovepipe cool. We'll be , over by nine or ten, and fetch chains ] and skids and a couple of logs for 'shoes' to haul it on." The church at Link's Mill stands a little apart from the village proper, i and is separated from the rest of the place by a piue grove where there is a cemetery. The new parsonage stood a few rods beyond the church. If passers along the road saw teams arriving there late in the evening, they paid little attention. Loggers' teams often passed. The loggers worked quietly and quickly. Before eleven o'clock the little new parsonage, with the minister's wife, family and household goods still in it, started on its singular journey?first down to the lake shore, then out on the ice, and so onward to Marston, where the people were greatly astonished and mystified next morning to see it,set close to their weatherbeaten meeting-house, and making it look like an old soldier who has suddenly married a very young wife! Slmnto \vn? risinrr liliHirtlv from flirt ^M4V4'V ~ ? o --J chioiuey, ami all cm ions inquirers at the door were met by Mrs. Williams in person, who cheerily informed them that she was 1 heir new minister's wife, and brought her parsonage along with her! The people of Marston could find no fault with such u windfall, but the people of Link's Mills were greatly agitated. A member of the church, a farmer, driving into the village with vegetables next morning, was the first to notice the absence of the parsonage. "Wal, I'll be planted and hoed!" he gasped. "What's missin'?" "Brother Blodgett, d'yon know our parsonage is gone?" he asked of tho rirst person he met, who chanced to be one of the church stewards. "Gone?" was the surprised ejaculation. "Where could it go to?" "Dunuo; but it ain'tthere, sartin." Tim stew ard hastened to the church. Sure enough, all trace of the parsonage liad disappeared! With dazed I faces, the two then went in quest of other brethren and told the strange news. Few would believe it until they had gone to view the vacant site j for themselves. A crowd gathered, wondered and searched. It was not until nearly noon that the facts became known. Many were very angry, and a meeting of the church-members was held that evening to decide what should be done. Legal proceedings were talked of, but meantime the story had gone abroad, and the public generally applauded the exploit. When the Rev. Jackson Williams returned from conference, Saturday, to preach his farewell sermou at Lipk's | Mills, he was as much astonished as anybody to find his family moved to Marstou, and he offered to restore the oarsonace; but a certain indulgout re zard for Mrs. Williams's "cnteness" I it length led the church members to i offset the house against their late min ister's unpaid salary. Mrs. Williams now regards this parsonoge as her own exclusive property, and has been tieard to say that if their next circuit is not more than twenty miles from Marston she shall take it along with uer.?Youth's Companion. Absolutely Powerless. He walked up and down the room, gesticulating excitedly, and saying uncomplimentary things about his rival. "It is terrible!" he said. "What is terrible?" they asked. "Talk about the problem of the Man in the Iron Mask!" he exclaimed, ignoring the question. "Why, this is a thousand-fold worse than that!" "What is it?" they asked. "Aiy rival nas ueeu canjiug i?wd stories about me to the girl I love!" bo cried. "And what did you do?" they asked. "Nothing," he answered. "I was powerless." They laughed scornfully and made merry jests at his expense. "What would you have me do?" he inquired. "Kill him!" they replied. He shook his hgad. "At least," they insisted, "you :ould thrash him within an inch of his life; you could resent an insult by pounding him until he would figure principally as a nonentity for the next six or eight weeks." "You forget," he said. "Forget what?" they demanded. "He carries both an accident and life insurance policies in the company :hat I represent." A Unique Aboriginal Alphabet. In a recent number of the French publication Anthropologic, M. M. Delaposse gives an interesting ac;ouut of the Vai language. This is :ho only indigenous written language tnowu among negroes. These negroes Dccupy a territory on the confines of Sierra Leone and Liberia. The alphabet is syllabic, and it is the ouly syllabic alphabet existing in Africa.; J The author considers it at least two liundred years old, and perhaps older; it is not even certain that it was inrented by the Vai themselves. Of the characters in the alphabet, tweuty-five resemble Berber consonants in form, and twenty resemble European letters and numerals; but these may be purely superficial resemblances, as the sounds do not correspond. Professor Delaposse does not consider that the Yai alphabet has been derived from these sources. t Twenty Million Fin* Per Day. It requires an average of more than twenty miliioa pins per day to sustain the falling skirts, replace the missing suspender buttons and meet the other i needs of the American people. "What becomes of all these pins is a ques- j tiou that nobody has been able to answer, but there is no falling off in the demand, so that this number must disappear iu some manner every day. THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. I g. The 5outh. The prohibitionists of South Caro- ' Jina held a conference at Columbia Wednesday night, at which a large number of counties were represented, and decided to make a determined fight against the State's liquor traffic and for prohibition. Col. Jas. A. Hoyt, of Greenville, was nominated for Governor, and James L. Tribble, of Anderson., for Lieutenant Governor. Nominations for other State officers were not made, but the support of the prohibitionists will bo given candidates who come out on their platform. The fight is within the Democratic party. A delegation from the South, including Senators McComas. Pritchard and Martin, and John S. Williams and W. E. Christian, of the Seaboard Air Line, called on the President Wednesday and invited him to attend a banquet in Richmond. Va., on June 2.' in celebration of the opening of a new through railroad line from Richmond to Tampa. Fla. The President said he would attend if he found he could do i;U. The situation at Boynton, Va.. where Stephen Baptist, the negro, is on trial for the murder of Mr. Peter Jones, is reported as uneasy. The military stood in line just in roar of the bar. After the argument, however, the jrowd seemed satisfied that the jury would bring in a verdict of guilty, and dis? persed to their homes. At midnight the report was that the situation was unchanged. The North. George Hitchcock, of Bcston. Mass., has been elected a corresponding member of the Vienna Artists' Association of the official Academy of Fine Arts. The women have won with the two members of the board of the general superintendents after a ballot battle lasting nearly a week and finally disposed of a question that for many years has been a source of dispute in the Methodist conference?the admission of women to the general conference. This was settled in favor of the women. A notable reception was given the Doer envoys at the Grand Opera House, Washington. The Shear Trust, of New York, has dissolved, and those who formed it iu 1898 are said to be heavy losers. A bridegroom near Macon, Ga.. it is reported, shot and killed his intended father-in-law and brother-in-law and mortally wounded another man in a quarrel over the marriage ceremony. It is reported that there is trouble in the ranks of the Knights of Labor. A national conference of charities and corrections is being held at Topeka, Kan. The American Baptist Mission Societies and the Publication Society began their an lual meetings Thursday at Detroit, Mich. The will of Mrs. Juliet S. Bradford, widow of Prof. Vincent L. Bradford, LL. D., and D. C. L., who died recently in Philadelphia leaving an e3? tnto valued at SnO.OOO. makes a bequsst Master Workman John N. Parsons. Armenia. Pope Leo XIII, according to a Rome cablegram, is unwilling to reopen the question of "Americanism." Indiana Republicans have started a boom for Senator Charles W. Fairbanks for the Presidential nomination in 1901. Miscellaneous. The Senate committee on appropriations has reported the sundry civil bill to the Senate. The total appropriation as reported is $09,903,370. Provisions is made for pla.lng headstones at the graves cf Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington and at the nation[ ?1 soldiers' homes. of $3,000 to the Washington and Lee University to endow "The Vincent L. Bradford Scholarship." | Walter Williams, Deputy Coroner, shot and killed William M. Downer, the proprietor of a bathhouse at Denver, Col., and then killed himself. The fourteenth annual convention of the American Section of the Tbeosophical Society began last week at the Athenaeum Building, Chicago, 111. On account of slack orders the three Worcester. Mass.. plants of the Washburn and Moen branch of the American Steel and Wire Company will go on 9-hour time. Foreign. Madam Melba ia laid up with a severe cold at London. There have been 13 deaths from bubonic plague at Port Said. I Cambridge University has conferred an LL. D. on King Oscar of Sweden. Baron Haller-Hallerstpin wants to get into the German Reichstag to represent the workers. Three thousand Berlin bankers and brokers have protested against the Kaiser's excessive naval bill tax. General Frank Wheaton's wife and daughter were among Americans presented to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. j The Democratic Union party, in Ha| vana, has decided not to vote in the | coming elections. hns railed the attention of THE CIRL WHO'S BEEN ABROA& She spent six months in Earope, About ten years ago, And now finds Minktown Centra Decidedly too slow; Sbe never has stopped talking Of lands across the sea, And how she did the town once Of beautiful "Puree." When she is at a party. To make her feel at home, The hostess says: "Now tell us About your stay in Kome!" And one day in our dry goods store ok a noL'n,) AII? in warn Won Ira If lie would*kindly give her The price of things in "frank3." I'd like to buy her ticket And send her far away On that ship she calls the ''Grocer" (If I was sure sho'd stay); And I know the folks around her Would gladly help her packThat girl who's been to Europe And can't seem to set back. ?Puck. PITH AND POINT. Tommy?"Pop, what's a wooden j wedding?" Tommy's Pop ?"When a J chip marries a fellow who is a perfect ' stick." "Miss Bird sent two dollars for 'a sure method to preserve the voice.' " "What was it?" "Sing into a phonograph."?Philadelphia Bnlletin. Despite the priee of giddy bonnet. When woman set3 her mind upon it, ' It isn't long before you And The bonnet set upon her mind. Clara?"I bavo my photograph taken every three years; I think it's so interesting." Fanny?"Oh, whatever do you do with them all?"?PickMe-Up. He?"Will we announce our en| gagement on Wednesday?" She?"I'd rather not; I have an important engagement for that day."?Yonkers Statesman. Customer?"Give me ten cents* worth of paregoric, please." Druggist mindedly)?"How much is it?" Druggist? "A quorter." Smiles?"I'm glad I wasn't Shakespere." Giles ? "Why are you?" Smiles?"Because I should be dead now." Giles?"Yes, that's true?and Shakespere would be forgotten." "Why stand ye idle hero all tho day?" asked the taxpayer, who is fond of quotations. "Because," replied the party of the second part, "I am a city employe."?Chicago News. "I will admit," said the Cornfed Philosopher, "that oratory is mostly gas, but even ga3 is muuijuaiiug? not to mention the way it rips things open sometimes." ? Indianapolis Press. Prospective Purchase??"I thought you said this place would make a good poultry farm. Why, it's almost completely under wat-r." Heal Estate Ageut?''Just the thing for ducks, my dear sir." Condemned Mar (to lawyer)?"It's a long sentence, sir, to be sent to prison lor life." Lawyer (inclined to be more hopeful)?"Yes, it does seem long, but perhaps you won't livo a great while "?Tit-Bits. "It's no trouble at all to get mar ried," remarked the girl with the uew engagement ring. "No," replied her married sister, with a sigh. "The tronble doesn't begin until shortly after the ceremony."?Chicago News. "You're looking kind of green, Bill," said the Half Eagle to the Dollar Note; "you need change." "No, thank you," replied the other, "change would break me up completely, and probably make me look like thirty cents." "Well, gentlemen," remarked the president of the olob, "motions are in order. It hate be n suggested that wo have o banquet. What shall be done?" "Mr. President," spoke up the manwho-was eeldom-beard from. "I move - - ? ?* ii. ? we dispose ot it dj laying ii> uu ma table." The motion was carried.? Philadelphia North American. Cowtllp Greens. One of the most familiar forms in wet meadows is erroneously known as "cowslip" (vulgarly "cowslop"), a general favorite in springtime for greens. How it received its common appellation is not clear. It furnishes a striking illustration of the ofttimes unfitting aud misleading character of popular names, for it bears no relation to the English cowslip, but is closely allied to the buttercup?a fact suggested to the uninitiated by its shining yellow petals and superabun dance ot sinmcns. jlu uvum tuu^nvation in names, the botanist Gray favored recogniziug it under its English name, marsh-marigold, but here again we may be led slightly astray as to its relationship, for it is more than a primrose. It is properly known aa Caltha palustns.?Self-Culttire Magazine. Soldier Who Loved the Sea. It i3 not generally known that the favorite pastime of Lord Roberts as a boy was that of carving boats out of wood. Ho was a rare adept at this, and it is told how ho would wager a vessel of his own manufacture to beat another lad's purchased ,boat for anything iu the shape of a boyish bet. All tho boats Lord Roberts made were named after some great naval hero or after a big battle which had been fought at sen. This is all tho more curious, seeing what a brilliant career was in store for Lord Roberts as a leader of men in the field. A . jgj