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bet. dr. talme. THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN DAT SERMON. subject: observations in bussia axd geeat bb1tian?text : psalm 139-9. What an absurd book the Bible must be to a man who has no poetry in his soul. *'Wings of the morning !" What kind of a bird is it, and how loug are its wings and what color? Ah, some of us have seen and felt its wings. They are golden. They are beujant. They are swift. They are wide-spread. The 15th of last June, I took "the wiDgs of the morning" and started for Europe. June 20th, on ''the wings of the morning" I started from Liverpool, July 12th, on "the wings of the morning," I entered Ger many, the land of Martin Luther and many of that ilk, living and dead. Oo "the wings of the morning," I entered St. Petersburg, Russia. On "the wings of the morning," I entered Moscow. On -the wings of the morning," I entered the palaces of Russia, greeted by the em peror and empress, surrounded by a love ly brood of princes and princesses. On "the wings of the morning," I entere3 Iverness, the capital of the Scottish high lands, the country of Robert Burns and Thomas Chalmers, the one for poet ry, the other for religion. September 21st, on "the wings of the morning." I v- entered the finest baven of all the earth ?New York harbor?and looked off to ward the most interesting place I had seen in three months?South Oxford st., Brooklyn, On, I like "the wings of the morning." I am by nature and by grace, a son of the morning. I think I must have been born in the morning. I would like to die in the morning. J have a notion that heaven is only an ever lasting morning. In the summer of 1892, my text was fulfilled to me again and again. "If I take the wings of the morn ing and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me." Yes, he led me as he always has led me since I took my first walk from the cradle te my mother's lap at Bound Brook until this pulpit where I now stand, and he will lead me until I stop for ali time about three miles out yonder, where the most of yon will be my fellow slum berets. Yon all know why I went to Russia this summer. There are many thousands of people who have a right to say to me, as was said in the Bible parable: "Give ac count of thy stewardship." Through The Christain Herald, which I have the hon or to edit, we had for months, ic publshers in repiorial, and editorial column, put be fore the people the ghastly facts concer ing 20,000,000 Russians who were starv ing to death, and subscriptions to the relief fund had come by letters that seem ed not to much written with ink as with tears, some of the let - ers practically say ing: "We find it hard to get bread for oui own families, but we cannot stand this cry of hunger from beyond the seas, and so please to receive the enclosed." And others had sent jewels from their bands and necks, saying; "Sell these and turn them into bread." And another letter said: "Enclosed is an old gold piece. It was my mother's. She gave it and told me never to part with it, except for bread, and now I enclose it-" We had gathered $35,000 in money, which we turned into 3,000,000 pounds of flour. When I Jwent down to the board of trade at Chicago and left $5.000 of the amount with a prominent flour merchant, taking no receipt, leaving all to him to do the best thing, and returned, it was suggested that I had not done things in a business way. How could we know what sort of flour would be sent? There are styles of flour more fit for the trough of the swine than the mouths of hungry men and women. Well, as is custemary, when the flour came to New York, it was tested, and we found indeed they had cheated us. They gave us better flour than we had bought. I bought in Chicago fine flour, but they sent us superfine. God bless the mer chants of Chicago ! Now, we know nothing abort famine in America, The grasshoppers may kill the crops in TTarwia the freshets may destro v the crops along the Ohio, the potato worm may kill the vines of Long Island, the rust may get into the wheat of Michigan, yet when there has been dreadful scarcity in some parts of the land, there has be^n plenty in othf r parts. En: in districts of Russia, vast enough to drop several nations into them, drought for six consecutive years has devas* at ed and those districts were previously the most productive of all the em pire. It was like what we w.?nld have in Amer ica if the hunger 6end som -how got out of hell and alighted in our land, and swept his wing over Minnesota and said; ''Let nothing grow here," and over Missouri, and said: "Let uoth iao grow here." and over New Y? ?rk s^ate, and eaid: "Lei iKrthing grow here," and over Ohio and Georgia and Massachusetts and Pennsylva nia and Nebraska and Bakois, and t'ie Caroli nas, and twid: '"Let nothing grow here." and the hunger fiend had swept t he same withering and blasting wing ore*- the best parts of Amer ica in years 1887, 18SS 1839, 1893,1891, and 1892 and finally all our families were put on small allowance, and we had all men from the table hungry, and after awhile the children hid only quarter enough, and after awhile onlv one meal a day, and af'er awhile no goxl food at ail, but & mixture of wheat and chaff and bark of trees, end then three of the children down with hunger typhus, and then all the family unable to walk, and then crawling on hands and knees, and then one dead in each room, and neighbors, not quite so exhausted, coming in to bury them, and afterwards the house becoming a tomb with none to carry the dead to more appropriate sepulchre?whole families blotted out. That was what occurred in Bussia in homes mere than were ever count ed, in homes that were once as happy and com fortable and bountiful as in yours or mine, in homes as virtuous as yours or mine, in homes where God i- worshiped as much as in yours or mine. It was to do a little something towards beating back that archangel of wretchedmss and honor that we went, and we bave now to report that according to the estimate of the Rus sian famiaejrelief commit; ee, we saved the lives of 125.?C0 people. As at the hunger relief stations, Idie bread was handed out?for it was i jade in to loaves and distributed?many people would halt before taking it and religiously cross them selves and ntter a prayer for the donor-. Some of them would come staggering back and say: "Please tell us who sent this bread to us." And when told that it came from America, they would say: "What part of America? Please give us the names of those who sent it." Ah, God only Jmows the names of those who sent it, bat he certainly does know, and many a pray <sr is going up, I warrant you, day by day for those who sent flour by the ship Leo. Perhaps, nome of us at our tables rattle off a prayer that means nothing, although we call it "saying grace," bat I warrant when those people who received tfc^ bread which saved their lives ''said grace" it raeant something. Our religion may not demand that wo "cross onrse'ves," but I nave learned tnat while crossing one's gelf in some cases may mean nothing but mere form, I believe in m^t eases it means "Oh, Thou of the suffering cross of Calvary, have xnercy on me and accept my gratitude." Prefer your ?wn form of religion by all means, but do not "^predate the religious forms of others. From **1 lean learn, there were several good people beff>re we were born, and I rather expect there will be several left after we are dead. I hav? traveled in many lands, but I tell you plainly as I told Emperor Alexander III in the palace at Peterhoff, that I had never been so impress ed with the fidelity to their religion of any peo ple as bv what I had seen in Russia, and espec iaily among her public men. I said respectful ly to a Russian, when I saw him crocg himself : "What do you do that for?" "Oh," he said, "when I do that I always say, 'God have mercy on me.'" Ih<">Min my hand snmething very suggestive. What does that black and un comely thing look like? That is what is called hunger-bread from Russia; that is what mil lions of peoole lived up on for months before help came from England, Scotland, Ireland and America ; that is a mixtnre which seems to have in it not one grain c f snstenance. It is a mixtnre of pigweed and chaff and the sweepings of stables. That is something which, if drop ped on the street, your dog or cat might sniff at, but would not eat. That was the on iy food on which millions of men and" women lived. Tou mus*; look at that hunger-bre^d of Russia before you can get pro per appreciation of what an attractive and beautiful thing a good-loaf of bread is. It is so common tous we cannot realize its meaning. Stop and lock at it in a bakery win dow or see it on your family table?I mean an honest loaf of bread, white as a ball of packed snow, with a crust brown as the autumnal woods, and for a keen appetite more aromatic than flowers?a loaf of bread as yon remember it in childhood, when the knife in the haiiS of your father or mother cut clean through, from crust to cm st, and put before you, not a quarter of a slice or a half a slice but a full, round slice and another, and another just suited to a boy always ready to eat and for the most time hungry, even in a well-supplied nous ?. I remember und you re mem ber, if you h id a healthy childhood, just how is tasted. My? My! Plum pudding does not taste as good now as that plain bread then. It was then bread at the table and bread be tween meals, and bread before breakfast, and bread before going to bed. Why does not some poet ring a canto on a loaf of bread, or some modern Raphael paint it, or some historian tell its history? Not like many articles of food, pretentious, and iced all i over like wedding cake, or dotted with fantas tic ingredients, but that grandest product of ! the earth, that richest yield of the flour mil!, that best benediction of a hot oven, a God j given loaf of bread. But the rhythm of it, the luxury of it, the meaning of it, the benediction ; of it, the divine mercy of it, only those know j who have seen a famine. No wonder Christ put his food into the sacrament and said of a broken loaf of bread: "This is my body." I Thank God that I ever saw that transcendent and compact kindness of the infinite God?a I loaf of bread. And it was our joy this sum mer to hand over a shipload of material for gladening many thousands of Russians with such a beatitude. But I have been asked by ! good people in Great Britain and America again and again, why cid not the prosperous people of Russia stop that suffering themselves, making it useless for other nations to help? And I am always glad when I bear the question asked, because it gives me an opportunity of explaining. Have you auy idsa what it re quires to feed twenty million people? There is only one Being inthe universe who can do it, and that is the Being who, this morning, break- i fasted sixteen hundred million of the human ] race. The nob?ity of Russia have not only j contributed most lavishly, but many of them , went down and stayed for months amid the i gnastliness and the horrors and the typhus fe- 1 ver and the small-pox, that they might admin ister to the suffering. I sat at the dining table at the house of one of our American represent atives beside a baroness, who had not only im poverished her estates by her contributions to the suffering, but who left her own home and vrent down into the worst of the misery, and until prostrated with fever: then reviving, and toiiing on until prostrated with the small pox. She had come home to get a little strength, and in a few days she was going down again to the suffering districts, and she com missioned me to execute In America a literary enterprise by which she expects with her pen more money, all of which is to go for bread to those who lack it. Then there are the Bob rinskoys. They are of the nobility, not only the nobility of'earth, but the nobility of heaven. . You know we have in America certain names which are synonyms for benevoleuce?George Peabody, James Lenox, William E. Dodge, Mr Slater and so on. What their names mean in America, Bobrinskoy means in Russia. The emperor has made larger contributions toward Ulis relief fund than any monarch ever made for any cause since the world stood, and the superb kindness written all over the faces of emperor and empress and crown prince is dem onstrated in what they have already done and are doing for the sufferers in their own country. When a few days ago I read in the papers that the emperor and empress, hearing an explosion, stopped the royal rail train to find out what ac cident had occurred, and the empress knelt down by the side of a wounded laborer and held his head until pillows and blankets could be brought, and the two wounded men wer? put i upon the royal train to be carried to a place where they could be better cared for. I said ! to my wife: "Just like her."- When I saw a few da\ s ago in the papers, that the emperor and empress had walked through the wards of the mos;: virulent cholera, talking with the pa tients, shaking hands with them and cheering them up, it was no surprise tome, for I said to myself: "That is just like them." Any one who has ever seen the royal family will believe anything in the way of kindness ascribed to I them, and will join me in the execration of that too prevalent opinion that a tyrant is on tbe throne of Russia. If God spares my life, I will yet show by facts beyond dispute that the most slandered and systematically lied about nation on earth is Russia, and that no ruler ever lived more for the elevation of his people in education and morals and religion than Alex ander the Third. So I put all three prayers to gether: God save tbe president of the United States J God save the queen o(England! God save the emperor snd empress of Russia ! I will, whether in sermons or lectures, I have act yet decides, show that nineteen-twentieths "o: all the things written aud published against Russr are furnished by men wno have been hired by other countries to c*write up" or rather write down Russia, so as to divert commerce from that empire, or because of international jealousies. Russia being larger than all th rest of Europe put together, you can see how natural would be the jealous ies. I know of two prominent European news papers that keep men on salaries to catch up everything unfavorable to Russia, and magni fy the incident. And the stereotyped stories of Siberian cruelty in one case out of a hundred are true, but in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases they are fabrication. And in the one case as soon as it is reported the official is discharged. They who have been sent "to write up" Russia and Siberia have done as that man would do who, sent to * 'write up" New York, should write up the alums as a specimen of what New York is, or sent to write up the American congress should write up some depraved politicians as a speci men of American statesmanship, or sent to write up the sanitary condition of this country, should send a kodak picture of all the warts and carbuncles he could find as a specimen of American health. I believe I can reverse the opinion of any man antagonistic to Russia who will give me an honest hearing, as my own opinions have been reversed by what I recently saw and heard. Before passing to the other field of my sum mer observation, I give you one little specimen of the falsehoods about Russia. I stood in London with my tickets for St Petersburg, Russia, in my pocket. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and at 3 o'clock I was to take the train. Aa American physician came in and said: "Yon certainly aie not going to Russia-* I said: "Why not?" Then a mcrniLg paper was shown me, saying that in St. Petersburg there were two thousand cases of virulent chol era ; the city had been divided into hospital dis tricts, an i the doctors were at their wits* end what to do with the number of patients; the population was flying in terror. It was almost as bad as Moscow. While reflecting on these accounts, two messages arrived from other friends protesting against the foolhardiness of mJ rushing into the presence of two thousand ca^-cs of chob ra in one city. Of course, I hal ted. I halted for four days. 3ieanwhile a tele gram from St. Petersburg encouraged me to go. I wen'. There was not a single case of cbo'.er* either in St. Pe ersburg or Moscow, and there was not a single case in either city until four weeks after I left those cities. But the continental falsehood had done its commercial errand. Tens of thousands of Americans and Englishmen who proposed to summer in Russia turned in other directions. At the large hotel in St Petersburg at which I stopped, though capable of holding five hundred guests, aud months before overy room and every hallway and everv mattress and every pillow had been engaged by telegraph by sight-seers, all the or ders'were can ? fled, anl, instead of five hun dred guests, 1 ;ihould think about thirty, and that includin: yiv party. And so it was in all the hotels in no^hern Russia, and the subtrac tion of that amount of commercial profit from th'jse cities you may imagine. Bat that whole subject of systematic fabrication, I adjourn to some other hour. Yet I must tell you of a picture of pathos and moral power impressed upon my mind ro that neither tim? nor eternity can efface it. The ship Leo swung to the docks a few miles below St. Petersburg, loaded with flour from America. The sailors on board huz zaed as they came to the wbarf. From a yacht, on which we had descended the river to tbe sea, the prominent citizens of St Petersburg dis embarked. T;ie bank was crowded by prosper ous citizens, who stood on the wharf, and back of them by poor laborers who bad come down to offer their services free of all charge for the removal of the breadstuffs from the ship to the imperial freight train that took the flour to the interior free of charge. While we stood there, the long freight train rumbled down to the docks, tbe locomotive and ( ach car decorated with a flag?the American flag and the Russian flag alternating. Though a flag to some eves is only a floating rag, you ought to see how the American flag looks five thousand milei from home. It locked that day like a section of heaven let down to cheer mortal vision. Ad dresses of welcome and responses were made, and thei the work began.theonly contest being who should lift the hardest and mont be expe ditions. From ship to railtrain- From rail train to kneading board. From kneading board to oven. From oven to tbe white and quiver ing lips of the dying. Upon all who, whether by contribution small or large helped make that scene p sdble. may there come the benedic tion of him who declared : 'T w*r. hungry and ye fed me." Bu*1 mmt also give a word of report concern ing my other errani?the preaching of the gos pel in Gr^at Britain last summer. It was a tour I had for many years anticipated. With the themes of the gospel I confronted more people than ever before in the same length of time? multitudes after multitudes, and beyond any thing I can describe. The throngs in 'M the cities were so great that they could be con trolled only by platoons of police, so that none should be hurt by the pressure, each service in doors followed by a service for the waiting throngs out-doors, and both by hand shakings to the last point of physical endurance. From the day in which I arrived at noon in Liverpool, and that night addressing two vast assemblages, until I got through my evangelistic journey, it was a scene of blessing to my own soul and I hope to others. I missed but three engage ments of all the summer, and those from being too tired to stand up. At all the assemblages largo collections were taken, the money being given to local charities feeble churches, or phan asylums or Young Men's Christian Asso ciations, my services being entirely gratuitous. But what a summer ! Tnere must have been much praying here and elsewhere for my wel f .re, or no mortal could haT ? gone through all I went through. In every city and town I had messages poured into my ears for ramilles in America. * Oh, soi s of Scotchmen, Englishmen. Welchmen ahd Irishmen, tht ie are hearts on the o:h? r side of the sea beating in affecton for yon and praying for your pre.? ent and eternal welfare. They wanted meto give you their love, aud here it is by the whole sale, for I cannot give it by retail. Disappoint not the old folks on the other side the Atlantic. You will probably never 6ee them again in this world; their hail is whitening and their step i< not as firm as when you saw them last. So live that you may meet them in heaven. Write home often, and while you know that they are pray ing for you, do not forget torr-member in your prayers those who were your first friends, and friends than whom you will never have better? I mean your old father and mother. By the memories of the old Scotch kirk, where you were baptized, and of the English fireside, by which you played, and or the Welsh hills and valleys, among which you roamed, and the old homes on the banks of the Tweed and shan non and the Clyde, I charge you be honorable and true and Christian. You have good ances tral blood in your veins. Prove yourself wor thy. It seems to me that the gospel is making mightv strides over there. Only one thing I saw in the chapels and churches I did not like; that is, a lack of appreciation of each other, as between the national church and the dissen ters. Now. each is doing a great work that the other cannot do. God speed them all, they of the Episcopacy and they of the dissenters! Some need the ritual of the National church and others the spontaneity of the Wesleyan. In the kingdom of God there is room for all to work and each in his own way. Some people are born Episcopalians and others Methodists and others Baptists and others Presbyterians, and do not let us force our notions on each other. As for myself, 1 w*s b orn so near the line that I feel ai much at home in one denom ination as another, and when in the Episcopal march the liturgy stirs my soul so that I can not keep back the tears and it overwhelms me with its solemnity and its power. When in an old-fashioned Methodist church the responses of "Amenf and "Hallelnj ihT lift me until, like Paul, I am in blessed bewilderment as to ''whether in the body or out of the body, God knoweth." And as for the Baptist-?, though I have never been anything but sprinkled, I have immersed hundreds and expect to immeise hundreds more in the baptistry under this pul pit where I now stand. What is the use of con troversy about anything, except how wo shall keep close to the cross and do the most for helping people for this world and the next? May there come in England more cordiality be tween the National church and the dissenters. Although I would be called a dissenter th're, almost my first steo in England was in'o a ban queting hall?the lord mayor's banquet, given to the bishops and high officials of the Nation al church, the great and good and genial arcL bishop of Canterbury at their head,and a mere magnificent group of folks, intellectual y and spiritually, I never got amongst; and I found that though we bad never met before,the arch bishop and myself were old friends. But, all up and down Great Britain, I found a multitude that no man can number enlisted for God and eternity, and I tell you the kingdom is coming. If the pessimists would get out of the way, the people who snivel and groan and think every thing has gone to the dogs or is about to go?I say if these pessimists would only get out of the way, the world would soon see the salvation of God. Christianity is only another name for elevated optimism. Was Isaiah an optimist? See his deserts incarnadined with red roses and snowed under with white lilies, ana his lamb aileep between the paws of a lion. Was St. John an optimist? Bead the uplifting splen dors in the Apocalypse and the hallelujah chorus with which the old book, which they cannot kill, closes. The greatest th ng that I can think of would be to have a triple allianc; of America, England and Bussia in complete harmonization, and then to have com-; upon all of them a deluge of the Holy Ghost. L* t the defamation of other nations cease. Peace and good will to men. For that glorious confirma tion, which may be nearer than we think, 1er us pray, remembering that God can do more in five minutes than man can do in five centuries. If the confirmation is not affected in our day, I shall ask the privilege of coming out from heaven a little while to look at this old world when it shall have put on its millennial beauty. I think God will let us come out to see it at least once in its perfected state before it is burned up. I should not wonder if all heaves would adjourn for an excursion to this world to see how a shipwrecked planet was got off the breakers and sev. afloat again amid the eternal harmonies. Meanwhile, let us do all we can to j make it better, and it will somehow tell in the final result, though it be only a child's sob hushed, or a trickling tear wiped from a pale face, or a jhorn extracted from a tired foot, or a sinfcl soul washed white as the wool. May i God help us to help others. And so these les sons of gratitude and sympathy and helpless ness at J vindication I have brought you on j the wings of this morning. NEWSY GLEANINGS. _ ] The coffee crop is large. Cotton* crop prospects are poor. Brought in Southern Russia is broken. Formst fires have been raging in Minne- { sota. Ma?, y are dying daily of starvation in Mexico. The Mafia is said to hrtve migaated to ' Chicago. Dro jght and locusts are doing damage in Argentine. Great prairie fires have baen raging in North Dakota. Cholera, riots have taken place in Bu ia Pesth, Hungary. 1 Cholera continues on the decrease throughout Europe. There are over 1300 factories in operation about Moscow, Russia. The cholera death record in Russia now i foots up 300,000 victims. The Idaho Test Oath Law has been de clared unconstitutional. < The new railway between Jaffa and Jeru salem is now opeu to regular trafic. A remarkably rich lode of silver has been diccoverea ac Orarval, in Finland. Lieutenant Mac Donald's name has been dropped from Canada's militia rolls for ad vocacy of annexation. \ The last of the cholera infested immi grants have been discharged from quaran tine in New York Harbor. i The United States Treasury Department has shipped ?lO.030,030 in small notes South and West to aid in moving crops. 1 The Government will take measures to i hasten the work on the armor for cruisers in the Carnegie mills at Homestead, Penn. There is a movement on ioot in Colorado to have United States troops stationed at points in that State to protect the game. Professor Pickering, of the Harvard branch observatory at Areqnipa, Argentina, says that he has discovered forty small lakes in Mars. He also confirms Professor Hoi den's observations on the limits and mea sured altitudes of the planet. At the Food Exposition in Madison Square Garden, New York City, a lot of large vege tables were shown. Among the collection were cornstalks seventeen feet high, peppers two feet and a half long, growing on the vine, and white-plumed celery two feet and a half long. TnE question whether a man under twenty-one years of age could lawfully withhold his wages from his father and use them for the support of his wife re cently came before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. The son had married without the consent of his father. Both the father and the wife claimed to be in actual need of the young m :n'? wages for their support. The law is well settled that where a minor sod marries with the consent of his father, that consent emancipates the son and permits him to apply 1rs wages to the support of his wife, but it was argued that such a marriage without the con sent of the father did not have the same effect. The Massachusetts Supreme Court, however, entertained a different opinion on this ]>oint aud declared that an infant husband is entitled to his own wages so far as they are necessary for his own support and ~ that of hi.* wife and children, even if he marries without his father's consent. The Court also inti mated, but did not decide, that, in such cases the husband would be entitled tc all his earnings, even if more than sufli cient for the support of himself and Iiis family. ITrsroRY has -'ust made one more addi tion to the roll of famous Americans whose names begin with "Mc." It is a McLean, the one in whose house Gens. Grant and Lee signed the armistice of Appomattox. Mr. McLean lived so near Manassas, Va., when the war broke out, that his house was soon shot all to pieces. He moved to Mississippi, where a cav ahy skirmish converted his back vaid into a cemetery. Then he went back to Virginia, and "the surrender" took place on his premises. He was a very peaceful-minded man, too. A seventy year old lady who lived with her son near Lancaster, Wis., was found dead in the garden early one morning last week. Her arms and legs were broken, and her body horribly bruised. Near the corpse was an unruly sheep, which she had evidently tried to drive out of the garden, when the ani mal had turned uoon her and killed her. Contentment in Xuture. I would not change my joys for those Of Emperors and Kings. What has my gentle friend, the rose Told them, if aught, do you suppose? The rose that tells me things. What secrets have they had with trees? What romps with grassy spears? What know they of the mysteries Of butterflies and honey bees, Who whisper in my ears? What says the sunbeam unto them? What tales have brooklets told? Is there within their diadem A single rival to the g-rn The dewy daisies hold? What sympathy have they with birds. Wh09e songs are songs of mine? Do they e'er hear, as though in words 'Twas lisped the message of the herds Of grazing, lowing kine? Ah no! Give me no lofty throne, But just what nature yields. Let me but wander on, alone If needs be, so that all my own Are woods and dales and fields. ?[John Bangs, in Harper's Weekly. Under Three Umbrellas. "If it didn't look as if I were trying to gain some beuef?t from your um brella/' he remarked, as he chanced to meet her on the church steps after ser vice, "I would a6k to walk home with you. I didn't expect rain when I left home, so I am unprepared." ' However," came her clear reply, just arch enough to be fascinating and just tender enough to be frank, "if you'll carry my umbrella and let me turn my energies to keeping my dress caught up out of the mud I'll be very thankful to you." They had walked, strangely enough, half way home in almost complete si lence, when a man aud a woman passed them, like them, under one umbrella, but, unlike tbem, the woman was held inugly close to the man's side as she clung to his arm. It was a picture of that open freedom which so undenia bly marks a congenial man and wife, whose companionship has ripened into frank trust. As they passed Robert Courtright iaid, half thoughtfully, perhaps: ' They are sensible. If two are trying to use one umbrella, they are lurely to be commended if they strive to take up as little room as possible. Even if it be noon, won't you take my inn?" "But they are plainly not such? luch strangers as we," she returned? conscious that both were treading on Jaugerons ground. 'Are we strangers?" he asked quickly, turning his eyes searchiugly to her. The pretty face grew a trifle pale against its light-brown hair. A lump seemed to climb to her throat, but she returned, bravely: "Yes?that is,we'll always be strangers compared with them." He stopped for an instant and gazed fixedly at her till a hot ftush flew up from out her dark fur collar and ?wept under the velvet strings of her dainty brown bonuet. "Always?" he asked simply. "Yes. Why, can't you see that they are married?" She tried to laug'a it away, but it would have bee a difficult to tell which pair of lips quivered the most or which pair of eyes swam in the deepest mist as the two started on, both silent, both sad, both realizing that a little tragedy had occurred in that brief instant under that dripping umbrella on the noon boulevard. Eight years went by and found Gabriel Vaughne alone in the world, with necessity for keeping up a life iu which all interest aud all energy were dead. She had at last arisen from a tedious illness, and the nurse herself scarcely recognized the tall, pale, sad-faced woman, wiih the short dark curls, as the bright-eyed, light haired girl of six months before. Gabriel had one thing dear to hei*,and only one, and that was a memory. And some of our dearest memories are the crudest parts of our lives. When finally she stood before a mir ror, and realized that that changed cheature was herself, a mighty re solve filled her?she would go to the source of that memory. She knew where he was; she knew that he had married three jears after that bitter morning iu the rain, and had married a wealthy wife. That was the reasou that she '?:-d thrust him back from her long ago, just because of his poverty. NoL that it would pain her, a thousand times no! Hadn't she cried out, night after night since, that starvation with him would be only bliss? But she had known his ambitions aud his capabilities; knew his dreams of success, and she realized his ability to turn the dreams into realities. he was poor. Would she permit herself to hang a millstone about his neck? No, she would hurt his heart before she would ruin his life. Time had proved that she had been right. His wife was a beautiful woman, and her wealth had opened boundless opportunities to him. He had risen?she had known that he would. But, now that ehe scarcely was able to know herself, she would venture into his world und see for her self how happy and proud and pros perous he was. So, having spent all but her last bill for nor ticket, she stepped into Phila delphia one spring evening, steeling her heart to what might follow. The next evening she had walked past his great, rich house and was starting back when a sudden shower burst un expectedly upon her. She gathered up her skirts in that particular way so characteristic of a dainty woman, and was hurrying along when all at once she was con scious of a sharp, childish cry at her side. Turning, she beheld a tall sad faced man trying to qniet a fretful baby of about 3 years, which; held out its dimpled hands to her and cried: Mammal Mamma!" The gentleman strove to stop it aud Gabriel started on. But sharp and piercing camu the "Mam-maI" and 'her heart bade lier linger. For the first time the man spoke to her. ' I must beg your pardon, madam. His mother has just died and some thing about you seems to have recalled her to him." Gabriel's heart softened at once. ; Going straight up she took the tiny, outstretched hands iu her own and murmured: *Poor, motherless little one." The father held out his umbrella over her and for the first time she looked at him?the face was Robert's? She was glad for the excuse of turn ing to baby again and murmured something unintelligible. However, he had not recognized her,so she drew all her strength to her assistance and succeeded iu hiding her emotion. "If you will walk under my um brellas I am going your way for this square, you can keep dry. And, too, I fear baby won't like to part with you now." There was no easy way to retreat : it would have been absurd to scud off in a changed direction through the pelting rain, so she continued talking hurriedly to the child. As they reached the foot of the T oad stone steps she stopped, "I cannot thank you enough for having calmed Leslie. His nurse left this morning and he will not be consoled by any of the other servants. So I finally told Mrs. Clarke, the housekeeper, that I would try him for a walk. But will you not take the umbrella? It will bo a shame to ex pose yourself to such a deluge." She gracefully declined all thanks and such kind offers, and glided quickly off, a tall, blacked-robed figure daring the watery drops. But a per fect shriek from baby arose wheu he found himself deserted iu this fashion, and each succeeding cry became louder and more distressing. Again Gabriel could not go. Agaiu she came back to him. ??Will you please come into the house with him? Mrs. Clarke may there be better able to get him away than L" So Gabriel, carrying the child, en tered his house, unknown, but wel come even then. Leslie was not to be easily deceived, and all the ruses were seen through immediately by his careful, big blue eyes. "We must get a nursemaid this very night/' declared Mrs. Clarke, as she endeavored in her practical, cold hearted way to inveigle the young lord from his new "mamma." "But," groaned Mr. Courtright, ??where can one get one which he can trust on such short notice?" A bold idea entered Gabriel's head: She tried three or four times to speak, aud her voice failed. Finally she choked back the lump in her throat aud said: "Would it be presumptuous for me to offer myself? I can show you ex cellent references, and I am now look ing for some such position." "You a nursemaid?" exclaimed Mr. Courtright in amazement. Then, a moment later, he would have given much to have it back unsaid; her plain black gown was darned at the elbows?it was merely her way of wearing it that gave her the appear ance of a woman of long founded cul ture and delicacy. Two years went by, in which Miss Varney, as she was now known, un discovered, was loved by and loved in return Mr. Courtright's two children. It was one evening in March, just before dusk, wheu she had left Leslie up stairs asleep and had just come down to the drawing-room with Mabel, to stay with the child till her father came to dinner. He was late aud Mabel had wan dered off to a back parlor, thus leav ing Gabriel alone in the dimly lighted room when Mr. Courtright finally entered. "I shall call Mabel," she began, starting from her station by the win dow. "No, Miss Varney; stay. I 1 ve something to say to you. Yv re member how moved I was the luit time Leslie called you ' mamma V You thought then, no doubt, that it was because of the memory of my wife. Partly so, but mostly becau*e as I looked up at you I thought for an instant that you were the woman? who might have been his mother if the fates had been kinder. Do you know, Miss Varney, that you often remind me cruelly of a woman I loved better than the world?"' "Your wife?" She was glad that it was dark enough to hide the tremb ling of her lips. "No, not my wife. I loved Marie one way; she was tender and true to inc. But the woman that 1 really loved?" Then, after a short pause, he went on: "But what I meant to say to you is this : I have learned to love you a thousand times better than Marie, and sometimes, I almost think, as much as I loved?the dearest one. Can you, will you hate me if I ask you thus to be Leslie's mamma iu truth as well as in word?1' Slowly came the reply: "But you love the first woman best of all, even yet?" "Yes, I do. But, as I said, I of ten almost think that you are she when I stop to realize how I feel toward you." Moment after moment went by. The shadows came closer and the rim of lighter clouds near the west hori zon grew narrower. At iast she said: "I, too, loved in the long ago. j But I can nover in any way love an I other man. But?" \ before she could fiuish the sentence Mr. Courtwright had rec ;gnizcd in hw governess the "best loved one of all,'' and it is needless to say that the umbrella episode resulted in Miss Vaughn's really becoming the mamma of baby Leslie. Catching the Octopus. 14It is no trick to catch them. They are pulled out with hook and line from the deep waters of the Sound just like fish, and are found on the rocky bot' toms of the fishing banks," said a fisherman in Seattle. "Look at tide," continued he, raising the slimy mass of legs and pointing to a perfect counterpart of s. parrot's black beak. "That's his mouth. Just like a par rot's, only much larger and more powerful. When once those jaws fasten on the bait they never let go until landed on the deck of the boat. They seldom give us much (rouble. Experience has taught the men how to handle them safely. The only care necessary is to prevent their fastening their suckers on the sides and bottom of the boat If by accident or care lessness they should succeed in doing so, the octopus is safe, for the suction of those cup-like disks is so great that nothing but the knife can dislodge them, and as they can't be reached they get away. "The men know by the weight on the line aud its action when an octo pus is hooked. Then, by means of poles, the line is kept away from the boat, and, watching a favorable op portunity, with the assistance of boat hooks, the fellow is suddenly yanked on board and left to thrash its life away on deck. Of course, the men have learned to keep carefully out of reach of its tentacles. Ou a clear day aud in clear weather one can see an octopus at a great depth. Their bodies usually lie hidden under shelving rocks, leaving one or more of those long feelers visible, moving cautiously back and forth. ' Baiting a hook with a white rag and dropping it close by, it is fun to watch their movements. They pre tend not to see the bait, believing it is a living prey. They will advance their feelers inch by inch, aud grad ually their body, and retreat again as if to draw on the intended victim* Playing the bait back and forth ex cites their cupidity, aud when satis lied with the result the beast makes a spring for the bait that for lightning like speed beats anything on record. Of course, it fastens i*>s razor-like double-back-action beak into the rag and holds on like grim death, allow ing itself to be pulled out of the water rather than let go." How Animals Amuse Themselves. Iu animals the faculty of amuse ment awakes very early. Our four footed friends seem to be aware of this, aud make it a part of their par ental duties to amuse their young. A ferret will play with her kittens, a cat with hers, a dog with her puppies. A mare will play "vrith her foal, though the writer has never seen a cow try to amuse her calf, nor any birds their young. If their mothers do not amuse them, the 3 oung ones in vent games of their own. A fl-c* of ewes and lambs were once observed in adjoining fields, separated by a fence with several gaps in it. "Follow my leader" was the game most in favor with this flock, the biggest Iamb leading around the field and then jumping the gap, with all the others followiug in single file; any lamb that took the leap un usually well would ??ive two or three more enthusiastic jumps out of sheer exuberai t happiness when it reached the other side. Fawns played a sort of cross touch fro m OuC side to the other, the "touch" iu each case being by the nose. Little pigs are also great at com bined play, which generally takes the form of races. Emulation seems to form part of their amusement, for their races seem always to have the winning of the first place for their ob ject, and are quite different from those combined rushes for food, or causeless stampedes in which little pigs are wont to indulge. Racing is an amusement natural to some animals, and, being soon tauffht by others, becomes one of their most exciting pastimes. Many horses, and all racing dogs, learn to be as keen at winning as schoolboys. Birds delight iu the free and fanciful use of their wings. There is all the difference possible between the flight of birds for "business" and pleasure; and many kinds on fine days will soar to vast heights for pleasure alone. ? [Yankee Blade. Cuban Ways, Many Cuban ways are different from those of any other people on the Globe. A Cuban, when ho desires to bring a person to him, motions him to go away. They put keyholes upside down, and applaud in the theatre by a prolonged hiss. Postage stamps are sold everywhere but at the p06t ofliee, and to get revenue stamps you do not go to a government official, but to a broker on the street The people live on the first floor aud do their cooking upstairs, the nurses and chamber ser vants are men instead of women, and agricultural implements are sold at chocolate 6hops.?[St Louis Globe Democrat Too Strong Approval. Patron?Have you any good buttei today? Grocer?We have, sir. Patron?How will it compare with he brand you sold me a few days ago? Grocer?Well, of course that was line, but we think this last lot outranks .: altogether. Patron?That recommendation is too strong, my friend. I'll have to tt elsewhere.? f American Farmei. BURIAL AT SEA. The Ceremony as Performed oa a Man-of-War. A Sailor's Funeral is Pathetic in Its Dignified Simplicity. The ordinary demands of ship routine, his duties alow and aloft, in harbor, upon the ocean?all are so hazardous, so dependent upon quick eyes, strong hauds, clear heads aud alert intelligence that the least mis chance of judgment or of grip, the slightest physical mistake may be fatal. Be assured the sailor feels this. It is bred in his bone; it is the earliest and latest lesson he learns, and this perpetual menace enters his soul so deeply aud so early that even in strongest and blithest manhood his face is filled with the pathos born of this cruelty of the sea. When the maritime Jack dies he is buried without much undue ceremony. A brief prayer, a shotted hammock, the lee rail aud all is over. But on board a ship of war a sailor's funeral is pathetic in its diguified simplicity. No muster of the ship's company is, naturally so sad as this, and you oau see it on the faces of all wheu the subdued thrilling of the bo'sw'n'8 whistle is followed by the the long-drawn-out and modulated call, of "All hands bury the dead I" The men come aft quietly and take their allotted stations. To leeward at sea, or ou the port side of the quarter deck if in port, the sea men are ranged in the front rank; be hind them are the ordinary seamen and in the rear of both the appren tices and the landsmen. In the gangway forward of the mainmast on such ships as still have sail power, the senior petty officers stand at attention. Around the coffin folded in the jack or natioual ensign are grouped the pall-bearers, selected usually from the dead mau's mess or gun division, and close at baud, rest ing on arms, the marine guard is paraded. Nearest the coffiu are the chaplain and the captain, aud then, in the order of their rank, stretch aft the other officers of the ship. The ensign at the peak, or staff, flutters tremblingly at half-mast, and from overhead the yard and stay tackles swing lazily, ready to lift the coffin outboard. "When the weather permits, the way of the ship is stop ped, and, it may be, little flickers of idling steam curl upward and to lee ward like incense, and the wind in the backed and fretting topsails murmurs a dirge. The order to "uncover" ig passed gently, and while the beautiful words of the burial service are being read the hush of the living is accentu ated by the low accompaniments of sea sounds?by the rumple of eager waters eddying stearnward, and by the surging of the breeze in the hol lows of the canvas and through the rigging and gear. When the closing prayer is said, the last blessing given, the tackles are manned, the coffin is stripped of its flags aud slung in straps, and slowly, reverently, is hoisted above the rail und clear of the ship until it is poised over the billows. The marines load, aim, fire?in all three volleys, that awaken rattling echoes in the hidden spaces of the ship, the bugle sounds "taps" tenderly and sweetly, with a newer meaning of sleep and rest; the coffin swings further out, and is low ered gently uutil the foam and spoon drift moisten it; the tackles are de tached with a sudden jerk, and in an instant the weighted box shoots downward, bedded in foam and bubbles, and all is over until the sea gives up its dead. In a little while the cheery whistles thrill out a call to duty, the half masted ensign climbs to the dasher block, the ship is brought to her course, aud dazedly the men take up their wearying routine of the lives so sadly broken. An unusual quiet rests upon the vessel and around the mess tables; but in the groups gathered to smoke during the supper hour, aud after the hammocks are piped down, the virtues?those heroic and honest sea virtues?of the dead sailor are re called, and with a tenderness bom of comradeship closer than any other men except soldiers may know.? | [Harper's Weekly. The Uses of Honey. A writer in the Horticultural Times expresses surprise that honey is so seldom seen on the tables of the people of this country. "Honey," he says, "is at once a valuable medicine and food. Foul air, improper ventila, tion, suddeu changes of weather, the exposure of lungs aud throat to a damp atmosphere, are the source of no end of throat and bronchial troubles. A free, regular, and constant use of honey is probably the best medicine for throat troubles there is. It is the most wholesome and economical sub stitute for butter, being as a rule half the price of that article. Houey is of more service in our cooking than i many people imagine. Those who indulge in a glass of grog and hot water on cold winter nights should try the effects of a spoonful of houey instead of sugar. The change will surprise them. Honey may, indeed, replace sugar as an ingredient in the cooking of almost any article of food. In rice-puddings the writer invariably uses honey instead of sugar; the flavor is much more delicious. For preserving most kinds of fruit honey is far preferable to sugar, as it has the quality of preserving for a long time in a fresh state anything that m iy be laid in it or mixed with it, and pre venting its corruption in a far super ior manner to sugar. For many med icinal purposes honey is invaluable. To town residents who may be jaded and look careworn after the excite* ment of late hours, when the skin be comes dry, red and harsh-looking, try the effects of rubbing gently a thin coating of honey on the face before going to bed. It is oue of the finest cO?-metics in the world." Alive, but Legally Dead. Human life is not a priceless article in China. It is often sold. The other day 1 poin?ed to a fat, jolly Chinaman. m Hankow, about 800 miles up the Yangise river, saying: "That is a very happy-looking man." "Yes, for a dead man he does look jolly," said the consul. "Dead," I said, "what do you mean ?" "Why, that man is legally a dead man. He was legally executed after the Taiping rebellion, and pronounced dead officially." "What's the puzzling paradox?" I asked. "Well, that man, like many others, was condemued to die, but, being rich, he hired a substitute to die for him. There are plenty of starving sons in China who, at the command of a father, will ki'i themselves for gain. That Chinama.1 there paid about $50 to a poor, ignorant brother to take his place ; so he really died by proxy. The poor substitute had literally lived in hunger all his life. With $50 he literally wallowed iu wealth for three months and then died for it This often occurs in China. Hundreds of thousands of rebels were massacred after the Taiping rebellion, but the rich gcnerallv escape."?[Philadelphia Press. Reasons for Emigrating. ' It seems, remarks the New York News, that Canadians have both variety and multiplicity of reasons for emigrating southward. A legis lative commission charged with the duty of finding 'the cause of emigra tion of farmers from the Province of Quebec to the United Stales," has just reported a series of answers nominally corresponding with the days of the week. It is an interesting if not par ticularly instructive division of cause into seven elements. Poverty of French Canadians, large families, difficulty of establishing homes, defec tive cullivltion of lauds, taste for luxury, local seizure of household effects for debt and the "plague of peddlers." If it were not that the re frigerant temperament of the Canadian brother precludes the possibility of a joke, we should think, adds the News, that these modern seven wonders of trouble were solely Pickwickian, par ticularly the wind up about the ped dlers. But it is all serious and official* Therefore, we can only sympathize with our distressed neighbors and kindly intimate, in circus parlance, that it is not necessary to crawl under the canvas in order to enjoy the bene fits of Uncle Sam's greatest show on earth. The Desert Shall Bloom. The desert shall blossom like a gar den. If the civil engineer Rolland is right this prophecy is near f nlfillment Rolland has submitted a report to the Academy of France upon waters found under ground iu the Sahara. His ex amination of the ground was confined to the region about the oasis of Ei Galeah, aud proved so rich a supply of water that he believes the whole desert can be converted into a net work of fertile oases. He is at present engaged in prepar- - i lug a chart and a description of the region which will indicate the spots where an artesian boring is, in his es timation, certain to bring a volumin ous jet of water to the surface. Such a creation of new wells the people in habiting the vast desert will look upon as a miracle, and tl?ey will be prepared to bow down before and acknowledge the supremacy of the workers of such miracles. In other words the execution of the scheme of M. Roiland will do more to conquer the desert for France than auy scientific or warlike expedition ever could have done-?[Chicago Tribune. Primitive Farming in Spain. Consul R. W. Turner at Cadiz, Spain, in his report to the State De partment, says: "Electricity is uot used in Spain as a power for the pro pulsion of farm machinery or imple ments. Ninety per cent, of the farm ers of this province don't know what eletricity is, and not one has ever thought of using it as a force for the propagation and growth of plants, is the answer given me by the officers in charge of the agricultural interest* of the province. Agricultural condi tions existing here are almost the same as those of the lime of Ruth and Boaz. A stick sharpened at one end serves for a plow. "Pictures in illustrated Bibles rep resenting the sower who went out to sow are also true presentations of the Spanish husbandman in seeding time. Reaping hooks of the time of Caesar gather the harvests of the present Asses and oxen trample out the grain and t he winds of heaven separate the wheat from the chafi." A Quaint Inscription. An Indian known to the whites as "Billy," was the last of his race to disappear in Bucks county, Peun., except his wife. They lived at Wrightstown. When Billy died, many years ago, his wife had a friend to in scribe the following lines upon a stone, which she carried with her: "I am Indian Bill's wife; he loved me better than his life. It even has been said by some he loved me better than his rum." This stone, which was buried with her, was ploughed up last week.?[New York Journal There is an onyx deposit which forms the floor of a cave in Morgan Count}7, Missouri, for a distance of about one huudred yards.