Decatur Democrat, Volume 35, Number 32, Decatur, Adams County, 30 October 1891 — Page 2

©he democrat DECATUR, IND. BZiACKBTJBN, - - • Publisher. ▲ dictionary generally gets the last word, but a phonograph is always bound to talk back. The Peacock may not be inclined to gossip, but he loves to spread a highly colored tail about the neighborhood. When the case of Miss Vera Ava to fully investigated it will probably turn out that she is a personage who has escaped in some way from one of Frank R. Stockton’s unpublished novels. The manufacture of false teeth for horses is a new industry recently started in Paris. Judging by what a set of pretty false teeth will do to a human being, we may suppose that they will make a horse laugh. The venerable Dr. Gatling has invented a new gun, warranted to kill more men in less time than any other engine of death known. The doctor is an ornament to his profession and should be tendered the presidency of some medical college Anything which makes religion its second object makes religion no object. God will put up with a great many things in the human heart, but there is one thing He will not put up with in it—a second place. He who offers God a second place offers Him no place. # - John Bull and the other powers interested in the China trade, including the United States, will be obliged very soon to show the Emperor how to put down the rebellious secret societies if he doesn’t know how 6 to do it for himself. The safety of foreign residents demands it. Recent dispatches state that Bostonians at the spectacle of an Italian disrobing and taking a bath in the frog pond on the commons. If the Boston dago was at all like his fellows in the West, it is safe to say that he was the more shocked of the two at the bath part of the exhibition. The Yale seniors in their recent ■ “skirt rush” adopted the duster as their uniform and fastened on their clothing with copper wire. Their weapon was the inflated bladder similar to that used by the clowns of an- , tiquity. As several freshmen were “knocked insensible,” the bladders must have been loaded with shot instead of dried peas. The different inventions of torpedos, torpedo destroyers, torpedo nets, torpedo net cutters, defensive armors, and irresistible projectiles, which each and all “revolutionize naval warfare,” follow each other so rapidly that should a naval battle occur between evenly matched forces it would probably result in a tragedy whidh would parallel the famous struggle between the Kilkenny cats. People attain longevity for a variety of reasons. Matthew, Daniel, and William Grant, triplets, of Torrington, Cenn., have just celebrated their„seventieth birthday, and are all three on top of the ground for the reason that they have been farmers all their lives, never missed a circus, nor never failed to vote their party ticket straight. That’s why they are septuagenarians. Why they should have been triplets is beyond us.

A telephone to Europe? Why not? People decided the idea of the Atlantic telegraph—which has had such tremendous influence upon the lives of men—just as they now scoff at the notion of talking directly with friends in London while comfortably seated in one’s office in New York. If it is true that the use of copper is not necessary for a telephone wire under the sea, and that prominent capitalists are ready to supply the money for saying the necessary iron wires across the Atlantic, telephone between England and America is quite near at hand. An American visitor at one of the parks of Berlin recently was compelled to procure a bucket of water and soap and s scrub off his name, which he had scrawled on a famous monument which adorns the grounds. It served him right, and it ought to teach tourists with such vandal-like propensities an excellent lesson, but it is doubtful if it will. On the contrary, it is more likely to teach them when they want to leave their name on some historic monuments or buildings always to cut it in deep and lasting letters with their jackknife. A Mississippi girl who chanced to be in the house alone one afternoon, and was confronted by ajiegro giant who broke the door dovrii and came in swinging a huge and blood-curdling knife, seized a shotgun she knew was not loaded and caused him to beat a hasty retreat. As soon as the negro was out of sight she fainted dead away with fright. To the masculine nature it is impossible to understand how women can be so wonderfully brave in the face of great peril and die with fright when there is no danger. Men are always braver in the absence of danger. Aster Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, he found it no ■' easy matter to convince the know-it- -... ail doctors of the truth of his discov- " • •MS*: - * . .

ery. He used to say thathe could get no man over forty to believe in it, and some of the old Spanish doctors of the time still persisted in Weeding a man from both arms in order to equalize the blood on both sides of the body. It is wonderful what man has survived in his contest with elementary forces of nature, and perhaps still more wonderful how he has managed to survive his own ignorance in addition to all other adversities. Whatever may be the volume of visitors from abroadthere is no doubt the attendance at the Fair in Chicago will largely exceed any previous record of like attendance. There were 28,000,000 admissions at the Paris exhibition two years ago, decidedly the largest showing ever made. Each admission at the gates was counted, and so of course the whole number does not represent 28,000,000 different persons, for many thousands attended day after day. The United States alone has a population of 63,000,000 to draw upon, a tenth of whom at least are potential visitors to the Fair. Americans j having the inclination and the habit have also the means and the facilities; of travel, and*duringthe whole season of 1893 are likely to come to Chicago in great numbers. Each individual will count for several admissions, because the journey is not likely to be made to Chicago without purpose thoroughly to see the Fair, full 'inspection of which will require many days. There is every probability that at Chicago the number of World’s Fair visitors will greatly exceed, possibly will double, the admissions at Paris. The treaty of 1817, which prohibits the United States from having a fleet on the lakes, ought to be abrogated. Its existence is too much like a tribute to fear. Although the prohibitory feature ostensibly applies also to England, as a matter of fact it applies in practice only to America. England can have a fleet of light draught gun-boats on the lakes on short notice, byway of St. Lawrence and the canals, whereas the United States must build at lake ports any naval vessels required. Therefore, a war with Great Britain would find all the American cities of the lake shores at the mercy of a British fleet. Although Americans came out victors from the war of 1812-14, yet we submitted substantially to the same restriction regarding the lakes to which vanquished Russia reluctantly consented respecting the Black Sea after the Crimean war. There is, of course, no prospect of war with England, but that is no good reason why Chicago, Buffalo, Milwaukee, and other great centers of American population, commerce and industry should be kept naked and defenseless against naval attack. Such a situation is apt to make England more stubborn and exacting as to any matter of difference between the two nations. She thinks that in the event of an appeal to arms she could cover the lakes almost immediately with vessels of destruction, whereas the United States at the best could not be ready for a lake fight until many months had elapsed. The treaty can be abrogated on six months’ notice, and the American people will unite in favoring that notice.

Can We Make It Bain? In an article on “Can We Make It ! Rain?” in the North American Review, j Gen. R. G. Dyrenforth, who has been ; conducting the dynamite bomb rain , producing experiments in the Southwest, terminates his article with the following Conclusions: 1. That the concussions from explosions exert a marked and practical effect upon the atmospheric conditions in producing or occasioning rainfall, probably by disturbing the upper currents. 2. That when the atmosphere is in a “threatening” condition—which is frequently the case in most arid regions without any rain resulting—rain can be caused to fall almost immediately by jarring together the particles of moisture which hang in suspension in the air. This result was repeatedly effected during our operations, the drops sometimes commencing to fall within twelve seconds from the moment of the initial explosion. It also seems probable that the immense amount of frictional electricity generated by the concussions and the mingling of opposing currents of air may have considerable influence in the formation of storm centers - by producing a polarized condition of the earth and air, and so creating a magnetic field which may assist in gathering and so condensing the moisture surrounding atmosphere. Altogether, considering the great difficulties under which we labored, the results of our first experiments have been exceedingly gratifying and encouraging to the advocates of the theory that rain can be produced at will by artificial means, and the further tests of the theory will be watched with great interest. Ingenious Measure. An ingenious instrument, by means of which the profile of a river-bed can be taken automatically from a boat at the rate of three and three-fourths to six and one-fourth miles and hour, has been invented by a German engineer, Mr. Stechner. The apparatus consists of a curved arm, which is hinged at its upper extremity and is so long that the lower curved portion trails on the bottom of the stream. Os course, the deeper the stream the greater the inclination of the arm, and hence, by a suitable recording mechanism, the depth can be automatically registered in a revolving drum as the boat proceeds on its course. The instrument has been practically tested on the Elbe, where soundings were made over a distance of 297 miles in ten days.

THE SECOND DISCOURSE ON OLD WORLD JOURNEYS. Be Confirmation eT the Trath W the Scriptures ta the Testimony of the Cities Md Bivers end finest es Im* The Tabernacle Pulpit. Dr. Talmage preached on “Sailing Up the Nile.” the second sermon of the series entitled “From the Pyramids to the Acropolis; or, What I Saw in Egypt and Greece Confirmatory of the Scriptures.” His text was Ezekiel xxix, 9, ‘The River Is Mine and I Have Made It” Aha! This is the River Nile. A brown or yellow or silver cord on which are hung more jewels of thrilling interest than on any river that was ever twisted in the sunshine. It ripples through the book of Ezekiel, and flashes in the books of Deuteronomy and Isaiah andZecharia and Nahum, and on its banks stood the mighties cf many ages. It was the crystal cradle of Moses, and on its banks Mary, the refugee, carried the infant Jesus. To find the birthplace of this river was the fascination and defeat of expeditions without number. As we start where the Nile empties into the Mediterranean Sea, we behold a wonderful fulfillment of prohecy. The Nile in very ancient times used to have seven mouths. As the great river approached the sea, it entered the sea at seven different places. Isaiah prophesied, “The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea and shall smite it in the seven streams.” The fact is they are all destroyed but two, and Herodotus said these two remaining are artificial. Up the Nile we shall go; part of the way by Egyptian rail train and then by boat, ana we shall understand why the Bible gives such prominence to this river, which is the largest river of all the earth with one exception. But before we board the train we must take a look at Alexandria. It was founded by Alexander the Great, and was once the New York, the Paris, the London of the world. Temples, palaces, fountains, gardens, pillared and efflorescent with all the aichitectural and Edeuic grandeur ana sweetness A polios, the eloquent, whom in Neu Testament times some - people tried to make a rival to Paul, lived here. Here Mark, the author of the second book of the New Testament,expired under Nero’s anathema. From here the ship sailea that left Paul and the crew struggling in the breakers of Melita. Pompey’s pillar is here, about one hundred feet high, its base surrounded by so much tilth and squalor I was glad to escape into an air that was breathable. This tower was built in honor of Diocletian for sparing the rebellious citizens. After having declared that he would make the blood run to his horse’s knees, and his horse fell with him into the blood and his knees reddened, the tyrant took it for granted that was a sign he should stop the massacre, and hence this commemorative pillar to his mercy. This is the city to which Omar came after building 1,400 mosques and destroying 4,000 temples and 35,000 villages and castles, yet riding in on a camel, with a sack of corn, a sack of figs and a wooden plate—all that he had kept for himself—and the diet to which he had limited himself for most of the time was bread and water. Was there - ver in any other man a coinmingling of elements so strange, so weird, so generous, so cruel, so mighty, so weak so religious, so fanatical? In this cijy was the greatest female lecturer the world ever saw—Hypatia. But the lesson of virtue that she taught was obnoxious, and so they dragged her through the streets and scraped her flesh from her bones with sharp oyster shells and then burned the fragments of the massacred body. And here dwelt Cleopatra, pronounced to be the beauty of all time—although if her pictures are correct I have seen a thousand women in Brooklyn more attractive—and she Was as bad as she was said to be handsome. Queen, eonqueress, and spoke seven languages, although it would have been better for the world if she had not been able to speak any. Julius Caesar conquered the world, yet she conquered Julius Caesar.

But Alexander, fascinating for this or that thing, according to the taste of the visitor, was to me most entertaining because it had been the site of the greatest library that the world ever saw, considering the fact that the art of printing had not been invented. Seven hundred thousand volumes and all the work of a slow pen. But down it all went under the tore!} of besiegers. Built again and destroyed again. Built again, but the Arabs came along for its final demolition and the 4,000 of the city were heated with those volumes, the fuel lasting six months, and were ever ‘ fires kindled at such fearful cost? What holocausts of the world’s literature! What martyrdom of books! How many of them have gone down under the rage of nations. * Only one book has been able to withstand the bombardment, and that has gone through without smell of fire on its lids. No sword or spear or musket for its defense. An unarmed New Testament. An unarmed Old Testaxent. Yet invulnerable and triumphant. There must be something supernatural about it Conqueror books! Monarch of books! All the books of all the ages in all the libraries outshone by this* one book which you and I carry to church in a pocket. So methought amid the ashes of Alexandrian libraries. But all aboard the Egyptian rail train going up the banks of the Nile! Look out of the window and see those camels kneeling for the imposition of their load. And I think we might take from them a lesson, and, instead of trying to stand upright in our strength, become conscious of our own weakness and need of divine help before we take upon us the heavy duties ot the year or the week qr the day, and so knee! for the burden. We meet processions of men and beasts on the way from their day’s week, but alas, for the homes to which the poor inhabitants are going, for the most part hovels of mud. But there is something in the scene that thoroughly enlists us. It is the novelty of wretchedness and a scene of picturesque rags. For thousands of years this land has been under a very damnation of taxes. Nothing but Christian civilization will roil back the influences which are “spoiling the Egyptians.” There are gardens and palaces, but they belong to the rulers. This ride along the Nile is one of the most solemn and impressive rides of all my life time, and4»ur emotions deepen as the curtains ot the night fall upon all surroundings. But we shall not be satisfied until we can take a ship and pass right out upon these wonderous waters and between these ranks crowded with the story of Empires. According to the lead pencil mark in my Bible it was Thanksgiving day morning. Nov. 28, 1888, that with my family and friends we stepped aboard the steamer on the Nile. The Mohammedan call to prayers had been sqvnded by the priests of that religion, the Mueizins, from the 400 mosques of Cairo as the cry went out: “God is great. I bear witness that there is no God but God. I bear witness that Mohammed is the apostile of God. Come to prayers. Come to salvation. God is great There is no other but God. Prayers are better than sky and city and palm troves and

‘that* we boarded. It would not be hailed on any of our rivers with any rapture of admiration. It fortunately had but tittle speed.-for twice we ran aground and the sailors jumped into the water and on their shoulders pushed her out. But what yacht of gayest sportsman, what deck of swiftest ocean queen could give such a thrill of rapture as a sail on the Nile? The pyramids in sight, the remains of cities that are now only a name, the villages thronged with population. Both banks crowded with historical deeds of forty or sixty centuries. Oh, what a book the Bible is when read on the Nile! As we slowly move up the majestic river 1 see on each bank the wheels, the pumps, the buckets for irrigation, and see a man with his foot on the treadle ot a wheel that 'fetches up the water for a garden, and then for the first time I understand that passage in Deuteronomy which says of the Israelites after they had got back from Egypt, ‘The land whither thou goest in to possess it is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wat£redst it with thy foot” Then I understood how the land could be watered with the foot. That Thanksgiving morning on the Nile I found my text of to-day. Pharaoh in this chapter is compared to the dragon or hippopotamus suggested by the crocodiles that used to line the banks of this river. ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I am against thee Pharaoh, King of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said my river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But 1 will put hooks in thy jaws and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stictaieunto thy scales, and the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the Lord; because he hath said the river is mine and I have made it.” While sailing on this river or stopping at one of the villages, we see people on the banks who verify the Bible description, for they are now as they were in Bible times. Shoes are now taken off in reverence to sacred places. Children carried astride the mother’s shoulder as in Hagar’s time. Women with profusion of jewelrv as when Rebecca was affianced. Lentils shelled into the pottage, as when Esau sold his birthright to get such a dish. The same habits of salutation as when Joseph and his brethren fell on each other’s necks. Courts of law held under big trees as in olden times. People making bricks without straw, compelled by circumstances to use stubble instead of straw. Flying over or standing on the banks as in Scripture days are flamingoes, ospreys, eagles, pelicans, herons, cuckoos and bullfinches. On all sides of this river sepulchers. Villages of sepulchers. Cities' of sepulchers. Nations of sepulchers. And one is tempted to call it an empire of tombs. 1 never saw suqh a place as Egypt is for graves. And now we understand the complaniug sarcasm of the Israelites when they were on the way from Egypt to Canaan, “Because there are no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness.” Down the river bank come the buffalo and the cattle or kine to drink. And it was the ancestors of these cattle that inspired Pharaoh’s dream of the lean kine and the fat kine. Here we disembark a little while for Memphis, off from the Nile to the right. Memphis founded by the first king of Egypt and for a long while the capital. A city of marble and gold. Home of the Pharaohs. City nineteen miles in circumference. Vast colonnades through which imposing processions marched. Here stood the Temple of the-Sun, itself in brilliancy a sun shone on by another sun. Thebes in power ever a thousand one 6 hundred years, or nearly ten times as long as the United States have existed. Here is a recumbent statue sev-enty-five feet long. Bronzed gateways. A necropolis called “the haven of the blest.” Here Joseph was prime minister. Here Pharaoh received Jacob. All possible splendors were built up into this royal city. Hosea, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Isaiah speak of it as something wonderful. Never did I visit a city with such exalted anticipations, and never did my anticipations drop so flat. Not a pillar stands. Not a wall is unbroken. Not a fountain tosses in the sqn. Even the ruins have Joeen ruined and all that remains are chips of marble, small pieces of fractured sculpture and splintered human bones. But back to the Nile and on and up till you reach Thebes, in Scripture called the City of No. Hundred gated Thebes. A quadrangular city four miles from limit to limit. Four great temples, two of them Karnac and Luxor, once mountains of exquisite sculpture and gorgeous dreams solidified' in stone. Statue of Rameses 11, 887 tons .in weight and seventy-five feet high, but now fallen and scattered. Walls abloom with the battlefields of centuries. The surrounding hills of rock hollowed into sepulchers on the wall of which are chiseled in picture and hieroglyphics the confirmation of Bible story in regard to the treatment of the Israelites in Egypt so that, as explorations go on with the work, the walls of these sepulchers become commentaries of the Bible, the Scriptures originally written upon parchment here cut into i everlasting stone. Thebes mighty and dominant 500 years. Then she went down in fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the City of No, which was another name for Thebes: “I will execute judgment in Na I will cut off the multitudes of No.” Jeremiah also prophsied, ‘Thus saith the Lord, I will punish the multitudes of Na” This city, of Thebes and all the other , dead cities of Egypt iterate and reiterate the varacity of the Scriptures, telling the same story which Moses and the prophets told. Have you noticed how God kept back these archaeological confirmations of the Bible until our time, when the air is full of unbelief about the truthfulness of the dear old book? He waited until the printing press had been set up in its perfected shape, and the submarine cable was laid, and the world ■ was . intelligent enough to appreciate the testimony, and then he resurrected the dead cities of the earth, and commands them, saying: “Open your long sealed, lips and speak! Memphis and Thebes, is the Bible true?** “True!” respond Memphis and Thebes. “Babylon, is the Book of Daniel true?” “True!” responds Babylon. “Ruins of Palestine and Syria, is the New Testament true?” “True!” respond the rnins all the way from Joppa to the Dead Sea and* from Jerusalem to Damascus What a mercy that this testimony of the dead cities should come at a time when the Bible is especially assailed. Two great nations, Egypt and Greece, diplomatized and almost came to battle lor one book, a copy of “JBsdhylua” Ptolemy, the Egyptian King, discovered that In the great library at Alexandria there was no copy of “JEsehylus.” The Egyptian King sent up to Athens. Greece, to borrow the book and make a copy of it. Athens demanded a deposit of ,*17.700 as security. The Epyptlan King received the book, but refused to return that which he had borrowed, and so forfeited the $17,700. The two nations rose in contention concerning that one book. Beautiful and mighty book, indeed! But it la a book of horrors, the dominant idea that

ences from which there is no escape, and that fate rules the world, and although the author does tell of Prometheus, who was crucified on the rocks for sympathy for mankind, a powerful suggestion of the sacrifice of Christ in later years, it is a very poor book compared with that book which we hug to qur hearts, because it contains our only guide tn life, our only comfort in death, and our only hope for a blissful immortality. If two nations could afford to struggle for one copy of “ASschylus,” how much more can all nations afford to struggle for the possession and triumph of the Holy Scriptures? But the dead cities strung along the Nile not only demolish infidelity, but thunder down the absurdity of the modern doctrine of evolution which says the world started with nothing and then rose, and human nature began with nothing but evolved into splendid manhood and womanhofid of itself. Nay, the sculpture of the world was more wonderful in the days of Memphis and Thebes and Carthage than in the days of Boston and New York. Those blocks of stone weighing 300 tons high up in the wall at Karnac imply machinery equal to, if not surpassing, the machinery of the Nineteenth century. How was that statue of Raineses, weighing 887 tons, transported from th* quarries 200 miles away and how was It lifted? Tell us, modern machinists. How were those galleries of rock, still standing at Thebes, filled with paintings surpassed by do artist’s pencil at the present day? Tell us, artists of the Nineteenth century. The dead cities of Egypt, so far as thev have left enough pillars or statues or sepulchersor temple ruins to tell the story—Memphis, Migdol, Hierapolis, Zoan, Thebes, Goshen, Carthage—all of them developing downward instead of upward. They have evoluted from magnificence into destruction. The Gaspel of Jesus Christ is the only elevator of individual and social national character. Let all the living cities know that pomp and opulence and temporal prosperity are no security. Those ancient cities lacked nothing but good morals. Dissipation and sin slew them, and unless dissipation and sin are halted, they will some day slay our modern cities, and leave our palaces of merchandise and our galleries of art and our city hall as flat in the dust as we found Memphis on the afternoon of that Thanksgiving day. And if the cities go down, the nations will go down. “Oh,” you say, “that is impossible; we have stood so long—yea, over a hundred years as a nation.” Why, what of that? Thebas stood 500 years. Memphis stood a thousand years. God does not forget. One day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one dav. Rum and debauchery and bad politics are more rapidly working the destruction of our American cities than sin of any kind and all kind worked for the destruction of the cities of Africa, once so mighty and now so prostrate. But their gods were idols, and equid do nothing except for debasement. Our God made the Heavens and sent His Son to redeem the nations. And our cities will not go down, and our nation will not perish because the gospel is going to triumph. Forward! all schools and colleges and churches! Forward! all reformatory organizations. Forward! all the influences marshalea to bless the world. Let our modern European and American cities listen to the voice of those ancient cities resurrected, and by hammer and chisel and crowbar be compelled to speak. I notice the voice of those ancient cities is hoarse from the exposure of forty centuries and they accentuate slowly with lips that were palsied for ages, but all together those cities along the Nile intone tbese words: “Hear us, for we are very old, and it is hard for us to speak. We were wise long before Athens learned her first lesson. We sailed our ships while yet navigation was unborn. These obelisks, these pyramids, these fallen pillars, the wrecked temples, these colossi of black granite, these wrecked sarcophagi under the brow of the hills, tell you of what I was in grandeur and of what I am coming down to be. We sinned and we fell. Ou? learning could not save us. See these half obliterated hieroglyphics on yonder wall, Our architecture could not save us. See the painted columns of Phiiae.and the shattered temple of Esneh. Our heroes could not save us. Witness Menes, Diodoros, Rameses and Ptolemy. Our Gods Ammon and Osiris could not save us. See their fallen temples all along the 4,000 miles of Nile. Oh, ye modern cities get some other God; a God Who can help, a God Who can pardon, a God Who can save. Called up as we are for a little while to give testimony, again the sands of the desert will bury us. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust!” And as these voices of porphyry and granite ceased, all the sarcophagi under the hills responded, “Ashes to ashes!” and the capital of a lofty column fell grinding itself to powder among the rocks, and responding, “Dust to dust!” • Street scene In Rome. Perhaps it is a baptism or * wedding or a funeral procession, writes W. W. Story in Scribner’s. If it is a baptism, in the first carriage, triumphant, dressed in costume, with her long earrings in her ears, her gold chain on her neck, her filigree pin in her hair, sits the nurse, the commander of the occasion, with the infant in her arms swaddled in white. You may know if it be a girl or a boy by the color ot the ribbon that is attached to its dress, which the nurse takes proud care shall be full in sight. If it is a boy the ribbon is red—if a girl it is blue, for that is the color which belongs specially to the madonna.. You are not left in the condition of the man who had to guess the sex. “You have had a child born to you this morning—what is it, a girl or a boy?” once said an Irishman, rather a foolish one, be it confessed, to his friend. “Guess,” was the answer. “It is a boy.” “No, guess again.” “It is a girl.” “Ah! Somebody tauld you,” was the reply. This ribbon saves you the guessing and proclaims the truth to the world. At the side of the nurse, somewhat obliterated, and playing, as a rule, a most secondary part, sits the “commare,” or godmother, and two of the nearest female relatives of the infant. After this carriage comes another, in which sit the male relatives, who are, of course, relegated to the second place, as of far less consequence on this grand occasion. The crowd in the street stops at the church door as this party descend and enter the sacred precincts when the holy water is sprinkled on the child; and if startled by this operation it cries out, it is a good sign, for it shows that the innate devil which is always born in us has been driven away by the sacramental blessing. Ethel—Papa, wasn’t the prophet, Job, the first printer? Papa—Not that I am aware of, my dear. “Oh, dear! I thought that he was the inventor of Job printing—Pitta* burg Bulletin.

FOUND RIGHT AT HOME. ffMtte, TurqMlM, RsHm. mm Bappaire* Native to AMNtfc “The ‘lumtum’ society of tMs country, which has scraped together many comfortable millions, thinks that it must go to Europe to bqy the finest stones, but the real fact is that many precious stones found in this country are not surpassed in the whole world in their line,” said Edward S. Briggs, a traveling salesman for a New York jewelry firm. “And new discoveries are being made in the United States all the time where new deposits of precious stones are brought to light, but, as a rule, the matter is kept as quiet as possible, for you know how crazy people would go over a rich find of this kind. lam on my way now to Oklahoma Territory to investigate a find of rich pearls in a wild, deserted region along the Cimarron River. For some years the Indians have been known ■ to decorate their moccasinsand belts with beautiful pearls, which, they claimed, they found in shells along the banks of the Cimarron. But the Indians down there have rubbed up against civilization just enough to know the commercial importance of holding a good business secret. Recently the locality where the* Indians have for years been gathering pearls was discovered. While prospecting along the banks of the Cimarron a young man picked up several shells and, upon examination, found that they contained pearls. But precious stones of a high value are found in numerous places in the United States,” continued Mr. Briggs. “It is only a little while ago that the furor was raised about the fresh-water pearls found along the Sugar River in Wisconsin. Over SIOO,OOO worth were found on the banks of this river within the limits of one small townshiplast summer. Pearls have already been found in Texas, Tennessee, and Michigan. Texas produces fine specimens of the black pearl. Only last week I read an account of where a fisherman found a pearl worth S3OO on the banks of White River near Martinville, Ind. But thousands of shells have to be opened before finding a pearl of any great price, and by that fact you can see that pearl hunting is not likely to become a popular pursuit. “The turquoise is likely to be an important product here. In the turquoise deposits of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, a recent find has produced specimens of the finest robin’s egg blue, not surpassed in beauty by the famous Persian turquoise. The State of Washington comes forward with a remarkable discovery in precious stones. A deposit of opal has been found, but investigation has been limited so far, and the extent of the find is not known. “Many other varieties of precious stones are found in this country, but the common mass of humanity knows nothing about it. Maine produces tourmalines of various hues; beautiful garnets and green chrysolites come from Arizona, New Mexico and Montana; golden beryls come from Connecticut, and rich blue stones from North Carolina and Colorado. Sapphire and ruby mines are being worked near Helena, Mont., but so far only an inferior grade of stones has been found. Hiddenites of an incomparable light green, which are found in America exclusively, come from North Carolina.” A Perfect Treasure. Howard Paul was at the Grand Pacific recently. Americans of-the present generation may have to cud-' gel their memories to recall his name. Even in England, his native soil, he is best rememberer by those whose salid days were over a quarter of a century ago. Howard Paul and his wife were the original “drawing-room entertainers.” Twenty years ago “Mr. and Mrs. Howard Paul’s evenings” were as well known in London as the ballads sung by Sims Reeves. Their character sketches and imitations of famous personages were the delight of May Fair and Hyde Park Corner. Mrs. Paul was pronounced by Charles Dickens to be the best commedienne, humorous singer and celebrity impersonator in England. She died eight years ago, at which time Mr. Paul abandoned his talents as a mimic and devoted his time to writing for the magazinesand newspapers. His signatures at the end of English letters is well known in the Eastern papers. He is now the editor of the American edition of the Illustrated London News. Mr. Paul is in Chicago to look into the progress of the preparations for the World’s Fair, in order to write a series of elaborately illustrated articles on the subject. He returned to England at the conclusion of his visit here. Mr. Paul told an amusing story of Dickens, with whom he was on inti mate terms. In the days when he and his wife were giving their entertainments Mr. Paul had as manager a man named Dolbey, whose lack of business ability was as marked as his enormous appetite. Mr. Paul struggled along as best he could with his manager, but he was vastly relieved when Dickens chose Dolby to manage his readingsan his second visit to the United States. When Dickens returned to London from his American tour Mr. Paul asked him how he liked Dolbey’s managerial services. “He is a treasure, a perfect treasure!” replied the great novalist, enthusiastically. Mr. Paul was almost taken off his feet with astonishment. . “Wh*-a-what!” he managed to gasp. treasure? With all due respect to your judgement, Mr. Dickens, I never found him anything else bat a nuisance. MAh, but my dear fellow, there is a difference,” replied Dickens. “\oa engaged him for his head, whereas I engaged him for his stomach. Why, man, he was invaluable. Those hospitable Americana were forever asking me to eat or drink with them. All I would have to do would be to make ah excuse and follow it up with, ‘But here’s Ddbr, my manaser, who I am sure, will be delighted.’ Why, Dolbey’s caatirdn stomach and colossal capacity saved my lite. I’ve come back strong as an ox, and Dolbey’s a wreck—a total

out him for a thousand pounds.”— i Inter-Ocean. A Birds’ Mate!. An interesting hotel for summer boarders is described by a Reading, Pa., correspondent of the Chicago Herald. Music is a popular diversion at summer resorts, but this place to no doubt exceptional for the quality and variety of the music |furnished by the guests. The proprietor had his attention called, not long ago, to the fact that ladies on leaving home for the summer are often at a loss what to do with their pet birds, not wishing to inflict their care upon friendly neighbors, nor to trust them to careless servants. So he advertised for “bird and now his house is full. The rates of board vary with the different species of birds according to the amount of attention they require, and the character of food suited to their tastes. Canaries are boarded for 25 cents a week. A common soft cracker, with mixed seed and occasional hard-boiled eggs grated, with plenty of cuttle-fish bone, is all they demand. The noisy parrot is considered a profitable boarder at 50 cents a week. It is entirely satisfied with crackers, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and unhulled rice. K More aristocratic birds, however, such as bulflnches, nightingales, and mocking-birds, must have ants’ eggs, which are prepared in Europe and shipped here, together with .mealworms and expensive seeds of particular kinds. One dollar and a half a week is charged for the board of these species. The landlord says that the companionship which his feathered boarders enjoy in their summer Ifoarding-house adds materially to their well-being, and in the case of song-birds to the quality of their singing. Among the interesting bird guests this season are a collection of Hartz Mountain and English canaries, several macaws, Cuban parrots, American finches and nightingales. The landlord endures the noise with equanimity and feels thankful that his guests cannot get out of their cages and storm the business counter with their complaints and remarks, as sea-shore visitors sometimes do. Sarah’* Letter. Mrs. Trimmer, who, in the last century, wrote a series -of delightful books for children, was herself a most precocious little girl, and showed such talent in letter-writting that her parents early prophesied for her a literary career. The following letter, written when she was between ten and eleven, is worth quoting, as a specimen of the sort of epistle which children were expected to compose a hundred years ago. “Dear Grandpapa and Grandmamma.—As I now think myself capable of writing a letter, I do not know of any to whom I can address myself with more justness and propriety than yourselves, for you are my parents in a double capacity, and therefore may reasonably claim my utmost duty and gratitude. By your indulgent care and tenderness, under the gracious hand ot Providence, you have blest me with the best of mothers. Let me, therefore, beg a continuance of your blessings and prayers, to enable me to set a right value on the privileges I enjoy by having a rational being, and to put in practice the duties I owe to God, my neighbor and myself; and it shall be my daily prayer to the Almighty t>at He will make the remainder of" your lives happy, and receive you at last into everlasting felicity. My Grandpapa and grandmamma Kirby and all my papa’s family join in suitable commendations with your most obedient and dutiful granddaughter, Sarah Kirby.” Imagine a youthful Maud or Ethel of the present day sending home such a solemn, stilted little letter from the sea-shore or mountains! Would not grandma pack her trunk at once and fly to nurse her, taking the family physician in her train? Yet little Sarah Kirby was not a prig; she simply “followed the fashions” of her day. A Goad Cleaasing Preparation. A lady called for this mixture at a drug store: One quart of deodorized benzine, one drachm of sulphuric ether, one drachm of chloroform, two drachms of alcohol, and just enough cologne to make it pleasant. When she had gone the clerk remarked to a spectator: “Do you know what she wanted that preparation for? You would not be far out of the way if you guessed she was going to wash some soiled gloves. That is one of the best and cheapest preparations for cleansing that I know of. You pour a little of the mixture into a clean bowl and was the gloves in it as you would wash anything with soap and water. If the gloves are of the cheap kind, it is best to dry them on the hand, but a fine doth, after having been rubbed to smooth out the wrinkles, may be hung on the line to dry like an ordinary garment. The preparation is an excellent thing to have haqdy, not only for rejuvenating gloves, but for removing grease spots from clothing and carpets, and for sponging coat-collars and felt hats. The ladies in this town can save considerable money by following that one’s example.”—Christian Union. - < Some interesting details of Dakota’s phenomenal crops are in the form of accounts of big yields on individual farms. One farmer In North Dakota thrashed oat 1,034 bushels of wheat from thirty-three acres of land—a little more than thirty-one bushels to the acre—and ho netted $8*8.30 on his crop. Rolette County claims yields of forty bushels of wheat to the acre, seventy-five bushels of oats, sixty bushels of barley, and 500 bushels of potatoes. Yields of twentymae to thirty bushels of wheat to tha aero, are common. One man has 700 acres of wheat giving thirty bushels to the acre. And the farmers are receiving 80 to 83 cents a bushel for their wheat. a Wasp nassMp. It is known that wasps’ nests often take fire, supposed to be caused by the chemical action of the wax upon the paper material of the nest itself. May this not account for many mysterious fires in barns and oub-build-ings. , Ckicabo clergymen Mncerely hope that the ballet is on its UH tags. W-A '.r 4