Decatur Democrat, Volume 36, Number 43, Decatur, Adams County, 13 January 1893 — Page 2

Jli'inocrnt DKOATUn, IND. MACIBUHN ■ ■ - rrnLUWKK A walking delegate never gets , corns from excessive pedcstrainlsm. According to Lord Dunravcn, England has yachts valued at $50,000,000 in service, and their manning gives employment to 6,000 or 7,00 n men. It is now claimed that Mayor Washburne of Chicago, smokes so many cigarettes that the price of cabbagc has gone up sl6 per ton in tho Windy City. In several New York theaters the Dailies remove their hats during the j 'performance, and tho innovation is ■so pleasing that many ot the male spectators forget to go out to sec the usual man. It is said that the best passport 'through the Kurdish Mountains is a letter train Dr. Cochrane, of the American Board of Missions in Persia. On its production the Kurds immediately show the way. "Since it was announced that Baron HirtCh was the richest and most gen-1 erous man in the world, his mail comes to him in bushel baskets, each filled with appeals for help. Fortunately the Baron never reads any letters. William F. Rutherford of Rutherford, Vte, .in cutting down a hickory tree foupd a lock of red hair plugged into the wood. He left the tree severely alone. He was afraid that if he looked further he might ■ find the woman. A Rev. Jenkins Jones emerges i from the obscurity his gracious presence adorneo and declares that smoking is worse than drinking. Contemplation ot the statement leads to wonder that Mr. Jones ever thought it worth his while to emerge., Poor Ferdinand de LessepS is Droken down both in body and mind. What a sad ending for Le Grand Francais! But mental alienation saves him from knowledge of his utter downfall, and his friends must pray that his earthly career shall end without a return of sanity. The feat of an 11-year-old boy in Washington, who has just shot his aged and innocent grandfather for a burgular is particularly melancholy. It recalls the circumstance that somebody is always shooting an esteemed relative in this fashion and suggests wonder that nobbdy ever pots a genuine cracksman. Count Tolstoi has learned a little reason and‘Justice and has at last! been persuaded to settle his estates ; on his wife and children. Up to this I time he had absolutely refused to do I this, contending that as all land belonged to the public at large his property ought to be divided among his poorer neighbors. The Cross of the Order of St Olaf ’ was instituted by Oscar I. of Sweden, i to recompense those wno had per-' formed exceptional miscellaneous' service to the world. It is a costly | affair, being made of gold, with diamond settings. It will be conferred on M. Pasteur on his approaching birthdav anniversary. - " - The delicate *French gentlemen i who have been caught with dirty hands in connection with the Panama Canal swindle complain that they are actually compelled to endure the same hardships in their incarceration that ordinary, vulgar, common people, charged with similar offences, are subjected to. This is doubtless very hard on them, but when a man of culture who has been carefully reared turns swindler he places himself on the level of the common thief and is entitled to the same and no other treatment. The Russian Government has issued a ukase or deeree requiring Jewish | ■artisans to reside where official boards i of trad,* exist. As these official boards of trade exist in only about 10 per cent, of the towns of Russia, this latest edict will bear particularly hard z-Mpon that unfortunate The . object of the Russian authorities is , sufficiently apparent; and the result . cannot but be another exodus, with j . all its consequent misery on the _• frontier and elsewhere. r, The silver hairs and the furrowed j brow and the tottering steps must all ; come ere ever we fully realize the unwelcome. truth, that Jn all our schemes apd prospects of enjoyment distance alone has lent enchantment ito the view, that under the fairest ►.pleasures there have ever lurked in--sidious thorns, and that the gorgeous ■ shapes that have floated before us in igolden magnificence have been but monster soap-bubbles which the first breath of air shattered into annihii-

atlon. _________ WnEn our descendants learn that on a fashionable race track in one of .our principal cities the judges allowed a favorite racer to receive his usual hypodermic injection of morphine, to prevent him from sulking in the contest of speed, they will exclaim that the civilization of this country was vory artificial Up to date it has

been supposed that the morphine craze was confined to human beings, and that brutes were too sensible to avail themselves of its dangerous intoxication. But now it seems likely to have the morphine horse fiend, and who knows but racers will take to drink, and prize cattle go mad on whisky and cocaine? The frosty Athens of the New England shore has Just been treated to a remarkable spectacle, which testi- ; Iles at once to the tendency of even i the seven st mi dels to indulge in an j occasional frolic, and to the advent : in society of the craze for eccentric 1 dancing. Bostonian upper circles have, in short, lent their prettiest girls and friskiest young matrons, their gilded dudesand the irreproachable aristocracy of their “Cadets” to I the production of a “pageqnt" full of dancing and masquerading, in a theater and in tho full blaz • of the footlights. The shades of the early Puritans must have veiled their eyes—if shades have eyes—in horror when this “fin de siecle’’ performance was made evident to tbeir spiritual apprehension. According to those kind gentlemen who make so much money by running steamers of foreign ownership b etween Europe and America, there are no more immigrants. The 2,263 people who came over on the Stuttgart, according to them, were cither citizens of the United States, or else foreign tourists, who, for economy’s sake, came over in the steamer’s steerage to view the country, and perhaps to go back and write books describing it to their friends in the old world. The steamer agents are only sure of one thing, that they are not immigrants. Have not the steamship companies resolved that they will bring no more immigrants? And have they not simultaneously gone on to Washington to argue before Congress against suspending immigration? Do they not know what is best for us as well as what is best for themselves’

Up to a very recent date it has been considered the proper thing to say, when something new in the electrical line was spoken of, “we have not yet begun to know anything about this wonderful fluid:” but of late the experts, or those who regard themselves as such, have gotten into the habit of stigmatizing this profound observation as a “chestnut.” There are indications, however, that., the ‘•chestnut” is not a very mouldy one. Heretofcre almost all electrical business has been done on the assumption that when the fluid once got into the bosom of the earth it ceased to have any power for good or evil. All that was asked of the lightning-rod was that, it terminate in moist ground; and the “grounding” of a current has been regarded as an end of its efficiency. It would seem, however, that the current does not cease to be powerful for mischief when it gets below the surface whatever may l»e the fact as to its power for good. It is claimed now that the use ot earth circuits by the trolley companies in Brooklyn has seriously embarrassed the working of the Atlantic cables as well as of telephones using the earth circuit. It has been found, also, that lead pipes underground are carroded by the electric current to such an extent as to endanger tbe purity of the water by introducing salts of lead; and in Boston an ingenius mechanic managed by connecting > two underground pipes to get sufficient current to run a small motor. These are evils that can undoubtedly be remedied; but they are calculated to give a new lease of life to tbe trite saying that we do not yet begin to know anything about electricity.

Types of Beauty, . The ideas of beauty is wholly relative, and varies with places and times, says the “Popular Science Monthly. ” “Artists make the beauty toconsist in certain proportions of the skeleton and in the harmony of the muscular development. We might, perhaps, be more definite by saying that to be handsome at rest and in motion the man ought to present the traits of health and moderate strength, and in addition to be in possession of his means ot locomotion and of natural defence. ‘•This view of beauty originates in the consideration that there is a necessary relation between vigor, skill, agility and the outer form of the body at rest and in motion. This defined, the type of beauty, in a given race or medium, is an ideal which we seek to revive by physical education. “It follows that a man specially devoted to any exercise cannot be I handsome. This may be said of all the professions that localize muscular i work in a restricted . regipn of the ' body. There are. however, "some | sports which have the advantage of i exercising equally the upper and low- | er limbs; such, for example, as wrestling, French boxing, swimming, and -canoeing with two oars and a sliding seat. “A good gymnastic includes complete exercises, and Incomplete or unsymmetrical exercises, under such a condition aS that they shall correct one another, and that the work shall bear upon the" lower and upper limbs.” ; Cotton Growing 1 n Southern Russia.

Cotton culture ih South Russia, which was initiated some time ago by the Minister of Imperial Domains, is now giving promising results. The earlier attempts failed through the ignorance of the cultivators, but since the Kherson School of Agriculture took the matter up the propapation of American cotton seed has proved entirely successful—London News. The sky, unlike man, is most cheerful when bluest.

j DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON. MANY LESSONS DRAWN FROM THE FOWLS. Surprising Frequency of Allunlonß to Birds In th© Scripture* mid Always to Teach an Important Lesson — Ornithology la Surely a Divine Science. God AHionjf the Birds. Dr. Talmage having preached about tho “Astronomy of the Bible; or, God among tho Stars,” and the “Chronology of tho Bible; or, God among tho Centuries,” discoursed on tho "Ornithology of the Bible; or; God among the Birds." The text was Matthew vi, 26, "Behold the fowls of tho air!” There is silence now in all our January forests, except as tho winds whistle through the bare branches. Our northern woods are deserted concert halls. Tho organ lofts In the tomplo of nature are hymnless. Trees which wore full of carol and chirp and chant are now waiting for the coming back of rich plumes and warbling voices, solos, ducts, quartets, cantatas and Te Dennis. But the Bible is full of birds at all seasons, and prophets and patriarchsand apostles and evangelists aud Christ Himself employ them for moral and religious purposes. My text is an extract from the sermon on the mount, and perhaps it was at a moment when a flock of birds flew past that Christ waved His hand toward them and said, "Behold the fowls of tho air!” And so, in this course of sermons on God everywhere, I preach to you this third sermon concerning tho Ornithology of the Bible; or, God Among the Birds. Most of tho other sciences you may stiMy or not study as you please. Use your own Judgment; exercise your own taste. But about this science of ornithology we have no option. The divine command is positive when it says in my text, “Behold the fowls of the air!” That is, study their ha Pits. Examine their colors. Notice their speed. See the hand of God in their construction. It is easy for me to obey tho command of the text, for 1 was brought up among this race of" wings and from boyhood heard their matins at sunrise and their vespers at sunset.

Their nests have been to me a faclnation, and my satisfaction is I never robbed one of them, any more than I would steal a child from a cradle, for a bird is a child of the sky, and its nest is the cradle. They are almost human, for they have their loves and hates, affinities and antipathies, understand joy and grief, have conjugal aud maternal instinct, wage wars and entertain jealousies, nave a language of their own and powers of association. Thank God for birds and skies full of them. It is useless to expect to understand the Bible unless we study natural history. Five hundred and ninety-three times does the Bible allude to tho facts of natural history, and I do not wonder that it makes so many allusions ornithological The skies and the caverns of Palestine are friendly to the winged creatures, and so many fly and roost and hatch in that region that inspired writers do not have far to go to get ornithological illustration of divine truth. There are over forty species of birds recognized in the Scriptures. Oh, what a variety of wings in Palestine! They were at the creation placed all around on the rocks and in the trees and on the ground to serenade Adam’s arrival. They took thiir places on Friday, as tho first man was made on Saturday. Whatever else be had or did not have, he should have music. The first sound Ihat struck toe human ear was a bird’s voice. Yes, Christian geology—for you know there is a Christian geology as well as an infidtfl geology—Christian geology comes in and helps the Bible show what weowo to tho bird creation. Before the human race came into this world the world was occupied by reptiles and by all styles of destructive monsters—millions of creatures loathsome and hideous. God sent huge birds to clear the earth of these creatures before Adam and Eve were created. The remains of these birds have been found imbedded in the rocks. The skeleton of one eagle has been found twenty feet in height and fifty feet from tip of wing to tip of wing. Many armies of beaks and claws were necessary to clear the earth of creatures that would have destroyed the human race withone clip. I like to find this harmony of revelation and science and to have demonstrated that the God who made the world made the Bible.

Moses, the greatest lawyer of all time and a great man for facts, had enough sentiment and poetry and musical taste to welcome the illumined wings and the voices divinely drilled into the first chapter of Genesis. How should Noah, the old ship carpenter, 600 years of age, find out when the world was fit again for human residence after the universal freshet? A bird will tell, and nothing else can. No man can come down from the mountain to Invite Noah and his family out to terra firma. for the mountains were submerged. As a bird first heralded the human race into the world, now a bird will help the human race back to the world that had shipped a sea that whelmed everything. Noah stands on Sunday morning at the window of the ark, in his hand a j cooing dove, so gentle, so innocent, so affectionate, and he said, “Now. my little dove, fly away over these waters, explore and come back and tell us whether it is safe to land.” After a long flight it returned hungry and weary and wet, and by its looks and manners said to Noah and bis family, “The world is not fit for you to disembark.” Noah waited a week, and next Sunday morning he let the dove fly again for a second exploration, and Sunday evening it came back with a leaf that had the sign of lust having been plucked from a living fruit tree, and the bird reported the world would do tolerably well for a bird to live in, but not yet sufficiently recovered for human residence. Noah waited another week, and next Sunday morning he sent out the dove on the third exploration, but it returned not. for it the world so attractive how it did not want to be caged again, and then the emigrants from the antediluvian world landed. It was a bird that told them wbern to take possession of the resuscitated planet So the human race were saved bv a bird’s wing—for, attempting to land too soon, they would I have perished. I Aye,. here comes a whole flock of doves—rock doves,S«Jng doves, stock ■ doves—and they make Isaiah think of I great revivals and great awakenings , when souls fly for shelter like a flock of I pigeons swooping to the openings of a pigeon coop, and cries out, “Who are these that fly as doves to their windows?” David, with Saul after him and flying from cavern to cavern, compares hlms.elf to a , desert partridge, a bird which especially ' haunts rocky places, and boys and hunt- ' ers to this day take after it with sticks, for the partridge runs rather than flies. David, chased andcluobed and harried of pursuers says, “I am hunted as a partridge on the mountains.” Speaking of his forlorn condition, he says, “I am like a pelican of the wilderness.” Describing fiis loneliness, he says, “I am a swallow alone on a housetop.” Hezekiah, In the emaciation of bls sickness, compares himself to a crane, thin and wasted. Job had so much trouble he could not sleep nights, and be 1 his Insomnia by saying, “I am a companion to owls." Isaiah compares the desolation of banished Israel to an owl

and bittern and cormorant among a city’s ruins. Jeremiah, describing the cruelty of paronts toward children, compares them to the ostrich, who leaves its eggs In tho sand uneared for, crying "Tho daughter of my people is becoming like the ostriches of tho wilderness." Amongtho provisions plied on Solomon’s bountiful table the Bible speaks of • fatted fowl." The Israelites In tho desert got tired of manna and they had quails—quails for breakfast, quails for dinner, quails for supper, and they died of quails. Tho Bible refers to the migratory habits of tho birds and says, “The stork knoweth her appointed time, and the turtle, aud the crane, and tho swallow tho time of their going, but my people know not the Judgments of the Lord.” Would the prophet illustrate tho fate ot the fraud, ho points to a failure at Incubation and says, “As a partridge sltteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not fcy right, shah leave them in tho midst ot his days and at his end shall boa fool.” The partridge, the most careless ot all birds in choice ot its place of nest, building it on tho ground and often near a frequented road, or in a slight depression of ground, without reference to safety, and soon a hoof or a scythe or a cart wheel ends all. So savs tho prophet, a man who gathers under him dishonest dollars will hatch out of them no peace, no satisfaction, no happiness, no security.

What a vivid slmilitudel Tho quickest way to amass a fortune is by iniquity, but tho trouble is about keeping it. Every hour of the day some such partridge is driven off the nest. Panics are only a flutter of partridges. It is too tedious work to become rich in tho oldfashioned way, and if a man can by one falsehood malto as much as by ten years of hard labor, why not tell it? And if one counterfeit check will bring the dollars as easily as a genuine issue, why not make ft? One year’s fraud will bo equal to half a lifetime's sweat Why not live solely by one’s wits? A fortune thus built will bo firm and everlasting. Will it? Ha! build your house on a volcano’s crater; go to sleep on the bosom of an avalanche. The volcano will blaze and tho avalanche will thunder. There are estates which have been coming together from age to age. Many years ago that estate started in a husband’s industry and a wife's economy. It grew from generation to generation by good habits and high minded enterprise. Old-fashioned Industry was the mine from which that gold was dug,, and God will keen tbo deeJs of such an estate in His buckler. Foreclose your mortgage, spring your snap Judgments, plot with acutest intrigue against a family property like that, and you cannot do it a permanent damage. Better than warrantee deed and better than fire insurance is the defense tfhich God's own hand will give it But here Is a man to-day as poor as Job after he was robbed by Satan of everything but his bolls, yet suddenly tomorrow he is a ricli man. Tnere *is no accounting for his sudden affluence. Ho has not yet failed often enough to become wealthy. No one pretends to account for his princely wardrobe, or tho chased silver, or tho full curbed steeds that rear and neigh like Bucephalus in the grasp of his coachman. Did he come to a sudden inheritance? No. Did he make a fortune on purchase and sale 9 No. Everybody asks, where did that partridge hatch? The devil suddenly threw him up and the devil will suddenly let him down. That hidden scheme God saw from the first conception of the plot. That partridge, swift disaster will shoot it down, and the higher it flies the harder it falls. The prophet saw, as you and I have often seen, the awful mistake of partridges. But yonder In this Bible sky flies a bird that is speckled. The prophet describing the church cries out, “Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird; the birds round about are against her.” So it was then; so it is now. Holiness picked at. Consecration picked at. , Benevolence picked at Usefulness picked at. A speckled bird is a peculiar bird, and that arouses the antipathy of all the beaks of tho forest. The church of God is a peculiar institution, and that is enough to evoke attack of the world, for it is a speckled bird to be picked at. The inconsistencies of Christians are a banquet on which multitudes get fat They ascribe everything you do to wrong motives. Put a dollar in the poor box, and they will say that you dropped it there only that you might hear it ring. Invito them to Christ, aud they will call you a fanatic. Let there be contention among Christians, and they will say: “Hurrah! The church is in decadence.”'Christ intended that His church should always remain a speckled bird. Let mAS of another feather pick at her. but they cannot rob her of a single plume. Like the albatross, she can sleep on the bosom of a tempest. Sne has gone through tho fires of Nebucadnezzar’s furnace and not got burned, through the waters of the Red Sea and not been drowned, through the shipwreck on the breakers of Melita and hot been foundered. Let all earth and hell try to hunt down this speckled bird, but far aiiove human scorn and infernal assault it shall sing over every mountain top and fly over every nation, and her triumphant song shall be: “The church of God! Tho pillar and ground of the truth. The gates ot hell shall not prevail against her." But we cannot stop here. From a tail cliff, hanging over the sea, I hear the eagle calling unto the tempest and lifting its wing to smite the whirlwind. Moses, Jeremiah, Hosea and Habakkuk at times in their writings take their pen from the eagle's wing. It is a bird with fierceness in its eye, its feet armed with claws of Iron, and its head with a dreadful beak, Two or three of them can fill the Heavens with clangor. But generally this monster ot the air is alone and unaccompanied, for the reason that its habits are so predaceous It requires five or ten miles of aerial or earthly dominion all for itself.

The black brown of its back, and the white of its lower feathers, and the fire of its eyes, and the long flap of its wing make one glimpse of it as it swings down into the valley to pick up a rabbit, or a lamb, or a child and then swings back to its throne on the rock something never to be' forgotten. Scattered about its eyrie of aititudlnous solitude are the bones of its conquests. But while the beak and the claws of the eagle are thp terror of all the travelers of the air, the mother eagle is most kind and gentle to her young. God compares his treatment of his people to the eagle’s taro of the eaglets. Deuteronomy xxxii, 11, “As an eagle stlrreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreading abroad her wings, taketh them, bearetb them on hbr wings, so the Lord alone did load.” The old eagle first shelves the young one out of the nest in order to make It fly, and then takes It on her back and flies* with it, and shakes it off In the air. and If Itseems like falling flies under it and takes it on her wing again. So Qod does with us. Disaster, failure In business, disappointment, bereavement, is only God’s way of shaking us out of our comfortable nests In order that we may learn how to fly. You who are complaining that you have noJaith or courage or Christian zeal have had It too easy. You never will learn to fly in that comfortable nest. Like an eagle. Christ has carried us on His back. At times we have been shaken off, and when we were about to fal) He came under us again and brboghLus out of the gloomy valley to sunn y ffiount-

aln. Never an eagle brooded with such love and care over her young as God's wings have been over us. Across what oceans of trouble we have gone in safety upon tho Almighty wings! From what mountains of sin wo have boon carried and at Hines have been borne up fur above tho gunshot of the world aud the arrow of the devil I When our time on earth is closed, on those groat wlugs of God we shall speed with Infinite quickness from earth's mountains to Hoavon's hills, and as from the eagle’s circuit under the sun mon on >the ground seem small and insignificant as lizards on a rock, so allearthly things shall dwindle into a speck, and tho raging river of death so far beneath will seem smooth and glassy as a Swiss lake. It was thought in ancient times that an eagle could not only molt its feathers in old ago, but that after arriving at great ago it would renew Its strength and become entirely young again. To tills Isaiah alludes when ho saya “They that wait on tho Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings of eagles.” Even so tho Christian In old ago will renew his spiritual strength. He shall be young in ardor and enthusiasm for Christ, and as tho body falls tho soul will grow In elasticity till at death It will spring up like a gladdened child into tho bosom of God. Yea. In tills ornithological study I see that Job says, "His days fly us an eagle that hastoneth to its proy." Tho speed of a hungry eagle when it saw its prey a score of miles distant was unimaginable. It wont like a thunderbolt for speed and power. So fly our days. Sixty minutes, each worth a heaven, since we assembled in this place, have shot like lightning into l eternity. The old eartli is rent and crocked under the swift rush of days and months and years and ages. "Swift as tho eagle that hasteth to its prey.” Behold the fowls of the air! Have you considered that they have, as you and I have not, the power to change their eyes so that qne minute they may bo telescopic and the next mlcroscopio? Now seeing something a mile away, and by telescopic eyesight, and then dropping to its food on tho ground, able to see it close by, and with microscopic eyesight But what senseloss passage of Scripture that is until you know the fact which says, "The sparrow hath found a house and the swallow a nost for herself, where sho may lay her young, even Thine altars, Lord of hosts, my king and my God.” What has the swallow to do with the temple at Jerusalem? Ah, you know that swallows are all tho world over very tame, and in summer time used to fly into tho windows and doors of tho temple at Jeruselam aud build a nest on the altar where the priests were offering.saerifices. These sw,allows brought leaves and sticks and fashioned nests on the altars of tho temple and hatched the young sparrows in those nests, and David had seen the young birds picking their way out of the shell while the old swallows watched, and no one in the temple was cruel enough to disturb either the old

swallows or the young swallows, and David burst out in rhapsody, saying, “The swallow hath found a nest for herself. where she may lay her young, even Thine altars, O Lord of hosts my King and my God!” Yes, in this ornithology of the Bfble I find that God is determined to impress ‘ upon us the architecture of a l.irds's nest and tho anatomy of a bird’s wing. Twenty times does the Bible refer to a bird’s nest: “Where tho birds make their nest,” “As a bird that wandereth from her nest”—“Though thou set the nest among the stars.” “The birds of tho air have tjeir nests,” and so on. Nests in the trees, nests on the rocks, nests on the altars. Whvdoes God call us so frequently to consider the bird’s nest? Because it is one of the most wondrous of all styles of architecture and a lesson of provideniial care, which is the most Important lesson that Christin my texteonvevs. Why, just look at the bird’s nest and see what is the prdspoct that God is going to take care of you. Here is the bluebird’s nest under tho eaves of the house. Here is tho brown thrasher’s nest in a bush. Here is tho bluejay's nest in the orchard. Here is tho grosbeak’s nest on a tree branch hang-lng over the water, so as to bo free from attack. Chickadee’s nost in tho stump of an old tree. Oh, the goodness of God in showing the birds how to build their nests! Surely those nests were built by some plan. They did not just happen so. Who drafted tbe plan for the bird’s nest? Godl And do von not think that it He plans such a house for a chaffinch, for an oriole, for a bobolink, for a sparrow. He will see to it that you always have a home? "Ye are of wore value than many sparrows.” Whatever else surrounds you, you can havo what the Bible calls "the feathers of the Almighty.” Just, think of a nest like that, the warmth of it. the softness of It, the safety of it—“tho feathers of the Almighty." No flamingo outflashing the tropical sunset ever had such brrilliancy ot pinion; no robin redbreast ever had plumage dashed with such crimson and purple and orange and gold—“the feathers of the Almighty,’’ Do you not feel the touch of thorn now on forehead and cheek and spirit and was there ever such tenderness of brooding—“tbe feathers of the Almighty?” So also in this ornithology of the Bible God keeps impressing us with the anatomy ot a bird's wing. Over fifty times doos the old Book allude to the wing—“ Wings of a dove.” “Wings of the morning,” "Wings of tho wind,” “Wings of the Almighty," “All fowl of every wing.” What does it all mean? It suggests uplifting. It tells you of flight upward. It means to remind that you yourself have wings. David cried out, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove that I might fly away and be at rest!” Thank God that you have better wings than any dove of the longest or swiftest flight. Caged now in bars of flesh are those wings, but the day comes when they will bo liberated. Get ready for ascension 1 What He Was in Favor of. Looking through the corridors of tho State Capitol one day was an old farmer, to whom came a female suffrage canvasser, with a petition, and politely asked him if he would sign it. He eyed the document suspiciously awhile, and then asked: “What is it?” “A petition in favor of the woman’s movement,” she responded, in her most insinuating tone of voice. “Then I’m agin it,” said the agriculturist, with the emphasis of a man who had some domestic infelicity. “A woman who’s alius a movin’ is alius a gettin’ in trouble. If you've got anything to keep her sot, I’ll sign it.”— Brooklyn Eagle. He Couldn’t Stand IL “My son," said a solicitous mother to her wayward 10-year-old, “I want you to be a good boy or you will go to the bad place and remain there forever." “Do they keep shingles and slippers there?” “No, of course not, Johnny; they would bd burned' up in such a terrible place in no time." “Well, then, ma, I guess I can stand it,” and the boy slid gently into a cushioned chair with a slight contortion of the face as though there was a tender spot about his nature somewhere which his mother could get at.—Toledo American.

WHAT LOW TARIFF DID GAVE THE COUNTRY UNRIVALLED PROSPERITY. a,. Great Revenue* Produced by the Low Ad Valorem Tarins <>r IH4B and ISM—Why Farmer* Are PieeatbHed—The Potato Tax—Wages lu Germany. Specific and Ad Valorem Dntlee. Apparently, indirect taxation 18 fastened to this country for some time to come. An income tax may be levied by our next Congress to enable us to meet our enormous expendituics without increasing any duties, but the bulk of our revenue will continue to come from duties on imports. It Is therefore well to con-’ sldor whether our next tariff bill should be based upon specific or ad valorem duties. In most of our high and protective tariff bills specific duties have predominated. This Is particularly true of the McKinley bill. In the proposed Mills bill, and In most low and non-protective tariff bills, ad valorem duties were the rule. In the Walker bill, in force from 1846 to 1857, and In the so-called “free-trade bill" in force from 1857 to 1861, all duties were ad valorem. Protectionists and makers of hightariff bills naturally turn to specific duties as an easy way of increasing duties on the sly. Thus nearly all of the numerous “jobs’* jn the McKinley bill were perpetrated by means of specific duties. Nobody except a few interested persons supposed that when the ad valorem duty of 25 per cent, on pearl buttons was increased by a specific duty ot 2J cents per line, the increase would amount to much; yet the Increase amounted to from 200 to 2,000 per cent., making the actual duty in some cases as high as 400 per cent. In this same tricky way duties on Cutlery, gloves, music wire, goat hair and many other articles were greatly increased. But protectionists also favor spe"ciflc duties, because they are certain means of preventing the natural decline of prices and of giving increased protection. Thus a duty of 5 cents per yard on unbleached cotton cloth gave a protection of 50 per cent, when this cloth was selling at 10 cents in 1864. Because of improved machinery, this cloth, in 1890, could be sold for 4} cents, and the protection had Increased to over 100 per cent. This same process has been going on with sugar, steel rails, structural steel, and In fact with most dutiable articles in the McKinley bill. “The of the bill should be so changed” (said the Hon. John A. Kasson, in 1866, of a tariff bill), “as to read, ‘A bill to prevent the diffused blessings of Providence from being enjoyed by the people ot the United States.’ ” If he had said, “A bill to the diffused blessings of Providence and of improved methods of manufacture from reaching the people and to turn all over to combines, corporations and trusts” he would have accurately described the McKinley bill, with its specific duties to prevent consumers from getting much benefit from falling prices abroad, and at the same time giving increased protection to our hundreds of trusts .to prevent the natural decline from home consumpI tion. | For these very reasons, makers of ! the next tariff bill should avoid specific duties. There are other serious objections. Specific duties always discriminate against the poor, who are compelled to use the cheap ar- ■ tides, and in favor of the rich, Who purchase expensive articles. Thus a i duty of 44 cents per pound and 50 per cent, ad valorem on West of England broadcloth, that sells for $3.60 per yard, gives a protection of only 63 per cent. The same rate of duty on diagonal cheviot that sells for 76 j cents per yard, yields a protection of ' 140 per cent. It is safe to say that • for every dollar spent by the million- • aire or by the day laborer the latter pays five times as much tariff taxes as the former. I Ad valorem duties are open to none ■of the above objections. If levied ' equally on cheap and costly goods, they tax*the rich and the poor at the same rate—though, of course, the poor must spend a larger proportion of their earnings for tariff-taxed goods than the rich. Ad valorem duties permit consumers to get the full benefit of dedining prices and they will not subserve the purpose of those ( who wish to put up tariff “jobs” on ' the people. The one grave objection ; to ad valorem duties is that they lead ' 'to under valuationj especially when , the duties are high or when the goods ' are extremely valuable. Thus the duty of about 70 per cent, on most kind of gloves is a strong temptation ito importers to undervalue their 1 goods. It is said by good authorities ' that the undervaluations in this line ' will average 15 or 20 per cent. Tho dishonest glove importer then has an advantage <jf about 10 per cent, over the honest one in our markets. The temptation to undervaluation decreases rapidly as duties decline, and on most goods practically disappears when duties do not exceed 20 per cent., because an undervaluation of 10 per cent, then give an advantage of only 2 per cent, in our markets—not enough to compensate importers for the risk of being caught. As a means of obtaining revenue, ad valorem duties are as effective as specific. With duties of from sto 30 per cent.—except on tobacco and liquors—in the Walker tariff of 18.46, the amount of duties collected increased from $28,000,000, in 1847, to $63,000,000 in 1§57. The revenues then exceeded the expenditures so much that the rates were lowered about 25 per cent. The great increase in revenue from 1847 to 1857, under this comparatively low tariff, came from increased imports due to great prosp rity. Imports rose from ' $116,000,000 to $333,000,000; exports from $150,000,000 to $279,000,000; the price of wheat rose from an average ot $1.02 from 1845 to 1847, to $1.51i from 1843 to 1856—a price never equalled before or since; prices of corn, cotton, butter, wool and other farm products also Increased about 33 per cent.; farm values increased about 50 per cent. Tho “free trade” tariff act of 1857 showed the same general effects. These are some of tbe accompanl- : mentis of the low tariffs 6t 1846 and ! 1857. We hope our new tariff-mak-1

era will not neglect to study these lessons of history. Let them not forget that tho only time tho tariff question was ever settled to tho satisfaction of all parties, so that neither party mentioned a tariff, was during our “Free Trade" ad valorem tariff period. If an impending war had nut necessitated tho raising ot a groat revenue, neither party would have dared to advocate higher duties. The farmers and tho hard-working people can stand more of such “Frea Trade” tariffs.—Byron W. Holt Why Farmer* Are DUuktUfled. Editor Now York World: As you call for opinions in tho World, I will write a few lines. First, an extra session of Congress is demanded by the vote recorded last November. The Democratic party should take no step backward. To replace tho duty on sugar is a step backward. Sugar stands third in value of the food products consumed by the laboring people. They consume more in tho average family than the wealthy, and consequently pay more of the tax. Far better remove all the duty; then the best sugar would be used without refining. The proposed plan to tax incomes is perhaps the best and most just that has been proposed. As to farmers and mechanics not favoring It, not one in ten thousand of them has an Income of $5,000 after paying working expenses. Farming lands have been decreasing in value for the past twenty years. The best hop-growing lands In this county (Otsego) will hot sell for more than one-half what they were worth from 1855 to 1860. The situation is the same through all the Eastern States. Furthermore, we should give away no more public lands. Make a price of $3 to $5 per per acre, which would produce an Income and make the immigrant pay something for the privilege of a home in this land of liberty. Restrict immigration. Competition is too great in agriculture. I have mentioned Otsego County because I own land there on which I have worked and lived over fifty years, and I know whereof I write. I would probably be at work on it now were 1 able to work from twelve to eighteen hours a day, as most of the farmers now have to do who make farming a success. I cannot see how a farmer can be a Republican. All tariff taxes and business laws favor the manufacturer and dealer.—G. O. S.

The Potato Tax. The potato crop of the country is much below the average this year, and the price of this important article of food Is likely to be so high as to put it beyond the reach ot multitudes of consumers. Statisticians, who are familiar with the market, have estimated that the home supply of potatoes will have been exhausted long before the time for the planting ot the new crop. In this emergency it would be necessary to import large quantities of potatoes, and to pay upon them a McKinley tax of 25 cents on every bushel. This tax could be of no benefit to the American farmers in any circumstances. When the potato crop has been abundant there has been a large quantity for export, and the tariff could have affected the price but little if at all. When there has been a failure the domestic crop has been consumed and sold at home before the foreign supply could come in; hnd a large portion ot the farmers have been obliged to buy the highly taxed potatoes, not merely for food, but to plant for next year’s crop. In short, when the farmer* have had an abundance of potatoes to sell none have been imported; and when potatoes have been imported the farmers have had none to sell. If a bill should be introduced in the House some Monday morning to repeal the burdensome tax on potatoes, under a suspension of the rules, it would doubtless be passed by a large majority; and the Senate would hardly fail to concur.—Philadelphia Record.

Wages in Germany.

The report of United States Consul Warner, at Cologne, Germany, recently received at the Department of State, contains some Interesting statistics on the wages paid in various trades in that country last year. Tbe telegraphed summary says: “Tbe statistics collected embrace replies from 906 cities and 924 unions. The figures show that the wages have increased in only seven cities, in 229 they have declined, and in 670 they have remained stationary, while food products have been dearer. Only 211 cities of the whole number visited showed full employment, while in thirty places almost complete stoppage of work existed. In Germany tho head of the household alone cannot earn sufficient to support his family.” This is the condition of affairs in a European country having a high protective tariff, copied from that of the United States by the great Bismarck, who thougt to reproduce in that old, thickly populated, army ridden, monarchical country the prosperity enjoyed in this newer and freer land, with its boundless opportunities and wonderful natural resources. When Protectionists talked of “pauper wages” and hard conditions of life abroad, during the late canvass, they fought shy of protected Germany and quoted free-trade England, where the wages are higher than anywhere else in Europe.—New York World.

The Income Tax. , The income-tax plan seems also to commend itself. It is the opinion of the leading men that a bill to impose a pro- 1 gressively increasing tax on incomes above SIO,OOO would be passed by an overwhelming majority if presented in the House. How hiucb revenue it would yield Is problematical. That would depend somewhat upon the extent to which consciences have become more alert since the war-time Income tax was abolished. That sometimes produced revenue and sometimes perjury. But that was In atlme of general demoralization, and it is believed that a properly drawn income-tax law would yield an important revenue without unduly tempting to fraud, and perjury. Such a tax commends itself as ideally fair and reasonable. It places the heaviest burdens where they are moet | easily borne. It taxes superfluity in- : stead of want, wealth rather than poverty, accumulation rather than indua- | trial endeavor.—New York World.