Decatur Democrat, Volume 40, Number 14, Decatur, Adams County, 19 June 1896 — Page 6

BE SURE / ? JtSk >Sffi : 'c' : '< °* iS!. v Forget What? To Attend the Grand . . . CEIIKRATIOS Decatur. Ind. »- • / OINT JULY 4,

GRAND Si Balloon Ascension. Sack, Pony. Pacing’, Hurdle,. Chariot, Trotting, Running, •Hippodrome and Greased Pig RACES. "•— 1 —t —h» : * GRAND li\ IHSTRI AL ’ ft •- . • X - c ■ ■■•r-p’.-PARADE. I " -. ■ l ' <l - _ Pfr -• \ There will be a lliiiiil Contest by some of the best bands in the State.

I THE BITTER ATTILA. A BRIEF VIEW OF THE STAR CALLED WORMWOOD. Rev. Dr. Tnlifiafto on Drilllant Bltternes* mul Its Ur.inlH -Scolding aud Growling, i The Swioteuing Power of the Gonpel. Safety In Kißlitcousncss. Washington, Juno 14.—1 t was appropriate that this sermon on the destiny of nations should be preached in what has long been called the president’s church (because Presidents Jackson and Pierce and Polk anft Cleveland have attended it). Dr. Talmage chose for his text Revelation viii, 10, 11, “■There fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters, and the name of the star is called Wormwood. ’’ Many commentators, like Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry and Albert Barnes agree in saying that the star Wormwood, mentioned in Revelation, was Attila, king of the Huns. He wits so called because he, was brilliant as a star, and, like wormwood, he embittered everything he touched. We have studied the Star of Bethlehem, and the Morning Star of the Revelation, and the Star of Peace, but my present subject calls us to gaze at the star Worini wood, and my theme might be called Brilliant Bitterness. A more extraordinary character history does not furnish than this man thus ; referred to, Attila, the king of the Huns. J One day a wounded heifer came limping \ along through the fields, and a herds--1 man follow: 1 its bloody track on the grass to see where the heifer was wounded, ai.d went on back further and further, uttt.l lit' came to a sword fast in the earth; The point' downward, as i though it i: ■ i dropped from the heavens j apd again:'; the edges of this sword the I heifer had b•> ”.i cut. The herdsman pull- ' rd up that sv ord and presented it to ! Attila. At: :1a said that sword must : have dropp I from the heavens from the ; grasp of Hie god "Mass and its being i given to him meant that Attila should ■ conquer mid govern the whole earth. Other imghty men have been delighted at I? ing called liberators, or ,the merciful, or the good, but Attila called j himself? and demanded that others call him, the Scourge of God. At the head of 700,000 troops, mounted on Cappadocian horses, he swept everything from the Adriatic to the Black sea. He put his iron heel on Macedonia and Greece j and Thrace. He made Milan and Pavia and Padua and Verona beg for mercy, which he bestowed not. The Byzantine castles, to meet his ruinous levy, put up at auction silver tables and vases of solid gold. A city captured by him, the inhabitants were brought out and put into three classes —the first class, those who could bear arms, who must immediately enlist under Attila or be butchered; the second class, the beautiful women, who were made captives to the Huns; the third class, the aged men and women, who were robbed of everything aud let go back, to the city to pay heavy tax. Rise of a Star. It was a common saying that the grass never grew again where The hoof of Attila's horse had trod. His armies reddened the waters of the Seine, and the Moselle, aud the Rhine with carnage and fought on the Catalonian plains tlje fiercest battle since the'world stood —300,000 dead left on the field! On and .on until all those who could not oppose him with arms lay prostrate on their faces in prayer, and, a cloud of dust sei n in the distance, a bishop cried, “It is the aid of God!" and all the people took up the cry, “It is the aid of God!” As the cloud of dust, was blown aside the banners of re-enforcing armies marched in to help against Attila, the Stugjrge of God. The most unimportant occurrences he used as a supernatural resource, apd.. after three months of failure to capture the city of Aquileia, and his army had given up the siege the flight of a stork and’her young from the tower of the city was taken by him .as u sign that he was to capture the city, and Ins army, inspired by flic same occurrence', resumed the siege and took the walls at a point from which the stork had emerged. So brilliant was „tlie conqueror in attire that his emmr'S could not look at him, but shaded their eves or turned their (leads.

Slain on the Evening of his marriage 1 by his bridcf IldicQ, wjitrwas hired for j the assassination, his fofio'wers bewailed | him, not with tears, but with blood, j rutting ‘ .themselves, with knives and lances, '’die was put into three coffins, the first of iron, the second of silver and the third of gold. He was buried by night, and into his grave were poured the most valuable coin and precious stones, amounting to the wealth of a kingdom: The gravediggers ■ and all those who assisted at the burial were massacred, so that it would never be known where so much wealth was entombed. The Boman empire conquered the work], but Attila conquered the Roman empire. He was righj in calling himself a scourge, but instead of being the Scourge of God he was the scourge of hell. Because of his brilliance and bitterness the commentators were right in believing him to be the star Wormwood. As the regions he devastated were parts most opulent with fountains and streams and rivers, you See how graphic is this reference in Revelation: “ There,j;ell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains’of waters, and the name of the star is called Wormwood.” Have you ever .thought how many imbittered lives there are all about us, misanthropic, morbid, acrid, saturnine? The European plant from which wormwood isextracted, Artemisia absinthium, is a perennial plant, and all the year round it is ready to exude its oil. And in many human lives there is a perennial distillation of acrid experiences. Yea, there are some whose whole work is to shed a baleful influence on others.

There are Attilas of the home, or Attilas of the social circle, or Attilas of the chuteh, iU'-Altilas of the state, and one-third of the waters of all the world, if not two-thirds the waters, are poisoned by, the falling of the star Worthwood. It is nor complimentary to human nature that most men, as soon as they get great power, become overbearing. The more power men have the bettor if their power bo used for good. The less power men have the better if they use it for evil. Birds circle round and round aud round beford they swoop upon that which they are ifiming for. And if my discourse so far has been swinging round and round this moment it drops straight on your heart and asks the question, Is your life a benediction to others or an iiiibitterment, a blessing or a curse, a balsam or wormwood?

Some of you I know are morning stars, and you are making the dawning life of your children bright with gracious influences, and you are beaming upon all the opening enterprises of philanthropic and Christian endeavor, and you are heralds of that day of gospelization which will yet flood all the mountains and valleys of our sin cursed earth. 'Hail, morning star! Keep on shining encouragement and Christian hope ! Growlers and Scolds. Some of you are evening stars, and you are cheering the last days of old people, and though a cloud sometimes comes over you through the querulousness or unreasonableness of your old father and mother it is only for a moment, and tlai star soon comes out clear again and is seen from all the balconies of the neighborhood. The old people will forgive your occasional shortcomings, for they themselves several rimes lost their patience when you wert' young ami slapped you wh'ti you did nor deserve it. Hail." evening star! Hang on the iarkening sky your diamond coronet! But are any of you rhe star Wormwood? Do you scold and growl from the .■hrones paternal or maternal?' Are yoyr thildron everlastingly peeked at? Are you always crying “ Hush!” lathe merry voices and swift twt. and their laughter, which'occasioTmlly trickles through at wrong times and is suppressed’ by them until they cat! hold it no longer, and all the barriers burst into unlimited guffaw and cachinnation, as in high weather the water has trickled through a slight opening in the milldam, but afterward makes wider and wider breach until it carries all before it with irresistible freshet? Do not be too much offended at the noise your children now make. It will be still enough when one of them is dead. Then you would give your right hand to hear one shout from their silent voices or one step from the still foot. You will not any of you have to wait very long before your house is stiller than you want it. ’Alas, that there are so many homes not known to the Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, where children are put on the limits and whacked and cuffed and ear pulled and senselessly called to order and answered sharp and suppressed until it is a wonder that under such processes they do not all turn out Modocs and Nana Sahibs. What is ybur influence upon the neighborhood, the town or the city of your residence? 1 will suppose that you are a star of wit. What kind of rays do you shoot forth? Do you use that splendid faculty to irradiate the world or to rankle it? I bless all the apostolic college of humorists. The man that makes me laugh is my- benefactor. I do not thank anybody to make me cry? I can do that without any.assistance. We all cry enough, and have enough to cry about. God bless all skillful punsters, all reparteeists, all prOpouuders of' ingenious conumdrums, all those who mirthfully- 'surprise us with unusual juxtaposition of words. Thomas Hood amhCharles Lamb and Sidney Smith had'ai divine mission, and so have their successors in these times. They stir into the acid beverage of life the saccharine. They make the cup of earthly existence, which is sometimes stale, effervesce and bubble. They placate animosities. They foster longevity. They slay follies and absurdities which all the sermons of all the pulpits cannot reach.

N<*e<l of a Physician. They have for examples Elijah, who made f.uii of the Baalites when they called down firo r and it did not cojhe, suggesting that their Ijeatlien god had gone hunting, or was off on a journey, or was asleep, aijd nothing but vociferation could wake him. saying, “Cry aloud for he is a. god. Either he is talking or pursuing or p.eradventuTc he sleepeth and must be awaked. ” They have an example in Christ, who with healthful sarcasm showed up the. lying, hypocritical Pharisees by suggesting that such perfect people like themselves needed no improvements, saying, “The whole need not a physician but they that are sick. ” But what use are you making of your wit? Is it besmirched with profanity and uncloannoss? Do you employ it in amusement at physical defects for which the victims arfi not responsible? Are your powers of mimicry used to put religion in contempt'> Is it a bunch of nettlesome,invective? Is it a bolt of unjust scorn? ..Is it fun at other’s misfortune? Is it glee' at their disappointment and defeat? Is it bitterness put drop by drop into a cup? Is it like the squeezing of Artemisia absinthium intd a draft already distastefully pungent? Then you are the star Wormwood. Yours is the fun of a rattlesnake trying how well it can sting. It is the fun of a hawk trying how quickly it can strike out the eye of a dove. But I will change this suppose you are a star “of Worldly Prosperity. Then you have large opportunity. You can encourage that artist by buying his picture. You cairimprove the fields, the stables, th® highway, by introducing higher style of fowl and horse and cow and sheep. You can bless®-the world With pomological achievement in the orchards. You can advance arboriculture and arrest .this deathful iconoclasm of the American forests. You can put a piece of sculpture into the niche of that

nub’.it academy. You can endow a college. You can stocking a thousand bare feet from the winter frost. You can build a. church You can put a missionary of Christ on that foreign shore. You can help ransom a world. A rich man with his heart right—can you tell me how much good a James Lenox.or a George Pea bony or a Peter (.looper or a William E. Dodge did while living, or is doing now that ho is dead? There is not a city, town or neighborhood that has no, glorious specimi ns of consecrated wealth. But suppose you grind the face of the I>oor. Suppose when a man’s wages are due you make him.wait for them because he cannot help himself... Suppose that, because his .family is sick and he has had extra expenses, ho should politely ask you to raise his wages .for this year and you roughly 1 him if he wants a better place- to go and get it. Suppose by your manner you act as though he were nothing and you were everything. Suppose you are selfish and overlxiaring and arrogant. Your first name ought to be Attila and your last name Attila, lieeause you are the star Wormwixxi, and you have imbittered one-third if not three-thirds of the waters that roll past your employees and operatives and dependents and asstx'iates, and the long line of carriages which the undertaker orders for your funeral, in order to make the occasion respectable, will be filled with twice as many dry, tearless eyes as there are persons occupying them. ■ There is an erroneous idea abroad that there are only a few geniuses. There are millions of-them—that is, men and Women who have especial adaptation and quickness for some one thing. It nmy btigreat; it, may be small. The circle may’be like the circumference of the.eartlror jib larger thaii a thimble. There are thousands of geniuses, and in some one thing you are a star. What kind of a star are you? You wilk be in this world but a few minutes. As compared with eternity, tin’ stay, of the longest life on earth is not more than a rniiiiitik What are we doing with that minims? Are we imbittering the domestic or social or political fountains, or are we like Moses, who, when the Israelites in the .wilderness complained that the waters of Lake Marah were bitter and they could not drink them, cut off tin branch of a certain tree and threw that branch into the water, and it became sweet and slaked the thirst of the suffering host? Are we with a branch of the Tree of Life sweetening all the brackish fountains that we can touch?

Three Wishes. Dear Lord, send Us all out on that mission. All around us inibittered lives —inibittered by persecution, inibittered by byp. rcriticism, inibittered by poverty, inibittered by pain, inibittered by injustice, inibittered by sin. Why not golorth and sweeten them by smile, by inspiring words, by benefactions, by hearty counsel, by praypr, by gospelized behavior? Let us remember that if we are wormwood to others we are wormwood to ourselves, and our life will be bitter and our eternity bitterer. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the oiily sweetening {lower that is sufficient. It sweetens the disposition. It sweetens the manners. It sweetens life. It sweetens mysterious providences. It sweetens afflictions. It sweetens death. It sweetens everything/ I have heard people asked in social company, “If you could have three wishes gratified, what would your three wishes be?” If I could have three wishes met this morning, I tell you what they would be: 1. More of the grace’of God. 2. More of the grace of Gpd. 3. More of the grace of God. In the dooryard of my brother John, missionary in Ainoy, China, there was a tree called the emperor tree, the two characteristics of which are. that it always grows higher than its surroundings, and its leaves take the form of a crown. If this emperor tree be planted by a rosebush, it grows a little higher than the bush and spreads out above it a crown. If it be planted by the side of another tree, it grows a little higher crownJ’jvbuld God that this religion of Christ, a more wonderful emperor tree, might overshadow all your lives! Are you lowly in ambition or circumstance, putting over you its crown? Are you high in talent and position, putting over you its crown? Oh; for more of. the saccharine in our lives and less of the wormwood! What is true of individuals is true of nations. God sets them up to revolve us, stars, but they may fall wormwood. Tyre, the atmosphere of tho desert, fragrant with spices, coming in caravans to her fairs, all seas clef-t into foam by the keels of her laden merchantmen, her markets rich with horses and camels from Togarmah, her bazaars filled with upholstery from Dedan, with emerald and coral and agate from Syria, with wines from Helbon, with embroidered work from Ashur and Chiimad. Where now the gleam of her towers, where the roar of her .chariots, where the masts of her ships? Let the fishermen who dry their nets where mice she stood, let the sea that rushes upon the barrenness jyhere once she challenged the admiration of all nations, let the barbarians who set their rude tents wherejonoe her palaces glittered, answer the question. She was a star,'but by her own siii turned to wormwood and has fallen.

Turned to Wormwood. H-ndred gated Thebes, for all time to be the study of the antiquarian and hieroglyph ist, her stupendous ruins spread oVer 27 miles; her sculptures, presenting in figures of Warrior and chariot the victories with which the now forgotten kings of Egypt shook the nations, her obelisks and columns, Carnac and Luxor, the stupendous temples of her pride! Who can imagine the greatness of Thebes in those days when the hippodrome rang with her sports and foreign royalty bowed at her shrine and her avenues roared with the wheels of processions in the wake of returning conquerors? What dashed down tho vision of chariots and temples and thrones? What hands pulled upon the columns

pf her glory? What ruthlessness defaced [ her sculptured wall and broke obelisks and left her indescribable temples great skeletons of granite? What spirit of destruction spread the lair of wild beasts in her royal sepulchers, and taught the miserable cottagers of today to build huts in tie courts of her temples, ami sent des* laimn and ruin skulking bo-j hind the ob.disks, and dodging among | the sarcophagi, and leaning against the t columns, and stooping under the arches, and weeping in the waters which go mournfully by as though they were car-I rying the tears of all ages? Let the I mummies break their long silence and | come up to shiver in tho desolation and : point to fallen gates and shuttered statues and defaced sculpture, responding: ‘•Thebes built not one temple to God. Thebes hated righteousness and loved sin. Thebes was a star, but she turned to wormwixxl and has fallen. ” Babylon, with her 250 towers and her brazen gates and her embattled walls, the splendor of the earth gathered within her palaces, her hanging gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his bride, Amytis, who had been brought up in a mountainous country and could not endure the fiat country round Babylon—these hanging gardens built, terrace above terrace, tilt at the height of 400 feet there were woods waving and fountains playing, the verdure, the foliage, the glory looking as if a mountain were on tho wing. On the tiptop a king walking with his queen, among statues snowy white, looking up at birds brought from distant lands and drinking out of tankaids of solid gobi or looking off over rivers and lakes upon nations subdued and tributary, crying, “Is not t his great Babylon Which I have built?” What battering ram smote the walls'. What plowshare upturned the gardens' i What army shattered tl.'brazen gates'. What long; tierce blast of storm put out ■ this light which illumined the World; , What crash of discord drove down the music that poured from palace window I and garden grove and called the banqueters to their revel and the dancers tc their feet? I walk upon the scene of desolation to find an answer and pick up! pieces of bitumen and brick and broken j pottery, the remains of Babylon, and as | in the silence of the night I hear the surging of that billow of desolation which rolls over the scene, 1 hear the wild waves saying: “Babylon was proud. Babylon was impure. Babylon was a star, but by sin she turned tc wormwood and has fallen.”

Possibilities. From the persecutions of the pilgrim fathers and the Huguenots in othei lands God set upon these shores a nation. The council fires of the aborigines went out in the greater light of a free government. The sound of the warwhoop was exchanged for the thousand wheels of enterprise and progress. The mild winters, the fruitful summers, the healthful skies charmed from other lauds a race of hardy men who loved God and wanted to be free. Before the woodman’s ax forests fell and rose again, into ships’ masts and churches’ pillars. Cities on the banks of lakes begin tc rival cities by the sea. The land quakes with the rush of the rail car and the waters are churned ■white with the steamer’s wheel. Fabulous bushels ol western wheat meet on the way fabulous tons of eastern coal. Furs from the north pass on the rivers fruits from the south. And trading in the same market is Maine lumberinan and South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And churches and schools and asylums scatter light and love ami mercy and salvation upon 60, - 000,000 of people: I pray that our nation may not copy the crimes of the nations that have perished and our cup of blessing turn to wormwood, and like them we go down. I am by nature and by grace an optimist, and I expect that this country will continue to advance until Christ shall come again. But be not deceived. Our only safety is in righteousness toward God and justice toward man. If we forget the goodness of the. Lord to this land, and break his Sabbaths, and improve not by the dire disasters that have again and again come to us as a nation, and we learn saving lesson neither from civil war nor raging epidemic nor drought nor mildew nor scourge of locust an’d grasshopper nor cyclone nor earthquake ; if the political corruption which has poisoned the fountains of public virtue’ and beslimed the high places of authority, making free government at times a hissing and a byword in all tho earth; if the drunkenness and liben piousness that stagger and blaspheme in the streets of our great cities as though they were reaching after •the fame of a Corinth and a Sodom are not repented of, we will yet see the smoke of our nation’s ruin; the pillars of our national and state capitols will fall more disastrously than when Samson pulled down Dagon, and future historians will record upon the page bedewed with generous tears the story that the free 'nation of the west arose in splendor which made the world stare. It had. magnificent possibilities. It forgot God. It hated justice. It hugged its crime. It halted on its 'high march. It reeled under the blow of calamity. It fell. And as it was going down all the despotisms of earth from the top of bloody thrones began to shout, “Aha, so would we have it!” while struggling and oppressed people looked out from dungeon bars with tears and groans and cries of untold agony, the scorn of those and the woe of these uniting in the exclamation: ‘‘Look yonder! There fell a great star from heaven.burning as itowere a lamp, and it fellupon the, third part of the rivers and upon fountains of waters, and the name oi the star is called Wormwood!” That Altered the Case. ‘‘Have you heard about young Molard? He has just walked off with 30,000 francs of money. ” “Ha! ha! The lucky rascal!” “Besides, he has bolted -with your umbrella.” “Oh, (he infernal scamp!” —Le Papillon. »

MRS. ARMOUR'S SIO,OOO ORDER. It Wa» For JapanMe Furnlthlpg* For the Smoking Room, Tho placing of an order for Mrs. Ogden Armour of Chicago with a San Francisco firm for ;j>lo,ooo worth of Japanese art work and carving has brought to light the fact that when tho artists shall have finished their work in her new residence there will bo one room therein absolutely without a peer in , point of treatment in this or any other country. This particular room will bq the smoking room. Two celebrated artists have collaborated in the work, one furnishing the general design for the treatment of the room, the other working out the detail : and decorations. It will be some time before tho decorators can actually get to work putting the material in place, for much of it is to be specially imported. The furniture is all to be carved in Japan and China from sptxnal models, and the tapestries and upholstery are all to be specially made. The room will be done in a prevailing tone —that is, a delicate division between old rose and old copper. The fltxjr will be in parqueterie, with a profusion of specially woven Japanese rugs and mats. The wall covering will boos silk brocade, the ground color of which, the old copper spoken of, will give the prevailing tone to the color scheme of tho whole. In the weaving of this l”'X’ade a great deal of gold thread will 1 A seil, not merely to give lines and suggestions of color, but in masses of rich embossing. The\ mural decorations arc to be lare Kakimonos, in colors harmonizing with the tone of tho room, but each one to be a worthy example of the best Japanese pictorial art, both in subject ami treatment. Sonii' of these will be hung like tapestries, while ot hers will be framed with the general effect .sought. Some of the Kakimonos already selected are the work the most famous old masters of Japan. The furniture is all to be of ebony inlaid with mother of pearl Tho carving is all to be done in the orient by native artists, and the d signs show a wealth and richness of\ carving seldom seen outside the palaces and tempi's of Japan. The qa bi nets will abound in lacquer. They will be marvels of Japanese ingenuity in sliding panels, hidden doors and secret lockers quid - drawers. Tho lacquer will bo the expensive and highly prized gold lacquer, in sharp but restful contrast with thp carved black ebony. . The smoking outfits will be in silver and bronze, in grotesque forms. They will contain, after the Japanese maimer, little receptacles to hold lighted charcoal and others to contain the paper tapers by which fire is transferred from the charcoal to the pipe dr cigar. There will be unexpected compartments for the various kinds of tobacco, vVith ash' trays that are the despair of the workers in hammered iuetah>/ There will, of course, be Japanese screens and vases and jardinieres iu cloisonne and other varieties of Japanese pottery. Such another smoking room probably cannot be found in Christendom or out of it. And with the rapidity with which foreign goods and custom are coming into service in Japan it probably will not be long before there cannot be found, even in Japan, such a thoroughly Japanese apartment ns t)x smoking room of Mrs. Ogden Armour’s house.—Chicago Tribune. x New Knglantl Haaty Pudding. It is not unlikely that many reading the proposition to bring the body of Joel Barlow “from its resting place near Cracow” will wojider who Barlow was and why his body is in Poland. In 1811 he was minister to France, and in the fall of 1812 he was invited to a conference with Napoleon at Wilna. On his journey he was attacked with inflammation of the lungs, and he died at Zarnowitch. It is singular that Hildreth, in his history of the United States, speaks of hihras “Jacob Barlow” and says he (lied at Warsaw. Does any one read Barlow’s poem, “Tho Hasty Pudding,” written at 'Chamfiei'y, where the delicious dish was unknown? We fear that the dish is despised here today by leaders in society and finance. Yet in warm weather there is nothing better for luncheon if it bo served with bowls of milk. Wo can think of no more beautiful sight than that of a wealthy and prominent family in Commonwealth avenue sitting around the mahogany tree at the hour of 1. The father has left the office, forgetting the negotiation of a colossal loan in the rapt thought of hasty pudding. Loving wife, fond eyed grandmother, athletic son, comely daughter, grasp their spoons firmly and are as one iu the enjoyment. There is at last the calm that follows judicious deglutition. Such refreshment once characterized the true New Englander. The Roman with his turnips was not a more heroic figure. —Boston Journal.

Lived Like a Pauper; Died Rich. Miss Elizabeth B. Cook of Bridgeport, a little hamlet in Fayette county, Pa., always lived as though she were a pauper. Recently she died without med- » ical attention or friends present, and the exact circumstances of her death are not known. She was found lying upon the floor some time after her death. Dr. H. J. English was made administrator, and he got a firm of attorneys to look around and see what her few effects amounted to. The inventory of the estate shows that she was the owner of over $22,000 of bank stock. She also had over $28,000 in cash on deposit, and was the holder of ten shares of stock in the Pittsburg, Virginia and Charleston Railroad company. Nearly $2,500 in gold coin and SIOO in silver coin and bank notes were found sealed up tight in an old fruit can in her home after her death. The property Will go to nephews, nieces and grand nephews and grandnieces.—Philadelphia Times.