Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1896 — Page 3

TALMAGE'S SERMON.

THEY THAT USE THIS WORLD AS NOT ABUSING IT. Bev. Dr. Talmage Discusses Good and Bad Recreations—The Force of Music —Outdoor Sports—Foundations for Soul Building—The Last Hour. Social Diversions. In his sermon Sunday Dr. Talmage discussed a subject of universal interest — viz., “Our Social Recreations.” His text was chosen from L Corinthians vii., 31: ■“They that use this world as not abusing it” Judges xvi., 25: "And it came to (wss, when their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson, that he may make us sport.” There were 3,000 people assembled in the temple of Dagon. They had come to make sport of eyeless Samson. They were all ready for the entertainment. They began to clap and pound, impatient for the amusement to begin, and they cried, “Fetch him out, fetch him out!” Yonder I see the blind old giant coming, led by the hand of a child into the very midst of the temple. At his first appearance there goes up a shout of laughter and derision. The blind old giant pretends he is tired, and wants to rest'himself against the pillars of the house. So he says to the lad .who leads him, “Show me where the main pillars are!” The lad does so. Then the strong man puts his right hand on one pillar and his left hand on another, and, with the mightiest push that mortal ever made, throws himself forward until the whole house comes down in thunderous crash, grinding the audience like grapes in a wine press. “And so it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport.” In other words, there are amusements that are destructive, and bring down disaster and death upon the heads of those who practice them. While they laugh and cheer, they die. The 3,000 who perished that day in Gaza are as nothing compared to the tens of thousands who have been destroyed by sinful amusements.

Lawful Pleasures. But my first text implies that there is a lawful use of the world as well as an unlawful abuse of it, and the difference between the man Christian and the man unChristian is that in the former case the man masters the world, while in the latter case the world masters him. For /whom did God m: ke this grand and beautiful world? Fo* whom this wonderful expenditure of color, this gracefulness of line, this mosaic of the ground, this fresco of the sky, this glowing fruitage of orchard and vineyard, this full orchestra of the tempest, in which the tree branches flute, and the winds trumpet, and the thunders drum, and all the splendors of earth and sky come clashing their cymbals? For whom did God spring the arched bridge of colors resting upon buttresses of broken storm cloud? For whom did he gather the upholstery of fire around the windows of the setting sun? For all men, but more especially for his own dear children. If you build a large mansion and spread a great feast after it to celebrate the completion of the structure, do you allow strangers to come in and occupy the place, while you thrust your own children in the ■kitchen, or the barn, or the fields? Oh, no! You say, “I am very glad to see strangers in my mansion, but my own sons and daughters shall have the first right there.” Now, God has built this grand mansion of a world, and he has spread a glorious feast in it, and while those who are strangers to his grace may come in I think that God especially intends to give the advantage to his own children—those who are the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, those who through’ grace can look up and say, “Abba, Father.” You cannot make me believe that God gives more advantages to the world than he gives to the church bought by his own blood. If, therefore, people of the world have looked with dolorous sympathy upon those who make profession of religion and have said, “Those new converts are going down into privation and into hardship; why did they not tarry a little longer in the world and have some of its enjoyments and amusements and recreations’’—l say to such men of the world, “You are greatly mistaken,” and before I get through I will show that those people who stay out of the kingdom of God have the hardships and self denials, while those who come in have the joys and satisfactions. In the name of the King of heaven and earth, I serve a writ of ejectment upon all the sinful and polluted who have squatted on the domain of earthly pleasure as though it belonged to them, while I claim, in behalf of the good and the pure and the true, the eternal inheritance which God has given them. Hitherto Christian philanthropists, clerical and lay, have busied themselves chiefly in denouncing sinful recreations, but I feel we have no right to stand before men and women in whose hearts there is a desire for recreation amounting to positive necessity, denouncing this and that and the other thing, when we do not propose to give them something better. God helping me and with reference to my last account, I shall enter upon a sphere not usual in sermonizing, but a subject which I think ought to be presented at this time. I propose now to lay before you some of the recreations which are not only innocent, but positively helpful and advantageous. Influence of Music. In the first place, I commend, among indoor recreations, music—vocal and inetrumental. Among the first things created was the bird, so that the earth might have music at the start. This world, which began with so sweet a serenade, is finally to be demolished amidst the ringing blast of the archangel’s trumpet, so that as there was music at the start, there shall be music at the close. While this heavenly art has often been dragged into the uses of superstition and dissipation, we all know it may be the means of high moral culture. Oh, it is a grand thing to have our children brought up amidst the sound of cultured voices and amidst the melody of musical instruments. There is in this art an indescribable fascination for the household. Let all those families who have the means to afford it have flute or harp or piano or organ. As soon as the hand is large enough to compass the keys teach it how to pick out the melody. Let all our young men try this heavenly art upon their nature. Those who have gone into it fully have found in it illimitable recreation and amusement. Dark days, stormy nights, seasons of sickness, business disasters, will do little toward depressing the soul which can gallop off over musical keys or soar in jubilant lay. It will cure pain; it will rest fatigue; it will quell passion; it will revive health; it will reclaim dissipation; it will strengthen the immortal soul. In the battle of Waterloo Wellington saw that the Highlanders were falling back. [He said, “What is the matter there?” He was told that the band of music had ceased playing, and he called up the pipers and ordered them to strike up an inspiriting air, and no sooner did they strike the air than the Highlanders were rallied and helped to win the day. Oh, ye who have ;been routed in the conflicts of life, try, by the force of music, to rally your scattered battalions.

I am glad to know that in our great cities there is hardly a night in which there are not concerts where, with the best musical instruments and the sweetest voices, people may find entertainment. Patronize such entertainments when they are afforded you. Buy season tickets if you can for the Philharmonic and the Handel and Haydn societies. Feel that the $1.50 or $2 that you spend for the purpose of hearing an artist play or sing is a profitable investment. Let your academies of music roar with the acclamation of appreciative audiences assembled at the concert or the oratorio. Physical Culture. Still further, I commend, as worthy of their support, the gymnasium. This institution is gaining in favor every year, and I know of nothing more free from dissipation, or more calculated to recuperate the physical and mental energies. While there are a good many people who have employed this institution, there is a vast number who are ignorant of its excellencies. There are men with cramped chests and weak sides and despondent spirits who through the gymnasium might be roused up to exuberance and exhiliaration of life. There are many Christian people despondent from year to year, who might, through such an institution, be benefited in their spiritual relations. There are Christian people who seem to think that it is a good sign to be poorly; and because Richard Baxter and Robert Hall were invalid they think that by the same sickliness they may come to the same grandeur of character. I want to tell the Christian people of my congregation that God will hold you responsible for your invalidism if it is your fault, and when, through right exercises and prudence, you might be athletic and well. The effect of the body upon the soul you acknowledge. Put a man of mild disposition upon the animal diet of which the Indian partakes, and in a little while his blood will change its chemical proportions. It will become like unto the blood of the lion, or the tiger, or the bear, while his disposition will change, and become fierce and unrelenting. The body has a powerful effect upon the soul. There are good people whose ideas of heaven are all shut out with clouds of tobacco smoke. There are people who dare to shatter the physical vase in which God has put the jewel of eternity. There are men with great hearts and intellects, in bodies worn out by their own neglects—magnificent machinery, capable of propelling a Majestic across the Atlantic, yet fastened to a rickety North river propeller. Martin Luther was so mighty for God, first, because he had a noble soul, and secondly because he had a muscular development which would have enabled him to thrash any five of his persecutors, if it had been Christian to do so. Physical development which merely shows itself in fabulous lifting, or m perilous rope walking, or in pugilistic encounter, excites only our contempt* Dut we confess to great admiration for the man who has a great soul in an athletic body, every nerve, muscle and bone of which is consecreted to right uses. Oh, it seems to me outrageous that men, through neglect, should allow their physical health to go down beyond repair—a ship which ought, with all sail set and every man at his post, to be carrying a rich cargo for eternity, employing all its men in stopping up leakages! When you may, through the gymnasium, work off yo-ur spleen and your querulousness and one-half of your physical and mental ailments, do not turn your back upon such a grand medicament.

Parlor Games. Still further, I commend to you a large class of parlor games and recreations. There is a way of making our homes a hundredfold more attractive than they are now. Those parents cannot expect to keep their children away from outside dissipations unless they make the domestic circle brighter than anything they can find outside of it. Do not, then, sit in your home surly and unsympathetic and with a half condemnatory look because of the sportfulness of your children. You were young once yourself; let your children be young. Because your eyes are dim and your ankles are stiff, do not denounce sportfulness in those upon whose eyes there is the first luster, and in whose foot there is the bounding joy of robust health. I thank God that in our drawing rooms and in our parlors there are innumerable games and sports which have not upon them the least taint of iniquity. Light up all your homes with innocent hilarities. Do not sit down with the rheumatism, wondering how children can go on so. Rather thank God that their hearts are so light, and their laughter is so free, and their cheeks are so ruddy, and that their expectations are so radiant. The night will come soon enough, and the heartbreak, and the pang, and the desolation —it will come soon enough for the dear children. But when the storm actually clouds the sky it will be time enough for you to haul out your reef tackles. Carry, then, into your homes not only the innocent sports and games which are the inventions of our own day, but the games which come down with the sportfulness of all the past ages—chess and charades and tableaux and battledore and calisthenics and lawn tennis, and all those amusements which the young people of our homes know so well how to contrive. Then there will be the parlor socialities —groups of people assembled in your homes, with wit and mimicry and joviality, filling the room with joy from door to mantel, and from the carpet to the ceiling. Oh, is there any exhilaration like a score of genial souls in one room, each one adding a contribution of his own individual merriment to the aggregation of general hilarity? Suppose you want to go abroad in the city, then you will find the panorama, and the art gallery, and the exquisite collections of pictures. You will find the museum and the Historical Society rooms full of rare curiosities, and scores of places which can stand plainly the test of what is right and wrong in amusements. You will find the lecturing hall which has been honored by the names of Agassiz in natural history, Doremus in chemistry, Boynton in geology, Mitchell in astronomy, John B. Gough in moral reform, and scores and hundred of men who have poured their wit and genius and ingenuity through that particular channel upon , the hearts and consciences and imaginations of men, setting this country fifty years farther in advance than it would have been without the lecture platform. I rejoice in the popularization of outdoor sports. I hail the croquet ground, and the fisherman’s rod, and the sportsman’s gun. In our cities life is so unhealthy and unnatural that when the census taker represents a city as having 400,000 inhabitants there are only' 200,000, since it takes at least two men to amount to one man, so depleting and unnerving and exhausting is this metropolitan life. We want more fresh air, more sunlight, more of the abandon of field sports. I cry out for it in behalf of the church of God as well as in behalf of secular interests. I wish that our ponds and our rivers and our capitoline grounds might be all aquake with the heel and the shout of the swift skater. I wish that when the warm weather comes the graceful oar might dip the stream, and the evening tide be resonant with boatman’s song, the bright prow splitting the crystalline billow. We shall have the smooth and grassy lawn, and we will call out the people of all occupations and professions and ask them to join in the ballplayer's sport. You will come back from these outdoor exercise*

and recreations with strength in your ana and color in your cheek and a flash in your eye and courage in your heart. In this great battle that is opening against the kingdom of darkness, we want not only a consecrated soul, but a strong arm and stout lungs and mighty muscle I bless God that there are so many.recreations that have not on them any taint of iniquity—recreations in which we may engage for the strengthening of the body, for tiie clearing of the intellect, for the illumination of the soul. There is still another form of recreation which I commend to you, and that is the pleasure of doing good. I have seen young men, weak and cross and sour and repelling in their disposition, who, by one heavenly touch, have wakened up and become blessed and buoyant, the ground under their feet and the sky over their heads breaking forth into music. '“Oh,” says some young man in the house today, “I should like that recreation above all others, but I have not the means.” My dear brother, let us take an account of stock. You have a large estate, if you only realize it. Two hands, two feet You will have, perhaps, during the next year at least $lO for charitable contribution. You will have 2,500 cheerful looks, if you want to employ them. You will have 5,000 pleasant words, if you want to speak them. Now, what an amount that is to start with! You go out to-morrow morning, and you see a case of real destitution by the wayside. You give him 2 cents. The blind man hears the pennies rattle in his hat, and he says: “Thank you, sir! God bless you!” You pass down the street, trying to look indifferent, but you feel from the very depth of your soul a profound satisfaction that you made that man happy. You go on still farther and find a poor boy with a wheelbarrow, trying to get it up on the curbstone. He fails in the attempt. You say: “Stand back, my lad. Let me try.” You push it up on the curbstone for him and pass on. He wonders who that well-dressed man was that helped him. You did a kindness to the boy, but you did a great joy to your own soul. You will not get over it all the week. On the street to-morrow morning you will see a sick man passing along. “Ah,” you say, “what can I do to make this man happy? He certainly does not want money; he is not poor, but he is sick.” Give him one of those 2,500 cheerful looks that you have garnered up for the whole year. Look joy and hopefulness into his soul. It will thrill him through, and there will be a reaction upon your own soul. Going a v little farther on, you will come to the store of a friend who is embarrassed in business matters. You will go in and say: “What a fine store you have! I think .business will brighten up, and you will have more custom after awhile. I think there is coming a great prosperity to all the country. Good morning.” You pass out. You have helped that young man, and you have helped yourself. The Greatest Joy. Col. Gardiner, who sat with his elbow on a table spread with all extravagant viands, looking off at a dog on the rug, saying, “How I would like to change places with him, I be the dog and he be Col. Gardiner,” or those two Moravian missionaries who wanted to go into the lazaretto for the sake of attending the sick, apd they were told: “If you go in there you will never come out. We never allow any one to come out, for he would bring the contagion.” Then they made their wills and went in, first to help the sick and then to die. Which was the happier—Col. Gardiner or the Moravian missionaries dying for others? Was it all sacrifice when the missionaries wanted to bring the gospel to the negroes at the Barbadoes and, being denied the privilege, sold themselves into slavery, standing side by side and lying side by side down in the very ditch of suffering, in order that they might bring those men up to life and God and heaven? Oh, there is a thrill in the joy of doing good! It is the most magnificent recreation to which a man ever put his hand, or his head, or his heart.

But before closing I want to impress upon you that mere secular entertainments are not a fit foundation for your soul to build on. I was reading of a woman who had gone all the rounds of sinful amusement, and she came to die. She said, “I will die to-night at G o’clock.” “Oh,” they said, “I guess not! You don’t seem to be sick.” “I shall die at 6 o’clock, and my soul will be lost. I know it will be lost. I have sinned away my day of grace.” The noon came. They desired her to seek religious counsel “Oh,” she said, “it is of no use! My day is gone. I have been all the rounds of worldly pleasure, and it is too late. I shall die to-night at 6 o’clock.” The "day wore away, and it came to 4 o’clock and to 5 o’clock, and she cried out at 5 o’clock, “Destroying spirits, you shall not have me yet! It is not 6—it is not 61” The moments went by, and the shadows began to gether, and the clock struck 6, and while it was striking her soul went. What hour God will call for us I do not know—whether 6 o’clock to-night, or 3 o’clock this afternoon, or at 1 o’clock, or at this moment. Sitting where you are, falling forward, or dropping down, where will you go to? The last hour of our life will soon be here, and from that hour we will review this day’s proceedings. It will be a solemn hour. If from our death pillow we have to look back and see a life spent in sinful amusement, there will be a dart that will strike through our soul sharper than the dagger with which Virginias slew his child. The memory of the past will make us quake like Macbeth. The iniquities and rioting through which we have passed will come upon us, weird and skeleton as Meg Merrilles. Death, the old Shylock, will demand and take the remaining pound of flesh and the remaining drop of blood, and upon our last opportunity for repentance and our last chance for heaven the curtain will forever drop.

It Hardly Filled the Bill.

The deposed King of Burmah, King Thebaw, was asked by a firm of cigarmakers to write them a testimonial in favor of a certain brand of cigars. His ex-majesty was pretty hard up at the time, and the testimonial meant a large “consideration,” so he loosed the floodgates of his eloquence to this effect: “My late father, the Royal Mindom, Min, the Golden-Footed Lord of the White Elephant, Master of the Thousand Umbrellas, Governor of the Sun, the Moon and the Universe and Master of the Royal Peacocks, smoked, the whilst meditating upon the pun-, ishment to be dealt out to the mudeating and frog-drowned Inhabitants of England. But I, in the madness of youth—l was tempted to smoke the vile trash sent me 'from San Francisco—hnd I fell. Thebaw, formerly King.”

James Russell Lowell’s Home.

There is concern In Boston about the future of James Russell Lowell’s mag: nificent old home In Cambridge, at the gateway of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The house Is the property of the poet's daughter, but the land adjoining it lq in the hands of real estate agents, and the fine estate will soon be cut up into building lots unless the property la rescued. Silkworm eggs are about the size at mustard seeds.

REAL RURAL READING

WILL BE FOUND IN THIS DEPARTMENT. Two Million Dollar* Worth of Cheatnota Imported Annually—A HomeMade Clod Cruahei —Brooder for Early Chicks—Profitable Cows. Chestnuts for Profit. Upwards of $2,000,000 worth of nuts, mostly chestnuts, are imported annually into the United States, yet chestnuts are.selling at as much per bushel at this time as they did during the war. At present prices, there is no more iuvlting field in all horticulture thau the growing of these Improved chestnuts. At this time, when the prices of many farm products are verging on the cost of production, and some going far below it, improved chestnuts not only yield a large profit to the grower, but sometimes make returns that seem fabulous. A grove once planted is a source of great revenue for generations. I own a farm of 140 acres of land at Emllle, Fa., and have nearly 1,000 grafted Paragon chestnuttrees six years old on the farm; some of the trees bore from six to eight quarts of nuts per tree this fall; this grove of chestnuts will yield more revenue for the year 1893 nan all the rest of the farm. It Is to be remembered that large tracts of land suitable for this crop can be bought at $5 to $lO per acre. Much has been written on how to keep boys on the farm. The problem would be solved If the farm could be made profitable. With twenty acres of improved chestnut trees in bearing the strife among the boys would be, not who will go to the city, but who will stay on the farm. Cleanliness In Butter-Mnlfing. We hear a great deal about the value of bacteria cultures. It is likely that some good will result from their introduction; there Is danger, however, that in the attempt to produce the best result we overlook one of the oldest cultures In existence, the culture of cleanliness. We believe it was Wesley who said cleanliness was next to godliness, a motto believed by many good people to be found In the Bible, says the Creamery Gazette. It contains, In fact, a very strong element of Bible doctrine. There Is no place, however, where cleanliness Is so essential as In the dairy. From the brushing of the cow’s udder until the tub is ready for shipment, cleanliness is of the utmost Importance. Dirt on the outside of the tub, no matter how fine the butter may be, will seriously affect the price. Culture of cleanliness cannot be purchased in quantity. It can only be had by self-control, dilligence, formation of the habit from childhood up, and an Instinctive hatred of dirt, and all the better If the Instinct Is Inherited. Let us get all the good possible out of cultures and starters and all that science cap give us on that line, but do not forget the old and reliable culture of cleanliness. An Excellent Clod Crusher. The illustration shows a home-made Implement that will not only crush clods, but will be found very serviceable in fitting nay soil for planting, making the surface exceedingly fine and mellow. The Importance of securing a fine seed-bed cannot be too strongly urged upon farmers, and this machine so finely supplements the

HOME-MADE CLOD CRUSHER.

work of the cultivator as to make it worth any one’s while to spend the necessary time in making it. The cylinder can be large or small—the larger it is up to a certain point the easier will be the draft Two disks are cut from planks, and triangular-shaped pieces firmly nailed to these, square joists split at the mill serve well for this purpose. Shafts are then added. Soil Moisture. Prof. W. D. Gibbs, at the farmers’ convention, in Ohio, made the statement that it requires 1,200 tons of water to make an acre of com. He urged the systematic saving of the natural moisture of the soil by eradication of the weeds. They act as so many pumps to bring the moisture to the surface and evaporate It. He showed that the natural moisture of the earth is easily exhausted by Improper methods of cultivation; that frequent level and shallow cultivation furnishes a mulch at the surface; that while loose soil will hold In solution twice as much moisture as compact soil, yet If the entire soil surface be loose it will soon exhaust the subsoil of its moisture, because, being loose, it parts with moisture rapidly under the sun’s rays, and, being loose, has not so great capillary power to bring the plant roots the moisture of the subsoil. Best Stock for Pears. Pears are generally poorer growers than apples, and many varieties have to be double-worked in order to get a good tree. This is particularly true of some of the recent introductions of winter pears, Barry and B. S. Fox, for instance, which always have to be top grafted. One of the best, if not the best, stocks for top-grafting Is the Kieffer, but any strong, upright, vigorous sort will do. The Kieffer IS a quick grower, hardy, and can be bought at a reasonable price. It is as easy to graft pears as apples, and any one can do it with a little study and practice. Protect!nc Fruit Trees. Do not fool away your time making decoctions of paint, copperas or any similar compound. Weave together eight laths, so they will be one-eighth of an inch apart and fasten them about the tree. This will afford protection from rabbits, borers, sheep, mice and sunscald, and will last a long time at a, cost of a half-cent a year. I have used this protection for twelve years, and have not lost a sisigle tree, says A. J. Phillips, secretary Wisconsin State Hortfcultural Society. Good for the Garden. Don’t make your onion-bed the same place you did last year, just because you have been making it always In that corner of the garden. Change them around; put your onions whore you had

cabbage or tomatoes last year, and pat peas and beans where yon ha*d parsnips and beets. A change of gronnd Is good for vegetables, as a change of pasture is for sheep. All plants do not take the same nourishment from the soil. Hence, when one vegetable has exhausted such properties of the soil as it needs the ground is still rich in some other property that will produce a good crop of some other kind of plant. So we see the necessity of rotation of garden vegetables, and have seen its effects by trying it. Try for yourselves and be convinced, says the National Stockman. For Early Chickens. It is not a difficult matter to hatch out chicks early with hens. It is a more difficult matter to make them live and grow when hatched in cold weather. They must stay under the hen almost constantly In order to keep warm, but after a few' days the hen will not continually brood them, even if cold, and the chicks become chilled. The engraving shows a device for keeping the brood warm. It is a coop with glass top set on top of a pen filled with heating horse manure. It is, in fact, a coop on top of a hot bed. The bottom of the coop is of thin boards, so that sufficient warmth will get up into the coop to make it very comfortable. The hen and the chicks are placed inside and sand and chaff given to

A BROODER.

scratch in. A score of early chicks can thus be raised that will set to laying early in* the fall. Cow Peas Plowed in Full or Spring;. Experiments conducted at the Alabama station show that approximately six and one-lialf times more of nitrogen is found in the vines of cow peas In the fall than in those left over to tho following spring. The reason of this is that the nitrogenous materials are lost by decomposition. The materials of a mineral character will be also lost from the leaves being blown or washed to other localities. The North Carolina station has gotten the best results from plowing under after the pea vines are ripe in tho fall, following with wheat, and not allowing them to remain on the land until the next spring. Cow peas have somewhat more fertilizing properties than common clover. Comfort for Crown. The simplest, cheapest and most effective remedy I know, of is to feed them, says the New England Homestead. As soon as the corn Is planted, scatter about two quarts of shelled coru thinly over tho whole piece, and this amount will be sufficient whether it is a half acre or ten. Every evening repeat tho operation, using one quart. Do not put up any scarecrows, twine or anything else to notify the crows that you have corn planted ready for them. The crows will not dig up the ground or pull up the younger sprouts if they can get it without this trouble. Prom a peck to a half bushel will be sufficient to feed them until the crop is too lurgo to pull.

Thrifty Farming. Farming ought to be done systematically, adopting those systems and plans Which have proved the most successful In each individual case, says the Market Garden. Have a time and place for everything, and see that everything is kept in its place when not in actual use. And what must we do and have in order to make farming pay? Flret and foremost, we must give to the farm and tho farm business our personal attention. We must have bone and muscle, a large amount of ambition, which needs to be put In constant use for about 313 days in a year, for without work on a farm nothing seems to do well. The Profitable Cows, The difference between a cow that will produce 200 pounds of butter per years at 25 cents per poupd, and one that will produce 300 pounds, During ten years of the cow’s life there is a difference in favor of the 300-pound cow of $250. With twenty such cow« there would be a credit in favor of tho superior cows of $5,000 and with forty, SIO,OOO would be the amount your bank account would show over and above what it would with the cow that produced 200 pounds per year for ten years. Farming Not Hard Work, Farmers are not an over-worked class. In fact, there Is no class of laborers having work on hand at all times that are so little chained to the treadmill at labor as are the farmers. Work well and 'hard they do—that Is, the enterprising ones—yet there are snatches of time, leisure hours, stormy days, and, above all, winter evenings, which give leisure and the opportunity for reading far above that of any other class of laboring people, says the Maine Farmer. High Feeding of Stock. Within certain limits, high feeding, and especially high nitrogenous feeding, does Increase both the yield and the richness oif the milk. But It is evident that when high feeding Is pushed beyond a comparatively limited range, the tendency is to Increase the weight of the animal; that is, to favor the development of the Individual, rather than to enhance the activity of the functions connected with the reproductive system. Armenian Corn. Armenian corn is one of the latest novelties In the grain line. Its value has yet to be proved for the conditions of this section. be’

Perhaps It’s as Well.

Hicks—lt would be a comforting thing If the dead could revisit the earth to tell us about the great beyond. Wicks—l don’t know about that Why, when a man returns from a few weeks In Europe he becomes a pestilential bore for years afterward. Gould one return from heaven or the other place there would never be an end of his gab.

Russia’s Production of Wine.

Russia already ranks sixth among the wine-producing countries ot the world, and will probably soon surpass Germany In this respect In the province of Bessarabia alone there are 216,000 acres under vines, or nearly half the arable land. I r

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. A Man with Too Much Money—Rivals for a Girl’s Affections Eight a Bloody Battle—Simple Ceremonies Over the Body of Pearl Bryan. They Find *SOO in a Satchel. A brukeman on the Peoria division of the Yandaiia Ilailrond, named Reed, was handed a satchel containing SSOO the other day, and the man who gave it to him evidently wanted to be rid of it for all time. A passenger Who boarded the train at Decatur and left it at Mount Zion handed the satchel to Reed as he left the cars, saying: "Take can* of this for me.” The trainmen decided to open the satchel, because the man had .acted in a peculiar manner, and in it they found s.">oo in hills. Jealousy Leads to a Fight. Jlenry Wilson was a suitor for the hand of Nora Mclntyre, daughter of Thomas Mclntyre,' living near the Fraukiin-Rush County line, but he was supplanted in the young girl’s favor by Samuel Templeton, a school teacher who recently came into the neighborhood. The other night tlie rivals met at a country dance, and when Templeton ventured outside the house he was attacked by Wilson, armed with a knife. Templeton used his revolver, and mutual friends joined in. When the smoke cleared away Templeton was found dangerously stabbed in tho breast and back, while Wilson had a bullet in his thigh and Charles Bolster, a friend of Templeton, was shot in the neck. The condition of all three men is alarming. During the tight, which was general, brass knuckles, knives, stones and clubs were used, and everyone of the participants is bruised and battered. The participants are all members of prominent famines, and dispatches from the quarter indicate intense excitement in the neighborhood. The young woman whose (harms caused the melee was borne to her homo in a prostrated condition. Peurl Bryun’a Funeral Services. Several hundred people were attracted to Forest llill Cemetery in Ureencnstle Friday ufternoon by tho announcement of the funeral of I’earl Bryan, the Fort Thomas victim. The body was brought home on Feb. 1), and lias lieen kept in the public vault in the cemetery t|waiting burial. Tho family have hoped for the finding of tho missing head, but they abandoned that idea nml decided on interment. Six young men, former classmates of the deceased, took the white casket from the vault and carried it to tho Bryan lot. A quintet sang two songs. Dr. 11. A. Gobin, of Do Pauw University, read Bible selections and spoke of the life of the deceased, and offered a fervent prayer. This was followed by more mujsie, after which the remains were lowered to their last resting place. Numerous costly uml beautiful floral offerings wero placed on the casket and grave by elussmntes mid friends of the deceased.

All Over the State. The fifty-ninth wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. L. 11. Noble was celebrated in Goshen. Both are in excellent healtht. John Robbins, of Moscow, accidentally shot himself with a revolver. The ball plowed through the skull above tile temple. lie will die. A wreck is reported to have occurred on I lie Indiana, Illinois and lowa, between Nortli Judson and Knox, in which four men wero smothered by the overturning of a car of grain in which they were riding. At Danville, the jury in the case of the Htute vs. James A. Dungan, for selling liquor illegally, returned a yertlict of guilty. The verdict practically means tho overthrow of the liquor power in Hendricks County. Joseph Conway, of Audursou, received a chock for SIB,OOO from the Big Four, in payment in full of a verdict for that amount for damages. He was caught iu the big wreck near Bt. Louis a year ago. lie sued for $115,000. Residents of West Liberty are satisfied that tho foundation of the Chinese wall is just beneath the surface of tho ground there. For several days men drilling a gas well on the farm of J. J. laird have been expending energy and fine drills upon sqme substance at a depth of 800 feet, which resists ull efforts to penetrate. At the last, attempt a 2,000-pound drill dropped from the fastening and fell over flat, us though it bad landed at the bottom of a cavern lined with boiler plate. Another drill was sfflit down, but curled up like pot metal against the liard bottom of the cavern. J. W. Diley, a Chicago traveling man, met Miss Alice Kilnie, of Cleveland, by appointment at Laporte, and the couple wore married in Michigan. Diley lives In Adair County, Missouri. In liis travels he met Miss Kilnie at Medina, O* and he parted from her with the promise to write to her. When lie reached (jhiqugo he changed hjfj mind, tylegruphed her a proposal of marriage, which wus accepted, tho appointment being made by wire to meet in Laportc. Miss Kilmc answered his proposal favorably and the romance had its sequel by a marriage coreiuony performed in Berrien County. The little town of Albany is much excited over a death which occurred there Thursday. Two weeks ago Lewis Lovelle, aged 32, was taken sick with a mild form of malarial fever. His case was not considered dangerous by the attending physician, but the man contended from the start that he was going to dS>, having hud a dream which so informed him. Monday all signs of the fever had disappeared, but the patient was at times delirious. Physicians were called to examine him, but no ailment could be diagnosed, and the cause of death is a great mystery. Except when the delirious spells were on, Levelle would talk and say he had no pain, but that he could not leave his bed' as he was goiqg to. die.* C. J. Wood, aged 90, and Miss Maggie Barger, aged 18, were married at Greensburg. It was Wood’s sixth marriage, and ho urged a license fee, as he had been such a! good customer, and he also said he might come again. The Chicago and Nashville limited train on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois road, dashed into an oil tank car at Hillsdale while running thirty-fiv*. miles an hour, igniting thei oil, and for a time it was thought the train would be burned. The passengers were badly shaken up. The engineer and fireman jumped to save their lives. What is known as the Crystal Club house, owned by Pittsburg men, located on the banks of the Kankakee, in Porter County, has been destroyed by fire. Loss, $3,000. Superintendent Rogers, of the Northern Indiana Hospital for the Insane, says that since his method of treating cataleptic patients with medicine from the thyroid glands of sheep has been made public, he has been besieged by inquiries regarding the treatment. Every day’s mail brings him many letters, and he has learned that" the New York press is anxious for further information. The patients under treatment continue to improve, and the results are little short of phenomenal.

HONEST JOHN DILLON.’

The New Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Dillon, who has just been elected chairman of the Irish parliamentary party, la not only an able parliamentarian and politician, but a qualified physician and surgeon. His father waa John Blake. Dillon, of publln, a famous barrister. Mr. Dillon Inherited hia rare power of oratory from his father, who waa likewise a patriotic M. P., sitting for Tipperary in 1865-66. Mr. Dillon’s mother was Adelaide Hart. He was born In 1851, and was gradu-

JOHN DILLON.

ated from the Catholic University of Dublin. He is also a licentiate of tbs Royal College of Surgeons, of Ireland. Ho was first sent to parliament in 1880, when he sat for Tipperary. In 1885 he was elected from Enst Mayo. He was re-elected in 1802. He has a good face. An anecdote relates how a noted artist painted that face In a West End London church panel as the countenance of St. Joliu, where it is admired to-day for its serene beauty. Mr. Dillon is a great lover of books. His home in North Great George’s street, Dublin, lias a library rich in rare Hlbernlnna and, Indeed, in many valuable ami Interesting old volumes picked up by their owner through many years of patient search. The neighborhood in which ho lives was a favorlto one with the members of the Irish parliament. It would bo hard to imagine a man of Mr. Dillon’s imaginative nature living in nny but an nucient house with historical associations. At his best Mr. Dillon is ns fine a speaker as nny man in his party. But he lacks constancy, lie lias neither the steadiness of Hoaly nor the readiness of Sexton. Ills sentences are sometimes broken and disjointed. But if bis feelings are strongly moved there is a simple strength about what ho says that, taken with his manner, makes him second to none in impressiveness. 110 has long been affectionately known ns Honest John Dillon.

KING OF ALL SLEDS.

Four Jeracy City Boya Own and Operate It. Four Jersey City luds possess tho most wonderfful bob sled in the world. It is eighteen feet long and four feet wide, and Is carpeted from end to end. Two Iron bars of thick gas pipe and nicely glided, are arranged along its sides,’ and act ns guard rails. Seven seats, each seat holding two people, make coasting posslblo for fourteen persons at one tifne. Four poles, made of the same material as tho guard rails, are fixed along the sides of tho sled,

THE BIG BOBSLED.

and on each polo hangs a lantern. These lanterns aro more for effect than any practical purpose. In front of the sled a large bull’s eye lantern Is arranged, so that the boy who guides the sled has plenty of light to see where he is going. This boy sits In front of the sled Just back of tho lantern, and he guides the sled with an iron wheel, which Is fastened to the forward sled. A gong underneath the sled is kept ringing all the way down the hill by a boy who stands at tho back of the snow carriage. It Is this boy’s duty to see that the sled gets the push that sends It gliding down the hill at a terrific pace. The boys intend to make money with their novel sled, as well as have plenty of fun with It. They charge 2 cents for a ride as far as the sled will carry Its passengers.

Easily Satisfied.

A manufacturer of tombstones In a flourishing provincial town one day received a call from a customer who wished to buy a stone for his mother’s grave. After looking anxiously about for some time and making numerous remarks as to his mother’s taste he Anally fixed his gaze upon a stonei which the stone-cutter had prepared for another person. “I like this one," he said, decidedly; “I’ll take this.” “But that belongs to another man," remonstrated the stonecutter, “and It has the name ‘Francis’ cut on It, you see; that wouldn’t do for your mother.” “Oh, yes, it would,” responded* the countryman. “Mother couldn’t read; and besides,” he added, as he saw the stonecutter’s expression, “she’d like It all the better If she could read, for Francis was always a favorite name of hers, anyhow.” The story is suggestive of one told of a London tradesman suddenly grown rich, who, having set up his carriage In great state, went to a hamessmaker to have a silver letter put on the blinders of his horses. “What is the initial?” asked the harnessmaker. “The what?” said the rich man, looking blank. “What letter shall I put on?” inquired the harnessmaker, suppressing his amusement. / , “Well, I hadn’t quite made up my mind,” answered the customer, “but I guess W is about as handsome a letter as any, Isn’t It?" y’