Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — Page 6

TREASURY AT NIGHT.

GUARDING UNCLE SAM'S MONEY FROM BURGLARS. Although Audacious Cracksmen Have Sized Up the Situation with a View of Making a Big Haul, Not a Dollar Hao Been Stolen. Midnight Among the Money Bags. Washington correspondence:

About the most difficult place to penetrate day or night without being i. seen, watched and I guarded is the United States treasury. In all there are sevl|) enty guardians of ■F the treasury, under a a captain and two lieutenants. Nearly all of the watchmen are men who were in the

fwar as mere boys, and are therefore now In the prime of life. They are thoroughly trained and reliable. Very few treasury watchmen have been discharged for ■negligence since the foundation of the Government. The possibility of a raid upon the treasury is regarded as remote, but the watch force is disciplined to stand by for such a raid at any time. Among the old Treasury Department watchmen there is a tradition that the ■lamented Jesse James made seven dis-

AT THE MAIN DOOR.

tinct tours, on seven separate occasions, of the Treasury Department, with an eye to business. This legend they relate to visitors, who, after having handled a package of greenbacks, said to contain $5,000,000, are willing to believe anything. If Mr. James really did make such visits, he found his presence instantly known to twenty-five men of exceedingly determined appearance, the majority of whom had done too much picket and patrol duty during the w*r to be caught napping in times of peace, each armed with a persuasive seven-chambered army pistol, and none looking as if he would hesitate the fractional part of a second to use it if occasion required. Once the United States Treasurer himself, while prowling about the vaults on a midnight tour of personal inspection, was challenged and halted, and forced to hold up both hands, under menace of a leveled rifle, until his captor, who did not know

A WATCHMAN ON DUTY.

him, had sent for the lieutenant to identify him. To observe the fashion with which the night watchmen “cover” their posts, it might easily be thought that the secret service is in constant receipt of information as to contemplated treasury robberies. Yet never a dollar has ever been taken from the treasury by force. A sneak thief once got in his work to the extent of $60,000 in bills, which he expertly plucked from one of the tables in Ihe redemption division. But there has nevqr been a hold-up. The secret service knows that many celebrated cracksmen, including “Little Jimmy” Hope, who successfully pulled off the great Manhattan Bank robbery, have from time to time contemplated the conversion of a few millions of treasury money to their private use, but they all thought better of it They decided the undertaking to be of too colossal a character.

Down to the incumbency of Secretary Folger there would, it is claimed, have been no great difficulty for accomplished and nervy cracksmen of the firs: rank to have done a bit of nightwork in the big itaarble cash repository of the Government. When Mr. Folger took the reins of the treasury the watch actually depended on common police whistles. Ho completely changed and reorganized the system. An elaborate electrical alarm system was introduced, the force of watchmen was greatly amplified, and the old iron safes were replaced by the modern steel affairs with intricate combinations. The gold and silver vaults were given steel casings around their common shells of masonry, and fitted with time locks. If there were no watch force on constant guard at the Treasury Department, however, burglars could do about as they chose with the safes in the Treasury Building. The safes are as good as any made, but even manufacturers of safes are compelled to reluctantly admit that the safe has not yet been devised that the modern cracksman cannot get into. An expert manipulator of safe ombinatldns was summoned to the treasury from New York not long ago to open a safe that dedined to respond to its figures. The expert opened the safe in half a minute. Then he made a tour of the building, and opened every one of the eases. There was not one of them that he did not get into within fourteen minutes after making the first turn of the combination handle. He modestly stated to the officials accompanying him that he did not amount to much as a safe opener, and that there were cracksmen at large who might have done everything fie did in less lime.

The watch force Is divided into three relief*, like an f rnfy'gharfl. obly the treaa- 1 ury watchman is on post longer than the soldier. Each of the night watchee is made up of twice the cumber of men in the day watch. A ganj of robbers, to effect an entrance at the main door after nightfall, would have to use a battering ram on the iron outer door, and by the time they had stove it in they would be flanked by the entire police force of the District, the soldiery from Fort Myer and the arsenal and the marines from the barracks, with all of which forces the treasury has direct alarm connections. There is something eerie about the big treasury building at night. Ten minutes before midnight the watchmen of the "mid” watch are all on hand at the main entrance, and they all make their appearance at the iron door at once, to the very minute of time, apparently springing from the ground. The silence is only broken by the frequent ringing of the post-register above the head of the lieutenant of the watch. Their lowered voices seem to fit with the surrounding solemnity. From their manner one might easily imagine that there was heavy fighting work cut out for them before dawn—a kind of “just-before-the-battle” manner that is distinctly impressive. Each watchman has a regular permanent post. He is not permitted to smoke, read or write while on duty. His business is solely to watch. If he goes to sleep and is discovered by the watch patrol he is certain to be discharged upon being reported the next day. At the end of each round the watcbmafl touches his electrical button, which informs the lieutenant of the watch at his desk at the main door that everything is well with him.

The two most important posts are those which include within their limits the gold and silver vaults, which are side by side. The watchman who looks after the cash room vault is locked in the cash room when he goes on post, and patrols the gallery at frequent intervals, registering each visit to the door of the vault as he passes the electrical button. Thus, if a robber contrived to get into the cash room and overcame the watchman, the cessation of registering reports would inform the lieutenant of the watch that something had gone wrong on that post. Then, by means of the electrical signals, the lieutenant would quickly assemble a force of watchmen of whatever size he considered necessary. These watchmen would go to the room of the captain of the watch —in which, by the way, is hung, framed, the silk American flag in which Booth’s spur caught when he jumped from the Ford's Theater box after having shot President Lincoln—take each a Springfield rifle from the rifle rack, strap on one of the army campaign belts crowded full of cartridges, and proceed in a body to the cash-room. The watchman who stands guard over the gold and silver vaults is locked in an ante-room, the hall end of which is formed of heavy wire, leading to the vaults. He remains thus locked up during the entire eight hours of his guard tour, and is seated beside the vault doors. He touches off his registering apparatus at regular intervals. At yie present time the watchman guarding these vaults ha* the responsibility of $140,000,000 in silver coin and $3,000,000 in gold coin on his hands. The bulk of the United States gold bullion and coin is kept at the subtreasury in New York. The silver is packed in oblong boxes, ten bags to a box, one thousand dollars to a bag. The silence of she tomb reigns in the anteroom where the vault watchman puts in his eight hours. Bj- pressing his ear tgainst the vault doors, the faint clicking of the time lock*,

penetrating the six tons of steel, may be heard. The patrol passes the cage very frequently, and somehow it is hard to throw off the impression that this patrolling watchman is a prison turnkey, the chief of a death watch, keeping his eye upon the warder, who, in his turn, incessantly embraces within his view a criminal passing his last night upon earth. The sub-basement of the treasury at midnight is calculated to render the most prosaic and phlegmatic man into a morbidly imaginative person. Two or three times a month, on an average, treasury employes in charge of safes in their respective divisions forget to lock them up at the close of the day’s business. It is the duty of the watch patrol not only to see that none of the safes are open, but to try them to see that they are locked. When one of these patrolmen happens upon an unlocked safe, he immediately informs the lieutenant of the watch, who without making any attempt to lock the safe, places his seal over a point covering the door and the frame, and stations a special watchman to see that it is not tampered with. When

ALWAYS READY.

the employe who has negligently left the safe open reaches his division the next morning he must stand by for squalls, for an elaborate report is made of every case of the kind.

It Tickled Boston.

In one of Lowell’s letters to Briggs, the former mentions Thackeray’s visit to Boston, and says that during the meeting of Thackeray with Ticknor, the latter said: “One mark of a gentleman is to be well-looking—for good blood shows itself In good features.” “A pretty speech,” replied Thackeray, “for one broken-nosed man to make to another,” and in the letter Lowell added: “All Boston has tjeen secretly tickled about it” A man la hopelessly dull when he doesn’t know when he is being made fun of.

Mightiest of guns ever built In America, and one of the largest yet constructed anywhere, is the 16-lnch engine of war on which work is now being pushed at the Watervliet Arsenal. It will be 49.67 feet long, weigh 125 tons, have a range of sixteen miles, and will penetrate inches of the best steel armor at two miles. Mounted at Fort Wadsworth, in case of hostilities with Spain, this gun would be able to hurl a 2,376-pound projectile at a man-of-war before she got .within seven miles of Sandy Hook.

TRAMPS AT WASHINGTON, D. C.

Of Late Years They Gather There in Great Force. Washington, D. C., has been for years a favorite winter resort for tramps, but since the famous march of Ooxey’s army it has become a veritable mecca, whither all the bums and hobos turn in

ON THE FLATS.

fall. Tramps are of two kinds: The unfortunates who want to work and can find no job, and the vicious, who would die sooner than work. Of this latter class are almost all the thousands that are now gathered at the nation’s capital. On the Potomac flats whole companies of them “camp out.” They gather boards and boxes and erect shelters, where they contentedly sit and discuss ways and means to beg or stqal food. They frequently resort to intimidation when all else fails, and seldom have to go hungry. Gangs of them go on foraging expeditions, and when they return to the flats

WATCHING THE POT.

with their booty, the pot is made to boil, while the crowd intently watches the culinary proceedings. After dinner the hobo feels that he Is a great man, and he lights his pipe and struts with all the self-importance of the “big-headed” society man. His pipe smoked, he goes out on an errand of a different nature. He has had food—now he must drink. He “works” the avenues, streets and residences until he has collected a quarter of a dollar. If he is social he returns to his chums and the “growler” travels to the saloon of ill-repute, where slop is sold instead of beer, until funds have disappeared or the crowd is so drunk that no one can carry the can. Often the man with the can is over-

BY THE WAY.

come by the way and is found by his fellow bums serenely sleeping besidfe a fence. . Only when the weather is bad do the hobos seek the shelter of the police stations, and even then they are apt to depart with muttered curses if told that a bath would precede a bunk. The real hobo avoids cleanliness as the fawn flies the hunter. And now in conclusion: There are several hundred thousand of these hobos in this country. What shall be done with them?

A Marvelous Indian Paper.

-The marvelous Oxford Indian paper was first Introduced in 1875. Since then, says the Paper World, It has revolutionized the Bible and prayer book trade, and it is now used for all the more popular devotional books throughout the wbrld. In the year 1841, an Oxford graduate is said to have brought home from the far East a small fold of extremely thin paper, wh'ich was manifestly more opaque and tough for Its substance than any paper then in Europe. He presented It to the Clarendon Press. The late Thomas Combe, who had only recently been appointed printer to the university, found it to be just sufficient for twenty-four copies of the smallest Bible then in existence—diamond 24mo—and printed an edition of that number, which bore the date of 1842. These books were barely a third of the usual thickness, and, although as much as ?100 apiece was offered for them, no copies were sold, and they

UNCLE SAM'S BIGGEST GUN.

were presented to the queen and other distinguished persons. All efforts to trace the paper to its source were futile, and as years rolled on the circumstance was forgotten. But early in 1874 a copy fell into the hands of Arthur E. Miles, who showed it to Mr. Frowe, and experiments were at once set on foot at the Oxford University paper mills with the object of producing a similar paper. The first attempts were failures, but success was achieved, and Aug. 24, 1875, an edition of the diamond 24m0 Bible, similar in all respects to the twenty-four copies printed in 1842, was placed on sale. This was the first Oxford Bible published by Mr. Frowe.’ The feat of compression was looked upon as astounding, the demand was enormous, and before very long a quarter of a million copies had been sold. The paper, when subjected to severe rubbing, instead of breaking into holes, assumed a texture resembling chamois leather, and a strip only three Inches wide was found able to support a quarter of a hundredweight without yielding. The secret of its manufacture, it may be said, is known to only three living beings.

How They Are Arranged and the Duties of the Keepers. The sitation itself is a two-story house built securely and solidly upon some good site along the beaeh; it is comfortable and roomy, furnished by the government, and has the boat-room and kitchen on the lower floor; a large bedroom for the keeper, another for the surfmen, and a store-room occupy the second story. The boat-room Is large, and opens by great double doors upon the beaeh. It contains the life-boat and all the lifesaving apparatus—always in perfect order and readiness. The crew consists of a keeper and six surfmen, though some stations number seven surfmen; these men are graduates from no naval college, but have served their apprenticeship with Old Ocean as their master; they must be able to handle a boat in the roughest weather, and to face all the dangers of the deep. Each man must undergo a strict medical examination, and must bring to the station his certificate of good health; and he is also obliged to sign an agreement to failitfuMy perform all duties. The keeper receives a salary of S9OO a year (up to 1892 it was $700); he must be at the station all the year round, but is allowed a month’s leave of absence in summer if he gives up his pay. A surfinah receives $65 a month, is at the station during eight months of the year, and has the privilege of leaving the station for twenty-four hours every two weeks—but in lonely stations they generally remain for the active season, which begins September 1, ending May 1; when a man leaves in May, he goes where he pleases, and if he does not return in September the keeper gets another man in his place for the next winter season. Thfe keeper is held responsible for the condition of everything connected with the station; he must drill the men in their duties, divide the work evenly, and see that the men are orderly. No liquor is allowed on the premises; drunkenness or neglect of duty is punished by instant dlsmissaJ from the service; the man who is detailed to cook must keep the kitchen in perfect order; and each has his share of the housework to perform, for no women live at the stations. The crew are numbered by the keeper from one to six, and at midnight preceding September 1 the station goes into commission; at that hour the keeper gives patrol equipments to two of the surfmen, and they start out on the first patrol, and the active season has fairly begun; everything runs like clock-work after that, and as strict a discipline is maintained as on board a man-of-war.— St. Nicholas.

Emory ..torrs lost a divorce case by the wit of his opponent. He had brought suit for divorce on behalf of a woman, qjho asked for possession of two children. The husband made a vigorous protest, and employed a young lawyer of ability to defend the suit. The defense had the best case, so far as the evidence went, but Mr. Storrs made one of his characteristically strong speeches, with an eloquent plea on behalf of the mother and her two children. The effect on the jury was apparent. He concluded his speech with that trite exclamation of Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death!” The young attorney arose deliberately and said: “Mr. Bailiff, you can give me a glass of water.” Bobby—“ Papa, what is the difference between an old maid and a new woman?” Papa—“An old maid, my son, is a woman who, having failed to win a man, avoids men. A new woman, having similarly tries to become one of them.”—New York World. Every man who lives to be sixty years of age, has at least one occasion to ask the newspapers to suppress something.

LIFE-SAVING STATIONS.

AH He Wanted.

POLITICS OF THE DAY

PAYABLE IN COIN.

The statement of James S. Cowdon, eandidate for Congress in Virginia in the last election, that the 1878 law now declares for the free coinage of silver, upon a careful investigation of the laws bearing on this subject is found to be correct, as the reader may judge for himself on the following evidence: The law of Feb. 28, 1878, reads: * * “That there shall be coined, at the several mints of the United States, silver dollars of the weight of four hundred and twelve and a half grains troy of standard silver, as provided in the act of Jan. 18, 1837, on which shall be the devices and superscriptions provided by said act; which Coins, together with all silver dollars heretofore coined by the United States, of like weight and fineness, shall be a legal tender at • their nominal value, for all debts and dues public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.” The next sentence of the same act commences w’ith the words: “And the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized;” then follows a description of the “purchase” of from two to four millions a month for the described coinage. Now, be it carefully noted, that in the repeal contained in the 1890 law of a part of this 1878 law, not a word in such repeal relates in any way to the above quoted sentence composing the second paragraph of this article, but relates solely and entirely to that part of the act contained in the purchase of the two to four millions per month, as may be seen in the following language quoted from the law of July 14, 1890: “Section 6. That so much of the act of Feb. 28, 1878, entitled, ‘An act to authorize the coinage of the standard silver dollar and' to restore its legal tender character,’ as requires the monthly purchase and coinage of the same into silver dollars of not less than two million dollars, nor more than four million dollars’ worth of silver bullion, is hereby repealed.” This just quoted Section 6 is the only repeal by Congress of any part-of the 1878 law; and on its face and in good law no other conclusion is possible than that the first sentence above quoted of the 1878 law yet remains in full force and operation. As may be noted the unrepealed part of the 1878 law above quoted is mandatory. The words say, “There shall be coined,” leaving our executive officers no choice in the matter, which fact compels .them to coin sueh dollars when people hand in silver bullion for the purpose, and at the 16 to 1 ratio of the 1837 law. Our Bimetallic League should, consequently, at once, force the executive officers of this country to carry out the unrepealed provisions of this 1878 law, which do in effect and unequivocally restore the standard silver dollar that was repealed in 1873, and which are as good law in all respects as this 1873 repeal act. If the 1873 law was operative until 1878, then the 1878 law, in its unrepealed parts, is good law to-day, and our executive officers can be compelled in our courts to carry out this unrepealed 1878 law to its fullest extent and provisions. Among these provisions is another unrepealed part referring to the Issuance of silver certificates to the holders of standard silver dollars at their option, in exchange for said silver dollars. This is the only law that permits the issuance of such silver certificates. And the fact that the executive officers of our Government have always acted under and upon this part of the law, and have ever since 1878 and 1890 issued silver certificates, proves at once that it is considered good law to now put into force and operation all .the unrepealed parts of the 1878 law. Now as all our bonded and currency National indebtedness is payable in coin, not gold exclusively, there can hereafter be no legitimate excuse on the part of any executive or administrative officer to issue bonds to get coin, to pay any of these National debts so long as silver bullion can be had from our mines and elsewhere to be coined at 16 to 1 for the purpose, the usurers of Wall and Lombard streets to the contrary notwithstanding.—Philadelphia Item.

Flings at Farmers. One of the persistent policies of the goldite press is to “make fun” of the farmers. The leading so-called humorous publications are published in New York, and, of course, furnish their patrons with cartoons and jests which appeal to the Eastern ideas and to Eastern prejudices. A broker who could not tell whether a field is better adapted to wheat or corn can bet on the price of grain next May; a speculator who could not improve the breed of cattle is an authority on the latest style in neckties; a clerk in a bucket shop who does not know whether pumpkins grow on bushes or In bunches like bananas is far too smart to bet on a shell game. These men and all the class of which they are types think it is very funny to depiet farmers as wearing long wisps on their chins and imagine it the height of humor .to call them “jays” and clodhoppers;

One and all the idlers in the city firmly believe that the manufacturer of shoes is a nobler man than the one who breeds the steer, and are firmly convinced that the dealer in. margins Is a higher order of being than the one who furnishes food to a nation. If one of the idlers in Gotham will sail out to Hell Gate some day and stick his finger in the water, and then f he will go back next week and look for the hole, he will have given an apt Illustration of the importance of his class in the affairs of our national life and in a nation’s prosperity. . Meanwhile, it would be wasting known historical truths to tell the kidglove coterie that the farms have bred nearly all of the great soldiers, statesmen, jurists and men famous in American history. There is a little red school house on every hill. The dudes who think the farmer is a fool would have

made fun of a certain rail-splitter. When the nation is in sore need of men and brains and pure patriots it must find them on the farms. They are not the product of bucket shops nor made by dealing in margins.—Chicago Dispatch.

Our Foreign Relation*. The foreign relations of the United States will undoubtedly occupy much attention at Washington during the winter session. Cuba, Venezuela and Hawaii are the points of Interest. Add to these the Armenian and Turkish troubles, the high-handed conduct of British" Colonial officials on our Northwestern frontier, the unsettled seal fishery claims and the new German port charges complication, and it can easily be seen that there are international questions enough to interest the diplomatic world. Most of them will probably settle themselves, or go over for the consideration of the incoming administration, but some must, and several may, press for earlier action and come upon the carpet with the new year.

The impression is very general that Major McKinley is favorable to the recognition, perhaps the annexation, of Cuba, and is also committed to the acquisition of Hawaii as a Territory of the Ufilted States. Both these propsoals involve questions of raoe, and it is probably for that reason that the present administration has shrunk from handling them. The uniting to the United States ofi either Cuba or Hawaii would bring to us large non-Caucasian contingents of population, upon whom, under our Federal Constitution, the right of suffrage must be conferred equally with its, enjoyment by whites. The negroes and mulattoes of Cuba and the Kaukas, Japanese and Chinese of Hawaii, would all become full-fledged citizens of the United States. Whether President McKinley will favor measures to bring about this parti-colored complexion for the American people remains to be seen. It is possible that the sympathy we all feel for the Cubans and the Hawailans may not, after all, be further invoked than to carry out a scheme of protectorate or colonial connection.

Poverty and Crime. Statistics prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that crime increases as the opportunity for work decreases. This seems to be at least the result of a natural law, if not a natural law itself. The present carnival of crime is a verification of it, though by no means the first given in the world’s history. The average man’s heart may be, it doubtless is, more or less corrupt and desperately wicked. The Bible says so, and experience indicates it. But at the same time he would prefer the bread of honesty to the fruit of theft When times are good there is comparatively little crime against the rights of property; in seasons of depression thieves become bold and desperate. What better proof is there that government, as a measure of self-defense, should afford all of Its citizens the opportunity to work? Legislation should be directed to this end, instead of being shaped for the purpose of glutting the market with labor, and beating down the price of toil. It is said that the hour of necessity always develops the man of resources. Who will solve the problem before us to-day? Who will guide the people from a condition that threatens national life? Every tramp is.a menace to society—to property. In seasons of prosperity thtere are few of them; to-day there are a million. Can we expect them to be honest? Who would preach the sanctity of property rights to a starving man and expect that man to agree with him? Jails and penitentiaries are expensive luxuries. It is doubtful if they would be necessary at all under a system rec ognizing the right of all to live.

Tariff Taxation. It is perfectly appropriate, and according to the eternal fitness of things, that the return of the Republicans to the control of the Government of the United States should at ofice Involve questions as to the form, shape and amount of Increased taxation. Having obtained at the polls what they construe as a popular approval of the robbery of the people of their silver currency, they now lose no time In preparing for the next step—the Increase of taxation upon imports and the placing of additional duties on trade. That we are to have a higher tariff, if the incoming administration can effect it, appears to be beyond doubt. The only thing left to conjecture Is whether it shall be fashioned on the model of the Dingley bill, passed by the present House of Representatives at its last session, and modified In some way this winter so as to make it acceptable to certain. Western Republican Senators, or whether an extra session will -be called as soon as President McKinley gets his Cabinet around him, and, during next spring and summer, an elaborate, comprehensive and sweeping McKinley bill, as near as possible upon the lines of McKinley’s laM previous effort, be put through, and the American people be called upon to face once more the experiment so often tried since 1842, of a purely protective system. The present outlook seems to favor the leaving of the tariff alone till after McKinley takes office. If so, there will be grand times in Washington all summer.—New York News.

Foresight of Speaker Reed, By sitting down on the clamorers for an extra session Speaker Reed is again demonstrating that he has the bulk of the brains in the Republican party. The Speaker has sense enough to see that the business Interests are tired of political and legislative turmoil and want a good rest The sun’s surface is so Intensely bright that an electric light held against It wbuM look black.

SERMONS OF THE WEEK

Success.—What the world calls a failure is often a magnificent success. True success is to make the most of yourself and your opportunities—Rev. W. G. Partridge, Baptist, Cincinnati, Ohio. Wicked Laws.—lniquity makes slow progress against public opinion; but the devil goes swiftly forward when the law becomes a horse for it to ride upon. —Bev. N. D. Hillis, Independent, Chicago, 111. Ideas Move the World.—The men who leave their mark are the men of one idea, or men who subordinate all to one motive. Every idea has behind it a universal power—Dr. J. D. Buck, Theosophist, Cincinnati, Ohio. Failure and Success.—He is a failure, though he be ten times a millionaire, who does all for self and naught for others. He is a success, who, though he have naught for self does much for others.— Rabbi J. L. Levy, Hebrew, Philadelphia, Pa. Sin in the Church.—The church can not sin and pray at the same time. Sin separates us from God. Sin hides the face of the Father. All the sin of coldness, neglect and disobedience must be given up.—Rev. J. W. Marshall, Methodist, Camden, N. J. Saving Souls.—We should try to fully realize the value of one human soul, and then we would be careful of our lives. If only one soul is saved the gospel is a success. No Christian has any business to be anything else than a soul-saver—Rev. C. R. Lamar, Methodist, New York City. Chreefulness.—Human hearts are the vehicles employed of heaven to enrich the world. More is contributed by the cheering word, the sunny countenance and the thrilling hand grasp than this world dreams of. Despise no voice, for God can give it melody.—Rev. A. Z. Conrad, Congregationalism Worcester, Mass.

Crime and Punishment. —As long as men live above the law they do not feel any restraint, but as soon as they drop below they feel the hand of corporate society. The problem to be solved is, how shall the corporate hand hold a man as long as he ought to be held and then let him go?—Rev. Dr. Perin, Independent, Boston, Mass. The Ministry.—The Christian ministry is the divine agency for distributing to mankind the gift of God. The agency employed nearly 2,000 years ago was a consecrated human agency.\“As my Father has sent me, so I send you.” The power of inspiration is needed today.—Bishop White, Episcopalian, Indianapolis, Ind.

The Negro.—The time for the negro to successfully rely on the white for support is gone, and now in this country it is every man for himself, white or black, rich or poor, great or small, with almost equal opportunities, and if he fails in life he has no one to blame but himself.—Rev. B. T. Washington, Baptist, Atlanta, Ga. Applied Religion.—The Christian is to save men by a divine contagion—a living touch. He is God's leaven, and leaven must be mixed with the meal. He is God’s salt, and salt can only save by actual touch. There is salt enough in the world, but it is barreled up in the churches, and needs to be scattered and applied. Applied religion is the want of our day.—Rev. Richard Harcourt, Methodist, Philadelphia, Pa. Opportunity to All.—ls you will think of it for a moment, all of us tame, prosy, common people live in the same world with the poets and artists, the philosophers and seers. Thousands have seen the peasants stop and say their Ave Marie at sunset, but Millet painted it. All over the world in the unnumbered humble homes the same scene is enacted, but Burns wrote it.— Rev. J. H. Ecob, Congregationalist, Denver, Colo. The National Guard—Our citizen soldiers are guardians of our peace. They are banded together, not for conquest, but for defense; not to provoke war, but to prevent it; not to threaten the liberties of any, but to uphold the liberties of all. So long as they remain loyal to these patriotic and pacific ideals none are more worthy of grateful recognition by their fellow citizens.—Rev. J. H. Hull, Congregationalist, Cleveland, Ohio. Reciprocity.—No people can live unto itself. Nations are complementary to each other. What one may lack another may possess in full measure. By a liberal policy of interaction the peoples of the world cannot but mutually benefit. Selfish sufficiency is the death knell to a people's growth. Influences progress. The scattering of its benefits unto others is the surest rdad to • increase of greatness.—Rabbi Philipson, Hebrew, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Song Birds in the Arctic.

It has been a source of interest and wonder to Arctic explorers to find such quantities of singing birds within the Arctic circle. They are abundant beyond belief. But the immense crops of cranberries, crowberries and cloudberries that ripen in the northern swamps account for the presence of the birds. The berries are preserved in the snow, which begins to melt about the time the songsters appear, and then they feast royally on the crystallized fruits aature lias so marvelously kept for them.

Exposed.

The Cook—Discharge me, is it? Wall, yez don’t dare. Oi’ll expose yez to the boarders! Mrs. Sliindiet—What do you mean? “Oi’ll tell ’em the fresh muffins they t’ink they’re gettin’ ivery momin’ are nothin’ but the owld Wans blowp up wid a bicycle poomp!”—New York Journal. A Naive Reply. Careful Mamma—Ethel, dear, I thought I heard young Mr. Spooney kissing you on the steps last night. Ethel—Not on the steps, mamma.— New York Tribune. One of the /unniest things in the world is to see a woman cry not because she wants to, but because she thinks she ought to. .......