Greenfield Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 1 November 1889 — Page 6

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THE REPUBLICAN.! THE GREAT HEALER,

Published by

W. S. MONTGOMERY.

GREENFIELD. INDIANA

LOUD TENNYSON asserts that his coming' volume of poems will be his absolutely rewell contribution to literature. He should have stopped ten Xears ago.

AMERICANS don't coin all the verbal monstrosities that appear. One of the

etc., serving to illustrate mixes them. God rounds them. God shows them where to fail. God exhales the art warfare and bearing in any way on the condition of troops or

has offered a prize to the citizen 01 jjUfc

Madrid who will produce tho cleverest not one of Alexander's tears. I speak of and most novel toy.

is a good thing the

PEOPLE who visit both the new and the old ships in the American navy observe that the new ones are manned deaths, \\tay not have the harvest chase each ., -v- 1 other without fatiguing toil? Why the hard as far as^ possible 3y Yan ee pillow, the hard crust, the hard struggle?

graduated from the naval training ships, while the foreign seamen, who are still numerous, are sent to the antiquated vessels.

THE Chieago News insists that ona this world would bo a good enough heaven ... ., forme. You and 1 would be willing to take year with another moie people aiq

killed outright by tho railroads in the million years if there were no trouble, state of Illinois than by all other The earth cushioned and upholstered agencies combined. In a large nurn-

A Mil. FERGUSON, of Quebec, whe elaims to be a heap of a fellow ot astronomy. comes out with tin announcement thai the earth is putting in three extra revolutions round her axis this .season, and that's the reason we hive had such a variety of weather. Are there no midnight assassins in Quebec?

"God Shall "Wipe Away All Teara From Their Eyes."

leading London journals, the Sk James Jis^estxoyed church was enough so reGazette, recently brought out the word Dr. Talmage's text was: "God shall wipe "husbundicide.11 away all te.trs from their eyes." liev. vii,

will never recover until he assumes there came a sudden shower, and while the charge of a small church in America, rain was falling in lor rents, the sun was Then the salary will enforce a perman-

4„

ent cure. Such congregations see to it that the pastor has no extravagance.

A CUHTOUS and interesting exhibition will be opened in Cologne on Juxe 1, 1890, in wiiich will be dia-

MAIXOCX, the author of "Ts Life Worth Living?1' -is describe as having deep-set eyes, rather small and i.lmost weird in their alternations of fire and flulness. His face is distinguished by lines of unhappy thoughtfulness, and a Michael Angelo to dash out his own "Last of that peculiar pallor which is Judfirment,'/ or a Handel to discord his 1 'Israel in Eygp sometimes born of illness and some- q0(j limes of mental misery.

THE man with th 1 largest foot in the worlv» is probably Rev. John Farnham, of Charlotte, N. C. He wears a number Sol shoe, which requires a sole 20 inches long and 7 inches broad. The business of tnufacl urlng his shoes is conducted at Philadelphia, and it constitutes one of the moot extensive industries of that citv.

boast of having the largest bread bakery in the world. Seventy thousand loavesa day it usually turns out, requiring three hundred barrels of flour. Three hundred and fifty persons are employed in the bakery, and for ielirering the bread in New York, Brooklyn and adjacent places, over •ne hundred wagons, constructed for the purpose, are in constant use.

Wno is responsible for the misuse of the word "wiriskers" in America? The word is to-day almost universally used instead of beard. Whiskers, correctly «peaking, are oniy that portion of a man's facial hair which is worn on either side of his face, while the rest fe shaven ciean. A man with full beard eannot be said to wear whiskers. As the tery name indicates, the appendages are fragments of a beard.

THE TKrench War Department has so perfeeted the terrible explosive known as melinite that it bo handled with comparative safety. In three years only one aceident has occurred yet the ful mi nation of tho powder produces such terrible effect® that forts of

against shells filled with melinite. If Fraice can ke«p tho worst of the manufacture of melinite she will have

liyillSilSl

Dr. Talmage Again Teaches His Flock from the Platform of the Academy of Music—The Eloquent Divine—A Statement as to Finan-

Before beginning his sermon on Sunday, in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rev. T. De Witt Tulmage said that a mistaken notion was abroad that the insurance on

I 17. 1-Ie said:

LOUDON'S popular preacher, Spur-- Riding across a western prairie, wild -j,

geon, is down again with the gout. He ,ong

TT 1 flowers up to the hub of the carriage wheel,

THE city of Brooklyn can probably part of the Bible chiefly. Why has he

distance from any

shilliD?

bli-hlly

shelter,

1 ever saw it, shine

aud 1 thought what a beautiful spectacle this is! So the tears of the Bible

1S!

are not midnight storm, but raiu on pansied prairies in God's sweet and golden sunlight. Y0.1 remember that bottle •which David labeled as containing tears, and Mary's tears, and Paul's tears, and Christ's tears, aud the harvest of joy that

immense colloetion of arms. is to spring from the sowing of tears. God

them. A census is taken of them, and there is a record as to the moment v/hen

armies. they are born, and as to the place of their grave. Tears of bad men are not kept. AlKLNFI ALFONSO, the infant potentate exander, in his sorrow, had the hairelipr, ,, ji. ped from his horses and mules, of Spain, proposes to be amused. He

mado & gnjat adQ aboufc hig gr-ef.

^he vases of heaven there is

tears

of the good. Alas! me! they are

1 falling all the time. In summer, you some-

for the peace of mind of the heir ap- ,^mes ^ear the growling thunder, and you VlSc flilAI* lii lint. n!iln In 4hnt*n ia cf-rirm miloc OtVlU" hflt, vmi parent" that his offer is not open to the Yankees.

THE man who first made the oldfashioned split ciotlies pin, selling now for about twenty cents a bushel, hit the idea so dead right that nothing better has been asked for since. Hall a dost en other sorts have been invented, but old "two-legs11 still holds his own and is on top.

see there is a storm miles away but you know from the drift of the clouds that it will not come anywhere near you. So, though it may be all bright around about us, there is a shower of trouble somewhere all the time. Tears! Tears! hat is the use of them anyhow Why not substitute laughter Why not make this a world where all the people are well and eternal strangers to pain and aches hat is the use of an eastern storm when we might have a perpetual nor'wester Why, when a family is put together, not have them all stay, or if they must be transplanted to make other homes, then have them all live the family record telling a story of marriages and- births, but of no

It is easy enough to explain a smile, or a success, or a congratulation: but, come now, and bring all your dictionaries and all

your philosophies and all your religions, and kelp me explain a tear. A chemist wiu tell you that it is made up of salt and lime

PHILADELPHIA proudly boasts that and other component parts but he misses she leads all the cities in the countrv the chief ingredients—the acid of a soured ~f life, the viperine sting of a bitter memory, in that she has the latgest extent of

territory that she is the healthiest y0U

thQ fragmeats of a

city that she has more homes, the tion. .v Here me, then, while I discourse to you largest parks, the greatest charities, lf

the uses'of

broken heart. I will

what

a tear is it is agony in solu-

trouble.

more miles of streets, etc., etc., etc. First It is the design of trouble to keep Ah, but what about her base ball this world from being too attractive. Something must be done to make lis willing to quit existence. If it were not for trouble

leage Qf thig Uf0 for a hundred

and

,6 expense, no story of other worlds her of cases the killing is as clearly

PiU^ed and ehandeliered with such

Could

manslaughter as though each life had well enough alone. been taken knife.

by a pistol bullet or a

enchant us. We would say: "Let If you want to die and have your body disintegrated in the du3t, 1 and your soul go out on a celestial adventure, then you can go but this world, is good enough for me." You might as well go to a man who has just entered ttie Louvre at

Paris, and tell him to hastou off to tho picture galleries of Venice or Florence. hy." he would say, "what is tho use of going there '1 here are Rembrandts and liubens and Raphaels here that I haven looked at yet.."

No man wants to go out of this world, or out of any house, uiu,il he has a better house. To oure this wish to st iy here, God must somehow create a disgust for our surroundings. Mow shall he do it He cannot afford to dcface his hori/.on, or to tear off a fiery panel from the sunset, or to Bubtract an anther l'rom the water lily, or to banish the pungetit aroma from the mignonette, or to drag the robes of the morning in mire. You cannot expect a Christopher ren to mar his own St. Paul's cathedral,or

fJhe

thought of that blessed place comes over me mightily, and I declare that if this house were a great ship, and you all were passengers on board it, anl one hand could launch that ship into the glories of heaven. I should lie te.nptel to take the responsibility and launch you all into glory with OUJ stroke, holding on to the side of tho bo tt until I could get in myself. And yet there uro people here to whom this world is brighter than heaven. Well, dear sou s, I do not bla yo i. it is natural. But after a wnilo yon wid bo ready to go. It. was not until .lob hid been worn oal With bereavemonts and carbuncles and a st of a wife that ho wanted to sa-J (Joi.

was noj, ua-

any kind will be JIB houses of t»md liv ng araonz th ho^s th it how iat.3d 1,0 cro

mvat advantage over her adversaries feel our complete dependeoco upon Go 1, King Aluhonso said that if he had been ffi iii the event of war.

present at the creation he cotild hare made a better world than this. What a pity he was not present! I do not know what God will do when some men die. Men think they can do anything until God shows them they can do nothing at all. We lay our great plans and we like to oxecute them. It looks big. God comes and takes us down. As Prometheus was assaulted by his enemy, when the lance struck him it opened a great swelling that had threatened his death, and he git well. So it is the arrow of trouble that lets out great swellings of pride. We never feel our dependence upon God until we get trouble. I was riding with my little child along the road, and she asked if she might drive. I said, "Certainly."

I handed over the reins to her, and I had to admire the gleo with which she drove. But after a while we mot a team and we had to turn out. The road was narrow, and it was sheer down on both sides. She handed the reins ovor to me, and said: "I think you had better take charge of tho horse." So we are all children and on this road of life we like to drive. It gives one such an appearance of superiority and power. It looks big. But aft:r a while we meet some obstacle, and we have to turn out, and the road is n.irrow, aud i.t is sheer down on both sides and then we are willing that God should take the reins and drive. Ah! my friends, we get upset so often because we do not hand over the reins soon enough.

Once, on the Cincinnati express train, going at forty miles the hour, and the train jumped the track, and we were near a chasm eighty feet deep and tho men who, a few minutes before had been swearing and blaspheming God, began to pull and jerk at the bell rope, and got up on the backs of the seats and cried out, "O God, save us!" There was another time, about eight hundred miles out at sea, on a foundering steamer, after the last lifeboat had been split finer than kindling wood. They prayed then. Why is it you so often hear people, iu reciting the last experience of some friend, say: "Ho made the most beautiful prayer I ever heard What make3 it beautiful? It is the earnestness of it. Oh, I tell you a man is in earnest, when his stripped and naked soul wades out in the soundless, shoreless, bottomless ocean of eternity.

Jt is trouble, my friends, that makes us feel our dependence upon God. We do not know our own weakness or God's strength until the last plank breaks. It is contemptible in us when there is nothing else to take hold of, that we catch hold of God only. A man is unfortunate in business. He has to raise a great deal of money, and raise it quickly. He borrows on word and note all he can borrow. After a while he outs a mortgage on his house. Then he puts a second mortgage on his house. Then he puts a lien on his furniture. Then he makes over his life insurance. Then he assigns all his property. Then he goes to his father-in-law and asks for help!

Well, having failed everywhere, completely failed, he gets down on his knees and says: "O Lord, I have tried everybody and everything, now heip me out of this financial trouble." He makes God the last resort instead of che first resort. There are men who have paid ten cents on a dollar who could have paid a hvuuired cents on a dollar if they had gone to God in time. W hy, you do not know who tho Lord is. He is not an autocrat seated far up in a palace, from which he emerges once a year, preceded by heralds swinging swords to clear the way. No. But a father willing, at our call, to stand by us in every crisis and predicament of life.

I tell you what some of you business men make me think of. A young man goes oif from home to earn his fortuue. He goes with his mother's consent an bcnsliction. She has largo woilth but he wants to make his own fortune. He goes far away, falls

3iek,

and you cannot expect

to spoil the architecture and music of his own world. How then aro wo to be made willing to leave? Hero is where trouble comes in. After a man has had a good deal of trouble, he says "Well, I am ready to go. If there is a house somewhere whose roof doesn't leak, I would like to live there. If there is an atmosphere somewhere that does not distress the lungs, I wouid like to bre xtlu it. If there is a society somewhere where there is no tittletattle, I would like to live there. If there is a homo circle somewhire where I can find my lost friends, 1 would like to go there." Housed to read tho first part of the Bible chielly, no.v he real3 the last

changed Genesis for Revelation Ah he used to b3 anxious chieily to knnv how this world was ma le, and all about its geological construction. Now he is chiefly anxious to know how the next world was made, and tiow it looks, and who lives there, and how they dress. He reads Revelation ten times now where ho reads Genesis once. The old story, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." do^s not thrill him as much as the other story, "I saw anew heaven and a new earth." The old man's hand trembles as ho turns over this apocalyptic leaf, and he has to take out his handkerchief to wipe his spectacles. That book of Revelation is a prosDectus now of the country into which he is to soon immigrate the country in which he has lots already laid out, and avenues opened, and trees planted, and mansions built.

the proligal got tiro I of

to his Father's home It is trie ministry of trouble to make thi3 vvorll worth less and heaven worth more.

Again, it is tho use of troublo tom ike us

gets out of money. He sends for

the hotel lceepor where he is staying, asking for lenience, and the answer he gets is: "If you don't pay up Saturday night you'll be removed to the hospital" The young man sends to a comrade in the saaie building. No help. He writes to a banker wh was a friend of his deee isel father. No relief. He writes to an old sjhojlmate, but 12els no help. Saturday night comes, and he is moved to tho hospital.

Getting there, he is frenzied with grief and he borrows a sheet of paper and a postage stamp, aud he sits down, an he writes home, saying: "Dear mother, I am sick unto death. Come." It is ten minutes of 10 o'clock when she gets the letter. At 10 o'clock tho train starts. She is live minutes from the depot. She gets there in time to have five minutes to spare. She wonders why a traia that can go thirty miles an hour cannot go sixty miles an hour. She rushes into the hospital. She says: "My son, what does all this mean? Why didn't you send for me? You sent to everybody but me. You knew I could and would help you. Is this the reward I get lor my kindness to you always?" She bundles hi up, takes him home, aud gets him well very soon.

Now, some of you treat God just as that young man treated his mother. When you get into a financial perplexity, you cil on the banker, you call on your creditors, you call on your lawyer for legal counsel yoa call upon everybody, aud when you cannot get any help, then you go to Go I. Yo 1 say: "O Lord, I come to Thee. He me now out of my perplexity." And the Lord comes, though it is the eleventh hour. He says: "Why did you not send for me before? As ono whom his mother com for teth, so will I comfort you." To is to throw us back upon an all comforting God that we have this ministry of tears.

Again, it is the use of trouble to capacitate us for the oflice of sympathy. The priests, under the old disponsati n, were set apart by having water sprinkled on their hands, feet and head and by the sprinkling of tears people are now set upart to the office of sympathy. When wo are in prosperity we like to have a great many young people around us, and wo laugh when

and

they

laugh, and we romp when they romp, and we sing when they sing but when we have troublo we like plenty of old folks around. Whyl They know how to talk. Take an aged mother, TO years of age, and she. ia almost omnipotent in comfort. Why! She has been through it all. At 7 o'clock in the morning sho goes over to comfort a young mother who has just lost her babe.

Grandmother knows all ab)ut that trouble. Fifty years ago she felt it. At Pi o'clock of that day she goes over to comfort a widowed souL She knows all about that. She has been walking in that dark valley twenty years. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon some oue knocks at the door wanting bread. Sho knows all about that. Two or three times in her life she has came to her last loaf. At 10 o'clock that night she goes over to sit up wiuh some one severely sick. She knows all ai out it. She knows all about fevers and pleurisies and broken bones. She has been doctoring all her life, spreading plasters, and pouring out bitter drops, and shaking up hot pillows, and contriving things to tempt a poor apctite. Docto Aberaetriy tiul Rush and Kosack

Harvey were greatdoctors,

but the greatest doctor the world evor s- is an old Christian worn ,n. Dear me! Do we not remember her about tie room when we wero sick in our boyhood? War, there any one who 1 ould over so Vouch a sore without hurtin it?

And when she lifted lur spootaoles a?ninst her wrinkled forehead, so she could loo': closer at the won ml, it was thrlfe-fourths healed. Aud.whou the Lord took uer homo

although you may have been men and wo» men 3 ), 40, 50 years of age, you lay on the coffin lid and sobbed as though you were oniy 5 or 10 years of age. O man, praise God if you have in your memory the picture of an honest, sympathetic, kind, self sacri-ficing,Christ-like mother. Oh, it takes these people who have had trouble to comfort others in trouble. Where did Paul get the ink with which to write his comforting epistle? Where did David get the inn to write his comforting Psalms? Where did John get the ink to write his comforting Revalation? They got it out of their own tears. When a man has gone through the curriculum, and has taken a course of dungeons and imprisonments and shiprecks, he is qualified fo' the work of sympathy. hen I began to preach, my sermons on the subject of trouble were all poetic and in semi-blank verse: but God knocked the blank verse out of me long ago, and I have found out that I cannot comfort people except as I myself have been troubled. God make me the son of consolation to the people. I would rather be the means of soothing one perturbed spirit to-day, than to play a tune that would set all the sons of mirth reeling in the dance. I a-n an herb doctor. I put into the caldron the root out of dry ground without form orco neliness. Then I put in the Ko.se of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. Then I put isto the caldron some of the leaves from the Tree of Life, and the Branch that was thrown into the wilderness Marah. Then 1 pour in the tears of Bethany and Golgotha then I stir them up. Then 1 kindle under the caldron a tire made out of the wood of the cross, and one drop of that portion will cure the worst sickness that ever afflicted a human soul. Mary aud Martha shall receive their Lazarus from the tomb. The damsel shall rise. And on the darkness shall break the morning, and God wili wipe all tears from their eyes.

You know on a well spread table the food becomes more delicate at the last. I have fed you to-day with the bread of consolation. Let the table now be cleared, and let us set on the chalice of heaven. Let the King's cup bearers come in. Good morning, Heaven 1 "Oh," says some critic in the audience, "the Bible contradicts itself. It intimates again and again that there are to be no tears in heaven, and if there be no tears iu heaven how is it possible that God will wipe any away?" I answer, have you never seen a child crying one moment and laughing the next and while she was laughing, you saw the tears still on her face? And perhaps you stopped her in the very midst of her resumed glee, and wipe! off those delayed tears. So, I think, after the heavenly raptures have come upon us, there may be the marie of some earthly grief, and while those tears are glittering in the light of the jasper sea, God will wipe them away. How well he can do that.

So, when the soul comes up into heaven out of the wounds of this life, it will not stop to look for Paul, or Moses, or David or John. These did very well once, but now the s/ul shall rush past crying "Where is Jesus "Where is Jesus Dear Lord, what a magnificent thing to die if thou shalt thus wipe away our tears. Methink it will take us some time to get used to heaven the fruits of God without one spee't the fresh pastures without one nettle the orchestra without one snapped string the river of gladness without one torn bank the solferin JS and the saffron of sunrise and sunset swallowed up in the eternal day that beams from God's countenance 1 Why should I wish to linger in the wild, When thon urt waiting, Father, to receive thy cliiid

Have you any appreciation of the good and glorious times your friends are having in heaven? How different it is when they get news there ot a Christian's death from what it is hce. It is the difference between embarkation and coming into port. Everything depends upon which side of the river you stand when you hear of a Christian's death. If you stand on this side of the river you mourn that they go. Jf you stand 011 the other side of t.e river you re'oice that tuey come. Oh, the difference bet,ween a funeral on earth and a jubilee in heaven—between requiem here aud triumphal march there—parting here aud reunion there. Uog'.ther! Have you thought of it They are together. Not one of your departed friends in one land and another in another lan bit together, indifferent rooms of the same house —tho house of many mansions. Together!

I never apppreeiated th throufrht so much as when we lad awa.v in hor last s1 umber my sister Sarah. Standing there in the village cemetery, I looked around and said "There is father, there is mother, there is grandfather, there is grandmother, there are whole circles of kindred." aud I thought to myself, "Together in tho grave—together in g'ory." I am so impressed with the thought that I do not ti.ink it is any fanaticism when some one is going from this worid to the roxt if you make them the

bearer

of dispatches to

your friends who are gone, sayintr: "Give my love to my parents, give my love to my cniidren. give my love to my old comrades who are in glory, and tell them I am trying to tight tho good light of faith, and I will join them after awhile." 1 believe the message will be delivered a.nd believe it will increase the gladness of those who are before the throne. 'J'oget.ier are they, all their tears gone. No troublo getting good society for them. All kings, queens, princesses. In 17:"l there was a bi.l oa'ured in the English parliament proposing to chan: the almanac so that the 1st of March should come immediately after the ISth of February. But, oh, what a glorious change the

endar whoa all

tho years of your e.irthly existence are swallowed up in the eternal year of God I My friends, take this good cheer home with you. These tears of bereavement that course your cheeks, and of persecution, and of trial, are not always to be there. The motherly hand of God will wipe them all away, hat is the use, on the way to such a consummation—what is the use of frettinpr about anything? Oh, what an exhilaration it orght to be in Chriso.an work I See you the pinnacles aga nst tho sky! It is ths city of our God, and we are pp. oa hing it. Oh, let us be busy in the few days that shall remain for us. Tho Saxons an.i the Britons went out to battle. Thj Saxons were all armed. The Britons ha 1 no arms at all and yet history tells us tho Britons got the victory. Why I They went into battle shouting three times, "Hall 'lu.ah!" and at the third shout of "riallelnjah." their enemies lied panic struck: and so tho Britons got the victory.

And, my friends, if we rou'd only appreciate the glories that aro to come, we would be

filled with en1.1usi tint no p^wer of ear.h or hell cou stan 1 before us aud at oar first shout the opposing forces would begin to tremble, an I at our second sho it they would begin to fall back, and at out third shout they wo ild bo ranted forever There is no power 011 earth or in hell that could stand before three such volleys of hallelujah.

I put this balsam on the wounds of yonr heart. Rejoice at tho thought of what your departed frionds hive

got

rid of, and that

you have a prospect of Bo maninir your own owape. Bear che jrfully tue ministry of tears, and exult at tho thought that soan it is to ue eudod. 'Jliorft we Hli dl m'tmh'np t.hf* heavenly street

And ground our urniJ at

IMC

SHOWERS OF STONES.

They Rattle All Over the Cottage of a Terrified Colored Family. This little town of 1,600 inhabitants worked up into a great excitement over mystei ious happenings which have baffled *very attempt at explanation, says a Culpepper, Va., letter to t.ho Pittsburg Dispatch. Spiritualism, natural phenomenon and fraud have been alternately suggested t.o account for the strange things that have taken place, though as yet no one has been able to prove any thing except the bare facts of the occurrence.

The scene of the mystery is the little cottage occupied by a colored man named Richard Morton. For ten days Morton and his family have been terrified by intermittent showers of stones aimed at his house, and often at members of his family. His wife seemed to be the chief object of attack.

Where the stones me from, or how propelled, seems inexplicable. Hundreds of people have visited the locality, and the discussion of the mystery is the one subject of conversation here on all hands.

On Sunday the buxom spouse of Morton was sitting on the little porch in front of her home, with her baby in her arms, and the half dozen other offshoots of the family were playing about the sward in front of the house. Suddenly a stone was heard to drop 011 the porch, but whence it came no one knew. It was soon followed by a dozen more, cominsr from all directions, some appearing to drop from the roof and others coming from the corn field on one side, the garden on the other, or the wood yard in front of the house. The whole family were stricken with alarm. Morton, believing some mischievous person had contrived to annoy him, seized a heavy stick and searched about the fields, without avail.

As the shower of missiles continued, the little family went in the house, bolted the doors, barred the windows and sat about in a frightened inner. Occasionally a stone would be heard to tap on either the weather boarding or the porch lloor, until dark, when no further disturbance was made. Morton lost no time the following morning in working his way to Mr. Brooks1 house and telling the experiences of the day before. Mr. Brooks laughed at the superstition, looking on the stone throwing as the work of one of tho children.

For several days the family of the colored man made complaints of the freaks that possessed this locality, but the story received no attention except from the colored people of the neighborhood, among whom the news llew like wildfire, exciting their imagination to all sorts of fears. The matter finally became a nuisance to Mr. Brooks and he determined to settle it, and Friday, putting a large caliber revolver in his pocket, he started for the cottage.

Rev. W. T. Roberts, rector of the Episcopal church at Tappahannock, Essex county, formerly rector of St. Stephen's church, this place, was a guest on the Brooks estate. He, together with a dozen others living in Culpeper and the neighborhood, accompanied Mr. Brooks.

When the party reached the cottage Mr. Brooks announced that any attempt at a practical joke would have serious consequences.

After waiting a few minutes a stone about the size of a hen's egg was seen coming from the corn-field just across the road and about forty rods distant. The loud report of the revolver rang out instantly, and a bullet went crashing through the cornstiIks to the spot whence issued the missile. Mr. Brooks had acted exactly as he had threatened. Not oniy himself, but every member of his party, felt a quiver of alarm for the result, and, hastening to the field, half expected to discover the practical joke in the form of a dead negro, but, after beating about in the corn for some distance about the marked spot, could find no trace of the projector of the stone. They returned to their stations, and again the revolver was held in readiness. They were not kept waiting long. Stones began coming from various directions, in front and from each side of the house, one apparently having come over the cott ge. Again and again was the revolver discharged at the spots whence came the missies, but with the same results as that following the first discharge.

Rev. Mr. Roberts was particularly active in endeavoring to solve the enigma, being one of the party to search the fields upon the discharge of the revolver. The only result, however, was a complete mystification. Mr. Brooks, when speaking of the matter to-day said: "I am free to admit that I am mystified regarding the cause of the throwing of these stones. Of tho fact there can not be the least doubt, and I think the method I have taken in my endeavor to arrive at the truth of the matter was just about as effective as could have been adopted. Of the people who have commented on the phenomenon I have not seen one who could not readily explain its cause. They laugh at it as I did, and say the stones are thrown by the boys here. It is those who come and see for themselves who have no explanation to offer. On several occasions when people have come here there has been no stone throwing. Judge Grimsby came out from Culpeper a few days ago, when there was no repetition of this mystery, and he said he didn't believe any cause was behind the mystery except some boy of the neighborhood.

The stones have never been known to be thrown after dark. They have ger f-ally iieen noticed to come more th ckly after a shower, and are apt to be thrown very thickly for a time. after which there is a lull, and again tho shower of stones returns. "I am not able to solve tho myste said Colonel C. H. Wagner, of this town, speaking of the matter.

I can ao back on the report of such men as Brooks ami Roberts. I know th.»u well, and they aro thoroughly reliable witnesses."--Pittsburg Dispatch.

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In ,|»eitirN INirkot.

Yery few people would believe that inspector Byrne* had ever bean "worked by a pickpocket," saya the Now York World, but such is thacaao,

and what is more, he lost his fine gold chronometer for a little while. It wa just after the big street. *\.ilway tie-up had been successfully e»ded, and New York's own Yidoeq wa« enjoying a little recreation with thi newspaper reporters who cover poli .e h-.-aclquar-ters and chronicle its daiiy happenings. Pickpockets and tne p-u'fc they had taken in working the bi.j -rowds which were congregated to witne.®.the fights between the strike 3 and the police was the subject under discussion. "Tell me, inspector." said one 1 of the young men, with an innocent, insinuating smile, as lie sidled up close to the inspector, "isn't it a very easy matter to spot these gentry wheiir ever you meet them?'' Lazily floarishing his partly consumed PcWecto in the direction of so much reportorial ignorance, and transfixing him with a withering glance, the inspector said: "You just bet it ain't, young I fellow. Why, they're the sleekest ducks out of jail. and there ain't any u'ay to spot "em tilt you catch 'em right in t'le a There's I nobody too slick to be caught napping. either. Take my advice, gentlemen. and keep a eioso loo!: out for your watch and money when you strike a crowd, whether at church, at theater, on race courses, or elevated platform." "You don't mean to say you be afraid of losing your watch crowd, do you!" said the young he edged up a little closer spector. "Well, I wouldn't be sure I he replied. I At this the innocent young man seemed satisfied and started to go, but a significant smile passed over tho facesof one or two of the other reporters,

Pretty Women, Bless Dm.

A Pennsylvania young lady while standing before a mirror smiled at the reflection of herself in the glass. Instead of seeing her beautiful counterpart return tho smilo she beheld a grinning image with the bright side of its face twisted out of s'napa. In repose her face is now as beautiful as ever, but when sho smiles her expression is hideous. Here is an opportunity for the moralist to get in a little essay on the evil eil'ects of vanity. But it would be unkind as well as quite useless. Pretty women, bless them! are here to bo admired, and if men were prohibited fro so doing they would lead a very unhappy existence. There is no objection to women admiring themselves either. It is hardly right that any woman should be debarred from enjoying a beautiful being just because it happens to be herself. There are some people who object to their showing to others that they are self* conscious of their loveliness, and there aro others who would like to havg them wiHing to admire other pretty women. But these are minor points and scarcely worth mentioning.

OH in British America.

The finding of anthracite in the Rocky Mountains of Canada has been followed by the discovery of an oil field in tho same region, though not near the same place. Some railway engineers have just made the announcement of a great find of this description, the particulars of which are now on their way to eastern Canada. The oil is said to be of a high qu ility. The existence of a great oil field in the basin of tho Mackenzie River, which (l"ws into the Arctic Ocean, has been known for years. The Canadian Parliament some time ago appo'nted a special committee to take evidence on th resources of the ickeiv.ie Basin, when this fact came prom nontly be» foi*e them. It is alleged that these oil fields are second onlv in extent and importance to those of Russia near the Caspian Sea.

I'll

would 111 a man.

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of that,1"

The inspector suspected that something was up and ran his hand into his vest pocket. His fine gold chronometerwas gone, and nothing but chain and ring was left. It had been "rung."

The boys had their little laugh on the inspector, who gave them something more substantial to smile over, and none of them ever thought it worth while to write the story, but it is true, every word of it. And the reporter who picked his pocket is one of his best friends. -x

Little Benjamin Harrison.

The country has been informed how fond President Harrison is of children —especially of babies—says a Washington letter to the Philadelphia Telegraph. His reputation in this respect has resulted in his having a rare collection of photopraphs of babies. Nearly every day's mail brings to the white house a number of letters inclosing photographs of infants. They represent babies in variety enough for a modern baby show. The photos are all of boy babies and the letters announce that their names are Benjamin Harrison Smith, Jones, or Robinson, etc. Sometimes there are a pair of twins. Then the name is either divi ded between them or one is named after the president and the other after the vice-president. The other day I picked up a bundle of these photos off the mantel in the white house and counted them. They were just a few thi't had been snapped together with a rubber band. There were twenty-three of them and two pairs of twins. They are represented in a variety of attitudes and in various stages of nakedness. They vary in apparent age from a few months to but. a few days. Sometimes the infant's photogr iph is accompanied by that of the mother or of both father and mother. One infant is chewing the end of an American flag. Another is dressed in a continental uniform, though he has to be held in an upright position to show it. Another has not anything on worth mentioning, and is making a critical examination of the soles of both his feet at the same time, a thing he accomplishes by bowing the legs out and turning the feet inward. The fact of those that are seen by the public being so ugly is explained by the statement that the president has saved out some of the best-looking ones to keep. The others ^ro lying round, so that you are liable to find a bundle of them in almost any room in the house.

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