Pike County Democrat, Volume 29, Number 13, Petersburg, Pike County, 5 August 1898 — Page 7

RECORDED IN DUST. Dr. Talmage Talks About Christ’s Only Known Writing. * _________ Werf Irene*. for tb« Errlaf, Condnuatln for the Hypocrite—There Should Be but Ooe Morel Standard —God la Mature.

In the following discourse, Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage treats of a delicate srabject in a heroic manner, and applies to modern society the rule laid -down by Christ on a memorable occasion. The text is: Jesus stooped down and with his linger ■ wrote on the ground.—John vliL, ft. You must take your shoes off and put on the especial slippers provided at the door if you would enter the Mohammedan mosque, which stands now where once stood Herod’s temple, the scene of my text. Solomon’s temple had stood there, but Nebuchadnezzar had thuudered it down. Zerubbabel’s 'temple had stood there, but that had been prostrated. Now we take our places in a temple that Herod built, because he was fond of great architecture, and he wanted the preceding temple to seem insignificant. Put eight or ten modern cathedrals together, and they would not equal that structure. It cowered 19 acres. There were marble pillars supporting roofs of cedar, and silrer tables on which stood golden cups, and there wege -carvings exquisite, and inscriptions resplendent, glittering balustrades and ornamented gateways. The buildings Of this temple kept 10,000 workmen busy 46 years. In that stupendous pile of pomp and magnificence sat Christ, and a listen* ing throng stood about him, when « wild disturbance took place. A group of men are pulling and pushing along -a woman who had committed a crime against society. When they hare brought her in* front of Christ, they ask that l|e sentence her to death by atoning. They are a critical, merciless, disingenuous crowd. They want to get Christ into controversy and public reprehension. If He say: “Let her die,” they will charge Him with ■cruelty. If He let her go, they will charge Him with being in complicity with wickedness. Whichever way He •does, they would howl at Him. Then occurs a scene which has not been sufficiently regarded. He leaves the lounge or bench on which He was sitting, and goes down on one knee, or both knees, and with the forefinger of His right hand He begins to write in the dust of the floor, word after word. But they were not to be diverted or hindered. They kept on demanding that He settle this case of transgression, until He looked up and told them they might themselves begin the woman’s assassination if the complainant who had never done anything wrong himself would open the fire. ! “Go ahead, but be sure that the man who flings the first missile is immaculate.” Then He resumed writing with \ His finger in the dust of the floor, word after word. Instead of looking over His shoulder to see what He had written, the scoundrels skulked away. Finally the whole place is clear of pursuers. antagonists and plaintiffs, and when Christ has finished His strange chirography in the dust He looks up and finds the women all alone. The prisoner is the only one of the court room left, the judges, the police, the prosecuting attorney having cleared out. Christ is victor,- and He says to the woman: "Where are the prosecutors in this case? Are they all gone? Then I discharge you; go and sin no more.” I have wondered what Christ wrote on the ground. For do you realize that is the only time that He -ever wrote at all Ikuow that Eusebius says that Christ once wrote a letter to Abgarus, the king of Edessa, but there is no good evidence of such a correspondence. The wisest being the world ever saw, and the One who had more to say than anyone who ever lived, never writing a book or a chapter or a paragraph or a word on parchment. Nothing but the literature of the dust, and one sweep of a brash or -one breath of a wind obliterated it for--ever.

Among all the roll* of the volumes •of the first library founded at Thebes • there was not one scroll of Christ. Among the 700,000 books of the Alex* andrian library, which, by the in* famous decree of Caliph Omar, were used as fuel to heat the 4,000 baths of the city, not one sentence had Christ penned. Among all the infinitude of volumes now standing in the libaries of Edinburgh, the British museum, or Berlin, or Vienna, or the learned repositories of all nations, not one word •written directly by the fiuger of Christ. All that lie ever wrote lie wrote in dust, uncertain, shifting dust. My text says He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Standing •straight up a man might write on the grround with a staff, but if with his fingers he would write in the dust he must bend clear over. Aye, he must .get at least on one knee, or he can not write on the ground. Be not surprised that He stooped down. Stooping down from castle to barn. Stooping down from celestial homage to monocrattc Jeer. From residence above the stars to where a star had to fall to designate His landing plaoe. From Heaven’s front door to the world’s back gate. From writing in round and silvered letters of constellation and galaxy on the bine scroll of Heaven to writing on the ground in the dust which the feet of the crowd had left in Herod's temple. If, in January, you have ever stepped out of a prince's connervatory that had Mexican cactus and magnolias in full bloom into the out* aide air, ten degrees below sero, you may get some idea of Cnrist's change of atmosphere from celestial to terreatiaL How many heavens there are 1 know mot, but there are at least three, for Panl was "caught up into the third Heaven.” Christ came down from the highest

Heaven to the second Heaven, and down from second Heaven to first Heaven, clown swifter than meteors ever fell, down amidst stellar splendors that himself eclipsed, down through clouds, through atmospheres, through appalling space, down to where there was no lower depth. From being waited on at the banquet of the skies, to the broiling of fish for His own breakfast, on the banks of the lake. From emblazoned chariots of eternity to the saddle of a mule’s back. From the homage cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, to the paying of 82cents of tax to Caesar. From the deathless country to a tomb built to hide human dissolution. The uplifted wave of Galilee was high, but He had to come down before, with His feet, He could touch it, and the whirlwind that arose above the billow was higher yet, but He had to come down before with His lip He could kiss it into quiet. Bethlehem a stooping down. Nazareth a stooping down. Death between two burglars a stooping down. Yes, it was in consonance with humiliations that went before and self-abnegations that came after, when on that memorable day in Herod's temple He stooped down and wrote on the ground.

Whether the words He was writing were in Greek or Latin or Hebrew, I can not*ay, for He knew all those languages. But He is still stooping down, and with His finger writing on the ground; in the winter in letters of crystal, in the spring in letters of flowers, in summer in golden letters of harvest, in autumn in letters of fire on fallen leaves. How it would sweeten up and enrich and emblazon this world, could we see Christ's caligraphy all over it. This world was not flung out into space thousands of years ago, and then left to look out for itself. It is still under the Divine care. Christ never for a half second takes His hand off of it, or it would soon be a shipwrecked world, a defunct world, an obsolete world, an abandoned world, a dead world. “Let there be light" was said at the beginning. And Christ stands under the wintry skies and says, let there be snow fl akes to enrich the earth; and under the clouds | of spring aud says, come ye blossoms and make redolent the orchards; and in September, dips the branches in the vat of beautiful colors, and swings tnem into the hazy air. No whim of mine is this. “Without Him was not anything made that was made." Christ writing on the ground. If you could see His hand in all the passing seasons, how it would illumine the world! All verdure and foliage would be allegoric, and again we would hear Him say , as of old: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;" and we would not hear in the whistle of a quail or the cawing of a raven or the roundelay of a brown-thresher, without saj’ing: “Behold the fowls of the air, they gather not in barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them;*' and a Dominic hen of the barnyard could not cluck for her brood, but we would hear Christ saying, as of old: “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gatheretli her chickens under her wings;" and through the redolent hedges we would hear Christ saying: “I am the rose of Sharon;” we could not dip the seasoning from the salt-cellar without thinking of the Divine suggestion: “Ye are the salt of the earth,, but if the salt hath lost its savor, it is fit for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.” Let us wake from our stupidity and take the whole world as a parable. Then, if with gun and pack of hounds we start off before dawn, and see the morning coming down off the hills to meet us, we would cry out with the evangelist: “The day spring from on high hath visited us;” or caught in a snow storm, while struggling home, eyebrows and beard and apparel all covered with the whirling flakes, we would cry out with David: “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” In a picture gallery of Europe there is on the ceiling an exquisite fresco, but t e people having to look straight up, it wearied aud dizzied them and bent their necks almost beyond endurance; so a great looking-glass was put near

tuo uuur, auu uuw «»nuia umj mrru to look easily down into the mirror, and they see the fresoo at their feet. And so, much of the high Heaven of God’s troth is reflected in this world as in a mirror, and things that are above are copied by things that are around us. What right have we to throw away one of God's Bibles—aye, the first Bible He ever gave the race? We talk abont the Old Testament and the New Testament, but the oldest Testament contains the lessons of the natural world. Some people like the New Testament so well they discard the Old Testament. Shall we like the New Testament and the Old Testament so well as to depreciate the oldest; namely, that which was written before Moses was put afloat on the boat of leaves which was calked with aspbaltum; or reject the Genesis that was written centuries before Adam lost a riband gained a wife? No, no! When Deity stoops down and writes on the ground, let us read it. 1 would have no less appreciation of the Bible on paper that comes out of the paper mill, but 1 would urge appreciation of the Bible in the grass, the Bible in the sand hill, the Bible in the geranium, the Bible in the asphodel, the Bible in the dust. Some one asked an ancient king whether he had seen the eclipse of the sun. “No,*’ said he, “I have so mnch to study on earth I have no time to look at Heaven.” And if our faculties were all awake to the study of God we would not have time to go much farther than the first grass blade. I have no fear that natural religion will ever contradict what we call revealed religion. I have no sympathy with the followers of Aristotle, who, after the telescope was invented, would not look through it lest it contradict some of the th eories of their great Master. I shall be glad to put against one lid of the Bible the microscope and against the other lid of the Bible the telescope.

But when Christ stooped down and wrote on the ground, what did He write? The Pharisees did not stop to examine. The cowards, ^hipped of t|ieir own conscience, fled pell melL Nothing will flay a man like an aroused conscience. Dr. Stevens, in his History of Methodism, says that when Bev. Benjamin Abbott, of olden times, was preaching, he exclaimed: “For aught I know there may be a murderer in this house,” and a man rose from the assemblage and started for the door and bawled aloud, confess* ing to a murder he had committed 15 years ^before. And no wonder these Pharisees, reminded of their sins, took to their heels. But what did Christ write on the ground? The Bible does not state. Yet, as Christ never wrote anything except that once, you can not blame us for wanting to know what He really did write. But I am certain He wrote nothing trivial or nothing unimportant. And will you allow me to say that I think I know what He wrote on the ground? I judge from the circumstances. He might have written other things, but kneeling there in the temple, surrounded by a pack of hypocrites, who was self-appointed constabulary, and having in his presence a persecuted woman, who evidently was very penient for her sins, I am sure He wrote two words, both of then graphic and tremenduous and reverberating. And the one word was “hypocrisy,” and the other word was “forgiveness.” _at____ 4i_m_4

Scribes vacated the premises and got out into the fresh air, as Christ, with just one ironical sentence unmasked them, I know they were first-class hypocrites. It was then as it is now. The more faults and inconsistencies people have of their own, the more severe and censorious are they about the faults of others. Here they are—20 stout men arresting and arraigning one weak woman! Magnificent business to be engaged in! They wanted the fun of seeing her faint away under a heavy judicial sentence from Christ, and then, after she had been taken Outside of the city and fastened at the foot of the precipice, the Scribes and Pharisees wanted the satisfaction of each coming and dropping a big stone on her head, for that was the style of capital punishment that they asked for. Some people have taken the responsibility of saying that Christ never laughed. But 1 think as He saw those men drop everything, chagrined, mortified, exposed, and go out quicker than they came in, He must have laughed. At any rate, it makes me laugh to read of it All of those libertines, dramatizing indignation against impurity! Blind bats lecturing on optics! A flock of crows on their way up from a carcass, denouncing carrion! But I am sure there was another word in that dust. Prom her entire manner I am sure that arraigned woman was repentant She made no apology, and Christ in no wise belittled her sin. But her supplicatory behavior and her tears moved him, and when he stooped down to write on the ground He wrote that mighty, that imperial ! word, forgivenesa When on Sinai God wrote the law, j He wrote it with finger of lightning on tables of stone, each word as by a | chisel iq^o the hard granite sujrlace. ; But when He writes the offense of this ; woman He writes it in the dust, so j that it can be easily rubbed out, and when she repents of it, oh, He was a i merciful Christ! 1 was reading of a j legend that is told in the far east j about Him. He was walking through the streets of a city and He saw a j crowd around a dead dog. And one j man said: “What a loathsome object j is that dog!’’ “Yes, said another, “his ears are mauled and bleeding.” “Yes,” said another, “even his hide would not be of any use to the tanner.” “Yess,” said another, “the odor of his carcass is dreadful!” Then Christ, stauding there, said: “But pearls can not equal the whiteness of his teeth.” Then the people, moved by the idea that anyone could find anything pleas • ant concerning the dead dog, said: “Why, this must be Jesus of Nazareth!” Reproved and convicted, they went away.

And now I can believe that which 1 read, how that a mother kept burning a candle in the window every night for ten years, and one night, very late, a poor waif of the street entered. The aged woman said to her: “Sit down by the fire,” and the stranger said: “Why do yon keep that light in the window?” The aged woman said: “That 9 to light my wayward daughter when she returns. Since she went away, ten years ago, my hair has turned white. Folks blame me for worrying about her, but you see 1 am her mother, and sometimes, half a dozen times a night. 1 open the door and look out into the darkness and cry: lizzie!’ ‘Lizzie!’ But I must not tell you any more about ray trouble, for 1 guess from the way you cry you have trouble enough of your own. Why, how cold and sick you seem! Ob, my. can it be? Yes, you are Lizzie, my own lost child! Thank God that you are home again!” And what a time of rejoicing there was in that house that night. And Christ again stooped down, and on the ashes of that hearth, now lighted up, not more by the great blazing logs than by the joy of a reunited household, wrote the same liberating words that had been written more than 1800 years ago in the dost of the Jerusalem temple. Forgiveness! A word broad enough and high enough to let pass through it all the armies of Heaven, a million abreast, on white horses, nostril to noetril, flank to flank. The Tales of Christ. Nothing but Christ can satisfy the human heart and the human mind. Angels sufficed not for Mary, when she passed through the dark to Easter morn. Men and angels are as shadows of the Lord, whom alone we should seek.—Rev. T. J. Conaty, Catholic Washington, IX C,

---i-,»-TRUE DEMOCRATS. The democratic party, when war seemed near at hand. Advised a speedy conflict with the foe: Patriotic speeches were made throughout the land By democrats who volunteered to go. When history is written and the tale of war Is told. And the heroes brave are counted name for name, As many friends of silver as advocates of gold You’ll find have earned the shoulder straps of fame. I From the brave and fearless Dewey, and the gallant Winfield Schley To the humblest private fighting In the ranks Surrounding Santiago or In Manila bay. The democrats were foremost with the Tanks. ; *o partisan can deprive them of the glories they have won, On their military record we*U stand pat. As sure as the eastern horizon welcomes the morning sun, Our next president will be a democrat. 1 Blvouaclng Cuba and the far off Philip* pines. Beneath the starry flag of Uncle Sam, Two armies wrap t In slumber are dreaming peaceful dreams. Sheltered by the mango and the palm. When the enemy surrenders, which It soon will have to do. Within our hearts we'll have some grassy plats. And welcome home the gallant boys who bravely wore the blue. And camp them there as silver demo* crats. G. B. HUGHES.

BONDS AND THE PEOPLE. Scheme of the Plutocrats to Hoodwink the People by the Popalar Lou. Naturally enough, there was a feeling of opposition to the popular loan on the part of the trusts and syndicates, but as a rule the expression of disapproval was smothered. It has remained for the New York Times to “give away” the sentiments of the plutocrats under a mistaken idea that the bond issue as a popular loan has proved a failure. The Times says: “It wai the theory of the demagogues —and certain very ignorant and baneful newspapers in this city eagerly helped them in their labor—that the workingmen who put up a few hundred dollars would be quick to draw his money out of the savings banks, where he was getting four per cent, interest, in order to invest it at three per cent, in government bonds. The truth is—and the attempt was repeatedly made to get it into the thick heads of the demagogues—that the American wage-earner is and has always been an investor in government bonds. His investments are managed for him without charge by the trustees of his savings bank, and the government bonds have always been a favorite form of investment for hiftt.” But the bank trustees did not “mafcage” the workingman’s business for him in the recent issue of bonds. In fact, the workingman showed himself quite capable of managing his own business. As a simple matter of statistics, the result of the bond issue stands as follows: Total amount of bonds loan.$ 200,000.000 Total amount subscribed.1,2CO,OOO.OCO Total amount of money deposited 600.000,000 Highest individual allotment_ 10,000 Lowest Individual allotments_ SO Less than $5,000 subscriptions accepted. 30,000,000 Less than $500 subscriptions accepted. 10,000,000 Whenever any meansCis suggested which has in it any consideration for the righta of the people the plutocrats can be counted on to raise the cry of “demagogism.’" But in the matter of the war bond issue the peopl&seemed to have secured the best of The bargain. _ TAXING INCOMES A Jolt and Reasonable Measare to Swell the Income of the Nation.

That the democratic platform adopted at the state convention of Illinois is worthy of hearty approval on the part of the people needs no argument. Following the silver plank comes a declaration that will appeal to the sense' of justice in every heart not hardened by selfish interest. This plank reads as follows: “We demand the adoption of a fair and equitable tax on incomes and an amendment to the constitution of the United States, if necessary, to accomplish this purpose.** This is just and reasonable on its face. As the law now stands the burden of taxation is placed on the shoulders of those least able to pay it. The man who has an income of $10,000 a year may be able to avoid taxation entirely, bvt the man who earns a dollar a day must pay heavy taxation and has no chance to evade such payment. By the AOte of one man on the supreme bench it has been declared that an income tax is unconstitutional. Although this is simply the opinion of one man, it is binding so long as it is not reversed, and perhaps the simplest way to reverse it is to secure a constitutional amendment. In the long run jusfice will be secured, and the democratic party of Illinois is pledged by their platform to aid in its securement, not only in this one cases but in other cases, which will be referred to later on. -The senate refused to confirm Wimberly for collector of customs at New Orleans because of Wimberly’s very bad character. So after the senate has Adjourned the president appoints Wimberly ad interim. This is Wimberly's reward for having turned Reed votes over to McKinley in the national convention. It is about as disreputable a proceeding as ever occurred in national politics.—N. Y. World. -The protectionists who stick for exclusive patronage of home industry overlook the award of the contract to take the captive soldiers home, to foreign ship owners. A Spanish harbor* would scarcely be a pleasant place for •ur American transports, so the job was not begrudged.—Utica Observer.- - ' -

--- ..... THEGOLD STANDARD. It Stuia tor a Theory That la Fallacious and Without Foaadatioa. When we speak of value we speak of a subject around which the goldites have cast a halo of superstition, which, in the language of Senator John P. Jones, has contributed more to the martyrdom Of men than war, pestilence and famine. The gold standard advocates claim that money must have intrinsic value; that gold* only has intrinsic value; therefore, gold alone is fit for money. This doctrine has been thought false by a reputable economist. It has been refnted by science and denied by experience. Value in economics is purely a relation, and the idea of value being intrinsic, or independent of anything intrinsic, is an unthinkable absurdity. The value of anything is what we exchange for it. The value of a dollar is so many bushels of urheat or so many barrels of pork, or so many bales of cotton, or so many days of labor, etc. Conversely, the value of a suit of clothes is the number of dollars for which it can be had, the valu^ of a day's labor is so many dollars. Each measures the j other. One is the standard of the other. Thus, the value of a dollar de- j

pends upon its power to command labor or the products of labor. A dollar that commands two days’ labor is twice as valuable as a dollar that commands one day’s labor. This is selfevident, and the truth is virtually denied in every argument that is made for the gold standard. This value is absolutely independent of the intrinsic elements which, combined, constitute the substance of the dollar. It is not the substance but the function given to the substance which makes the dollar valuable. It is because the function imparted to it gives it power to perform certain work that a dollar has value. That is, the value of a dollar depends upon the work which it has to perform. Remembering that the demand for money is equal to the demand for everything else, it is obvious that the amount of work which each dollar will have to do will depend upon the amount of dollars that are secured by law to do this work. To state it in another way, the value of money is determined by the law of supply and demand. Now the word “standard’’ itself«suggests the idea of stability and invariableifess. Absolute stability is necessarily an impossibility. The degree of stability depends ipon the ratio of stability between the demand for the dollars and the supply of dollars. The most perfect monetary system is that in which the supply of money justt equals the demand, for such a system gives stability. If the supply does not keep pace with the demand the result will be an appreciating dollar, the evils of which we will mention when we see how gold performed the function of a standard of deferred payments. When under bimetallism both gold and silver flowed freely into the channels of trade and supplied the demand so that there was a stability in the value of the dollar, a fair level of prices was maintained. Since that time, while the demand for money has been increasing, the supply has been decreasing, because the work formerly done by both the metals has been placed upon one alone, and that one has been entirely inadequate. The annual production of gold is approximately $200,000,000, of this the demand for use in the arts absorbs $120,000,000, leaving for monetary use about $80,000,000. For this insignificant sum all the nations are claodoring. The universal scramble for gold is illustrated by the fact that the annual coinage of gold is greater than the total annual production. This simply means that it is taken as a commodity in the form of coins from one nation to another, where it is coined into the coins of that nation. That such a standard could be stable will not be maintained by anyone that is at all familiar with economle science.

OPINIONS AND POINTERS -'Mark Hanna’s strategic board is not directing war matters. The operations of Mark’s board are usuallj confined to Ohio and Wall street.—St. Louis Republic. £ -The last republican executive who fooled with force bill dynamite was Benjamin Harrison. He was not reelected. Not to any considerable extent.—Albany Argus. , f -At last accounts the commerce destroyer Nelson Dingley was wallowing in the trough of a heavy sea, with a cyclone blowing and a formidable deficit rapidly coming up on the starboard quarter.—Chicago Chronicle. -Above all things, ^individual democrats, whether in congress or out of it, cannot afford to become even the blind assistants of those who, under cover of the war and new issues, are striving to make the single gold standard a permanent fixture in our financial system.—Atlanta Constitution. -The national sentiment was for war, the national sentiment is for a short and decisive war, and the national sentiment will be for a speedy peace when Spain yields, as yield die must, and that soon. Taxation for conquest «and annexation, with the splendors’and burdens of imperialism, will not be popular with the masses of the American people.—Louisville Dispatch. -The fact that American factories and American Workmen are idle on the average one-third of each year is an important one. It means, in the first place, uneconomical production, for manufacturers and employes must live from the product made. Constant operation, then, would admit of a material reduction in prices, without loss to either the workers or their employers. The remedy is to be sought in an extension* of trade into forei|^n markets.—Pittsburgh Dispatch.

TWO HANDY ROLLERS. The garden and flower beds require firming of the surface 'After planting, to insure even distribution of moisture and perfect seed-germination. This ia necessary also in starting a lawn, and frequent rollings will destroy ant hills and rout many soil pests that accumulate in neglected plats. In my own experience I have fully proven the benefits of rolling, and would not attempt growing a garden, lawn or flower bed without some means of leveling and firming the rows and beds. The surface does not bake so hard in spots where the beds are properly leveled

SMALL GARDEN ROLLER. and rolled; the seeds sprout more uni* formlv and the plants grow better, while the work of weeding is lessened and the appearance much more than pays for the care in properly prepar* ing the seed beds. But every farmer does not have sufficient cash at his command to purchase all necessities though the tools may be cheap and small, hence some homemade implements are often brought into use. Hand garden rollers m^y be made at home by any person familiar with the use of tools. A cheap roller, large enough and good enough for even the professional kitchen gardener, may be made for 50 cents or less, and with proper care will last for many years. The material I used in constructing this handy tool consisted of a joint of six-inch WEELBARROW ROLLER stovepipe, a split oak sapling and a small two-inch board nailed across the split just behind the roller. The pipe was well riveted with wrought nails; a short apple tree limb, with old bolts driven in either end. was put in the pipe and packed solidly in gravel and sand, anp an inch board was sawed out to fit the ends, and nailed in, after tamping, the sand and gravel. Auger holes bored in either side of the split handle made that At nicely, and to strengthen it wire nails were driven through and bent on both sides. A support to hold the tongue or handle off the ground was made by nailing an eight-inch peg in an auger hole at the point where the split stopped. The roller could fee pushed or pulled back and forth, over and across, and did most effective work. The small roller proving inadequate as a clod crusher and leveler, where the soil was rough and uneven, I made a larger, stronger and more durable tool after the fashion of a wheelbarrow. In this I used the six-inch stovepipe filled with sand and gravel, and iron spikes driven in a center square block

for an axle. The frame warf made of two by four-inch scantling, with boards nailed across for bottom, and a dash* board of eight-inch plank nailed to upright standards just behind the roller. This made a platform for weighting the roller, by giving the children a ride or putting in some rocks. The legs may be left off, if desirable, and the roller can be made of wood to suit the circumstances. In this roller, however, where much weight is needed, the stovepipe is hardly heavy enough, and a round block of wood, even one foot In diameter, is preferable. This roller can be used in the same manner as a wheelbarrow, and is a very handy, inexpensive tool that more than pays for its manufacture in one season, and will last a great many years if properly handled.—Joel Shomaker, in Farm and Fireside. _ ' KtVrllB Melon Tinea In Rows. Most people are so used to planting melons in hills that they deem this tho only way. But very successful melon growers think that making a very slight ridge and planting the seed in a row pretty closely together is a better way. So soon as the vines begin to run their tendrils clasp others, and this keeps them from, being blown about by winds. By making the ridges eight or more feet apart the cultivator can be kept rnnning through them until the vines spread out and occupy the whole of the vacant space, which they will surely do before the summer is ended. If the vines appear to ho too close together in the row the poorest may be cut out without leaving a vacancy, as would be the case if they were planted in hills. When the calf is four weeks old put n tittle meal in the bottom of the pail from which it has drunk ita milk. That will teach it to lap me*L Do not work late among raapberri or blackberries, or they will not a tan.