Pike County Democrat, Volume 30, Number 51, Petersburg, Pike County, 27 April 1900 — Page 3

TALMAGE ON CREEDS. Preacher Would Rid Humanity of Ecclesiastical Dogma. Move* for a Creed for All Denominations Made Oat of Scripture Qiota t lone—Thing* That Hamper ChriitliBi.

[Copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.] Washington, April 22. * At a time when the old discussion of creeds is being vigorously and some' what bitterly revived this discourse of Dr. Talmage has a special interest. The text is John ,xi., 44: “Loose him and let himgo.*’ *■ My Bible is at the place of this tert written all over with lead pencil narks made at Bethany on the ruins >f the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. We dismounted from our horses on the way up from Jordan to the Dead sea. Bethany wa$ the summer evening retreat of Jesus. After spending the day in the hot city of Jerusalem he would come out there al- . ^ most every evening to the house of his three friends. I think the occupants of that house were orphans, for the father and mother are not mentioned. But tlietfson and two daughters must have'inherited property, for it must have been, judging from what I saw; of the foundations and the size of the rooms, an opulent home. Lazarus, the brother, was now at the head of the household, and his sisters depended on him and were proud of him, for he was very popular, and everybody liked him, and these girls were splendid girls—Martha, a first-rate housekeeper, and Mary, a spirit uelle, somewhat dreamy, but affectionate and as good & girl as could be found in all Palestine. But one clay Lazarus got sick. The sisters .vere in consternation. Father gone, and mother gone, they felt very nerv- *, cus lest they lose their brother also. Disease did its quick work. How the girls Uung over his pillowl Not much sleep about that house—no sleep at all. i From the characteristics otherwise developed, I judge that Martha prepared the medicines and made tempting dishes o* food for the poor appetite of the sufferer, but Mary prayed and. sob bed. Worse and worse gets Lazarus until the doctor announces that "he can do no more. The shriek that went up from that household when the last breath had been drawn and the two sisters were being led -by sympathizers into the adjoining room all those of us can imagine who Lave had our own hearts broken. But why was not Jesus there as He had so often Ijeen? Far away in the country districts, preaching, healing other sick, how unfortunate that this omnipotent Doctor had not been at that domestic crisis in Bethany. When at last Jesus arriv.ed in Bethany, Lazarn| had been buried four days* and dissolution had 'taken place. In that climate the breathless body disintegrates more rapidly than in ours. If, immediately after decease, the body,had been awakened into life, unbelievers might have said he was only in.a comatose state or in a sort of '.ranee find by some vigorous manipulation or powerful stimulant vitality bad been renewed. No! Four days dead. At the door of the sepulcher is a c rowd of people, but the,three most memorable are Jesus, who was the family friend, and the two bereft sisters. We went into the traditional tomb one December day, and it is dei?p down and dark, and with torches we explored it. We found it all quiet thatvafternoon of our visit, but the day spoken of in the Bible there was present an excited multitude. 1 wonder what Jesus will do? He orders the door of the grave removed, and then he begins to descend the steps, Mary and Martha close after him, and the crowd after them. Deeper down into the shadows and deeper! The hot tears of Jesus roll over his cheeks and plash upon the back of IJis hands. Were ever so many sorrows compressed into so small u space as in that group pressing on down after Christ, all the time bemoaning that He had not come before?

iNow an tne wnispermg ana all the crying and all the sounds of shuffling feet are stopped. It is the silence of expectancy. Death had conquered, but now the vanquisher *bf death ^confronted the scene. Amid the awful hush of the tomb, the familiar name which Christ had often had upon His lips in the hospitalities of * the village home came back to His tongue, and with pathos and an *1mightiness of which the resurrection of the last day shall only be an echo, He cries:- “Lazarus, come forth!” The eyes of the slumberer open, and he rises and comes to the foot of the steps and with great difficulty begins to ascend* for- the cerements of the tomb are yet on him, and his feet are, fast and his hands are fast and the impediments to all his movements are so great that Jesus commands: “Take - off these cerements; licmcve these _ hindrances! Unfasten these graveclothes!, Loose him. and lgt him go!” Oh, I am so glad thht after the Lord raised Lazarus He went on and commanded the loosening of the cords that bound his feet so that he could walk and the breaking of the cerements that bound his hands so that he could stretch out his arms in salutation and the tearing off of the bandage from around his jaws so that he <?ould speak. What would resurrected life have been to Lazarus if he had not been freed from all those cripplements of his body? I am glad that Chri3t commanded his complete emancipation, saying: “Loose him, and let him go.” The unfortunate thing now is that so many Christians are only half-lib-f erated. They have been raised from

the death and burial of sin into spiritual life, but they yet hare the gravid clothes oj» them. They are, like Lasarus, hobbling up the stairs of the tomb bound hand and foot, and the object of this sermon is to help free their body and free their souls, and 1 shall try to obey thfe Master’s command that eomes to me and comes to every minister of religion: “Loose him, and let him go.!” Many are bound hand and foot by religious creeds. Let no man misinterpret me sis antagonizing creeds. I have eight dr «ten, of them—a creyd about religion; a creed about art, a creed about social life, a creed abon government, and so on. A creed is something that a man believes, wheth

er it be written or unwritten, lne Presbyterian church is now agitated about its creed Some good men in it are for keeping it because it was framed from the belief of John Calvin. Other good men in it want revision. I am with neither party. Instead of revision I want substitution. 1 was sorry^to have the question disturbed at all. The creed did not hinder us from offering the pardon and the comfort of the (iospel to all men, and the Westminster Confession has not interfered with me one minute. Cut now that the electric lights have been turned on the imperfections of that creed—and everything that man fashions is imperfeet—let us put the old creed respectfully aside and get a brand new one. What a time we. have had with the dogmatics, the apologetics and the hermeneutics. The defect in some of the creeds is that they try to tell us all about the decrees bf Cod. Mow the only human being that was ever competent to handle that subject was Paul, and he would not have been competent had he not been inspired. I believe in the sovereignty of God andl believe in man's free agency, but no one can harmonize the two. It is not necessary that we harmonize them. Every sebmon that I have ever heard that attempted such harmonization was tome as clear as a London fog, as clear as mud. My brother of the nineteenth century, my brother of the sixteenth century, give us Paul’s statement and I leave out your own. Better one chapter of Paul on that subject than all of Calvin's institutes, able and honest and mighty as they are. Do not try to measure either the throne, of God or the thunderbolts of God with your little steel pen. „ What do you know about the decrees? You cannot pry open the door of God’s eternal counsels. You cannot explain the mysteries of God’s government now; much less the mysteries of His government five hundred quintillien years ago. 1 move for a creed for all our der ,nominations made out of Scripture quotations pure and simple. That would take the earth for God. That would be impregnable against infidelity and Apollyonic assault. Thatwould be beyond human criticism. The denomination, whatever its name be. that can rise up to that will be the church of the millennium, will swallow up all other denominations and be the one that will be tha bride when the Bridegroom cometh. Let up make it simpler and plainer for people to get into the kingdom of God. Do noth hinder people by the idea that tlfiey may not have been elected. Do n©| tag on to the one essential of faith in Christ any of the innumerable noncsscntials. A man who heartily accepts Christ is a Christian, and the man who does not accept Him is not a Christian, ant^ that is all there is of it. He need not believe in election or reprobation. He need not believe in the eternal generation of the Son. ‘He need" not believe i£ everlasting punishment. He need fwjt believe in infant baptism. He need not believe in plenary inspiration. Faith in Christ is the criterion, is the test, is the pivot,-is the indispensable. But there are those who would add unto the tests rather than subtract from them. There are thousands who would not accept persons into church membership if they drink wine of if they smoke cigars or if they attend the theater or if they play cards or if they drive a fast horse. But do not substitute tests which the Bible does not establish. There is one passage of Scripture. wide enough to let all in '"'ho ought to enter and to keep out all who ought to .be kept out: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Get a man's heart right, and his life will be right. But now that the old creeds have been put under public scrutiny, something radical must be done. Some would split them, some would carve them, some would elongate them, some would abbreviate them. At the present moment and in the present shape they are a hindrance. Lazarus is alive, but hampered with the old graveclothes. If you want one glorious church, free and unincumbered, take off the cerements of old ecclesiastical

vocabulary. Loose her, and let her go! Again, there are Christians who are under sepulchral shadows and fears ►and hoppled -y doubts and fears and sins long ago repented of. Whqfb they need is to understand the-liberty of the sons of God. They spend more time under the shadow of Sinai than at the base of Calvary. They have been singing the only poor hymn that Newton ever wrote: ‘Tis a point I long to know; Oft It causes anxious thought; Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? Long to know, do you? Why do you not find out ? Go to work for God, and you will very soon find out. The man who is all the time feeling his pulse and looking at his tongue to see whether it is coated is morbid and cannot be physically -well. The doctor will say: “Go out intp the fresh air £nd into active life and stop thinking f yourself, and you will get well ana strong.” So there are people who are watching their spiritual symptoms, and they call it self-examination, and

they get weaklier and sicklier m their faith all the time. Go ont and $P something nobly Christian. Take holy exercise and then examine yourself, and instead of Newton’s saturnine and bilious hymn that I first quoted you will sing Newton’s other hymn: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found;: Was blind, but now 1 see. What many of you Christians most need is to get your graveclothes off. I rejoice that you have been brought from the death of sin to the life of the Gospel, but you need to get jour hand loose, and your feet loose, and your tongue loose, and your soul loose. There is no sin that the Bible so arraigns and punctures and flagellates as the sin of unbelief, and that is what is the matter with you. “Oh,” you say, “if you knew what I onpe was and how many times I have grievously strayed you would understand why I do not come out brighter!” Then 1 think you would call yourself the chief of sinners. I am glad you hit upon that term, for 1 have a promise that fits into your case as the cogs* of one wheel between the cogs of another wheel or as the key fits into the labyrinths of a lock.

A man who was once called Saul, but afterward Paul, declared: “This is a faithful saying- and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief/’ Mark that—“of whom I am chief.” “Put down your overcoats and hats, and I will take care of them while you kill Stephen.” So Saul said to the stoners of the first martyr. “I do not care to exert myself much, but I will guard your surplus apparel while you do the murder.” The New Testament account says: “The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul/’ No wonder he said: “Sinners, of whom I am the chief.” Christ is used to climbing. He climbed to the top of the temple. He climbed to the top of Mount Olivet. He climbed to the top of the cliff's about Nazareth. He climbed to the top of Golgotha. And to the top of the hills and the mountains of your transgression He is ready to climb with pardon for every one of you. The groan of Calvary js mightier than the thunder of Sinai. Full receipt ia offered for all ‘your indebtedness. If one throw’s a stone at midnight into a bush where the hedge bird" roosts, it immediately begins to sing, and into the midnight hedges of your despondency these wmrds I hurl, hoping to awaken you to anthem. Drop the tunes in the minor key and take the major. Do you think it pleases the Lord for you to be carrying around with you the debris and carcasses of old transgressions?, You make me think of some ship that has had a tempestuous time at sea and now that it proposes another voyage keeps on its davits the damaged lifeboats and the splinters of a, shivered mast and the broken glass of a smashed skylight. My advice is: Clear the decks, overboard with all the damaged rigging, brighten up the salted smokestacks, open a new logbook, haul in the planks, lay out a new course and set sail for Heaven. You h§ve had the spiritual dumps long enough. You will please the Lord more by being happy than by being miserable.

Heaven is Da per cent, better than lais world, a thousand per cent, better, a million per cent, better. Take the gladdest, brightest, most jubilant days you ever had on earth and compress them all into one hour, and that hour would be a requiem, a fast day, a gloom, a horror, as compared with the poorest hour they have had in Heaven since its first tower was built or its first gate swung or its first song caroled. “Oh,” you , say, “that may be true", but I am so afraid of crossing over from this world to the next, and I fear the snapping of the cord between soul and body.” Well, all the surgeons and physicians and scientists declare that there is no pang at the parting of .the body and soul, and all the restlessness at the closing hour of life is involuntary, and no distress at all. And I agree with the doctors, for what they say is confirmed by the fact that persons who were drowned or were submerged until all consciousness departed and were afterward resuscitated declare that the sensation of passing into unconsciousness was pleasurable rather than distressful. The cage of the body has a door on easy hinges, and when mat door of the physical cage opens the soul simply puts out its wings and soars. “But,” you say, “I fear to go because the future is 60 full of mystery.” Well, I will tell you how to treat the mysteries. The mysteries have ceased bothering me, for I do as the judges of your courts often do. They hear6 all the^ arguments in the case and they say: “I will take these papers and give you my decision next week.” So I have heard all the arguments in regard to the next world, and some things are uncertain and full of mystery, and so I fold up the papers ahd reserve until the next world my decision about them. I can there study all the mysteries to better advantage, for the light wiL be better and my faculties stronger, and I will ask the Christian philosophers, who have had all the advantages of Heaven for centuries, to help me. and I may be permitted myself humbly to ask the Lord, and I think there will be only one mystery left; that will be how one so unworthy as myself got-into such an enraptured place. Come up out of the sepulchral shadows. If you are not Christians by faith in Christ, come up into the light; and if you are already like \Lazarus, reanimated, but still have your grave clothes on, get rid of them. The command is: “Loose him, and let him go.” A first-class watchmaker gets credit for his good works. — Chicago Dsi-y * News. -

Legislative Movements in House "and Senate and Their Political Significance. ■ . • ■' . SILLS SIDES ARE STRU66LM6 OVER.

• 1 C®»tly Victory of Rcpoklteaoo la the Porto Rican Affair — Democrat* Waul Armor Plate Factory Manavert by GoTernmenl—RepresentaOt« Dlclt a Explanation, Etc. [Special Correspondence.] The house republicans feel somewhat in need of repairs since the passage of the Porto Rican bill. It was one of those victories more costly than defeat. llie house intends to confine its attention strictly to the appropriation of money for some time. There are three big bills and any number of minor measures that must be sent to the senate by the middle of May if there is to be the proposed adjournment by the middle of June. The naval appropriation bill will engage the attention of the house at once. Then ihere are the post office, sundry civil and general deficiency measures. The latter will be held back until the last moment because it contains material for pointed demo- • cratic criticism. It is the epitome of the expensive blunders which the administration, has been committing. The consideration of the naval appropriation bill will precipitate a bitter struggle in the house over the question of armor plate. The majority will- contend for a “free hand,” as. Senator Beveridge would say. It is willing to pay $545 a ton and as much more as the Carnegie company may demand. The democrats will contend for an armor plate factory built and managed by the government. It has been I shown that the best armor plate can be manufactured for about^ $200 a ton, and that it is in the interest of economy to have this work done by the | government instead of by a trust. The democrats will also urge the building of ships in government yards, rather than by a subsidized combine. The republican majority will, of course, vote down both propositions, but the debate will be an instructive one, and close understanding and sympathy the democrats will be able to show th% with trust interests which underlies the republican request for a big naval appropriation. Just here it1 may be noted that the combined army and navy appropriation asked by the administration approximates closely to $200,000,000 for the fiscal year. The Porto Rican Matter. The administration forces have felt that it would be the part of wisdom to let the Porto Rican matter drop out of sight, now that the'bill is passed. It is recognized that if popular agitation continues on the matter it will seriously endanger tHe chances of republican success in the coming presidential campaign. But the people of the country will not be quiet. Congress is simply deluged with letters and newspaper attacks—from republican sources, too— expressing the utmost indignation aj the passage of the measure. So desperate has become the condition that the suave and ingenious Kepresentative Dick, secretary of the republican national committee, has deemed it advisable to have himself interviewed and to ' “explain” the measure. The democrats think that he is scarcely as happy as usual 4n his choice of arguments. He says that 'the Porto Rican tariff “will be a precedent in our legislation for our new possessions in tlje Philippines.” He goes on at great length to point out. the dangers to American industry and , labor unless various unconstitutional barriers are raised against the new possessions. The democrats pointed out the dangers in the beginning. They questioned the advisability of the sort of expansion which takes in millions of people of alien races and entirely different character of civilization from our own. The democrats assumed that if such people were taken at all they must be under the protection of the constitution and entitled to the rights guaranteed by that instrument. If the new possessions could not come to us in that way the United States was better off without them. Representative Dick shows very clearly in his official statement thatthe republicans desire to institute a system of colonial possession, over which an irresponsible congress and administration shall be the dictator. Irresponsible, because acting without the guidance or control of the constitution. He intimates plainly that the republicans are striving to establish the precedent that the constitution does not apply to the insular possessions. •

ine democrats; are entirely willing to go before the people with imperialism thus clearly defined, and they are rather pleasei that Representative Dick thus foreshadows so definitely at this time the republican attitude in the campaign. RnnnliiK Mate tor McKinley. Mark Hanna has been conducting a lively campaign to find a “running mate” for McKinley. Mr. John D. Long, secretary of the navy, is now said to be the favored candidate. The search this; time is not so much for the modest citizen who will contribute liberally to the campaign fund in return for the honor of the nomination, as for some one who will boh ster up Mr. McKinley’s reputation and bring into line the thousands upon thousands of republicans who regard

him with distrust—not to (>sy my* thing1 worse. The kaleidoscope may chan; ber of times before the couul Mark Hanna is looking for the and conscientious man who real moral strength to the tick< Hanna can manage the campai; when it comes to that, and he n< assured that he has the machinery'sufficiently in hand to have MeKiiil<-y renominated at Philadelphia by acclamation. He has beenrather disappo.rted though by the manifest reluctance displayed by those on whom he des ired to confer the vice presidential nomination. ;■'? u " It Lootu Suspicious. The interstate, commerce cot amission ’ has been distinguishing it ■se lf by actively lobbying for the passage of a bill, which will largely increased its powers. This bill has not attracted much attention, but it is| regard'll as rather a suspicious fentire th,. certain railroad interests arj> also i ^ing it. There is more than a hint that the railway combinations!think they see a chance to control theHjjnterstati: commerce commission completely, if the existing inocuous law can be amended in certain directions. But with their usual shrewdness the surface argument is put the other way. Tls; present republican congress, not oftjy is doing nothing to discourage combinations and trusts, but, is active iy promoting legislation which will givy them more power. The Ship Subsidy Bill. | i The senate republicans are insisting that the ship subsidy bill mij-st be passed. Thej* have the necessary vo tes, and can/ probably pass the measure, but the democrats are politely but firmly suggesting thafthe ship s bsfdy matter will have to wait its turn as the Philippine bill and -some otheiy measures are ahead of it. It is "sa|;i that Hanna depends on certain shipbuilding interests for a goodly pcrtipij. of his campaign contributions, hence Ms anxiety tw carry out his share of tie bargain. . 1 .1; ... ADOLPH PATTEllsON.

IMPERIALISM P0IS01 Perversion of Pntriotiom and i|.oeti of Political SssocHjr and "Veracity. Prof. Joseph»if. Urooker, of . dn Arbor, Mich., in a review of the Philippine sitparfion, published a ri the Springfield Republican, refers ^o the poison of imperialism engCnd* hed by our falling away from first principles, thus: Among the many bad things bpiind up with this unfortunate business icne is Worse than the degradation of America, sure to follow in more ways tha enp, if we persist in the course that we ate now following. No stronger or sadder iptoof of the unwise and harmful characte r of this policy is needed than the fact thr-t its defenders are led so quickly to part < c nipany with sober argument and truthf li [statement and rush into virulent abus* and deceptive sophistries. Who would jaave believed two years ago that any s nc man would have appealed to Washington in support of a policy so abhorrent t > the father of his country? What ignoble 1.1 veracity in twisting his words into .’Alia approval of foreign Conquest! Who you Id have thought it possible that scht iai-s-and statesmen would so soon becoipe mere jugglers with words, pretending ba.t our previous territorial expansion fdr:fishes analogy and warrant for a colonial system far across the Ocean, entered upon by warfare and maintained by congn as without constitutional safeguards! Th si facts show how virulent a poison is it work upon the national mind. We have hi -e already a perversion of patriotism und a loss of political sagacity and vera :ity. “It is bad enough to hear men sc!aim: ‘There is money in it and that Us. sufficient’—but a national venture tl. it leads men to scoff at the declaration of independence, to ridicule the constitlit; on as outgrown, to denounce the wisdo 1 i: f the fathers as foolishness, and to declare that American glory dates from Manila bay. Is there not something ominousdn such talk? if a? brief experience in th- expansion of America that scoffs at A nerican principles produces such results, is t not time to sound tjie alarm? If the «.e!ense of a pplicy compels men to take sc ..i positions, there is something infinitely dangerous in that .policy.” The Worst Part of It. The Porto liico bill as it has necome law is a very different thing fi: m the bill that was brought into congress. It was whittled down and carte4 out unti,l only a skeleton of the t iiginal thing remained. But there is le [what all the trusts, all the jobbers arc. ulators and franchise grabber] Washington tried so hard to r u namely, the proclamation of ;h< premacy of congress over the constitution. It does not matter that the! rate of customs duties is made 15 per cent, of the Dingley schedules instead of 25 per cent. It does not matter mat a period of two years is set for il'.i operation of this tariff, instead of making it perpetual. It does not matter [that the revenues thus obtained are ;ti> be used to pay the charges of gover iBient in Porto Ilico. None of these ; hings count against the fact that this .w assumes to set congress above ti e -onstitution. This is the worst fea aire of the whole business. It allege > the right of congress to go outside th ? <■constitution, the Creature to dominate its creator. It asserts the right of congress to erect a tariff wall against trade between parts of the territ: rjrof the United States.—Boston Post

-The history of this legislation must naturally and necessarily! <}ondemn the legislation itself. It Is a chapter of vacillation and contradiction; of explanation and apology! of cross purposes and changing policies; of promises solemnly made and i ight-; ly broken—a chapter of blunders made all the more glaring by ill tjiira•pered defense of ill-advised steps. iThe administration, as well as con< r|»ss, will be on the defensive for : eifeii months to come.—Washington PMt. -The tariff law as applied to Porto Kico will be compelled to stan; one more test. There is »*o doubt t t ajt it will be tested in the courts, anti ttie decision will be one of the most important that has eve^ been made %£it may settle the status of the Phil! pine islands as well.—Peoria Journal

JOHN’S FAMOUS SHOT. '■ BT EEJtEST SPCAFm.

IT WAS time to go to the Nodaway with 1 1 a grist. The Sour was almost gone, and the meal bag lay flattened oat in the corner, with not more than a pound or two of the yellow dust at the bottom of it. John and Ferris had arranged to go together, but old man Satterlee had concluded to go along and drive, having a notion to trade horses with the miller if he could get the bargain he was after. This suited the boys exactly, as it would give them more time to them* selves along the road, and it was a long drive. The bay horwes were hitched up and a load of wheat and corn loaded on tha wagon in two-bushel sacks, sufficient when ground up to last both the Brown and the Satterlee families for a couple of months, and the party started to mill. Ferris had his rifle along, and John had brought a huge old rifle which he had unearthed from the garret in the farmhouse. It was a regular “old-timer,” with a stock running the entire length of the barrel, and sc heavy at the muzzle that it was all the boy could do to hold it out in a wobbly fashion. It carried a bullet as big as the rifle thak Ferris owned, and had done great execution in the early days, according to Uncle Tom’s stories. » * John had a consuming ambition to kill a chicken hawk. These worthy birds bad displayed a reluctance to being shot wbach was exasperating. ‘Ferris said they would be sure to see hawks along the way, so the boys were prepared to do all sorts of long-range shooting. There were three kinds of hawka that they expected to run across on the trip. The road over the prairie was faintly outlined until they came toward the Nodaway, and then the farms began to show. And here, in the vicinity of tbd fields and timber, the hawks commenced to make their appearance. The first one to show up was an immense gray fellow. H<* was perched on a post of a wire fence about a hundred yards from the road. John # wan ted to stop the wagon and shoot from there, but old man Satterlee said that if they halted the wagon the hawk would fly away. So John and Ferris slipped from the back of the wagon, dose to the fence, and drew th'eir guns down from the wheat sacks afterward. The team meanwhile slowly drew ahead, and the boys leveled their rifles over the third wire and aimed at the hawk. That fathered monarch was intently watching the wagon, and as the boys counted “One, two, three” be never noticed the two bushwhackers with the menacing rifles. The two reports blended into one, amPthe great bird pitched heavily forward and the team ahead jumped a trifle jig the guns cracked. It was a neck and neck race to the hawk, as both boys had dropped their weapons in j their excitement. When they got up to where the hawk was the bird raised up, with the feathers on his neck lifted and his eyes flashing. He was only winged, after all, * and one bullet had missed^ him entirely. He was figthing mad and ready to battle with anything handy. The boys did not care to try and gather him. for he seemed to be too wrathy to/take kindly to them; So John waited until Kerris ran back and got the little rifle. When' Ferris returned he curled the hawk up with a bullet in the neck. This was a magnificent specimen, with tremendous broad wings and claws that were long and strong enough to carry. away a young lamb. His tail, and wing feathers were sure-enough trophies, aBd the boys were elated at their success. From the size of the wound in the wing John felt certain that Ferris had been the lucky marksmen. As they neared the timber a red-tailed hawk was seen sitting on a “rider” of a rail fence. The team stepped, as this bird was straight £ ahead. The hoys slipped up within about a hundred yards, and at the w ord .fired at this bird. Their combined aim was very fatal this time, for both bullets reached the tarpet, and the hawk never knew what struck him. Farther or. a third .hawk was sighted, sneaked on and missed; A sparrow hawk was the fourth quarry, and Ferris shot: at him as the bird poised over the meadow. The bullet sped close enough to him to disturb his pose,.and he turned and sailed away i toward the timber. A mile more and they had reached the turn in the road from which they could see the river. From where they turned in the mill could be seen, a tumble-down two-story frame building. In a few minutes they drove up to it .and unloaded the wheat and corn on to a platform, from where it was dragged into the mill. , „ , -JFerris arid John wandered away from the place after awhile and went into the big timber surrounding. the adjacent river * banks. They had reloaded their rifles, and, although there were few chances of seeing game So near, the mill, they were on the lookout. Presently they heard a rifle shot in the woods, and shortly after that another. “Somebody must have a squirrel up a trye,” said John. “I don’t hear no dog bark;” replied Ferris. The boys listened and soon afterwards another rifle shot sounded. They hurried into the timber in the direction of the shot and found a group of Bix or seven men shooting at a mark. It was the ace of diamonds tacked up to a tree, and the men were shooting at it at about 75 yards’ distance. As the boys came up the men said: “Want a shot at ’er, Johnny?” Ferris rather hung back, but John made up his mind that he would try it once, anyway. So he got in line with the target, and, raising the clumsy old rifle slowly up until the sight was just resting, as he thought, on the Bottom of the ace, firefly The best shot the men had made was a hole to the left of the ace just a trifle and about an inch below it. As a matter of fact, John thought that this spot was the ace when he aimed and fired. But it didn’t matter. The end of the big weapon wobbled as he pulled the trigger, but the bullet lodged deep in the tree after having driven right through the center of the ace. It was a miraculous shot. The men were amazed and John could hardly believe Ms eyes. They all wanted bam to load and shoot at the target again, but he said they would have to hurry back to the mill or they would keep the folks waiting. , So in spite of the urgent request of tha crowd John trailed back to the mill. After awhile the group of target shooters drifted back to the mill, and the fame of John as a marksman was noised about; Men pointed at him and whispered, and even the miller’s wife came out of her little house and stared luriously at the boy.

The boys helped the old man load the bags af floor and meaJ on the wagon and they itarted for home late in the afternoon. Two of the teams had gone on ahead, and the last man waited for his grist back of them. As they passed a house about two miles from the mill they saw a group watching from a well near the road. John was sitting on the rear end of the wagon with the big rifle in his hands and still trying to figure out how he had made that wonderful shot. As tb* wagon passed the group inside the fence a man whom John recognized as having been present at the target practice pointed cut Vward the wagon and said, audibly: “That's him; the hind feller; that low-sot boy.” It was the final tribute to his marksmanship. —Chicago D&ily Record.