Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1888 — Page 2

RELIGION PROLONGS LIFE

Practical Religion the Great Friend of Longevity. It F< rtta a Human Nature Aga nnt I'nffne Dl**ipaoon« and Lifts From the M il l itu Ornate st Ti oubl •*. Rev. Dr. Talmage expounded Scriphire at the Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday. Subject: “Does Religion Prolong Life?" Text: Psalm xci., 16, “With long lifewill I satisfy thee." He said: Through the mistake of its friends religion has been chiefly associated with sick-beds and graveyards. The whole subject to many people is odorous with chlorine and carbolic acid. There are people who can not pronounce the word religion without hearing in it the clipping chisel of the tombstone cutter. It is high time that this thing were changed and that religion, instead of being represented as a hearse to carry out the dead, should he represented as a chariot in which the living are to triumph. Religion, so far from subtracting from one's vitality, is a glorious addition. It is sanitive, curative, hygienic. It is Sod f r the eyes, good for the ears, good • the spleen, good for the digestion, good for the nerves, good for the muscles. When David, in another part of the Psalms, prays that religion may be dominant, He does not sjieak of it as a mild sickness, or an emaciation, or an attack of moral and spiritual cramp: he speaks of it as “the saving health of all nations;” while God, in the text, promises longevitv to the pious. The feet is that men and women die too soon. It is high time that religion joined the hand of medical science in attempting to improve human longevity. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. As late in the history of the world as Vesjiasian, there wen* at one time in his empire forty-five people one hundred and thirty-five years old. So far down as the sixteenth century, Peter Zartan died at one hundred ami eighty-five years of age. I do not say that religion will ever take the race back to antediluvian longevitv, but I do say that the length of human life will be greatly improved.

It is said in Isaiah: “The child shall die a hundred years old." Now, if according to Scripture, the child is to be a hundred years old, may notthe men and women reach to three hundred and four hundred and five hundred? The fact is that we are mere dwarfs and skeletons compared with some of the generations that are to come. Take the African race. They have been under bondage for centuries. Give them a chance and they develop a Frederick Douglass of a Toussaint L’Ouverture. And if the white race shall be brought from under the serfdom of sin, what shall be the body? what shall be the soul? Religion has only just touched our world. Give it full power for a few centuries and who can tell what will be the strength of man and the beat uy of woman and the longevity of all? My design is to show that practical religion is the friend of long life. I prove it, first, from the fact that it makes the care of <mr health a positive Christian duty. Whether we shall keep early or late" hours, whether we shall take food digestible, whether there shall be

thorough or incomplete mastication, ore questions very often deferred to the realms of whimsicality; but the Christian man lifts this whole problem of health into the accountable and the divine. He says: “God has given me this body, and’ He has called in the temple of the Holy Ghost, and to deface its altars or mffr its walls or crumble its pillars is a God-defying sacrilege.’’ He sees God’s calligraphy in every page—anatomical and physiological. He says: “God has given me a wonderful bodv for noble purposes.” That arm with thirty-two curious bones wielded bv forty-six curious muscles, and all under the brain’s telegraphy; 350 pounds of bloqjl rushing through the heart e very hour, the heart in twenty-four hours’ beating 100,000 times, during the twenty-four hours overcoming resistances amounting to 224,000,000 pounds of weight, during the same time the lungstaking in fifty-seven hogsheads of air, and all this mechanism not more mighty than delicate and easily’ disturbed and demolished. _ The Christian man says to himself: “If I hurt my nerves, if I hurt mv brain, if I hurtany of my physical faculties, I insult God and calf dor dire retributiou.” Why did God tell the Levites not to offer to Him in sacrifice animals imperfect and diseased? He meant to tell us in all the ages that we art to offer to God our ven- best physical condition, and a man wtio through irregular or gluttonous eating ruins his health is not offering to God such a sacrifice. Why did Paul write for his cloak at Troas” Why should such a great man as Paul be anxious about a thing so insignificant as an overcoat? It was because he knew tliat with pneumonia and rheumatism he would not be worth half as much to God and the Church as with respiration easy and foot free. An intelligent Christian man would consider it an absurdity to kneel down at night and pray and ask God’s protection while at the same time he kept the . windows of his bed-room tight shut against fresh air. He would just as soon think of going out on the bridge bet ween New York and Brooklyn, leaping off, and then praying to God to keep’ him from getting hurt. . Just as long as vou defer this whole subject of physical health to the realm of whimsicality, pr to the pastry cook, or to the butcher, Or to the baker, or to the apothecarv, or to the clothier, you ary-noi acting’ like a Christian. Take care of all your physical forces—nervous, muscular, bone, brain, cellular tissue—for all vou must be brought to judgment. ... ’. •-- Smoking your nervous syslehTThtb fidgets, burning out the coating of your stomach with wine logwooded ’ and strychnined, walking with thin shoes to make your feet look delicate, -pinched at the waist until you are high cut in two, and neither —part worth anything; groaning about sick headache and palpitation of the heart. which you think came from God, wbeu they came from your own folly. What light’has ani man or woman to Abe-Holv- Ghost?What is the ear? Why, it is the whispering gallery of the human soul. What is the eye? It is the observatory God constructed, its telescope sweeping the heavens. What is the hand? An instri ment so wonderful that when the Earl of Bridgewater bequeathed in his will $40,000 for treatises to be written on the wisdotp, power and goodness of God,

Sir Charles Bell, the great English anatomist and surgeon, found his greatest illustration in the construction of the human hand, devoting his whole book to that subject. So wonderful are these bodies that God names Disown attributes after different parts of them. His omniscience —it is God'p eye. His omnipresence—it is God's gar. ’ His omnipotence—it is God's arm. The upholstery of the midnight heavens-it is the work of God’s fingers. His life-giving power—it is the 1 breath of the Almignty. His dominion —“the government shall be upon his shoulder.” A body ao divinely honored anti so divinely constructed, Jet us be careful not to abuse it. , When it becomes a Christian duty to take care of our health, is not the whole tendency toward longevity? If I toss my watch about recklessly,’ and drop it oh the pavement, ami wind it up any time of the day or night I happen to think of it, and often let it run down, while yon are careful with your watch and never abuse it, and wind it up just at the same hour every night, and put it in a place w here it wifi not suffer from the violent changes of atmosphere, which watch will last the longer? Common sense answers. Now the human body is God's watch. You see the hands of the watch, you see the face of the watch, but the beating of the heart is the ticking of the watch. Oh! be careful and do not let it run down.

Again: I remarkjhat practical religion is a friend of longevity in the fact that it a protest against dissipations which injure and destroy the health. Bad men and women live a very short life. Their sins kill them. I know hundreds of good old men, but I do not know half a dozen bad old men. Why? They do not get old. Lord Byron died at Missoloughi at thirty-six years of age, himself his own Mazeppa, his unbridled passions the horse that dashed with him into the desert. Edgar A. Poe, died at Baltimore at thirty-eight years of age. The black raven that alighted on the bust above his chamber door was delirium tremens—- ‘ Only this and nothing more.” Napoleon Bonaparte lived only just beyond mid-life, then died at St. Helena, and one of his doctors said his disease was induced by excessive snuffing. The herb of Austerlitz, the man who by one step of his spot in the center of Europe shook the earth, killed by a snuff-box! Oh! how many people we have known who have not lived out half their days because of their dissipations and their indulgences! Now practical religion is a protest against all dissipation of any kind.

“But,’’ you sav, “professors of religion have fallen, professors of religion have got drunk, professors of religion have misappropriated trust funds, professors of religion have absconded.” Yes; but they threw away their religion before thev did their morality. If a man on a White Star Line steamer, bound for Liverpool, in mid-Atlantic jumps overboard and is drowned, is that anything against the White Star Line’s capacity to take the man across the ocean? And if a man jumps over the gunwale of his religion and goes down, never to rise, is that any reason for your believing that religion has no capacity to take the man dear through? In the one case if he had kept to the steamer his body would have been saved; in the other case if had kept to his religion his morals would have been saved. . . There are aged people who would have been dead twenty-five years ago but for the defenses and the equipoise of religion. You have no more natural resistance than hundreds of people who lie in the cemeteries to-day, slain by their own vices. The doctors made their case as pleasant as they could, and it was called congestion of the brain, or something else, but the spakes and the bine flies that seemed to crawl over the pillow in the sight of the delirious patient showed what was the matter with him. You, the aged Christian man, walked along by that unhappy one until you came to the golden pillar of a Christian life. You .went to the right; 'he went to the left. That is all the difference between vou. Oh! if this re-

ligion is a protest against all forms of dissipation, then it is an illustrious friend of longevity. • Agfiin: religion is a friend of longevity In the fact that it takes the worry out of our temporalities. It is not work that kills men; it is worry. When a man becomes a genuine Christian he makes over to God not only his affections, but his family, his business, his reputation, his bodv, his mind, his soul —every thing. Industrious he will be, but never worrying, because God is managing his affairs. How can he worry about business when in answer to his prayers God tells him when to buy and when to sell; and if he gain that is best, and if he lose that is best? “Oh!” you say, “here is a man who asked God for a blessing in a certain enterprise, and he lost $5,000 in it. Explain that.” 1 will. Yonder is a factory and one wheel is going north and the other wheel is going south, and one wheel plays laterally and the other plays vertically. Igo to the manufacturer and I say: “0! manufacturer, vonr machinery is a contradiction. Why do you not make all the wheels go one way?” “Well,” he says, “I made them go’ in opposite directions on purpose, and they produce the right results. You go downstairs and examine the carpets we are turning out in this establishment and you will see.” Igo down on the other floor and see the carpets, and am obliged to confess that, though the whee’s in that factory go in opposite directions, they turn out a beautiful result; and while I am standing there looking at the exquisite fabric an Old Scripture passage comes into my mind? “All things work together for good to them who lore there not tonic in that? Is there mot longevity in t fagt?

4-gaimpraxftical religionisafriendof longevity, in the fact that It removes all cproding cares about a future existence. Every man wants to know ‘ uliat is to become of him. If you get on hoard a rail train you want to know at what depot it is going to stop; if you get on board a ship y5iF ; wanV th know, into what harbor it is going to run, and if you should tell me you have - no interest’in what is to be your future destiny. 1 would in as polite a way as I know now tell vou thatl did not believe vou. Be- - 4ore-I had-thismatter-settled-with—refer-ence to my future existence, the ques- ♦ tf'tTl H IyytUTMgf' > ItIO ■» nf-r-k LlVii ***xxxvK’ti ntji x ivu tlltr itttv ru Ilivtl health. The anxieties men have T upon this subject put together would make a martyrdom. This is a state of awful unhealthiness. There are people who fret ' themselves to death for fear of dying. I Well, you de teat me in my three experiments. I have only one more to

make, and if you defeat me in that I am exhausted: A mighty One on a knoll back of Jerusalem one day, the skies filled with forked lightnings and the earth filled with volcanic disturbances, turned His pale and agonized face toward the heavens and said: “I take the sins and sorrows of the ages into mv own heart. I am the expiation. Witness earth and heaven and fiell, I am the expiation.” -. Ami the hammer struck him and spears punctured him and heaven thundered: “The wages of sin isdeath!" “The soul that sinneth, it shgll die!” “I will by no means clear the guilty!” Then there was silence for lialf an hour, and the lightnings were drawn back into the scabbard of the sky, and thd earth ceased to quiver, and ail the colors of the sky began to shift themselves into a rainbow woven out of the fallen tears of Jesus, and there was red as of the blood-shedding, and there was blue as of the bruising, and there was green as of the heavenly foliage, and there was orange as of the day-dawn. And along the Tine of the blue I saw the words: “I was braised for their iniquities.” And along the line of the red I saw the words: “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” And all along the line of the green I saw the words: “The leaves of the tree of life for the healing of Nations.” And along the line of the orange I saw the words: “The dayspring from on high hath visited us.” “’ And then I saw'the storm was over, and the rainbow rose higher and higher, until it seemed retreating to another heaven, and planting one colnmn of its colors on one side the eternal hill, and planting the other column of its colors on the other side the eternal hill, it rose upward and upward, “and behold, there was a rainbow about the throne!” Accept that sacrifice, and quit worrying. Take the tonic, the inspiration, the longevity of this truth. Religion is fresh air and pure water, they are healthy. Religion is warmth, that is healthy. Ask all the doctors, and they will tell you that a quiet conscience and pleastint anticipations are hygienic. I offer you perfect peace now and hereafter. Glory be to God for this robust,Healthy religion. It will 1 have a tendency to make you live long in this world, and in the world to come you will have eternal life. “With long fife will I satisfy him.”

Presidential Candidates Galore.

It may not be generally known, although we have endeavored to keep our readers thoroughly posted in all such matters, of the number and names composing the candidates for the Presidency already nominated. They are: Albert E. Redstone, of California, foi President, and John Colvin, of Kansas, for Vice President, nominated at Washington on February 22d by the Industrial Reform Party; Belva A. Lockwood, of the District of Columbia, for President, and Alfred H. Love, of Pennsylvania, for Vice President, nominated at Des Moines, lowa, on May 15th by woman suffragists; A. J. Streator; of Illinois, for President, and Charles E. Cunningham, of Arkansas, for Vice President, nominated at Cincinnati on May 16th, by the Union Labor Party, and Rebert H. Cowdry, of Illinois, for President, and W. H. T. Wakefield, of Kansas, for Vice President; noniinated at Cincinnati on May 17th, by the United Labor Party; Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, and Rev. Dr. Brooks, of Missouri, nominated by the Prohibitionists at Indianapolis, May 31, and Grover Cleveland, of New York, and Allen G. Thurman, of Ohjp, nominated by the Democrats at St. Louis. June 7tb.

The Garfields.

Washington letter in Boston Transcript Miss Garfield, after her return from her wedning trip to Europe, will live in Washington, with her husband, Mr. Stanley Brown. It will be remembered that he was President Garfield’s private syretary. Unless Mrs. Garfield has lately sold it, she still owns the comfortable double brick-house at the corner of Thirteenth and I street, built by General Garfield during the latter part of his term in Congress. It has *a large yard for a city house, and one of the commonest sights of the neighborhood was General Garfield romping with his boys in the little green inclosure. The house was shut up for some years—the tide of fashion flowed beyond it —and it had even a more and deserted look than vacant houses usually have. Miss Garfield is entirely unknown in Washington. She was only twelve or thirteen when she left, and her childish friends and companions belonged to that changing political and official circle that vanishes like rime in the morning sun.

A Husbands Solicitude.

Robinson —So you are going to Europe, Brown? Brown —Yes, for a couple of months. I haven’t been very strong lately and I think the trip will do one good. Robinson —I hope so. Mrs. Brown will accompany you of course? - Bown—N—no; my wife has complained of not feeling very strong recently and I’m afraid to have her undertake the trip.

THE RAIN. He opened the windows of heaven to-day. And poured ua i blessing down - On the thirsty field and the stony way, And the hot and dusty town. The light on the mountain is faint and sweet. And bright is the flowery pain: 7 In the silent wood where the lovers meet. The mosses are green again. I lifted tny plant in my feeble hands. An.i hold it out to the shower: For the rain that waters the wide-spr.ad lands Will f.eshen a window’s flower. 'And'tfiere rame’athought of the friend'.ess heart Shut up in a lonely place: Oh. carry it forth, ere its life depart. And give it the streams cf grace.' Oh, carry it forth to a purer air, From its dark abode of pain. Till the dust of Self, and the stains of care Are washed away by the rain. —The Quiver for June.

FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE.

The Victory In Oregon. Globe-Democrat- \ Republicans will be justified in feeling jubilant over the great victory gained by the party in Oregon on Monday. This was the first election held in a debatable State thisyear. A Republican triumph in Rhode island and a Democratic triumph'in Louisiana, the States which had already voted in 1888, were expected, and their occurrence surprised iwbodv, although the Democrats carried Rhode Island in 188?. '• In the east* of Oregon, however, the Republicans have particular reason to feel elated over the victory. The Administration had exerted itself openly and shamelessly in the effort to carry the State. Emissaries of the President, conspicuous among whom was the notorious Smith M. Weed, w r ere at work throughout the State for weeks before the election in aid of the Democratic candidates. Threats and blandishments alike were employed in the effort to carry the State. Money was spent lavishly, and every device was resorted to which promised success. But still the Administration failed. The great prize contended for in the election was a United States Senatorship. The Democrats endeavored to choose a majority of the members of the Legislature, so as to secure the successor of Joseph N. Dolph, Republican, whose term in the Senate expires on March 4 next. If the Democrats won that position the next Senate would be a tie, provided they hold their own in New Jersey, in which State a Democratic Senator’s term also ends with the present Congress. As the case stands now the Republicans may retain their present supremacy in the Senate. In New Jersey, which has still to elect a part of its Legislature, the Republicans nave'much more than a fighting chance to win. If they do win the party will have thirty-nine members in the Senate and the Democrats thirty-seven, as now. The most that the Democrats can do now with the Senate of the Fifty-first Congress will be to tie it. In that event the Vice President would cast the deciding vote. This gives an additional element Of interest to the national canvass. The great victory in Oregon, however, the State giving 7,000 Republican plurality on Monday last, as compared with 290 plurality in 1886 for one State officer of that party atid 234 plurality for a Democratic candidate for another State office, indicates that the Republican party throughout the country is resolute and enthusiastic thifi year. ’

Some of the Democratic brethren in convention assembled may not have seen or heard of Mr. Cleveland’s letter accepting the nomination, of 1884. For their benefit we print the following extract from that document: When we consider the patronage of this great office [the Presidency] the allurements of power, the temptation to retain nublic place once gained, and, more than all, the availability a party finds in an incumbent whom a horde of office-holders, with a zeal born of benefits received, and fostered by the hope of favors yet to come, stand ready to aid with money and trained political service, we recognize in the eligibility of the President for re-election a most serious danger to that calm, deliberate and intelligent political action which must characterize a government by the people.

A Bou b nos Bourbons. The Hon. Allen G. Thurman, the candidate for Vice President on the Democratic ticket, is one of the ablest and one of the best known of the old style Democrats of the United States. He has, deservingly, a fine reputation as a lawyer, and among his neighbors in Ohio and among the public men of the Nation is universally respected, but he has been for over thirty years a Bourbon of Bourbons. There wa£ a time when he was immensely popular with all factions of the Democratic party in Ohio, but that was before the war. During the war his attitude was such as to compromise him in the eyes of Democrats who were unswerving union men, and many of those who had in previous years given him hearty support fell away from him He was charged, many times during the war, with giving aid and comfort to the rebellion, or, at least, with giving aid and comfort to the rebels. Whether he did this or not it is certain that he did nothing in private or public speech to strengthen the arms of the Government.

Thurman represented substantially the same principles that did Mr. Vallandingham in the campaign of 1863. In that campaign Vallandingham was opposed by Brough, a war Democrat, who had become a member of the Union Republican party, and as earnest and thorough a Republican as ever lived. Brough’s majority was over 100,000. The first campaign after the war was made in 1865 with General J. D. Cox as the Republican candidate for Governor and with General G. W. Morgan as the Democratic candidate. General Cox’s majority was 29,546. In 1867 many of the war Democrats who had voted against Vallandingham were whipped into a vote for Thurman. Many others who had acted with the Republican party voted for him or remained away from the polls because the Republicans came out squarely in favor of the constitutional amendments and negro suffrage. The bounty jumpers and draft evaders who had been sojourning in Canada had by this time returned, and they voted for him. On one side was a Democratic leader appealing to Bourbon and conservative prejudices at a critical point in the experience of the Republican party. On the other was a man of irreproachable character, who had been a good soldier, making the advance fight for negro suffrage. Thurman ami his party counted on certain victory, but they were defeated by a majority of 3,000, and the man who defeated them gained such prestige in that campaign that a few years later he became president of the United States. This marked the maximum influence of Thurman in Ohio. Since that time he has lost his hold on the Democratic party, andlie lias been time and time again snubbed and humiliated by the men who defeated him in the Democratic convention of 1884. He is now put <>n the ticket with the hope of calling to the support of Bourborn Democrats of the old school. It is an open question whether he will do this or not, but that his nomination will drive away from Mr. Cleveland many old soldiers who hate the name copper-head is certain. As the Republicans are pretty sure to nominate a candidate who will’be strong in Ohio, and as

Ohio never went Democratic in a Presidential year, the nomination, of Mr. Thurman strengthens rather than weakens the Republican cause. . How Protect on Affect* Th Farmer. Forty years ago, when it was sought to change the policy of Great Britain from Protection, which had been in force for more than four hundred years, the farmers of tliat Kingdom were told that great advantages would inure to them; first' in cheaper clothing, implements, etc.; and secondly, that with the worldifor a market, manufactures would prosper, and those people depending upon them for a livelihood would become liberal buyers of farm products at better prices. >- As the same arguments are daily urged upon the farmers of this country as an inducement for following the British policy, it will be interesting, and mav prove prbfitable, to note the effects of that policy upon English agriculture. Facts of history are much safer guides than fine-spun theories of economic writers, ar specious arguments of free trade politicians. England adopted her free trade policy in 1846, when, according to official reports, her farmers were growing 14,100,000‘acres of wheat, oats and barley, valued at $250,000,000. Forty-one years later, in 1887, acreage in the same crops was 9,876,270, with a value of $200,000,000. This in face of the fact that the population had increased from 28,000,000 to 37,000,000. Commenting upon these official figures, a prominent London Journal remarks: “Thus we have, with a 30 per cent increase of population, a reduced tillage of land for wheat, barley and oate of 4,223,730 acres; and beides that, the serious and lamentable loss of the purchasing power of the agricultural products” to the extent of £50,000,000.”

That is to say, English farmers have $250,000,000 less income in 1887 than in 1846, as the result of 41 years trial of free trade. The values of agricultural lands have meantime fallen 40 to 75 per cent., and the tendency is still downward. ’ \ In view of these facts, there is little room for wonder at existing agitation for return to the policy of Protection. More than 500 Tariff Clubs have been organized in England, not, alone by those engaged in farming, who were the first sufferers under the policy which it is urged this country should adopt, but by workmen in the mechanical industries as well. One hundred and forty public meetings favoring “Tariff Reform,” in the direction of Protection, were held in England during the first three months of the present year. - It will thus be seen that the promises of prosperity for farmers under free trade have not beep fulfilled in England. With cheaper clothing and cheaper food has come diminished ability to buy. The farmers of .this country will do well to be content with the experience of their cousins across the' water, and continue their refusal to lend themselves to a change of that economic policy which has brought to the United States a prosperity unparalleled in the world’s history.’

The Democratic Platform.Intar Ocean. “The Democratic party, in National convention assembled,renews the pledge of its fidelity to the Democratic faith, and reaffirms the platform adopted by its representatives in the convention of 1884, and indorses the views expressed by President Cleveland in his last earnest message as the correct interpretation of that platform upon the question of tariff reduction;” such are the opening w’ords of the platform yesterday adopted at St. Louis. They suggest three questions: What is “the Democratic faith” to which the pledge of fidelity is renewed? What was the platform of 1884, so far as revenue reduction is concerned? ’' r " How’ can President Cleveland’s “last earnest message” be considered as interpreting it? ’• ' A The Democratic faith is affirmation of State sovereignty as an absolute endowment of each member of the Union of States,- Whenever in power the Democratic party has so affirmed unequivocally; when, out of power it has so affirmed with vague'and shadowy limitations. In 1884, being out of power, it affirmed: The preservation of personal rights, the equality of all citizens before the law, the reserved rights of States, and the supremacy of the Federal Government, within the limits of the Constitution, will ever form the true basis of our liberties.

In 1888, being in power, it resolved in favor of devotion to a plan of Goverment regulated by a written constitution strictly specifying every granted power and expressly reserving to the States or people the entire ungranted residue of power. Not a word about “personal rights,” or “the equality of all citizens before the law,” or of “the supremacy of the Federal Government,” in the Democracy’s affirmation for 1888. The old South is again in the saddle at home and in the councils at Washington. The delegates from a State whose senior Senator proclaimed the purpose of the last election to be to determine “whether the white man should rule the black man or no,” whose Governor boasted that he and Cleveland were in office by virtue of “violation of the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Louisiana,” who promised to “suspend the laws,” till a Democratic successor was elected, and who kept his promise, would hardly have tolerated any nonsense about “personal rights;” or “equality of all citizens before the law;” or “supremacy of the Federal Government;” that was good enough flapdoodle for a party seeking to gain by stealth the offices which it had been unable to capture by force of arms, but it was not the kind of stuff to which it would pledge itself as an administration. The States rights plank of the convention would have been acceptable to Calhoun, and doubtless is acceptable to J. Davis. This is “tire Democratic faith.” What was the Democratic platform of 1884 as to tariff reduction? Part of it “From the foundation of this government taxes collected at the Custom House have been the chief source of Federal revenue, and must so continue fc Hey’ .. J' - . ' " AVKat last earnest message” concerning taxes so collected? Part of his dressage was in these words: “Our present tariff laws, the vicious, inequitable, and illegal source of revenue.” How does “the earnest message inter-

pret ’ the platform? The one savs that tariff duties are the oldest and must be the most enduring source of revenue; the other says that they are not only “vicious,” but also* “illegal’' imposts. The one looks to their continuance, the other looks to their ultimate, and perphaps not distant abolition. The platform is for permanent tariffs for revenue, the message is for tariff as a necessary evil, to be abated as quickly as possible. A part of the platform of ’IBB4 was in these words: ; “The system of direct taxation, known as the internal revenue, is a war tax, and ’ so long as the law continues the money derived therefrom should be sacredly devoted to the relief of the people from the remaining burdens of the war.” Nothing can be plainer than this; the internal revenue system is deriounced 04 a needlessly surviving war measure; a belief in its speedy abolition is expressed, and it is affirmed that so long as it endures it should not be regarded as a source of general revenue, but as a specific means of performing specific obligations growing out of the war. But “the last earnest message” says this of the internal revenue system: “It must be conceded that none of the things subjected to internal revenue taxation are, strictly speaking, necessaries; there appears to be no just complaint of this taxation by the consumers of these articles, and there seems to be nothing so well able to bear the burden of taxation.” This also is plain enough. The internal taxes are held to be permanent and equitable sources of general revenue, not to be repealed, but continued. And yet “the platform of 1884” is to be “interpreted” by the message of 1887! The platform affirming tariff to be a needful and permanent source of revenue, the message declaring it to be a vicious and illegal source; the platform declaring internal taxes to be a temporary source of revenue for special purposes, and the message declaring them to be an enduring source of revenue for general purposes. Surely, the Demorcy at St. Louis lifted up its 'voice to Mr. Cleveland and said: “Am n«Jt I thine ass that hath served thee these three years?” Still, as the weeks and months between June and November progress, we shall hear of Democratic speakers in New Jersey and .Connecticut declaring that the platform says protection, and of Democratic speakers in Mississippi and Arkansas avowing that the President is to interpret the platform, and that he will make it mean free trade. The solemn truth is that the platform means nothing at all as to tariff; it speaks plainly it affirms the ultimate doctrine of States rights. The meaning of the convention was surrender of itself to the inevitable Cleveland, and his message means free trade; not more, nor less. Just that.

Oregon and the Tariff.

Indianapolis Journal. Free-trade papers are already beginning to assert that the tariff question did not cut any figure in the Oregon election. The following is from the Oregon States-, man of June 1, the latest issue of that paper that has reached this office: “The main issue of this campaign is the question of protection to American industries and upholding the dignity of American labor. The main issue of the campaign for the November election will be the same. It is the dividing iine be-, tween the two great parties. The issue is plainly made and must be openly fought. There is no room for political copperheads in the great party of protection.” This is the way the Republican papers in Oregon have been talking all during the campaign. The tariff question occupied a prominent ]>lace in the campaign and exercised a controlling influence on the election. From this time on till the presidential election we expect to see the Democracy trying to hedge on the tariff question. Having, as they think, got the benefit of an open and anient advocacy of free trade, they will now pretend that they are very conservative on the subject and friendly to moderate protection. The position of the Democracy is sufficiently defined by the President’s message, by the Mills bill and the Congressional debate, and the intelligence of the people willnot permit them to take anew one for campaign purposes. The Oregon Republicans sized them up exactly riflit.

Safety from Lightning.

New York Commetciil Advertiser. “What is the safest place during a thqpder storm?” was asked of a professor versed in electricity. “Well,” said he, “to be surrounded by dry air is considered important for safety. It is owing to the resistance the lightning* meets with when passing through the air that we are made sensible of its effects. We see it flashing among the clouds; we hear it as thunder in its passage, and when we are near an electrical machine during its excitement, or when near a lightning’s current, we can feel, smell, and taste it. Thunder is a noise evidently caused by the 'rapid motion of the electricity, thereby producing a vacuum and prolonged by echo among the clouds. If your house has a properly constructed lightning conductor the'safest place in the room is adjacent to the rod. “But if your house has no conductor, it is safer to retire to the middle of the room and sit in a recumbent position during the height of the storm, having first shut all doors and windows to preserve the air inside as dry as possible. The common caution not to stand near a lightning rod, stove funnel, or iron Tence, etc., is erroneous, for it the metals you stand or sit by reach above your head or to the floor or into the ground a sufficient depth, you are much safer in such a situation than otherwise. A building properly provided ‘with lightning roils is a safe retreat during a thun-der-storm.”

HOPE.

From every piercing sorrow _7,. That heaves our breast to-day, Or threatens us to-mbrrow. Hope turns our eyes array t On wings of faith ascending, We see the land of light, And feel our sorrows ending In infinite delight—{Joseph Cottle.