Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1890 — Page 7

THE SKY ANTHEM.

Dr. Talmage’s Christmas Sermon in the Holy Land, at Beyrout. it Seems to Him That the Crown of Boyalty and Dominion and Power Was Hung on The Sky in Sight of Bethlehem. On Christmas Eve., Rev. T. De Witt Talmage preached to a group of friends at Beyrout on “The Sky Anthem.” His text was Luke ii, 14: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,” on which he delivered the following discourse: At last I have what I longed for, a Christmas eve in the Holy Land. This is the time of year that Christ landed. He was a December Christ. This is the chill air through which he descended. I look u p through th se Christmas skies, and I see no loosened star hastenirig southward to halt above Bethlehem, but all the stars suggest the Star of Bethlehem. No more need that any of them run along the sky to point downward. In quietude they kneel at the feet of him who, though once an exile, is now enthroned forever. Fresh- up from Bethlehem, I am full of the scenes suggested by a visit to that village. You know that whole region of Bethlehem is famous in BibO story. There were the waving harvests of Boaz, iti which Ruth gleaned for herself and weeping Naomi. There David the warrior was thirsty, and three men. of unheard of self denial broke through the Philistine army to get him a drink, it was to that region that Joseph and -vary came to have their names enrolled in the census. That is what the Scripture means when it says they came “to be taxed,” for people did net in those days rush after the assessors of tax any more than they now do. The village inn was crowded with the strangers who had come up by the command of government to have their names in the census, so that Joseph and Mary were obliged to lodge in the stables. You have seen some of those large stone buildings, in the center of which the camels are kept, while running out from this center in all directions there were rooms, in one of Which Jesus was born. Had his parents been more showily appareled I have no doubt they would have found more comfortable entertainment. That night in the Helds the shepherds, with crook and kindled fires, were watching their flocks, when hark! to the sound of voices strangely sweet. Can it be that the maidens of Bethlehem have come out to serenate the weary shepherds! But now a light stoops upon them like the morning, so that the flocks arise, shaking their ’snowy fleece and bleatin rto their drowsy young. The heavens are filled with armies of light, and the earth quakes under the harmony as, echoed back from a cloud to cloud, it rings over the midnight hills: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men!” It seems that the crown of royalty and dominion and power which Christ left behind him hung on the sky in sight of Bethlehem. . ho knows but that that crown may have been mistaking by the wise men for the star running and pointing downward! My subject, in the first place, impresses me with the fact that indigence is not always significant of degredation. When princes arc born, heralds announce it, and cannon thunder it, and flags wave it, and illuminations set cities on fire with the tidings. —bome of us in England or America remember the time of rejoicing wh n the Prince of Wales was born. You can remember the gladness throughout Christendom at the nativity in the pala -e at Madrid. But when our glorious Prince was born, there was no rejoicing on earth. Poor and growing poorer, yet the heavenly recognition that Christmas night shows the truth of the proposition that indigence is not always significant of degradation. In nil ages there havo been great hearts throbbing under rags, tender sympathies under rough exterior, gold in the quartz. Parian marble in the quarry, and in every stable of privation wonders of excellence that’ have been the joy of the heavenly host. All the great deliverers of literature and of nations were born in homes without affluence, and from their own privation learned to speak und fight

for . the oppressed.. - man —hits held up his pine knotliglit from the wilderness until all nations and generations nave seen it, and off of his h ird crust of penury has broken the bread of knowledge ..nd religion for the starving millions of the race. Poetry, uni science, and literature, and commerce, and laws, and constitutions, and liberty, like Christ, were born'in a manger. All the gre.it thoughts which have decided the destiny of nations started in obscure cornets, and had Herods who wanted to slay them, and Iscariots who betrayed them, and rabbles that crucified them, and sepulchers that confined them until they burst forth in glorious resurrec- ■ tion. Strong character, like the rhododendron, fa an Alulae plant, that grows fastest in the storm. Men are like wheat, worth all the more for being flailed. Some of the most, useful people would never have come to posit.onsof usefulness had they not been ground and pounded and hammered in the foundry of disaster. W hen I see Moses coming up from the ark of bulrushes to be the gr aleat lawgiver of the ages, and Amos from tending the herds to make Israel tremble with his prophecies, and David from the sheepcote to sway the poet’s pen and the king’s scepter, and Peter from the Ashing net to be the great? preacher at the Pentecost. I find proof of the truth of my proposit on that indigence is not always significant of degradation. My subject also impresses me with the thought th it it is whde at "our useful occupations that we have divine manifestations. Had those shepherds gone that night into Bethlehem and risked their flocks among the’wolves, they would not have heard the song of the angels. In Other words, that m tn sees most of God and heaven who minds his own business, he all have our posts of duty, and standing there God appears to us. he are nil shop herds or shepherdesses, and We have our flocks of cares and annoyances and anxieties, and we must tend to them. We so net mcs hoar very good people say: “If I had a month or a year or two to do BOth'ng but attend to religious things r _L would be a great deal better than I am now.” You are mistaken. Generally the best people are the busy people. Elisha was plowing in the field when the prophetic mantle fell on him. Mathaw was.attend ng lb his custom house duties when Christ comma ided him to follow. James and John were mending th dr nets when Christ culled them to be fishers of men. Had they bsen snbrin rin toe sun Christ would not have called their indolence into the apostleship. Gideon was at work with the flail on the threshing floor when he saw the angel. Saul was wit h great fat gue hunting up the lost asses when he found the crown of Israel. The prodigal son would never have reformo 1 and want'd ta have returned to his father s house if he had not first gone into business, though it was swine feeding. Not once out. of a hundred times will a lazy Hinn 1 e ome a Christian. Tho o who have nothing to do are in very unfavorable uir--1

cumstances for the receiving of divine manifestations. It is not when you are in idleness, but when you are, like the Bethlehem shepherds, watching your flocks, that the glory descends and there is joy among the angels of God over yoitr soul penitent and forgiven. My subject also strikes at the delusion that the religion of Christ is glorous and grief infusing. The music that broke through the midnight heavens was not a dirge, but an anthem. It shook joy over the hills. It not only dropped upon the shepherds, but it sprang upward among the thrones. The robe of a Saviour’s righte--1 ousness is not black. The Christian life is not made up of weeping and cross bearing and war waging- Through the revelation of that Christmas night I find that religion is not a groan, but a song. In a world of sin and sick bed and sepulchers, we must ■ have trouble; but in the darkest night the heavens part with angelic song. You may, like Paul, be shipwrecked, but I exhort you to be of good cheer, for you shall all escape safe to the land. Religion does not show itself in the elongation of the face and the cut of the garb. The Pharisee who puts his religion into his phylactery has none left for his heart Fretfulness and complaining do not belong to the family of Christian graces which movelnto the heart when the devil moves out Christianity does not frown upon amusements and recreations. It is not a cynic, it is not shrewd, it chokes no laughter, it quenches no light, it defaces no art Among the happy T it is tlie liappiest. It is just as much at home on the .play-ground as it is in the church. It is just as graceful in the charade as it is in the psalm book. It sings just as well in Surry gardens as it prays in St Paul’s. Christ died that we might live. Christ walked that we might ride. Christ wept that we might laugh. i Again my subject impresses me with the fact that glorious endings sometimes have i very humble beginings. The straw palate ' was the starting point, but the shout in the midnight sky revealed what would be the glorious consummation. Christ on Mary’s lap, Christ on the throne of. universal dominion—what an humble starting! What a glorious ending! Grace begins on a smidl scale in the heart. You see only men as trees walking. The grace of God in the heart is afeble spark, and Christ has to keep i both hands over it lest it be blown out. What an humble beginning! But look at that same man when he has entered heaven. No crown able to express his royalty. No palace able to express his wealth. No scepter able to express his power and his dominion. Drink-, ing from the fountain that drips from the everlasting Rock. Among the harpers harping with their harps. On a sea of glass mingled with fire. Before the throne of God, to go no more out forever. The Spark of grace that Christ had to keep both hands over lest it come to_extinctiQn, havr ing flamed up into honor and glory and immortality. What humble starting! What glorious consummation! i The New Testament church was on a small scale. Fishermen watched it. Against the uprising walls crashed infernal enginery The world said anathema. Ten thousand people rejoiced at every seeming defeat, and said: “Aha! aha! so we would have it.” Martyrs on fire cried-: “How long, O Lord, how long!” Very humble starting, but see the difference at the consummation, when Christ with his almighty arm has struck off the last chain of human bondage, and Himalaya shall be Mount Zion; and Pyrenees, Moriah; and oceans, the walking place of him who trod the wave cliffs of stormed Tiberias, and island shall call to island, sea to sea, continent to continent, and, the song of the world's redemption rising, the heavens, like a great sounding board, shall strike back the shout of salvation to the earth until it rebounds again to the throne of God, and all heaven, rising on their thrones, beat time with their scepters. Oh, what an humble beginning! Vvhat a glorious ending! Throne linked to a manger, hsaveirty man- , sions to a stable.

A y subject also impresses me with the ‘ effect of Christ’S mission upward and ; downward. Glory to God, peace to man. \\ hen God sent his son into the world, an- j gels discovered something new in God, i something they had never seen before. I Not power, not wisdom, not love. They knew all that before. But when God sent his son into this world then the angels saw ; the spirit of self denial -in God, the spirit of self sacrifice in. God. It is easier . to love an angel on his throne than a thief on the cross, a seraph in his worship than an adullress in ber orime. VX hen the angels saw God —the God who would not allow the most insignificant angel in heaven to be hurt—give up his Son, his Son, his only, only Son, they saw something that they had never thought of before, and I do not wonder that when Christ started out on that pilgrimage the ' angels in heaven clapped their wings in triumph and called on all the hosts of heaven to help them celebrate it, and sang so loud that the Bethlehem shepherds heard it: “Glorv to God in the highest.” But it was also to be a mission of peace toman, infinite holiness—accumulated de- ! pravity. How could they ever come togeth- j er? The Gospel bridges over the distance. It brings God to us. It takes us to God. God in us, and we in God. Atonement! Atonement! Justice satisfied, sins forgiven, eternal lite secured, heaven huilt on a manger. But it was also to be the pacification of all individual and international animosities. What a sound this word of peace had in the Roman empire that boasted of the number of people it had massacred, that prided itself on the number of the slain, that rejoiced at the trembling provinces. Sicily and Corsica and Sardinia and Mrcedonia ! and Egypt had bowed to her sword and crouched at the cry of her war eagles. She gave her chief honor to Scipio and Fabius and Ctnsar-all men of blood. Vv bat contempt they must have had there for the penniless, unarmed Christ in the garb of a Nazarene, starting out to conquer all nations, There never was a place on earth where that word peace sounded so offensively to the ears of the multitude as in the Roman empire. They did not want peace. The greatest music they ever heard was the clanking chains of their captives. If all the blood that has been shed in battle could be gathered together it would upbear a navy. The | club that struck Abel to the earth has its echoe in the butcheries of all ages. Edmund Burke, who gave no wild statistics, said thpt there had been spent in slaughter thirty-five thousand millions of dollars, or what would be equal to tnat; but he had not seen into our times, when in our own i day, in America, we expended three thou- | sand millions of dollars in civil war. ‘ Oh if we could now take our position on 1 some high point and see the world’s armies march past! 'What a spectacle it would be! There go tho hosts of fsr.iel through a score of Red seas—one of water, thereat of blood. There go Cyrus and his army, with infuriate yell rejoicing over the fall of the ga’es iof Babylon. There goes Alexander, lead- | ing forth his hosts and conquering all tho world but himself, the earth reeling with tho buttle gash of Arbela and Persepolis. There goes Ferdinand Cortes, leaving his butchered enemies on the table lands once fragrant with vanilla and covered over ; with groves of flowering cac.io. There goes the great Frenchman, leading his army down through Egypt like one of its plagues, and up through Egypt like one of

its own icy blasts. Yonder is the grave ’trench under the shadow of Sebastopol. • There are the ruins of Delhi and AUahabad. and yonder are the inhuman Sepoys and the brave regiments under Haveloek avenging the insulted flag of Britain; while ’ cut right through the heart of mv native ' land is a trench in which there lie one million northern and southern dead. Oh, the tears I t)h, the blood! Oh,-the long marches! Oh, the hospital wounds! Oh, the death! But brighter than the light which flashed on all these shields and musketry is the light that fell on Beibeiem, and louder than the bray of the trumpets, and the neighing of the chargers, and the of the walls, and the groaning of the dying armies, is the song that unrolls this moment from the sky, sweet as though all the bells of heaven rung a jubilee. “Peace on earth, good Will toward men.” Oh, when will the day come —God hasten it!—when the swords shall be turned into plowshares, and the fortresses - shall be remedied into churches, and the ; men of blood battling for renowushall be- i come good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and the cannon now striking down whole columns of death shall thunder the victories of truth. W hen we think of the whole world saved we arff apt to think of the few people taat now inhabit it. Only- a very -few, compared with the population* to come. And what a small part cultivated. Do you know it has been authentically estimated i that three-fourths of Europe is yet all bar-1 one one-thousandth part of the entire globe 1 is uncultivated! ThislsHitto be cultivated, ; all inhabited and all gospelizadr'Olr, what tears of repentance when nations begin to weep! Oh, what supplication when continents begin to pray 1 Oh, what rejoicing when hemispheres begin to sing! i Churches will worship on the places where this very hour smokes the blood of human sacrifice, and wandering through the snake infested jungles of Africa Christs l heel will bruise the serpent’s head. Oh, when the trumpet . of salvation shall be sounded everywhere j and the nations are redeemed, a light will I fall upon- every town brighter than that ' which fell upon Bethlehem, and more i overwhelming than the song that fell ! on the pasture fields where the i flocks fed, there will be a song louder than the voice of the storm lifted oceans, “Glory to God in the highest,” and from all nations and kindred and people and tongues will come the response, “And on earth peace, good will toward men!” , On this Chrislmus eve I bring you goodtid-' ings of great joy. Pardon for all sin, comfort for all trouble and life for the dead. Shall we now take this Christ into our | hearts! The time Is passing. This Is the closing of the year. How the time speeds by. Put your hand on ycur heart—one,two, three. Three times less it will beat Life is passimr like gazelles over the plain. Sorrows hover like petrels over the sea. ■ Death swoops like a vulture from the mountains. Mistery rolls up to our ears like waves. Heavenly songs fall to us like stars. I wish you a merry Christmas, not with worldly dissipations, but merry with Gospel gladness, merry with pardoned sin. merry with hope of reunion in the skies... with all your loved ones who have preceded you. Jn that grandest and best sense a merry Christmas. And God grant that in our final moment 1 we may have as bright a vision as did the dying girl when she said: “Mother”--pointing with her tbin white hand through the window—“ Mother, what is that beauti- ; ful land out yonder beyond the mountains, the high mountains!” “Oh,” said the mother, “my darling, there are no mountains within sight of our home.” “Oh, yes,” she said, “don’t you see them—that beautiful land beyond the mountains out there, just beyond the high mountains. j . The mother looked down into the face of her dying child and said: “My dear,l think that must be hea.ven that, you seel” “Well, i then,” she said, “father, you come, and with your strong arms carry me over those mountains into that beautiful land beyond the high mountains.” “No,” , said the weeping father, “my darling, I can’t go with you.” “Well,” she said, clapping her hands, “never mind, never mind; I see yonder a shining one coming. . He is coming now, in his strong arms to i carry me over tne mountains to the beautiful land—over the mountains, over the higTEincuntains !’r~3_ ■-■---a......=a=== ■.

No Poisonous Insects. Serpents or Plants.

While discussing venomous reptiles, says Forest and Stream, it will per- ■ haps not be out of place to add a little , information, which seems to me re-1 markable and which will be news to nearly all who live east of the mountains. When I arrived on I'uget Sound I was informed that there were neither poisonous serpents, in- 1 sects nor plants on the shores or islands of the Sound. Having never seen a place entirely devoid of poison- ■ ous animal or vegetable life I was rather inclined to doubt the assertion, though assured by many old settlers, as well as new, that such was the ease. However, a careful investigation since then has convinced me that it is true. In all my hunting and : fishing expeditions I have never seen a specimen of poisonous reptile, insector plant. I notice an entire absence of both poison oak and ivy, which I have heretofore encountered ' wherever I have been. As far as I | can learn, what I have said in regard i to Puget Sound also holds true of all I the country lying west of the Cascade range.

Smart College Youths.

The college boys have been having a little fun with a new instructor, who tried to discipline them by hurting 1 their pride. Their composition were not of the high literary merit that he desired, so one day a package of finished productions was handed them for careful examination and upon which to model their future efforts. The compositions w.ere by students in a western college. When they were returned they bore annotations, as for instance: “Oh, rats.” “Chestnuts.) Professor,” etc. Teaching by object lessons has been discarded in this department—New Haven Palladium.

Knew the Value of Advertising.

terror has m;ide an unsuccess- ■ ful attempt to climb up the chimney,! and his father discovers him covered with soot He greets him after the following formula: “You young rascal! What in the world have you been up.to now?” “Up the chimney, papa.” “Up the chimney?" r “Yes, papa. 1 wanted to put this sign (exhibits sign, bearing the foli lowing: ‘pies mr Santer .Cl .ws don f serged Litel "Willie poper sais I m A } terrer but momer likes me’) on top of the chimney.”—Philadelphia In- ■ quirer.

HENRY W. GRADY DEAD.

A Mast Promising Light of tha Saw Sovth - Gone. __ J 1 Henry W. Grady died of pneumonia at Atlanta, Ga., Monday. He was born in Athens, Ga., in 1851, and was educated at the University of Virginia. At the age of twenty he was the editor of the Daily' Commercial at Athens, a progressive paper ahead of the town. He left this psper to become the editor of the Atlanta Herald, known as the most brilliant publication ever printed in Atlanta. The business management of the paper was bad, and it died. He then became acorre. spoadent of the New York Herald. He took a prominent position in the electoral troubles of 1876. He received 16,000 for his first year’s work on the Herald. He then purchased an in the Atlantic Constitution. Success interest followed the purchase, and the investment increased in value fully 600 per cent. His home is a model of cosiness, is elegantly furnished and is graced by a wife and two bright children. Be was Napoleonic in his newspaper management, and distinguished himself by several startling scoops. His weekly issue had a circulaeral political offices. He was a brilliant orator as well as writer and one or two of His years have electrified the country. He was undoubtedly the most popular man in Georgia, and his death, as a progressive man, will be regretted both in the north and south. Telegrams of condolence have been pouring in from all sections of the country, many of them being from men most prominent in national affairs. Among the send ers were David B. Hill, Governor of Ngw York; Hon. Samuel J. Randall, Hon. Emory Speer, Hon. John Temple Graves, Hou. Patrick A. Collins, Hon. Roswell P. Flower, Gen. Clinton B. Fisk and C. H. J. Taylor, of Brunswick, Ga. Ex-President Cleveland sent the following: Acceptthe heartfelt sympathy of one who loved your husband for what he was, and for all that he has done for his people and his country. Be assured that everywhere throughout the lard warm hearts mourn with you In your deep affliction, - and deplore the loss the Nation has sustained. Grover Cleveland. Dispatches from Charleston, S, C, i Augusta, Ga.; Birmingham, Ala.; Richmond, Va., and other cities in the South express sorrow over the announcement of Mr. Grady’s death. At several places flags were put at half mast. The leading newspapers contain editorials eulogizing the dead editor. . Tuesday all of the courts adjourned, and many of the city buildings were draped in mourning. t Some of the emblems are touching in telling the story of the love which all, great and small, have for this most brilliant man.

BRAZIT AND THE UNITED STATES.

There was a long and lively debate in theU. S. Senate Saturday, which for some reason, was divided by party lines. Mr Morgan called up a joint resolution recog.: nizing the United States of Brazil as a free , independent and sovereign State, and pro ' ceeded to address the advocacy of it. Mr. • Morgan declared that the attitude of the United States in respect to all the countries in the Western Hemisphere was a very distinct one. That attitude has been assumed veryearly in the history of the American Government —assumed separately and confidently—and had been reasserted on every opportune occasion from the date of its announcement by President Monroe down to the last message from the : President of the United States. He. coincided with the declaration made' by Thomas Jefferson that) it was th business andduty of the United States to proceed to make, to progress in making, and ultimately to consummate the making of the Western Hemisphere the home of republican institutions, and not the home of despotic institutions. If the empire were ever re established, it would be so against the Monroe doctrine

and in spite of it. The Congress of the United States had the absolute right to recognize the non-existence of the empire and the existence of the Republic, and he desired to have that recognition placed on record plainly, boldly—he would not say defiantly, Lu doing so now immense trouble to Brazil might be saved. The secret machinations that were now at work for the restoration of the empire would be broken up. He bad read in this morning’s papers a London dispatch predicting troubulous times in Brazil, and speaking of combine- j tions of the conservative and clerical elements there. There was no reason, he said, why Congress should withhold its hand in coming to the declaration proposed and placing it on the statute books, letting the world know that Brazil had friends in this grand republic who were ready to stand by the principles of their government. He therefore moved the adoption of the resolution.. A long discussion followed, in which many Senators took part. Finally the question was taken on a motion to refer 1 the resolution to the Committee on Foreign Relations. All the Republicans voted yea, and all the Democrats, except Mr. Cali, who voted no. There was, however, no quorum voting (yeas 26, nays 15), and the whole matter went over without definite action. «

$40,000 IN SILVER LOST.

j Two silver bars, worth *40,000, were lost off a truck at New York, Saturday, while in transit from the American Exchange National Bank to the Cunard steamship dock. A load of *400,000 worth of silver was being sent to the steamship Umbria, for shipment to England, when two of the bars were missed. At their intrinsic value, the bars should each weigh more | than half a ton. >

WASHED ASHORE.

The bodies es five of the missing thirteen persons belonging to the British steamer Cieddy, which was sunk off the Isle of Wight, Friday,| by collision with the British steamer Isle of Cyprus, and one of the Cleddy’s boats have been washed ashore) at St, Catherine Point, os ’ the south side of the Istand.

HUNTING GORILLAS.

An Exciting Hunting Adventure with Natives in Central Africa. & Day’s Sport in the Jungle—The Hammoth Monkey Fought Until the Top of Its Head Was Blown OS’—Killed in the Kick of Tima In my trading expeditions into Central Africa I had at different times many native servants, and through ;hem I had opportunities to see the natives hunt according to the time nonored methods of the tribes. One of my men was named Oshupu. He was a Fan, a fine specimen of humanity, and, like most of his race, remarkably intelligent. In fact, he was t cannibal gentleman ; that is to say, ilthough he, like the reSt of his tribe, lad a liking for human flesh, he never mtruded that horrible craving upon ny notice by word or deed, and from iis appearance and actions 1 should lever have imagined that it existed. He was forever wishing that we had •eached his country, and he would Aik Ul lllb Uy Hie Hour* pf elephant awl' gorilla hunts, until I longed to get iway with him to join a bunting party >f Accordingly whoa jeared the Gaboon River, it did not need much persuasion to induce me to nitspan the team for two weeks, and , jo with Oshupu to his village. We entered the village from the fide, and were in the street before our :oming was perceived. As if pulled by i single string, every native arose, ind, quietly forming a ring round me, he population gravely inspected me. | When it was known that I had come o hunt the gorilla, their joy was unfunded. for, strange as it may seem, hese warlike people, like those of nany other tribes, are much afraid of phis animal. I After resting for two days, our hunting marty was formed, and we jourteyed a long day’s march to the home >f the gorilla. What a journey it was, md how vividly I remember it! There were about thirty of us, the patives all I trmed with spears about seven feet in Length, terminating in an iron head, , vi th large barbs at either side. | lam an old stalker, yet my skill was Jorely tried in that labyrinth, in which lead branches lay thickly about under oot. After a time the undergrowth lecame less dense, and Oshupu whislered to me that this circumstance in-dicated-the presence of water, and that he animals coming in all directions cept the undergrowth more or less irodden down. | Suddenly my guide stopped short, rod holding up hu fingec, crooked it >ver his head, pointing to the left. I aimed my head in the direction indisated, and at a distanpe of abaht three lundred feet away saw an immense ipe slowly moving through the trees in all fours, swinging to and fro in a nanner not dfilike the plantigrade novement of a grizzly. . I Oshupu reached his hand behind as i signal for me to move up to him, and when I had done so, he said, “The jorilla has fed, and is lazy. If he tees us, he will run, and we shall lever eaten up with him in this tangie. iVe must rest here, and he will drum ior his mate and sleep. Then we shall '■ latch" him.”’ ~ v. r“ | After a time, at a given signal, the latives spread themselves out, and Baking a long detour, surrounded the ipot where it was believed the gorilla lad stopped :to rest. They were not Bistaken, for on the edge of a small jlade the big brute sat fast asleep, vith his back against a tree. j It was deputed to a young chief to 1 ipen the encounter, and after a pause le emerged from cover as near as he jould get to the gorilla. He poised ais spear in his hand in readiness to throw it, and, step by step, approached anti Ihe was within thirty feet of the ’orilla, when suddenly the animal rolled his head from one side to the ather.

The ape was thoroughly aroused, and leaning forward raised itself into in awkward, partly erect atitude. if the young chief had lain still, all would have been well; but be Was desirous of showing off before me. and accordingly rose to his feet, dashed his spear at the brute and made for the cover of the thicket The spear went through the arm of the gorilla, which instantly tore the weapon out bodily, savagely bit the woun 1, and dashed on all fours after his assailant, with a terrible scream of rage. | All the Fans on the opposite of the slearing now boldly dashed in. throwing their spears, or, as they got close anough to him, thrusting them into the brute’s body. Wounds inflicted with such weapons could not prove immediately fatal, and could only kill the creature by causing, loss of blood, as the vital power of the gorilla is so great that even a rifle ball seldom arrests at once his headlong course. If it had not been for the danger, this spectacle of the contest between the Fans and the ape would have been amusing, as the men threw spears, and crouched or dodged, and the ape backed slowly away from them, making horrible grimances md gradually working himself up into a blind fury. This state of ass drq did not last more than a minute, and then the ape was at the edge of the clearing, about forty feet from where I stood. Here another volley of spears met him, and after standing am ized for a second, he -rushed headlong at the first assailant, seized him by the leg, and before a hand could be raised, he swung him around his bead, bringing the poor fellow's skull in contact with a tree trunk and cracked it like a nut It was a terrible sight, but it was done before I had the p>werto prevent’ it I raised my rifle, and quick as thought sent two bullets ploughing through the ape’s head, .tearing the : top of the skull ' clean off. He reeled , un i fell, rose again, clenched at the mass of vines, and rolled over. Still convulsively twitching and tearing at the undergrowth, jvhiie Oshupu got his foot clear, and coming to me placed my hand on his bead in’token that his life henceforth belonged to me. There the brute lay, a strange sight, and one of which the stuffed gorilla .skins of the natural history collections can give but a faint idea.

The face was hideous; the breadth of chest was grand, the arms and hands were massive; but the huge trunk dwindled into a pair of legs, thfo, bent and decrepit as those of an old woman. 4 I wished to preserve the skin, but before I could prevent their action, the natives had thronged around the body, making a perfect seive Of it with spear thrusts. The head was destroyed, sol simply took measurements of the beast, he was five feet four inches in height, and cutoff the hands and feet for trophies. We buried the j young chief, after carrying him back . to the village, but no funeral rites were observed as he had been killed by a gorrilla, and so he was believed to be bewitched. When I left the village, I brought away some fine specimens of native work. One of these sjjecimens, an ax blade, was covered with the most delicate tracery work,, although the tools used in construction were of the rudest possible pattern. To work out the figure on this ax occupied four months. It has been a const nt matter of regret to me that 1 have never been able to return to the codntry of the Fans and spend a longer time with them.—Wilf. P. Pond in Youth’s Companion.

Reed Bird and Mocking bird.

The reed bird of the Deleware and : the rivers and regions south of that - stream is the rollicking bobolink uJ our New England fields. Here is his true home, even if his residence in j it is not so long as it is in the south. Here he is adorned with a gray piebalb coat, instead of the somber suit of black in which he appears wh en in more southern latitudes, and here he nests and sings and rears his brood. Here in the sunny green fields of New : England, through all the charming May and for some way into June, he pours out the most peculiar, the most over buboling, frolicsome, swaggering rollicking and tipsy of all bird music. He is not so abundant here as he was in the days before he was shot by the thousand by sportsmen as the reed bird of the lower Susquehanna and the lower Delaware, and before a set of worthless men and boys here in southern New England acquired, through somebody’s ingenuity, a trap which catches him. He was here in rather greater force last M ty than usual of late years, the tendency being not to increase, i but to diminish. Connecticut fields are i not so filled as they were fifty years ago : with his swaggering and most peculiar tinkling song. It may be said of him and the mocking bird that if both or either had been known to Europe for the last two thousand years, and particularly to Italy, Greece and England, there would have baen a greater fame for either than the nightingale now has. But the pothunters for the Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York markets are destroying the bobolink as the reed bird, and the negro with his shot gun blazing away at the mocking bird (he can’t shoot him except when the bird is at rest) is fast completing what the nest robbing youngnegroes Who supply northern buyer had long ago begun—the destruction of the superb mocking bird, the finest songster as well as the most spirited and intelligent of our American birds. —Hartford Times.

Looking Backward.

Those simple rhymes of other day* We never shall fbrget. Each line of those old childish lays Is fresh in memory yet. They linger in the halls of thought Like melodies in tune. “Hey, diddle, diddle! The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon.” The better rhymes and newer songs We’ve heard in later years, Havo from the heart forever rone; Still memory adheres To those old worJs whose import strong ’ Into our lives has crown. “Old Mother Hubbard, she went to her cupboard To get her poor dog a bone.” Why fioes the heart so fondly cling To youthful thoughts and themes! Up from the tender vales of spring Come all our later dreams. We stdl recall the youthful times And for their pleasures sigh: “Little Jack Horner sat in a corner, Eating a Christmas pie.”

The Dog Had to Climb.

We were comfortably seated around tbe hearth at Porter in Pike county. Pa, and the spirit of story telling was strong upon us, because the fishing had been unusually good and the supper bounteous. The flash ; an! sparkle of wit filled the upper air of the room as with a fine,aurora, and a halo of calm bliss encircled the brow of each entranced listener. But first the drug and then the antidote. The benevolent colonel drew us down gently from the giddy hights with a story of a coarse plebeian, locally known as a catfish. Thus ran his tale: “A man and his dog went fishing in the i Mississippi. In a short time the man i felt a mighty pull on the line, and he knew that a catfish had taken hold. ; The giant came along peacefully enough until he happened to ch mge his mind, and then he decided to double on his course and take the man along. The faithful dog, seeing his master’s danger, rushed to the rescue ■ bravely enough. The wily catfish, when he found the dog pursuing, turned upon him and terrified the dog, who . incontinently turned tail and swam i vigorously toward the dry land, the 1 catfish hotly following. Presently the i dog gained the land and ran hastily, ! the catfish surging fter him. The dog, sorely pressed and fearing a painful death, in his extremity climbed a tree, the catfish still pursuing.” | “Hold on! hold on!” we cried io chorus; “dogs cannot climb trees.” “Can’t climb a tree?” responded the colonel. “But the catfish was close upon him, and this dog had. to climb.” —Forest and Stream.

Progressive and Profitable.

Publisher’s agent (on his semi-annual hunt after plunder): “Can’t I get youi order for some of the new geographies we are getting out, squire?” Schooi trustee: “Wa-al, I dunno; we haven’t been usin’ those last ones but a few months.” Publisher's agent: “Bu these contain tha correct name of the new government of Brazil! Do yot i want to be behind the times?”