Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1891 — Page 7

WHITER THAN SNOW.

GREATSNOWBIN WINTER -GREAT HARVESTS IN SUMMER. Conatder th eHUIa, Not the Clouds, Says th. Bible—Every Cloud Has • Silver - Lining—Dr. Talmage. Sermon. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn and New York, Sunday and Sunday night—Text: Job, XXXVIII, 22. He said: Grossly maligned is the season of winter. The spring and summer and autumn have many admirers, but winter, hoary-headed and whitebearded winter, hath had more enemies 'than friends. Yet without winter the ihuman race would be insane and effortless. You might speak of the winter as the mother of tempests: I take it as the father of a whole family of physical, mental and spiritual energies. The most people 7 that I know 'are strong in proportion to the numtier of snow-banks they had to climb .over, jr push through, in cjnldhogd, while their fathers drove the sled loaded with logs through the crunching drifts high as the fences. At this season of the year when we are so familiar with the snow, those frozen vapors, those falling blossojns of the sky, those white angels oi the atmosphere, those poems of the storms, those Iliads and Odysseys of the wintery tempest, I turn over the leaves of my Bible and—though most of it was written in a clime where snow seldom or never fell—l find many of these beautiful congelations. Though the writers may seldom er never have felt the cold touch of the (snow-flake on their cheek, they had in bight two mountains, the tops of which were suggestive. Other kings sometimes take of their crowns, but Lebanon and Mt. Hermon all the year round and through the ages never lift the Ooronets of crystal from their fore-

heads. The first time we find a deep fall of snow in the Bible is where Samuel describes a fight between Benaiah And a lion in a pit; and though the snow may have crimsoned under the wounds of both man and brute, the Ahaggy . monster, rolled over dead and the giant was victor. But the •pow is not fully recognized in the Bible until God interrogates Job, the scientist, concerning its wonders, say>* ing: “Hast though entered into the treasures of snow?” (Text.) I rather think that Job may have examined the snowflake with a microscope, for, although it is supposed that the microscope was invented long after Job’s time, there had been wonders of glass long before the microscope and telescope of a later day were thought of. So long ago as when the Coliseum was in its full splendor Nero sat in the Emperor’s box of that great theater, which held 100,000 people, and looked at the combatants through a gem in his finger king, which brought everything close tap to his eye. Four hundred years before Christ, in the stores at Athens, were sold powerful glasses called ••burning spheres,” and Layard, the explorer, found a magnifying glass amid the ruins of Nineveh and in the palace of Nimrod. Whether through magnifying instrument or with unaided eye i can not say, but I am sure that Job somehow went through the galleries of the snowflake and counted its pillars, and found wonders, raptures, mysteries, theologies, majesties, infinities, walking up and down its oorrldors as a result of the question which the Lord had asked him. And now I propose for your spiritual and everlasting profit, if you will accept my guidance, to take you through some of these wonders crystal liz ation. And notice fit st. God in the lititles. Yo i mfky take Alpenstock and dross Mer de Glace, the Sea of Ice, and ascend Mont Blanc, which rises iinto the clouds like a pillar of the Great White Throne, or with Arctic explorer ascend the mountains around the North Pole and see glaciers 1,000 feet high grinding against glaciers 18,000 feet high. But I will take you ion a less pretentious journey and show ! you God in the snowflake. There is room enough between its pillars for the great Jehovah to stand. In that one frozen drop bn the tip of your finger you may find the throne of the Almighty.

I take up tbe snow in my hand and see the coursers of celestial dominion ipawing these crystal pavements. The telescope is grand, but I must confess /that I am quite as much interested in !the microscope. The one reveals the universe above us, the other just as great a universe beneath us. But the telescope overwhelms me. What we want is a God in littles. If we were seraphic or archangelic in our natures, we would want to study God in the great; but such small, weak, shortlived beings as you add I are want to find god in the littles. When I see the Maker of the universe giving himself to the architecture of > snow flake and making its shafts, 'its domes, its curves, its walls, irradiations so perfect, I conclude He will ilook after our Insignificant affairs. And !if we are of more value than a sparrow I most certainly we are of more value Ithan an innanimate snowflake. So the (Bible would chiefly impress us with <(*od tn tbe littles. It does not say conjaider the clouds but “Consider the jlilies.” It does not say consider the (tempests, but “Behold the fowls,” and applauds a cup of cold water and the widow’s two mites, and says the hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, that you will be forgotten. Do not think that because you estimate yourself as only one snowflake among a three days’ January snow storm that you will be forgotten. The birth and death of a drop of ehilled vapor is as certainly regarded by the Lord as the creation and demolition of a planet- Nothing Is big to' God, and nothing is small. What

makes the honey industries of South Carolina such a source of livelihood and wealth? It is because God teaches the lady-bug to make an opening in the rind of the apricot for the bee, which cannot otherwise get at the juice of the fruit. So God sends the lady-bug ahead to prepare the way for the honey bee. He teaches the ant to bite each grain of corn that she puts in the ground for winter food in order that it may not take root and so ruin the little granary. He teaches the raven in dry weather to throw pebbles into a hollow tree that the water far down and out of reach may come up within the reach of the bird’s beak. What a comfort that he is a God in little*! Behold, also, in the snow the treasure of accumulated power. During a snow storm let an apothecary, accustomed to weigh most delicate quantities, hold his weighing scales out of the window and let one flake fall on the surface of the scales and it will, not even make it tremble. When you to express triviality of weight you say, ‘'Light as a feather;” but a snow flake is much lighter. It is just Iwenty-Ipur times lighter than water. And yet the accumulation of these flakes broke down, a few days ago, in sight of my house, six telegraph poles made helpless police and fire departments. and halted railtrains with two thundering locomotives. We have already learned so much of the power of electricity that we have become care* ful how we touch the electric wire, and in many a case a touch has been death. But a few days ago, the snow put Its hand on most of these wires and tore them down as though they were cobwebs. The snow said: “You seem afraid of the thunderbold; I will catch it and hurl it to the ground. Your boasted electric lights, adorning your cities with bubbles of fire, I will put out as easily as your ancestors snuffed out a tallow candle. ” The snow put its finger on the lip of our citles that were talking with each other and they went into silence, uttering not a word. The snow is mightier than the lightning.

In March. 1888. the snow stopped America, It said to Brooklyn: ‘‘Stay home!” to New York: “Stay home!” to Philadelphia: “Stay home!” to Washington: “Stay home!’’ to Richmond : “Stay home!” It put into a white sepulcher most of this nation. Commerce whose wheels never stoppod before, stopped then. What was the matter? Power of accumulated snow flakes; on the top of the Appenines one flake falls, and others fall, and they pile up, Mathey make* mountainrof fleece on the top of a mountain of rock, until one day a gust of wind, or even the voice of a mountaineer, sets the frozen vapors into action and by awful descent they sweep every thing in their course —trees, rocks, villages—as when, in 1827, the town of Briel in Valais in was buried, and in 1624, in Switzerland, 300 soldiers were entombed. These avalanches were made up of single snow flake. What tragedies of the snow have been witnessed by the monks of St. Bernard, who, for ages have with the dogs been busy in extricating bewildered and overwhelmed travelers in Alpine storms, the dogs with blanket fastened to their backs and flasks of spirits fastened to their neck, to resuscitate the helpless traveler's. One of these dogs decorated with a medal for having saved the lives of twenty-two persons, the brave beast himself slain of the snow on that day when accompanying a Piedmontese courier on the way to his anxious household down the mountain,the wife and children of the Piedmontese courier coming up the mountain in search of him, an avalanche covered all under pyramids higher than those under which the Egyptian monarchs sleep Aheir Bleep-el th& ages. —

Historians do not seem to recognize ttyit the tide in Napoleon’s life turned from December 16,1809, when he banished by hideous divorce his wife Josephine from tbe palace and so challenged the Almighty, and the Lord charged upon him from the fortresses of the sky which ammunition of crystal. Snowed under! Billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintrillions of flakes did the work. And what a suggestion of accumulative power, and what a rebuke to all of us who get discouraged because we cannot do much, and therefore do nothing. “6h,” says some one,l would like to stop the forces of sin and crime that are marching for the conquest of the nations, but I am nobody I have neither wealth nor eloquence, nor social power. What can I do?” My brother how much do you weigh, as much as a snow flake? “Oh, yes.” Then do your share. It is an aggregation of small influences that will yet put this lost world back into the bosom of a pardoning Lord. Alas! that there are so many men and women who will not use the one talent because they have not ten, and will not give a penny because they cannot give a dollar, and will not speak as well as they can because they are not eloquent, and will not be a snow-flake because they can not be an avalanche.

In earthly wars the Generals get about all the credit, but in the war for God and righteousness and heaven all the private soldiers will get crowns of victory unfailing. When we reach heaven—l do not think we will be able to begin the new song right away because for the surprise we shall feel at the comparative rewards given. As we are being conducted along the street tojour celestial residence. We will begin to ask where live some of those who were mighty on earth. We will ask. “Is so-and-so here?” and the answer will be * ‘Yes, I think he is in the city, but we don't hear much of him: he was good and he got in, but he took most of his pay in earthly applause: he had enough grace to get through the gate, but just where he lives I know not. He squeezed through somehow, although I think the gates took the skirts of his garment*. I think he lives in one of those

back streets in one of the plainer- real, deuces.” Then we shall sCe a palace, the doorsteps of gold, and the windows of agate, and the tower like the sun.for brilliancy, and chariots before the door, and people who look like princes and princesses going up and down the steps, and we shall say: “What one of the hierarchs lives here? That must be the residence of a Paul or Mil ton, or some one whose name resounds through all the planet from which we have just ascended-” “No, no.” says our celestial dragoman; “that is the residence of a soul whom you never heard of. When she gave a charity her lefthand knew not what her right hand did. She was mighty in secret prayer, and no one but God and her own soul knew it. She had more trouble than any body in all the land where she lived, and without complaining she bore it, and though her talents were never great, what she had was all consecrated to God and helping others, and the Lord is making up for her earthly privation by especial raptures here, and the King of this country had that place built especially for her. The walls began to go up when her troubles and privations and consecration began on earth, and it se happened—what a heavenly coincidence—that the last stroke of the trowel of amethyst on those walls was given the hour she entered heaven. You know nothing of her. On earth her name was only once in the newspapers, and that among the column of the dead, but she is mighty up jjerej Thjre comes nos, outofner palace grounds, m her chariot behind those two white horses, for a ride on the banks of the river that flows from under the throne of God. Let me see. Did you not have in your world below an old classic which says something about “these are they who came out of great tribulation, and they shall reign forever and ever-” Another treasure of the snow is the suggestion of usefulness of sorrow. Absence of snow last winter made all nations sick. That snowless winter has not yet ended its disasters. Within a few weeks it put tens of thousands into the grave and left others in homes and hospitals gradually to go down. Galled by a trival name, the Russian “grip,” it was an international plague. Plenty oi snow means public health, There is no medicine that so soon cures the world’s malarias as these white pellets that the clouds administer. Pellets small enough to be homeopathic, but in such large doses as to be allopathic and melting soon enough to be hydropathic. Like a sponge every flake absorbs unhealthy gases. The tables of mortality in New York and Brooklyn immediately lessened when the snow of last December began to fall. The snow is one of the grandest and best of the worlds doctors. Yes; it is necessary for the land’s productiveness. Great snows in winter are generally followed by great harvests next summer. Scientific analysis has shown that snow contains a larger percentage of ammonia than the rain, and hence its greater nower of enrichment. And besides that, it is a white blanket to keep the earth warm. An examination of snow in Siberia showed that it was 100 degrees warmer under the snow than above the snow. Al*, pine plants perished in the mild winter of England for lack of snow to keep them warm. Snow strikes back the rich gases which otherwise would escape in the air and be lost. Thank God for the snows, and may those of February be as plentiful as those of December and January have been, high and deep and wide and enriching; then the harvest next July will embroider with gold this entire American continent. But who with any analog!cal faculty can notice that out of such chill as the snow comes the wheat, without realizing that chilling sorrows produce harvests of grace! The strongest Christians, without exception, are those who we>-e by bereavements or sickness or poverty or persecution, or all of them together, snowed under, and again and again snowed under. These snow storms of trouble! They kill the maladies of the soul. They drive us out of worldly dependence to God. Call the roll of all the eminently pious of all the ages and you will find them the sons and daughters of sorrow. The Maronites say that one characteristic of the cedar tree is that when the air is full of snow and it begins to descend, the tree lifts its branches in a way better to receive the snow and bear up under it, and 1 know by much observation that the grandest cedars of Christian character lift higher their branches toward God when the snows of troubles are coming. Another treasure of the snow Is the suggestion that this mantle covering the earth is like the soul after it is forgiven. “Wash me,” said the Psalmist, “and I shall be whiter than snow." If there be in all this audience one man or woman whose thoughts have always been right, and whose words always right, and whose actions always right, let such a one rise, or, if already Blanding, lift the right hand. Not one! All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Unclean! unclean! And yet we may be made whiter than snow, whiter than that which, on a cold winter morning. after a night of storm, clothe the tree from bottom of trunk to top of highest branch, whiter than that which this hour makes the Adirondacks and the Sierra Nevada and Mt. Washington heights of pomp and splendor fit to enthrone an archangelIn the time of Graham, the essay eat, in one mountainous district of Scotland an average of ten shepherds perished in the snow drifts, and so he proposed that at the distance of every mile a pole fifteen feet high and with two cross pieces be erected, showing the points of the compass, and a bell hung at the top, so that every breeze would ring it, and so the lost one on the mountains would hear, the sound and take the direction given by this pole

with the cross pteeos uad get safely home. Whether that proposed plan was adopted or not I do not know, but I declare to all who are in the heavy and binding drifts of sin and sorrow that there is a cross near by that can direct you to home, and peace, and God; ana hear you not the ringing of the Gospel bell hanging to that cross, saying: “This is the way; walk yet in it.” No wonder that the sacred poet put the Psalmist’s thought into rhythm with that ringing chorus we have so often sung; Get that prayer answered, and we will be fit not only for earth, but for the heaven where every thing is sowhite because every thing is so pure. You know, that the redeemed in that land wear robes that are white, and the conquers in that land ride horses that are white, and John in vision says of Christ. “His head and His hairs were white,” and the throne on which He sits is a Great White Throne. By the pardoning and sanctifying grace of God, may we all at last stand amid that radiance!

Novel Creeds.

The young man of the period is full of doubts and problems and question. Ings, and the beliefs of his grandmothers and maiden aunts are but as pap for his soaring intellect, which he feels requires stronger victuals. His self-compacency is flattered (and the agnosticism now so fashionable is largely the product of intellectual vanity) by the notion that the old ideas, while good enough for ordinary persons, are unsuitable for men of superior mental caliber. Hence it'is that mankind nowadays are ever on the lookout for some new thing in matters spiritual; but as most people are incapable of constructing a new creed on their own account, they must turn to some other person to do it for thorn, You, my dear sir, for whose instruction and benefit these pages are written, will be that person. With you it rests to satisfy the spiritual cravings ana aspirations of an inquiring age. With you it rests to minister to the disease peculiar to this ninteenth century,that so-called • earnestness” which, often begot of a morbid and unhealthy egotism daily furishes recruits to th* noble and ever-increasing army of prigs. For, as old Teufelsdrockb would have it, “Beneath you hideous coverlet of problems and doubts and earnestness and questionings, what » fermenting vat of briggism lies simmering and hid!” Prigs in trousers galore, and prigs, ah my lackaday! in petticoats too. For the ladles dear things are being drawn into the vortex of rationalism and speculative inquiry. Some of them write novels mildly seasoned with unbelief, and they all read “Robert Elsmere.” The “demon of annosticism” has invaded all sections of polite society, and he is nowhere more at home than in the gilded saloons of the great Nor does he now, as formerely, confine himself to the smoking room and the other purlieus of the male sex. but growing bolder,like goosey gandetOn our childhood’s legend, he wanders (where neither of thorn have any business to intrude) “in my ladies chamber.” Here his horns and hoots have long since ceased to terrify, and familiarity with him has bred, not contempt, but a conviction that he is not so disagreeable an imp after all.

By Balloon to the North Poles.

Two members of the Paris College of Aeriel Navigation—M, Besancon, aeronaut, and M. Hermite, astronomer —propoeeseriously toreaehtheNorth Pole by means of a balloon, and have' explained to their colleagues the means by which they hope to succeed in their, object The balloon in which they are to travel will be made of two thicknesses of Chinese silk, and impenetrable varnish, will hold about 45,000 cubic feet of pure hydrogen gas and carry a weight of over 8,000 pounds. They will also take with them four small pilot balloons, which will be sent up from the North Pole—should they ever reach that much-longed-for spot—to test the air currents prevailing there, and four huge bags of hydrogen gas, to replenish the large balloon, should waste occur. The car in which the aeronauts will have to live will be coated with thin steel, and will contain in addition to its human occupants and their scientific Instruments, elghto dogs and a sleigh, a small unskinabie canoe, and provisions for a month. In order that the balloon may be kept at a regular distance from the earth, it will be furnished with a heavy rope and anchor, to drag along the surface either of ice or water. The intention is to equip two vessels at a French port and sail to Spitsbergen, There tbe hydrogen gas will be manufaot ured and the great balloon and its satellite inflated, the aeronauts starting on their voyage of discovery with the first favorable wind. They expect to be be about ten days in the air, and to be able to take photograph and scientific observations. Where they will descend they have no idea; but if all goes well they hope to reach some civilized point either in North America or western Asia. The duration of the expidition from France and back is estimated at six months, and the cost is put down at nearly £23, *OO, the larger part of which goes for the hire and equipment of the two vessels at Spitzbergen. This will be mainly defrayed by the aeronauts themselves, assisted by subsidies they hope to receive from both English and French scientific societies. This start will not be ‘made untill May, 18v2, the interval being ddvoted to experiments to as« certain how long it is possible to remain in a balloon without descending. The project is attracting much attane tion in scientific circle*.

THE NEWS OF THE WEEK.

A *3*O,OCB tre occurred at Williamsburg N.Y.,MtbeM. It is estimated that the late Indian war wiU cost *2,000,000, Kelly will play with the Boston Associm tion ball team this year, Arkansas is bankrupt and its legislators are sighing for their pay. Grace Gridley, of Am boy,-lit, has awakened from her year’s trance. One life Was lost by the turning of the poor house at Waterville, Me, W. A. Walters, a St. Louis consumptive, s re ported cured by Koch’s lymph. Chicago bankers have petitioned for the passage of the Towney bankruptcy bill. George M. Bradley, the first patient of this country to receive the Koch treatment is dead. An additional subscription of *5,000,000 is to be called for by the World’s Fair div rectors. “Lord” Schweinfurth’s “heaven” at Rockford, HL, Is covered by a *13,000 mortgage. J. N. McCullough, Vice President of the Pennsylvania railroad system, died at Allegheny City, Pa., on the Bth. Eighteen inches of snow fell at Saratoga N. Y. ( Saturday and Sunday. Bn sines 9 was completely blockaded at Albany., Residents of Kittson county, Minnesota, are very much in fear of an Indian outbreak, and are moving from their homes. A fire at St Louis on the sth destroyed the Pullman repair shops, eleven palace carsand fifteen surrounding houses. Loss *225,000. A Saloon that was opened at Benton Ridge, 0., was invaded by citizens and wrecked and the liquor poured into the road.

New England wool manufacturers issued an address on the sth in which they demand free wool. They regard the McKinley bill with disfavor. At Winnebago City, Minn , Miss Lent, a teacher, who was assaulted by the parents es a teacher she had punished, has died from injuries inflicted: General Miles denies the charges made against him by Mrs. Jefferson Davis in her book of cruelty toward her husband while he was a prisoner at Fortress Monroe. The Chicago Trades Assembly threaten to boycott the World’s Fair if union labor is not used exclusively in the construction og th? buildings and preparations of the ground. At Akron, 0., Clarence Rcnninges, aged eight, was crushed to death by his feet bee ing caught betweeu the spokes of a whee 1 and his body dragged in between the and the wagon. Five hundred furnace man, in the Illinois Steel Company’s plant at South Chicago, refuse a compromise and strike, and the work of the plant, the smallest of its kind in the world, is practically at a stand still. It is reported that a natural gas trust is being formed, and that the action of the gas company at Columbus, 0., recently in shutting off the supply on the plea that the wells were exhausted was part of a scheme to extort higher prices from consumers. At Clarke, Neb., the residence of banker Cowles, was burglarized Wednesday morning. Mr. Cowles was knocked senseless, and his wife killed. The burglairs secured about *SO in cash. A reward of *I,OOO hat been offered for the arrest of the murder* Sts. Late Tuesday night the F. M. B. A. par* ty submitted to Chairman Jones, of the Illinois Republican State Central Commit tee, and the Republican steering commit* tee, the names of A. J. Streeter, John P> Steele, of Mount Vernon, and Representative H. H. More, of the F. M. B. A. party, with the announcement that any one of them whom the Republicans might indorse would receieve the fuil support of the F. M. B. A. party. It is confidently expected by the Republicans and F. M. B. A. men that a combination will baaffected between the two parties teis we^wktalrwitttbsuTC in the election of a compromise Senator. The weather crop bulletin for January says there was no snow on the ground at he close of the month over the entire winder wheat belt, entending from Tennessee northward to the lakes and from Ohio to Kansas, and although the weather during the month was owing to the uniformly high temperature, generally favorable to the growing crops, the approaching cold wave and attending decided freeze leaves its condition uncertain. Reports from the Pacific coast indicate that the wheat is growing very slowly and that there is very little moisture in the ground. FOREIGN. The revolutionary spirit is strong in Spain. Nine children were burned to death in an orphan asylum at Moscow, Russia, on the sth. -

INGALLS AND HIS FUTURE.

Senator Ingalls made his appearance in the Senate on ths 4th, looking none the worst for his ardupus campaign and weari some journey from Kansas. His appearance was as calm and dignified as ever,and his voice has lost none of its resdnance and measured cadence. The Senator says that the Republicans of Kansas supported him most loyally, and he fully appreciates their devotion. It was a square fight, but he was defeated last fall at the polls by the stay away Republicans. Nearly every Senator, Democrat as well as Republican, shook hands with him upon his appearance on the floor, and expressed their regrets with a sincerity and cordiality that was more earnest than the ordinary type. Mr. Ingalls will not be at a loss for employment. He has already received num* erous propositions to go into businessSeveral very flattering offers have come from prominent law firms In tbe West and in Naw York city. He has been offered the editorship of two n&spapers— one in New York city and one In Detroit. He has been offered a salary of *IO,OOO a year by the New York Sun to write a daily article over his signature on current topics, ahd he found upon his desk a very tempting proposition from a lecture manager of high, responsible character. This man offers him the sum of *15,000 for thirty lectures; another offers *5,000 for six lectures. It is very probable that the Senator will accept one of these propositions, but

at Atchlseu. and will probably accept the position ot solicitor of a Western rattroid.

ACTIVE TEMPERANCE WORK.

A special dispatch from Des Moines, Ia. T says: The State Temperance Alliance is closing up saloons in localities where the local authorities have neglected or refused to enforce the prohibitory law. Presides t Harvey, of the alliance, and ex-Attorney-General Baker have returned from Carroll, where they procured injunctions against all the saloons there, seven in number. At the first trial the fact was developed that there were some witnesses fronr _ Des Moines who had been at Carroll as detectives procuring evidence. At night a mob was organized, and headed by a saloon keeper, for the purposeof getting rid of the Important evidence The witness were arrested and placed in jail, but soon were released. The mob continued to make hostile demonstrations, but the witness were not intimidated. A dispatch from Fort Dodge says that applications for injunctions against twentyfive saloons have been filed by the StateTemperance Alliance. Detectives kava . been at work gathering evidence forweeka and the alliance hopes to close every solooa in the country.

WASHINGTON.

Senator Quay announces that he favor* Blaine’s nomination in 1893. An extra session of Congress it is believed will be almost imperative next month. ‘ It is announced that a reciprocity agreement has been entered into by the United. Statesand Brazil. A delegation from the Farmers’ Alliv ance called on the House Coinage Coms mittee and demanded in vigorous terms the free coinage es silver. Ingalls made a speech in the Senate o* the sth, defining his position on the closw ure and the federal election bills. He said the closure rule had never met his epprovw al, but he favored the election bill. Reduction of the public debt during the month of January, as shown by the statement, amounted to *15,835,496, and for the seven months of the current fiscal yearor since July 1, 1890, amounted to *4l, 580,127.

After this week the session of Congress will bepractically continuous to the c)ose j at noon on March 4. The Senate prill >m» mediately begin night sessions, and it £ expected that the House will follow the example. During the last week of the see* Sion the work will be continuous, unless Ifreyoj* greater facility given the worirtnan heretofore. It has been customary to hold the session of the last week right through Sunday and during all of the days and nights without intermission of more than a few minutes each day for ad* journment, in order to make the journa l show legislative days. The sundry civil appropriation bill was reported to the House Tuesday. It make* provisions for Indiana as follows: For the purchase of a site and construction of a public building at Madison, *50,000; far the completion of the buildlngunder courseoe construction at Lafayette, *55,000; for purchase of site and construction of build*' ing at South Bend, *75,000. For the In« dianapOlis arsenal a total of *30,110 is ap ? preprinted as follows: Repair of main storehouse, *20,810; iron fence on Michigan street front, *6,120: removing present wooden fences on east boundry line and repairing the same, *1,500; repair and exs tension of main and branch sewers north ofmagizine, *1,600. Total appropriations for the National So'diors’ Home at Marion *2,447,093.95. The bill carries total appro priations of *34,242,970. There is an ins creased appropriationof $4,743,115f0r pnbv lie buildings, as compared with the appro priation for the current fiscal year. > Men who are in any way connected with the Federal government can not be too careful about their personal habits. It in wonderful what little things in this con* nection defeat the objects of justice. The Senate committee on military affairs the other day refused to report favorably a bill giving an honorable discharge from the army of the rebellion to Captain Pren s i tkse Holmes, of the Now York Volunteers, on the ground that ho was proven to have a want of self-respect, because be played cards with enlisted meh, and hadnore* gard for his personal appearance. A Western man was recently dismissed from an Indian school superintendency because he had the air of an indolent man, and his ' personal movements were demoralizing to the students who were being taught indue, try. Another man has been dismissed from the employment of an Indian school because he quarreled with his associato A < about religion. He wanted everybody to* be Methodists. The little things after all make up character, and the foxes axe the animals that kill the grapevines—speaking from a federal service view point.

ALLIANCE STORE COLLAPSE.

A special from Spartansburg, S. C., on the sth, says; W. McZimmerman, the storekeeper and agent of the Farmers’ All lance supply store in this city, is said to be short in his accounts from 115,000 to 130,000. One of McZimmerman’s plans of operation was to open a store some distance from the regular Alliance store, and transfer goods to his establishment, where he sold the goods at reduced rates. An investigation of the affairs of the store reveals the rankest sortof management, and startling developments are expected with-. n the next two days.

ONE THOUSAND LIVES LOST.

A letter from Shanghai, received on the Sth, gives the details of terrible floods and famine which have prevailed recently in the interior districts of northern China, . The Governorsgeneral of Li-HingsChang reports that the people of Bechuan have Buffered terribly by floods, which destroyed temples, bridges and city walls in no lean than ten districts. In Wenohaun the loos f life will reach fully 1,000.