Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1893 — Page 6

THREE NEW YEAR'S EVES.

their draperies swept the storm from the air, leaving a dusky mist of pitiless iciness to brood over the landscape. Then it was that Thor, up in his {rigid kingdom of the north, loos«ned his furies, bidding them make their holiday revel over the universe. Suddenly his invincible winds swept down upon the great town. They plowed up the sodden snow and hurled it in frozen masses and billows of sharp sleet through boulevard and alley. The populace fled from the icy hurricane, shrunk, ana 'disappeared. A little beggar-waif painfully toiled through the icy hurricane. The tempest caught her up and tossed her from one gulf of white snow into another until she was indeed adrift. Everywhere were the merciless white

folds that most soon become her shroud. They dashed against her face, Winded her eyes, tripped her feet, and dragged her into strange corners. She was . urab beyond feeling physical pain when they flung her against the grating which spanned the sight of aglow of opulence. But she could Sfee and she clung to the irou bars, hungrily gazing upon the luxurious scene on the other side of the protected window. It was not the splendid appointments of the room that so cruelly entranced this starveling—it was the, vision ~of- the prepared feast amidst a gliitlering of china, silver, and glass, that made her forget her fright of the tempest. Then she heard the laughter of children, and a sharp longing pierced her heart to look upon the dancing, frolicking little oues who must be in the grand parlor where the play was in progress. She was half way up the snowburdened steps when the entrance ioor opened and closed, and two great-coated, befurred young men stood upon the upper slab expostulating with the weather. “Are vou equal to a walk in the face of this beastly gale?” queried s ringing voice as they descended stair. “Gracious heaven! what have we here? a beggar, a thief! Come, move on, thou abbreviated vagabond; we give noquarter to the tramp of any dimension hereabouts.” Then, as the bundle of rags crouched closer to the icy stone —“Come, since mv gentle persuasion is scorned perhaps ” It is not likely' that the trimly booted foot was thrust forward with harmful intent —but the steps were alipperv with icc—the gentle push was enough to send the scrap of breathing human refuse to the snowcrusted pavement. “Now, that’s too bad! —the poor little creature may be hurt!" said a second voice freighted with compassion and rebuke. Before the second speaker could -reach the ground the “poor little creature -1 ' had gathered itself together and had scrambled to its feet. Sharp sleet was beating against «er scratched, haggard face, the. was tearing the tatters from ier almost fleshless body. She had lost the thiu, woolen shawl, which vbe had pinned over her bead early in the day and the wind was tugging savagely at her streaming hair. But she was not cold—ho —the maddest .fire was leaping through her veins. “I bate you! I wish l could kill you—yes, kill you!,” she shrieked, flinging her claw-like hands toward them. “It’s too bad! The child is hurt,” Insisted the second voice. “Phikwrthrophy and this style of weather don’t hitch,” replied the .first speaker; briskly turning iw,ay .and motioning his companion to sjollqw. Tho child ran in the opposite direction, shrieking her rage as she wqtifc out of.their sight in the swirling drift, of snow. Pedestrians were far between that , Jhnqpus; night. One lunging pyer the &venuP, was. indiscriminately breathing wicked invectives because -“■* fti •’vwfftfth'rt'

T WAS NEW Year’s eve in the great town. Since dawn flakesof snow had fallen straight from the sky over the world. When the shadows of night trailed through the feathery deluge

from home. He was a man who was singled out by his fellows' as a fit subject for that place much talked about as “perdition." True, he was luridly profane; he looked upon-his own kind with suspicion: he boasted that no bonds of sympathy united him with anybody or- anything. Therefore it was no wonder that he expressed himself in sulphurous terms when he ran afoul some sort of stumbling block during that exasperating journey down the avenue. Industriously cursing, he righted himself, tfcsn-balted. “The Lord Harry! The thing moves it’s alive!” he exclaimed, leaning forward and raising the child from the couch of snow. “Of course! This is another proof that Providence is hunting around toprotect his sparrows,” he sneered. “Where on the face of the earth is your home, youngster?" Although the ragged and battered little starveling was too numb to speak, she clung to him. Her eyes, looking into his, appealed for his pity and protection. “Now, that’s queer! Gosh-all-hem-lock! To think that anything human should stick so like blazes to me!" he mildly commented. Then he added, with a touch of fierceness in his tone, as if he were getting the best of somebody: “Yes, I can afford to make a fool myself! Nobody gives a Christmas present to me. i’ll cajplemyself with one.” He tucked the promiscuous bundle under his arm and went bowling down the avenue. he did not think it, the wicked man, in His name', did a deed that New Year’s eve that had been scorned by presumably better men and women all day. * * * * * * Again it was New Year’s eve in the great town. --- The Blaisdell mansion was illuminated from foundation to Cornice. For hours the elegant equipages of fashionable folk came with a swing to the curbing, and men and women, who were accounted as the “best" alighted, and walking over the tapestry covering the iciness, went in to participate in the revel. For long people- had talked with each other about the wonderful change in old Joseph Blaisdell. As his hair grew whiter he became gentler. True, his mouth was not less firm, but it had lost its defiance; his eyes retained their sharp luster, but they had not kept their scorn. Not so long ago society had been astonished when old Joseph Blaisdell had introduced his adopted daughter to society. Then they said to each other that a woman was at the bottom of the marvelous transformation. Perhaps old Joseph Blaisdell had never been prouder than when he saw his beautiful daughter receiving the homage of the influential throng at her New Year’s reception. To Ralph Courtney, the leading scion of wealth, she had never appeared so entrancingly beautiful, although he had for months adored her

as the perfect type of womanly loveliness. He had been surfeited with luxury before she had crossed the thrashold of womanhood. But he had come to desire old Joseph Blaisdell’s greatest treasure. Not for a moment did he doubt that he would, when he asked for it, win this rare jewel for his own. Claude Wolcott, the renowned artist, felt a bitter regret when he saw his friend lead their fair hostess through the perfumed air towI ard a quiet nook where adoration | might be softly whispered. “To him who hath shall be given,” jhe rebelliously murmured, “and I from the fellow who hath nothing I even that delusion called ‘hope’ j shall be taken. ’ The smart set patronized Claude Wolcott, for the scion of wealth had made the artist quite the fashion. But the mothers who were ; prospecting in the interest of their daughters did not include him in their plans. He had not the desirable bank account. In the conservatory, among the rarest exotics and flowers, the scion of wealth told the old story of love. His fair hostess listened, her brown eyes filling with a tender light, the color deepening upon her cheek. Suddenly a cry of sharp distress penetrated that, floral elvsium. “It is a little child—out in the street—and on New Year’s eve!” she exclaimed, darting away from him toward an entrance that led into the icy weather. Next moment he was at her side. “Oh. do not go, my love! —what are all the small vagabonds on earth that you should expose ydhrself to ones breath of chiller on their account!" he^expo^tulated. Over the face df *Berenice J^lais?

fright. She shuddered away from him, saying: “Even when I,was happiest there was an undefined fear in my every thought of vou —no, it can never be!" When he had heard the story he knew she had spoken the truth. “Berenice, you then said that you would like to kill me, it is worse,” he answered, for the first time in bis life feeling bereft and punished. * * * # * * When the hostess crossed the hall ‘returning to her guests, she met the artist who knew mote of disappointment than he did of pleasure. “You are not well—that’s too bad!" he said. Her lips parted in low cry of gladness; the color returning to her cheek. “The same tone and the same words! God bless you as I have been doing through many years!" she said, holding both hands toward him. * # * * • • Another New Year’s eve in the great town. Again was there a great merrymaking in the Blaisdell mansion. “A priceless gift, and I deserve nothing!” murmured Claud© Wolcott fondly gazing upon his bride. “Not so,” she reprovingly answerd,and added: “We may not know when or in what manner our small mercies to the desolate will return to us. You gave a few kind words — and so you receive me!” And old Joseph Blaisdell was the happiest man at the wedding, barring the groom.

H. EFEA WEBSTER.

Ancestry ef Daniel Webster.

Century. A famous anti-slavery orator once publicly thanked God that Daniel Webster was not born in Massachusetts; and this was received with acclaiming shouts by the audience. Nor did they appear to notice any incongruity when the orator proceeded to objurgate Webster, just as though he had been born in Boston and were a recreant descendant of Thomas Dudley. This is the common -mistake—4e--~judge W ebster"“as”a" Puritan in origin, descent, inherited education, and conse?uent responsibilities. He was no ’uritan, nor did he ever pretend to be one. The Massachusetts Puritans, who came to Boston Bay in 1630, were east of England people. Daniel Webster's ancestors were from the north of England, and, coming six years later, entered New Hampshire by the Piscataqua, and for generations were dispersed along the skirmish line of civilization, remote from the Puritans of the Bay, and shared neither in their glory nor in their shame. In Webster was no admixture of nationality, no crossing of p’ebeian with patrician blood. He was a genuine son of the soil, though not, like Burns, of a soil alive with a hundred generations, of the dead, nor of a soil like that about Boston, every sod of which was quickened with associations touching the hearts and molding the characters of those born on it; but of a soil on which his father’s footfall was the fii’st of civilized man ever heard in that silent wilderness. He was a rustic, yet with marks of gentle blood in his shapely hands and feet, his well-propor-tioned limbs, and his high-bred face of no known type/unlike even his own brother, who was of Grecian form and face. Of the Puritans neither by birth nor by circumstances, he possessed few of their virtues, and none of their defects; at least of all their indomitable provinciality of thought and conduct. In this he stands quite alone among the public men of his day in New England. His spirit of nationality appeared so early in life that it indicated character rather than education. And l the depth of the sentiment appears from this, that though born a Federalist, and from early manhood associated professionally and socially with some of the very able men prominent in the “Essex Junto” and in the Hartford Convention, ho neither accepted their principles nor imitated their conduct. At no time was he a Southern man or a Northern man, but to | the end of his life a National Feder- ! alist after the fashion of WashingI ton. •

PEOPLE.

Mr. Ruskin has for the past seven years been receiving £4,000 a year as his share of the profits of his works. This is spite of the fact that his books are so costly us to be out of the reach of any but the rich. GeorgeGuess.to whom a monument | is soon to be erected in Indian.TerI ritory, was the Cadmus of the Cher- ! okees, so to speak, for he invented an alphabet for their use, and in that way distinguished themsabove other American Indians. Professor Williams, of the Johns Hopkins University, says the practice of hazing at college is an ancient one. He came across an old rule at 1 Heidelberg University, where he studied, printed in 14T-JO. forbidding the practice by the old students or shaving the heads of the new students and filling their ears with wax. A youthful character of Bernardstou, Mass., is Arnold Scott, a blind letter carrier, sixtv-seven years old, whose eyesight fras lost forty-six years ago. He has a long route, which he traverses twiee a day, and rarely makes a mistake in the delivery of letters. He walks confidently in summer but the snow troubles him soniewhat in vHrrter. knowledge of the neighborhood’is saidT to be perfect, apd he has never been #*

STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

A Christmas Homily on an OldTime Theme. The Ra<H«nt Herald of the Coming Dawn a Symbol of a Saviour'* Lnvt—Dr. Talmagec’a Sermon. The Brooklyn Tabernacle was beautifully decorated with evergreens last Sunday, and the pastor spoke to a great audience. Dr. Talmage’s subject was “The Star of Bethlehem.” Text—Rev. xxii, 16: “I am the bright and morning star.” He said: This is Christmas eve. Our attention and the attention of the world is drawn to the star that pointed down to the caravansary where Christ was born. But do not let us forget that Christ himself was a star. To that luminous fact my text calls us. •

Have you £Ver seen the morning star advantageously? If it was on your way home from a. night’s carousal, you saw none of its beauty. If you merely turned over on your pillow in the darkness, glancing out of the window you know nothing abo„t the cheerful influence of that star. But there are many in this house to-night who in great passes of their life, some of them far out at sea, have gazed at that star and been thrilled through with indscribable gladness. That star comes trembling as though with the perils of the darkness and vet bright with the anticipation of the day. It seems emotional with all tenderness, its eyes filled with the tears-of many sorrows. It is the gem on the hand of the morning thrust up to signal its coming. In the first place, Christ heralded the coming of the creation. There was a time when there was no order, no sound of beauty. No word was uttered. No wing stirred. No light sped. As far as God could look up, as far down, as far out, there was nothing. Immeasurable solitude. Height and- d eptfa ~an cT Te rigth an d breadth of nothingness. Did Christ then exist? Oh, yes. “By him were all things made that are made — things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth..” Yes, He antedated the creation. He led forth Arcturus and his sons. He shone before the first morning. His voice was heard in the concert when the morning stars serenaded the advent of our infant earth, when, wrapped in swadling clothes of light, it lay in the arms of the great Jehovah. He saw the first foundation laid. He saw the first light kindled. That hand which was afterward crushed upon the cross was thrust into chaos, and it brought out one world and swung it in that orbit, and brought out another world and swung it in another orbit; and brought out all the worlds and swung them m their particular orbits. They came like sheep at the call of a shepherd. They knew his voice and He called them all by their names. . ~ /j^*#*®** Again, Christ heralds the dawn of comfort in a Christian soul. Sometimes we come to passes in life where all kinds of tribulations meet us. You are building up some great enterprise. You have built the foundation—the wall. You are about to put on the capstone, when everything is demolished. You have a heart all strung for sweetest accord,and some great agony crushes it?. There is a little voice hushed in the households Blue eyes closed. Color dashed out of the cheek. The foot still. Instead of the quick feet in the hall, the heavy tread of those who march to the grave. Oh, what are people to do amid all these sorrows. Some know not which way to- turn. But not so the Christian man. He looks up toward the heavens. He sees a bright appearance in the heavens. Can it be only a falling star? Can it be only a delusion? Nav, nay. The longer he looks the more distinct it becomes, until after a while he cries

out, “A star, a morning star, a star of comfort, a star of grace, a star of peace, the star of the Redeemer!” Peace for all trouble. Balm for all wounds. Life for all dead. Now ! Jesus, the great Healer, comes into our home. Peace—peace that pass-c-th all undei-standing. We look up through our tears, are comforted. It is the morning star of the Redeemer. I would like to have my deathbed under the evangelistic star —I would like to have my eye on that star, so I could be assured of the morning. Then the dash ot the surf of the sea of death would only be the billowing up of the promise. “When thou passest through the water I will be with thee, and the rivers, they shall , not overflow thee.” All other lights will fail—the light that falls from the scroll of fame, the light that flashes from the gem in the beautiful apparel, the light that flames from the burning lamps of a banquet—but this light burns on and burns on. Paul kept his eyes on that .morning st at- until be could say, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand; I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith.” Edward Payson kept his eye oh that star until be could say, “The breezes of heaven fan me.” Again, Christ heralds the dawn of millenial glory. It is night in Chine, night io India, night in Siberia, night for the vast majority of the world’s population. But it soemc to me thehe are some intimations of the msornibg. AH Spain is to he brohght under the influence of the gospel What is that -light 1 j*£ e breaking

over the top of the Pyrenees? The morning. Yea, all Italy shall receive the gospel. - She shall have her schools, and her colleges,' and her churches. Her vast population shall surrender themselves to Christ, t What is that light I see breakiug over the top of the Alps? The morning. All India shall come to God. Her idols shall be cast down. Her J uggernauts shall be broken. Her temples of iniquity shall -be demolished. What is that light I see breaking over the top of the Himalayas? The morning. The empurpled clouds shall gild the path of the conquering day. The Hottentot wilt come put of his mud hovel to look at the dawn; the Chinaman will come up on the granite cliffs; the Norwegian will get up on the rocks, and all the beach of heavea will be crowded with celestial inhabitants come out to see the sun rise over the ocean of the world’s agony. With lanterns and torches and a guide we went down in the Mammoth cave of Kentucky. You may walk fourteen miles and sco no sunlight. It is a stupendous place* In some places the roof the cive is 100 feet high. The grottoes filled with weird echoes; cascades falling’ from unseen height to invisible depth. Stalagmites rising up from the floor of the cave; stalactites descending from the roof, joining each other and making pillars of the Almighty's sculpturing. -There are rosettes of amethyst in halls of gypsum. As the guide carries his lantern anead of you the shadows have an appearance supernatural and spectral. The darkness is fearful. Two people, getting lost from their guide only for a few hours, years ago, were demented and for yenrs sat in their insanity. You feel like holding your breath as you walk across bridges that seem to span the bottomless abyss. The guide throws his calcium light down into the caverns, and the light rolls and tosses from rock to rock and from depth, to depth, making at every plunge a new revelation of the awful power that could have made such a place as that. A sense of suffocation comes upon you-as -you think- that you are 250 feet in a straight line from the sunlit surface of the earth. The guide after awhile takes you into what is called the “Star Chamber,” and then he says to you, “Sit here.”'and then he takes the lantern and goes down under the rocks, and it gets darker and darker until the night is so thick that the hand an inch from the eye is unobservable. And then bv kindling one of the lanterns and placing it iu a cleft in the rocks, there is a reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and there are stars coming out in constellations — a brilliant night heavens —and you involuntarily exclaim: “Beautiful! Beautiful!” Then he takes the lantern down in other depths of the cavern, and wanders on, and wanders off, until he comes up from behind the rocks gradually, and it seems* like the dawn of the morning, and it gets brighter and brighter. The guide is a skilled ventriloquist, and he imitates the voices of the morning, and soon the gloom is all gone, and ".you stand congratulating yourself over the wonderful spectacle. Well, there are a great many people who look down into the grave as a great cavern. They think it a thousand miles subterraneous, and all the echoes seem to be the voices of despair, and the cascades seem to be the falling tears that always fall, and the gloom of earth seems com-

ing up in a stalagmite, and the gloom of the eternal world seems descending in the stalactite, making pillars of indescribable horror. The grave is no such place as that to me," thank God. Our divine guide takes us down into the great caverns, and we have the lamp to our feet and the light in ; our path, and all the echoes lin the rifts of the rock are ! anthems, and allthe falling waj ters are fountains of salvation, and after awhile we look up and behold—the cavern of the tomb has become a king’s chamber! And while we are looking at the pomp of it an everlasting morning begins to rise, and all the tears of each ervs- ] talizes into stalagmite, rising up in a ; pillar on one side, and all the glories of heaven seem to be descending in stalactite, making a pillar on the other side, and you push against the gate that swings between the two pillars, and as the gate flashes open you find it is one of the twelve gates which are thrive pearls. Blessed be God that through this gospel the mammoth cave of the sepulcher has become the illumined star chamber of the king! I I would God that if my sermon to- | day does not lead you to Christ that i before morning, looking out of the window, the astronomy of the night heavens might lead you to the feet of Jesus. Hark, hark! To God the chorus breaks From every host, from every (tern; But oue alone, the Saviour speaks— It Is the Star of Bethlehem. The first counterfeiting was done in 1758 by a man named Richard William Vaugh. Ex-President McCosh says in the Evangelist: “I think the time has ; come for a conference of i professors and parents, to consider •now the benefits may be secured from manly exercises without the accompanying evils.” | The late Guillaume Guizot, the French scholar, was learned from bis youth up. At twenty he had writteh a work bn “Menander and Greek C which was crowned by the Academy; and at thisjy-fh'ree he had a chair in the College of : France,

Danger from Electricity.

The continuous current is like a snake, which strikes once and loses its fangs. The alternating current is a snake which can strike again and again. The latter current is coming into use in electric lighting, and it may yet bo employed in the transmission of power. its use over that of the continuous current The dangers from its employment are very great, and will need careful safeguards. It is not however, the possible risk to life in the contact with the ground and a dangling dead wire, whieh hat come in contact with the overhead system of electric propulsion, that constitutes the most serious danger from electricity. What is most to be feared » the ease with which extensive tires can be started in cities by means of bare or poorly insulated electric circuits, of which the earth forms a portion. The electric current seeks to return to the generator which produces it by the path of least resistance. If, therefore, a telegraph or telephone wire, or any metallic conductor, should come in contact with a bare wire conveying a powerful current, this current would seek tbe ground by every possible way; and if the telegraph or telephone wire should be connected., with the ground, the powerful eurrent would be directed through telegraph or telephone instruments in offices and houses to ground connections. It is said, in reply to this view, that lightning frequently has entered houses by telephone and telegraph wires, and has merely burnt out a coil or fused a wire, and has not caused any serious conflagration. A sudden discharge through a circuit, however, is not so dangerous as a slow, insidious heating, which might go on for several hours before it is discovered. This heating could easily be produced by a portion of a powerful current leaking into houses and offices from a wire which has fallen upon a bare inetallie circuit through which a current is flowing. What is to prevent, it may be asked, a great city being set on tire by electricity, in a hundred places at once, on the night of a blizzard? The inquiry is certainly not a frivolous one. The elements of danger are with us, and the questions of safeguards demand the most careful consideration by our municipal authorities.—Atlantic Monthly.

To Keep Trousers in Shape.

A well-dressed man recently entered a leading men’s furnishers store and asked to be shown suspenders, says the' Clothier and Furnisher. Presently after due investigation he selected a certain style and inquired of the salesman how many pairs he bad in stock. was the number, and he took the lot, the clerk meanwhile looking at the customer with a suspicion as to his sanity. There was method Id the man’s madness. ‘'You see,” said he, “when one has a pair of suspenders for each pair of trousers and one hangs the trousers by the suspenders from the closet nail the dependent weight keepsi the trousers in shape and the ‘bag’ out! of the knees. Moreover,” continued! this practical latter-day, Beau Brum- 1 mell, “think of the waste of time involved in the changing of one’s suspenders every time one changes one’s; trousers, let alone the bother. And' then consider in such a case the wear and tear in both suspenders and trousers, Besides one pair of trousers may be longer, or shorter than another apd the susjk jdersTiFtftey have not been changed, once adjusted properly the process of hoisting up or down, which causes an expenditure of time and patience, is done away with. It is infinitely pleasanter and decidedly cheaper in the end to have a dozen pair of braces on hand,” exclaimed the argumentative man in a tone of conviction, as he picked up his package and strode out of the doorway.

$5,000,000 Tobacco Bill Saved.

Chicago, Dec. 23. [Special]—The Chicago Inter - Ocean’s Illustrated Supplement, describing the great success and merit of NO-TO-BAC, has made it famous in a day. Mr. H. L. Kramer, the active man,* was seen to-day at his office, 45 Randolph st., and in talking of NO-TO-BAC’S growth, said it was hard work to keep up with the rapidly increasing demand, as every box sold advertised NO-TO-BAC’S merit. He said, “NO-TO-BAC is not sold on the strength of the thousands and tens of thousands of testimonial statements, but under an absolute guarantee to cure, or money refunded.” That made a long story about merit very short, as it absolutely jjrotects the user from physical injury or financial loss. “Why," said he, “NO-TO-BAC will make 100 000 cures this year, and the saving will average 150.00 for every one cured, or a grand total of $5,000,000 saved from from going out in smoke and but in spit." NO-TO-BAC is, indeed, a God-seud to the poor mau these hard times. According to the testimonials, however, the money-saving is tho least consideration, for almost every one reports an improvement of the nervous system, increase in weight, and a revival of physical and mental powers that is indeed miraculous. Prominent physicians look upon NO-TO-BAC as a great success, and are very free to prescribe it. Every wholesale drug house in this country and Canada sells NO-TO-BAC, and the retail druggists are pushed to supply customers, and the direct mail demand is immense. The cost of NO-TO-BAC compared with results is a small matter, as the saving in a week pays the cost of a cure for a life-time. NO-TO-BAC is sold for SI,OO a box, or three boxes for $2.50. with a guarantee to cure, or money refunded. A few extra copies of the InterOcean Supplement (8 pages), illustrated in five colors, have been secured and will be mailed for the asking, by addressing The Sterling Remedy Ca», Chicago office, 45 Randolph St., New York office, 10 Spruce St., Laboratory,lndiana Mineral Springs Indiana -Jk r*v