Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1894 — Page 2

THE REPUBLICAN. Gk-'Uk K. Marshall, Editor. RENSSELAER - INDIANA

**Which hope we have as an anchor for the seal, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil/’ Ultra-fashionable city people, with superfluous cash and a restless disposition/have started a new fad in the way of a vacation. Their desire to display their wealth has led them to flee from their homes in mid-win ter, and a winter vacation is now added to the summer tour as an additional mark of gentility. A good many fashionable people, are as much distressed about getting rid of their wealth asmany other people are to secure the necessities of life at the least possible outlay. The next World’s Fair will beheld at Antwerp, beginning May 5 of the present year. After that, according to the best information obtainable, the next will be the Exposition Uni verselle, at Paris, in 1300. An International Exhibition ha? been proposed by the Municipal Council of St. Petersburg, to be held in th t city in 1903, to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of that capital by Peter the Great, but the details have not been perfected and its success or possibility has not been assured.

Ip you intend to make a speech at the international Congresses, which are to be held in connection with the Exposition which is to be held at Paris in 1900, you should at once notify the Commissary-General of the Exposition of your intention, stating your subject and the amount of time you desire to consume or occupy in ventilating your theories. “Come early and avoid the rush,” is the mandate already sout out to the world. Secure your dates before the programme is filled. You will then be assured of a hearing and can perfect your address at your leisure, and prune it down to the time allotted for your benefit. /

There recently appeared in this column a brief paragraph that in a humorous way gave an alleged reason for the wrath of good King David “once upon a time.” The item was “wi'it sarkastikel,” and was not inteuded to be taken seriously by any one. Yet we have been informed that certain sensitive people of an ancient race, for _ whom we have the greatest respect and admiration, have felt themselves aggrieved and offended by our evidently ill-timed but utterly innocent attempt to explain what has long been a mystery to readers of the Scriptures. To all such persons we tender an apology and hereby disclaim any intention of reflecting in any way upon the Jewish race, to whom the world is so much indebted.

Yachting is the pastime of-mil-lionaires, but the devotees of this seductive and expensive amusement are to a large extent the descendants ofhard-headedund industrious ancestors who would have scorned to pass their lives, or even a small portion of their existence, in such a worthless, impractical and butterfly way. The expensive playthings called yachts have come into use with this century and were, unlniown a huhdred years ago. Within twen-ty-five years their number has increased five fold. Latest statistics show that England has 3,000 yachts, and America 1,200 of these pleasure boats in commission, and the rich men who maintain them reckon on an average expenditure of $50,000 per annum if they, hope to keep up appearances and Wish to be counted “in the swim” among their fellow yachters.

An era of good will appears to have been inaugurated. Animosities that have strengthened with years of brooding care and resentments that seemed to call for a bloody revenge to appease the wrath of men of nerve and iron, have by some magical power been appeased and the sweet dove of peace rests alike upon the verging ropes of the sawdust arena and the proud capital of the Hohenzollerns. January 25, 1894. will ever be a memorable day, remarkable for the fact that the representative gladiators of England and America met and fought as bitter and sworn enemies, as well as the contestants for the championship of the world, and yet the victor and the vanquished before they slept “shook hands across the bloody chasm," and announced to the world that they bore each other no 111-will. January 2C, 1894, will also he long remembered by the German people on account of the formal reconoiHatbn which took place between

the Kaiser and the Iron Prince, who have been “out,” if not avowed enemies, for years. Can it be that meare changing, and are no lon err inclined or abletn remain as emmies, oi* is it rather that “as rolls the ocean’s rushing tide, so human pas sions ebb and flow?” TnE wor d at Urge is i regressing along unmistakable lines of reform in irany d rections. Only recently tie tyranny of the officers in the German army toward privates arid of her s übord in at es was brought to light and ventilated in such a way as to greatly ameliorate the condition of the men who had suffered so long and grievously. Similar de^elbrought out the figjt that a barbarous custom of placing offending sql"rlWg m irons for trivial misdemeanors still prevailed, and a new rule has been issued from headquarters which does away with the needless cruelty except in cases of extreme necessity. Still another evidence that common men and people are doing their own thinking the world over is the recent action of oijl) Berlin cab drivers who have rebelled in a body against a police order requiring them to wear white glazed hats ip all seasons and" weather as a distinguishing mark of their calling. “The world do m ve.’

The fool kirler is evidently going to be overworked during this year of grace, if the January returns may be taken as an index of the balance of the year. A man at? Toledo conceived the ludicrous idea of frightening his wife with the sight of his own body suspended from a r ipe. The “joke” was a great success. The good wife was thoroughly frightened and the fool's neck was broken—thus j saving the mythical executioner an unpleasant task. Fully as successful. but in a different way, was the j “joke” of an Indianapolis physician i who concealed the dead body of an ! infant in a grocery boy’s overcoat which he found lying on a bench. The coroner was summoned, the newspaper reporters flocked like vultures to the scene, the grocery man was angry to the verge of insanity, and the poor boy who was the innocent victim of the M. P.'s mirth quaked in terror at the ghastly: sight for which he was held responsible by all the witnesses. Seeing that matters were likely to end seriously, the medico at last had the manhood tc come forward and explain that he alone was responsible, the body being that of a 'premature child that he had preserved in alcohol for some time, which he claimed to have acquired in a legitimate wav in the course of his practice. Unfortunately the doctor still survives, but if the avenging wrath of an aroused Nemesis fails to ere long reach him then indeed is the story of the fool killer a baselc-ss fairy lale.

Chicago lawyers are said to be unanimously in favor of the adoption of the English custom among judges of wearing huge horse-hair wigs, claiming that it adds dignity tt court proceedings. Many are alsc in favor of the leading counsel, in peases being tried, adopting the same custom. The question has been brought into prominence, it is said, by the proposition now being discussed in England, of discarding this fashion which has been handed down for generations. The opinion among Chicago lawyers is that an English judge without a wig would" be an innovation that the English public could not and would not for a moment endure, /meriean courts in many cases are sadly lacking in dignity, and even gentlemanly decorum is often lacking on the part of both judge and counsel, but il anything could transform an American Judge and “home grown” attorneys into star performers in a howl ing farce it Certainly would be tin adoption of this ancient and ridiculous fashion of wearing a huge horsehair wig while court is in session. The American sense of humor is entirely too keen for a such a performance to pass for dignified proceedings, and the unmerciful “guying’ of judges and attorneys that woutc surely ensue, would necessitate the employment of additional deputy sheriffs to preserve order, and they would find that thev had '‘bitten al more than they could chaw” when they attempted to check the hilarity of the spectators in the average court room.

Lingering Infection.

New York Herald. If the reported results of recenl researches in diphtheria by the bac- j teriolog'ual bureau of the New : York Health Department are con. firmed they are extremely impnr tant. The power to transmit the infection of diphtheria, it is found, j lingers sometimes for as much as■: twelve days and occasionally three or four weeks in patients who have made an apparently perfeefr recovery from this most deadly disease.

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

GEORGE WILLIAM CHILDS. ANation mourns! Not for a high official who has passed away surrounded by the insignia of a delegated power that had come to him after long years of shrewd intrigue; and well laid plans that ever looked toward his own aggrandizement at the expense of the great mass of his fellow men —but because a private citizen has in the fullness of his prime been stricken down by the great enemy of all after a lifetime of devotion to tlve welfare of his race. Endowed by nature with a superior business tact and ability that brought him ample wealth —his paramount thought was ever that he should use his power and means in a manner to benefit in a lasting wav all with whom he came in contact — and with a sympathy that reached out to the down-trodden and suffering in all lands. Art and science had in him a generous, iqtelligent and appreciative patron, princes and Presidents and Emperors delighted to do him honor, and the humblest newsboy knew him as a cheery wholesouled friend. To-day his adopted city mourns in despair for her cherished son, and -his great family of loyal employes grieve for the loss of a loving father's care and refuse to be comforted-;' lie had ever a tear for pity, and a hand open as the day for charity, a genius for kindness that has seldom if ever been equaled in this selfish, sordid world. His life motto was that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” and as he scattered benefaC; lions great and small with a lavish

hand that never wearied, they re* turned to him in blessings anil benedictions. that made his life a joy from day to day and his death a triumph that a conqueror might envy but could never gain. Long he lived an embodiment of that charity which suffereth long and is kind, and to-day he rests in peace and a mighty people gather about his grave with tears of sorrow and of heartfelt sympathy, feeling that in his death the poor, of all lands and the struggling of all climes have lost a friend that can never be replaced. ‘■Taere Honor comes a pilgrim gray 'i'O bless the turf that wraps his clay.”

THIRSTING KANSAS.

Kansas has a prohibition law and even water is scarce. The average Hoosier would feel like a fish out of water or a Gam br in us without beer if suddenly transported to its inhospitable and sumptuary atmosphere, and he would doubtless suffer great discomfort until he learned to drink milk. Efforts to remedy this unhappy condition of affairs are constantly being made by the distillers, brewers and irrigation companies, and the day may be near at hand when the streams will flow with liquid plenty and the warped and thirsty bars shall overflow with the amber fluid so dear at 5 cents a glass. Through the enterprise of Colorado ditch companies what few rivers Knnsasonce had have--been carralled

before they reached the State line and made to give up their life-giving wealth to the Centennial State’s domain before they got beyond the inspiring limits of the dome of the continent. and as a result the situation in Western Kansas has become desperate. Efforts are now making for an extended system of artesian wells. An inexhaustible supply of water is said t 6 underly the entire State that may easily be reached and if the wells do not flow the water will be raised by wind power. Relief from the great droughts that have rendered Kansas agriculture a delusion and a snare seems to be in sight -to a limited'extentat ieaat—in the near future. Still the Indianafarmer will be apt to retain his admiration for his own fertile soil; and the migratioh to the plains of thirsting Kansas does not promise j to be alarming in the spring of ’94 simply because artesian wells have become b practical solution of the question of a reliable water supply on the arid plains of the West. “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush,” and a sure thing in Indiana is worth any number of intangible possibilities on the treeless wastes that lay beyond the Mississippi.

“DISTINGUISHING MARKS.”

It is important that every citizen of Indiana should have an intelligent conception of what constitutes “dis* tinguishing marks” upon ballots when voting under the Australian system. Iff is not necessary that the marks shall be made with intention of imparting information of anv character to any person or party under any circumstances or at any time or place, to invalidate the ballot that is disfigured, accidentally or otherwise. The recent decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Sego—Ys, Stoddard, from Porter county, establishes the validity of

a* the law, and also establishes the fact that the statute governing the manner of marking the ballots is to be interpreted literally, and cannot be subject to an uncertain,construction by election officers. In other words, the law means exactly what it says, and if the voter has not intelligence enough to cast his ballot in the manner laid down by the section of the law governing that proceeding, then he must lose his vote, be he who he may. The “intent of the voter” counts for nothing. The court in the decision re vie wed the evils of vote buying and intimidation, stating that the intent of the law was evident, and that it meant to “absolutely shut the door against makieg merchandise of his vote by the corruptible voter, as nearly as human ingenuity could dev se such a plan.” Therefore our citizens of all parties, who desire to feel assured that their votes will be counted, will do well to carefully inform themselves of the statutory provisions governing the casting of ballots before they again essay to handle the little rubber stamp. Stamp in the eagle square; stamp in the rooster square; stamp in the rising sun square, etc., if you wish to vote a straight ticket. Stamp in the square before the name of each candidate you desire to vote for if you desire to vote a mixed -ticket. Any deviation —extra mark of the stamp, blot, lead pencil mark, scratch or erasure, or other “distinguishing marks” of any character, kind or species whatever converts your ballot into so much waste paper. The court of last resort has said so, and that settles it. “Stamp, brothers, stamD with care.”

LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG.

His Wonderful Speech and the Maimer oi its Delivery, John G. Nicolay, who was Mr, Lincoln’s private' secretary, and who accompanied the President when he madehis immortal speech at Gettysburg, contributes an article to the February Century, describing the occasion and comparing the various versions of the speech. He thus describes its delivery: At about eleven o’clock the Presidential party reached the platform. Mr, Everett, the orator of the day, arrived fully half an hour later, and there was still further waiting before the military bodies and civic spectators could be properly ranged and stationed. It was therefore folly noon before Mr. Everett began his address, after which/for two hours, he held the assembled multitude in rapt attention with his eloquent description and argument, his polished diction, his carefully studied and -practiced delivery.

When he had concluded, and the band had performed the usual musical interlude. President Lincoln rose to fill the part assigned him in the program. It was entirely natural for every one to expect that this would consist of a few perfunctory words, the mere formality of official dedication. There is every probability that the assemblage regarded Mr. Everett as the mouthpiece, the organ of expression of the thought and feeling of the hour, and took it for granted tha t Mr. Lincoln was there as a mere official figure-head, the culminating decoration, so to speak, of the elaborately planned pageant of the day. They were therefore totally unprepared far-what they heard, and could not immediately realize that his words, and not those of the carefully selected orator, were to carry concentrated thought of the occasion like a trumpet-peal to farthest posterity. The newspaper records indicate that when Mr. Lincoln began to speak, he held in his hand the manuscript first draft of his address which he had finished only a short time before. Blit it is the distinct recollection of the v/riter. who sat within a few feet of him, that he did not read from the written pages, though that impression was naturally left upon many of his auditors. That it was not a mere mechanical reading is. however, more definitely confirmed by the circumstance that Mr. Lincoln did not deliver the address in the exact form in which his first draft is written. It was taken down in shorthand by the reporter for the “Associated Press,” telegraphed totbaqjrnrcTpal cities, and printed on the following morning in the leading newspapers.

Great Oratorical Ability.

Detroit Free Press; • “Colonel Brown,” remarked a chappie, “is the finest after-dinner speaker I know of.” “Why,” saicf 1 his friend, in some astonishment, “I never heard he bad any-ability in that direction at all.” “Well, he has. I’ve dined with him several times at various places, and after dinner he always says: ‘That’s all right, my boy; I’ll pav for it.”

A Primitive Flat.

Two sportsmen in trapping an owl at Charlotte, N. C., the other afternoon felled a tree, and were amazed at their unusual find. There were four stories in the trunk of the tree. In the bottom one was a big wasp nest; ia the second was a squirrel; in the third was the owl which was caught alive, and in the fourth was a large family of honey bees with several gallons of honey. Robinson Crusoe and a man Friday recently appeared in connection with a contested election case in Massachusetts

ROYAL RUBIES.

‘Oh. the Jewels, PrecioTis Jewels, Eright Gems in His Crown.” A& Eloquent Discourse on That ‘'Wisdom’ Which “is Batter Thau Robies," Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at th< Brooklyn Tabernacle last Sunday. Subject: “Rubies Surpassed.” Text Proverbs, viii, 11—“ Wisdom is better than rubies.” Hfe said: : You have all seen the precious stone commonly called the ruby, li is of deep red color. The bibh makes much of it. It glowed in the first row of the high priest’s breastplate. Under another name it stood in the wall of heaven. Jeremiah compares the ruddy cheek o the Nazarites to the ruby. Ezekiel —points it out in tin robes of the king of Tyre. Four times does Solomon use it as a symbol by which to extol wisdom or religion, always setting its value as I el ter than rubies.

The home of the genuine ruby is Burmah, and si*ty miles from its mpiial, where lives and reigns the ruier, called “Lord of the Rubies,” under a careful government guard are these valuable mines of ruby kept. Rarely has any foreigner vis ited them. When a ruby of large value was discovered, it was brought forth with elaborate ceremony, a precession was formed, and. with all-lannered pomp, military guard and princely attendants, the gem was brought to the king's palace. Of great value is the ruby, much mere so t han diamond, as lapidaries and jewelers will tell you. An expert on this subject writes; “A ruby of perfect color weighing five carats is worth at the present day ten times as much as a diamond of eaual weight.” It was a disaster when Charles the Bold lost the ruby he was wearing at the battle of Grandson. It was a great affluence when Rudolph 11 of Austria inherited a ruby from his sister, the Queen dowager. It was tnought to have had much to do with the victory of Henry V, as he wore it into the battle of Agincourt.

Oh, yes, it is a good thing to have r< ligioh while the sun of prosperity rides high andeverylhuig is brilliant in fortune, in health, in worldly favor. Yet you can at such times i hardly tell how much of it is natural ! exuberance and how much of it is the grace of God. But let the sun set and the shadows avalanche the plain and the thick darkness of sick- j ness or pov< rtv or persecution or mental exhaustion fill the soul and ’ fill the house and fill the world; then you sit down by the lamp of God’s word, and under its light the consolations of the gospel come out —the peace of God which passeth all understanding appears. You never fully appreciated their power until in the deep night of trouble the Divine Lamp revealed their exqaisitness. Pearls and amethysts for the day, but rubies for the night. Moreover, I am sure that Solomon was right in saying that religion or wisdom is better than rubies, from the f act that a thing is worth what ) it will fetch. Religion will fetch solid happiness, and the ruby will not. In all your observation did you ever find a person thoroughly felicitated by an inerustment’ of jewels? As you know more of yourself than anyone else, are you happier now with worldly adornments and successes than before you won them? Does the picture that cost you hundreds or Ihousands* of dollars on your wall bring you as much satisfaction as the engraving that at the expense of $5 was hung upon the wall when you first began to keep house? If in this journey of life we have learned anything, we have learned I that this world neither with its emoluments nor gains can satisfy the soul. Why. here come as many witnesses as I wish to call to the stand to testify that bcfoie high heavpn and the world, in companionship with Jesus Christ and a good hope of heaven, they feel a joy that all the resources of their vocabulary fail to express. Sometimes it evidences itself into ejaculations of hossanna, sometimes in doxology, sometimes in tears. A converted native of India, in a letter said, “How I long for my bed, not that I may sleep—l lie awake often and long—but to hold sweet communion with my God.” An aged aunt said to me: “DeWitt, three times 1 have fainted dead away under too great Christian joy. It was in all three cases at the holy communion.” An eminenl Christian man while in prayer said: “Stop. Lord; I cannot bear any more of this gladness; it is too much for mortal. Withhold! Withhold!” We have beard of poor workmen or workwomen getting a letter suddenly telling them that a fortune had been left them, and how they were almost beside themselves with glee, taking the first ship to claim the estate. But, oh, what it is to wake up out of the stupor of a sinful life and through pardon in ir that all our earthly existence will be divinely managed for our best welfare, and that then all heaven will roll in upon the soul ! , *tnj>n j i -- ’ There is also something in tl e deep carmine of the ruby that suggests the sacrifice on which our !whole system of religion depends. While the emerald suggests the meadows, and the sapphires the skies, and the opal the sea, the ruby isuggests the blood of sacrifice. The jmost emphatic and starling of all icolors hath the ruby. Solomon, |the author of my text, knew jail about the sacrifice of lamb and dove on the altars of

he temple, and he knew the meanng of sacrificial blood, and what ther precious stone could he so well lse to symbolize it as the ruby? / Red, ntensely red. red as the blood of the rreatest martyr of all time—-Jesus of he centuries' Drive the story of he crucifixion out of the Bible and the doctrine of the atonement out of >ur religion, and there would be mthing of Christianity left for our worship or our admiration. Dive in all the seas, explore all the nines, crowbar all the mountains, iew all the crowned jewels of all the Emperors and find me aiiy gem that ■ah so overwhelmingly symbolize iLtiXtUmartyrdom as the ruby; M ark ,'ou, there arc several gems somewhat like the ruby. So is the corleliarf, so is the garnet, so is the spinel, so is the balas, so the gems brought from among the gravels of Ceylon and New South Wales, but there is only one genuine ruby, and that comes from the mine of Burmah. And there is only one Christ, and He comes from Heaven. One Redeemer, one Ransom, one Sou of God, “only one name given under heaven atnoug men by which we can be saved.” I like the coral, for it seems the solidified foam of breakers, and I like the jasper, for it gathers seventeen colors’in to its bosom, and I like the jet. for it compresses the shadows of many midnights, and I like the ehrysoprase because its purple is illumined with a small heaven of stars, and I like the chrysolite for its waves of color, which seem on fire. But this morning nothing so impresses me as the ruby, for it depicts, it typifies, it suggests “the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth from all sin.” “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission,” Yea, Solomon was right when in ray text he said, “Wisdom is better than rubies.”

On the finger of the dying man there is a ruby. The presence of these rubies implies opulence of all kinds. The pictures on the walls are heirlooms or the trophies of European travel. The curtains are from foreign looms. The rugs are from Damascus or Cairo. The sofas are stuffed with ease and quietude. The rocking-chairs roll backward and forward on lullabies. The pillows are exquisitely embroidered. All the appointments of the room are a peroration to a successful commercial or professional life. But the man has no religion, never has had and never professed to have. There is not a Bible or one religious book in the room. Another room of moral exit Religion and no rubies. She never had money enough to buy one of these exquisites. Sometimes she stopped at a jeweler’s show window and saw a row of them incarnadining the velvet. She had keen taste enough to appreciate those gems, but she never owned one of them. She was not jealous or unhappy because others had rubies while she had none. But she had a richer treasere, and that was the grace of God that had comforted her along the wav amid bereavements and temptations and persecutions and sicknesses and privations and trials of all sorts. Now she is going out of life, j The room is bright—not with pictures or statues, not with upholstery," not with any of the gems of mountain or of sea, but there is a strange and vivid glow in the room--not the light of chandelier, or star, or noonday sun, but something that outshines all of them. It must be the presence of supernaturals. Erom her illuminated face I think she must hear sweet voices. Yea, she does hear sweet voices-voices of departed kindred, voices apostolic and prophetic and evangelic, but all of them overpowered by the voice of Christ, saving. “Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom.” I From her illumined face I think she must hear rapturous music. Yea. she does hear rapturous music, now soft as Solos, now thunderous as orchestras, now a saintly voice alone, now the hundred and forty and four thnmsand in concert. From her illumined face I think she must breathe redolence, Yea, she does inhale aroma from off the gardens whose flowers never wither, and from the blossoms of orchards everv tree of which bears twelve manner of fruit. From her illumined face I think phe. must see a glorious sight. Yes, she sees the wall that has iasper at the base, and amethyst at the top and blood red rubies between. Good-bve, sweet soul! Why should vou longer stay? Your work all done; your burdens all carried; your tears all wept! Forward into the light: Up ■ into the joy! Out into the grandeurs! For the last twenty-three years every blast of iniustice against ms has multiplied my readers all the world over, and the present malignancy printed and uttered because our church is in a financial struggle after having two great structures destroyed by fire' and we compelled to build three large churches—l say the present outrageous injustice in some quarters will multiply my audiences in all lands if I can keep iq good humor and not fight back.. A gentleman tapped me on the shopkler, summer before last, on a street of Edinburg and said: “1 live in the Shetland islands, north Scotland, and I-read your sermons every Sabbath to an audience ol neighbors, and-qny brother lives in Capetown, and hereadsthem every Sabbath to an audience of bis neighbors.” And I here and now satTto the 40.000,000 of the earth to wbosi eyes theso words will come that on< of my dearest anticipations is t< meet them in heaven. Ah, that will be better tbap rubies!