Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1894 — Page 2

THE REPUBLICAN. » ■„ - ■ a , RENSSELAER - INDIANA

"By reason or me multitude or oppressions they make the oppressed to cry; they cry-out by reason of the arm of the mighty;” New Hampshire' legislators are proposing to experiment with a prohibitory law. and will strike at the root of the matter’ by endeavoring to place upon the statutes a measure to make the manufacture of both spirituous and malt liquors illegal. As usu a .'.“the man who knows it all’’ is at work very industriously these days, at Washington, explaining to the übiquitous reporter his own peculiar ideas as to “what done it.” As usual, also, these ideas are as variegated as Joseph’s coat of many colors-

The war in Brazil is not over after all, if private advices from that unfortunate country are to be believed. A letter from Capt. Alincar. late commander of the famous rebel cruiser Aquadaban, to a relative in Philadelphia, makes the assertion that the revolutionists will vet succeed if foreign nations do not interfere, at least so far as to separate Rio G rande do Sul from the rest of Brazil. Those South American Republics certainly are iu hard,, lines. The pork packing industry of the country at large appears to be in an extremely active condition. At the leading centers, collectively, two million more hogs have appeared than at the same date last year. This from a known total supply of nearly six million less. The weight' is below the average and the quality inferior. The export demand is large. The southern demand for' bacon is also in excess of former years. No radical change in values can be expected until there is a falling off in hog receipts, Meats of all kinds are likely to be comparatively high while grain remains at present figures.

West Indianapolis was recently incorporated as a city. Mayor Tolen is the first chief executive of the new municipality. Recently the mayor granted a city liquor license on theinstallment plan, the vender of intoxicants, being short of cash. The Marshal arrested the saloonman for selling without a city license. The Council overhauled the mayor for his illegal action. The mayor acknowledged his error, but asked that the case in question be allowed to go by default. Refused. The saloonman asked for a refunding of the sums paid on account. Refused. Saloonman closed up and brought suit. Council adjourned, one member making a vigorous speech, in which he said the august assembly collectively acted like a lot of school boys. The muddled municipality don’t appear to have any idea “where it is at.”

John Burns, M. P., now traveling in this country on a lecture tour, stopped off in Chicago the other day long enough to be interviewed and expressed his disapproval of Chicago thoroughfares, which he denounced as “vile,” That is just what the business streets of that metropolis are, but the leading citizens of the World’s Fair city were not particularly pleased with the Englishman’s bluntness. They always expect compliments from foreign visitors on the vastness of their vanity and the colossal cheek of their business men. It makes little difference to Chicago, of course, what Mr. Burns may think, but it is pleasant to note that the first sight of the modern Babylon failed to inspire the hard headed labor leader' 1 with anything like the gushing admiration which Chicago always deems her simple due from great and small.

Kindness to the ‘‘loved ones at home” is a trait of human nature that can not be too strongly commended, and is also one which as time goes by will bring a larger reward in grateful recollections than can be obtained from any other source. Many people metaphorically embrace the world with their charitable impulses, yet “just behind the scenes,” in the privacy of their own homes, they are a “holy terror” to all the household—a standing menace to the peace and quiet of their own firesides—their presence chilling every semblance of the love and kindness that should reign su preme into Black and dismal embers of hate and discord. Kindness to all human beings is commendable, but ail will do well to recollect that the future has a terrible retribution in store for every person capable of human feelings who disregards the adage that “charity begins at home.”

Coldness to and neglect of those who are bound to us by ties of kind red blood will luring.in time a sure reward* of • unavailing.: remorse that naught but death can cure. aAuthorities appear to agree in the opinion that American agriculture is not at all likeiy to be permanently harmed because of the increased productiveness 'of India, Russia and the Argentine. Th; rapidly increasing population, of the United States, as well as the constantly augmented millions of th? already overcrowded- countries ol Europe, must be fed. Again a market for agricultural products is constantly making increased demands in the shape of corn for feeding stock for meat producing- purposes, for which output there is an almost ■undisputed outlet. Flour for foreign shipment, in the near future, will absorb out* surplus wheat without difficulty. The process of readjustment under which the commercia 1 world has been laboring for the past five years must soon cease, and in, the very nature of things the Unitec States must again resume its oldtime ascendancy and prosperity.

. The killing of Riordan by tfyp Australian pugilist, Fitzsimmons, a few weeks ago, was an unfortunate affair that was believed at the time would have a tendency to interfere with the alleged manly art of pugilism. Such, unfortunately, does not appear to be the probable result. Fights continue to come off, while other “mills” are arranged for.- It is needless to moralize. While money can be made by,and public sentiment is not sufficiently strong to suppress, these exhibitions, it is safe to say they will be continued'. A “plug ugly” knocked to “Ifingdomcome”now and then by a mislick is a mattor of trifling consequenceto the great public that delights in these brutal encounters.. Riordan is the fourth man to be killed in. sparring exhibitions in the past four years. All of the men who inflicted the fatal blows were acquitted except one, a “pug” in St. Louis, who received a sentence of imprisonment for several years. / . ■ -.

The colored labor organizations of this country have appealed to John Burns, the English labor leader now in the United States, to use his influence in their behalf with kindred societies whose membership is restricted to the Caucasian race. Mr. Burns is “getting on to the curves” of the United States pretty fast and finds himself in the position of the Dutchman who exclaimed: “The longer I lif the more I find efery day owit.” The hard headed M. P. is said to have been more astdnished at this appeal than any feature of the labor situation that has so far come under his observation. He had supposed that the colored man was accorded every right and privilege that his white brother enjoyed and had not dreamed that a down-trodden laboring man would himself deny to the black man even the few rights that he enjoyed. The color prejudice as it exists in the United States is an unknown quantity in England —largely, perhaps, for the reason that the colored population is a very small percentage of the whole.

CISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

Russia has 2,058 liquor distilleries, The bicycle craze is greatest in ‘France. There are eight Methodist congregations in Salt Lake City. More than 1,000 forms of snow crystals have been observed and copied. The Duluth Imperial mill “produced 7,700 barrels of flour Oct. 23, beating the world s record.” San Francisco’s municipal ticket ballot was a foot and a half wide and only two inches short of a yard long. The War Ministry of Turkey has promulgated an order that hereafter army officers must always wear clean uniforms in public. If the Archbishop of Santiago is made a cardinal, as rumor now says is probable, he will be the first cardinal in South America. The first piano ever owned in the (State of Maine is said, to be yet on duty in Knox county. It formerly belonged to Gen. Knox. Many of the people who know how to write shorthand correspond with each other in shorthand. Thus they save time, strength and paper. A beggar who died a few weeks ago in Auxerre, France, was found, to have a million francs in bonds in a trunk, and in his cellar 400 bottles of wine of the vintage of 1700. A Maine newspaper speaks of a “strong anti-foot-ball sentimenf which is rapidly gaining ground” in that State, and predicts “the death of the rowdy game" in a seasoa or two.

The tunnels of the world are estimated to number about 1,142, with a total length of 514 miles. There are about 1,000 railroad tunnels, 12 subaqueous tunnels, 90 canal tunnels and 40 conduit tunnels.

FIRE WORSHIPPERS.

Among the Farsees in Bombay. Heathrn Burial Customs and Matrimonial Fest vlties—Dr. Tu rnage's Sermon ' for the Press. The Rev. Dr. Talmage, continuing his series_gf rousd the world aer\ mons through the press, chose, last Sunday, for his subject, ‘The Fire Worshippers,’’the textseiected being Matthew ii, I, “There came wise men from the East to Jerusalem.” These wise men were the Farsees, or the so-called fire worshippers,and I found their descendants in India last October. Th-ir heathenism is more tolerable than any of the other false religions and l/asmore alle-viations,-and while in this round the world series I have,already showmyou the worst»forms of heathenism,today I show you the least offensive. The prophet of the Farsees was Zoroaster of Persia. He was poet and philosopher and reformer as well as religionist. His disciples thrived at first in Persia, but- under Mohammedan persecution they retreated to India. • The Bible o.f the Parsees, or fire worshipers, as they are inaccurately called, is the Zend Avesta, a collec- . tion of the strangest books that ever came into my hands. There were originally twenty-one .volumes,. but Alexander the Great, in a drunken fit. set tire to a palace which con - tained some of them, and they went into ashes and forgetfulness. But there are more of their sacred volumes left than most people would have patience to read. There are many things in the religion of th o Parsecs that suggest Christianity, and some of its doctrines are in accord with our own religion. Zoroaster. wfio lived about- 1,400 years before Christ, was a good man, suffered persecution for his faith and was assasinated while worshipping at an altar. He announced the theory; “He is best who is pure of, heart!” and that there are two great 1 spirits in the world-—Qrmuzd, the good spirit, and Ahriman, the bad spirit- and that all tyhodo right are under the influence of Ormuzd. and all who do wrong are under Ahriman, that the Parsec must be born on the ground floor of the house and must be buried from the ground floor; that the dying man must have prayers said over him and a sacred juice given him to drink; that the good at their decease go into eternal light, and the bad into eternal darkness; that having passed out-of this life the soul lingers near-the corpse three days in a paradisaic state, en- ■ joying more than all the nations of earth put together could enjoy, or in a pandemoniac state, suffering more than, all the nations put together could possibly suffer, but, at the end of three days departing for its final destiny, and that there will be a resurrection of the. body. They are more careful than any other people about their ablutions, and they wash and wash and wash. They pay great attention to physical health, and it is a rare thing to see a sick Parsee. They do not smoke tobacco, for they consider that a misuse of fire. At the close of mortal life the soul appears at the Bridge Chin vat, where an angel presides, and questions the , soul about the thoughts and words' and deeds of its earthly state. Nothing, however, is more intense in the Parsee faith than the theory that the dead body is impure; A devil is supposed to take possession of the dead body. All who touch it are unclean, ! and hence the strange style of. obsequies. And now, the better to show you ; these Parsees, I tell you of two things I saw within a short time in Bombay. It was an afternoon of ; contrast. We started for Malabar hill, on which the wealthy classes have their embowered homesand the Parsees their strange temple of the dead. > As we rode along the water’s edge the sun was descending the sky, and a disciple of Zoroaster, a Parsee, was in lowly posture, and with reverential gaze looking into the sky. He would have been said to have I been worshipin'* the sun, as all Par- j sees are said V. worship the fire. But the intelligent Parsee does not wor- j shipijhe fire. He looks upon the sun I as the emblem of the warmth and flight of the Creator. Looking at a blaze of light, whetheron earth, on mountain height or in the sky, he can more easily bring to mind * the glory of God—at least, so the Parsees tell me- Indeed, they are the pleasantest heathen I have met. They treat their wives as equals, . while the Hindoos and Buddhists ; treat them as cattle, although the 1 cattle and sheep and swine are better off than most of the women of India. This Parsee on the roadside on our way to Malabar hill was the only one of that, religion I had ever seen engaged in worship. Who knows but that beyond the light of the sun on which he gazes he may catch a glimpse of the God who isHight and “in whom there is no darkness at all?” • “ -1 ,i I We passed on up through gates into the garden that surrounds the place where the Parsees dispose of ; their dead. There is on all sides great opulence of fern and cypress. The garden is one hundred feet above the level of the sea. Not far ,from th? entrance is a building where the mourners of the funeral I procession go in to pray. A Irght is 1 here kept burning year in and year .out. We.ascend the garden by some 1 eight stone steps. The body of a deceased aged woman ife being carried in toward the chief “tow<r of silence.’’ There are five- of these towers. Four persons whose business it is to do this carry the corpse. They are followed by two men with

long beards. The tower of silenci’ to which they come cost $150,001 and is, 25 feet high and 276 fee around, without a roof. Thetarrien j'of the dead and’the two bearded met ' come to th® door of the tower, entej and leave th e dead, There are threj rows of places for the dead —thi outer row for, the men, the na iddli i row for the women, the inside row for the children. The lifeless bodiq are left exposed as far down as th? waist. As soon as the employes re tire from the tower of silence thi vultures, now one, now two, non many, swoop upon the lifeless form These vultures fill the air with theif discordant voices. We saw them ij long rows on the top of the white, washed wails of the tower of silence Irr a~ few minutes they have take? the last particle of flesh from th? bones. There had evidently beer other.opportunities for them that day, and some flew away as though surfeited. They sometimes carry away with them parts of a body, and it is no unusual thing for the gentle, men in their country seats tq have dropped into their doorways a bonj from the tower of'silence. In the center of this tower is 3 well, into which the bones are thrown after they are bleached. Thehot sun and the rainy season and charcoal de their work of disintegration and disinfection, and then there are sluices that carry into the sea what remains of the dead. The weal thy people ol Malabar hill hive made strenuous efforts to have these strange towers removed as a nuisance, but they remain, and will no doubt for ages remain. . _. Starting homeward, we soon were in the heart of the city and saw a building ali a flash with lights and resounding with merry voices. It was a Parsee wedding, in a building -erected especially for the marriage ceremony. We came to the doorand proposed to go in, but at first were They saw we' were not Parsees and that we were not even natives. Gradually we worked our way inside the door. The building and the surroundings were illumined by aundreds of candles _in_glasses_amd lanterns, in unique and grotesque holdings. Conversation ran high, and laughter bubbled over, and all was gay. Then there was a sound of an advancing band of music, but the instruments for the most part were strange to our ears and eyes. Louder and louder were the outside voices, and the wind and stringed instru - ments, until the procession halted at the door of the temple and the bridegood mounted the Steps. Then the music ceased and all voices were still. The ceremony went on interminably. We wanted to hear the conclusion, but were told that the ceremony would go on for a long while—indeed that it would not conclude until 2 o’clock in the morning, and this was only between 7 and 8 o’clock in the evening. There would be a recess after awhile in the ceremony, but it would be taken up again in earnest at 12:30. We enjoyed what we had seen, but felt Tor six more hours of wedding ceremony. Silently wishing the couple a happy life in each other’s companionship, we pressed bur way through the throng of congratulatory Parsees. A fellow traveler-in India told me he had been writing to his home in England trying to get a law passed that no white woman could be legally married in India until she had been there six months. Admirable law would that be! If a white woman saw what married life with a Hindoo is, she would never undertake it. Off with the thick and ugly veil from, woman’s face! Off with the crushing burdens from her shoulders! Nothing'but the gospel of Jesus Christ will ever make life in India what it ought to be. Thus I have set before you the best of all religions of the heathen world, and I have done so in order that you might come to higher appreciation of the glorious religion which has put its benediction over Christendom. Compare the absurdities and mummeries of heathen marriage with the plain “I will!” of Christian marriage, the hands joined in pledge “till death do you part.” Compare the doctrine that the dead may not be touched with as sacred and tender and loving a kiss as is ever given-, the last kiss of lips that never will again -speak to us. Compare the narrow bridge Chinvat, over which the departing Parsee soul must tremblingly cross, to the wide open gate of heaven, through which the departing Christian soul may triumphantly enter. Compare the twenty-one books of the Zend Avesta of the Parsee. which even the scholars of the earth despair of understanding, with our Bible, so much of it as is necessary for our salvation "in language so plain that “a wayfaring man,though a fool,need not err therein.’’Compare the “tower of silence,” with its vultures, at Bombay, with the Greenwood of Brooklyn, with its sculptured angels of resurrection, and bow yourselves in thanksgiving and prayer as you realize that if at the battles of Marathon and Salamis Persia had triumphed over Greece instead of Greece triumphing overPersia, Parseeism, which was the national religion of Persia, might have covered the ea?th, and you and I, instead of sitting in the noonday light of our glorious Christianity might have been groping in the depressing shadows of Parseersim,a. religion as inferior to that which is our inspiration in life and our hope in death as Zoroaster of Persia was inferior to our radiant and superhuman Christ, to whom be honor and glory and dominion and victory and su-a world without end. Amen!

A NEW YEAR VOW.

BY HARKLEY HARKER.

NEW YEAH My last glass yesterday, so help me God!” " I ► “On your October {birthday you said the same.” ’ “So I did. Well?” “Well you?” was the response of the

cooler of the two young men. “That is,” rejoined the first speaker, his glass still untouched, “you take exception to my repeating so solemn an oath?” “No. It is a man’Sprtvilege and safety to make an oath solemn. But you ask God to witness so triflingly. I never say, 'so help me God.’ ” “How so? Come and sit down in the hotel rotunda,” said the one called Bob. “For I certainly shall not drink with you tonight, nor ever again, if God will help me.” As they walked away, the other fellow, whom I heard hi m add ress as Gus, stroked the liquor from his mustache, and laughed over Bob’s last remark. “Ah, you jewel of a fellow, I’ve heard you sav all that before. You are a charming companion, except when you mother and sisters, have had you up home for a ” and I lost the rest of the sentence, I finished my glass of ice water — and,by the way. isn’t it an outrage that so many country hotels compel a gentleman to enter the bar room for a glass of water? —and passed out. I sat smoking so near to those two commercial travelers that 1 could not hut hear them. “But 1 tell you I mean to stop.” Tais Bob. ‘‘And I tell you ii is only.the resolution of a moment.” This Gus. “No, sir. I sail, so help me God.” “True Bob, and trifled with the name of the Deity.” ? “Confound you! I did not trifle.

It is only God who can help me. Why, s l I ave twice promised you I’d never drink again. But you are like a wisp of grass to tie a boat to in vonder Niagara. I have vowed it to lots of bar-room fellows, but they only laugh. 1 have vowed it to my mother, but even she is not strong enough to hold me; my hand slips off. Then I just grasp at the strongest stay 1 can think of.—l say, so help me God! Well, three or four times I have broken even that pledge. But what shall I do? lam just like a man in a whirlpool. His boat swings round once, and he snatches at grass and bushes; round again, and he grasps at the rock, holds a little, and then gets swept away, Round he comes again, and again grapples the rock. That’s what I did tonight. JMypu suppose the rock is displeased because the drowning wretch makes another reach for its solid sides? Do you think that God is insulted that I reach for Hirn again? Ah, no! He never laughs over my vows, nor taunts me with my failures. He just stands and waits for my hands. If God cannot help me, who can?”

“Quite a sermon,” sneered the handsome young auditor; and I lost the rest of this conversation a,s they ; moved away restlessly and went out. i But I sat still, thinking on this : much-vexed question of pledges. ' Shall a free man make them? Good resolutions of New Year’s Day, shall i a young man of spirit assume them? | Certainly he may, and For look at it. If a thing is right, a true man is bound to do it, whether he pledges himself to or not. One is no more free to kill himself because he has declined to agree not to. If the love of liquor is ruining a fellow, by every consideration of honor, by duty to himself, to those who love him, to his God, he is bound to stop. What, then, is the pledge but an , agreement to do what he must do in any event? ; Men decline to pledge themselves because they wish to be “free." Free to do what? To engage in wrong doing? Then men should decline to sign checks or notes of hand, or their marriage certificates. “Oh, no. We must pay our debts and be true husbands.” Why “must?” Because it is right; because it is the eternal right made into law; because there is no escape consistent with honor, so a man does not hesitate to say, with jrcn and ink, that he will do right, and here goes mv cheek forYt. ~Very“j well, then. If it is right for you to save your life by stopping dram drinking, a pledge omitted will not make you free to continue destroying yourself. ■ j The fact is, that you are not convinced that it is wholly right for you to continue sober and to keep out of a drunkard's grave. You are experimenting. You want to see how far you can cheat nature and nature’s God. You are not the soul of honor, hut an nxperimenter. If you were the man you sometimes boast yourself to be, you would not have got Into this fix. It would have been enough for you that you saw your ;hand begin to shake, and detected suspicion in the faces of honest men as you breathed close to them. It would have been enough for you to have made one bad trade because “a little set up;” enough to have cursed your young wife a single evening, and befouled her with a thick, unruly tongue. If you were a true man you Would have turned on your heel then; you would have needed no other pledge than the one you then whispered to your own soul. But how few of us are the soal of honor! We need to grasp some one's

hand. We need to fence ourselves about with a spoken word. We neec to compel ourselves, by a fear of being called liars by others. Who has not, over and over again, lied to. himself? Whose heart has not whispered to his head, “Thou art a liar!" But we know ourselves We gpt used to ourselves. We break vows made to ourselves —if no one else ’ knows them—a- thousand times a year. Then let us vow to others. 1 et, if we vow to others, we ought to take the noblest spirit we can find in all our circle of acquaintance. You “shake hands” with a weak fellow, and he will frequently “let you off this time,” because he wants to be let off himself. As if he had any privilege to permit you to turn liar! Is he a priest, to absolve your sin? As if you might turn false because 1 he nas broken the hand shake! Does a pair of liars make one honest man? Yet so the world goes. Hence, de ( not tie up to a rotten wharf. And. for that matter, one’s best friends will not do. How frequently even a good mother will laugh in sad regret, but yet find excuses for a son who has turned liar, and broken his good resolution to her. She mitigates bis offense, “not counting this time.” It is impossible almost for her to look him in the face, and say, “Nevertheless, my child, it is a lie, and you are false at heart.” Our nearest friends are like our own excusing hearts. I think many men would break a promise to a fond wife which they would keep to a Stranger, if they died for it. Therefore it is better to say, “so help me God.” If you really want and mean to do the thing, if it is right to do, pledge to the Changeless and the Holy. Be sure He will not let you off. If you stumble, be sure He will forgive. Yet hold you .to the old vow. A vow to God, is always good. The contract never is outlawed. You hesitate? It is too late. You have made vows to God by the thousand 'No man lives whojhas not prom ised God in mapy crises. You vowed in sickness, vowed when in peril of / -your life, vowed on the staggering I' l deck of a castaway ship; vowed when i out of employment, and praying for ■ His help; vowed in financial peril; i vowed over the pale face of your lit- * i tie child gasping for life, “If God will be merciful, I will.” What righteousness you agreed upon! Has He not kept His part of the pledge? : Have you? Why, if a man or a woi man were to profess to you that he ■ or she had never made ft promise to i the Great Father, you might po- ! litel.y smile, but in your heart you j wouldsay, “I do not believe it.” Why. then, hesitate at the beginj ning of this New «Year? Pledges or i no pledges, you are in God’s power j You live in His world. You are ; bound to try to keep His Laws. Nay, z ; if you breathe His air, if you exist, ■ you become a party to an agreement ito serve Him. And you cannot escape from existence. The suicide is a fool, for he rushes into the very throneroom of the Deity. | And now may that merciful 1 Friend, the feaviour of the world, take your hand and mine, dear reader, in a new covenant. As to ■ the flag the staff and halyards are— I as to the sail the yard is, that the gales shall not float it to seas; as to green fruit the boUgh is the hope of t ripening; so is God the Great Friend |to man. And it is the vow that : makes us one with Him. Hail New ’ Year! It shall be a better one than the last, hnln n-c X.

Literary Notes.

Julian Ralph says that in Yokohama he found the steps of his hotel littered with Trilby circulars, and the reading public in that city not less in love with the book than are its readers in all parts of America and England. In Shanghai it was the same story: applications for the next available copy of Trilby at the libraries resembling petitions, in the numher of signatures attached. The more or less sad plight of people who live in the suburbs of New York City, and must come to town each day is considered Julian Ralph in a valuable article which he contributes to Harper’s Young People. He estimates that 300,000 people come in in the morning and go out at night; 130,000 go over Brooklyn bridge each day; 100,000 come in through the Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations. All this takes no account of theenor mous army that moves down town and up town morning and evening— i sometimes eight hundred thousand in one day on the elevated.

The Order of the Garter.

London Truth. An evening journal, in a tion on the Order of the Garter, states that it consists of thirty-five ordinary knightsand thirty-five extrm knights, which is quite wrong. There is no fixed number of extra knights, who are all royal personages, and there were only six of them when the Queen’s reign commenced, whereas there are now twenty-three. During the last two financial years £l,320 has been paid by the public to the dean of the chapter of Windsor and to the Garter officers in respect of fees and expenses in connection with the creation of three extra knights. In all other countries such payments are made by the new knights themselves, but here the taxpayers find the money, and last year the Lord Chamberlain received £2,800 to provide and repair insignia of the various orders of knighthood. S. R. Crockett, of “Stickit Minister” fame, is a man whose fine physique and impressive size surprise the stranger.' He laid thn foundation ol his robust health in his boyhood, when he had to walk four miles across the moors every day to schoo .