Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1895 — Page 6

' THE REPUBIJCAfi. - ' , _ .. Gxgrx E. Marshall. Editor. RENSSELAER INDIAN?

“The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.” generously responding to the call for aid from the famine-stricken regions of the West with great train loads of grain and supplies, is something of an eye-opener to Northern people. Evidently the South has otherasKC-openers in stock. A large porkqwcking establishment is to be built at Valdosta, Ga., and the farmers of that region will abandon cotton and turn their attention to hogs and corn. Db. Talmage, in his recent sermon on the Taj Maha', “got even” with all the inefficient janitors that he has encountered in his many years of ex: perience as a public speaker. The good Doctor, may be said to have “done them up” nicely. The sculptured doorkeepers at the temple on the island of Elepbanta are repr’e- . Rented as leaning on sculptured devils and the preacher traced the deadly parallel in a very effective way. ___________ We have actually epicures in the United States who have acquired an appetito for European s nail s. —Large - quantities are? annually shipped to our shores. Frdm France alone the shipments last year amounted to 220,460 pounds. They ought to be delicious for they cost $4.82 per thousand. These food snails are probably different from our garden mollusks, but ham is good enough for us. ~ ’ Recent surveys have derrjonstrated that the “Grand Teton” peakin Wyoming is the highest elevation in the United States outside of Alaska. It is 15,446 feet high, being 1,229 feet higher than Pike’s Peak, and 982 feet higher than the j loftiest mountain in Colorado. The ’ Teton range is in Western Wyoming, and there is an extent of unexplored territory in the region that may yet furnish some grpat surprises to the world. The average reader could not give any approximately correct estimate of the area of Indiana, and the exact! figures have until recently been a j matter of dispute even with those! who should be posted on such mat- | ters. The census of 1880 made a careful computation, which is sup-; posed to bccorrect, giving the gross ' area as 36,350 square miles, of which l 330 square miles are lakes and ponds. People with a fondness for statistics! might preserve this for future refer- : .. enee. -——-—~~ ■ -——a The new editor of Harper’s Week;' ly, Mr. Henry Loomis Nelson, is. vouched for by a well-known news- ■ paper man, as being a thorough gen- ' tieman at all times and under all I circumstances. He is courtesy in--1 carnate. it is said, and this trait is so directly in contrast with the deportment of a majority of newspaper men of influence and prominence in the metropolis that it is deemed worthy of especial mention and recognition. Mr. Nelson is very - popular with the editorial profession ' in New York. The New York State capital building at Albany has been in process of construction for twenty-seven years, and it is still unfinished. It hasl been a football for politicians and i the spoils that have been abstracted from profitable contracts would probably make very interesting reading could the whole truth be exposed. Twenty million dollars have been expended upon the struc- ' ture and more is demanded. The cost of maintainance is now about $65,000 a year. The original act for the building of the capital provided that it should not cost more than $4,000,000 when completed. 1 Still, New York is a great State and the money spent has produced a building worthy of the great commonwealth. The great Siberian railway is progressing rapidly. Construction on the eastern end from Vladivostock westward is being pushed vigorously and the line is now open for traffic for a distance of 286 miles into the interior from that Pacific port. Work en the western end is also being carried forward even more energetically, and the final completion 'of the longest railway line in the world can not be delayed for any great length of time. It is regarded as an anomolous condition in international affairs that England does not object to the encroachments of Russia in the East, and diplomates can only explain it on the theory that the royal families are now so closely related

that/what at one time would-have provoked a war between these great nations, is simslyregarded a» a matter of common interest—a tamily affair, so to speak. They are teliing a new, and, as Mrs. Partington would say, “incredulous” yarn about the wonders o' California. —A —man out tbaT way raised 1,000 bushels of popcorn. The market being cluH and the pricc low. lie stored the crop in his barn. The barn took fire and burned down. The popcorn began to pop at the be-* ginning of the conflagration and con- • tinned to fly into the air, coming i down till-it covered an adjoining , field to a considerable depth with a i white blanket, so to speak. -An old ! mare in the field.thought it was Snow, I i and lay down and was frozen tc ; death. The story is a “good one”— i of the kind. The public sentiment in favor o! forest preservation and extension is growing. Notable evidence of this was the recent reference bv'Gov. I i Matthews to the subject‘ in his annual New York State has already taken important steps in this direction. The State now owns a forest reservation of 3,000,000 acres. They are neither sold, leased op rented. No man or association of men is given or permitted tp have! any special privileges or rights in this domain. They are a standing benefit held in reserve for the People, and this primitive paradise cannot be taken away or in any way impaired, except by constitutional amendment--a most unlikely event. Indiana could have been equally well provided for had our people and legislators in early days not been so short-sighted and greedy. Much may yet be done to remedy the evil brought upon us by their folly. All that rs neededis a public sentiment strong enough tomstit utemeasures of reform. Four of the great battlefields of the war will be turned into national parks. They are Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Antietam and Shiloh. Gettysburg, of course, has for some years been known as a military park. The others have also from time to time received Congressional aid and recognition. One of the first acts of the present session of the House was to appropriate $75,000 for the Shiloh military park, and a few days later $20,000 was appropriated for the dedication of the Chickamauga park next September, These fields willform a remarkable series of memorials for future generations. All four were battles which the. survivors on both sides can look upon with mingled feelings of pride and sorrow. It is not surprising that Congressmen from both North and South have given these measures tq preserve the landmarks of those famous struggles their hearty support and co-operation. For once partisan zqal has been lost sight of and patriotism (for rebels were patriotic on the wrong side) rises supreme.

The Inventor Got 50 Cents.

Philadelphia Inquirer. In a quaint old house at No 609 Marshall street lives Frank O. Deschamps, who, although over 70 years old. has been inventing things all his life. Mr. Deschamps is asactive as a boy of 20, lives all alone amidst his models and contrivances, cooks his pwn meals, acts as his own housekeeper, and is as happy as the day is long. Mr. Deschamp’s first invention of note was the artificial leg. It was over fifty years ago when Mr. Deschamps, then an apprentice, was asked by his master to see what he could do for foppish Frenchman who had lost a leg. At that time only wooden pegs were known, and the Frenchman was dissatisfied with this by no means elegant substitute. In two days young Deschamps had finished a complete model of an artificial leg, with every movement of the natural limb duplicated. His master had it patented, and it yielded him a fortune. “Igot 50c out of it," laughingly remarked Deschamps. “The Frenchman gave me that and told me to go over to Smith's Island and enjoy myself. And I thought I was in great luck at that.” A novel “Cherokee Strip” romance was ended by the marriage the other day of Albert Jones and Miss Clara L. George, qt Arkansas City, Kas. Both Mr. Jones and Miss George claimed the same piece of land, and were prepared to fight for it until doomsday, when Jones fell ill. Miss George, woman-like, went over to his cabin to look him up and stayed to nurse him back to health. By this time they had decided to divide the claim between them, but it was not long before they solved the problem in a better way and resorted to mat-' rimony instead of the land office. At one time a iron pole with an iron collar at the end armed with iron spikes on the inside was used for catchingttod holding prisoners. Four hundred elk in one band were seen crossing into the Yam pah country (Col.) from the Black mountains the other day, the deep snow ia the hills having "driven them out.

THE GLORIOUS NOW.

t “And We ..Must Take the Cur- , rent When It Serves.” , "Opportunity” That Never Come, the Second Time—Dr. Talmage's - Sermon. I . ' _ T ' A vast audience greeted Dr. Talmage at the New York Academy of . Music, fast Sun day, all the corridors “"and entrances being also filled with . people unable to gain, admission. •“ The distinguished divine took for his . subject “Opportunity,” the text sej lected being Galatians vi, 10: “As : we have therefore opportunity, let i us do good.” j At Denver, years ago, an audience , had assembled fop divine worship. , The pastor of the church for whom I was to preach that night, interest ed in the seating of the people, stood in the pulpit looking from side to side, and when no more people could I be crowded within the walls he • turned to me and said with startling • emphasis: “What an opportunity!” Immediately that word began to enj large, and white a hymn was being sung at every stanza the word “opportunity” swiftly and mightily un--1 folded, and while the opening prayer ; was being made the word piled up I into Alpsand Himalayas of meaning and spread out into other latii tudes and longitudes of significance until it became hemispheric, and it still"grew in altitude and circumference until it encircled otherworlds and went out and on and around uni til it was as big as eternity. Never , since have I read or heard that word without being thrilled with its magnitude and momentum. Opportunity! What is an opportunity? The lexicographer would cooily tell you it was a conjunction of favorable circumstances for accomplishing a purpose, but words cannot tell what it > s - ' ' First, it is very swift in its mo- • tions. Sometimes within one minute it starts from the throne of God, sweeps around the earth and re-as-cends tho throne from which it started. Within less .than sixty seconds it fulfilled its mission. In the second place opportunity never comes back. Perhaps an opportunity very much like it may arise, but that one never. Naturalists tell us of insects which are born, fulfill their mission and expire in an hour, but many opportunities die so soon after they are born that their brevity of life is incalculable. What most amazes me is that opportunities do such pvershadowing- sfar-_ reaching and tremendous work in such short earthly allowance. In yonder third gallery you sit, a man of the world,, but you wish everybody well. While the clerks are standing round in your store, or the meiton your factory are taking their noon spoil, some one says, “Have you heard that one of our men has j been converted at the revival meet:. ! ing in the Methodist church?” While it is being talked over you say, “Well, I do not believe in revivals. Those thing do not last. People get excited and join the church and are no better than they were before. I wish our men would keep away from, those meetings.” Do you know, O man, what vo.u did in that mi-nure of depreciation? There were two young men in that group who that night would have gone to those meetings and .been saved for this world and and the next, but you decided them not to go. They are social natures. They already drink more than is good for them and are disposed to be wild. From the time they heard you say that they accelerated their steps on the downward road. In ten years they will be 1 through with their dissipations and i pass into the great beyond. That i little talk of yours decided their destiny for this world and the next. You had an opportunity that you misimproved, and how will you feel , when vou confront those two immortals -in~ thetaast - judgment and they tell you of that unfortunate talk ■ of yours that flung them over the i precipice? The day I left our country home to.look after myself we rode across the country, and my father was driving. Of course I said nothing that implied how I felt. But there are hundreds of men here who, from their own experience, know how L felt. At such a time a young man may be hopeful and even impatient to get into the battle of life for him- : self, but to leave theTomestead" where everything has been done for > you, your father or older brothers taking your part when you are im posed on by larger boys, and your ■ mother, always around, when you got the cold, with mustard applications for the chest, or herb tea to ■ make you sweat off the fever, and ■ sweet mixtures in the cup by the ! bed to stop the cough, taking sometimes too much of it because.it was pleasant to take, and then to go • out, with no one to stand between you and the world, . gives one a choking senation ’ at the throat and a homesick- ! ness before you have got throe miles away from the old folks. There was • on the day I spoke of a silence for a ■ long while, and then my father be- ' gan to tell how good tho Lord had *. been to him in sickness and in health, and when times of hardship came how Providence had always ’ provided the means of livelihood for J J tho large household, and he wound i i up by saying, “DeWitt, I hhve alI ways found it safe to trust the » .Lord." My father has been dead ■ (thirty years, but in all tho crises of i ,my life -ana there have been many ( of tl|em —I have felt the mighty I' boost of 4hat lesson in the farm

; wagon, “DeWitt, I have always (found it safe to trust the Lord.” rThe fact was, my father saw-that it j was his opportunity, and he impro'ved it. . We all. recognize that commercial and literary and political successes depend upon taking advantages of opportunity. The great of England feared to touch the tumor es King George IV. SirAstley Cooper looked at it and said to the King, “I will cut your Majesty as i though you were a plowman.” That ■ was Sir Astley’s opportunity. Lord Clive was his "father’s dismay, climb-ing-church steeples and doing reckless things. His father sent him to Madras, India, as a clerk in the service of an English officer. Clive watched his time and when war broke out came to be the chief of the host that saved India for England. That was Lord Clive’s opportunity. The importance of making the most of opportunities as they present themselves is acknowledged in all I other directions. Why not in the matter of Usefulness? The difference of usefulness of good men and women is not so much the difference in brain or social position or wealth, but in equipment of Christian common sense, to know just the time when to say the right word or do the right thing. There are good people who can always be depended on to say the right thing at the wrong time. , But there are plenty of fit occasions. It is interesting to see the sportsman, gun in hand and pouch at side and accompanied by the hounds yelping down the road, off on hunting expeditions, but the best hunters in this world are those who hunt for opportunities to do good, and the game is something to gladden earth and heaven. I will point out some of the opportunities. When a soul is in bereavement is the best time to talk of gospel consolation and heavenly reunion. When a man has lost his property is the best time to talk to him of heavenly inheritances that can never be levied on. When one is sick is the best time to talk to him about the supernatural latitude inwhich unheal th is an i in—possibility. When the Holy Spirit is moving on a community is the best time to tell a man he ought to be saved. A military officer, very profane in his habits, was going down into a mine at Cornwall, England, with a Christian miner, for many of those miners are Christians. The officer used profane language while in the cage going down. As they were coming up out of the mine the profane officer said, “If it be so far dowm to work, how much farther would it be to the bottomless pit?” The Christian miner responded, “I do not know how far it is down to that place, but if this rope should break you would be there in a minute.” It was the Christian miner’s opportunity. I stand this minute in the presence Of many heads of families. I wonder if they al 1■ realize- that ■' the opportunity of influencing the household for Christ and heaven is very brief and will soon be gone? For awhile the house is full of the voices and footsteps of children. You sometimes feel that you can hardly stand the racket. You say: “Do be quiet! It seems as if my head wOuld Split-with aH this noise!” And things get broken and ruined, and it is: “Where’s-mv- hat?” “Who took my books?” “Who has been busy with my playthings?” And it is a-rushing this way and a-rushing

that until father and mother are well nigh beside themselves. It is astonishing how much noise five or six children can make and not half try. But the years glide swiftly away. After awhile the voices ato not so many, and those which stay are more sedate. First this room gets quiet and then that room. Death takes some and marriage takes others until after awh’le the house is awfully still. That man yonder would give all he is worth to have that boy who is gone away forever rush into the room once more with the shout that was once thought too boisterous. That mother who was once tried because her little daughter, now gone forever, with careless scissors cut up somethihg really valuable would like to have the child come back, willing to put in her hands the most valuable wardrobe to cut as she pleases. Yes! Yes! The house noisy now will soon be quiet enough. But there is one opportunity so much brighter than any other, so much more inviting and so superior to all others that there are innumerable fingers pointing to it, and it is haloed with a glory all its own. It is yours! It is mine! It is the present hour. It isjthe now. We shall never have it again. While I speak and you listen the opportunity is restless as though to be gone. You can not chain it down. You can not imprison it. You can not make it stay. All its pulses are throbbing with a haste that can not be hindered or controlled. It is the opportunity of invitation on my part and acceptance on your part. The door of the palace of God’s mercy is wide open. Go in. Sit down Stnq be kings and queens untn God forever. “Well," you say, “I am not ready." You are ready. “Are you a sinner?” “Yes.' “Do you want to be saved now and forever?” “Yes.” “Do you believe that Christ is able and willing, to do the work?” “Yes.” Then you are saved. You are inside tho palace door of God’s mercy already. You look changed. You are changed. “Hallelujah, *t.is done!” Let the world go. It has abused you enough, and cheated you enough, and slandered you enough, and dam-

aged you enough. qEven those frouj whom you expected better things - turned out your when Napoleon in his last will and testament left 5,000 francs to the man who shot at Wellington in the streera -of Paris Oh, it is* a mean world! Take the glorious* Ix>rd for your I like what the good man said to one who had everything but religion. The affluent man boosted of what he owned and of his splendors of surroundings, putting into insignificance, as lie i thought, the ChriSTiah”^possessions, i “Ah,” said ,the Christian, “man, I j have something you have j “What is that?” said the worldling, i The answer was, “Peace!” i Opportunity! Under the arc of i that splendid word let this multi- ; tude of my hearers pass into the I pardon and hope and triumph of the j gospel. Go by companies of a hundred each. Go by regiments of a thousand each, the aged leaning on the staff, the middle-aged throwing off their burdens as they pass,, and the young to have their present joys augmented ■tjy r Tnsr6glbrious~satls r factions. Forward into the kingdom! As soon as you pass the dividing line there will be shouting all u p and do wn the heavens. The crowned immortals will look down and.cheer. Jesus of the many scars will' rejoice at the result of his earthly sacrifices. Departed saints will be gladdened that their prayers ! are answered. An order will be i given for the spreading of a banj quet at which you will be the honored guest. From the imperial gardens the wreathsjwill be twisted for your brow, and from the halls of eternal music the harpers will bring their harps and the trumpeters.their trumpets, and ’all up and down the amethystine stairwaysqf the castles and in all the rooms of the house of many mansions it will be talked over with holy glee that this day, while one plain man stood on the platform of this vast building giving the gospel call, an assemblage made up from all parts of the earth and piled up in these galleries chose Christ as their portion and started -for heaven-as thci-r everlast 5 - ing home. Ring all the bells of heaven at the tidings! Strike all the cymbals at the joy! Wave all the palm branches at the triumph! Victory! Victory!

THE COBRA-STONE.

Cxplnnatlon of a Mysterious About Suakcs Current in India. The cobras are perhaps tho only serpents which will cat insects. They feed on ants, grasshoppers,, a variety of beetles, etc., but seem to have a special preference for fire-flies, perhaps because the latter can he caught at night much more easily than any other kind of insect. I have often for hours watched cobras in the grass catching the fire-flies, darting about here and there, a process which requires considerable exertion on the part of the serpent. Now, every entomologist knows that the flying lampy- . rid® consist entirely of males. The females, which are not very numerous, are much larger and cannot fly, as they have only rudimentary wings. They sit quietly in the grass,' emitting a greenish light, which is much strongei than that of the males, and fades and becomes brilliant at regular intervals. If a glowworm be watched for a tima a steady current of male insects will be observed flying toward it, and’ alighting in close proximity. Now it so happens that the naja- 1 kallu, this little pebble of chlorophane or fluor-spar, .emits in the dark sj greenish light which is so much like, that of the female lampyris that it is aneasy matter to deceive the male fire-fly; with it, by setting it up as a decoy'.; The cobras have gradually come toi take advantage of an experience made.j by them, accidentally, I dare .say,; thousands of years ago. It may frequently happen, for instance, that a cobra iindiogy of these shining stones' in the gravel of tho dry river-beds (where they are by no means uncommon), being attracted to it by its glow at night, and taking it for a glowworm.' It would then, at any rate, notice that the fire-flies could bo caught inuch more easily and quickly in the rfeighborhood of that .shining object than anywhere else, and, would habitually return to it. Several cobras might thus come together, and there would be competition, and from this moment to the finding out that success in capturing fire-flies depends on the possession of this phosphorescent pebble, and to the seizing or it in order to prevent another snake from monopolizing it, is, in my opinion, no great step, and involves no exceptional powers of reasoning. The cobra carries it abouq and some learns to treasure it, for it affords it an easy means of getting its living. All it has to do is to deposit the stone in the grass at night, and the obliging insects literally illy down its throat. ’ There are even reasons for believing that no individual ox[>erience is non necessary to cause any cobra to act in this manner, hut that even a young cobra, on finding such a stone, will inatinctivelv take it up, and use it in the manner f have described. For it must bo borne in mind that there is an inherited race memory among the lowci animals which is often far strongei than the memory gathered during th< short lifetime of tho individual. Wbai causes a blind kitten to spit and put ui its back if a dog Is brought near it? Il never saw a dog. never saw anything; yet it knows there is some dangci ahead. Thus the accumulated expo, rienco of the cobra’s ancestors during countloss generations now causes it U act in a manner which we refer to instinct. Such are the remarkable facts connected with the naja-kallu. the cobra's shining stone. Who can toll whetbei the old traditions of snakes . carrying precious stones, of which we -still find traces in our fairy tales, may not hav< their souroe in some such fact as this? —Professor H. HeuMldt, Ph. D., it, Harper'» Magazine. .....

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. ~ •». 'A-,’ HawNsh postage Stamps arc gummed with a starch paste made from potatoes. Electric, fans set in motion near a window will prevent frost fron forming on the glass. _ ~ Thb opal is the only gem whicl cannot be counterfeited. Its delicate tints cannot be reproduced. A new man on South Watei street, Chicago, wroie on the window: “Chickens with or without leathers.” The eyelashes are placed in from of the eye to protect these delicat( organs from the light and from thf entrance of foreign objects. Old people wear spectacles because the lens of the eye become! flattened in old age and must be assisted in its action „by artificia means. Many glass ornaments found it Etruscan tombs contain small objects or images in the interior. Hon the ornaments were made is still a mystery. A fence of wire netting 500 miles long is one of the wonders .of Australia. It was erected for the purpose of confining the rabbits to a certain district. It is said that in London alone there are no fewer than ten thousand professional musicians oi various grades, and that more than half of them are women. In China, which has long been known as “the land of opposites,” the dials of clocks are made to turn around, while the hands stand still. —Pniladelphia Press, The largest nail-making machine in the United States is at Everett, Wash. It was made by a firm at Greenpoiht, L. 1., and weighs twelve and bne-half tons. A well known Washington horseman has discovered a fact in natural bistorywhich may not be generally known. It is-that all-four-footed beasts in making the first movement in walking, running, or any sort of forward motion, always employ tho left hind leg as a starter. Even a child, if put down on all fours and bidden to advance in that position, will make the first move with his left leg, his hands at the time occupying the place of an animal’s sorts legs. A writer in the New England Kitchen is of the opinion that ths teaching of cooking in the futurq will be in the hands of specialists; that is, the work will be divided into branches; as cooking for ths sick, the preparing of meats, mak-> ing bread and the like, The writes further states that “the demand so? touchers of the household arts seems to be greater than the supply. There have been many calls recently for teachers of cookery who are also qualified to teach sewing and millinery, and . good salaries have been offered, ranging from S9OO to $13,004 per year.

Gallery of Horrible Examples.

New York World. When a young woman achieves success in any line of work not connected with domesticity of fetnininity. she frequently makes the mistake of trying to look like the man

“MISS MERCER. OF PITTSBURG.”

whose place she may be said to hav« usurped. Nature having had other views on the subject, renders this impossible, and the result is a caricature. Here is one such. It is the picture of a young woman of unusual intelligence, and skill. She has not displayed these qualities in her outfit and make-up, however. When she found that she could design buildings, she promptlj’ parted het hair on the s ite. Not content with that, she pi- needed to part it on both sides, brushing it up and back aggressively in the middle. Then she took to collars, shirt fronts, men’s ties, waistcoats and coats. The result is the above —a singularly anddeliberately unattractive young person, who has to be labelled “Miss Mercer, of Pittsburg,” in order to be distinguished from a Mr. Mercer, oi anywhere. The mere fact that she has designed a building for the Atlanta Exhibition is no excuse, though it may be some explanation, for woman's attire.

The Telegrapher's Ear.

St. t>ouis Post-Dispatch. The sense of hearing is developed in the modern telegraph operator to an abnormal degree owing to hisupe if the typewriter in his work. In former years, when he copied his messages with [ten or pencil, his pars were accustomed to only one kind of sound —that of the telegraph instrument—whilo ip these days of the typewriter ho must distinguish bet ween the sharp click of the ticker and the almost similar rattle of ths copying machine. According to an old operator, the sense of hearing soon becomes so developed that the distinction is easily made. With a little experience in the use of tho typewriter along with the telegraph instrument' the operator ceases to notice any similarity of the sounds.