(
PLAJXIMOUXU WEKaJ- ;xnEr...y.-x-ilUiaDAy MAY 3, 18 8.
TABERNACLE SERVICES.
REV. DR. TALMAGE DISCOURSES ON
MODERN SPIRITUALISM.
Yn Unclean, Adulterous, Damnable Religion-
Not Hkdhout bat II aa Its
Victims The Illble la Enough for 17 to
Know of the Future.
Brooklyn, April 29. After the Rev.
T. Do Witt. Talinape, D. D., had in his
well known manner expounded the
Scriptures, the multitude of people who
throng the Tabernacle and all the en
trances, packing every available space of
standing and Bitting room, united in
singing:
Solvation I let the echo fly
The Hpocious earth around,
While all the armies of tho 1&7
Conspire to raise the sound.
Dr. Talmago announoed his subject:
'Modern Spiritualism." lie took for his
text: "Behold, there is a woman that
hath a familiar spirit at En-dor. And
Baul disguised himself, and put on other
raiment, and ho went, and two men with
him, and they came to the woman by
night; and he said, I pray thee, divine
unto me by the familiar Bplrit, and bring
me him up, whom I shall name unto
thee." I Samuel xxviii, 7, 8. Follow
ing is the sermon in full :
I have recently become a Spiritualist.
At least so some of tho journals of that
belief declare. This, together with tho
fact that "mediums" are now being tried
in the criminal courts, setting millions of
people to make inquiry in regard to com
munication between this world and the
next, leads me to preach this sermon.
Trouble to the right of him, and
trouble to tho left of him, Saul knew not
what to do. As a last resort he con
cluded to seek out a spiritual medium, or
a witch, or anything that you please to
call her at any rate, a woman who had
communication with the spirits of the
eternal world. It was a very difficult
thing to do, for Saul had either 6lain all
the witches, or compelled them to stop
business. A servant, one day, said to
King Saul: "I know of a spiritual me
dium down at the village of En-dor."
Do you?" said the king. Nightfalls.
Saul, putting off lus kingly robes,
and putting on the dress of a
plain citizen, with two servants,
goes out to hunt up this spiritual me
dium. It was no easy thing for Saul to
disguise himself, for the tallest people in
the country only came up to his shoul
der, and I think from the strength of the
man and the way he bore himself, he
must have been well proportioned. It
must have been a frightful thing to see a
man walking along in the night eight or
nine feet high. I suppose, as the people
saw him pass, they said: "Who is that?
He is as tall as the king" having no
idea that In such a plain dress there
really was passing the king. Saul and
his servants after awhile reach the vil
lage and they say: "I wonder if this
is the house and they look in and they
6ee the haggard, weird and shriveled up
spiritual medium sitting by the light, and
on the table sculptured images, and
divining rods, and poisonous herbs, and
bottles and vases. They say: "Yes,
this must be the place." One loud rap
brings the woman to the door, and as she
stands there, holding the candle or lamp
above her head and peering out into the
darkness, she says: "Who is here?" The
tall king informs her that ho has come to
have his fortune told. When she hears
that she trembles and almost drops the
light, for she knows there is no chance for
a fortuneteller or spiritual medium in all
the land. But Saul having sworn that
no harm shall come to her, she says:
'Well, who shqjl I bring up from
the dead?" Saul 6ays: "Bring up
Samuel." That was the prophet
who had died a little while before. I
see her waving a wand, or stirring up
some poisonous herbs in a caldron, or
hear muttering over some incantations,
or stamping with her foot, as she cries
out to tho realm of the dead: "bamuell
Samuel I" Lo, the freezing horror I The
floor of the tenement opens, and the
. gray hairs float up, and the forehead, the
eyes, the hps, the shoulders, the arms,
the feet, the entire body of dead Samuel,
wrapped in sepulchral robe, appearing to
the astonished group, who stagger back
and hold fast, and catch their breath,
and shiver with terror. The dead
Erophet, white and awful from the tomb,
egins to move his ashen lips, and he
irlares upon King Saul, and cries out :
4What did you bring me up for? Why
did you break my long sleep? What do
you mean, King Saul?" Saul, trying to
compose and control himself, makes tnla
stammering and affrighted utterance, as
he says to the dead prophet: "The Lord
is against me, and I have come to you
for help. What shall I do?" Tho dead
prophet stretched forth his finger to King
Saul and said: "Die to-morrow I Come
with me into the sepulcher. I am going
now Come, come with me I ' And lo I
the floor again opens, and the feet of tho
dead prophet disappear, and the arms
and the shoulders and the forehead. Tho
floor closes. Nothing is left in the room
but Saul and the two servants and the
spiritual medium and tho sculptured
images and the divining rods and the
bottles and the vases and the poisonous
herbs. Oh, that was an awful seance 1
I learn first from this subject that spir
itualism is a very old religion. It is nat
ural that people should want to know the
origin and the history of a doctrine which
is so widespread in all the villages, towns
and cities of the civilized world, getting
new converts every day a doctrine
with which many of you are already
tinged.
Spiritualism in America was born in
1847, in Ilydesville, Wayne county, N.
Y., when one night there was a loud rap
heard against the doof of Michael Week
man ; a rap a second time, a rap a third
time; and all three times, when the door
was opened, there was nothing
found there, the knocking having
been made seemingly by invisible
knuckles. In that same house there was
a young woman who had a cold hand
passed over her face, and there being
seemingly no arm attached to it, ghostly
suspicions were excited. After awhile
Mr. Fox and his family moved into that
Jxmse, and then every night there was a
fcongiPS at the door; and one night Mr.
Fpxsaid: "Are you a spirit?" Two raps,
answering in. the affirmative. "Are you
m injured spirit?" Two raps, answering
in lb affirmative. And bo they found
out, as they say, that It was the ghost or
spirit of a peddler who had been murdered
in tliat house many years before for his
$500. Whether the ghost of the dead
peddler had come there to collect his $500,
or his bones, I cannot say, not being
a Spiritualist, but there was a great
racket at the door, so Mr. Week man de
clared, and Mrs. Weekman, and Mr.
Fox, and Mrs. Fox, and all the little
Foxes. The excitement spread. There
was a universal rumpus. The Hon.
Judge Edmonds declared, in a book, that
he liad actually seen a bell start from
the top shelf of a closot, heard it ring
over the people that were standing in the
cloeet; then, swung by invisible hands,
it rang over tho people in the bacK
parlor; and floated through the-folding
doors to the front parlor, rung over the
people there, and then dropped on the
floor. N. P. Talmage, senator of the
United States, afterwards governor of
Wisconsin, had his head com
pletely turned with spiritualistic de
monstrations. A man as he was
passing along the road, Baid that he was
lifted up bodily, and carried toward his
homo through the air, at 6uch great speed
he could not count the posts on tho fence
as he passed, and as he had a handsaw
and a square in his hand, they beajt, as
he passed through the air, most delight
ful music. And the tables tipped, and
tho stools tilted, and the bedsteads raised,
and the chairs upset, and it seemed as if
the spirits everywhere had gone into the
furniture business! Well, the people
said: "Wo have got something new in
this country; it is a new religion." Oh,
no, my friends. Thousands of years ago
we find in our text a spiritualistic seance.
Nothing in the spiritualistic circles of
our day has been more strange, mysteri
ous and wonderful than things which
have been seen in the past centuries of
tho world. In all the ages there have
lecn necromnncers, those who consult
with the spirits of the departed; charm
ers, those who put their subjects in a
mesmeric state ; sorcerers, those who by
taking poisonous drugs see everything
and hear everything and tell everything;
dreamers, people who in their sleeping
moments can see the future world and
hold consultation with spirits; astrolo
gers, who could read a new dispensation
in the stars; experts in palmistry, who
can tell by the lines in the palm
of your hand your origin and
your history. From a cave on Mount
Parnassus, wo are told, there was a
exhalation that intoxicated the sheep and
the goats that came anywhere near it,
and a shepherd approaching it was
thrown by that exhalation into an excite
ment in which he could foretell future
events and hold consultation with the
spiritual world. Yea, before the time of
Christ, the Brahmins went through all
the table moving, all the furniture ex
citement which the spirits have exploited
in our day; precisely the same thing over
and over again, under the manipulations
of tho Bralunins. Now do you say that
spiritualism is different from these? I
answer, all these delusions I have men
tioned belong to tho same family. They
are exhumations from the unseen
world. What does God think of
all these delusions? He thinks so
severely of them that ha never
speaks of them but with livid thunders
of indignation, no says: "I will be a
swift witness against the sorcerer." He
says: 'Thpu shalt not suffer a witch to
live." And lest you might make some
important distinction between Spiritual
ism and witchcraft, God says, in so many
words: "There shall not be among you a
consulter of familiar spirits, or wizard,
or necromancer; for they that do these
things are an abomination unto the
Lord." And he says again: "The soul
of those who peek after such as have
familiar spirits, and who go whoring
after them, I will set myself against
them, and he shall be cut off from among
his people." The Lord Almighty, in a
score of passages, which I have not now
time to quote, utters his indignation
against all this great family of delusions.
After that be a Spiritualist if you dare !
Still further : We learn from this text
how it is that people come to fall into
Spiritualism. Saul had enough trouble to
kill ten men. He did not know where to
go for relief. After a while he resolved
to go and see the witch of En-dor. Ho
expected that somehow she would afford
him relief. It was his trouble that
drove him there. And I have to tell you
now that Spiritualism finds its victims in
the troubled, the bankrupt, the sick, the
bereft. You lose your watch, and you
go to the fortune teller to find where it
is. You lose a friend, ypu want the
spiritual world opened, so that you may
have communication with him. In a
highly wrought, nervous and diseased
state of mind, you go and put yourself
in that communication. That is why I
hate Spiritualism. It takes advantage of
one in a moment of weakness, which
may come upon us at any time. We
lose a friend. The trial is keen, sharp,
suffocating, almost maddening. If we
could marshal a host, and storm tho
eternal world, and recapture our loved
one, the host would soon be marshaled.
The house is so lonely. The world is sq
dark. The separation is so insufferable,
But Spiritualism says : "We will open
the future world, and your loved one can
come back and talk to you." Though
we may not hear his voice, we may hear
the rap of his band. So, clear the table.
Sit down. Put your hands on the table.
Bo very quiet. Five minutes gone. Ten
minutes. No motion of the table. No
response from the future world. Twenty
minutes. Thirty minutes. Nervous ex
citement all the time increasing. Forty
minutes. The table shivers. Two raps
from the future world. The letters
of the alphabet are called over.
The departed friend's name is
John. At the pronunciation of the
letter "J," two raps. At the pronuncia
tion of the letter "O," two raps. At the
pronunciation of the letter "H," two
raps. At the pronunciation of the letter
"N," two raps. There you have the
whole name spelled out. J-o-h-n, John.
Now, the spirit being present, you say;
"John, are you happy?" Two raps give
an affirmative answer. Pretty soon the
hand of the medium begins to twitch
and toss, and begins to write out,
after paper and ink are furnished,
a message from the eternal world.
What is remarkable, the departed
spirit, although it has been amid the
illuminations of heaven, cannot spell as
well as it used to. It has lost all gram
matical accuracy and cannot write as j
distinctlv. I received a letter through a
medium once. I arot it bade I said :
"Just please .to tell those ghosts they had
better go to school and got improved in
their orthography." Now just think of
spirits, that the Bible represents as en
throned in glory, coming down to crawl
under the table and break crockery and
ring tea bell before supper is ready and
rap the window shutter on a gusty
night. Ia there any consolation in &uch
poor, miserable work compared with
the thought that our departed Christian
friends, got rid of pain and languishing,
are in the radiant society of heaven, and
that we shall join them there, not in a
stifled and mysterious half utterance,
which makes the hair stand on end and
the cold chills creep the back, but in an
unhindered and illimitable delight.
And none shall murmur or misdoubt.
When God's great sunriwj fin da us out.
Yes, my friends, Spiritualism comes to
those who are in trouble and sweeps
them into its delusions. Saul, in the
midst of his disaster, went to the witch
of En-dor. The vast majority of those
who have gone to spiritual mediums
have been sent there through their mis
fortunes. I learn still farther from this subject
that Spiritualism and necromancy are
affairs of the darkness. Why did not
Saul go in the day? He was ashamed to
go. Besides that, he knew that this
spiritual medium, like all her successors,
performed her exploits in tho night. Tho
Davenports, the Fowlers, the Foxes, the
spiritual mediums of all ages, have
chosen tho night or a darkened room.
Why? The majority of their wonders
havo been swindles, and deception pros
pers best in the night.
Some of the performances of sjiritual
mediums are not to be ascribed to fraud,
but to some occult law that after awhile
may be demonstrated. But I lelieve
that now 999 out of every 1,000 achieve
ments on the part of spiritual mediums
are arrant and unmitigated humbug.
The mysterious red letters that used to
come out on the medium's arm were
found to have been made by an iron
pencil that went heavily over the flesh,
not tearing it, but so disturbing the
blood that it came up in great round
letters. The witnesses of th seances
have locked the door, put the key in
their pocket, arrested the operator, and
found out, by searching tho room, that
hidden levers moved the tables. The
sealed letters that were mysteriously
read without opening, have been found
to have been cut at the side, and then
afterward slyly put together with gum
arabic; and the medium who, with a
heavy blanket over his head, could read
a book, has been found to have had a
bottle of phosphoric oil, by the light of
which anybody can read a book; and
ventriloquism, and legerdemain, and
sleight of hand, and optical delusion ac
count for nearly everything. Deception
being the main staple of Spiritualism, no
wonder it chooses the darkness.
You have al seen strange and unac
countable things in the night. Almost
every man has at some time had a touch
of hallucination. Some time ago, after
I had been over tempted to eat some
thing indigestible before retiring at night,
after retiring I saw the president of one
of the prominent colleges astride the foot
of the bed, srhile he denianded of mo a
loan of five centsi When I awakened I
had no idea it was anything supernat
ural. And I have to advise you, if you
hear and see strange things at night, to
stop eating hot mince pie and take a dose
of bilious medicine. It is an outraged
physical organism, enough to deceive the
very elect after sundown, and does nearly
all its work in the night. Tho witch of
En-dor held her seances at night; 60 do
all the witches. Away with this religion
of spooks!
Still further I learn from my text that
Spiritualism is doom and death to its dis
ciples. King Said thought that he
would get help fromthe ''medium;"
but the first thing that he sees makes
him swoon away, and no sooner is he re
suscitated than he is told he must die.
Spiritualism is doom and death to every
pne that yields to it. It ruins the body.
Look in upon an audience of Spiritual
ists. Cadaverous. Weak. Nervous.
Exhausted. Hands clammy and cold.
Nothing prospers but long hair soft
marshes yielding rank grass. Spiritual
ism destroys the physical health. Its dis
ciples are ever "hearing startling pews
from tho other world. Strange beings
crossing the room in white. Table fid
gety, wanting to get its fept Joose as if
to dance. Voices sepulchral and omin
ous. Bewildered with raps. I never
knew a confirmed Spiritualist who had
a healthy nervous system. It is incipient
epilepsy and catalepsy. Destroy your
nervous system and you might as well be
dead. I have noticed that people who
are hearing raps from the future world
have but little strength left to bear the
hard raps of this world. It is an awful
tiling to t rifle with one's nervous system.
It is 60 delicate it is so far reaching its
derangements are 60 terrible. Get the
nervous system a jangle, and so far as
your body and soul are concerned, thq
whole universe is a jangle. Better in our
fgnorance experiment with a chemist's
retort that may smite us dead, or with
an engineer's steam boiler that may
blow us to atoms, than experiment with
the nervous system, A man can live
with only one lung or with no eyes, and
be happy, as men have been under such
afflictions ; but woe be to the man whose
nervee are shattered. Spiritualism 6mites
first of all, and mightily, against the
nervous system, and so makes life miser
able. J indict Spiritualism also, because it is
a social and marital curse. The worst
deeds of licentiousness and the worst
orgies of obscenity have been enacted
under its patronage. The story is too
vile for me to tell. I will not pollute my
tongue nor your ears with the recital.
Sometimes the civil law has been evoked
to stop the purrage. Families innumer
able have been broken up by it. It has
pushed off hundreds of young women
into a fife of profligacy. It talks about
"elective affinities" and "affinital rela
tions" and "spiritual matches," and
adopts the whole vocabulary of free
loveism. In one of its public journals it
declares "marriage is the monster curse
of civilization." "It is a source of
debauchery and intemperance." If epir
itualism pould have its full swing, it
would turn thte world into a pandemo
nium of carnality. It is an unclean,
adulterous, damnable religion, and the
sooner it drops into the hell from which
it rose, the better berth for earth and
heaven. For the sake of man's honor
and woman's purity, I say let tho l;it
vestige of it perish' forever. I tVLsh I
could gather up nil the raps it has ever
heard from spirits blest or damned, and
gather them all on its own head in one
thundering rap of annihilation!
I further indict Spiritualism for tho
fact that it is the cause of much insanity.
There is not an asylum between Bangor
and San Francisco which has not the
torn and bleeding victims of this delu
sion. Go into any asylum, I care not
where it is, and the presiding doctor,
after you have asked hitn: "What is tho
matter with that man?" will say: "Spirit
ualism demented him;" or "What is the
matter with that womnn!" ho will say:
"Spiritualism demented her." It has
taken down some of tho brightest intel
lects. It swept off into mental midnight
judges, senators, governors, ministers of
the Gospel, and one time came
near capturing one of tho presi
dents of the United States. At
Flushing, near this city, a man
became absorbed with it, forsook
his family, took his only $15,000,
surrendered them to a spiritual medium
in New York, attempted three times to
put an end to his own life, and then was
incarcerated in tho state lunatic asylum,
where he is today a raving maniac. Put
3'our hand in tho hand of this witch of
En-dor, and she will lead 3-ou to bottom
less perdition, where 6he holds her ever
lasting seance. Many years ago the
steamer Atlantic started from Europe for
the United States. Getting in mid-ocean,
the machinery broke, and she floundered
around day after day, and week after
week, and for a whole month after she
was due people wondered, and finally
gave her up. There was great anguish in
the cities, for there were many who had
friends altoard that vessel. Some of
the women, in their distress, went
to tho spiritual mediums, and inquired
as to the fate of that vessel. Tho me
diums called up the spirits, and the rap
pings on the table indicated the steam
ship lost, with all on board. Women
went raving mad, and were carried to
the lunatic asylum. After awhile one
lay a gun was heard off quarantine.
The flags went up on tho shipping, and
the bells of the churches were rung. The
Ijovb ran through the streets, crying:
"Extra! The Atlantic is safe!" There
was the embracing as from the dead
when friends came again to friends;
but some of those passengers
went up to find their wives in
the lunatic asylum, where this cheat of
infernal Spiritualism had put them. A
man in Bellevue hospital, dying from
wounds made by his own hand, was
asked why he tried to commit suicide,
and he said: "The spirits told me to."
Parents have strangled their children,
and when asked why they did it, re
plied: "Spiritualism demanded it." It
is the patronizer and forager for the mad
house. Judge Edmonds, in Broadway
taliernacle, New York, delivering a lect
ure in behalf of Spiritualism, admitted, in
so many words: "There is a fascination
about consultation with the spirits of the
dead that has a tendency to lead people
off from their right judgment, and to in
still into them a fanaticism that is revolt
ing to the natural mind."
It not only ruins its disciples, but it
ruins the mediums also, only give it
time. The Gadarean swine, on the banks
of the Lake of Galilee, no sooner became
spiritual mediums than down they went,
in an avalanche of pork, to tho con
sternation of all the herdsmen. The office
of a medium is bad for a man, bad for a
woman, bad for a beast.
I bring against this delusion a more
fearful indictment: it ruins the soul im
mortal. First, it makes a man a quarter
of an infidel; then it makes him half an
infidel ; then it makes him whole inliuTl.
The whole system, as I conceive it, is
founded on the insufficiency of the Word
of God as a revelation. God says the
Bible is enough for you to know about
the future world. You say it is not
enough, and there is where you and the
Lord differ. You clear the table, you
shove aside the Bible, you put your hand
on the table, and say: "Now let spirits
of the future world come and tell me
something the Bible ha3 not told
me." And although the Scriptures
say: "Add thou not unto his
words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be
found a liar," yu risk it, and say:
"Come back, spirit of my departed
father; come back, spirit of my de
parted mother, of my companions, of my
little child, and tell me some things I
don't know about you and about the
unseen world." If God is ever slapped
square in the face, it is when a spiritual
medium puts down her hand on the
table, invoking spirits departed to make
a revelation. God has told you all you
ought to know, and how dare you le
prying into that which is none of your
business? You cannot keep the Bible in
one hand and Spiritualism hi the other.
One or the other will slip out of your
grasp, depend upon it.
Spiritualism is adverse to the Bible in
the fact that it has in these last days
called from the future world Christian
men to testify against Christianity. Its
mediumH call back Lorenzo Dow, the
celebrated evangelist, and Lorenzo Dow
testifies that Christians are idolators.
Spiritualism calls back Tom Payne, and
he testifies that he is stopping in the same
house in heaven with John Bunyan.
They call back John Wesley, and he tes
tifies against the Christian religion which
he all his life gloriously preached.
Andrew Jackson Davis, the greatest
of all the Spiritualists, comes to
the front and declares that the
New Testament is but J 'the dismal
echo of a barbaric age, " and the Bible
only "one of the pen and ink relics of
Christianity." They attempt to substi
tute the writings of Swedenborg, and
Andrew Jackson Davis, and other re
ligious balderdash, in the place of this
old Bible. I have in my house a book
which was used in this very city in the
public service of Spiritualists. It is well
worn with much service. I open that
book, and it says: "What is our
baptism? Answer: Frequent ablutions
of water. What is our inspiration?
Plenty of fresh air and sunlight. What
is our prayer? Abundant physical exer
cise. What is our love feast? A clear
conscience and sound sleep." And I
find from the same book that the chief
item in their publio worship is gymnastic
exercise, and tliat whenever they want
to rouse up their souls to a very high
pitch of devotion they sing, page
65: "The night has gathered up her 1
moonlit fringes;" or page 10:
"Come to tho woods, heigho! You say
you are riot such u fool as that; but you
will lo if you keep on in tho truck you
hav j started.
"But," says some one, "wouldn't it bo
of advantage to hear from tho future
world? Don't you think it would
strengthen Christian? There aro a great
many Materialists who do not lx-lievo
there are souls; but if spirits from tho
future world should knock and talk over
to 111, they would bo persuaded." To
that I answer, in tho ringing words of
the Son of God: "If they believe not
Moses and tho prophets, neither will
they lo ersuadod though one rose from
the dead."
Now I believe, under God, that tliis
sermon will save r.iany from disease, in
sanity and perdition. I believe these an
tho days of which tho apostle spako
when he said: "In the latter times tomo
shall depart from tho faith, giving heed
to seducing spirits." I think my au
dience, as well as other audiences in this
day, need to havo reiterated in their
liearing the passages I quoted some min
utes ago: "There shall not Ihj among you
a consulter of familiar spirits, or wizard,
or necromancer; for they that do these
things are an abomination unto tho
Lord;" and "The soul that turneth after
such as have familiar spirits, I will set
myself against them, and they shall bo
cut off from their ix-ople. "
But I invite you this morning to a
Christian seance, a noonday seance. This
congregation is only one great family.
Here is the church table. Come around
tho church table, take your seats fur tlii:i
great Christian seance, put your Bible
oil tho table, put your hands on the top
of tho Bible, and then listen and hear if
there are any voices coming from tho
eternal world. I think there are.
Listen! "Secret things belong unto tho
Ijord our God, but things that are re
vealed belong unto us and to our chil
dren.'' Surely that is a voice from
tiie spirit world! But before you rise
from this Christian seance, I want you to
promise me you will be satisfied with the
Divine revelation until the light of the
eternal throne breaks upon your vision.
Do not go after the witch of En-dor. Do
not sit tlown at table rappings. either in
Fport or in deal earnest. Have your
tables so well made, and their legs so
even, that they will not tip and rattle.
If the table must move, let it le under
tho offices of industrious housewifery.
Teach your children there are no ghosts
to be seen or heard in this world
save those which walk on two feet or
four, human or bestial. Remember that
Spiritualism at the beat is a useless thing;
for if it tells what the Bible reveals it is a
suierfluity, and if it tells what the Bible
does not reveal, it is a lie. Instead of
going out to get other people to tell your
fortune, tell your own fortune by put
ting your trust in God and doing the best
you can. I will tell your fortune : ' 'All
things work together for good to then.
who love God." Insult; not your de
parted friends by asking them to come
down and scrabble under an extension
talJe. Remember that there is only
one spirit whose dictation you have
a right to invoke, and that is the
holy, blessed and omnipotent Spirit of
God. Hark! He is rapping now, not
on a table or the floor, but rapping on
the door of your heart, and every rap is
an invitation to Christ and a warning of
judgment to come. Oh, grieve him net
away. Quench him not. lie has
been all around you this morn
ing. no was an around you
last night. He has been around you
all your lives. Hark! There come;; a
voice dropping through the roof, break
ing tnrougii tne winnow, ninng all t.r.s
house with tender and overmastering in
tonation, saying: "My spirit shall not
always strive."
Tlio IToosler I'oet' Famu.
The publisher of The Century maga
zine is beginning to appreciate the value
of James Whitcomb Riley s contribu
tions. Last whiter Riley sent a poem to
tlte magazine; it appeared subsequently
under the title of "Jim," and it narrated
in pathetic dialect the unspeakable love
of a simple old man for his boy who
went to and was killed in the war. For
this poem Riley received a check for $50,
Some weeks after the publication of the
verses Riley participated 111 an authors
reading in New York city, and it was
universally conceded that he made the
hit of the occasion; in fact, he was the
only participant in the programme who
created jiy enthusiasm, and he wa3 re
peatedly encored. His recitation of
"Jim" (the poem he had printed in The
Oenturv) was received with special fa
vor, and The Century people, who were
present m force, were impressed accord
ingly. So Roswell Smith, president of
The Century company, gave Riley a little
informal supper to which a few other
congenial fellows were invited. Upon
turning his plate Riley found a note
from The Century begging him to accept
tho inclosed as further recognition of the
value of his poem to the magazine,
"The inclosed" was a check for 100.
Chicago News.
A Costly Hook of Foems.
A copy of the first or Kilmarnock edi
tion of Robert Burns' poems, chiefly in
Scotch dialect, was sold for $55 by
Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in
Wellington street, London, recently. It
was a remarkably fine copy, with the
book plate and portrait of George Paton,
published at Kilmarnock, 1T8G. It was
lxught for America, it is said. This is
the highest price ever paid at an auction
for this rare edition. The Laing copy
6old 6ome years ago for $450, which in
cluded a manuscript poem in Burns' au
tograph. New York Sun.
Diamonds In the Teeth,
A writer in an English paper declares
that a new American idea of decoration
is wearing diamonds in the front teeth.
Part of the tooth is cut away, he says,
and the diamond is inserted in a false bit
of tooth, which is by some means at.
tached to the real original article. It is
hoped hy t he writer that the enterprising
ladies who are idiotic enough to adopt this
fashion will swallow a diamond or two,
and "cause a highly tragic end of a very
foolish fashion." New York Sun.
Gen. Booth, the Salvation Army leader,
is one of the sharpest business men in
England, and has accumulated a large
fortune.
TH.
I'LATTSMOUTII. - NEIiKAftflA.
CAPITAL STOCK PAID IN, - $f.0,CG0
Authorized Capital, $IOO,OCO.
orritKim
?1UNK C'AUttt'ill. JUS. A, CONNOK,
I'rfNtitrnt. VUe-I're sklent.
w. it. c-usmxa. Ciwhicr.
blltECTOKS
I'rank Cainitl', J. A. Connor, X. K. Cuthmass..
J. W. JohM-on, Henry Ilac-k, JoUn OK eel,
W. 1. Mtri'iHui, Win. WeteDCttmp, W.
II. Clashing.
-f r:iii";'.ct 11 Ueueral l'.Hiiklnif liualnets. All
Kbo Ii:i7f any Hunklng IhisIih at to transact
nr m v lie. 1 to cull. No matter how
liuire or amnll Uih irabMncllon, It
will receive our CHieful attention,
nn d we proline al v. ay eour
trims Ireiitineiit.
iHBiies Certificates of Devoslts bearing Intoraat
Huyeaiid Ki'll Kitrnign KxeJiHiige, Connty
and C'ltv secui itles.
John fitkgkuali;, h. Vtin
Presldoi't. ChhLIo
FIIIST NATIONAL
IB A TT JBZ
OK I'LATIKMOU'IIi. NKiMlAtiftA.
Otters the very best faeillticii for the rrnwpt
tranractlon of legitimate
BANKING KUSIN333.
"Stocks, P.onds. :(!1, (tovernrur.ut ard I oet
Securit iff l.ounlit and Mold, IojkisI!n receiv
ed and iiifr3t uiloncdon time ( eititi
cates, Iiaft"(liHwn,hvailalle in ny
part of tho Waited Stutev mid &11
the l'rincinal to ie of
Furoue.
Collections made tft prompt! remitted
Highest marlcet prtcan paid for County Vfar
fcitute aiid County Koul.
DIRECTORS 1
John Fitzt'erald
John K. Oinrk, I). Haksworth.
8. Wa-iuu.
F. c. White.
Bank Cass County
Cotiier Main and Sixth Streets.
IiA.TI'SlIOTJ'X'IH: 21Z
,C. II. I'ARMKI.E. 1'resldoBt. I
IJ M. i'ATi "KKSON. Caf-.hicr.
Transacts a General Batfint Business
HIGHEST CASH PRICEj
Paid for County and City Warrant
COI.I.KCTIOXM 3JA1E
and promptly remitted for.
dikkcotous t
C. H. Part ele, j. M. fatterson.
Ktfd Onrder, A . H. 8rrlth.
it. B. Wiminam. M. Morrisey,
J.mucs Patterson. Jr.
Egonborgor SJ Troop.
STAPLE and FANCY
GROCERIES.
-o
Glass and Queansware,
FLOUR and FEED.
Highest Market price piid for Country
Produce.
Oirra House GiGcery Store.
J". C, SOQXT23,
BARBER AND HAIR DRESSER.
All work first-class: west Tifth Street.
North Rubcit Sherwood's Store.
ROBERT DONNELLY'S
JLUD
it XJ;l OJ1 1 1 II
Wagon, Buggy, 2Ia:Mne and Plate re
pairing, and general Jobbing
a now prepared to 60 a!l kinds of repalrlpa
cf farm and other iracnincry, as there
Is a good lathe Jn my shop.
PETER HAD EN,
The old Reliable Wagon Maker
bas taken charge of the waon sacp
He Is well known as a
NO. 1 WOBKMAN.
1V&Kmit and Hngzte Bid
The 5th St. Kerchant Tailor
Keeps a Full Line of
Foreign & Domestic Goods.
Consult Your Interest by Glvlce Him a Cal
SHERWOOD BLOCK
TPt ttsmoutli. - 3Tei
(3
K. DRESSLER,
V
f