Nebraska Newspapers

    COWBOY AND CORSET.
BY CAPTAIN JACK CRAWFORD.
"I jest wish you had never went to
Dallas. I wish you'd stayed here on
the ranch en kep' on a bein yer own
self, Etead o driftin off the rang-e to
the city an' a malt in' a play to be a
high-tone leddy. Y' ain't like yo' used
to be, Cassie."
There was a scowl on the cowboy'
face as he stood before Cassie Denton,
the daughter of the owner of the
Texas ranch at which he was employed.
The face of the bright-eyed little
maiden wore a pained look as she
toyed with the buckskin wrist loop
which depended from the handle of the
ix-shooter in his belt.
"I knowfcd just how it would be,"
he continued, -'When yer pop pot the
notion into his head that yo must be
ed Seated an be a leddy, I tol' him it's
Fpile yo. I tol' him yo' never would
be the same gal no mo', that yer little
head d git turned there among the
fine t:tock, au yo wouldn't have no
mo' use fur graded critters sich as the
ridera o' the ranges."
- 'But Bob," the girl interrupted, "I
m not changed in mv feelings toward
jtdu. I love you just as well as I did
the day pop said I could marry you,
and he sent me to school for two years
jast to make me fit to be your wife. It
was all for your sake. Bob, and it's real
bad of you to act so after I had studied
ao hard to make of myself a lady
woilhy of such a man as j-ou. I know
I'm not like I used to be. I am not
rough and wild like I was once, I dress
better and 1 talk better. It's refine
ment. Bob that what Miss Bentley,
the teacher, said, and she said that a
girl without refinement was just a
wart on the face of society. That's
just what she said. Bob, in her own
words, and I feel like crying at the
way you act."
T'd a whole lot rather see you a
good, healthy wart on the face o' so
ciety, than to see yo a dab o'
bright paint on one o its cheeks, or a
string o no 'count beads a hangin
.bout its neck. Style is fur them that
lives in cities. Cassie. an' is jest as
much out o place in here on the ranch
as a cheap herdin greaser 'd be out o
place in glory. I'd never belicvod it
of yo. Cassie, that yo'd come back here
with your f oretop curled up in a bunch,
an' a corset cinched 'round yo. I
wouldn't. I swear I wouldn't. No wom
an kin make a rancher a good wife that
wears a fashion pack-saddle, an
bunches up her mane like yours is
bunched- I mout git over the curl
business in time, but I ain't never goin'
to have no wife that'll cinch herself up
o's 6he can't breathe below "
With a scream of laughter the girl
placed her hand over bis mouth and
checked his further speech.
"Oh! Bob, Bob. you naughty boy! Is it
my poor little corset that has come be
tween us to ward off your love? Oh! I
must laugh, for it's really the funniest
thing I ever heard of. Why, Bob, I
could never live without a corset. It is
6uch a support and comfort, and you
know, you wicked boy, that my figure
is much prettier than it was before I
went to Dallas. Isn't it, now?"
She placed tier hands against her
waist and waltzed saucily around so
that he could inspect her neat form.
"No, tain't. 'Tain't free an' easy
like Ood intended it should be. If
He'd a wanted yo pinched up like y'
are now, lie d 'a built yo' that way.
'There'd be jest as much sense in cinch
in' up cows to make 'em look purty.
Yo'd laugh yer eyes out to see a cow
a goin' 'round here with corsets on an',
yo" hear me, it's jest as ridiculous fur
& gal to do it. I'm a goin' to round up
the ranges fur a gal 'at's got more
savey than to wear sich monstrousi
ties, 'relse I never will double up in
matermony long as I liTe. Throw em
away, Cassie, or yo' an' me won't be
not h in' much to each other no mo."
"Bob. 1 won't make a fool of myself
for a little senseless whim such as
yours. I'll wear what I please, and if
it don't exactly meet with your ideas
of propriety you can go and round up
a girl that's willing to put up with
your nonsense."
The little girl was angry now, and
with a spiteful flirt of her suirts she
turned from him and went into the
house. Her anger was like a passing
summer cloud, and when in a few mo
ments it had spent itself she ran to
her room, and, throwing herself on
the bed, burst into tears. She knew
Bob Taylor loved her dearly, and,
rough and uneducated as he was, she
almost worshiped the handsome young
cowboy. She would gladly have con
signed the offending article of dress
to the waters of the Brazos, which ran
near the house, but she eould not for
a moment countenance each an unrea
sonable whim on Bob's part, and with
set teeth and clinched hands she
owed that if her lover took her to be
his wife the corset must be included
in the inventory of her personal ef
fects. Days sped by, and Bob passed and
repassed her about the house, seem
ingly as oblivious of her presence as if
she were a thousand miles away. Only
once did he notice her, when, in maid
enly desperation at his coldness, she
asked:
"Ain't you never going to make up.
Bob?"
Not till you skin off that infernal
pack saddle," was the surly reply.
Their love had been a fruitful and
never stale topie of conversation
among the pupils of Miss Bentley's
school for girls in Dallas, and in tjl
their confidential chats Cassie had
heard of" but one effective method of
whipping a recalcitrant lover back
into the traces: "Flirt with som
other felhvw." . iler only fear was that
if she should try the experiment Bob
might lose control of his temper and
fchoot the other fellow, and as a re
sult he might be locked up for a long,
long time in a cheerless prison and
the marrJage be necessarily postponed
tin til the misdemeanor was atoned for.
The judge mijht be a cruel old mon
ter with no sympathy for young
lovers and might send him into retire
fQSBt lor jews, and sha might become
a wrinkled or ealcimined old maid be
fore he again breathed the air of
freedom. That would be terrible. But,
pshaw! Bob would never be so foolish
as to puff out a human light for one
little girl in a country literally run
ning over with the prettiest girls in
America. Not he. Anyhow, he
would risk it, and if Ben Allison, of
the Diamond O ranch, came around
and made eyes at her again as he had
done on several occasions she would
encourage him just the least bit, and
then, when Bob recovered from the fit
of temporary insanity into which her
corset had thrown him and came to
her in a penitent mood she would
throw herself into his dear arms and
tell him that she never did, never
would i,and never could love anyone
but him. Of course he would forgive
her and kiss her tears away, and the
sun of love would again burst forth
and shice over them with new and ex
quisite luster. . i
Ben Allison's heart became real un-
ruly when at hi6 next visit to the Den- j
ton ranch Cassie met him with a wel- '
coming smile, extended her pretty lit- '
tie hand and permitted him to hold i '
quite a little while after he had got ;
through shaking it. After this gra'.i- j
fying reception his visits increased in
frequency, and although, with great
feminine tact, the girl kept his ardor j
within proper bounds, 6he did not re- .
pulse him, and it scon became noised j
about among the riders ol the ranges j
that "Ben was sure goin' to pitch a i
matrimonial rope at Cassie Benton, !
an' the little threrbred 'd soon pack
his brand."
Bob noted all this, and his heart was ,
filled with bitterness toward his sup-
posed rival- He never cast the look of j
recognition upon Cassie. yev, when he j
would see her moving about the house ,
or corrals or galloping aboul the range ;
on her pretty little pinto pony, it be- j
gantodawn upon him that ber cor-
6eted form was indeed far neater than j
that of any girl -on all t:ie ranges of
the Brazos. After a time he was ready ,
to swear that he had neter seen any- j
thing one-half so handsome as that .
neat, graceful figure, anJ the uncor- i
seted girls of his acquaintance seemed j
almost frightful ic his eyes when he
gazed upon their loose, dumpy forms, i
He began to harbor ths impression I
that he had made a very pronounced
fool of himself, but his stubborn na- i
ture asserted itself. He had said the '
corset must go, and go it must.
"That's a 'way-up-on-top gal sence j
she got back from Dallas; ain't she, j
Bob?" Allison said to him one day, ;
when they met in the corral of the j
Denton ranch. !
You don't want to make no funny i
plays about that gal when I'm j
around," Bob hotly replied. j
"I hain't never yit found out that it j
makes any difference who s around or
who ain't around when I want to make j
a talk play," retorted Allison- j
"Some things gits found out mighty ,
Sudden, Ben Allison, an' this ain't j
foin' to be fur from one of 'em. I want
so tell you right now, an' to holler it
,mt plain, too, that yo are a nosin i
round this ranch too plenty o' late in- 1
stead of ridin vour own ranch, an I
ain't a goin to stand it no mo."
"Mebbe you wouldn't mind tellin"
jae what business it is o' yours whar' I
ride. Long as the gal's throwed you
to one side you ain't got no say as to
other fellers pitchin' a rope at her."
"Yer a liar when yo' 6ay she's
throwed me. an yo know it, an' yo
want to hit the Diamond O trail right
now or you an' me's a-go in to bump
together pow'f ul hard. Jest top that
ho S3 o' yours an work him lively away
from here, or a calamity's a-goiu to
occur right quick."
"You talk mighty brave fur a cast
off shoe. Bob Taylor, an you can't be
gin the bumpin business any too
quick to suit me, yoa poor, worthless
sneak."
That was the limit. The two men,
their eyes blazing with anger, backed
away from each other, drawing their
six-shooters as they went. The guns
were thrown into position for quick
work, just as a slight girlish form
darted around the corner of the adobe
stable and sprang in front of Taylor.
Allison's pistol rang out before he
noted the presence of the girl, and
with a scream of pain she fell senseless
to the ground.' The man who had fired
the shot fled in terror, and Bob bent
e ver his wonnded darling, calling her
by the most endearing names and beg
ging her to live for his sake.
The form of the girl was borne into
the house, and a doctor from Waco,
who was fortunately there, attending
a cowboy who was down with the
break-bone fever, was called in.
"Is she dead, doctor?" asked Bob, in
tones of the most pitiable agony.
"No, only stunned. Ball struck a
eorset steel and glanced off. She will
be all right soon, but it was a close
call, my boy, and she undoubtedly
saved your life."
Cassie soon recovered consciousness,
and. with joy in his every tone. Bob
confessed what a fool he had been,
and begged for forgiveness. Of course
it was sweetly granted, and he de
clared that the marriage must take
place just as soon as she became able
to stand before the minister.
"And can I wear my corset, dear?
she coyly asked.
"Wear what saved yo fur me? Cas
sie, I wouldn't have yon throw that
away fur a million dollars. You kin
wear two of m if yo' want to. an if
yo' 6ay so I'll wear one myself." N.
Y. Teiegram.
A Tablet for a King.
A tablet recently set up at Naples
commemorates the bravest act done by
a king in this century, the visit of
King Humbert to the cholera sufferers
in 1S84. It stands near the spot where
the excommunicated king, Cardinal
San Felice and the archbishop of Na
ples met while passing through the
hospital in the performance of their
duties.
La Moille river, in Vermont, was
at first called La Monette, "the sea
gull," from the great abundance of
these birds.
POPULAR SCIENCE
THE NEW ARMY RIFLE.
A National Guardsman Report Favor
ably on It Wherein It Differ from the
Remington Rifle Impression of a w
York Soldier Who Baa Given It a Most
Thorough Trial.
"The United States army magazine
rifle, model of 1893," has been de
scribed often enough. Everyone knows
that it is a five-shot magazine . rifle of
thirty caliber. It is about two inches
shorter than the Springfield and the
Remington rifles, the calibers of which
are forty-five and fifty respectively. It
is a bolt gun, the breech being opened
by a lever rising from the bolt at an
angle of about thirty degrees to the
REMINGTON CAB
TIUDGK. KRAG-JORGEXSEJC
CARTRIDGE.
plane of the axis of tire rifle. But the
little details of the piece are not so
well knowp; and an enlisted man of
the national guard of New York state,
having obtained permission to try the
piece at Creedmoor, makes public here
with some of his impressions concern
ing it.
As has been said, the piece is a little
shorter than the present rifle; but the
breech block is so much longer than
that of the Remington rifle that the
barrel of the Krag-Jorgensen is about
six inches " shorter. The barrel is
heavier than that of the other piece.
Immediately in front of the trigger the
stock is grooved on both sides, like the
stock of some of these sporting rifles
which carry a magazine under the bar
rel, and these grooves afford a good
grip for the hand when firing the piece.
The lever of the breech will prevent
the piece from Wing "carried" as the
present rifle is carried, with barrel to
the rear; but if the manual of arms is
changed.so that the barrel is to the front
where now it is to the rear, the new
piece will be easily handled. It is half
a pound heavier than the present rifle,
but it is better balanced, and my be
shouldered as easily as the Remington.
The breech lever being on the right
side, the lockpla-te may be laid flat on
the right shoulder when the piece is
sjiouldered, though it is said to be ftie
Intention of the board on regulations
to alter the manual, so that "right
shoulder arms' shall be a "slope arms."
us "left shoulder arms" Is now. The
butt plate is perfectly flat.
The bayonet is not merely a toasting
fork or fire poker, like the present im
plement. It is a knife a foot long and
weighing one and a half pounds to the
one pound of the present bayonet. It
can be used to cut wood or cheese, to
throw up earthworks or build a field
oven, and will stick an enemy as well
as the old bayonet. It does not fit over
the foresight as the present bayonet
does; so that there will be no danger
of twisting the sight in the hilarious
excitement of fixing bayonets and
stacking arms.
The breach mechanism is remarkably
simple; it consists of only four parts,
the bolt and lever, the spring, the fir
ing pin and the extractor. The trigger
works with a spring, separately. There
are four parts to the magazine the
hinge, the spring which moves the
feeder, and the door.
It is in shooting, however, that the
beauties of the new rifle show them
selves. The foresight is on a stud
fully half an inch high, while the rear
sight is low, graduated from point
blank at 300 yards to 600 yards before
the leaf of the sight is raised, and
thence to 2.500 yards. The bar of the
sight is held in place by a spring, and
allows for the "drift' of the bullet, but
there is no allowance for wind, as in
the Buflinton and Edwards sights. The
trigger is short, and the guard will not
admit two fingers. The trigger itelf
has a "creep;" that is, it moves through
a perceptible arc before it frees the
hammer. This "creep" is the standard
trigger pull of foreign rifles. It gives
an excellent chance to aim and fire
without disturbing the aim; for, hav
ing taken a hasty aim, the trigger may
be pressed until the "creep" is over;
then a final aim may be taken, the
trigger pressed a little more bang!
the hammer is freed, the firing bolt
comes home, and scree-ee! goes the
bullet, 2,10o feet a second, with a range
of a mile and i half and a trajectory
Almost perfectly flat, until it hits some
thing and makes its presence felt.
The cartridge, the exact size of which
is shown, is .30 of an inch in diameter
and XI inches in length. It contains
30 grains of smokeless powder, the bul
let weighing 220 grains. With the
cry high foresight, it was found nec
essary at 100 yards and 20O yards to
aim entirely below the target; even
then the shota were high. At 200 yards
the lower edge of the target was aimed
at- At 500 yards the bar of the sight
was left a", the 300-yard mark and a
"fine" sight taken on the bull's-eye,
and at 000 yards the bar was raised to
the 100-yal mark. In almost every
case the shots were high. Out of some
forty shots fired, only three were be
below the middle of the target. Three
shots missed; the other thirty-four
were above the middle of the target.
There was no perceptible recoil, and
.btrlntely no smoksv N. Y. Son
II
m
li i 1
d I a k la!
111 m iii I J
SUBSTITUTE FOR STONE.
Description and Composition or a Xw
Building Material.
The new kind of building material
some time since announced as a pro
posed substitute for ordinary stone or
brick is now receiving special indorse
ment on account of its freedom, under
various und repeated tests, from the
usual liability to crack or fracture. To
insure this property, with the other es
6ential adaptations, silicic acid is used,
powdered and cleansed from all im
purities; five to ten per cent, of this is
mixed in warm river or rain water,
and this is applied to slacked or well
burnt lime or added to hydraulic lime,
the resulting product being mixed with
sand and small portions of fluorspar.
This mixture is-cast into molds in vari
ous shapes as may be desired, and after
removal the castings are left to dry
from twelve to twenty-four hours, which
brings them to a condition as dry as
atmospheric air. In this state they are
brought into a steam boiler and steam
blown through so as to drive out all
air, after which the boiler is hermetic
ally sealed up and 6team let in under
a pressure of ten atmospheres. In this
high-pressure steam bath the stones re
main from forty-eight to seventy-two
hours, afterward being submitted to a
bath of boiling and saturated chloride
of calcium for six to twelve hours, also
under a pressure of about ten at
mospheres, in the same boiler, and the
condensed water may be used for the
bath. The -stones are allowed to dry
in the open air, or, more quickly, by
circulating steam inside the boiler
after the chloride of calcium has leen
withdrawn and prior to taking out the
stones. Landscape Architect.
CURB AND CONDUIT.
Chicago Scheme for Burying Electric
Wires at Moderate Cost.
One of the few corporations in this
country which, having occasion to run
wires through public streets, shows a
disposition to put those wires under
ground furnishes electric light in Nor
wood Park, a suburb of Chicago. And
it has decided to make use lor mis pur
pose of an invention of a man named
Sampson, consisting of a combination
of curbstone and conduit. One advan
tage of such a plan is that the dnve
wa v mav be left entirelv to the gas and
water companies, and their pipes may
be entirely aisregaraea in laying iao
conduit. Moreover, it will not prob
ably be necessary to dig so deep a
trench as otherwise might be the case,
although it is proposed to lay a tile and
gravel drain, connecting with catuh
basins and the city sewers, underneath
the conduit.
Blocks four feet in length and having
a cross section such as is shown here
with are placed about two feet apart at
the edge of the sidewalk. These blocks
are composed of concrete, and the
tubes are of vitrified tiles. Similar
tilts are carried across the gap be
tween the blocks, being sustained and
kept in place by mandrils reaching
from duct to duct; and then the inter
vening space is built up with a mixture
of cement and concrete. A sheet-iron
mold keeps the plastic material in
shape until it sets; and a trowel is used
to form and smooth the curbstone on
top. Wherever it is desired to run a
branch into a house or to a street light,
T-shaped tiles are inserted in one of
these gaps before filling in. The glossy
inner surface of the duct offers little
obstruction to the drawing in of the
cables, and it is also waterproof. If
the construction is properly conducted,
therefore, the conduit should be thor
oughly waterproof and practically in
destructible. Of course, the system is
as well adapted to wires for tele
graphic, telephonic and power pur
poses as to those for lighting. N. Y.
Tribune.
Violins Made of Aluminium.
The idea of making violins out of
aluminium is enough to cause the
makers of the precious old Cremonas
to turn in their graves. Aluminium
violins, however, are being made,
though they are, at all events, in this
early stage of their manufacture, more
remarkable for noise than for tonal
beauty. The metal is not without ad
vantages for the purpose. Sounding
boards of aluminium do not produce
secondary tones discordant with the
primary tones and have not the uncer
tainty and lack of individuality found
in the wooden boards, nor the liability
to warp and crack. The aluminium
plates used must be riveted, not sol
dered. The aluminium violin gives
full and resonant tones, and experts
say that it will be an acquisition to the
orchestra, but it seems to lack the
qualities necessary for the finest sold
performances. '
Longevity on the Increase.
There has been a decrease in the
death rate of Great Britain since 1S59
at all ages under 55, while between the
ages of C5 and 73 there has been an in
crease. How the tje Operates.
The eye adapts itself to view objects
near and distant by a change in the
curvatures of the crystalline lens.
To Build a Channel Bridge.
It is estimated that it would cost
$170,000,000 to build a bridge across the
English channel.
RELIGIOUS MATTERS.
LET ALL PRAISE HIM.
Tualm 148.
Halleluiah! Praise Jehovah!
From the heavens in the heights:
Praise Jehovah, all His angels.
Praise Him, ull ye hosts of might.
Praine Him. sun. with dazzling splendor;
Praise Him, moon, that rul'st the night;
Through creation wide extol Him:
Praise Him, all ye stars of light.
Heaven of heavens, praise Him, praise Him,
All ye stars that float on high:
Pouring down your crystal treasures
From God's river in the sky.
Let them praise His name: Jehovah.
Spake the word, creation rose;
He established them forever:
Fixed their orbits as He chose.
Praise Jehovah, lund and water:
Dragons, monsters of the sea:
Fire, and hail, and snow, and vapor;
Storm wind, doing His decree.
Praise Him, hills; and praise Him. mountains;
Fruit-trees, cedars, praises sing:
Praise Him. wild beast; praise Him, cattls!
Praise Him. bird and creeping thing.
Praise Him. kings: and praise Him, nation;
Chieftains, judges of the earth:
Toung men. maidens: old men. children:
Praise ye Him with holy mirth.
Let them praise Jehovah's greatness.
For exalted Is His fame.
Far above the earth and Heaven
Shines the glory of His name
High His people's horn is lifted.
High their honor by His word:
Vear to Him. and dear. 's Israel:
Hallelujuh: Praise the Lord!
Rev. U. D. Tompkins McLaughlin, la N Y
Observer.
WORD CRUSHING.
Mighty EfTect of Words Carelessly or TCn
kiudly Spoken.
Up in the mountains of California
and Navada they have a machine into
which they pour car loads of rock, and
it grinds them to powder. The object
of this grinding is to get the gold out
of the rock. It is there in minute par
ticles and can not be separated until
the quartz is crushed. The crushing
enriches the minors and adds to the
wealth of the world. But there is an
other kind of crushing as old as the
days of Job, which is like this in some
respects, and yet, how unlike in others.
It is as powerful as that in the mines
but no gold is secured by its opera
tions. Wherever it grinds it impov
erishes. When the pious patriarch
Was suffering "with sore boils from
the sole of his foot unto his erown"
three friends, as they called them
selves, came to comfort him. But they
were such "miserable comforters" that
he cried: "How long will ye vex my
soul, and break me in pieces with
words?" Yes, they brought their ma
chine with them, and set it up beside
the ash heap on which Job lay, and be
gan to grind and grind, until their
words were more painful than the boils.
Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar have
many successors in their business of
breaking with words. Speech, which
God gave to promote our happiness in
society and the home alas! how often
it is perverted to the crushing of
hearts and hopes! See that fault-finding
husband. When he married the
meek-eyed maiden he promished to
love and cherish her. But he begins at
the breakfast table to criticise and
complain. The coffee is weak, the
eggs are too hard, the griddle-cakes
lire heavy ajid cold. When she asks
for money to buy meat and vegetables
for dinner he is as cross as if she were
trying to rob him. There is many a
broken heart in our nominally Chris
tian homes because we "lords of crea
tion" become petty tyrants. The sav
age beats his wife with a club to keep
her submissive, but the word-beating
civilized society is harder to bear. The
Christian man ought to be a gentle
man. And when a woman finds too
late, that she has married a savage in
broadcloth, her life is blighted, her
very soul is crushed.
Many a mother, wearied and worried,
breaks the hearts of -her children with
words. She is so fretful and impatient
that they begin to think she does not
love them, and without love child-life
is as dreary as a desert. O, ye moth
ers, do not scold the little ones every
time that they drop a crumb on the
floor, or rush into the house without
wiping their feet. They are thought
less, only. They do not mean to worry
you. Remember that you were once a
child. Remember, too, that gentleness
is more effective than harshness in
building up such characters as you
want your children to have. Every
community has its breakers with
words. Solomon says: "The words of
the tale-bearer are as wounds," and
again, "there is that speaketh like the
piercings of a sword. Words are but
air articulated by the tongue and the
lips, and yet when so articulated un
der the influence of a cold and critical
spirit thej" become as destructive as a
cyclone. The professional gossip
is a professional heart-crusher.
And so is the proud self-righteous
Pharisee who denounces the sinner in
stead of trying to woo him by kind
ness from his evil ways. Our divine
Lord did not cry "Woe unto you pub
licans and harlots;" but "Woe unto you
Scribts and Pharisees, hypocrites."
There are thousands of men and wom
en in the gutter to-day who might be
virtuous and happy if they were not
trampled upon by the heel of respect
ability. And there are word-breakers who are
the modern fac-similes of Job's com
forters. The go to the chamber of the
suffering and talk and talk, until their
well-meant but senseless prattle is
harder to bear that the twinges of
bodily pain or the scorchings of fever.
They tell the impatient patients of all
the sickness in the community and of
those who have died of the very dis
ease by which they are afflicted. The
nurse of an invalid said to me some
years ago: "Miss A. means to be
kind, but every time she visits
my patient she does her more harm
than good. She not only wearies
her bnt talks to her about the very
things that are most distasteful and
distressing to her." Why can not peo
ple learn to be real comforters to those
who are sick or in trouble instead of
trying to break the spirit that is al
ready like a bruised reed? I have
known men who might be called prayer-meeting
crushers. They talk so
long and in such a rambling, repeti
tious way, that they exercise the spirit
of devotion and of brotherly love. It is
hard to be charitable to one who says
that he wants to edify ua and then dis
gusts us. Such men may be zealous
and sincere, but they are like the breth
ren at Corinth about whom Paul wrote
in his first epistle, who spake in an un
known tongue.,. They did not edify
and comfort their hearers. When a
man finds that he can not interest his
brethren and sisters in the prayer
meeting, he had better not try to
speak. That is one of the cases in
which silence is golden. Obadiah Old
school, in Chicago Interior.
TRUE THANKSGIVING.
We
Too Often Forget the Real Meaning
Behind Our National Holidays.
How far do we really give thanks on
Thanksgiving day? It is a question
which applies, more or less, to all me
morial days. Do we, as a rule, think
more of Christ at Christmas than on
other days? Does that national an
niversary, the Fourth of July, recall
national history, especially in that sig
nificance which was originally intend
ed, more than anjr other day of the
year? Doubtless each of these serves
as a reminder in some more or less
vague and general way; yet the ques
tions just set down appear to be perti
nent, after all.
The tendency of memorial observ
ance is to become something else than
properly memorial. As the years
glide by the event so commem
orated retires into the more and
more distant past, and in the
same proportion grows faded and dim.
In the years immediately following the
institution of Thanksgiving by the Pil
grims, it may be presumed that appre
ciation of what harvest means where
famine had prevailed or threatened,
was vivid and warm. As each year
brought round the same abounding
tribute of the soil to the hand that
tilled it, tradition would recall the
time when such a kindly gift from "the
mother of us all" was welcomed at
Plymouth as life from the dead. With
this might naturally go a keener sense
of indebtedness to Him, who through
instrumentalities of rain and sunshine
and soil feeds His children indebted
ness not only for this, but for count
less mercies besides. So it may have
been for some generations, nas lapse
of time wrought lapse of memory?
It may be that the special signifi
cance of Thanksgiving is not always
kept in mind. It is a thanksgiving
for the seedtime and the harvest;
for the blessing granted to human
labor in its tilling of the soil,
and so providing abundance of
that store of natural product upon
which not alone human life, but so
much of what concerns human labor
and enterprise in other spheres must
depend. Even the thanksgiving meal,,
with its loadedtable and its happy and
eager participants, has a significance
lifting it out of the category of mere
enjoyment. It is the symbol of
abundance; of that abundance which
came after famine when the devout
Pilgrim, with his" harvest safely gath
ered home, could thankfully and joy
fully look forward to impending win
ter no longer with dread least the wolf
of hunger should be heard barking at
the door.
On Thanksgiving day let the poor b
remembered. Let some opportunity of
genuine Cnristian beneficence be used;
let it be used as thankfully and gladly
as the abundance of another year of
seed-sowing ani harvest is welcomed
and enjoyed. God has -taught us that
the offering of thankful hearts is
peculiarly pleasing to Him, and that to
such offerings His blessing will espe
cially be given. Chicago Standard.
Reading God's Messaces.-
The old Greeks used to send messages
from one army to another by means of
a roll of parchment twisted spirally
round a baton, and then written upon.
It was perfectly unintelligible when it
fell into a man's hands that had not a
corresponding baton to twist it upon.
Many of Christ's messages to ns are
like that. You can only understand
the utterances when life gives you the
frame round which to wrap them, and
then they flash up into meaning, and
we say at once: "He told ns it all be
fore, and I scarcely knew that He told
me. until this moment when I need it-,
Alexander Maclaren.
Sorrow as Praise.
When sudden sorrow befalls the)
Christian, the last thing that he needs
to know is why he has been chosen for
stroke. The first thing that he needs
to learn is, how can he glorify God
through and by affliction. If he must
know why he was afflicted peculiarly,
it is enough that God loved him. And
this is reason enough for making sor
row a pean of praise. S. S. Times.
Why We Snail at TLaat Obtain.
The Christian Is sure that he will
hold on his way, and at last receive
the crown of glory, not because of his
own strong desire and purpose, bat be
cause he belongs to Christ. United
Presbyterian.
THE FINEST OF THE WHEAT.
Pithy Sayings Cleaned From the Columns
of the Ram's Horn.
Saying no to self is saying yes to
God.
God never fails to promote the faith
ful worker.
Only when God honors us are we
truly exalted.
The most dangerous evil is the one
that looks most harmless.
Try not only to be good, bnt to be
good for something.
It is a great misfortune to be blind
to our own faults.
In most cases the reformer goes a way
from home to begin work.
Unless you seek your treasures out
side of this world you will never be
truly rich.
The world needs men who will do
right, no matter what is to come of it.
. If able preaching eould have saved
the world, the devil would have beers
traveling on foot long ago.
If you have to shout to tell people
that you are religious, there are many
who will never find it out.