Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Plattsmouth weekly journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1881-1901 | View Entire Issue (July 11, 1895)
mi TILLAGE'S SERMON. The gates of hell shall not prevail." They Swing Inward Society Gets a Boo ring for Its Unchristian Forgetf ni nes The Churches filling, bat The; Csua Sot Stem the Tide. ETV YORK. June 30, 1S95. In his sermon for to-day. Dr. Tal mage chose a mo mentous and awful 1 tQp,c: "The Gates of Men." tne texi se lected being the fa ll tyg?f Hi miliar passage in fill XToflh.w IRIX; "Th gates of hell shall not prevail against It." Entranced, until we could endure no more of the splendor, we have often raxed at the shining gates, the gates of pearl, the gates of Heaven. But we re for awhile to look In the opposite direction, and see swinging open and hut the gates of hell. I remember, when the Franco-Ger-inan war was going on. that I stood one Iay In Paris looking at the gates of the Tullleries, and I was so absorbed in the sculpturing at the top of the gates the masonry and the bronze that I forgot myself, and after awhile, look ing down. I saw there were officers of the law scrutinizing me, supposing, no doubt, I was a German, and looking at those gates for adverse purposes. But, my friends, we shall not stand looking at the outside of the gates of hell. In this sermon I shall tell you cf both sides, and I shall tell you what those gates are made of. "With the hammer of God's truth I shall pound n the brazen panels, and with the lantern of God's truth I shall flash a light upon the shining hinges. Gate the first: Impure literature. An thony Comstock seized twenty tons of bad books, plates, and letter press, and when our Professor Cochran, of the Polytechnic Institute, poured the de structive acids on those plates, they moked In the righteous annihilation. And yet a great deal of the bad litera ture of the day Is not gripped of the law. It Is strewn in your parlor; it is in your libraries. Some of your children read it at night after they have re tired, the gas-burner swung as near as possible to their pillow. Much of this literature is under the title of scientific Information. A book agent with one of these Infernal books, glossed over with jdentlflc nomenclature, went Into a ho tel and sold In one day a hundred cop ies, and sold them all to women! It 1 appalling that men and women who can get through their family physician -ail the useful information they may Seed, and without any contamination, ahould wade chin deep through such ac cursed literature under the plea of get ting useful knowledge, and that printing-presses, hoping to be called decent, lend themselves to this Infamy. Fath ers and mothers, do not be deceived by the title, "medical works." Nine-tenths cf those books come hot from the lost world, though they may have on them the names of the publishing houses of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Then there is all the novelette literature cf the day flung over the land by the million. As there are good novels that are long, so I suppose there may be good novels that are short, and so there may be a good novelette, but it is an exception. No one mark this no one systematically reads the average nov elette of this day and keeps either in tegrity or virtue. The most of these novelettes are written by broken-down literary men for small compensation, on the principle that, having failed in lit erature elevated aud pure, they hope to succeed in the tainted and the nasty. -Oh! this Is a wide gate of hell. Every panel is made out of a bad book or newspaper. Every hinge is the inter iolned tvne of a corrupt Drintlne-nress. ' Every bolt or lock of that gate is made i f rf ty e nlntu ft? an llnnloa n nfvia1 In other words, there are a million -men and women in the United States to day reading themselves Into hell! When, In one of our cities, a prosperous fam ily fell into rufttos through the misdeeds cf one of Its members, the amazed mother said to the officer of the law: Why, I never supposed there was any thing wrong. I never thought there oould be anything wrong." Then she sat weeping in silence for some time, and said: "Oh! I have got it now! I know, I know! I found in her bureau rhat slew her." These leprous book- i.lir Viav t Vi rfr iin thA ratatnvnaa of all male and female seminaries in the United States, catalogues contaln 'lng the names and residences of all the students, and circulars of death are mnt to every one, without any excep tion. Can you imagine anything more deeVhful? There Is not a young person, male or female, or an old person, who "baa not had offered him or her a bad "book or a bad picture. Scour your liouse to find out whether there are any of these adders colled on your parlor center-table, or colled amid the toilet set on the dressing-case. I adjure you before the sun goes down to explore your family libraries with an inexora ble scrutiny. Remember that one bad book or bad picture may do the work for eternity. I want to arouse all your suspicions about novelettes. I want to put you on the watch against every thing that may seem like surreptitious correspondence through the postofflee. X want you to understand that impure literature is one of the broadest, high est, mightiest gates of the lost. Gate the seoond: The dissolute dance. You shall not divert me to the general subject of dancing. Whatever you may think of the parlor dance or the method ic motion of the body to sounds of mu--lo in ths family or the social circle, I am not now discussing that question. I want you to unite with me this hour -In recognizing the fact that there Is a dissolute dance. You know of what I rpeak. It is seen not only In the low haunts of death, but in elegant man lions. It is the first step to eternal ruin .''or a great multitude of both sexes. You know, my friends, what postures and attitudes and figures are suggested of the devil. They who glide into the dis solute danc2 glide over an Inclined plane, and the dance is swifter and swifter, wilder and wilder, until with the speed of lightning they whirl off the edges of a decent life Into a fiery future. This gate of hell swings across the Axmlnster of many a fine parlor, and across the ball-room of the summer mum watering-place. You have no right m brother, my sister you have no right to take an attitude to the sound of music which would be unbecoming in the ab sence of music. No Chlckering grand of city parlor or fiddle of mountain picnic can consecrate that which God hath cursed. Gate the third: Indiscreet apparel. The attire of woman for the last few years has been beautiful and graceful beyond anything I have known; but there are those who will always carry that which is right into the extraordi nary and indiscreet. I charge Christian women, neither by style of dress nor adjustment of apparel, to become ad ministrative of evil. Perhaps none else will dare to tell you, so I will tell you that there are multitudes of men who owe their eternal damnation to what has been at different times the boldness of womanly attire. Show me the fashion plates of any age between this and the time of Louis XVI., of France, and Hen ry VIII.. of England, and I will tell you the type of morals or lmmorals of that age or that year. No exception to it. Modest apparel means a righteous peo ple. Immodest apparel always means a contaminated and depraved society. You wonder that the city of Tyre was de stroyed with such a terrible destruction. Have you ever seen the fashion-plate.of the city of Tyre? I will show It to you: "Moreover, the Lord sal th, because the daughters of Zlon are haughty and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling orna ments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the rings and nose Jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crlsplng-plns." That Is the fashion-plate of ancient Tyre. And do you wonder that the Lord God In his Indignation blotted out the city, so that fishermen today spread their nets where that city once stood? Gate the fourth: Alcoholic beverage. Oh! the wine-cup Is the patron of Im purity. The officers of the law tell us that nearly all the men who go Into the shambles of death go In intoxi cated, the mental and the spiritual abolished, that the brute may triumph. Tell me that a young man drinks and I know the whole story. If he becomes a captjve of the wine-cup he will be come a captive of all other vices; only give him time. No one ever runs drunk enness alone. That is a carrion-crow that goes in a flock, and when you see that beak ahead you may know the other beaks are coming In other words, the wine-cup unbalances and dethrones one's better Judgment and leaves one the prey of all evil appe tites that may choose to alight upon his soul. There Is not a place of any kind of sin in the United States today that does not find Its chief abettor in the chalice of inebriety. There is either a drlnklng-bar before or one behind, or one above, or one underneath. These people escape legal penalty because they are all licensed to sell liquor. The courts that license the sale of strong drink, license gambling-houses, license libertinism, license disease, license death, license all sufferings, all crimes, all despoliations, all disasters, all mur ders, all woe. It is the courts and the legislature that are swinging wide open this grinding, creaky, stupendous gate of the lost. But you say, "You have described these gates of hell and shown us how they swing In to allow the entrance of the doomed. Will you not, please, be fore you get through the sermon, tell us how these gates of hell may swing out to allow the escape of the peni tent?" I reply, But very few escape. Of the thousand that go In nine hun dred and ninety-nine perish. Suppose one of these wanderers should knock at your door, would you admit her? Suppose you knew where she came from, would you ask her to sit at your dinlng-table? Would you ask her to become the governess of your children? Would you Introduce her among your acquaintanceships? Would you. take the responsibility of pulling on the out side of the gate of hell while the pusher on the inside of the gate Is trying to get out? You would not. and not one of a thousand of you would dare to do so. You would write beautiful poetry over her sorrows and weep t over her misfortunes, but give her practical help you never will. But you say, "Are there no ways by which the wanderer may escape?" Oh, yes; three or four. The one Is the sewing-girl's garret, dingy, cold, hunger-blasted. But you say, "Is there no other way for her to escape?" Oh, yes. Another way Is the street that leads to the river, at mid night, the end of the city dock, the moon shining down on the water mak ing It look so smooth she wonders If It Is deep enough. It Is. Np boatman near enough to hear the plunge. No watchman near enough to pick her out before she sinks the third time. No other way? Yes. By the curve of the railroad at the point where the en gineer of the lightning: express cannot see a hundred yards ahead to the form that lies across the track. He may whistle "down brakes." but not soon enough to disappoint the one who seeks her death. But you say, "Isn't God good, and won't he forgive?" Yes. but man will not, woman will not, society will not. The church of God says it will, but It will not. Our work, then, must be prevention rather than cure. Those gates of hell are to be pros trated just as certainly as God and the Bible are true, but it will not be done until Christian men and women, quit ting their prudery and squeamishness in this matter, rally the whole Chris tian sentiment of the church and as sail these great evils of society. The Bible utters its denunciation in this direction again and again, and yet the piety of the day is such a namby pamby sort of thing that you cannot even quote Scripture without making somebody restless. As long as this holy imbecility reigns In the church of God sin will laugh you to scorn. I do not know but that before the church wakes up matters will get worse and worse, and that there will have to be one lamb sacrificed from each of the most, care fully guarded folds and the wave of uncleanness dash to the spire of the village church and the top of the ca thedral tower. A cold winter night In a city church. It Is Christmas night. They have been decorating the sanctuary. A lost wan derer of the street, with thin shawl about her, attracted by the warmth and light, comes In and sits near the door. The minister of religion is preaching of Him who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and the poor soul by the door said: "Why. that must mean me; mercy for the chief of sinners; bruised for our Iniquities; wounded for our transgressions. " The music that night in the sanctuary brought back the old hymn which she used to sing when, with father and mother, she worshipped God In the vil lage church. The service over, the min ister went down the aisle. She said to him: "Were those words for me? 'Wounded for our transgressions. Was that for me?" The man of God under stood her not. He knew not how to comfort a shipwrecked soul, and he passed on and he passed out. The poo wanderer followed Into the street. ""vV'hat are you doing here, Meg?" said the police. "What are you doing here tonight?" "Oh," she replied. "I was in to warm myself," and then the rattling cough" came, and she held to the railing until the paroxysm was over. She passed on down the street, falling from exhaustion; recovering herself again, until after a while she reached the outskirts of the city, and passed on the country road. It seemed so familiar; she kept on the road, and she saw In the distance a light In the window. Ah! that light had been gleaming there every night since she went away. On that country road she passed until she came to the garden gate. She opened It and passed up the path where she played in childhood. She came to the steps and looked In at the fire on the hearth. Then she put her fingers to the latch. Oh, if that door had been locked she would have perished on the threshold, for she was near to death! But the door had not been locked since the time she went away. She pushed open the door. She went In and lay down on the hearth by the fire. The old house dog growled as he saw her enter, but there wrv something In the voice he recognized, and he frisked about her until he al most pushed her down In his Joy. In the morning the mother came down and she saw a bundle of rags on the hearth, but when the face was up lifted she knew it, and It was no more old Meg of the street. Throwing her arms around the returned prodigal, she cried. "Oh. Maggie!" The child threw her arms around her mother's neck and said. "Oh, mother!" and while they were embraced a rugged form towered above them. It was the father. The severity all gone out of his face, he stooped and took he'r up tenderly and carried her to the mother's room and laid her down on mother's bed. for she was dying. Then the lost one. looking up into her mother's face, said: " 'Wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities!' Mother, do you think that means me?" "Oh. yes. my darling," said the mother. "If mother is so glad to get you back don't you think God is glad to get you back?" And there she lay dying, and all their dreams and all their prayers were filled with the words, "Wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities." until. Just before the mo ment of her departure, her face lighted up. showing the pardon of God had dropped upon her soul. And there she slept away on the bosom of a pardon ing Jesus. So the Lord took back one whom the world rejected. CLASP HANDS EIGHTEEN HOURS Novel Contest of Paul Goldsbury and Mrs. Welsner of Chicago Christian science, represented in the person of Mrs. Welsner, the wife of a Chicago doctor, and great will power. In the person of Paul Goldsbury, also of Chicago, has had a remarkable strug gle for mastery at Warwick, Mass. Goldsbury is a native of Warwick, and is a member of the Moody quartette, so called because of Its singing at the Moody meetings during the World's Fair. Both came here to spend their vacations, says a special from that place. The two friends had many earnest discussions and these culmi nated in an assertion from Mrs. Wels ner that, with the assltance of Chris tian science, she could demonstrate that her will was stronger than that of Goldsbury, and she challenged him to a physical test. He accepted. They were to clasp hands, and the one that first unclasped was to be the van quished. Hands were clasped by the man and woman, and, incredible as It may seem, the clasp was not broken for eighteen hours, and then only by force. Mrs. Welsner showed little effects of the long struggle, but the affair caused such comment that on Monday she started for Chicago. The claim Is that she hypnotized Goldsbury. PRINTER'S INK. They sell most who advertise most. And why not? A true advertisement Is the echo of actions behind the counter. Every clerk In your store should echo In actions and words the ring of your advertisements. Curiosity is a keyhole through which many an advertiser pokes his argu ment into the public mind. Advertising to a well-stocked store, like rain to a thirsty plant, enlivens and leaves "silver drops" all around. It is vastly important, both to adver tiser and publisher, that the best news papers shall be known and recognized as such. A catchy advertisement in an even ing paper is like a rainbow in the east. It is a bright pledge of tomorrow's busi ness sunshine. As a stiff breeze sweepeth the clouds from the sky, so brisk advertising sweepeth cobwebs from the .hustling merchant's store. A long-winded ad containing little reason, like a bin of chaff with a few scattered grains. Is not worth the trouble of looking ovej. An advertiser's discretion Is not so much indicated by never choosing a false medium as by never "putting his foot in it" a second time. Mr. Charles N. Kent, a gentleman well known to many newspaper men and advertisers, asserts that the dally papers of Philadelphia set advertise ments better than those of any other city in America. The brightest and most original ad vertisers of the day are not necessarily so because they advance new methods, but simply because they know how to say their say as If it !had never been said before. The French was the enly nation that acquired a permanent ascendency over the Indians without serious wars. The efforts of the French to upraise the condition of the Indians were earnest, but all failed. SILVER MUST RETURN. ! ESSENTIAL POINTS IN DEBATE CLEARLY STATED. C. 8. Collins of Little Rock. Ark., a leading Lawyer Sets Forth His View on the Ureat Question of the Day. I believe I am able, as an outsider from the rural districts, disassociated from the confusion that is being inter jected into the debate, to say how the controversy is going and how it must end if the American people are true to themselves. "Blanche, Tray and Sweetheart," just now, are raising a great noise rela tive to a variety of conundrums which have no relation whatever to the questions in which the American peo ple have so profound an interest. If it be true, upon principle, and as an economic postulate, that the money of ultimate redemption exercises an ag gressive influence upon the price level of commodities and upon the values of all forms of property, the product of labor; and if it be true that the strik ing down of one-half of the money of ultimate redemption has created an ap preciating standard of value in gold, which is unstable (and hence unsound); then the bimetallists, who are strug gling to restore silver to the same re lations it occupied prior to 1873, are right," and our modern economists, who are endeavoring to challenge the ax ioms of the centuries, are wrong. If they are right at all they are aw fully right. It then becomes a ques tion of such vital importance as to involve, as an economic principle, the liberties of mankind and the peril of reducing our people to the condition of the European peasantry by a law as irresistible as a problem in mathe matics. If this question is determined in the affirmative then the only other ques tion to discuss will be how can the American people escape the dire results of a system fastened upon them, it matters not how; whether internation al action is probable or even possible, and whether "a new declaration of in dependence" is not only the duty, but the necessity of the hour, are the ques tions that should and will absorb the intellectualities of the people. It serves no purpose, as the custom of some is, to attack Mr. Harvey and the "Finan cial School" as to fancied inaccuracies in non-essential details. Prof. Laugh lin and others, I observe, are very bit ter because they imagine that Coin is inaccurate in his interpretation of the act of 1792 in declaring that the unit of value was placed at 37U grains of pure silver, and that gold, though hav ing equal privileges and redemption power, was required to correlate with and conform to the silver unit, and not the silver to it, for the reasons stated in the book. It has no bearing what ever upon the momentous question at issue- It matters not which is right. At last both agree that from 1792 to 1873, under laws powerful enough to make themselves dominant throughout the world, both gold and silver were money of final payment, and whether in circulation or not constituted jointly a measure of value in the markets of the world. Since 1873, as we contend, gold alone has formed that measure. That it is an appreciating standard, rapidly being cornered in the war chests and treas uries of the nations and regardless of other influences dwelt upon by the new school (which in all proper cases are admitted by us) the single stan dard in gold i3 hammering down the values of our property and placing prosperity, in so far as the masses are concerned, beyond the reach of hope. Admit that other influences have co operated and are now co-operating, both in accelerating and retarding the downward tendency. At last the ques tion must be whether or not there is such an economic principle as the one proposed and this old world has waited through the centuries for "our wise men of the east" to doubt it. Neither does it matter whether the act of 1S73 was passed by stealth or not. In the sense "Coin" states it, whether it was done designedly or not, the country will believe it. The American people were not conscious of the far-reaching sig nificance of what was being done. Con gressmen and senators were equally at fault. It did not appear in the dis patches, nor was it mentioned or dis cussed by a newspaper anywhere, though the same question that is now shaking the nation. A year or two ago Prof. Gilmore at St. Louis went to his room, ate a banana and drank a glass of chanrpagne and lay down and died. The chemical affinities between the wine and fruit formed a rank pois on in his stomach. He was unconscious of what he was doing, but it was never theless poison and cost him his life. A chemist might have known and dis cussed the subject, but if he failed to caution Gilmore as to what would he the result he was none the less de ceived. It serves no vital purpose now to determine how the act was passed. It was passed and we are now wrestling with the results. The spirit of the fathers is awake in their sons. They are going to solve this problem for themselves. This time our wise men will not find it easy to win by special pleading or to sidetrack the real and vital issues by such unim portant and unessential quarrels as the one3 indicated. Our gold friends will be held to the question, and no amount of noise will divert the people from the effort to master the real truth involved in the momentous struggle which they must fight to ttie finish now or never. C. S. COLLINS. NOT A NEW ISSUE. Bimetallism Was the Corner Stone of the KepuliIIc. I call the attention of the gold bugs, the bondholders, and money sharks of both political parties to hold their e!ws close to the ground and hear the rum bling of the mass of the voters who are coming to the relief of the people frm all sections of this country and Europe. This is no new issue. It is an issue that has been in existence since the discovery of gold and silver. Both metals were used in this country from 1792 to 1873. Mr. Jefferson, when he returned the report of Mr. Hamilton, said: "I re turn you the report on the mint, which I read over with a great deal of satis faction. I concur with you in thinking that the unit must stand on both metals." And there was established the ratio of 15 to 1, afterward 16 to 1, which was in full use up to 1873. At the time the act passed in 1873 demonetizing silver wheat was selling at $1.29 a bushel, and has been reduced in price since then until the drop to 45 cents and 50 cents a bushel. It is a well known fact in history that when the country ceased to use sil ver as its coin and made it a commo dity all prices for farmers produce de clined and the only beneficiaries were those who deal in bonds and securities, bankers and money lenders. The people are beginning to study the alphabet of finance and are think ing for themselves, so that those men, no matter to which political party they belong, who have advocated a sin gle standard under disguise and got the people to follow phantoms and strange gods must now beware, as the people are tired of placing them in of fice, for when they get in office they neglect the interests of the people and work to make the few rich and the many poor. I am satisfied that the tar iff, that has been the issue in the cam paigns for eight or ten years, was for the purpose of deceiving the people and keep them from investigating the finance question. TOM MERRITT. Salem, 111. HUNCHBACK'S FIGHTING. He Lies on ills Hump, Spins Around and Kicks In AH Directions. John Ryan is known to the police as "the hump-backed warrior," says the Indianapolis Journal. He drinks, and when drinking he is wild. He has boasted that it takes three policemen to arrest him, but yesterday afternoon Patrolman Giblen sent him to head quarters much the worse of attempting to put his boast into execution. Ryan has a very peculiar manner of war fare. He lies on his hump, whirls around, and kicks. His associates all fear one of his attacks, for he is a good kicker, and when he gets started at whirling they say he spins like a top. The other afternoon Patrolman Giblen met Ryan on Malott avenue. Ryan was bleeding, he was drunk, and he said he had been in a fight. He was dirty, and looked as if he had been whirling. As Giblen approached some of Ryan's friends came along. They were asked to take the intoxicated man home. Ryan said, "Not much," and his friends backed away as if he might have been charged with dynamite. Giblen then said it became his painful duty to care for Ryan. The latter walked quietly until the L. E. & W. tracks were reached, where he made a halt. Preparing for a fight he said to Giblen: "I will not crosss those tracks. One of us will have to die first, and I'll kill you before I cross." Giblen attempted to reason with his prisoner, but Ryan's reason wheels were badly clogged by drink. He began to prepare for a spin. Giblen seized him, and the hump-backed man ripped the officer's coat up the back. Ryan got on his hump and began to spin and kick. Giblen allowed him to spin, and the dust hid him from view. Thinking the matter had gone far enough, the officer closed in on his quasi-prisoner. The latter, when stopped In his spinning and kicking, began to fight and scratch. Giblen was hit in the neck, and he thought it was time to draw his mace. When Ryan arrived at police headquarters, twenty minutes later, his ear was Eplit, his eye was closed, and his cheek was cut. He said he had enough, and for a time he was quiet and serene, seem ing to think he had fought a good fight and met defeat nobly. When the doctor came he grew hostile again. It took three officers to hold him while his injuries were examined. Bandages were put on, which he immediately tore off, and it was finally decided to allow him to do as he pleased in a cell. Cordial Notes of Courtesy. I wonder whether you are particular to write notes of thanks very soon after receiving gifts or acts of cour tesy. The value of a note of thanks is greatly increased by its being prompt. If some friend leaves a bunch of violets at your door, and you fail to acknowl edge it until the flowers have faded, your thanks, when they do come, are tardy. When flowers are sent to those who are ill, they, of course, cannot re pay the courtesy by a little note them selves, but some one in the family should do it for them. Your note of thanks should be very genial, showing that you are really pleased by the kind attention and the happier because of it. Do not be afraid to write warmly and cordially on such occasions. If stiff and formal you are unjust both to your friend and yourself. Women as Teachers of Science. It is said that the demand for women fitted to teach the sciences is greater in proportion to the supply than in any other. The girl with a natural taste for chemistry, zoology, mineralogy, or astronomy, may now cultivate her spe cial science with a reasonable expecta tion that she can "put money in her purse." Indeed, it seems to be just now the one field of labor that is not overcrowded. 1OniL.ITY OF THE DOSKET. lie Used to He Classed Among; tb Great Ones. "The donkey, who rather undeserv edly has become to be considered one of the "naturals" of the animal world, was dedicated by the ancients of Bac chus, while the ass of Sllenus was raised to a place among the stars. Apparently he was a more intellectual personage in early days than he is supposed to be at present. Amraonl anus, the grammarian, possessed one who invariably attended his master'8 lectures on poetry, and would even leave the choicest luncheon of thistles to do so. "Wicked as a red ass" ran an old proverb, which the Copts be lieved in so firmly that every year they sacrificed an unhappy animal of the detested color by hurling it headlong from a wall. In an old black letter translation of Albertus Magnus the donkey figures in the following extraordinary recipe: "Take an adder's skyn, and auri pig mentum, and greeke pitch of reupirit icum, and the waxe of newe bees, and the fat or grease of an asse, and breake them all, and ut them all in a dull seething pot full of water, and make it seethe at a slowe fire, and after let it waxe cold, and make a taper, and every man that shall see light of it shall seeme hcadlesse." Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melan choly," mentions as a valuable amulet, "a ring made of the hoofe of an asse's right foot carried about." A tract written by a certain "A. B." in 1505, entitled "The Noblenesse of the Asse," is exceedingly laudatory of that ex cellent animal. "He refuseth no bur den; he goes whither he is sent with out any contradiction. He lifts not his foote against any one; he bytes not; he is no fugitive, nor malicious affected. He doth all thinjrs in good sort, and to his liking that hath cause to employ him." But what chiefly fills the worthy author with admiration is the donkey's voice his "goodly, sweet and contiuuall brayings," which form "a melodious and proportionate kind of muslcke." Gentleman's Magazine. seisin a the pope:. Day and Place Where Visitors Are Allowed to See Him. "How can I see the pope?" is one of the first questions asked by many vis itors for the first time in Rome. On the seventh day of February Is the anniversary of the death of the late pope, when a 'requiem mass is cele brated by Leo XIII., or by a cardinal officiating for him in the Sistine chapel and is the greatest function of the year at the Vatican, the pope al ways celebrating the mass. To be present Is a great treat, the pope being carried in his chair on a platform sur rounded by his Swiss guard, cardinals, bishops and others, wearing his tiara and blessing the people as he passes through the crowd. The bestowal of hats on the cardinals recently created, and the ceremony of the beautification of new saints, these are the few func tions at which those who have b-en able to obtain tickets have the privi lege of seeing the holy father. In at tending any of these functions, ladies must be in black, with veils on their heads, no gloves; gentlemen In full dress suits, no outer garments or hats allowed in the chapel. Those persons who have Influence with a cardinal can sometimes obtain the privilege of being present at the private chapel, which holds about fifty persons, on a Sunday morning when the pope cele brates the mass. After the mass a few receive the holy communion from the holy father, then a priest cele brates mass, immediately after which those who have received the holy com munion are received in turn by his holiness, kneeling before him and re ceiving his blessing. He holds a short conversation with each person, and Is very kind. The ceremonies arc all in charge of the master of the Camere, through whom tickets are obtained Churchman. IMPROVED WOOD PAVEMENT. It Is Filled In "With Asphalt and Wears Exceedingly Well. With all the advantages possessed by wood and asphalt as materials for road paving, it is believed that In cer tain states of the weather they be come extremely slippery and are a fruitful source of accident, but Lewis Clement has invented a non-slipping wood paving of a simple and inexpen sive character, which is claimed to remedy this defect. It consists in pre paring the wood blocks before they are laid by boring a few holes in them and filling the holes with a hard-setting substance, composed of crushed stone, bitumen and Portland cement. The compound is cleared off level with the surface of the blocks, and when they are laid the roadway is covered with a series of rough spots which. It is stated, arrest the foot of the horse in any condition of the weather and prevent the animal from slipping. Philadelphia Times. The Diamond as a Friend. "That's my silent partner." said Tody Hamilton, when I called atten tion to the fact that he always wore his big diamond beneath his vest. "A good diamond." he explained, "is about the best friend in need a trav eling man has. You may think it Is a case of vanity, but it Isn't at least It Isn't with a majority of men who wear them on the road. A diamond Is the most convenient form of porta ble property, and the least fluctuation in value. You may get out of money In some far-away town, be robbed on the road, lose your money, or blow It in on a spree; there you are. Your diamond of the value of $150 will stand you In for $100. You couldn't get more than $50 or something like that on a watch worth $250 to $400. So you'll see most traveling men wear ing a good stone. It Is a silent of spe cial partner, and stands by a man at the right time. Circus men and theat rical people save their money in dia monds. They see a gocd many ups and downs, and if they didn't put their surplus cash Into gems they'd let it all go and have nothing for a rainy day. An actress can this way both, save her money and be using it at the same time in her personal adornment." Pittsburg Dispatch.