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About The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1895)
TALMAOfc'S SE KM UN. AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ON THE RESURRECTION. tVaater Is Uurea of th Sahbavfca aa4 Hold in Her Haad the Key ta All the Cemeteries ta Chriateados-The Life After Death. Aa Eaater Jabilec. Kev. Dr. T!uC preached twice last Sunday in New York t tbe Academy of Music aud the Went Presbyterian Church ou both occasions to crowded audiences. On of the sermon was on the subject of "Easter Jubilee," the trxt being taken from I. Corinthian xv., M, "I-th i swallowed up in vMory." About l.Stil Easter morning have wak ened tbe esrth. la France for three cen turies tbe almanac made tbe year begin t Easter until Charles IX. wade tbe year begin at Jan. 1. In the tower of Iondou there is a royal pay roll of Ed ward I., on which there ia an entry of eighteen pence for colored and pic tured Easier cggn, with which tbe people sjiorted. In Ruia slave were fed and alma were distributed on Eater. Ecclesiastical council met at Ponttis. at Gaul, at Home, at Acbaia, to decide the particular day. and after a contro versy more animated than gracious it de tided it, and now through all Cbristen dom in some nay tbe first Sunday after the full moon which hapM'ii uixn or next after March ill is tilled with Easter rejoicing. The royal court of tbe Sab bath i made up of 52. Fifty-one are prince in tbe royal household, but Eas ter in queen. She wear a richer dia dem and away a more jeweled scepter, and in ! t Miiilc nation are irradiated. We welcome this queenly dny, holding bitch up in her right hand the wreuetieil off bolt of Christ's sepnlcuer and holding high tip in her left baud the key to all tbe ceraeterie in Christendom. My te.t is an ejaculation. It is P"n out of hallelujah. Paul wrote right on in hi argument about the resurrection and observed all the law of logic, but when be came to w rite the word of the text bi linger and hi pen and the parchment on which he wrote took fire, and he cried out, '-Ieatb is swallowed up In victory!" It i a dreadful night to see an army routed and Hying. They scatter everything valuable on the track. Un wheeled artillery. Hoof of horse on breast of wounded and dying man. You have read of the French falling back from Sedan, or Napoleon' track of H0.0O0 corpse in the snowbanks of Russia, or of the five kings tumbling over the rock of Bethoran with their armies, while the hailstorm of heaven and the swords of Joshua' host struck them with their fury. But in my text is a worse discom fiture. It seems that a black giant pro posed to conquer the earth. He gathered for his h'st all the aches and pain and maladies ;ind distempers and epidemics of the ages. He marched them down, drill ing them in tbe northeust wind amid tbe lush of tempests. He threw up barri cade of slave mound. He pitched tent of ehnniel house. Some of the troops marched with slow tread, commanded by consumptions; some in double quick, com manded by pneumonias. Some he took by long besiegenient of evil habit and some by one stroke of the battle ax of casualty. With bony hand he pounded at the doors of hoHpitals and sick rooms and won all the victories in all the great battlefield of all the five continents. For ward, march, the conqueror of conquer ors, and all the generals and commanders in chief, and all presidents and kings and sultana and czars drop under the feet of hi war cliurger. The Hlack Giant' Foe. But one Christmas night his antagonist was born. A most of the plagues and sicknesses and desiotisnis came out of the east it was appropriate that the new con queror should come out of the same quar ter. Fowcr is given him to awaken all the fallen of 'he centuries and of ail lands and inarshiil them against the black riant. Field have already been won, but the last day will see the decisive battle. When Christ shall lead forth his two bri gades, the brigade of the risen dead and tbe brigade of the celestial host, the black Riant will full buck, and the brigade from the riven sepulchcr will t:Ue him from beneath, mid the brigade of descending Immortal will take him from above, and "death shall be swallowed up in victory." The old braggart that threatened the con quest and demolition of the planet has lost his throne, ha lost hi scepter, has lost his palace, ha lost his prestige, and th one word written over all the gates of mausoleum and catacomb and necropolis on cenotaph and sarcophagus, on th lonely cairn of the arctic explorer and on the r-atafauque of (Treat cathedral, written In capitals of azalea and calla lily, writ ten in musical cadence, written in dox ology of great assemblages, written on the sculptured door of the family vault, la "victory." Coronal word, embannered word, apocalyptic word, chief word of triumphal arch under which conqueror return. Victory! Word shouted at Cul loden and Balaklava and Blenheim, at Megiddo and Solferino, at Marathon, where the Athenians drove back the Medea; at Poitiers, where Charles Martel broke the ranks of the Saracens; at Sal amis, where Themiatocles in the great sea fight co-founded the Persians, and at the door ol uia eastern cavern oi cniseieo rock where Christ came out through a feces and throttled the king of terrors and put him back In the niche from whicl the celestial conqueror had just emerged Aha, when the jaws of tbe eastern man oleum took down the black giant "death waa swallowed up in victory!" I proclaim the abolition'' of death. Th old antagonist is driven back into mythol ogy with all the lore about Stygian ferry and Charon with onr and boat. We sbal have no more to do with death than we bare with the cloakroom at a governor's or president's levee. We itop at snch cloakroom and leave in charge of the ser vaut our overcoat, our overshoes, our out ward apparel, that we may not be imped fd in the brilliant round of the drawing room. Well, my friends, when we go out of this world, we are going to a king's banquet, and to a reception of monarch and at tbe door of the tomb wt leave the cloak of flesh and the Wrapping! witli which we meet the storms of the world. At tbe close of our earthly reception, un der the brush ami broom of the porter, the coat or hat may be banded to ns better than when we rest! it, and ta cloak of hsananlty will Snarly be returned to M unrored and brightened and purified 4 gjorlted. Ton and I do not want oar cecal returned to aa aa tney are now We aat to get rid of all their weak aud all tbrlr sasceptibtlitie to fstlru. aBd all their slotrneM of locomo tion. They will be pot thraugh a chem istry of soil and beat and cold and cbang luf seasons, out of nblch God will recon struct theos as ranch better than they are sos as the body of the rosiest and healthi est child that bounds ever the lawn is better than the sickast patient la the hospital. Aa to the losL But as to our souL we will croaa right over, not waiting for obsequies, indepen dent of obituary, into a state in every way better, with wider room and veloci ties beyond computation, the dullest of n into companionship with the very beat spirit in their very bet tuood, in tbe very best room of the oniverw, the four wall furnished and paneled and pictured and glorified with all the splendor that tbe infinite God iu all ages ha been able to iuvent. Victory! Thi view, of course, makes it of but little imiiortance whether we are cremat ed or sepultured. If the latter Is dust to dust, the former is ashes to ashea. If any prefer incineration, let them have it without carii-atnre. The world may be come o crowded that cremation may be universally adopted by law aa well a by general consent. Many of the mightiest and best of earth have gone through thi process. Thousand aud tens of thou sand of God' children have been cre mated. P. P. Bli and wife, the evan gelist singer, cremated by accident at Ashtabula bridge; John Uoger. cremated by persecution; Ijitimcr and Ridley, c re in a red at Oxford; Pothinus and Bloudina, a slave, and Alexander, a physician, and their comrades, cremated at the order of Marcus Aurelius. At least 100,000 of Christ's diaciplea cremated, and there can 1 no doubt about the resurrection of their bodic. If tbe world last aa much longer a it ha already been built, there I-rhap may be no room for the large acreage set apart for resting place, but t hat time ha not come. Plenty of room yet. and the race need not pass that bridge of fire until it come to it. The most of u prefer the old way. But whether out of natural disintegration or remation we shall get that luminous. buoyant, gladsome, transcendent, magnifi cent, inexplicable structure called the res urrection body, you will have it, 1 will have it. I say to you to-dsy, as Paul said to Agrippa. "Why should it be nought a thing1 incredible with you that mi should raise the dead?" That fur-up cloud, higher than the hawk flies, higher than the eagle flies, what i it made of? Drop of water from the Hudson, other drop from East river, other drops from a stagnant pool out on Newark flat. L'p yonder there, emliodied in a cloud, and the sun kindles it. If God can make such a lustrous cloud out of water drops, many of them soiled aud Im pure and fetched from miles away, can be not transport the fragments of a human body from the earth, and out of them build a radiant body? Cannot God, who owes all the material out of which Ismcs aud muscle and flesh are made, set them up again if they have fallen? If a manu facturer of telescopes drop a telescope on the noor, and It breaks, can be not mend it again so you can see through it? And if Gnd drops the human eye into the dust, the eye which he originally fash ioned, can he not restore it? Aye, if tbe manufacturer of the telescope, by a change of the glass and a change of fociis, can make a tietter glass than that which was originally constructed and ac tually improve it, do you not think tbe fashioner of the human eye may improve its sight and multiply the natural eye by the thousandfold additional forces of the resurrection eye? Why la the Kesnrrectlon Incredible? 'Why should it be thought with you an incredible thing that God should raise the dead?" Thing all around us suggest it Out of what grew all these flowers? Out of the mold and earth. Resurrected. Res urrected. The radiant butterfly, where lid it come from? The loathsome cater pillar. That albatross that smites the tempest with its wing, where did it come from? A senseless shell. Near Rcrge- rac, r ranee, in a iatnouc tornu, unuer a block, were found flower seeds that had been buried 2.000 years. The explorer took the flower seed and planted it, and it came up, it bloomed in bluebell and heliotrope. Two thousand years ago bur ied, yet resurrected. A traveler says be found in a mummy pit in Egypt garden was that had been buried there 3,000 year ago. lie brought ttiem out, and on June 4, 1H44, be planted them, and in thirty days they sprang up. Buried 3,000 years, yet resurrected. "Why should it be thought a thing in credible with you that God should raise the dead?" Where did all this silk come from the silk thnt adorns yonr persons and your homes? In the hollow of a staff a Greek missionary brought from China to Europe the progenitors of those worms that now supply the silk markets of many uations. The pageantry of bannered host and tbe luxurious articles of commercial emporium blazing out from the silkworms! nd who shall be surprised if out of this .nsignificant earthly life our bodies unfold into something worthy of the coming eter nity? Put silver into diluted niter, and it dissolves. Is the silver gone forever? No. Put in some pieces of copper, and the sil ver reappears. If one force dissolves, mother force reorganizes. "Why should It be thought a thing in credible with you that God should raise the dead?" The Insects flew and the worms crawled last antnmn feebler and feebler, and then stopped. They have taken no food; they want none. They lie dormant and Insensible, but soon tbe south wind will blow the resurrection trumpet, and the air and the earth will be full of them. Do you not think that God can do as much for our bodies as he does for the wasps, and tbe spiders, and the snails? This morning at half past 4 o'clock there was a resurrection. Out of the night, the day. In a few weeks there vill be resurrection in all our gardens. Why not some day a resurrection amid All the graves? Ever and anon there are instances of men and women entranced. A trance ia death, followed by resurrec tion after a few days. Total suspension of mental power and voluntary action. Bnapended Animation. Itev. William Tennent, a great evange list of the last generation, of whom Ir, Archibald Alexander, a man far from be ing sentimental, wrote in most eulogistic terms Rev, William Tennent seemed to die. Hie spirit seemed to have departed People came in day after day aud said: "Ha ia dead. lie It dead!" But tbe soul returned, and William Tennent lived to write out experience of what he had aeen while hia souT we gone. It may be fwnnd seaae time that what ia called suspended animation, or comatose state, la brief death, giving the soul an excursion Into tbe nest world, from which It cornea back a furlough of a few boor I rioted frm tbe conflict of life to which it uuat re turn. I o not this waking op of men front traoce and this waking up of grams bur led 3,0 HI yers ago make it easier for yoa to believs that your body and mine, after the vacation of tbe grave, shall roase and rally, though there b 8.J years between our last breath and the sounding of the archangelic reveille? Physiologists tell ns that, while the moat of our bodies ar built with such wonderful economy that we can spare nothing, and the loss of a finger ia a hindrance, and the Injury of a toe joint makes ns lame, still wc have two or three apparently useless phy sical apparati, and no anatomist or physi ologist ha ever bees able to tell what they are g.od for. Perhaps they are the foundation of the resurrection body, worth nothing to us in this state, to be indispensably valuable in tbe next state. The Jew ish rabbi appear to havo bad a hint of this suggestion when they said that in the buman frame there was a small bone which wa to be tbe basis of the resurrection body. That may have been a delusion. But this thing Is certain the Christian scientist of our day have found out that there are two or three suN-rtiiiitii- of the body that are some thing gloriously suggestive of another state. I called at my friend's house one sum mer day. I found the yard all piled up with rubbish of carpenter's and mason' work. The door w a oft. The plumber bad torn up the floor. The roof was being lifted In cupola. All the picture were gone, and the paper hanger were doing their work. All the modern improve ment were lieing introduced into that dwelling. There wa not a room in the house fit to live in at that time, although a mouth before, w ben I visited that house, everything wa so beautiful I could not have suggested an improvement. My friend bad gone with hi family to the Holy Land, expecting to come hack at the end of six month, when the building wa to I done. And, oh, what wss hi joy when, at the end of ix month, he re turned, and the old house wn enlarged ami improved and glorified. Thnt is your body. It look well now. All the room filled with beiilth, and we could hardly make a enggestion. But after awhile your soul will go to the Holy Land, and w hile you are gone the old house of yonr tabernacle will be entirely reconstructed from cellar to attic. Every nerve, mus cle and Isine and tissue and artery must lie hauled over, and the old structure w ill be burnished and adorned and raised aud cuimlaed and enlarged, and all the im provement of heaven introduced, and you will move into it on resurrection dny. "For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not ninde with hands, eternal In tbe heavens." Oh, what a day when body and soul meet again! They are very fond of each other. Did your body ever have a pnin and yonr soul not re-echo it? Or, changing the question, did your soul ever have any trouble and your body not sympathize with it, growing wan and weak under the depressing influence? Or did your soul ever have a gladness but your body cele brated with it with kindled eye and cheek and elastic step? Surely God never in tended two such good friends to be very long separated. And so when the world's Inst Easter morning shall come the soul will descend, crying, "Where is my body?" and the body will ascend, saying. Where ia my soul f and the Lord of the resurrection will bring them together, nnd it will be a perfect soul in a perfect body, introduced by a perfect Christ into a perfect heaven. Victory! They Fear a Future Life. Only the bad disapprove of the resurrec tion. A cruel heathen warrior beard Mr. Moffat, the missionary, preach about the resurrection, and he said to tbe mission ary, "Will my father rise in the last dny?" "Yes," said the missionary. "Will all the dead in battle rise?" said the cruel chief- ain. "Yes," said the missionary. "Then," said the warrior, "let me hear no more about the resurrection day. There can be no resurrection, there shall be no resurrec tion. I have slain thousands In battle Will they rise?" Ah, there will be more to rise on that day than those want to see whose crime have never been rejiented of. But for all other who allowed Christ to tie their pardon and life and resurrection it will be n day of victory. The thunder of the Inst day will be the snlvo that greet you into harbor. The lightning w ill be only the ton-he of triumphal pro cession manning aown to ecort you home. The burning words flashing through Immensity will lie the rockets celebrating your coronation on thrones. where you will reign forever and forever and forever. Where is death? What have we to do with death? Aa your re united body and soul swinjf off from this planet on that last day you will see deep gashes all up and down the hill, deep gasheB all through the valleys, and they will be the emptied graves, they will be the abandoned sepulcher. with rough ground tossed on either side of them, and slabs will lie uneven on the rent hillocks, and there will be fallen monuments and cenotaphs, and then for the first time you will appreciate the full exhilaration of the text, "He will sw illow op death in victory." "Hall the Lord of earth and heaven! Praise to Tbee by both be given; Thee we greet triumphsnt now, Hail the resurrection, Tbou!" 8a gar and Muscle. The fact tbat sugar 1 sweet la not 1U only recommendation as an article of diet. Recent scientific Investigation has tended to Increase our respect for It a an important factor In the devel opment and nourishment of bodily strength and activity. Indeed, Dr. Vaughan Hardy has lately reported to the Royal Society In London the result of experiments which have led him V the belief that sugar la "the principal factor in the production of muscular energy." He find tbat sugar not only greatly Increases tbe amount of muscular work that can be done, but also postpone tbe effect of fatigue. When two hundred and fifty grammes of sugar were added to the meals con sumed during a day, the work accom plished In eight hours was Increased between 22 and 36 per cent It ahould not be forgotten, however, that these expert men ta tell ns nothing of the other effecta of sugar, and there fore they cannot be quoted aa scientific authority for over Indulgence In tbe use of sweeta. Un without abase will always remain tha fraat taw of baaltfe, LONGFELLOW'S YOUTH. Be Waa Broaaht L'p la a At bre e Caltare. In tbe flret ten yeare of tbe nine teenth century there were born In New England five of tbe foremost author ot America. Emerson and Hawthorne were four and three year older than Longfellow. Wblttier and Holme were reapectlvely ten month and two year younger. A they grew up ana began to write and got to know one another these author became friends; and tbelr friendship lasted with their live. One after another they a'l gained fame; and although not the greatest of i the five, perhaps, Iongfellow was al waya the most popular. Not merely j In the I nited State and Great Britain, but in Canada and Australia and India and wherever the English language I stioken, there were reader In plenty for the gentle, tbe manly, the beautiful verne of Ixingfellow. . ! HI mother' father had been a gen eral in the Revolutionary army. HI mother's brother (after whom he wa named) had iteen an officer In the American navy, losing his life lu Pre ble's attack on Tripoli. His father, oncp a member of Congress, was one of the leading lawyers of Portland. And It n n In that pleasant Maine city that Henry Wadsworth Iingfellow was Wirn, on Feb. '.T. 1H07. There he passed hi childhood. There be got that liking for tbe sea and for nhip and for nailon which was to give a gait-water navor to so many of his bal lad. There, as he grew to Imyliood, he browsed amid the book of his father's ample library, feeling his love for literature steadily growing. He was a school boy of twelve when the first number of Irving' "Sketch Bisik" apjiearod, and he read It "with ever-Increasing wonder and delight, sisdl -Itound by Its pleasant humor. It melancholy tendortiesK, It ntmospherp of reverie." A few months before the "Sketch-Book" began. Bryant had pub lished hH "ThanntopMls," nnd others of hi earlier poems followed kooii; so the school boy In Portland came under the Influence of Bryant jiootry almost at the same time be felt the charm of Irv ing' prose. When hp was only thlr-ti-en the young Ixmgfellow began to write verses of hi own. some of which were printed In the newspapers. He was only fourteen when be passed the entrance examination of Bowdoln Col lege, where he was to have Hawthorne a a classmate. Iiug before hi college course wn over he bad made up his mind to be come a man of letters. In his hist year at Bowdoln. being then eighteen, lie wrote to his father: "I most eagerly aspire after future eminence In litera ture; my whole soul burns ardently fot It, and every earthly thought center In IL" But here In America, In 1H2T, no mnn could hope to support himself by prose and verse. Fortunately, Just then a professorship of modern lan guages wn founded In Bowdoln. and the position was offered to Ingfcllow, w ith permission to spend several years In Europe fitting himself for his du ties. He accepted eagerly; and his so journ In France and Spain, In Italy and Germany, made him master of the four great European language with their marvelous literature. He studied hard and wrote little while he wa away. At last, In being then twenty-two, he returned to hi native laud and settled down to teach hi fellow-countrymen what be bad learned abroad. St Nicholas. The Dominie's Prayer. Miss Molly Elliot Sea well relates the following anecdote In the course of a sketch of John Paul Jones, In the Cen tury: The landing on St. Mary' Isle thor oughly alarmed the const, and th; name and character of the vessel and her commatider were well known. The Ranger being seen beating up the Sol way toward the "lang town o' Kirkcal dy ."the frightened people assembled on the whore, and presently down canii; their "meenster, the Rev. Mr Shlrra, lugging a huge arm-chair, which he flung down on the shore, and theu plumped hmself violently luto it. Ho was short of breath, aud very angry with the Deity for permttlng such do ing a Paul Jones'; and, puffing and blowing, be made the following prayer, which tradition ha preserved: "Now, Lord, iliuna ye think it Is a ilia me for ye to send this rile pirate to rob our folk o' Kirkcaldy? For ye ken they are pulr enough already, and hae uaethlng to spare. They are all fairly ruld, and It wad be a pity to serve them in ate a wa'. Tbe wa' tbe wind blow, be' 11 be here In a jiffy, and wha' kens what be may do? He la nane too guld for onytblng. Muckle's tbe mischief he baa done already. Ony pocket gear they hae gathered theglther, he will gang wl' the whole o't, and maybe burn tbelr bouses, talc' their cla'ea, and trip them to their aarks! And wae's me! Wba kens but tbe bluldy villain may tak' their lives. The pulr women ire malst frightened out o' their wuu, ind the bairns skreeklng after them, I canna tbo't It! I cauna tho't It! I bae been long a faithful servant to ye, Lord; but gin ye dlnna turn the wind about, and blow tbe scoundrel out o' iur gate, I'll nae stir a foot, but just it here until the tide come in and drowns me. Sae tak' your wull o't, Lord!" The prayer appears to have been ef fective; for at that very moment tbe wlud changed, and blew "tbe scoundrel ut o' our gntp." Cariosities la Pearls. The value of pearls has been In all age commensurate with their beauty. In the East, especially, they have been greatly admired, and enormous sum of money have been paid for them. Pliny obwerve that pearls are the most valuable and excellent of all precious stonea: and from oar Savior's compar ing tbe kingdom of heaven to a pearl, ft to evident they moat hat been held hi very Uk eatimatJofl t that time. It I ald that Jiillu C'R"r gave a pearl to the mother of Mart-ua Brutu tbat wa valued at 4S.417 pounds and 10 hilling of our present money: and Cleopatra dissolved one worth 2&0,fkj pounds In vinegar, which she drank at tbe supper with Marc Antony. From time Immemorial there have been fisheries of pearl In tbe Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and In the bay of Ceylon; and when Colutnbu arrived ln uie nun oi aria, on ni ursi voyae to America, he wa aatouUbed to find thej precious gem abounding tiiere In un paralleled quantities,. Hi men landed, and saw the Indian women adorned with splendid pearls round their arms, a well a round their neck; but their possessor seem to have been perfectly Ignorant of the true value of the gems, as It Is recorded tbat an Indian woman gave one of tbe sailors four rows of her pearl In exchange for a broken earth enware plate. The Spanish king forbade anyone to go within fifty league of tbe place where uch riches were found without the royal permllon, and took posses sion of the fisheries for himself. But so cruelly did the Spaniards behave tc the native, making tbera per force dive for them, and brutaly Ill treatiDg them when they were unsuccessful In pearl finding, tbat "one morning, at dawn, the Indian assailed the Span lards, made a sanguinary slaughter of them, and with dancing and leaping, ate them, both monks and laymen." SEALING IN LABRADOR. Fields Many Miles So u lire Fairly Teem ing; with Seals. Late In February the Newfoundland sealing steamers break through the Ice In St. John' harbor, and make their way to ome northern outpost, lying there until March 10, the earliest date on which the law allows them to "go to the Ice." They stnnd out to sea until they meet the Immense field of Ice from the Arctic Ocean. These fields are often many square miles In extent, and fairly teem with seals. A great seal hunter told me that the sea seemed sud denly converted Into nil ocean of seals and Ice. The steamer breaks Into the Jam and floats with It or skirts along the edge, the crew, 2 or HdO In num 1st, taking to the flouting ice and liv ing there for day aud nights. The young seals fatten ao rapidly that sealers say you can actually see them grow while you are looking at them. The poor creatures are easily killed, a blow with J he- butt end of a gaff finish ing them. The hunter then "senilis" or skins them. Inserting a sharp knife un der the fat, and with marvelous dex terity taking off the "pelt" ekln and fat together In about a minute and a half. A party of men will "pun" tbelr pells pile them up to the number of about 1,000 and thrust a gaff with the ship's flag Into the pan. When there are pans enough, the steamer breaks into the Ice and hauls them aboard with a donkey-winch; or the men drag them to the vessel's side. The Newfoundland seal-hunters al ways speak of seals a "swlles," and for our word carry they call "spell. " A school-master, who had been listening to a seal-hunter's story, said, sneer lugly: "Swlles! now do you spell swlles?" "We don't spell 'em," replied the hun ter; "we most generally hauls 'em!" SL Nicholas. Ilomanoe Kuloed. A young girl friend of mine write to me from the Interior of Pennsylvania to this effect: "Oh, dear, the romance of the coun try Is all In the books, I believe. You know how poetic my fancies are? Well. I came out here to try and feed them after A long course of starvation diet in city society, but it Is not b success. The places are nice enough some of them, at least but the people oh, the people! They have no Imagination whatever. I was telling my landlord itlMHit a pretty little glen 1 had discov ered. When I described It, lie said, with a kind of lignum vltue smile: "'Oh. yes, that's Peter Wood's land. No good on earth. He never could raise nothing onto 1L Now Jest look at that land!' And he pointed to his treeless farm, laid out with long rows of cub bages, and potatoes, vegetables and what-nots. 'That's sumthln' worth talkin' about now, that lH "'Oh, yes,' I replied; 'but I'm speak ing of the scenery. The little glen Is simply beautiful. I am going to spend half my time there. I've given It such a pretty name, too.' " 'Shoo!" he remarked, with another wooden grin. 'What d'ye call It?' " 'Verdure Valley,' was my answer. Isn't It pretty T " 'Durned ef it aln'L' he rejoined. 'Prettier than the name It's always went by.' '"And what wa that? was my query. " 'Wail, it's alters bin called Skunk weed Holler. "I am coming borne at once." The Largest Flower. The Victoria water lily (Victoria Re gis) is found in tbe still waters of the tributaries of tbe Amazon River, In South America. The leaves of this Illy are often 6 feet In diameter, and strong enough to support the weight of a man. The flowers are sometimes 2 feet in diameter. Each flower ia separate; It expands at night and is white and fra grant It close at daylight, to open again for the lust time aa the second evening comes on. Then It Is pink, and Its odor Is rank and unpleasant. It expand partly the third evening, showing a deeper red, and then It sinks below tbe surface of tbe water. The Federal Government of Mexico offers a bonus of four cent for every runner tree planted. In addition to thla, tbe State Government of Oaxac.i offers one cent . One la never more on trial than In tii I moment of eiceealv good fortuue. TMC STATU' 'r KiLHOAD. Dlvte.ul. B-.U. "Stock Peterlorat, Kqaipmeata Has Down, Fatur U.rh. The status of American railroads is Interesting to tbe student, perhap a little alarming. Certainly It would be. unless for the cerulnty that an In tereet so rooted In the public need will right Itself In time- The railway busi ness of the country reflects the general industrial depression and suffers hon estly under other economic factor of the situation. It Is indeed one of the beet barometers of prosperity or ad vrlty . ,, The enormous expansion oi me rail road system through sparsely settled territory; the watering of stock for simulative purpo-: centralizing tendency, which has loaded dow n orig inally strong road with additional fixed charges In tbe absorption of fewl ers; the fierce competition lu rate aris ing from the paralleling of road-all these things easily account for the fact that the average American railway dividend Is a mere bagatelle This Is Indeed only atmut per cent, a against 4 ier cent In England. Ruch Is the normal condition of our railway system, If that can be called normal which at its best does not In dex sound financial health. But the last two years have shown a still great er declension of the vital tone. The sick man Is getting worse and the doc tor scarcely know what prescription tc recommend. The preliminary re port of the Interstate Commerce Com mission gives some significant revela tions alKiut this Interesting matter. The decrease of net earnings for !S!-fM on a mileage of 1 lO.MVl mile of road, presumably Including tbe strongest roed in the country, was $44.ri.rM,K(U! as compared with the pre ceding year. But the shinning fact underlying these figures in the report is that J2V-'.' 1.1-1 b"1 ,,0,'n I"1''1 ln dividends In execs. of earning applic able for such payments one would conclude then that the dividends came from n'n old surplus or from borrowed money. It Is almost Impossible to admit the former conjecture. For the hist five years roads have allowed their roll ing stocks and roadbeds to run down to the lowest service limit There have been scarcely any Improvement. Hundreds of thousand of curs have been shunted on tbe cripple tracks un fit for use. The severest economy has been practiced In refraining from any but Indispensable expenditure. These facts all railroad and railroad supply men know. No well administered road unless compelled by the direst need al lows Its mechanical side to deteriorate. This at once sets aside the prenump tlon of any old surplus, uuli-ss railway managers, usually the shrewdest of men, have gone mad. The other horn of the dilemma is thut money has been borrowed not by one corporation, but by many, to pay dividends to stockholders. If this has been done It has been done with th purpose of rigging the stock market not from any motive of philanthropy. Railroad corporation do not delH"er Btely run ln debt on the yearly exhibit unless for adequate financial cause. A more luminous proof of tbe gre,t depression of railway business can hardly be adduced. We find, b. that even the pooling arrangements entered into by the rnllrwuls under the most solemn guarantee of good faith are as brittle as glass. They are broken almost as soon a made. It Is a matter of life and death with some roads to get enough business to pay expenses. Accordingly many of the roads do not hesitate to break a pledge and offer an undercut to shipper. Necessity knows no law. There has been ample ground for bitter criticism of railway method. They have been selfish, overreaching, grasping In the extreme at times. But whatever fault the past Justifies, tbelr present state Is honestly such as to call for sympathy and assistance, so far as help can be given without doing Injustice to other great Interest. Waiting for an Answer, One day a grand postoffice official happened to be passing through a Brit ish Government office with which be was uot connected. There he saw a man standing before a fire reading a newspaper. Hours after, returning the same way, be waa shocked to find tbe same man, legs extinded, before tbe same fire, still burled In the columns of a newspaper. "Halloa, slrl" cried the indignant head of the department. "What are yoa doing?" "Can't you see what I am doing?" was the answer. "Sir, I came through this office four hours ago and found you reading the paper; I return, and you are still wast ing your time In the aame manner." "Very true; you have stated the caae to a nicety." Hereupon the bead of the depart ment naturally Bred up. "What Is your name, slrr he said. "Well, I don't know that my name Is any affair of yours what la your name?" "Sir, I would have you to know that I am tbe so-and-so of tbe postoffice." "Indeed! Weil, I &ai very glad to hear 1L I am, lr, simply one of the public, who has been kept waiting here four hours for an answer to a simple question, and I shall be much obliged if you will use your Influence to get nte attended to." Not In HI. Mac, Mrs. Hicks Your teacher says sb aaw you fighting with Tommy Higglna, a boy much younger than yourself Dick Hlcka-Well, If .he expect, to see me plugging any old professional swstters she's golug to get left Ex change. All tha Ha. Binge-What did you give m this key for? It Isn't my latch-key. . Mrs. Blngs-You won't have an? more trouble with that key than you nasally do.--New Tors. World,