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About The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1895)
TALMAGE'S SEKMOX. THE PREACHER CHOOSES A CU RIOUSLY UNIQUE TEXT. Tka Likenos of the Hand, of a Mm u Cndcr Their Wings"-A Powerful Hortatory Itour bjr the. World's Great Preacher. With Haad sod WinB. ReT. Dr. Talniage'i wrmuii in the New York Academy of Music Sunday after noon, was a powerful and eloquent pica for practical Christianity. The subject aa aiuiouuced waa, "Whig and Baud," the text beiug Exekiel X., 21, "The like ness of the bauds of a wan waa under their wings." While tossed on the sea between Austra lia aud Ceylou I firat particularly noticed thia text, of which then aud there I wade memorandum. Thia chapter ia all a-flutter with cherubim. W are the cheru bim? Au order of augels, radiant, mighty, all knowing, adoring, worshipful. When painter or aculptor tried iu temple at Jeru salem or in marble of Egypt to represent the cherubim, he made them part lion, or part ox, or part eagle. But much of that ia an unintended burleajue of the cheru bim whose uiajeaty and speed aud splen dor we will never kuuw until, lifted into their preaeuce, we behold them for our selves, aa 1 pray by the pardoning grace of God we all may. But all the account Biblical, and all the supposition human, represent the cherubim with wings, each wing about aeven feet long, vaster, mure imposing than any plumage that ever floated in earthly atmosphere. Condor iu flight above Chmiborazo, or Rocky Moun tain eagle aiming for the noouday sun, or albatross in play with ocean tewpeat pre sents no such glory. We can get an im perfect idea of the wing of cherubim by the only wiug we see the bird'a pinion which ia the arm of the bird, but iu some respects more woudrous than the human arm; with power of making itself more light or more heavy; of expansion aud contraction, defying all altitudes and all abysms; the bird looking down with pity upon boasting man aa he toils up the side of the Adirouilai-ks, while the wing, with a few strokes, puts the highest crags far beneath claw and beak. But the bird's wing is ouly a feeble suggestion of cheru bim's wing. The greatness of that, the rapidity of that, the radlan.-e of that the Bible again aad again sets forth. The Wing; of Inspiration, "My attention is not more attracted by those wings than by what they reveal ' when lifted. In two places iu Ezekiel we are told there were hands under the wings, human bauds, hands like ours, "The likeness of the hands of a man w as under the wings." We have all noticed the wing of the eherubiiu, but no one iwmi yet to have noticed the human hand under the wing. There are whole ser mons, whole aiitheuiH, whole doxologies, whole millenniums iu that combination of hand and wiug. If this world is ever brought to God, it will be by appreciation of the fact that supernatural and human agencies are to go together; that which soars aud that which practically works; that which ascends the heavens and that which reaches forth to earth; the joining of the terrestrial aud he celestial; the land and the wing. We see this union in the construction of the Bible. The win of inspiration is in every chapter. What realms of the ransomed earth did Isaiah fly over! Over what battlefields for righteousness, what coronations, what doojBiioTis of gladness, what rainbows .around the throne did St. Johu hover! But in every book of the Bible you just as .certainly see the human hand that wrote it. Moses, the lawyer, showing his bund in the Ten Commandments, the foundation of nil good legislation; Amos, the herdsman, showing his hand in similes drawn from fields und flocks; the fisher men apostles showing their hand when writing aimut gospel nets; Luke, the phy sician, showing his hand by giving espe cial attention to diseases cured; I'nul showing his scholarly hand by quoting from heathen poets and making argu ments about the resurrection that stand as firmly as on the day he planted them, ami St John shows his hand by taking bis imagery from the appearance of the bright waters spread around the island of Put raos at hour of sunset, when he speaks of the sea of glass mingled with fire. Scores of hands writing the parables, the miracles, the promises, the hosauuas, the raptures, the consolations, the woes of ages. Oh, the Bible is so human, so full of heartbeats, so sympathetic, so wet with tears, so triumphant with palm branches, that it takes hold of the banian race as nothing else ever can take hold of it each writer In hia own style Job, the scientific; Solomon, the royal blooded: Jeremiah, the despondent; Daniel, the abstemious and heroic why, we know their style so well that we need not look to the top of the page to see who is the author. No more conspicuous the uplifting wing of inspira tion than the hand, the warm band, the flexible hand, the skillful band of human instrumentality. "The likeness of the hands of a man was under the wings." Qaslltjr of Prayer. Again, behold thia combination of my text in all successful Christian work. We stand or kneel in our pulpits and social meetings and reformatory associations, of fering prayer. Now, if anything has wings, it is prayer. It can fly farther and faster than anything I can now think of. In one second of time from where you it it can fly to the throne of God and alight in England. In one second of time from where you sit it can fly to the throne of God and alight in India. It can girdle the earth in a shorter time than you can seal a letter, or clasp belt, or hook an -ye. Wings, whether that prayer starts from an infant's tongue, or the trembling lip of a centenarian, rising from the heart f a fanner's wife standing at the dashing churn, or before the hot breath of a coun try oven, they soar away and pick out of all the shipping of the earth, on all the ess, the craft on which her sailor boy la voyaging. Yes, prayer ran fly clear down into the fntnre. When the father of Qro Victoria waa dying, he asked that tike Infant Victoria might be brought while be sat op In bed, and the babe waa fefsMgbt, and the father prayed. "If this rfc!M should lire to become qneea of Eng hasd. may she rale In the fear of GodT I U flag ended hia prayer, he said, "Take the ehlld away." Rut all who know the jlatary of England for the but flfty years krtiw that the prayer for that In faart ssure than seventy rear ago has been asrsrsd. snd with what emphasis and MflMoM f the aoeea subjects day hi chant' nad cathedrals. Ma4 aad sea. saaytUated. "God save Prayer mm at, early arroea continent, but across centuries. If pray er had only feet, it might run here aud there and do wouders. But it has wings, aud they are as radiant of plume and as swift to rise or swoop or dart or circle as the cherubim's wiugs which swept through Ezrkiel's vision. But, oh, my friends, the prayer must have tbe baud uuder the wing, or it may amount to noth- i mg. I lie mothers baud or tbe fattier s hand must write to the wayward boy as soon as you can hear bow to address him. Christian souls must contribute to the evangelism of that far-off land for which they have been prayiug. Stop singing, "Ely abroad, thou mighty gospel," unless you are willing to give something of your own means to make it fly. Have you bet-u praying fur tbe salva tion of a young man's soul' That is right, but also extend the hand of invitation to come to a religious meeting. It always excites our sympathy to see a man with his haud in a aliug. We ask him: "What is the matter? Hope it is not a felon." or, "Have your fingers been crushed?" But nine out of ten of all Christians are going their lifelong with their baud in a sliug. They have been hurt by indiffer ence or w rong ideas of what is best, or it is injured of conventionalities, and they never put forth that hand to lift or help or rescue any one. They pray, aud their prayer has wings, but there is no haud under the wings. From the very structure of the haud we might make up our mind as to some of the things it w as made for to hold fast, to lift, to push, to pull, to help aud to rescue, and endowed with two hands we might take tbe broad hint that for others as well as for ourselves we w ere to bold fast, to lift, to push, to pull, to help, to rescue. Woudrous baud! You know something of the "Bridge ater Treatises." When Itev. Francis Henry Bridgewater, in his will, left $4n,tx.j for essays on "The Bower, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation," and I in vies Gilbert, the presi dent of the Royal Society, chose eight persous to write eight books, Sir Charles Bell, the scientist, chose aa the subject of his great book, "The Haud. Its Mechan ism and Vital Endowments aa Evincing Design." Oh, tbe hand! Its machinery beginning at the shoulder, and working through shafts of bone, nper arm aud forearm down to the eight lon.-s of the wrist, and the five bone of the palm, aud the fourteen bones of the fingers and thumb, and composed of a labyrinth of muscle and nerve and artery aud flesh, which no one but Almighty God could have planned or executed. But how sug gestive when it reached down to us from under the wings of the cherubim! "The likeness of the hands of a man wns under the wings." Another Application. This Idea is combined iu Christ. When he rose from Mount Olivet, be took wing. All up aud down his life you see the up lifting divinity. It glowed in his fore head. It flashed in his eye. Its cadences were heard in his voice. But he was also j very human. It was the hand under the wing that touched the woes of the world ami took hold of the sympathies of the centuries. Watch his haud In-fore it was spiked. There was a dead girl in a gov ernor's bouse, and Christ comes into the I room and takes her pale, cold hands in his warm grasp, and she oM-ua her eyes on the weeping honsehold and says: "Father, what are you crying about? Mother, w hat are you crying alsmt?" The book says, "He took her by the hand, and the maid rose." A follower, angered at an insult offered Christ, drew the sword from sheath and struck at a mun with the sharp edge, aiming, I think, at his fore head. But the weapon glanced aside and took off the right ear at its roots. Christ with his hand reconstructed that wonder ful organ of sound, that whisHring gal lery of the soul, that collector of vibra tions, that arched way to the auditory nerve, that tunnel without which all the musical instruments of earth would be of no avail. The book says, "He touched his ear and healed him." Nieetlng a full grown man who had never seen a sunrise or a sunset, or a flower, or tlie face of his own father or mother, Christ moistens the dust from his own tongue and stiis ' the dust into an eye salve, and with his own hands applies the strange medica ment, and suddenly all the colors of earth and sky rush in upon the newly created optic nerve, and the Instantam-ous noon drove out the long night. A Hand Under the Wlnir. While Thomas Chalmers occupied the chair of mural philosophy in St. Andrew's t'uiversity he bud at tbe same time a Sabbath school class of poor boys down in the slums of Edinburgh. While Lord Fitxgerald was traveling in Canada he saw a poor Indian squaw carrying a crushing load, and be took tbe burden on his own shoulders. That was Christlike. That was "a hand under the wing." .The highest type of religion says little about itself, but ia busy for God aud iu helping to the heavenly shore the crew and pas sengers of this shipwrecked planet. Such people are busy now up tbe dark lanes of this city, and all through the mountain glens, and down in the quarries where the sunlight has never visited, and amid the rigging helping to take lu another reef be fore the Caribbean whirlwind. A friend was telling me of an exquisite thing about Seattle, then of Washington territory, now of Washington State. Tbe people of Seattle had raised a generous sum of money for the Johnstown sufferers from the flood. A few days after Seattle was destroyed by Are. I saw It while the whole city was living In tents. Iu a pub lic meeting some, one promised that the money raised for Johnstown be used for tbe relief of their own city, and the cry was No! No! No! Send the money to Johnstown, snd by acclamation the money waa so sent. Nothing more beautiful or sublime than that. I'nder tbe wing of fire that smote Seattle the sympathetic hand, the helping band, tbe mighty hand of Christian relief for people thousands of miles away. Why, there are a hundred thousand men and women whose one busi ness is to help others. Helping hands, in spiring hands, lifting bands, emancipating hands, saving hands. Sure enough, those people had winga of faith, and wings of prayer, and wings of consolation, but "tbe likeness of the hands of a man was under the wings." There was much sense In that which the robust bostmau said when three were In a boat of! the const in a sudden storm that threatened to sink the boat, and one suggested that they all kneel down In the boat to pray, and the robust man took hold of the oar and began to pull, saying. "Let you, tbe strong, stout fellow, lay bold tbe other oar, and let the weak one who cannot pull give himself p to prayer." Pray, by all means, but at he same time pull with all your might fof the world's rescue. Aa arctic traveler stdsf beaver while the ice was break las; MB, and supposing that there was no kaasaa being within 100 miles, beard tbe ice crackle, aud, lo, a lot luau. insane with hunger aud cold, was wading in to ice water. Tbe explorer took tbe man iuto bis canoe aud made for laud, and the people gathered ou tbe shore. AU the islanders bad beeu looking for tbe lost man, aud Ending him, according to pre arrangement. all the bells rang and all the guns tired. Oh, you can make a gladder time among the towers and hilltops of heaven if you fetch home a wanderer. A Word for the Cities. -f' la our time it is the hsbit to denounce the cities aud to speak of them as the per dition of all wickedness. Is it not time for some one to tell the other side of the story and to say that the city is tbe heaven of practical helpfulneos? Look at the embowerej and fuuntaiued parks, where the invalids may come aud be refreshed; tbe Bowery mission, through which an nually over 1ii,ui come lo get bread for this life and bread for the life to come, all the pillows of that institution under the blessing of him w ho bad not where to lay his head; the free schools, where the most iuiioverihed are educated; the hos pitals for broken bones; the homes for the restoration of intellects astray; tbe or phan bouse, father aud mother to all w bo come uuder its benediction; tbe midnight missions, which pour uiiduoou upon the darkened; the Prison Reform Association: the bouses of mercy; the infirmaries; the sheltering arms; the aid societies; tbe in dustrial schools; tbe Sailors Snug harbor; tbe foundling asylums; the free disiM-n-saries, where greatest scientific skill feels the pulse of wan pauper; the ambulance, the startling stroke of its bell clearing tbe way to the place of casualty, and good souls like tbe mother who came to tbe Howard mission, with its crowd of friend less boys picked up from the streets, and saying: "If you have a crippled boy. give him to me. My dear boy died with the spinal complaint." And such a one she found and took bim home and nursed him till he was well. It would take a sermon three weeks long to do justice to the mighty things which our cities are doing for the unfortunate and the lost Do not say that Christianity in our cities is all show and talk aud genuflexion and sacred noise. Vou have been so long looking at the hand of cruelty, and the band of theft, and the hand of fraud, aud th baud of outrage that you have not suffi ciently appreciated the haud of help stretched forth from the doors and win dows of churches and from merciful in stitutions, the Christlike hand, the cheju bic hand, "the hand under the wings." Hound for the I'alace. There is also in my subject the sugges tion of rewarded work. for God aud right eousness. When the w ing went, the band went. When the w ing ascended, the hand ascetidfd, and for every useful and Chris tian hand there will be elevation celestial aud eternal. Expect no human gratitude, for it will not come. That was a wise thing Fenelon wrote to his friend: "I am very glad, my dear, good fellow, that you are pleased with one of my letters which has been shown you. Vou are right iu saying und believing that I ask little of men in general. I try to do much for them and to expect nothing in return. I find a decided advantage in these terms. On these terms I defy them to disappoint me." But, my hearers, the day comet h when your work, which perhups no one has noticed or rewarded or honored, will rise to heavenly recognition. While I have been telling you that the hand was under the wing of the cherubim I want you to realise that the wing was over the hand. Perhaps reward may not come to yon right away. Washington lost more battles than he won, bat he triumphed at the last. Walter Suu in boyhood was called the "Greek Blockhead," but what height of renowu did he not afterward trend? And I promise you victory further on and higher up, if not iu this world, then in the next. Oh, tbe heavenly day when your lifted hand shall be gloved with what honors, its ringers enriiiged w ith w hat jewels, its wrist clased with what splendors! Come up and take it, you Christian woman who served at the washtub. Come up aud take it, you Chris tian shoemaker who pounded the shoe last. Come up aud take it, you profes sional nurse whose compensation never fully paid for broken nights and the whims and struggles of delirious sick rooms. Come up and take it, you firemen, besweated, far down amid the greasy ma chinery of ocean steamers, and ye con ductors and engineers on railroads that knew no Sunday and whose ringing bells and loud whistle never warned off Jour own anxieties. Come up aud take it, you mothers, who rocked and lullubied the family brood until they took wing fur other nests and never appreciated what you bad done and suffered for them. Your band was well favored when you were yoang, and it was a beautiful band, so well rounded, so graceful that many admired and eulogized it, but bard work calloused it aud twisted it, and self-sacrificing toil for others paled it, aud many household griefs thinned it, aud the ring which went ou ouly with a push at tbe marriage altar now is too large and falls off, and agaiu and again you have lost It Poor band! Weary hand! Wornout hand! But God will re- J construct it, reanimate it, readorn it, and all heaven will know the story of that baud. What fallen ones it lifted up! What tears it wiped away! What wounds It bandaged! What lighthouses it kin dled! What storm tossed ships it brought into the pearl beached barbur! Oh, 1 am so glad that in the vision of my text Ezekiel saw the wing above the hand. Roll on that everlasting rest for all the toiling and misunderstood and suffering and weary children of God, and know right well that to join your hand, at last emuacipated from the struggle, will be tbe soft hand, the gentle hand. -the triumphant band of him who wipeth away all tears from all faces. That will be the palace of the King of which tbe poet sang iu Scotch dialect: "It's a bonnle, botinie warl that we're llvlu' in tbe noo, . An' sunny is the lun' we aftcn trnivel thro', But in vain we look for something to which oor hearts can ollng, For Its beauty is as naethlng to the palace o' the King. "We see oor frien's await us user yonder at his gate. Then let ns a bo ready, for, ye ken. It's gettln' late. Let) oor lamps be brtchtly bnruln'; let's raise oor voice an' sing, 1 Soon we'll meet, to part use malr. I' the palace o' the King." A man feels drowsy after a hearty dinner because a large part of tbe blood In the system goes to the stomach to aid Id digestion and leaves the brain poorly supplied. There Is bo grievance that la a lit ob Ject for redress) If mob law. -Lincoln, i AMERICANS IN GERMANY. Different CIishs of Iiibsi Men Who Go to the Famous Universities. There are at the Gerrum jnlversi tles more students from America than from any other foreign country except Russia. Tbe Russians, however, have ouly a short distance to come. It la only a question of crossing over the line to reach, for Instance, tbe Univer sity of Koenlgsburg, aud In nearly ev ery case it is a shorter trip for their young men than to go to Moscow or St. Petersburg. With tbe Americans, bow ever, tbe case Is quite a different one, according to Urn Berlin correspondent of the Philadelphia Telegram. They, many of them, cross their own conti nent, then sail over a wide ocean and pass by England and France In order to reach the? universities of Germany. This movement from the one country to the other must rest ujMin some very good ground, or else It la a mistake, and prottaldy if the matter were care fully examined there would be found to be traces of both. The Americans who come to the Ger man universities would seem to be of three kinds. They are, first, those who come for the curiosity of It. They have read eoucernluR German student life, and have heard of It from their friends, aud flud It to le so unlike nuch life as it is at home that they penoiade their parents to let then eotne abroad for a longer or shorter jierioiL These per sona, and there are quite a nunilier of them catalogued at the German univer sities, are usually not more than tour ists, and aa they go again before they come to have any knowledge of the German language they can scarcely be considered as students at all. Second, there are students who are attracted to Germany liecause !oth the life and the Instruction are cheap, and It Is actually possible for those whose branches rest, outside of the labora tories, which are not always very cheap, to cross the ocean, live In a little room as the German students do, and work In free libraries at a less exjiendl ture than It would require at an Amer-h-nn uulrerKlty. Students who are thus limited In their resources vlll nat urally contljiie to come to Germany In preference to reniHliiliig at tome un til such time as we liecoine wlse"liough to enlarge the opportunities for cheap university Instruction In America. The third class is of those who come out of the simple motive of being In structed In a way that they cannot be elsewhere; those who come In the hon est Ix'llcf that they can secure In Ger many Instruction which, In subject or method. Is In some respect sujicrlor to that which Is to lie found at home or In other countries. With the latter class It Is alone necessary to engage ourselves. Whether or not the proposition, as we hnvc nntiounced It. that there Is better university Instruction In Germany than elsewhere. Is true or not, there are other matters to l considered, lu send ing young men away from home which many think should be regarded In forming a right estimate of this sub ject Admiring many features of tbe German university system, ns I natu rally must, I believe, If I may M-ak In the first person, that the proposition Is In general to be denied. I cannot think that It is In general an advantage, to a lMy or a young man to come Into such a center of social and political ma terialism as Germany has got to be. Our universities in America, subsisting usually on the voluntary gifts of Indi viduals rather than at the cost of the state, are, In uiauy cases, not what they ought U- be, and for some branch es of study It Is undoubtedly still nec essary to go to Germany. There are somt branches of scholarship which are either not at all or at least vpry In adequately represented both at home nud likewise In England and France. Whether Germany has this superiority or not Is a question which ought to be Investigated Into In every Individual case, and we ought to nil go to work unitedly to bring alwiut a state of things where this promiscuous expor- j tatlon of young men shall at once lie brought to an end. Russian Pickpockets. One day, at the dinner table of a grand duke, tbe French ambassador extolled tbe dexterity of bis fellow countrymen, as exemplified, among other things, In tbe cleverness of tbe Paris pickpockets. "I should not wonder If.the St Pv temburg pickpockets could give them a start," replied the grand duke. And seeing an incredulous smile play round tbe features of the ambassador, he add ed: "Will jou bet that before we rise from tbe table, your watch or some other valuable will not be taken from your person?" The ambassador accepted the wager for the fun of the thing, and the grand duke telephoned to the chief constable, asking him to send at once the clever est pickpocket be could lay his hands on. Tbe latter was to receive the full value of every article be managed to "annex,'' and be allowed to go unpun ished. , Tbe man came and was put Into liv ery, and told to wait at table with the other servants. Tbe grand duke told lil in to give him a sign as soou as be aad accomplished tbe trick. But he bad to wait a long time, for the ambassa dor, whose watch was the article to be exNrimented ujHn. always kept on tbe alert and even held bis baud to his fob when conversing with the most distinguished guests at the table. At last tln grand duke received I lie pre. concerted signal. He at once requested tbe ambassador to tell him the time. Tbe latter triumphantly put bis hand to his pocket and drew forth a potato Instead of Ids watch. Then? was a general burst of laughter. In which the ambassador himself Joined, though with a wry face, for be was un mistakably annoyed. To conceal bis feeling be would take a pinch of snuff his nuff-bos waa icon. Then be niUasad tba aoal rinf from bla finger, and, lastly, hl gold tuotbplrk, which be always carried about with him In a little case. Amid the hilarity of ths guests tbe sham lackey was requested to restore the articles, but the grand dukes merriment was changed into alarm and surprise when the thief pro duced two watches, two rings, two snuff boxes, etc. Ills Imperial High ness made the discovery that be blm elf had been robbed at the same time. GREECE'S RAPID PROGRESS. Her New Railroads, Canals, Drains Works and Other Signs of Life. What has Greece to show now for her blanket mortgage? Sixty years ago not a nilla of wagon road, says a writer In the Review of Reviews, to-day above 2,(j miles built (often over nioun alusi) at a cost of 10,(n),0si. Twenty-live years ago five miles of rail con necting Athens with her seaport, now some tHiO miles of railway In op erationconnecting the capital with most of the Peloponnese, and opening up a good part of Acaruanla aud Tb.-s-aly, while the Plraeus-Lsrlssa Rail way, which is to ojien up the rest of central and northern Greece, and ul timately direct communication with Eunqie, Is almost ready for the rails, and would lie running now but for un lucky financiering. The English builders now ousted have done some daring engineering. eeclally in tunneling Mount Othryn. Tbe Corinth Canal, which Perlauder dreamed of aud Nero began, has been finished, so giving a short ind safe waterway from the Adriatic to the Aegean. Lake Kopals has been drain ed, not only uncovering prehistoric cities, but reclaiming Oi.tsio acres of rich alluvial soil. The Greek merchant marine counts dfi'JS) 116 steamers of 83..VW net tonnage, and IM4 sailing ves sels aggregating a burden of iVVHJO tons. Much of the carrying trade of the Levant and nearly all of that on the Danube Is In Greek Ixittoms, With a sea line In proportion to nroa seven times as great as France's and twelve times as great as Englund's, Greece maintains ixty-iilne lighthouses and Is building as many more. Her steam fac tories nre worth $fl,Kl,(mn. With an area of some lt!,iH,(Mr) acres largely inntintnln-Rlie has o.M"' iu Held and forest und .(hi,(hii u pUH. ture. The acreage In currants nud vine yards has Increased a hundred fold und more since independence. The agricul tural produce foot, up $1.xp.ims) a year. Still the country lmxirts bread stuffs to the value of it,.(Kio annu ally, which Thessnly could readily pro duce and may le expected to produce when the mil way opens -ip that grout wheat field. This saving alone would nearly pay the Interest on the foreign debt Plus l. s Coins Valuable. On the withdrawal of the Italian sil ver coinage from France aud Belgium the pieces with the clllgy of Plus IX., which had previously been looked at with a good deal of suspicion ou account of their being refused by the Govern ment departments, became absolutely valueless save as old metal. Even at the Roman Catholic churches they would not have his holiness' ctllgy when It was put lu the plate. All of a sud den, however, the discredited coins are being eagerly sought for, aud their price has been going up In the most extraordi nary manner. As much as 15 loulx, or 12. Is being asked by one Parisian dealer for a fine specimen of a Papa! &-franc piece. It seems that the de mand comes from Belgium, where the Catholic party has been celebrating Its successi at the last election by having brooches and other keepsakes made from the Papal coins, and more espe cially the S-franc piece. The rage. It Is thought, will soon subside. This Is. It Is said, the only known case but one of a coin belonging to the modern met ric system becoming enhanced In value as a curiosity. The other Instance was a Hn of NaNlcoii I., with the Inscrip tion "Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine," of which there are only five known specimens, and 'which are worth about f 00 apiece. London News. Leased for 0,000 Years. Tbe most curloua legal document on file among the court records of America is a leuse of U.illM years, which may be found transcribed In the Hebron, Conn., laud records. Vol. IX., page 204. On May 25. 17U5, according to the above record, the trustees of the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel In For eign Parts" leased thirty acres of land near the above named place to one 8. W. Chase and his heirs "during the full term therein statod, viz., SUM) years." The tenure Is held on condition that the said "Chase or his legal heirs shall pay to John Button and J. T. Peters, church wardens of said society, or their successors In office, one gralu of pure silver or other silver, gold equlva- J lent lif demanded), ou St John s Day of each ensuing year." , There are many curious and whimsi cal tenures held in Great Britain. France and Germany, but It Is doubtful If the records of America cau produce anything equal to this long-lived land lease, which will not terminate until after the lapse of 0,h!9 years from tbe 25th of next month. St 1miIs Republic. Dreyfus on Devil's Is and. Kx-Ciiptaln Dreyfus has arrived In the penal colony of Cayenne, and Is In terned ou Devil's Island. He I allowed to walk lu on Inclosure, which he can not leave without running the risk ot being II red at by his warders, w ho, six i in riumlH-r, watch him carefully both night i nd day. A Grand Old Man. Dr. Martlneuu, one of the very great ' tt figure iu the English religious world, enters upou his uluety-flrst year Aunday. There la such a thing as no Indefin able He that can't be nailed. Hint n great many people are fond of telling Autographs of Robert Louli Steven on, being signatures to orders, dated Vaillma, 18y2, are now advertised for sale by an enterprising firm of collect on for one dollar each. The chief librarian of the British Mu seum has announced that Mr. Oscar Flngall O'Flahertle Wills Wllde'a works have not been withdrawn from use In the library of that Institution, an act of Parliament obliging tbe mu seum to keep In Its possession all pub lications copyrighted In the l uited Kingdom, except those containing per sonal libels. The famous English novelist Miss Braddon, has announced her luteutlon to retire from active work when her present contracts are fullilbiL Since her first success, about thirty -live years ago, she has written fifty-three novels, or one hundred and fifty-six volumes of fifty thousand words each, and has made a handsome fortune by their sale. In the course of a long aud close con nection with many of the most distin guished writers of the century, Will iam Blackwood & Sons, of Iudon, have naturally acquired much Inter esting literary material. Mr. Black wood, the present head of the house, has placed this material In the banda of Mrs. Ollphant for use In a work to consist of biographies of former mem ber, of tbe firm. The book Is likely to prove an extremely valuable chapter of literary reminiscence and biography. In a letter to a friend In England. Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson denies the oft-repeated tale that her husband waa haunted by a fear that his popu larity was waning. She says: "He was haunted by no mich fear, no such thought From the first stroke of his pen to the last he worked as an artist, for his art's sake, and the popularity that came to him unsought was a cause of surprise as well as pleasure. . . . I think I may say that he considered his last book (only a fragment, alas!) his liest book, and his last day's work his !est day's work." In Henry Norman's "Far East," there Is a picture of the peculiarly Chinese punishment, death by the "thousand ruts." It Is unique only one man has ever managed to photograph a victim of this grewsome kind of execution. The reason lies In thp Chinese dislike to the presence of photographing for eigners on these occasions. In the En glish edition Mr. Norman has the Illus tration perforated down the side, so that any one who does not want to keep so unpleasant a picture may le able to tear It out wlthou. mutilating the book. Presumably his Auiorlcaa readers are supposed to have a strong er stomach, for the picture Is not so easily removable. Discussing the cruie for slum stories, the Chicago Times-Herald says: "Dick ens wrote tales of mean I,ondon streets before the latest prophet of English reallHtn was born. But after Dickens the effort to find romance In the short aud simple annals of the poor languish ed. Publishers frowned on books whereof the mlse en w-ene was not laid in quarters eminently respectable. A New York author might write of the Ghetto at Florence, but never of Hes ter Street Only reporters with the rashness of youth essayed to find ro iimnce In the lives of the poor near at hand, and their sketches, though eager ly received by the people, were dis missed by the lofty censors of litera ture as mere journalists. I'nless lit erary signs fall, the pendulum of the publishers' taste Is swlnglug now to the other extreme, The magazines print sketches of pi-ople we meet In stead of liiiHsKlble romances alwiut people the like of whom nobody ever met Here's a Strange Coincidence. Two New York men who registered at the Great Northern yesterday after noon will have occasion to remember for some time the strange coincidence of their meeting and of their trip. Strangers to each other, they soon made an acquaintance on the train. Yester day morning one asked the other his destination. "Chicago," the one ad dressed replied. The one who had asked the question was also coming here. When they arrived at the station It was agreed they should go to the Great Northern together, An they stepped up to the desk In the hotel of-fb-e one of them took the pen and wrote the name "C. S. Sherwood. New York " Then lie laid the imi on the counter ami stepped aside for his friend to reg ister. The latter glanced at the bik and. Uiwlug slightly, thanked blm. "Will you register?" asked the clerk. "My friend has saved me the trou ble," the man replied. "That's my name, not yours, that I hav-9 written." the first gentleman said. "Well, that's queer." was the re! 1oiim, and the second man, taking tha x-n, wrote "C, S. Sherwood, New York." "That Is my name, too, and here Is my card. I thought you were registering for me." Chicago Tribune. Wh.t He Admired. "What did father say when you asked him for my hand?" asked the young woman. "Oh," replied Augustus, "he-be did his licst lo lie pleasant He said there was something about me that he really admired." "Did be soy wuatr "Yes. My lmpudence."-Waahlnfton Star. Preparing for War. , In the United Kingdom last Teat thirty-one warships were built; In all other countries twenty-seven.