THE NORTHWESTERN. BENSCUOTEB * GlltSO!*, Ed* and P»t» LOUP CITY, - • NER The most costly collection of rars postage stamps was lately sold In Brighton, England, by Mr. Castle, the vice-president of the London Philatel ic Society, The collection brought ? 150,000. The war against municipal disfig uration and untidiness Is fruitful In expressive sayings. A recent remark Is worth recording; “There may be such a thing as aesthetic disorder, but there is no such thing as artistic dirt." A bolt of lightning entered the house of John Kthbridge, near Charlotte, N. C, and killed two of his daughters, as they were sleeping in each other's arms. It also set fire to the house, causing its destruction. Only a short time previous one of the girls dreamed that the house was destroyed by light ning, and two of the family were killed. Germany’s official catalogue for the Paris Exposition is printed in a new type, the inventor of which is Bald to be the Kaiser himself. The letters are the ordinary Roman letters with Gothic decorations. The Intention is to substitute the new alphabet far the present German type, and to accom plish this object fonts of the new type will be offered to German print ing establishments at very low prices. A lady of Cincinnati has been poi soned by the ink used on typewriter ribbon. Her fingers were stained by it, and In trying to break a small blister on her lip she placed the stained finger on it, and very soon felt a slight pain in her face. This was followed in a short time by violent swelling. The pain became almost unbearable, and her lip swelled and turned black. In spite of the best medical skill she grew rapidly worse, and died In great agony. An Important agreement has been concluded between the seven principal French railway companies and the Belt railway of Paris, by which the condi tions have been fixed for accepting ve hicles of all kinds as ordinary baggage. The text of the agreement Is as fol lows: The following will be accepted as baggage of all kinds, especially that their dimensions are such that they may be easily put Into the baggage car nauiely, motocycles, automobile tricy cles and automobile carriages; when unpacked their weight Is not to ex ceed 330 pounds; when packed In boxes the weight la limited to 220 pounds. The South American countries used to be dismissed with a few lines in the old geographies, but now they keep the statisticians very busy. A train ing-ship, carrying forty boys who will one day be officers In the navy of the Argentine Republic, visited this coun try last month. Within the memory of living men, the Argentine Republic had no navy—indeed, there was no Argentine Republic. It Is not right to gauge the worth of a nation by the number of Its war-ships, but let us re joice that our sisters at the south are setting up navies. The action indi cates that they have something at stake. A body of scientists recently dis cussed the age at which a child is most interesting. The general opin ion Anally Axed on two years as the time when the unfolding from baby hood to childhood exhibits the most constant and pleasant surprises. In connection with this scientific opin ion, it is notable that photographers regard two years as the worst age to take a “time-exposure" picture. A younger child will, to ar. “xtent, "stay put,” and so can he photographed; a child above that age resp-cts such di rections as, “Keep still for just a minute." The little 2-year-old has all the alertness and activity of youth without being aide 10 see the wis dom of listening to the artist’s re quests. The unfortunates who suffer from hay fevtr are now dragging out a wretched existence at their homes or flying to places where they can find Immunity from this annoying ailment. All such will And a gleam of hope In the announcement made by Dr. II 11. Curtis in the Medical News. Hr. Cur tis found that two girls employed In a drug store, handling Ipecac, were ren dered Immune from “Ipecac gold" by taking dos»s of the tincture. This led him to try the effect of hypodermic in jections of the extract of rose* upon a lady who could not even pass a florist’s shop without taking “rose cold," with the result of eftectlng a preruanent cure. He then experimented in a simi lar manner upon patients suffering from ragweed got ten reel and Illy of the valley, with like success. This "Ilka cure* like" remedy is a s.n.p a on# and worth a trial Prlnnae M<>ng d (dot* to the It use lan Astatic section >>f the Paris exblhlii'n I'm. remain, t on view for n tune hut s*.h»« of the tlgurea she eked even Paris l tea, of e ien> y and complaints began to come In. Having been accept..! the eikib It gould a«»l very well be *e* nto» t, at the official* picked out the w .rat •pecimena. parked them in a h«* of Asiatic appearaa-e and have p a el (fits ia a tonaplcuewa position with ike label * Moapnl Idol a ‘ TALMAGE’S SERMON TALKS ABOUT "THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION.” Makeshifts of Human Manufacture Arc V'sele«ff When Measured by (lod's l’loiub Lius—Religions Made to halt Conditions. (Copyright, 1900, by Louis Klopsch.) From Trondhjem, Norway, where Dr. Talmage Is now staying, ha sends the following discourse, in which he shows that the world can never be ben efited by a religion of human manu facture, which easily yields to one’s surroundings, but must have a religion let down from heaven; text, Amos vii, 8: "And the ixird said unto me. Amos, what seest thou? And 1 said, A plumb line." The solid masonry of the world has for me a fascination. Walk about some of the triumphal arches and the cathedrals 400 or 600 years old. and see them stand as erect as when they were built, walls of great height, for cen turies not bending a quarter of an inch this way or that. So greatly honored were the masons who builded these walls that they were free from taxation and called "free" masons. The trowel gets most of the credit for these buildings, and Its clear ringing on stone and brick has sounded across the ages. But there is another Imple ment of Just as much importance as the trowel, and my text recognizes it. Bricklayers and stonemasons and carpenters, In the building of walls, use an Instrument made of a cord, at the end of which a lump of lead is fastener They drop It over the side of the wall, and, as the plummet nat urally seeks the center of gravity in the earth, the workman discovers where the wall recedes and where It bulges out and just what is the per pendlcular. Gur text represents Go1 as standing on the wall of character which the Israelites had built and in that way testing It. "And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line." what the world wants Is straight up and down religion. Much of the so called piety of the day bends this way and that to suit the times. It is oblique, with a low state of sentiment and morals. We have all been build ing a wall of character, and it is glar ingly Imperfect and needs reconstruc tion. How shall It be brought into perpendicular? Only by the divine measurement. “And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line.’* The whole tendency of the times is to make us act by the standard of what others do. We throw over the wall of our character the tangled plumb line of other lives and reject the Infallible test which Amos saw. The question for me should not be what you think is right, but what God thinks is right. This perpetual refer ence to the behavior of others, as though it decided anything but human fallibility, is a mistake wide as the world. There are 10,000 plumb lines in use, but only one is true and exact, and that is the line of God's eternal right. There is a mighty attempt be ing made to reconstruct and fix up the Ten Commandments. To many they seam too rigid. The tower of Pisa leans over about 13 feet from the per pendicular, and people go thousands of miles to see its graceful inclination and to learn how, by extra braces and various architectural contrivances, it is kept leaning from century to cen tury. Why not have the ten granite blocks of Sinai set a little aslant? Why not have the pillar of truth a leaning tower? Why is not an ellipse as good as a square? Why is not an oblique as good as straight up and down? My friends, we must have a standard. Shall it be God’s or man’s? ■Society Utterly Ankrw, The divine plumb line needs to be thrown over all merchandise. Thou sands of years ago Solomon discovered the tendency of buyers to depreciate goods. He saw a man beating down an article lower and lower and saying it was not worth the price asked, and when he had purchased at the lowest point he told everybody what a sharp bargain lie had struck and how he out witted the merchant. "It Is naught, salth the buyer, but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth" (Proverbs xi, 14). Society Is so utterly askew in tills matter that you seldom And n seller asking the price that he ex pects to get; he puts on a higher value | than he expects to receive, knowing | that he will have to drop. And if he wants fM, he asks $75. And if he I wants $2,000, he asks $2,500, “It is | naught," salth the buyer. The fabric ! Is defective; the style of goods Is pear; I esn get elsewhere a better ar ticle at a smaller price. It la out of fashion: It Is damaged. It will fade; ■ It will not wear well " After awhile *h# merchant, from overporsuna on or ; from desire to dispose of that p.trtlcu j lar stis k of goods says. "Well, take It j at your own price," and the purchaser guee home with light step and calls In to his private office his confidential I friends and chuckles while he tells how for half price he got the goo Is. in *'*h»r words, he lied and was pratu I of It Nothing would make times s i g.iod and the earning of a livelihood so *»#y as I he universal adoption of the It* of right ttwspicion strike# ihro.,*h all bargain making M it who sell ' know not whether they will ever g**| i the money. |*nr* h t»ers know not j whether Ike g«M*(e skipped will be a*1* i i'or I ft| to Ike B.t'npl And what with j the large ansa her of i terfce who • are making fate* enirtea end lh*n ab tcwodiMg and the eiphwton of ff me It that fall for mllttons of dollar* I n sal men are at lhatr a|(t' ends <• make n living He who stands up amid all the pressure and does right Is ac complishing something toward the es tablishment of a high commercial prosperity. I have deep sympathy for the laboring classes who toll with hand and foot. But we must not for get the business men who, without any complaint or bannered procession through the street, are enduring a stress of circumstances terrific. The fortunate people of to-day are thosa who are receiving daily wages or reg ular salaries. And the men most to be pitied are those who conduct a business while prices are falling an 1 yet try to pay their clerks and em ployes and are in such fearful straits that they would quit business to-mor row if it were not for the wreck and ruin of others. When people tell me at what a ruinously low price they purchased an article, it gives me more dismay than satisfaction. I know It means the bankruptcy and defalcation of men in many departments. The men who toil with the brain need full as much sympathy as those who toil with the hand. All businss life is struck through with suspicion, and panics are the result of want of con fidence. The pressure to do wrong is strong er from the fact that in our day the large business houses are swallowing up the small* r, the whales dining on bltieflsh and minnows. The large houses undersell the small ones, be cause they buy In greater quantities and at lower figures from the pro ducer. They can afford to make noth ing, or actually lose, on some styles of goods, assured they can make it up on others. So, a great dry goods house goes outside of its regular line and sells books at cost or less than cost, and that swamps the booksellers; or the dry goods house sells bric-a-brac at lowest figures, and that swamps the small dealer In bric-a-brac. And the same thing goes on in other styles of merchandise, and the consequence is that ail along the business streets of all our cities there are merchants of small capital who are in terrific struggle to keep their heads above water. The ocean liners run down the Newfoundland fishing smacks. This is nothing against the man who has the big store, for every man has as large a store and as great a busi ness as he can manage. rfi’fd of Divln« support. To feel right and do right under all this pressure requires martyr grace, requires divine support, requires ce lestial re-enforcement. Yet there are tens of thousands of such men getting splendidly through. They see others going up and themselves going down, but they keep their patience and their courage and their Christian consist eency, and after awhile their success w ill come. There is generally retribu tion in some form for greediness. The owners of the big business will die, and their boys will get possession of the business, and with a cigar in their mouths, and full to the chins with the best liquor, and behind a pair of spanking bays, they will pass every thing on the turnpike road to tem poral and eternal perdition. Then the business will break up and the smaller dealers will have fair opportunity. Or the spirit of contentment and right feeling will take possession of the large firm, as recently with a famous business house, and the firm will say: •'YVe have enough money for all our needs and the needs of our children. Now let us dissolve business and make way for other men in the same line." Instead of being startled at a solitary instance of magnanimity, It will be come a common thing. I know rK scores of great business houses that have had their opportunity of vast ac cumulation and who ought to quit. But perhaps for all the days of this generation the struggle of small houses to keep alive under the over shadowing pressure of great houses will continue; therefore, taking things as they are, you will be wise to pre serve your faith and throw over all the counters and shelves and casks the measuring line of divine right. "And the Lord said unto me. Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line.’' Ilie Only KHIgloiu I want you to notice this fact, that when a man gives up the straight up p.nd down religion of the Bible for any new fangleC religion, It Is generally to suit hia sins. You first hear of his (hangs of religion, and then you hear of some swindle he has practiced in a special mining stock, telling some one if he will put in ftO.OOO he can take out >100,000, or he has sacrificed his integrity or plunged into Irremediable worldliness. Ills sins are so broad lie baa to broaden bis religion, and he becomes us broad a* temptation, a* broad as the soul's darkness, as broad .is hell. They want a religion that will allow them to keep their slna and then at death say to them, "Well I done, good and faithful servant,” an I that telle them, "All I* well, for there is no hell.” What a glorious heaven 'hey hold before us' Come, let us go in and see it. There are Herod and all the babea he iiiomi red There are i Charles Unite.m and liotiesplerre. the feeder of the Preach guillotine, and all the liars, thieves, house burners, gar* ! n*tera, pl> kpockets and Itliertlaes of all the centuries They have all got cron us and thrones and hsrpa and wep'< rs, and when they chant they sing Thanksgiving and honor and glory | tnd power to the broad religion that i eta us sil into heaven without rs I'stance and » th >Ut ta lk In lh> as | humiliating dogmas of • teelaatcal i Ud fog»ism * My test gives me a grand upper tm i () of f th,- h* I t et of civ iltMtloa. and Is often, as in 1 Franklin's case, us< of Its martyrs — . Montreal dtar Maude If I only had mi Ills |e ||v* over sgrin (as ila'err .p li g> Why, I th ■ tght dul l what yon wets d«' I Tara I heard |os tell the census mag |og • out4 k J"J >Wur nett btrthdnf' • THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. LESSON VIII, AUGUST 19—JOHN 0:1-17. 3oIdcn Text—One Thing I Know, Thai, Wheran I Was Blind. Now I See—John »: as—The Klimt Beggar by the Way tide. 1. Jesus had come from Galilee to Je rusalem to attend one of the three great festivals of the Jews, the Feast of Tab ernacles, the Jewish Thanksgiving day. I. "And ns Jesus passed by (on his way about the city) he saw a man which was (not only blind, as was the case In the other five Instances when Jesus cured the Hind, but he was) blind from his birth.” Blindness was very common. Palestine ranks next to Kgypt, where one In every one hundred Is blind, while In this coun try there is only one in nineteen hundred. —Encye. Am. The reason lies In the sand dtist, the Intense glare of a cloudless sun, and -great sudden changes. 2. Am the disciples looked upon the sad case of the blind man, their first thought was of the mystery that such trouble Mhould exist at all, a mystery that has troubled all ages. They could think of but one cause—that it must have its origin In sin; but whose sin? 2. "Who did sin . . . that he was born blind?” t»ow could it be his own sin, since he was born with this misfortune? How could It be his parents' sin, for how could God be Just and punish the man for the sin of others? 3. "Jesus answered, Neither hath this mun sinned, nor his parents.” Not that they were perfect, and had never done wrong, but the ufTIlcMon hail not come as the result or punishment of any partlcu lar sin, beyond ttfct of others who did not suffer such an affliction, as In the case of those upon whom the tower of Hlloam fell (Luke 13: 1-5). "But (the blindness camel that the works of God should be made manifest In hbfi.” Mani fest to himself, and through him to the world all down the ages. 4. ”1 (better, as In R, V., "we”) must work the works of him that sent me, while It Is day;” I. e.. while the fitting opportunity lasts, ns the daylight Is the fitting time for our dally work. The work of Jesus lay before him In. the person of the blind man. "The night cometh, when no man can work." ‘‘These words were engraved by Johnson on hlx watch, placed by Bcott on his dial at Abbotsford, and sent by Carlyle as his standing motto for autographs, and woe to the man or wo man who does not act on them." 5. "As long as 1 am tn the world, I am the light of the world.” The article Is wanting in the Greek, I am the light to the world, hence, “What fitter task for me than this of opening the eyes of the blind? What work could become me bet ter than this, which Is so apt a symbol of my greater spiritual work, the restoring of the darkened spiritual vision of the race of men?"—Godet. a, Having staled me great trutn 1 nai he was the light of the world, Jesus Illus trates and proves It by opening the eyes . of the blind man. "fie spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and . . . anointed the eyes." The use of saliva was a popular remedy for the eyes, but was not a cure for blindness, though “Tacitus relates how one of the common people of Alexandria Importuned Vespa sian for a remedy for his blindness, and prayed him to sprinkle his cheeks and the balls of his eyes with the secretion of his mouth" (History, IV., 81).—M R. Vin cent. The saliva was put on the man's eyes apparently for the purpose of giving him a reason for going to the pool of 81 loam 7. “And said unto him. Go, wash In the pool of Slloam,” I. e., wash on the clay that has been put upon your eyes. "Which Is by interpretation, Sent." Or sending, 1. e., outlet of waters. "The pool, by its very name, was a symbol of him who was sent into the world to work the works of God Iv. 4), and who gives light to the world by providing a fountain in which not only all uncleanliness Is washed away, but all Ignorance and blind ness of heart."—Abbott. The result was that he "came seeing." fame, not bark to Christ, who had probably gone away meanwhile (v. 12). but to his own home, as would appear from what follows. 8. "The neighbors," etc. These would be the ones to recognize the man In his changed condition, and to report the mar velous change in him. "That he was blind." The best critical authorities read, as In the Ft. V., “that he was a beggar.” He now abandoned that occupation, and this circumstance Hist attracted notice. The reason of It was readily learned: he had received sight. Hence their first question, "Is not this he that sat and begged?” y. “I am he." This settled the question of fact, hut still they could not conceive how the change could take place, and therefore asked (v. 10), "How were thine eves opened?" 11. "A man." R. V, has “the man," Implying some small knowledge of Jesus. 13. "They brought to the Pharisees," as the religious leaders, who could explain this wonder, and answer whether there really was a cure, and whether Jesus was a pfophet. 11, "And It was the sabbath day." This fact gave the 1‘harlsees an opportunity to turn the Investigation uway from the main point, and an argument which they could si t over against what Jesus hud done ns a prophet, to show that he could no' he a prophet. is, "Hecayse he keepeth not the Rnh hath." He broke not the Sabbath, but their interpretation of the Sabbath law and the regulations they had made "For example." says ftev. K. Kwtng. "wine might not be lnjeeted Into the eyes on the Sabbath, but the eyebrows might be washed with It. On that day, however, men might not even touch the eyelids with spittle..mere was a division." There were, from their standpoint, argu ments on both sides. Ilhmln' %«•» of Kladoewa. A rmUl'-nt of Kimberley vodfhM for the follow mu atory of Ocll Khotlea tnirlnK the *lcge ho enrolled into th«< dull and nut dawn at one of the table*, whi n the waiter brought him a plate of ham and «•**• • Hello! whafa thl*'*” naked Mr. fthndea. "Your lunch eon. air." "firing me another plate and napkina" "Yea, air.” Mr Khodea then carefully tied up the toothcome food In the napkin and. turning to the waller, >ald “Now, bring me the naiial dally ration. ’ A few mlnutea later Mr Hhielea waa wen rtrrylna the rejected fund to the hoapltal,where he delighted the heart of one of the ftffvaleacent patient* New York Tribune. •aWf I llilv I u««|M»fU M N > am ta too little to tie fatal V i I intuit »• the take through *kl' girls read nothing deeper than Illus trated magazines; we speak In jerks; the topics of the day are treated homeopathic-ally. Without doubt there is much in what the lord chief justice of England says, but what would he have us do? This is part of our mod ern system of life; take out one brick and the entire structure would fall. Of course, it Is regrettable in many ways that we live in a mental as well as a physical rush nowadays, but Lord Russell should realize that we cannot be wise, grave, thoughtful and pro portionately slow in some things and slappish, time-saving in others. Th~ pace is set for us, and we must needs follow it. Something must suffer as we rush along, and thus we become feather-brained chatterboxes with in different manners and a lamentable lack of taste. Our only consolation must be that matters will be worse in a generation or two, unless the wheel comes full circle by that time. Apro pos of this modern haste which thft lord chief Justice deplores, the medical and scientific world is seriously dis cussing the chances of our descendants retaining their sanity. Nervous dis eases are markedly on the increase, even the Eskimos, once wholly free J from the diseases and fallings of civil- ^ izatioa, are developing nervous disor ders, owing to increased trading op erations and the undue consumption of coffee. In European countries, how ever. people are outgrowing lunatic asylums. Obviously, therefore, the time has come to go backward a little. If only we could stop telegrams, make it impossible to travel anywhere faster than thirty miles an hour, have the sense to chrh our plitful little social ambitions and live quietly. In the conn try. if possible, there might be some hope for us; as we cannot, or will not. the only thing to do la trust to luck. 'IvattfiK IftulU of Vtirl. Cast steel halls when made require to be examined In order that faulty one# may In* cast aside Thia exarot uation involve* ranch time and labor, and even then faulty Italia are not al ways detected. A Herman haa de vised an uiqiuratua for testing them In accordance with phyalral lawa. The belie are placed on the top of a cylin der In which works a plat on rod. each ball la struck with the same forte by the rot) ami fall* on an Inclined sur face. at the end of thia plane It strikes against an Impact surfate If a ball la perfect It will have enough elaettetty to reltonad beyond a Ivnl harrier, hut If It la imperfect It ha* an Inferior degree of elasticity and ! falls short. All hall* which do not | pass the barrier may safely be r* j {sued aa faulty, Iwillita tsli.dollt tU.StH. >|, Aa KagUsh electrical Joonil yM I suggested that the proprietors of aw Kogl-sh l*‘birii shall long u».«r g i large iswiei of in «c>kMt>>a in order to deuao&rti atv t »i»- os* of aoto I ra tiu ass- IlMtt of American maau , fwttr* ttrdln.it« rt.».r liu..•«« he utltiard to l« the eurh of shill* t me* battles by the oa ■ el lb s wr. ius> •»f