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
Prln<e Oukthomshy s*nt hi* r*l»
I rated collections of t. >nae 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 <at tag a useful word to alt vouag
j men who arw now forming habits I d
( • Ilf*-1 mi# Of what use Is a stone*
mason or a brtklayer la a plumb tine?
h it not build the wall by the unaided
»ye and hand* M au*e they are In*
• < the taut, bm suae if there be a hit* «
tion ia the wall it can tot further on
be corrected. Because by the law of
gravitation a wall must be straight in
order to be symmetrical and safe. A
young man is in danger of getting a
defect in his wall of character that
may never be corrected.
One of the best friends I ever had
died of delirium tremens at 60 years of
age. though he had not since 21 years
of age, before which he had been dis
sipated, touched intoxicating liquor
until that particular carousal that took
him off. Not feeling well in the street
on a hot summer day he stepped into
a drug store, just as you and I would
have done, and asked for a dose of
some thing to make him feel better.
And there was alcohol in the dose,
and that one drop aroused the old ap
petite, and he entered the first liquor
store and staid there until thoroughly
under the power of rum. He entered
his home a raving maniac, his wife
and daughters fleeing from his pres
ence, and at first he was taken to the
city hospital to die. The combustible
material of early habit had lain quiet
nearly 40 years, and that one spark
ignited it.
Fun In Wliolfiome.
Remember that the wall may be 100
feet high, and yet a deflection one foot
from the foundations affects the entire
structure. And if you live 100 years
and do right the last 80 years you may
nevertheless do something at 20 years
of age that will damage all your earth
ly existence. All you who have built
houses for yourselves or for others, am
I not right In saying to these young
men, you cannot build a wall so high
as to be Independent of the character
of Its foundation? A man before 30
years of age may commit enough sin
to last him a lifetime. Now, John, or
George, or Henry, or whatever be your
Christian name or surname, say here
and now: “No wild oats for me, no
cigars or cigarettes for me, no wine or
beer for me, no nasty stories for me,
no Sunday sprees for me. 1 am going
to start right and keep on right. God
help me. for I am very weak. From
the throne of eternal righteousness let
down to me the principles by which
I can be guided In building everything
from foundation to capstone. Lord
God, by the wounded hand of Christ,
throw me a plumb line."
"But,” you say, "you shut us young
folks out from all fun.” Oh, no! I
like fun. I believe in fun. I have had
lots of it in ray time. But I have not
had to go into paths of sin to find It.
N(. credit to me, but because of an ex
traordinary parental example and in
fluence I was kept from outward trans
gressions, though my heart was bad
enough and desperately wicked. I have
had fun illimitable, though I never
swore one oath and never gambled for
so much as the value of a pin, and
never saw the inside of a haunt of sin
save as when many years ago, with a
commissioner of police and a detective
and two elders of my church, I explor
ed New York and Brooklyn by mid
night, not out of curiosity, but that I
might in pulpit discourse set before
the people the poverty and the hor
rors of underground city life. Yet,
though I was never intoxicated for an
Instant and never committed one act
of dissoluteness—restrained only by
the grace «f God, without which re
straint I would have gone headlong to
the bottom of infamy—I have had so
much fun that I don’t believe there Is
a man on the planet at the present
lime who has had more. Hear It, men
and boys, women and girls, all the fun
is on the side of right. Sin may seem
attractive, but it is deathful and llko
the manchlneel, a tree whose dews are
poisonous. The only genuine happiness
is in a Christian life.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.
Mail Who Lout III* Life In KfTort* to
Flint Northwtut i'aHsagi-.
Sir John Franklin, although not the
first of our Arctic explorers, may fairly
be described as having opened for th's
century the chapter of systematic Arc
tic exploration. Franklin had ren
dered varied and brilliant service to his
country as a seaman before he had any
thought of setting out to discover the
Northwest passage. When still a mere
youth he had fought In the battle of
Trafalgar, and some ten years later on
he bore a gallant jmrt in the attack on
New Orleans. From thut time Frank
lin may he said to have given himself
up altogether to Arctic exploration, es
1 penally with a view to the discovery
of the Northwest passage. That dis
covery will always be identified with
his name. No chapter In modern his
tory is more touching,more mysterious,
more full of awe, than that which tells
of Franklin's absolute disappearance
from the eyes of the civilised world.
Many of us can still well remember the
untiring efforts made by Franklin's de
voted wife for the recovery of himself
and his comrades, how she refused to
admit that efforts for his rescue were
I futile, how she hotted against hope, and
j perse vet ed to the last. The writer of
; this article had the honor of meeting
' her, and of knowing well some of tho
gallant explorers, Hr. Itae especially,
who went out time after time to the
froten regums even when they had no
l better hope to Inspire lhen« than the
I hope of finding Franklin's remains All
i that could lie accomplished was a rum
pllshed In III cut and the world < tint
i to know how and where Franklin and
his rtiturades had perished The Art
, tic npiorrr hat be, ome on* *>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<Tug Maude M hat do you ms%>«'
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<h
ran* the adder a p*»l«m tin. gram of
• tad in the head of hla hi. ju te will
•top the tteeteat rider Ten tninatea
• i t tutBie to plant a tree-for which
ten generation* wilt Mean rou goate
of the laiteat uaha l*t» mru very
mu. h amaller than iliac of Mm email
ed oahe It ta never ante to ptedht
a humble carter from a humble wart
the »malteai part of the domra ta the
rivet, and It ta the to-at important
A MAIL CONTRACT
S«cur<vJ by u Stag# Una to Protect the
Bullion Carried.
'‘Until very recent years,” said a
man who used to live in the west, to
the New Orleans Times-Democrat,
"there has always been more or less
scandal connected with the ‘star
routes’ of the postal sorvice. Star
routes are those over which mail is
carried by special contract, and the ex
pense of keeping up some of them has
certainly been monstrous. In other
cases, however, the price paid has been
ridiculously low. I remember one
route in Nevada where the service was
kept up over a distance of about eighty
miles for $5 a year, when the actual ex
pense w-as f25 a trip. How that con
tract was really made profitable in
volves a curious little Htory, which 1
will tell without mentioning names,
because the parties interested still
have business relations with the de
partmein. The stretch of road to which
I refer lay between two pretty lively
mining camps, and a stage line plying
over it did a very fair business. Among
other things it frequently carried bul
lion, and holdups were of no uncom
mon occurrence. The rugged, lonely
character of the country was peculiarly
favorable to that kind of deviltry, and
the stage people were at their wits’ end
to know what to do to stop it. At last
they had a bright idea, and put in a
bid for carrying the mail, which had
been handled by a private contractor, a
cart and a mule. They made their bid ^
$5 so as to be certain of getting the
job, and then had a heavy, iron-bound
compartment constructed in the boot
of each of the stages for carrying both
the pouches and their regular express
matter. To break it open would have
taken at least ten or fifteen minutes,
and that meant delaying the mails.
The Western desperado has a holy hor
ror of running foul of Uncle Sam, be
cause he knows that means relentless
hunting down, with all the resources of
the government behind the pursuit,
and as soon as the stages became mail
carriers they ceased to be molested. So
the flve-dollar contract was really a
good business proposition. After the
country became more settled it was
kept up merely as an advertisement. It
gave the line a certain air of stability,
like the words ’Government Depos
itory’ on the window of a bank.”
ACE OF NERVES.
it I» Also an Agr of Chatter, Hays l.«ril
Kiuiell.
Iyord Russell of Klllowen says this
Is an age of chatter and that no one
has time to thlak of anything serious
ly. Our young men talk of sport, ou>'
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
