THE NORTHWESTERN. BENSCUOTKR A GIHSOM, Ed» and fn!* LOUP CITY, - - NEB. While engaged in fishing off Low Btoft recently a fisherman landed in his net a unique piece of amber. It re sembled a huge pebble, was oblong in shape, weighing eleven pounds four teen ounces, and is the finest specimen of amber that has been discovered on the English coast for several years. It realized $137.50. The cattlemen are planning a move ment to hold an annual cattle show at Kansas City, Kan., to be called the "American Royal." Four breeds of beef cattle, also hogs, sheep and An gora goats, will be included. It is thought that the show will win recog nition for Kansas City as the cattle center of the world. An electrically lighted dock is a new and useful device for home use. It is placed within sight of a sleeper’s bed, and when he wishes to learn the time he touches a button at the bedside, and in an instant the clock is so il luminated that he can plainly see the dial. A little storage battery supplies sufficient electricity to last several months. . Portugal, being in strained relations with Holland, emerges from obscurity long enough to get mentioned in for eign dispatches. A plucky little king dom! With a home population smaller than that of Pennsylvania and an area less than Kentucky's, she bears rule over African and Asiatic dependencies which contain more than nine million people and cover nearly a million square miles. The British government encourages inventors and scientists by extending financial assistance to those whose work is considered of sufficient value to warrant such development. The grants are made through the British royal society, and range in value from $50 to $2,500, according to the nature of the invention to be exploited. At the present time the society has in hand $20,000 ready for distribution within the month of January. It is said that several of the Euro pean general staffs are studying the feasibility of organizing special corps something after the Boer model. The principal difficulty lies in the limited supply of horses at the command of the various governments, with the ex ception of Russia. The last equine cen sus in that country is stated to have shown considerably more than 10,000, 000 horses lit for war purposes. A lively spree was enjoyed a short time ago by some hogs and geese at the cider mills of William Smith, at Bloomfield Center, Mich. A mass of cherries which had been used to flavor brandy, had been thrown where the hogs could get it. Geese as well as hogs stuffed themselves with the cher ries, and soon they were staggering and squealing, squawking and “honk ing” in a high state of excitement, all comically fuddled. Queer advertisements occasionally find their way into the Irish papers. A recent issue of a Limerick newspaper announces that "Michael Ryan begs to Inform the public that he has a large stock of cars, wagonettes, brakes, hearses and other pleasure vehicles for sale or hire.’’ This is the same paper which, in a glowing description of a funeral, declared that “Mrs. B. of G sent a magnificent wreath of artificial flowers in the form of a cross.” The Christian names of the girls registered at a certain New England academy in 1850 were Abigail, Albina, Clarinda, Elizabeth, Esther, Louella, Myrtllla, Partlienia, Ruth and So phronia. The names of a class of girls now attending a western high school are Fannie, Lulu, Marguerite, Pearl, Silvia, Thyrsa and Veea. Some of those in the earlier list sound curi ously old-fashioned—but the people of 1950 may flud occasion to wonder and exclaim at names that are more or less popular in the year 1901. The one hap py certainty is that our descendants will be perfectly satisfied, as each suc ceeding generation is, with the result of their own efforts at christening chil dren! Heredity does not determine couragfl, or its opposite, but the constitutional • tendency may be clearly marked through generations. A recent rescue of shipwrecked persons off Grand Manati is the subject of a report from our consul at St. John, New Bruns wick. During a period of more than seventy-five years, grandfather, father and sons of a certain family have re peatedly saved life or piloted vessels out of danger. It is said that the Canadian government is to give the rescuers suitable testimonials. The whole world is a debtor to its heroes of peace. To strengthen the courageous purpose of others by brave doing or enduring is to fulfil one purpose of living. The condition of general business is pretty accurately reflected by activity or apathy in the New York stock ex change, so it need cause no surprise that during December the “record” price was paid for a seat in that body —$50,000, exclusive of the initiation fee of $1,000. Membership in the exchange rarries with It life Insurance for $10, 800, so there is a limit below which the price can hardly fall. But since the very seat that has just sold for $50,000 less than two years ago. no one would dare to predict how high the “boom” may take it. TALMAGES SERMON. CHRISTIAN WORK TYPIFIED BY FISHERMEN. The Gospel Net and How It Should Re Kept in Repair—Clirl.t’. HUcIplen in FUlier. of Men—Religion of Christ a Soothing Omnipotence. (Copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopseh, N. Y ) Washington. Jan. 27.—In this dis course Dr. Talmage describes the gos pel net and how it is to be repaired after being damaged; text, Matthew 4: 21, "James, the sou of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets." "I go a-flshing!” cried Simon Peter to his comrades, and the most of the apostles had hands hard from fishing tackle. The fisheries of the world have always attracted attention. In the third century the queen of Egypt had for pin money $470,000 received from the fisheries of Lake Moeris. And, if the time should ever come when the immensity of the world's population could not be fed by the vegetables and meats of the land, the sea has an amount of animal life that would feed all the populations of the earth and fatten them with a food that by its phosphorus would make a generation brainy and intellectual beyond any thing that the world has ever imag ined. My text takes us among the Galilean fishermen. One day Walter Scott, while hunting In an old drawer, found among some old fishing tackle the manuscript of his immortal book, "Waverley.” which he had put away there as of no worth, and who knows but that today we may find some un known wealth of thought while looking at the fishing tackle in the text. Ka*y to Get In. The trouble with many of our nets is that the meshes are too large. If a fish can get his gills and half his body through the network, he tears and rends and works his way out, and leaves the place through which he squirmed a tangle of broken threads. In our desire to make everything so easy we relax, we loosen, we widen. We let men after they are once in the gospel net escape into the world, and go into indulgences and swim all around Galilee, from north side to south side, and from east side to west side, expecting that they will come back again. We ought to make it easy for them to get into the kingdom of Uod, and, as rar as we can, mane it ; impossible for them to get out. The poor advice nowadavt to many is: "Go and do just as you did before you were captured for God and heaven. The net was not Intended to be any restraint or any hindrance. What you did before you were a Christian do now. Go to all styles of amusement, read all the styles of books, engage in all the styles of behavior as before you were converted.” And so, through these meshes of permission and laxity, they wriggle out through this opening and that opening, tearing the net as they go, and soon all the souls that we expected to land in heaven, before we know it, are back in the deep sea of the world. Oh, when we go a-gospel fishing, let us make it as easy as possi ble for souls to get in and as hard as possible to get out. Is the Bible language an unmeaning verbiage when it talks about self-de nial, and keeping the body under, and about walking the narrow way and en tering the strait gate and about carry ing the cross? Is there to be no way of telling whether a man is a Chris tian except by his taking the com munion chalice on sacramental day? May a man be as reckless about his thoughts, about his words, about his temper, about his amusements, after hi3 conversion as before? Alas, the words of Christ are so little heeded ! when he said, "Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me can not be my disciple." The church is fast becoming as bad as the world, and when it gets as bad as the world it will be worse than the world by so much, as it will add hypocrisy af a most appalling kind to its other de fects. A Soot hiiik Omnipotence. Do you know that the world's heart Is bursting with trouble and if you could make that world believe that the religion of Jesus Christ is a soothing omnipotence, the whole world would surrender tomorrow, yea, would sur render this hour. The day before James A. Garfield was inaugurated as president I was in the cars going from Richmond to Washington. A gentle man seated near me in the cars knew me, and we were soon in familiar con versation. It wa3 just after a be reavement, and I was speaking to him from an overburdened heart about the sorrow I was suffering. Looking at his cheerful face, I said: "I guess you have escaped all trouble. I should judge from your countenance that you have come through free from all mis fortune." Then he looked at me with a look I shall never forget, and whis pered in my ear: “Sir, you know noth ing about trouble. My wife has been in an insane asylum for fifteen years.” Ami then he turned and looked out of the window and into the night with a silence I was too overpowered to break. That was another illustra tion of the fact that no ones escapes trouble. Why, that man seated next to ydu in church has on his soul a weight compared with which a moun tain is a feather. That woman seated next to you in church has a grief the recital of which would make your body, mind and soul shttdder. ; When you are mending your net for this wide, deep sea of humanity, take out that wire thread of criticism and that horsehair thread of harshness ar.d put in a soft silken thread of Christian nympathy. Ye», when you are mend ing your nets tt>ar out those old th! ends of grufTness and weave in a few threads of politeness and geniality. Tn the house of God let all Christian faces beam with a look that means welcome. Say "good morning" to the stranger as he enters your pew and at the close shake hands with him and say. “How did you like the music?'* Why, you would be to that man a panel of the door of heaven; you would be to him a note of the doxology that seraphs sing when a new soul enters heaven. I have in other days entered a pew in church, and the woman at the other end of the pew looked at me as much as to say: "How dare you? This is my pew. and I pay the rent for it!” Well, I crouched in the other corner and made myself as small as possible and felt as though I had been stealing something. So there are people who have a sharp edge to their religion, and they act as though they thought most people had been elected to be damned and they were glad of it. Oh, let us brighten up our manner and appear in gentlemanliness or ladyhood. Mending the Net*. Oh, this important work of mending our nets! It we could get our nets right, we would accomplish more in soul saving in the next year than we have in the last twenty years. But where shall we get them mended? Just where old Zebedee and his two boys mended their nets—where you are. James and John had no time to go ashore. They were not fishing for fun. as you and I do in the summer time. It was their livelihood and that of their families. They mended their nets where they were—in the ship. ‘ Oh,” says some one, **r mean to get my net mended, and I will go down to the public library and I will see what the scientists say about evolution and about the 'survival of the fittest,’ and I will read up what the theologians say about 'advanced thought.’ I will leave the ship awhile, and I will go ashore and stay there till my net is mended.” Do that, my brother, and you will have no net left. Instead of their helping you mend your net, they will steal the pieces that remain. Bet ter stay In the gospel boat, where you have all the means for mending your net. What are they? do you ask. I answer, all you need you have where you are—namely, a Bible and a place to pray. The more you study evolu tion and adopt what is called advanced thought, the more useless you will be. Stay in the ship and mend your net. That is where James, the son of Zebe dee, and John, his brother, staid. That is where all who get their nets mended stay. I notice that all who leave the gospel boat and go ashore to mend their nets stay there. Or if they try again to fish they do not catch anything. Get out of the gospel boat and go up into the world to get your net mended, and you will live to see the day when you will feel like the man who, having for saken Christianity, sighed, "I would give a thousand pounds to feel as I did in 1820.” The time will come when you would be willing to give a thou sand pounds to feel as you did in 1901. These men who have given up their religion cannot help you a bit. l nese dear brethren or all denomi nations afflicted with theological fid gets, had better go to mending nets instead of breaking them. Before they break up the old religion and try to foist on us a new religion let them go through some great sacrifice for God that will prove them worthy for such a work, taking the advice of Tal leyrand to a man who wanted to up set the religion of Jesus Christ and start a new one when he said, "Go and be crucified and then raise yourself from the grave the third day!” Those who propose to mend their nets by secular and skeptical books are like a man who has just one week for fish j Ing, and six of the days he spends in ! reading Izaak Walton's “Complete An gler" and Wliealey's "Rod and Line" and Scott’s “Fishing in Northern Waters” and Pullman’s “Vade Mecum of Fly Fishing for Trout,” and then on Saturday morning, hi3 last day out, goes to the river to ply his art. But that day the fish will not bite, and late on Saturday night he goes to his home with an empty basket. Alas, alas! if when the Saturday night of our life | drops on us it shall be found that wc have spent our time in the libraries of worldly philosophy, trying to mend | our nets, and we have only a few souls to report as brought to God through our instrumentality while some humble gospel fisherman, his library made up of a Bible and an almanac, shall come home laden with the results, his trophies all the souls within fifteen miles of his log cabin meeting house. In the time of great disturbance in Naples in 1649 Massaniello, a bare footed fishing hoy, dropped his fishing rod and by strange magnetism took command of that city of 600,000 souls. He took off his fishing jacket and put on a robe of gold in the presence of howling mobs. He put his hand on his | lip as a signal, and they were silent. He waved his hand away from him, j and they retired to their homes. Ar i nlies passed in review before him. He I became the nation's idol. The rapid j rise and complete supremacy of that j young fisherman, Massaniello, has no I parallel in all history. But something | equal to that and better than that is an every-day occurrence In heaven. God takes some of those who in this world were fishers of men and who toiled very humbly,, but because of the way they mended their nets and em ployed their nets after they were mend ed he suddenly hoists them and robes them and scepters them and crowns them and makes them rulers over many cities, and he marches armies of saved ones before them in review, Mas saniellos unhonored on earth, but radiated in heaven. The fisher boy of Naples soon lost his power, but those people of God who have kept their nets mended and rightly swung them shall never lose their exalted place, but shall ! reign forever and ever and ever. Keep that reward in sight. But do not spend your time fishing with hook and line. Why did not James, the son of Zebedee. sit on the wharf at Cana, his feet hanging over the lake, and with a long pole and a worm on the hook dipped into the wave wait for some mullet to swim up and be caught? Why did not Zebedee spend his afternoon trying to catch one eel? No, that work Was too slow. These men were not mending a hook and line; they were mending their nets. So let the church of God not be con tent with having here one soul and next month another soul brought Into the kingdom. Swreep all the seas with nets—scoop nets, seine nets, dragnets, all encompassing nets, and take the treasures in by hundreds and thou sands and millions, and nations will be born in a day and the hemispheres quake with the tread of a ransoming God. Do you know what will be the two most tremendous hours in our heavenly existence? Among the quad rillions of ages which shall roll on what two occasions will be to us the greatest? The day of our arrival there will be to us one of the two greatest. The second greatest. I think, will be the day when we shall have put in parallel lines before us what Christ did for us and what we did for Christ, the one so great, the other so little. That will be the only embarrassment In heaven. My Lord nnd my God! What will we do and what will wo say when on one side are placed the Sav ior's great sacrifices for us and our small sacrifices for him; his exile, hiB humiliation, his agonies on one hand and our poor, weak, insufficient sacrifices on the other. To make the contrast less overwhelming let us quickly mend our nets, and, like the Galilean fisherman, may we be divine ly helped to cast them on the right side of the ship. HER SALT CELLARS. The (iuesU Kigunled Them m Beautiful Souvenir*. The custom of giving souvenirs on nearly all occasions sometimes leads to painful mistakes and a certain Am erican, well known in London as a hostess, has reason to regret it was ever heard of. She was the happy possessor of a dozen salt cellars of repousse silver, very beautiful and al most the apple of her eye and she was giving a luncheon at which covers were laid for fourteen. In the arrangement of the table the precious salt cellars had been placed for the guests, another kind being supplied for the hostess and her daughter. The cards designating the places had been laid upon them, and through an oversight had re mained there, so that the absence of salt in them was not discovered, says the London Onlooker. Presently a lady took up her card, saw the empty salt cellar, and, remarking upon its beauty, said it was a lovely souvenir, and slipped it into her pocket. Her example was promptly followed by the rest of the company with the exception of one woman, who had no pocket. The hostess was petrified with despair and horror as she saw her cherished pos sessions calmly appropriated, but in the face of the torrent of acknowledge ment and compliment, she had not the moral courage to offer the necessary explanation. After she had heard the adieux of the last guest she sat down and wept, and when it was discovered that the woman without a pocket had forgotten her prize she seized upon it with the concentrated affection which the parent bestows on the last of many children. Her joy, however, was short lived, for next morning came a polite note from the pocketless woman, say ing that she had forgotten her ‘‘beau tiful souvenir,” and would Mrs. F. be so very kind as to send it? Government I>e*r