ONI FYII F’Q ft THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM OF UAIUU d j,.| BANISHMENT IS LIFE 8 DESCRIBED. There has been a great deal or sym pathy wasted upon Siberian exiles, writes William E. Curtis from St. Petersburg. While there have doubt less been innumerable cases of in justice and brutality, for Russian of ficials are corrupt and cruel, and the Slavs, as a race, have always regarded human suffering with indifference, nevertheless, under ordinary circum stances, the majority of those who have been banished to Siberia are much better off than they were at home and ought to consider them selves fortunate to escape Imprison ment for a term of years. The cara vans of convicts, whose misery and anguish have aroused so much horror and iudignation In civilized countries have not usually undergone any great er hardships than were borne by the pioneers who crossed our own prairies to Colorado, Montana and California before the overland railroads were built. And, upon arriving at their destinations, unless they were guilty of serious crimes, their surroundings and circumstances were often much better than those of the men who developed the wealth of the mountains and the prairies west of the Missis sippi river. The life of a miner or a ranchman or a farmer in Siberia, x whether he be an emigrant or a con vict suffering banishment, offers in finitely greater advantages for moral and material improvement than can be found in any of the great Russian cities, and in the great majority of cases what was imposed as a punish ment turned out to be a blessing, for many of the wealthiest and most in fluential men in Siberia are exiles who have found unlimited opportuni ties for the exercise of their talents and industry. The exile system was adopted by Nicholas L, “the iron czar,” with the idea of utilizing con vict labor for the development of the timber, pastoral and agricultural re sources of the vast region beyond the Caucasus mountains, nnd. Instead of sending offenders to prison, shipped them into the wilderness to work out their small salvation under the surveillance of the police. They Were tieket-of-leave men. They were permitted to go and come and do whatever their hands found to do, and enjoy the fruits of their industry with out interference from the authorities so long as they remained in the neigh borhood of the community to which they were assigned. Good behavior was rewarded by additional liberty. Exiles who proved trustworthy were allowed the privileges of ordinary citi zens and were sometimes permitted on parole to return to their old homes in Russia to visit their parents or at tend to business affairs. No one was chained either on the march or after arrival unless he had committed a capital crime, or had tried to escape, or was refractory or had violated the orders or the rules imposed upon him. The heartrending pictures drawn by Mr. Kennan and other writers were often accurate, but the figures who appeared in them were usually men who had aroused the hostility of the officials by resistance or defiance and were punished for that reason. Friend In Need. "Say, pa, what does animadversion mean?" "Animadversion? Just wait a minute, my boy, and I'll look it up.’ “You needn’t mind, pa. I only want ed to see If you could say it. That’s one of the words I heard ma tell Aunt Mary she was goin' to spring on you when you came homo from the club. Here’s the other two—’paraphernalia’ and ‘idiosyncrasy.’ Better practice ’em up, dad, while you’ve got time.”— Cleveland Plain Dealer. A Kangaroo Kanch. An Arkansas planter is making ar rangements to start a kangaroo ranch. The hides are valuable and the teu dons much more so. The latter can be split extremely fine, and are the best thing known to surgeons for sewing up wounds and especially for holding broken bones together, being much finer and tougher than catgut. New York'* Presidential I.Ut. From New York state have come five of the twenty-five men who have been presidents of the United States—Van Buren, Fillmore, Arthur, Cleveland and Roosevelt. The Chinese have a superstitious hor ror of being caught in the rain. @®®(SX2X£)C2)(2X2X2XSXSX*XV>5XSXS)®SXsXsX5X2X£X5^*£XS®( Her Wealth a Bvirden XsXsX»XS®®®®XsXs®®®®®®®®®®®®®X®® g Live In Practical Igno> jj ranee of the World. I ' « » It is interesting to note that the in habitants of the island of St. Kilda, lying off the west coast of Scotland, only have communications with the mainland during three months of the year, from the beginning of June to the end of August, in these months it is visited by excursion steamers perhaps half a dozen times; for the rest of the year its inhabitants know as much about British affairs as do the Eski mos of the north. If King Edward were to die tomorrow, or London be burned down, they would learn of the events for the first time next June. But while unable to receive communi cations except during the period men tioned they have a quaint seapost. When they desire to communicate with the mainland they put their letters, with coins for postage, into a tin box or a bottle, which is enclosed in a roughly-shaped tiuy boat, with the words “Please open" cut on top, and a bladder fill of air attached. This is thrown into the sea at certain tides, and so carried to the Hebridean shores, or mayhap to the coast of Norway. The group cf Islands of which St. v Kilda is the chief, has an area of 4,000 ^ square miles. The climate is mild owing to the Gulf stream and immense numbers of wild fowl make their homes on the islands. The waters are full of fisn and the natives raise val uable sheep. “Baby Mine” Elected Him. Isaac W. Van Shaick. who died re cently in Maryland at the age of 84. was one of the most notable characters that ever claimed Milwaukee as home and it was from that city that he was twice elected to Congress, and he could have gone oftener had he so desired “Baby Mine" was the song that elect ed him the time he ran for Congress In the outer wards of the city—in the thickly populated districts where the Polish voters live—he visited the hum ble homes and dandled the children or his knee, Jollied the mothers and sang “Baby Mine’’ to the babies. He sang it on the floor of the Cnamuer of Com merce when trading was dull. Every where he went he was called upon foi his favorite song and never failed tt respond. Mrs. Robert T. Haines has placed a four-act society play, entitled “Hearts ( | Aflame, ’ with Amelia Bingham. TALM AGE’S SERMON. MAN VERSUS EVIL THE SUBJECT LAST SUNDAY. From Proverb* XXIII: 3A, a* Follow*: “When Shall 1 Awake? 1 Will Meek It Yet Aenlu"—The Keturn of the Prodigal—Surmounting Obstacle* [Copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. Y.J Washington, Nov. 10.—In this dis course Dr. Talmage depicts the strug gle of a man who desires liberation from the enthrallment of evil and shows how he may be set free; text. Proverbs xxiii, 35: "When shall 1 awake? I will seek it yet again." With an insight into human nature .•uch as no other man ever had Solo mon in these words is sketching the mental processes of a man who has stepped aside from the path of recti tude and would like to return. Wish ing for something better he says: "When shall I awake? When shall I get over this horrible nightmare of iniquity?” But seized upon by un eradicated appetite and pushed down hill by his passions, he cries out: "I will seek it yet again. I will try It once more!” About a mile from Princeton, N. J., there is a skating pond. One winter day, when the ice was very thin, a farmer living near by warned the young men of the danger of skating at that time. They all took the warning except one young man. He, in the spirit of bravado, said, "Boys, one round more.” He struck out on his skates, the ice broke, and his lifeless body was brought up. And in all matters of temptation and allurement it is not a prolongation that is propos ed, but only just one more indulgence, just one more sin. Then comes the fatality. Alas, for the one round more! "I will seek it yet again.” Our libraries are adorned with ele gant literature addressed to young men pointing out to them all the dan gers and perils of life—complete maps of the voyage of life—the shoals, the rocks, the quicksands. But suppose a young man is already shipwrecked, suppose he is already off the track, suppose he has already gone astray, how can he get back? That Is a question that remains unanswered, and amid all the books of the libraries I find not one word on that subject. To that class of persons T this day address myself. Kurmountlng Ohilarlu. So far as God may help me I propose to show what are the obstacles to your return and then how you are to sur mount those obstacles. The first diffi culty in the way of your return is the force of moral gravitation. Just as there ts a natural law which brings down to earth anything you throw into the air, so there is a corresponding moral gravitation. I never shall for get a prayer I heard a young man make In the Young Men's Christian Association of New York. With trem bling voice and streaming eyes he said: “O God, thou knowest how easy it is for me to do wrong and how hard it is for me to do right! God help me!” That man knows not his own heart who has never felt the power of moral gravitation. In your boyhood you had good asso ciates and bad associate^. Which most impressed you? During the last few years you have heard pure anec dotes and impure anecdotes. Which the easiest stuck to your memory? You have had good habits and bad habits. To which did your soul more easily yield? But that moral gravita tion may be resisted. Just as you may pick up anything from the earth and hold it in your hand toward heaven, just bo, by the power of God's grace, a fallen soul may be lifted toward peace, toward pardon, toward salvation. The force of moral gravitation is in every one of us, but also power in God's grace to overcome that force. Slavery to flnblt. A physician tells his patient that he must quit the use of tobacco, as it is destroying his health. The man re plies, "I can stop that habit easy enough.” He quits the use of the weed. He goes around not knowing what to do with himself. He cannot add up a column of figures; he cannot sleep nights. It seems as if the world had turned upside down. He feels his business is going to ruin. Where he was kind and obliging he is scolding and fretful. The composure that char acterized him has given way to a fretful restlessness, and he has become a complete fidget. What power is it that has rolled a wave of woe over the earth and shaken a portent in the heavens? He has quit tobacco. After awhile he says: “I am going to do as I please. The doctor does not under stand my case, l am going back to my old habits.” And he returns. Everything assumes its usual com posure. His business seems to bright en. The world becomes an attractive place to live in. His children, seeing the difference, hall the return of their father’s genial disposition. What wave of color has dashed blue into the sky, and greenness into the mountain foliage, and the glow of sapphire into the sunset? What enchantment has lifted a world of bean*} *-*rjd Jcy on his soul? He has resumed tobacco. The fact is, we all know in our own experience that habit is a taskmaster. As long as we obey it it does not chas tise us; but let us resist, and we find that we are lashed with scorpion whips and bound with ship cable and thrown into the track of bone break ing Juggernauts. The Prodigal'* Return. The prodigal, wishing to get into good society, enters a prayer meeting. Some good man without much sense greets him by saying: “Why, are you here? You are about the last person that I expected to see in a prayer meeting. 'Well, the dying thief was I saved, and there la hope for you." You do not know anything about this un less you have learned that when a man tries to return from evil courses of conduct he runs against repulsions innumerable. We say of some man, "He Hvps a block or two from the church, or Half a mile fnrai the church. In all our great cities there are men who are 5,000 miles from church—vast deserts of indifference between them and the house of God. The fact is we must keep our respectability though thou sands perish. Christ sat with publi cans and siuners, but if there come to the Mouse of God a man with marks of dissipation upon him people are al most sure to put up their hands in horror, as much as to say, “is it not shocking?" How these dainty, fastidious Christ ians in all our churches are going to get into heaven I do not know, unless they have an especial train of cars cushioned and upholstered, each one a car to himself. They cannot go with the great herd of publicans and sin ners. Oh. ye who curl your lip of scorn on the fallen! I tell you plainly that if you had been surrounded by the same influences instead of sitting today among the cultured, and the re fined, and the Christian, you might have been a crouching wretch in a stable or ditch covered with filth and abomination. It is not because we are naturally any better, but because the mercy of God has protected us. Those that are brought up in Christian cir cles and watched by Christian parent age should not be so hard on the fallen. First Get A*lior». rvuy, it itfiijiuua me ul a man drowning in the sea, and a lifeboat puts out for him, and the man in the boat says to the man in the w'ater, "Now, if I get you ashore, are you going to live in my street?" First get him ashore and then talk to him about the nonessentials of religion. Who eares what church he joins if he only joins Christ and starts for heaven? Oh, you, my brother of illumined face and a hearty grip for every one that tries to turn from his evil way, take hold of the same hymnbook with him, though his dissipation shake the book, remembering that he that “converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins.” Now, I have shown you these ob stacles because I want you to under stand I know all the difficulties in the way. But I am now going to tell you how Hannibal may scale the Alps and how the shackles may be unriveted and how the paths of virtue forsaken may be regained. First of all, throw yourself on God. Go to him frankly and earnestly and tell him these habits you have and ask him, if there is any help in all the resources of omnipo tent love, to give it to you. Do not go on with a long rigmarole, which some people call prayer, made up of ohs and aha and forever and forever amens! Go to God and cry for help. Ileallng llaliu for Wounila. I remember that while living in Phil adelphia, at the time I spoke of a minute ago, the Master Street hospital was opened, and a telegram was re ceived, saying: "There will be 300 wounded men tonight. Please take care of them.” From my church there went out twenty or thirty men and women. As the poor wounded men were brought in no one asked of them from what state they came or what was their parentage. There was a wounded soldier, and the only question was how to take off the rags most gently and put on the cool bandage and administer the cordial. And when a soul comes to God he does not ask 1 where you came from or what your ; ancestry was. Healing balm for all your wounds; pardon for all your guilt; comfort for all your troubles! Then, also, I counsel you, if you want to get back, quit all your bad asso ciates. One unholy intimacy will fill your soul with moral distemper. In all the ages of the church there has not been an instance where a man kept one evil associate and was reformed— among the 1,600,000,000 of the race, not one Instance. Give up your bad com panions or give up heaven. It is not ten bad companions that destroy a man nor five bad companions nor three but one. What chance is there for the young man I saw along the street, four or \ five young men with him, in front of a ! grogshop, urging him to go in, he re- j sisting, violently resisting, until after awhile they forced him to go in? It was a summer night, and the door was left open, and I saw the process. They | held him fast, and they put the cup to ■ his lips, and they forced down the : strong drink. What chance is there ; for such a young man? Surrendering to God. Some of you, like myself, were born in the country. And what glorious news might these young men send home to their parents that this after noon they had surrendered themselves to God and started a new life! I know how it is in the country. The night comes on. The cattle stand under the rack, through which burst the trusses of hay. The horses have just frisked up from the meadow brook at the nightfall and stand knee deep in the bright straw that invites them to lie down and rest. The perch of the hovel is full of fowl, their feet warm under their feathers. When the nights get cold, the flames clap their hands above the great back log and shake the i shadow’ of the group up and down the wall. Father and mother sit there for | half an hour saying nothing. I wonder what they are thinking of? After ! awhile the father breaks the silence and says, '‘Well, I wonder where our ; boy is in town tonight?” And the I mother answers: “In no bad place, I warrant you. We always could trust I him when he was at home, and since he has been away there have been so many prayers offered for him we can trust him still." Then at 8 or 9 o’clock Just before they retire, for they go early to bed, they kneel down and commend you to that God who watches in country and In town, on the land and on the sea. Some one said to a Grecian general. "What was the proudest moment of your life?" lie thought a moment and said, "The proudest moment was <-hen I sent word home to my parents that I had gained the victory." And the glad dest and most brilliant moment in your life will be the moment when you can send word to your parents that you have conquered the evil habits by the grace of God and become eternal victor. Honor to Parents, God pity the young man who has brought disgrace on his father's name! God pity the young man who has broken his mother's heart! Better that he had never been born. Better if In the first hour of his life, instead of be ing laid against the warm bosom of maternal tenderness, he had been cof fined and sepulchered. There is no balm powerful enough to heai the heart of one who lias brought parents to a sorrowful grave and who wanders about through the dismal cemetery rending the air and wringing the hands and crying, "Mother, mother!” Oh, that today, by all the memories of the past and by all the hopes of the future, you would yield your heart to Godi May your father’s God nnd your moth er’s God be your God forever! This hour the door of mercy swings wide open. Hesitate not a moment. In many a case hesitation is the loss of ail. At the corner of a street I saw a tragedy. A young man evidently doubted as to which direction he had better take. Ills hat was lifted high enough so you could see he had an intelligent forehead. He had a stout chest and a robust development. Splen did young man! Cultured young man! Honored young man! Why did he stop there while so many were going up and down? The fact is that every young man has a good angel and a bad angel contending for the mastery of his spirit, and there was a good angel and a bad angel struggling with that young man’s soul at the corner of the street. “Come with me,” said the good angel. ‘ I will take you home. I will spread my wings over your pillow. I will lovingly escort you all through life under supernatural protection. I will bless every cup you drink out of, every couch you rest on, every door way you enter. I will consecrate your tears when you weep, your sweat when you toil, and at the last I will hand over your grave Into the hand of the bright angel of a Christian resurrec tion. 1 have been sent of the Lord to be your guardian spirit. Come with me,” said the good angel In a voice of unearthly symphony. It was music like that which drops from a lute of heaven when a seraph breathes on It. “Oh, no,” said the bad angel. "Come with me. I have something better to offer. The wines I pour are from chal ices of bewitching carousal. The dance I lead is over floors tessellated with unrestrained indulgence. There is no God to frown on the temples of sin where I worship. The skies are Ital ian. The paths I tread are through meadows daisied and primrosed. Come with me!” ITmltntion In Ruin. The young man hesitated at a time when hesitattlon was ruin, and the bad angel smote the good angel until It de parted, spreading wings through the starlight, upward and away, until a door swung open in the sky and for ever the wings vanished. That was the turning point in that young man’s history, for, the good angel flown, he hesitated no longer, but started on a pathway which is beautiful at the opening, but blasted at last. The bad angel led the way through gate after gate, and at each gate the road became rougher and the sky more lurid, and, what was peculiar, as the gate slam med shut It came to with a jar that indicated it would never open. Past each portal there was a grinding of locks and a shoving of the bolts, and the scenery on each side the road changed from gardens to deserts, and the June air became a cutting Decem ber blast, and the bright wings of the bad angel turned to sackcloth, and the fountains that at the start had tossed with wine poured forth bubbling tears of foaming blood, and on the right side of the road there was a serpent, and the man said to the bad angel, “What is that serpent?" And the answer was, “That Is the serpent of stinging re morse." On the left side of the road there was a lion, and the man asked the bad angel, “What is that Hon?” The answer was, “That Is the Hon of all devouring despair.” A vulture flew through the sky, and the man asked the bad angel, “What Is that vul ture?" The answer was, “That Is the vulture waiting for the carcasses of tne slain. And when the man said to the bad angel, "What does all this mean? I trusted in what you said at the street corner; I trusted it all. Why have you thus deceived me?” Then the last deception fell oft the charmer and he said: "I was sent from the pit to de stroy your soul. I watched my chance for many a long year. When you hes itated that night at the street corner 1 gained my triumph. Now you are here. Ha, ha! You are here! Como, now, let us fill the chalice and drink to darkness and woe and death. Hail, hail!” Oh, young man, will the good angel sent forth by Christ or the bad angel sent forth by sin get the victory ovei your soul? Their wings are inter locked this moment above you, era tending for your soul, as above th« Apennines eagle and condor fight In midsky. This hour decides eternal des tinies. THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. LESSON VIII., NOV. 24. ISAIAH V: 8-30. Golden Text—Woe Unto Them That Are Mighty to Drink Wine—Isa. 0:82 —World’s Temperanco Lesson—Tara bio of the Vineyard. I. “Covetousness."—Vs. 8-Id. Covetous ness leads to the selling of strong drink, to renting buildings for saloons and gam bling dens. Kven members of the church disgrace their profession and their Mas ter by doing this. Officials take bribes, and policemen protect crime and saloons for money In some cities. Nothing but the love of money could Induce men to enter upon the degrading business of selling liquor. In his beautiful Deserted Village, Goldsmith says: “111 fares tho land, to hastening lUs a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men de cay." II. “The Tyranny of Strong Drink.”— V, 11. “Woe unto them.” Not a wish, but a warning; not vengeance, but a plain statement of fact. “That rise up early In the morning." The first thing they think of, the first and rtiost urgent business of the day. Is “More strong drink." “They are already gone Into captivity" fv. 13). “That they may follow strong drink." They do not wait for Its fumes to tempt them, but seek the tempter. IIT. “The Angels of Social Life Are Transformed into Demons.”—V. 12. “And the harp, and the viol." The latter word, generally rendered “psaltery," was a stringed Instrument played with the fin gers, perhaps a lyre, perhaps a dulcimer. “Tabret." Tambourine or timbrel. “Pipe." Flute. All the powers of music, and feast ing, nnd social life are Joined to embrace the enchanting anil attracting power of strong drink. Here lies one of the great est dangers of intemperance. IV. "Deadness of the Moral Nature.”— V. 12. "They regard not the work of tho Lord.” They will not look around them nnd see whnt God Is doing to save them, nor the punishment he sends upon those who continue In their course. Warnings are on every hand, but they will not no tice them. Strong drink Is an opiate to the conscience, nnd blinds the eyes to tho law of God. V. “Chains and Captivity."—V. 13. “My people are gone Into captivity." The north ern kingdom was carried captive by the Assyrians while Isaiah was preaching to Judah. This was a warning they should have taken to heart. The Intemperate be come the slavrs of appetite, driven into all excesses and crimes by their taskmas VI. "Ignorance.”—"Because they have no knowledge," which they might have pos sessed They were wilfully Ignorant. They learned nothing from observation or ex perience. They were very dull scholars In God’s school. Illustration. The Co manche Indians rail whisky "foolish water." "Maw-way, a prominent Co manche chief, was arrested, with six other Indlnns, In New Mexico, In 1868. and sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On his re turn he gave to some of his people a graphic description of his trip. VII. "Poverty.”—"Their honorable men.” "The margins enll attention to the form of the Hebrew, 'Their glory arc men of fam ine.' The distinguished men of a country are Its glory." "Their multitude." "The masses, as compared with the distin guished men. The distinguished and the undistinguished alike suffer from famine and from thirst."—Prof. W. P. Beecher. VIII. "Death and Destruction." Vs, 14-17. 14. "Therefore hell (Sheol. the plaee of the dead) hath enlarged herBolf," because so many more perish through Intemperance, who would have otherwise continued to live many years. “And opened her mouth." Like some monster ravenous to destroy, or ns the earth opened In an earthquake to swallow up Dathnn and Ablram (Num. 16:30-32). "And their glory," etc. Every good Is ruined by Intemperance. Great men, great causes, great ideas, great vir tues, everything that makes the glory of a nation, have an Invetcrute enemy In intox icating liquors. IX. "Intensity of the Appetite and De sire."—V. 18. "Thatdrawlnlqulty with cords of vanity," such as false reasoning, decep tive excuses. "With a cart rope.” So strong Is their desire for forbidden things that only the strength of a cart rope can ex press It. "They are magnets drawing ev ery sort of sin toward themselves; or a vast maelstrom Into which all sorts of wickedness are sucked down."—Cowles. Illustration. Linnaeus said of alcohol that. "Man sinks gradually by this fell poison: first he favors It. then he warms to It, then he burns for It, then he la con sumed by It.” X. "Defiance of God and Ills Laws.”—V. 18. "Let him (God) make speed." Let God come to punish us If he will; who fears? Expressing utter unbelief In God's threats. They do not believe that the evil threat ened will ever come. They are the fools dscrlbed In Prov. 1:24, 25. “This figure of sinners Jeering at the approach of a ca lamity. while they actually wear the har ness of Its carriage, is very striking.”— George Adam Smith. XI. "Distorted Views of Right and Wrong."—V. 20. “Call evil good.” They bap tize wickedness with good names. They advocate the cause of strong drink as pro moting temperance and liberty. They do not say, “spirit of wine, thy name is devlt," but thy name Is Joy. pleasure, prosperity, life. People will sell liquor, and let their buildings for saloons; and yet not seem conscious of sin. XII. "Self-Concelt."-V.21. "Wise In their own eyes." Wine makes people self-confi dent. The drunkard Is often the last per son to know how much he is under the power of liquor. He thinks he Is safe when all his friends know that he is on the brink of a precipice. XIII. “Tendency to Excess."—V. 22. "Mighty to drink wine." The habit grows by indulgence. They are heroes of the wine drinking. They aro heroes of the wiru> cup. But the cup Is mightier than they. XIV. "Dishonesty, Bribery.'"—V. 23. “Which Justify the wicked for reward." Who for the sake of votes, or money, or Influence, give wrong judgments in court, help the wicked to escape Justice, make bad laws. "Take away the righteousness,"' etc. Deprive men of their Just rights for the suke of bribes. "The Results," vs. 24-30, are compared to a devouring flame, and to a devastating army, "whose arrows are sharp," and "their wheels like a whirlwind,” the sound jf their coming like “the roaring of a Uon," und "like the roaring of the aea.“ Last Year’s Output of Pennies. At the United States mint 66,838.700 bronze cents were coined last year—a larger number than was produced dur ing any previous twelvemonta. ODDS AND ENDS. A pretty stick pin is a moonstone In the shape of a sphere set in a small claw. White pine when green weighs 34.62 pounds to the square foot; when sea soned, 29.56. Oats are cultivated in a corner of the Boston common, where grass I would not grow. A careless proofreader on the Well ington (Kas.) Journal let “society k»» wM mmm