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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1889)
r HOW TO CONQUER. Dr. Talmage Gives Advice to Those . Seeking Salvation. rue Fewer of Evil iBcUaatleas When Oaee .Acquire Society Met Inclined to AM the FaUea The Lara Ever Read to Help. la a recent sermon Rev. T. DsWitt Tal malge discourseu on the subject: "How to Conquer." The text was: "When shall I awake I will seek it yet again." Prov erb xxiii. SI He said: With an insight into humsn nature nch as no other man ever reached, Salomon, in my text, sketches the mental operations of one who, having stepped aside from the path of rectitude, desires to return. With a wish for something better he said: "When shall I come out of this horrid nightmare of iniquity?" But, seized upon by une radicated habit and forced down bill by his passions, be cried out: "I will seek it yet again. I will try itoace more." Our libraries are adorned with an ele gant literature addressed to young men, pointing out to them all the dangers and perils of life complete maps of the voy age, showing all the rocks, and quick sands, the shoals. But suppose a man has already made shipwreck; suppose he is already off the track; suppose he has al ready gone astray. How is he to get back? That is a field comparatively un touched. 1 propose to address my self to such. There are those in this audi ence who, with every passion of their agonized soul, are ready to hear such a discussion. They compare themselves with what they were ten years ago, and cry out from the bondage in which they are incarcerated. Now, if there be any iters, come with an earnest purpose, yet .feeling they are beyond the pale of Chris tian sympathy, aud that the sermon can hardly be expected to address them, then, at this moment. I give them my right band and call them brother. Look up. There is glorious and triumphant hope for you yet. I sound the trumpet of Gospel deliverance. The Church is ready to spread a banquet at your return and the Bierarches of Heaven to fall into line of bannered procession at the news of your emancipation. So far as God may help me. I propose to show what are the obstacles of your return, and then bow you are to surmount those obstacles. The tint difficulty in the way of your return is the force of moral gravitation. Just as there is a natural law which brings down to the earth any thing you throw into the air, so there Is a corresponding moral gravitation. In other words, it is easier to go down than it is to go up; it is easier to do wrong than to do rigbr. Call to mind the comrades of your boyhood days some of them good, some of them bad which most affected .you? Call to mind the anecdotes that you have heard in the lat Cve or ten years some of them are pure and some of them impure. Which the mora easily sticks to your memory? During the years of your life you have formed certain courseiof con duct ome of them good, some of them bad. To which style of babit did you the more easily yield? Ah, my friends, we Siave to take but a moment of self inspec itian to find out that there is in all our : souls a force of moral gravitation 1 But that gravitation may be resisted. Just as you pick up from the esrth something and hold it in your hand toward Heaven, just so, by the power of God's grace, a soul . fallen may be lifted toward peace, toward pardon, toward Heaven. Force of moral gravitation in every one of us, but power ?ln God's grace to overcome that force of auxral gravitation. The next thing in the way of your re turn is the power of evil babit I know there are those who Fay that it is very easy for them to give up evil habits. I do not believe them. Here is a man given to intoxication. He knows it is disgracing his family, destroying bi3 property, ruin ing him. body, mind and soul. If that man, being an intelligent man, and loving bis family, could easily give up that habit would be not do so? The fact that he does not give it up proves that it is bard to give it up. It is a very easy thin; to sail down stream, the tide carrying you with r eat force; but suppose you turn the boat up stream, is it so easy then to row it? Take a man given to the habit of using tobacco, as most of you do, and let him resolve to stop and he finds it is very dif ficult. Tweuty-seven years ago I quit that habit and I would as soon dare to put my right hand in the fire as ones to indulge in it Why? Because it was such a terrific struggle to get over it Mow, let a man be advised by bis physician to -give up the use of tobacco. He goes around not knowing what to do with him self. He can not add ud a line of figures. He can not sleep nights. It seems as if the world had turned upside down. He feels his business going to ruin. Where he was kind and obliging be is scold ing and fretfuL The composure that char acterized him has given way to a fretful restlessness, and he has become a com plete fidget What power is it that has rolled a wave of woe over the earth and shaken a portent in the heavens? He has tried to stop smoking or chewingl After awhile he says: "I am going to do as I please. The doctor doesn't understand my case. I'm going back to my old hab it" And he returns. Every thing as sumes its usual composure. His Lusiness seems to brighten. The world becomes an attractive place to live in. His children, seeing the difference, bail 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 enchantmeut has lifted a world of beauty and joy on his soul? He has gone back to tobacco! O, the fact is, as we all know in our own experience, that habit is a taskmaster; as long as we obey it it does not chastise as, but let us resist and we find we are to be lashed with scorpion whips andjbound with ship cable and thrown into the track of bone-breaking Juggernauts! During the war of 1812 there was a ship set on fire just above Niagara Falls, and then, cut loose from its moorings, it came on down through the night and tossed over the falls. It was said to have been a scene brilliant beyond all description. Well, there are thousands of men on fire of evil Babit coming down through the rapids and through the awful night of tempta tion toward the eternal plunge. O, how hard it is to arrest them. God only can arrest them. Suppose a man after five, or ten, or twenty years of evil doing resolves to do right? Why, all the forces of darkness are allied against him. He can not sleep nights. He gets down on his knees in the -midnight and cries "God help me." He "bites his lip. He grinds bis teeth. He clenches his fist in his determination to keep his purpose. He dare not look at the battles in the window of a wine store. It was one Ion?, bitter, exhaustive, hand to hand fight with inflamed, tantalising and merciless habit When bethinks he is en tirely free, the old inclinations poaace upon him like a pack of hounds with their muzzles tearing away at the Banks of one poor reindeer. In Paris there is a sculpt ured representation of Bacchus, the god of revelry. He is riding oa a panther at full leap. O, how suggestive! Let every one who is speeding oa bad ways under stand he is not riding a docile and well broken steed, but he is riding a monster, wild and bloodthirsty, going at a death leap. How many there are who resolve on a better life and say: "When shall I awake?" But, seized oa by their old habits, cry: "I willtry itoace more; I will seek it yet again!" Tears ago there were some Princeton students who were skating, and the ice was very thin, and some one warned the company back from the air hole, and finally warned them entirely to leave the place. But one young man with bravado, arter all the rest had stopped, cried out: "One round more!" He swept around and was brought oat a corpse. My friends, there are thousands and tens of thousands of men losing their souls in that way. It Is the ono round mora I have also to say that if a man wants to return from evil practices society re pulses him. Desiring to reform he says: "Mow I will shake off my old associates and I will find Christian companionship." And he sppears at the church door some Sabbath day and the usher greets him with a look as much as to say: "Why, you here? You are the last man I ever expected to see at church! Coma take this seat right down by the door!" In stead of saying: "Good morning: I am glad you are here. Come, I will give you a first rate seat right up by the pulpit" well, the prodigal, not yet discouraged, enters the prayer meeting, and some Christian man with more seal than com mon sense ssys: tiad to see you. The dying thief was saved and I suppose there is mercy for you !" The young man, dis gusted, chilled, throws himself back on bis dignity, resolved he will never enter the house of God again. Perhaps not quite fully discouraged about reformation he sides up by some highly respectable man be used to know going down the street, and immediately the respectable man has an errand down some other street Well, the prodigal, wishing to return, tsk:s some member of a Christian asso ciation by the band, or tries to. The Christian young man looks at him, looks at the faded apparel and the marks of dissipation, and instead of giving him a warm grip of the band offers him the tip end of the long fingers of the left band, which is equal to striking a man in the face. t O. bow few Christian people under stand how much force and Gospel there is in a good handshaking ! Sometimes when you have felt the need of encouragement, and some Christian man has taken you heartily by the band, have you not felt that thrilling through every fiber of your ooay, mina ana soul, an encouragement that was just what you needed? You do not know any thins: at all about this unless you know when a man tries to return from evil courses of conduct he runs against repul sions innumerable. We say of some man, he lives a block or two from the church, or half a mile from the church. There are people in our crowded cities who live a thousand miles from the church. Vast deserts of indifference between them and the house of God. The fact is we must keep our respectability though thousands and tens of thousands perish. Christ sat with publicans and sinners. But if there comes to the house of God a man with marks of dissipation upon him people throw up their binds in horror, as much as to say: "Isn't it shocking?" How these dainty, fastidious Christians in all our churches are going to get into Heaven I don't know, unless they have an especial train of cars, cushioned and upholstered, each one a car to himself! They can not go with the great herd of publicans and sinners. O, ye who curl your lip of scorn at the fallen, I tell you plainly, if you had been surrounded by the same influences, in stead of sitting to-day amid the cultured and the refined and the Christian, you would have bo en a crouching wretch in stable or ditch, covered with filth and abomination! It is not because you are naturally any better, but because the mercy of God has protected you. Who are you, that brought up in Christian cir cles and watched by Christian parentage, you should be so hard on the fallen? I think men also are often hindered from return by the fact that churches are too anx.'ous about their membership and too anxious about their denomination and they rush out when they see a man about to give up bis sin and return to God and ask how he is going to be baptized, wheth er by sprinkling or by immersion, and what kind of a church be is going to join. O, my friends! It is a poor time to talk about Presbyterian catechisms, and Episcopal liturgies, and Methodist love feasts and baptisteries to a man that is coming outof the darkness of sin into the glorious light of the Gospel. Why, it reminds us of a man drowning in the sea, and a lifeboat puts out after him, and the man in the boat says to the man out of the boat: "Now, if I get you ashore are you going to live in my street?" First get him ashore and then talk about the non-essentials of re I igion. Who cares what church be joins, if he only joins Christ and starts for Heaven? O, you ought to have, my brother, an illuminated facs and a hearty grip for every one that tries to turn from bis evil way: Take hold of the same book with him, though bis dissipations shake the book, remembering that he that con vertetb a sinner from the error of bis ways shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins. Mow, I have shown you these obstacles because I want you to understand I know all the difficulties in the way; but I am now to tell you how Hannibal may scale the Alps and bow the shackles may be un riveted and bow the paths of virtue for saken may be regained. First of all, ay brother, throw yourself on God. Gj to Him. frankly and earnestly, and tell Him these habits you bave.'aud ask Him, if there is any help in all the resources of omnipotent love, to give it to you. Do not go with a long rigmarole people call prayer, made up of "ohs" and "ahs" and "forever and forever anion I" G J to God and cry for help! help: help! and if you can not cry for help just look and live. I remember in the war I was at Antietam and ' said to a man: "Where are you hurt?" He made no answer, but held up his arm swollen and splintered. I saw where he was hurt The simple fact is when a man has a wounded soul all he bas to do is to hold it up before a sympathetic Lord and get it healed. It does not take any long prayer. Just hold up the wound. Oh, it is no small thing when a man is nervous and weak and exhausted. coming from his evil ways, to feel that God puts two omnipotent arms around about him and says: "Young man, I will stand by you ! The mountains may depart and the hills be remove!, but I will never fail you." And then, as the soul thinks the news is too good to be true and can not believe it and looks up in God's face, God lifts His right band and takes an oath, an affidavit, saying: "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no p'eas are in the death of him that dietb," Blessed be God for such a Gospel as this I "Cut ths slices thin." said the wife to the husband, r there will no: be enough to go all around for the children ; cut the slices thin." Blessed be God, there is a full loaf for every one that wants It; bread enough and to spare. Mo thin slices at the Lord's tabla I remember when the Master street hospital, in Philadelphia, was opened during the war, a telegram came, saying: "There will be three hun dred wounded men to-night; be ready to to take care of them;" and from my church there went in tome twenty or thirty men and women to look afar these poor wounded fellows. As they came, some from one part of the land, some from another, no one asked whether this man was from Oregon, or from Massachusetts, or fromMinnesotswor from Mew York. There was a wounded soldier, and the only ques tion was how to take off the rags most gently, and put on the bandage, and ad minister ths cordial. And when a soul comes to God He does not ask where you came from or what your ancestry was. Healing 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, to quit all your bad associa tions. One unholy intimacy will fill your soul with moral distemper. In all ages of the Church there has not been an instance where a man kept one evil associate and was reformed. Among the fourteen hun dred million of the race not one instance. Go home to-day, open your desk, take out letter paper, stamp and envelope, and then write a letter something like this: "My old companions: I start this day for f Heaven. Until I am persuaded you will join me in this, farewell." Then sign your name and send the let ter with the first post Give np your bad companions, or give up Heaven. It is not ten bad companions that destroyed a man, nor five bad companions, nor three bad companions, but one. What chance is there for that young man I saw along the street, four or five men with him, baiting in front of a grog shop, urging him to go in, he resisting, until after a while they forced him to go in? It was a summer night and the doors were left open, and I saw tbe process. They held him fast, and they put tbe cup to his lips aud they forced down tbe strong drink. What chance is there for such a young man? I counsel yon also seek Christian ad vice. Every Christian man is bound to help you. First of all seek God; thea seek Christian counsel. Gather up ail ths energies of body, mind and soul, and, ap pealing to God for success, declare this day everlasting war against all drinking habits, all gambling practices, all houses of sin. Half-and-half work will amount to nothing; it must be a Waterloo. Shrink back now and you are lost Push on and you are saved. A Spartan General fell at tbe very moment of victory, but be dipped bis finger in bis own blood and wrotn on a rock near which he was dying: "Sparta has conquered." Though your struggle to get rid of sin may seem to be almost a death struggle you can dip your finger in your own blood and write on tbe Rock of Ages: "Victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ" O, what glorious news it would be for some of these young men to send boms to their pi rents. They go to the post-office every day or two to see if there are any letters from you. How anxious they are to bear. Some one said to a Grecian General, "What was tbe proudest moment in your life?" He thought a moment and said: 'The proudest moment in my life was when I sent word home to my parents that I bad gained the victory." And the proudest and most brilliant moment in your life will be tbe moment when you can send word to your parents that you have couquered your evil habits by the grsce of God and become eternal victor. O, despise not parental anxiety! Tbe time will come when yon will have neither father nor mother, and you will go around the place where they used to watch you and find them gone from the field, and gone from the neighborhood. Cry as loud for forgiveness as you may over the mennd in the churchyard, they will not answer. Dead! Dead! And then you will take out the white lock of hair that was cut from your mother's brow just betore they buried her, and you will take the cane with which your father used to walk, and you will think and think and wish that you had done just as they wanted you to. and would give tbe world if you had never thrust a pang through their dear old hearts. God pity the poor young man who has brought disgrace on his father's name ! God pity the poor young man who has broken his mother's heart! Better if he had never been born better if in the first hour of his life instead of being laid against the warm bosom of maternal tenderness be bad been coffined and sepulchered. There is no balm power ful enough to heal tbe heart of one who bas brought parents to a sorrowful grave and who wanders about through the dis mal cemetery, rending the hair and wring ing the hands and crying: ''Mother 1 mother!" O. that to-day by all the mem ories of the past and by all the hopes of the future, you would yield your heart to God. Mar your father's God and your mother's God be your God forever!" Why He Did Not Stay. Young Fitzpetcr (watting for Miss Gusher to come down) to Johnny Your sister has some very pretty flow ers in the bay window, Johnny. Johnny (who is always around) Now you're talking, mister. She told Miss Bustler yesterday that she'd like to add you to the collection. Fitzpetcr (delighted) Ah. how clever! What sort of flower did she propose to call me? Johnny A monkey plant. When Miss Gusher comes down to receive her caller, Johnny is alone, trying to tack the cat's tail to the floor. Drake's Magazine. "Purfessor, Fse. about come to de conclusion dat you's triflin' wid me. Heah we bean 'gaged mo'n seben yeah now." "Yes, Missus Wubbleby. but you's probably 'ware dat de physiology state dat de human body change once eber seben year; so 'cordin' to dat science I hain't de same person wot mek dat 'gagement wid yo." "Yes. but de min' don' change ef de bod? do." "Waal, my min's changed, "--Harper s Baznr. A MEDLEY OF MARVELS. The Processes Eais)loy4 la the Making ef Fliit Glass, Flint-glass is the general term for all the multiform utensils and ornaments (apart from windows and dark bottles) which make glass an omnipresent bless ing in modern life. The distinctive pe culiarity of flint-glass is the presence in it of lead, which imparts abrilliancy un like that of most other glass. The lack-luster surface of all the old objects of glass made before the English inven tion of a lead formula is noticeable. Lead oxide was originally used only in most expensive glass prepared from calcined flints. But gradually it bas crept into many grades, down to the most common materials for household and fancy wares, and for all transpar ent bottles, giving them all a finer lus ter than was otherwiso obtained until the recent invention oflimc glass. And the costliest of all glass, that used for optical lenses and imitation gems, still gains its extraordinary weight and re fractive power from lead. The honors of skill in flint-glass production are broadly divided among the nations, England taking the lead in the crystal or purest flint-glass used for cutting; Italy (Venice) in colored designs more brilliant than any made in the days of the republic, when flint-glass was not known; Switzerland in imitation gems; Germany in cheap vases; France in lens disks; and America in pressed glass and cheap tableware. Recently a cheaper flint-glass has been introduced into American pressed ware, in which lime is substituted for lead, yet which retains much of the luster and clear ness of lead flint. Flint-glass is either blown, molded or pressed, and frequently all three methods may be seen together in the same establishment. A flint-glass factory is a most enter taining medley of marvels. As you enter the great building that surrounds the huge chimney the first impression is that you are in a human ant-hill rumbling with inordinate activity. Or perhaps the sensation is better de scribed as a plunge into a purgatorial chamber of industrious demons. In the center the openings in the gigantic furnace dazzle you like glaring eyes from a soul of Ere; but tho glow comes really from molten glass in the dozen "monkey-pot3" about the blaze. Scores of workers, boys, youths and men, throng in restless confusion. It looks as if every one were running about on some impish deed of his own fancy. But stand still and watch closely, and you will see it is all a great system of human clock-work, each movement fit ting nicely into the whole effect. The men at the furnace, who seemed at first to be devils thrusting pitchforks into the blazing depths to toast their victims, are only gathering metal on their punties. When a sufficiently large lump has been collected the man wanders off with it. You think he will certainly burn some one with that burning ball of fire, they are all bust ling about him so incessantly. But follow him carefully and you see him silently hand the tube to an older man, who blows the glass into a large globe. and sits down to play with it at a bench which has a horizontal iron bar on each side of him to roll the tube on. Back and forth he rolls it like a toy, and the glass keeps curiously changing its shape. He has made a hole in the globe and has enlarged it into a sym metrical opening, and now the glass is cooled so that he can do nothing more. Will anybody in all that hurrying crowd help him? Instantly a young man appears, and without a word he holds up to the cool glass his long tubo with a disk of red-hot glass on the end. which fastens to it Tho man at the bench scratches the globe, jars it, and it leaves his bar. Off the other man runs with it to the "glory-hole." where the broken end is quickly heated again into softness. Then he hurries back with it to the bench man. who renews his play. A couple of minutes more and suddenly you perceive that he has made a perfect lamp shade, which a stroke detaches from the iron rod into a small bed of sand. A small boy car ries it off on a stick to the annealing furnace, and now the gatherer is on hand again with a fresh lump of metal to begin the process again. Turn to the next man sitting at his work, and you notice him finishing a smaller charge into a lamp chimney, shaping the top by a mold. Here is a man amusing himself with a small bunch of soft glass on his rod. You are sure he can have no serious purposo in turn ing and bending it into those ridicu lous shapes. Quickly a boy seizes it from him, and you can not trace him. It has gone over to a fancy vase, where it was needed to complete the orna ment. So each bench has its own lit tle task of skill, and keeps repeating it over and over, and each boy of the multitude (there are two or more to every man) has his own particular duties. He pops up always in the mo ment and place where he is needed. All the workers are busy as their wits can make them, for they work by the piece, and the number of things made determines their wages. They are grouped into sets or "shops" of three or four, who work together and share profits together on a well-understood grade of division. Generally four con stitute a shop, the most skilful work man (the blower) at the head, the gatherer (a young fellow) next, and two boys, one handling molds or tools, and the other carrying the prod ucts to the annealing oven. The only way to learn the glass trade is through long apprenticeship in these four stages. And no apprentice is permit ted to enter the full privilege and wages of a master-workman without the consent of the order. By this se vere means of apprenticeship' the glass workers keep the skill of their trade in their own control, much like the old Venetian artisans, and practically dic tate their own prices to employers... Harper's Magazine. THE ARIZONA KICKER. esse ef the Vpm as Dewua f Editorial IJfe la the West. We extract tho following items from tho last issue of the Arizona Kicker: The Last Straw. For the last six months Major Davis, of this burgh, has lost no opportunity of abusing us and boasting of "what he would: do if we did not step softly. The reason for this conduct lies in tbe fact that the Kicker not only called hint;-a horse thief, but proved him a bigamist be sides. Last Saturday the Major, who has no more right to that title than a mule has to that of "professor," bor rowed a shot-gun and gave out that he had camped on our trail and meant to riddle our system with buckshot on sight. Word was brought to us. and although we were very busy at the time superintending our combined weekly newspaper, harness shop, gro cery, bazar and gun store (all under one roof, and the largest retail estab lishment in Arizona), we laid aside our work and went over to Snyder's saloon in search of the Major. We found him, and we gave him such a whipping as no man in this town ever got before. He lies a broken and stranded wreck on the shores of time, so to speak, and the doctor says it will be six weeks before he will nnd any more trails or do any more camping. Slipped a Coo. In company with the elite of this neighborhood we were invited to the abode of Judge Graham last Thursday evening to witness the marriage of County Clerk Dan Scott to the beautiful Arabella Johnson, only daughter of the aristocratic widow Johnson, of Bay Horse Hights. The widow had made a spread worthy of the days of Cleopatra, and Dan had on a new suit sent by express from Omaha for the occasion. Every thing passed off pleasantly until eight o clock, at which hour the bride was discovered to be missing, and investigation soon brought out the fact that she had gone dead back on Dan and skipped the tra Ia, whatever that is, with a bold cow boy named French Jim. She left a message to the effect that she could never, never love a man with a cata ract in his left eye, and that meant Dan. There was a feast, but no wed ding. andDaaiel will have to try again. Explanatory; As several versions of the incident that occurred in our office Saturday night arc flying around town and have probably been tele graphed all over the world, we deem it but right to give the particulars as they occurred. We were seated in the editorial chair, writing a leader on the European situation, when a rough character known around town as "Mike the Slayer" called in. As we had never had a word with the man. we suspected no evil. As a matter of fact we reached for our subscription book, supposing, of course, that he wanted the best weekly ia America for a year. The Slayer then announced that he had come to slay us. not be cause we had ever done him harm, but because tho influence of the press was driving out the good old times and customs. We retreated towards the door of our harness department. He pursued us with a drawn knife. We then felt it our duty to draw our gun and let six streaks of daylight through his bedy, and as he went down we stepped to the door and sent a boy for the coroner. It was a clear case of self-defense, and the inquest was a mere formality. We lament the sad occurrence, but no one can blamo us. We paid his burial expenses, and in another column will bo found his obitu ary, written in our best vein and with out regard to space. No other Arizona editor has ever done half as much. No Harm Done. The boys got after a stranger the other evening who was pointed out as a horse-thief, and ran him all over town with the object of pulling him up" to a limb. In some manner he gave them the slip, and in their zeal they got bold of Judge Dow ney and held him up to a limb for over a minute before the error was discov ered. The judge is gu-guing around with a sore throat and stiff neck and threatens to bring about fifty damage suits. Take a friend s advice, judge, and hush up. You got off powerful easy, considering your general charac ter. While it was a mistake, the boys were not so far wrong after alL Wo wish such mistakes would occur of tener. We Bide Our Time. While selling Mrs. Colonel Prescott four pounds of prunes for half a dollar the other day Constable Button entered and asked us to step across the street to the office of Esquire Williams. We obeyed the re quest, and were at once served with a warrant charging us with keeping bales of hay on the sidewalk in front of the Kicker office to the detriment of pedestrians. As is well known, we run a grocery, feed store, harness shop, bazar and music house in connection with the Kicker, and the hay was out for a sign. We were tried, convicted and fined nine dollars the grossest outrage ever perpetrated ia the name of law. We shall bide our time. That is, we shall begin next week and show 'Squire Williams up as a drunkard, dead-beat, absconder, embezzler aad perjurer, and if we can't drive him out of the country ia six weeks we will forfeit a lung. The man who made the complaint did it to get even with us for refusing to lend him our only button-behind shirt. From this out he is a marked man. We will begin on him next week, and we'll bet ten to one he hangs himself inside ef a month. Detroit Free Press. A gorilla ia the Bombay zoological gardens takes a bar of iron two inches thick and bends it double in his hands, and with one bite of his teeth he shivers a mahogany knot into mate wood. - FARM AND FIRESIDE. Much of thesuccess in growing root crops depends upon keeping them clear of weeds. Cultivate often; also the later corn. If there are no weeds a light soil is an excellent mulch in a dry time. Pig-pens in summer aro an abomi nation. Thousands of pigs are kept in them at a loss, or with a doubtful profit, when with a small outlay for suitable fencing, they could have tho benefits of grass and ground, and do better and make meat far more palata ble. There is always plenty to bo done in destroying insect pests that injure t the fruits and vegetables in the orchard or garden. Whatever means are em ployed care should be taken to do thorough work from the time they make their appearance uutil they dis appear. Root lice, says an exchange, aro more destructive to vegetation than those which prey upon tho stems and leaves. The louse which attacks the roots of the appie tree is one of the most destructive of its class. This pest sometimes works on the naked trunk, where it may be detected by a mass of little granulations about the size of cabbage seed. Meadows should not be mown too close nor should grass become too ripe before mowing. When meadows be come unproductive, despite the farm er's best care aud treatment, then tho remedy is to plow up the aged gnus and release the soil from its indurated and inactive state by thorough tillage for a couple of years. Then if desira ble, it can. by reseeding. be restored to its prime condition. Water from somo wells is too cool to be given to animals. Especially in very warm weather it is judicious to draw the water long enough in advance to allow its chill to be removed before the animals drink it, especially if they are fatigued. A handful of tine corn meal stirred into a bucketful of water will be acceptable, and preveut injury from excessive drinking of cold water. The value of red clover has but re cently become known, and in a com paratively very limited territory, though it was introduced into the Unite dStates some time prior to the Revolution, being known and cultivated by all the leading husbandmen of an cient Europe; but up to within a com paratively recent date its management was such as not to show its super-excellent qualities. But this is a scien tific era,, and the experiments lately made have developed fact after fact which have demonstrated beyond a doubt its superior qualities, not only for one use but for many. THE PIGS IN CLOVER. Carious Scieatlflc Oricjla or a Popular ami AbshsIbk razzle. The "Pigs in Clover" puzzle had a rather curious scientific origin. A student in physiological psychology named Marteufeldt. while making researches in some determinations of the sensativeness of the tactile sense under the direction of Helin- holzt, the great German investigator. found that the ability to balance a marble on a perfectly smooth piece of plate glass depended upon the delicacy of what is known as the reaction time. that is. deoends upon the quickness or the nerve current in receiving the im pression that the marble will roll, sending the impression to the controll ing organs in the cerebellum that con tract or relax the muscles of the arm. and the degree of responsiveness in the nervous end organs of the lingers which hold the piece of glass. Marten feldt found that if he placed the marble in the center of the plate and marked four or five spots oa the edges of the plate, and then asked the subject with which he experimented to tip the plate so that the marble would run across a particular spot, a considerable time elapsed before the subject could de termine how to tip tho plate to make the marble roll as required. When Marteufeldt completed the apparatus and placed rings of pasteboard about the center of the plate, with holes for the marble to run through, the average result of his experiments gave a ro makable psychological law. This was that the "reaction time" depended upon the size of the circles of paste board which made an impression upon the field of vision of the retina, and was in direct proportion to thediameter of the circles expressed tn'millimeters. Martenfeldt's experiments developed the fact that effects of practice and at tention diminish the psycho-phvsical reaction; time and fatigue increases it. Thus he found that tbe will time neces sary for choice between two motions was reduced by practice, for three sub jects of experiment from .080 second to .050, from .097 second to .0535. and from .098 second to .062 respect ively. For choice among five and ten possible motions the effect of practice was yet more marked; thus with five possible choices, the will time of one person was reduced by practice from .239 second to .083; and of another, with ten possible choices, from .358 second to .094. For each single day's series of experiments the time dimin ished faster at first thaa subsequently, but in many cases more distinctly oa the second than oa the first day of ex periment. The apparatus used by Marteufeldt for his experiments got on the market as a puzzle in a curious way. Martenfeldt sent one of his plates to an American friend. Dr. Her- Meyer, of Philadelphia, and at the Doctor's uouse a amck-wit ted business man of Waverly. X. Y.. saw it. recognized how taking a puzzle it would make if simplified, took out a patent in February, and put it on the marxei immediately with great 3UC- American Analyst. - TARSair r- tj. KWHV tesyng-fiSff.