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Signs of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 47.

Efforts to Hinder Nehemiah's Work
Earlier text: A Check on Adventism

Temperance.

By J. G. Holland

The Liquor Interest.

TRAMP, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching; how many of them? Sixty thousand! Sixty full regiments, every man of which will, before twelve months shall have completed their course, lie down in the grave of a drunkard! Every year during the past decade has witnessed the same sacrifice; and sixty regiments stand behind this army ready to take its place. It is to be recruited from our children and our children's children. "Tramp, tramp, tramp"—the sound comes to us in the echoes of the footsteps of the army just expired, tramp, tramp, tramp,—the earth shakes with the tread now passing; tramp, tramp, tramp, comes to us from the recruits. A great tide of life flows resistlessly to its death. What in God's name are they fighting for? The privilege of pleasing an appetite, and conforming to a social usage, of filling sixty thousand homes with shame and sorrow, of loading the public with the burden of pauperism, of crowding our prison-homes with felons, of detracting from the productive industries of the country, of ruining fortunes and breaking hopes, of breeding disease and wretchedness, of destroying both body and soul in hell before their time.
The prosperity of the liquor interest, covering every department of it, depends entirely on the maintenance of this army. It cannot live without it. It never did live without it. So long as the liquor interest maintains its present prosperous condition, it will cost America the sacrifice of sixty thousand men a year. The effect is inseparable from the cause. The cost to the country of the liquor traffic is a sum so stupendous that any figures which we should dare to give would convict us of trifling. The amount of life absolutely destroyed, the amount of industry sacrificed, the amount of bread transformed into poison, the shame, the unavailing sorrow, the crime, the poverty, the pauperism, the brutality, the wild waste of vital and financial resources, make an aggregate so vast, so incalculably vast, that the only wonder is that American people do not rise as one man, and declare that this great curse shall exist no longer. Dilettante conventions are held on the subject of peace by men and women who find it necessary to fiddle to keep themselves awake. A hue-and-cry is raised about woman suffrage, as if any wrong which may be involved in woman's lack of the suffrage could be compared to the wrongs attached to the liquor interest.
Does any sane woman doubt that women are suffering a thousand times more from rum than from any political disability?
The truth is that there is no question before the American people to-day that begins to match in importance the temperance question. The question of American slavery was never anything but a baby by the side of this; and we prophesy that within ten years, if not within five, the whole country will be awake to it and divided upon it. The organizations of the liquor interest, the vast funds at its command, the universal feeling among those whose business is pitted against the national prosperity and the public morals—these are enough to show that, upon one side of this matter, at least, the present condition of things and the social and political questions that lie in the immediate future are apprehended. The liquor interest knows there is to be a great struggle, and is preparing to meet it. People, both in this country and Great Britain, are beginning to see the enormity of this business—are beginning to realize that Christian civilization is actually poisoned at its fountain, and that there can be no purification of it until the source of the poison is dried up.
Meantime, the tramp, tramp, tramp sounds on—the tramp of sixty thousand yearly victims. Some are besotted and stupid; some are wild with hilarity, and dance along the dusty way; some reel along in pitiful weakness; some wreak their mad and murderous impulses on one another, or on the helpless women and children whose destinies are united to theirs; some stop in wayside debaucheries and infamies for a moment; some go bound in chains, from which they seek in vain to wrench their bleeding wrists; and all are poisoned in body and soul, and all are doomed to death. Wherever they move, crime, poverty, shame, wretchedness, and despair hover in awful shadows. There is no bright side to the picture. We forget; there is just one. The men who make the army get rich. Their children are robed in purple and fine linen, and live upon dainties. Some of them are regarded as respectable members of society, and they hold conventions to protect their interests! Still the tramp, tramp, tramp, goes on.—J. G. Holland, in Scribner's Monthly.

NO DRUNKARDS ARE THERE.

THERE is a beautiful land, we are told, With rivers of silver, streets of gold, Bright the beings whose shining feet Wander along each quiet street; Sweet is the music that fills the air— No drunkards are there.
No garrets are there, where the weary wait, Where the room is cold and the hours are late; No pale-faced wife, with looks of fear, Listens for steps she dreads to hear. The hearts are freed from pain and care— No drink is sold there.
Father, look down from thy throne, I pray, Hasten, oh, hasten a better day; Help us to work as a temperance band, To drive the demon from the land. Help us to wipe away every fear Which drink brings here. —Selected.

Youthful Cigarette-Smokers.

THIS is a nuisance against which brokers and others have protested in vain. "We suffer more from the intolerable nuisance of cigarette-smoking than any other business men," said a Broad Street broker yesterday, "because there are so many boys and young men, messengers, runners, and clerks, constantly eddying in and out of the office. Few people know how general the habit of smoking cheap paper cigarettes has become, and fewer still know how disagreeable and obnoxious it is to men who sit in their offices and receive the smoke in their faces all day long."
Scattered about the walls on all sides of the office were signs: "No cigarette-smoking here!" "Leave your cigarettes with the janitor!" "Put out that cigarette!" "No smoking of cigarettes!" Some of the signs were new and bright, while others were dim and dusty. In spite of them every third or fourth boy of the stream that constantly passed in through the swinging doors puffed a paper cigarette.
"They are used to the signs now," said the broker, with a surly frown toward the careless offenders, "and don't pay any attention to them. Nearly all the offices in this district have made an effort to stop the vice. Both my partner and myself smoke cigars—you see I'm smoking now—but we can't stand the cigarette nuisance. If the boys smoked tobacco it would be all right, but the infernal mixture of sea-weed, burned straw, old rags, and gutta-percha, with which common cigarettes are filled, makes the smoke disagreeable to the last degree."
"Do you think the habit is still spreading?"
"It increases every day. We began a crusade against it five years ago or more, and we were joined by every broker's office of importance in New York, but the smokers increase constantly. You see, the cigarettes are now sold as cheap as nine cents a package, there being twenty in a package. This price is within the means of every boy, and, as it is the fashion to smoke, the youngsters all fall in line."
There are a number of business men who make it a rule never to employ cigarette-smokers. The rules in the messenger service stations are also very severe.
"If you start a boy out," said the manager of a station near the Fifth Avenue hotel, "with a message in one hand, and twenty cigarettes in the other, the message will never get to its destination before at least half the cigarettes are smoked. So we make stringent rules concerning smoking, and punish the boys if they break them. I can pick out a cigarette-smoking boy any time. The habit makes them pallid, lazy, and impudent."
—New York Sun.

Temperance Progress in the South

The New Orleans City Item notes the increased interest in the cause of temperance in North Louisiana and other parts of the South, and says, "If the progress in public sentiment now going on continues for another year or two, we shall see a great change for the better, and the twin curses of the South, the pistol and drunkenness, abolished from the land."

Protection.

IT is admitted on all sides that society may protect itself against vagrancy. Rum is the mother of vagrancy!
It is admitted that society may protect itself against theft, robbery, burglary, and arson. Rum is the mother of these also. It is admitted that society may protect its members against the contaminating touch of prostitution. Rum is the mother of this.
It is admitted that society may protect itself against murder. Rum is the prolific mother of this most barbarous and horrible of crimes. I have passed forty-five years of my life upon the outermost rim of the blood-dragged frontier, and in that time have witnessed or been cognizant of the facts of one hundred murders; and every one of these murders was the fruit of strong drink; every murderer was inspired and driven to his ghastly work by rum. But its sale must not be prohibited, because to do this would interfere with some people's business.

A Tippler's Prayer.

I REMEMBER a poor victim of drink telling a Christian woman how he had been struggling against the desire for it, and had prayed to God, with the tears streaming down his face. The good woman turned round on him, saying, "I'll tell you how it was your prayer was not answered." "How was it?" "Because the desire for grace was not so strong as the craving for drink. If you really renounce the cup, your prayer will be heard." There is a good truth here—safe and wholesome. What should we think of a man who should deliberately thrust his head into the lion's mouth, or his hand into a den of rattlesnakes, and then pray God to keep him from being harmed? Prayer is a duty, undoubtedly; so also is the admonition to "Flee from evil and pass by it."
— Baptist Weekly.

Whisky and the Two Workmen

POMEROY'S Democrat tells the following unique story: Some years ago we had in our employ a man who several times a day ran out of the office to buy a drink of whisky. Every time he went out the cashier was instructed to drop ten cents in the drawer to our credit. At the end of seventeen months the man who had gone out so often had drank himself out of a good situation, and the drawer when opened was found to contain $409, which we loaned to a young mechanic at seven per cent. interest; he used it to purchase a set of tinner's tools. On the 15th of February, 1876, he returned it to us with interest, saying in his letter that he had a wife, two children, and property worth $5,000. The other fellow is a bummer hunting food.

Whisky Lets No One Alone

By Editor

It is a great mistake to say: "If you let whisky alone it will let you alone." Now here is Dr. Jutkins, who has not drank any whisky for fifty-three years, who can't get a furnace set up in his house on account of whisky. "The men in the shop are on a spree; everything has to stop!" This is the reason given by the helpless contractor who is as innocent of any tampering with whisky as the editor of this paper. But it won't let him alone. It has attacked his business so as to cause a loss of hundreds of dollars this fall. So it is everywhere, whisky lets no one alone. The waste and loss it occasions in one way or another is charged up against all honest effort, and no man can estimate how great that loss is.

Liquor’s Assault on Liberty

NEVER in all time was there so debasing and detestable an enslavement of a people as that now projected in this country by the makers and sellers of liquor. Never in all history did such greedy and unscrupulous hands seize the reins of power as now stretch out from every brewery, every saloon, every dive, every brothel, every deadfall where thieves and thugs lie in wait for their prey. Never were there such despicable plots against the liberties of a people as those hatched amid the reeking fumes of the "gin mill" by men puffed and bloated with the gains of making drunkards and impoverishing the poor—
Toledo Blade.

The Cost of the Liquor Trade

TEMPERANCE people will not be satisfied, though saloon-keepers pay all the expenses of building work-houses, jails, prisons, insane asylums, and of running them, if their own fathers and sons and husbands and brothers must fill them.

What a Woman Can Do.

As a wife and mother, woman can make the fortune and happiness of her husband and children; and, if she did nothing else, surely this would be sufficient destiny. By her thrift, prudence, and tact, she can secure to her partner and to herself a competence in old age, no matter how small their beginning or how adverse a fate may be theirs. By her cheerfulness she can restore her husband's spirit, shaken by the anxiety of business. By her tender care she can often restore him to health, if disease has overtasked his powers. By her counsel and love she can win him from bad company, if temptation in an evil hour has led him astray. By her examples, her precepts, and her sex's insight into character, she can mold her children, however adverse their dispositions, into noble men and women. And, by leading in all things a true and beautiful life, she can refine, elevate, and spiritualize all who come within reach; so that, with others of her sex emulating and assisting her, she can do more to regenerate the world than all the statesmen or reformers that ever legislated.
She can do much, alas! perhaps more, to degrade man if she chooses to do it. Who can estimate the evils that woman has the power to do? As a wife she can ruin herself by extravagance, folly, or want of affection. She can make a demon or an outcast of a man who might otherwise become a good member of society. She can bring bickerings, strife, and discord into what has been a happy home. She can change the innocent babes into vile men, and even into vile women. She can lower the moral tone of society itself, and thus pollute legislation at the spring-head. She can, in fine, become an instrument of evil instead of an angel of good.
Instead of making flowers of truth, purity, beauty, and spirituality spring up in her footsteps, till the earth smiles with a loveliness that is almost celestial, she can transform it to a black and arid desert, covered with the scorn of all evil passion, and swept by the bitter blast of everlasting death. This is what woman can do for the wrong as well as for the right. Is her mission a little one? Has she no worthy work as has become the cry of late? Man may have a harder task to perform, a rougher road to travel, but he has none loftier or more influential than woman's.—Selected.

The Home Circle.

WORK WHILE IT IS CALLED TO-DAY.

Up! there's no time for rest to-day! There's stubborn work to do For every willing heart and hand The blessed daylight through. Nor must we loiter, slack, or sleep, Save in the friendly night, Which hides beneath its grateful shades The labors of the light!
Up! there's no chance for rest to-day! Brothers of human kind, In many a dark and sterile spot, Are groping, halt and blind. And there are burdens to be borne, And fetters to be broke; And trees of evil to hew down With many a toilsome stroke!
Up! for the world is full of strife, The earth is sown with sin, Quick springing, like the noxious tares A noble field within. And, though at first but tiny blades, Of shower and sunshine born, The laborer needs but rest and straight They overtop his corn!
Then up! nor dream of rest to-day! The foes are all around; And some concealed in ambush lie, And some dispute the ground. Then let us gird the harness on To wrestle or to toil; The laborer reaps the golden grain, The conqueror wins the spoil!

A Lesson for All Girls.

"WHAT we need," said a gentleman in private conversation, "is concentration of energy, and application of it in the right direction." The person who spoke is a manufacturer of art furniture, and it was by mere accident that he took as an illustration the example of his fore-woman in the embroidery room. "She is a stout German-American girl, with a heavy face and a dumpy figure. She always attends to business. I have known her ever since she was a young girl doing embroidery for an up-town firm. We used to send her extra pieces to do, and she finally came to us altogether, because we paid her better. She has been in demand, personally sought after by employers ever since she began, for she spends her whole strength in her work. Her dress is extremely plain, and she does not care for gayeties. She has no ruinous diversion of interest to prevent her from attending to the matters of first importance."
"On the other hand," he continued, "we have, off and on, in our embroidery room, a pretty girl who will never amount to any thing. Her ideas of life are misshapen. She is a clever enough embroideress, but she works half-heartedly, and only when she feels inclined. She won't undertake this piece, and she can't do that. She is always asking favors and doing little irregularities that are harmless enough but disturbing to business. Her one ambition is dress. She really is in her way, a lady-like person. She is neat and clothes herself in good taste, with no display, but in a style far above her condition in life. Not a lady does she see in the streets but she looks at her dress and her manners, and even listens to her speech, to see what she can pick up to improve herself. The result is, the poor girl has cultivated sensibilities which make it unlikely that she will ever be connected with any home that might be offered her, and she has no strong-minded aspirations to independent prosperity. By devoting her energy to unproductive channels the girl has made herself useless and unhappy. She is not thinking of how her work appears, but of how she herself appears, and tries to gain admiration and ingratiate herself personally, when what we want from her is not pretty manners, but a good piece of embroidery."—Boston Courier.

A Word to Fathers.

WE have read a story of a little boy who, when he wanted a new suit of clothes, begged his mother to ask his father if he might have it. The mother suggested that the boy might ask for himself. "I would," said the boy, "but I don't feel well enough acquainted with him." There is a sharp reproof to the father in the reply of his son. Many a father keeps his children so at a distance from him, that they never feel confidently acquainted with him. They feel that he is a sort of monarch in the family. They feel no familiarity with him. They fear and respect him, and even love him some, for children cannot help loving everybody about them some; but they seldom get near enough to him to feel intimate with him. They seldom go to him with their little wants and trials. They approach him through the mother. They tell her everything. They have a highway to her heart on which they go in and out with perfect freedom. In this keeping-off plan, fathers are to blame. Children should not be held off. Let them come near. Let them be as intimate with the father as with the mother. Let their little hearts be freely opened. It is wicked to freeze up the love-fountains of little ones' hearts. Fathers do them an injury by living with them as strangers. This drives many a child away from home for the sympathy his heart craves, and often into improper society. It nurses discontent and distrust, which many a child does not outgrow in his lifetime. Open your hearts and your arms, fathers; be free with your children; ask of their wants and trials; play with them; be fathers to them truly, and then they will not need a mediator between themselves and you.—Selected.

True Courtesy.

GENUINE politeness is not any too common, for this quality is not a matter of mere form or ceremony, but comes from that sincere kindness of heart that tenderly regards the rights and the comfort of others. There is a class of people who are very scrupulous as to certain forms, and would rather violate one of the ten commandments than disregard a rule or practice of table etiquette. Such persons regard it as a grave impropriety to raise the knife to the lips in eating, instead of the fork. A beautiful fact on this subject is related of Prince Albert, the excellent husband of Queen Victoria. On one occasion a humble, worthy man, who had befriended the prince in early life, called to see him, and was invited to come to the family table. He began to eat with his knife, as he had been accustomed, and the young people smiled. Prince Albert looked around upon them as if to say, "Stop that," and at once he himself began to eat with his knife, and did so to the end of the meal. After dinner one of the children asked him why he did so.
Prince Albert replied, "It is well enough for us to observe the etiquette of the day, but it is far more important to avoid insulting people. I wanted my old friend to enjoy his dinner, which he could not if he had seen you laughing at him. He is accustomed to use his knife, and it would be quite difficult for him to use the fork instead."
This was genuine politeness. The world would be happier and better if there were more of it. There may be the most scrupulous following out of forms where the very essence of politeness is lacking. And parents make a great mistake who insist upon their children observing the forms of etiquette, while they neglect to inculcate that kindness of heart, that unselfish regard for the welfare of others, which is the only source from which genuine courtesy can come.—Christian at Work.

Silence in Reply to Calumny

By Addison

SILENCE never shows itself to so great an advantage as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation.—Addison.

Deference

By Shenstone

DEFERENCE is the most delicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.—Shenstone.

Ready Obedience

God asks of us prompt, and willing obedience. You perhaps have heard of the little lad who, looking thoughtfully at his dog, said: "I wish I could mind God as doggy minds me; he always looks pleased to mind, and I don't." Are you "pleased to mind"? Is yours ready obedience to father and mother?

Influence of Example.

Said a lively little boy to his mother, "I wish you would hire Sally again, I don't like to work so much." "And why not, my son? Work is good for us; work makes us happy." "It does not make me happy, and it does not make you happy," was the prompt reply. That mother saw her error. Tender and devoted as she was, she had often been grieved by the indifference which her children manifested when required to share with her those labors which her circumstances made it needful for her to perform. But the secret was now told: she had come herself with a disquieted mind to the performance of her task; and although she had not suffered her lips to utter the truth that labor was painful, the lineaments of her face, and the tones of her voice, had conveyed to their young minds this impression more deeply than any words she could have uttered.
That children are good physiognomists, is a common remark; but few realize how well they read the mother in her eyes. Her looks make a deeper impression than her words—her spirit than her precepts; and when her instructions are neglected, her example is never forgotten. When all these are at variance, the quick eye of childhood detects the inconsistency; and true to the impulse of feeling, he at once decides that truth is falsehood, or that his mother is not sincere; and thus he early learns either to despise the truth or to reject that authority which he cannot respect. I believe many of our sons learn their first lessons in infidelity on their mother's lap; and far better had it been for those sons had they learned those lessons in the school of Hume or Voltaire. Better put into our children's hands the writings of Paine, than fill their minds with objections to the truth derived from the inconsistency of parental example.
When mothers learn to bear the necessary toils and trials of life, not only with meekness and patience, but with cheerfulness and composure, they will meet in the bright eye and happy faces of those for whom they labor, the reward of whatever of self-denial or self-control it may have cost them. The man whose hands are red with the blood of his fellow-man, is called a hero; many speak his praise; but the word of wisdom tells us that he that ruleth his own spirit, is greater than he that taketh a city—and those who have achieved this triumph find in their own experience that curse from which they may not escape converted into choicest blessings.—Advocate and Guardian.

News and Notes.

By Editor

—O'Donnell is to be hanged in London on the 17th inst. —The French have bombarded several Madagascar ports. —Cows are still used to draw plows in central Germany. —A dozen negro Mormons arrived at Salt Lake last week. —A man 99 years of age was naturalized at Marysville last week. —All Americans landing in Ireland are closely watched by the police. —More than 18,000 homesteads were entered in Florida the past year. —An effort will be made in Congress to stop the coinage of silver dollars. —The canton of Valois, Switzerland, has restored the death penalty for murder. —The Salvation Army is now under the ban of expulsion in four Swiss cantons. —A ten-story tenement house is to be erected in New York City, costing $350,000. —Ten men were lost in a hurricane off the coast of Nova Scotia, on the 3d inst. —It is estimated that 500,000 alligators were killed in Florida during the past year. —A chair of German and German Literature has been established in the State University. —Punta Arenas, in Patagonia, is a Chile convict settlement, and has a population of 30,000. —English capitalists are preparing to develop the gold-fields of Lumpkin and White Counties, Ga. —In six years the trades' unions of England have spent $10,000,000 for the relief of men out of work. —A fire in Constantinople, on the 6th inst., destroyed 600 houses, the Greek Church, and four synagogues. —Scarlet fever is said to be raging in Salem, Oregon, and the public schools have been closed in consequence. —The Presbyterians have an eye and ear charity hospital in Baltimore. In five years 15,000 cases have been treated. —North Iowa makes $2,000,000 worth of butter annually. Creameries are preparing to ship to the Pacific Coast. —The report comes from Gloucester, Mass., that three fishing schooners and twenty-eight men have been lost in a storm. —Two teamsters from Tombstone, A. T., were seriously wounded, last week, by ambushed Apaches, near Fronteras, Mexico. —About 3,000 discharged railroad Chinamen are reported to be in a destitute condition on the mainland opposite Victoria, B. C. —Prominent parties in Texas will bring suit against the Government to recover the value of slaves emancipated during the war. —The Woman's Christian Association of Chicago has, in six years, assisted over 1,000 young women to attain self-supporting positions. —The President recommends revision of our legislation upon the subject of paupers being sent to this country from Great Britain. —Geo. A. Wheeler, who strangled Della Tillson, his sister-in-law, three years ago in San Francisco, has been sentenced to be hanged Jan. 23. —Joseph Foster and wife celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of their wedding at Cairo, Ill., two weeks ago. He is aged 97, and she 95. —The National Temperance Society has adopted a resolution asking Congress to add a prohibition amendment to the Federal Constitution. —The Dickey Bird Society of northern England comprises 80,000 children, who are pledged to feed birds in winter and protect them in summer. —A piece of an apartment house property, 100 feet square, on Seventy-third avenue, New York, has been bought by U. S. Grant, Jr., for $140,000. —A vessel which arrived at New Bedford, Conn., last week, brought an eagle which alighted on the mast-head when the vessel was 1,500 miles from land. —Five lines of narrow-gage railroad, aggregating 775 miles, are projected from Albuquerque, N. M., to coal mines and timber regions of the Territory. —Controller Knox fears that the present financial policy of the Government will effect the demonetization of gold and the establishment of a silver standard. —In Columbia County, Georgia, on the 2d inst., two colored children were burned to death in a cabin, where their parents had left them while absent at church. —In the event of war between France and China, the United States, England, Germany, and Russia will unite in protection of their subjects in Chinese ports. —While destroying an illicit distillery in Durham County, N. C., on the 4th inst., the Deputy Collector was shot and seriously wounded by parties in ambush. —As a result of the alarming dissatisfaction in Manitoba, the tide of immigration for some time past has been turning from the Canadian northwest to Dakota.
—Reports of murder, robbery, suicide, defalcation, etc., come in rather numerously from all parts of the country to justify the theory that the world is growing better. —The Adjutant-General of the army has received information of the surrender, at Camp Poplar River, of five lodges of Sitting Bull's forces from the British provinces. —President Arthur recommends that Congress assume the entire political control of Utah, and establish a commission with such powers as may be delegated by law. —At Water Valley, Miss., a few days ago, while trying to amuse a sick child, one lady snapped a pistol at another lady's head. It went off, and the victim lived but a few minutes. —The Musselman fanatic, Khof Seyd, has entered Persia with 2,000 Ottomans. He is preaching a holy war against Russia. Two smaller bands have also entered Persia. —Five young men, who had just arrived from Kansas City, died of yellow fever at Mazatlan last week. It is said that the real extent of the disease in Sonora has been covered up. —Another girl has been found murdered in a mysterious manner. This time it occurred near Orange, N. J. The girl's name was Phebe Paulin, aged 17, and she was found in a field with her throat cut. —Mrs. Ruth Everett, of Salt Lake City, recommends the abolishing of woman suffrage in Utah as the first step toward putting down polygamy. The men compel their wives to vote the Church ticket. —One of the forty train robbers, whose depredation on the Mexican National Railroad was noted a few weeks ago, has been arrested, and under threats of hanging, has divulged the names of the entire gang. —The New York police recently raided an opium den, where they found twenty-six customers. A brother and sister were among the company, who had come from Greenville, N. J., to try the experiment of a smoke. —The Piute Indians of Nevada complain of the new railroad regulations, which require that they shall pay freight for the game they catch and kill. Heretofore the roads have been carrying their game without charge. —Miss Purriance, a school teacher at Indiana, N. Y., stepped on the porch of her residence on the evening of Nov. 27, and was instantly seized, silenced, and carried a mile by two men. She was found insensible next morning. —J. W. Niles, the colored separatist, in a petition to the Senate, sets forth that he and his people are prevented from exercising their right to enter public lands by white citizens of Arkansas. He avers cruelty, and asks for relief. —There is great complaint of monopolies in Manitoba and the Canadian Northwest, indignation meetings and resolutions being directed against railroad monopoly, manufacturers' monopoly, land monopoly, elevator monopoly, etc., etc. —The present Congress will be noted for efforts to declare forfeited all unearned railroad land grants. More than a score of bills are being prepared, whether any of them pass, remains to be seen. The power of the corporations is immense. —The Japanese Government has elaborated a scheme for creating Courts of Justice which, if the interior of Japan is opened, will try cases in which foreigners are concerned. The scheme has been submitted to the Western Powers. America and Germany favor it. —A young Jew of Berditschew, Russia, has invented a watch that goes by electricity. It is very simple, having no spring and only two wheels. It keeps accurate time, is very cheap, and is expected to revolutionize the watch business, besides being applicable to other purposes. —An inquiry into the pension agency business in Washington, has exposed some peculiar features of the calling: Among other practitioners, were found two hardware merchants, two grocers, one pressman, a tailoress, an inventor, a copyist, a shoemaker, and a colored rag-picker. —Fifty persons attacked by trichinosis in the city of Thorn, West Prussia, November 20. Moral to people of all countries: Cook your pork thoroughly."—N. Y. Tribune. A better moral would be, Don't eat pork. The idea of eating such a disease, even when "thoroughly" cooked, is repugnant. —The U. S. Minister at Constantinople still complains of the inaction of the authorities at Bitlis in regard to furnishing names of the parties who assailed American missionaries. He demands that the trial of the offenders shall take place at Constantinople, as no confidence can be placed in the Governor of Bitlis. —A delegation of fourteen Congressmen, headed by S. S. Cox, and several citizens, waited upon President Arthur, on the 8th inst., and asked that the Government intercede in behalf of O'Donnell, to obtain a commutation of sentence. The President promised to inquire into the matter, through Minister Lowell. —A young woman in Erie, Pa., recently hired a stranger to marry her and then "go about his business," she to "go home and live as she had always lived." The ceremony was performed by a Justice, and the woman gave as a reason for the act, that she wanted a permanent excuse for refusing a man whom she loved but for some reason did not want to marry.
—A few weeks ago, Mr. Geo. F. Parsons, formerly editor of the Sacramento Record-Union, published to the world his conversion to Spiritualism, based upon the materialization of his daughter, at various times, to the entire satisfaction of himself and wife. A Mrs. Reynolds was the successful medium; but now we have a full expose of the fraud, through the confessions of confederates and assistants at the seances. The expose includes several other prominent cases.

HOLIDAY BOOKS FOR OLD AND YOUNG.

By Editor

Price.
The Mountains $5 00
The Bird World 5 00
Sunbeam Stories (3 vols.) 5 00
Sabbath Readings (4 vols.) 2 50
Pillar of Fire 2 00
Leonore's Trials 1 75
Without a Home 1 50
Nanny Davenport 1 50
Vivians of Woodiford 1 50
Tom Bently 1 50
Pen Portraits 1 50
Harry Maitland 1 25
Ellen Dacre 1 25
Gutta-Percha Willie 1 25
The Hard Problem 1 25
Paul Venner 1 25
Jessie Bower 1 25
Sequel to Tim 1 25
Temperance Tracts 1 25
Best Fellow in the World 1 25
No Danger 1 25
Witnessing for Jesus 1 25
Studies of Neglected Texts 1 25
David Livingston 1 25
Within Sea Walls 1 25
The Old Red House 1 25
Saved 1 25
The Prince of Good Fellows 1 25
Ten Cents 1 25
From Father to Son 1 25
How Could He Escape 1 25
His Honor the Mayor 1 25
Penny Rust Christmas 1 15
Still Waters, or Dreams of Rest 1 00
Frances Morton 1 00
Glen Elder 1 00
Two New Year's Days 1 00
Prohibitionist's Text-Book 1 00
Barford Mills 1 00
White Hands and White Hearts 1 00
Coals of Fire 1 00
Norman Brill's Life Work 1 00
Home Making 1 00
Week-day Religion 1 00
Schönberg Cotta Family 1 00
The Pledge and the Cross 1 00
Palestine for the Young 1 00
The Lost Estate 1 00
Our Coffee Room 1 00
Water-Spouts 1 00
The Old Brown Pitcher 1 00
Ten Lectures on Alcohol 1 00
Paul Brewster and Son 1 00
A More Excellent Way 1 00
Caught and Fettered 1 00
Story of the Bible 1 00
Juno and Georgie 90
Mary Osborne 90
Juno on a Journey 90
Hubert 90
Jessie's Work 90
Fred's Fresh Start 90
Alcohol—Its Nature and Effects 90
The Red Bridge 90
Rachel Noble's Experience 90
The Hard Master 85
Echo Bank 85
Sybil Gray 80
Tiptoe 80
Secret of Victory 75
Rosa Leighton 75
Drops of Water 75
Over the Way 75
Little Blue Jacket 75
Bertie's Present 70
Songs for Little Ones 70
The Brother's Choice 60
Jonas Clare 60
Fanny Lightman's Choice 60
May Covely 60
Talks on Temperance 60
The Model Landlord 60
The Temperance Speaker 50
Dialogue on Drink 50
A Piece of Silver 50
Bible Rule of Temperance 50
Frank Spencer's Rule of Life 50
The Pitcher of Cool Water 50
Sunshine Series (10 books) 50
Golden Grains (10 books) 50
Circled by Fire 40
The Emerald Spray 40
The Curse and the Cup 40
Come Home, Mother 40
The Vow at the Bars 40
To any one ordering $5.00 worth of the above we will give a discount of 10 per cent.
A choice line of Sabbath-school Teachers' Text-books, and a full line of Temperance Text-books constantly on hand.
Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

Meetings in California.

By Editor

IN the telegram from Eld. Haskell, are the following words:—
"Appointments recommended: State meeting and Bible-readings, Healdsburg, Jan. 3 to 13, 1884. Sister White and Elder Corliss will be present. Church quarterly meetings, Dec. 22."
In regard to these meetings we have no time to consult with anybody in California before this paper must go to press. But as we know of no reason why the appointments cannot stand as recommended, we publish the telegram as received. If any change is thought best, information may be given in next paper. In the meantime let preparations be made for a grand rally at the State meeting. All the churches should be well represented there. There is no time to be lost in our work, and such a favorable opportunity may not be presented again soon. Representatives of the churches, church officers, missionary society officers, and all workers should attend that meeting, both for the spiritual benefit to be received, and for the instruction they may receive in regard to proper methods of labor. Do not fail to go. Time is short, the harvest is plenteous, and the laborers are few.

Healdsburg College.

By Editor

LAST week we took a run up to Healdsburg, and spent a night at North College Hall, with, what may in very truth be called, "a happy family." About fifty in the house, all told; everything moving in perfect order; the students work as if they enjoyed it, and we really believe they do; and we believe they enjoy their study, as well as their excellent food, better for the work. With one feature we were specially pleased: Prof. Brownsberger says there is no lack of punctuality at family prayers. All are present in good season, old and young, every time. This is cheering.
The Bible work in the College is bearing good fruit. The students are taking the truth into both their heads and hearts. Dr. E. J. Waggoner, who is conducting the Bible studies there, baptized six students on Sabbath, Dec. 1. In the providence of God this school was established, and his blessing is with it. We expect it will prove a great aid and blessing to the cause of Bible truth on this coast.
Continue reading: Good News from the East