Earlier text: Thoughts on the Book of DanielTHE HOME CIRCLE.
By T. S. Arthur
"THAT man will be the death of me yet," said Paul Levering. He looked worried out, not angry. "What has he been doing to thee now?" asked the questioner, a friend, named Isaac Martin, a neighbor. "He's always doing something, friend Martin. Scarcely a day passes that I don't have complaint of him. Yesterday one of the boys came and told me he saw him throw a stone at my new Durham cow, and strike her on the head." "That's very bad, friend Levering. Does thee know why he did this? Was thy Durham trespassing on his grounds?" "No, she was only looking over the fence. He has a spite against me and mine, and does all he can to injure me. You know the fine Bartlett pear that stands in the corner of my lot adjoining his property?" "Two large limbs full of fruit hung over on his side. You would hardly believe it, but it is true; I was out there just now, and discovered that he had sawed off those two fine limbs that hung over on his side. They lay down upon the ground and his pigs were eating the fruit." "Why is Dick so spiteful to thee, friend Levering? He doesn't annoy me. What has thee done to him?" "Nothing of any consequence." "Thee must have done something. Try and remember." "I know what first put him out, I kicked an ugly old dog of his once. The beast, half-starved at home, I suppose, was all the time prowling about here, and snatched up everything that came in his way. One day I came upon him suddenly, and gave him a tremendous kick that sent him howling through the gate. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the dog's master happened to be passing along the road. The way he swore at me was dreadful. I never saw a more vindictive face. The next morning a splendid Newfoundland, that I had raised from a pup, met me shivering at the door, with his tail cut off. I don't know when I have felt so badly. Poor fellow! his piteous looks haunt me now; I had no proof against Dick, but have never doubted as to his agency in the matter. In my grief and indignation I shot the dog and so put him out of sight." "Thee was hasty in that, friend Levering," said the Quaker. "Perhaps I was, though I have never regretted the act. I met Dick a few days afterwards. The grin of satisfaction on his face I accepted as an acknowledgement of his mean and cruel revenge. Within a week from that time one of my cows had a horn knocked off." "I went to Dick Hardy, and gave him a piece of my mind." "That is, thee scolded and called him hard names, and threatened." "Yes; just so, friend Martin." "Did any good come of it?" "About as much good as though I had whistled to the wind." "No change for the better; it grows, if anything, worse and worse. Dick never gets weary of annoying me." "Has thee ever tried the law with him, friend Levering? The law should protect thee." "Oh, yes, I've tried the law. Once he ran his heavy wagon against my carriage purposely, and upset me in the road. I made a narrow escape with my life. The carriage was so badly broken that it cost me fifty dollars for repairs. A neighbor saw the whole thing and said it was plainly intended by Dick. So I sent him the carriage-maker's bill, at which he got into a towering passion. Then I threatened him with a prosecution, and he laughed in my face malignantly. I felt the time had come to act decisively, and I sued him, relying on the evidence of my neighbor. He was afraid of Dick, and so worked his testimony that the jury saw only an accident instead of a purpose to injure. After that Dick Hardy was worse than ever. He took an evil delight in annoying and injuring me. I am satisfied that in more than one instance he left gaps in his fences in order to entice my cattle into his fields that he might set his dogs on them, and hurt them with stones. It is more than a child of mine dares, to cross his premises. Only last week he tried to put his dog on my little Florence, who had strayed into one of his fields after buttercups. The dog was less cruel than the master or she would have been torn by his teeth, instead of only frightened by his bark." "It's a hard case, truly, friend Levering. Our neighbor Hardy seems possessed of an evil spirit." "The spirit of the devil," was answered with feeling. "He's thy enemy, assuredly; and if thee does not get rid of him he will do thee great harm. Thee must if thee would dwell in safety, friend Levering." The Quaker's face was growing very serious. He spoke in a lowered voice, and bent towards his neighbor in a confidential manner. "Thee must put him out of the way." "Friend Martin!" the surprise of Paul was unfeigned. The countenance of Levering grew black with astonishment. "Kill him!" he ejaculated. "If thee does not kill him he'll certainly kill thee, one of these days, friend Levering. And thee knows what is said about self-preservation being the first law of nature." "I don't think they'll hang thee," coolly returned the Quaker. "Thee can go over to his place and get him all alone by thyself. Or thee can meet him on some by-road. Nobody need see thee, and when he's dead, I think people will be more glad than sorry." "Do you think I'm no better than a murderer; I, Paul Levering, stain my hands with blood!" "Who said anything about staining thy hands with blood?" said the Quaker, mildly. "Thee's mistaken, I never used the word blood." "But you meant it. You suggested murder." "No, friend Levering, I advised thee to kill thy enemy, lest some day he shall kill thee." "Isn't killing murder, I should like to know?" demanded Levering. "There are more ways than one to kill an enemy," said the Quaker. "I've killed a good many in my time, and no stain of blood can be found on my garments. My way of killing enemies is to make them friends. Kill neighbor Hardy with kindness, and thee'll have no more trouble with him." A sudden light gleamed over Mr. Levering's face, as if a cloud had passed. "A new way to kill people." "The surest way to kill enemies, as thee'll find, if thee'll only try." "Let me see. How shall we go about it?" said Paul Levering, taken at once with the idea. "If thee has the will, friend Levering, it will not be long before thee will find the way." And so it proved. Not two hours afterward as Mr. Levering was driving into the village, he found Dick Hardy with a stalled cart-load of stone. He was whipping his horse and swearing at him passionately, but to no purpose. The cart wheels were buried half way to the axles in stiff mud, and defied the strength of one horse to move them. On seeing Mr. Levering, Dick stopped pulling and swearing, and getting on the cart, commenced pitching the stones off on the side of the road. "Hold on a bit, friend Hardy," said Levering, in a pleasant voice, as he dismounted and unhitched his horse. But Dick pretended not to hear, and kept on pitching off the stones. "Hold on, I say, and don't give yourself all that trouble," added Mr. Levering, speaking in a louder voice, but in a kind and cheering tone. "Two horses are better than one. With Charlie's help, we'll soon have the wheels on solid ground again." Understanding now what was meant, Dick's hands fell almost nerveless by his side. "There," said Levering, as he put his horse in front of Dick's and made the traces fast. "One pull and the thing is done." Before Dick could get down from the cart it was out of the mud hole, and without saying a word more, Levering unfastened his horse from the front of Dick's animal and hitching up again rode on. On the next day Mr. Levering saw Dick Hardy in the act of strengthening a bit of weak fence through which Levering's cattle had broken once or twice, thus removing temptation, and saving the cattle from being beaten and set on by dogs. "Thee's given him a bad wound, friend Levering," said the Quaker, on getting information of the two incidents just mentioned, "and it will be thy own fault if thee does not kill him." Not long afterwards, in the face of an approaching storm, and while Dick Hardy was hurrying to get in some clover hay, his wagon broke down. Mr. Levering, who saw from one of his fields the incident, and understood what its loss might occasion, hitched up his team, and sent his own wagon over to Dick's assistance. With a storm coming on that might last for days and ruin from two to three tons of hay, Dick could not decline the offer, though it went against the grain to accept a favor from the man he had hated for years, and injured in so many ways. On the following morning Mr. Levering had a visit from Dick Hardy. It was raining fast. "I've come," said Dick, stammering and confused, and looking down on the ground instead of into Mr. Levering's face, "to pay you for the use of your team yesterday, in getting in my hay. I should have lost it if you hadn't sent your wagon, and it is only right I should pay you for the use of it." "I should be very sorry," answered Paul Levering, cheerfully, "if I couldn't do a neighborly turn without pay. You are quite welcome, friend Hardy, to the wagon. I am more than paid by knowing that you saved that nice field of clover. How much did you get?" "About three tons. But Mr. Levering, I must"— "Not a word, if you don't want to offend me," interrupted Levering. "I trust there isn't a man around here that wouldn't do as much for a neighbor in time of need. Still, if you feel embarrassed—if you don't wish to stand my debtor, pay me in good will." Dick Hardy raised his eyes slowly, and looking in a strange wondering way at Mr. Levering, said: "Shall we not be friends?" Mr. Levering reached out his hand. Hardy grasped it with a quick, short grip, and then, as if to hide his feelings that were becoming too strong, dropped it, and went off hastily. "Thee's killed him!" said the Quaker, on his next meeting with Levering; "thy enemy is dead!" "Slain by kindness," answered Paul Levering, "which you supplied." "No thee took it from God's armory, where all men may equip themselves without charge, and become invincible," replied the Quaker. "And I trust for thy peace and safety, thee will never use any other weapons in fighting with thy neighbors. They are sure to kill."—T. S. Arthur. A Woman at the Bottom of It.
"To TELL the truth," said John Haviland, as he threw aside his evening paper, and faced the little group in the parlor, "I am fast growing out of patience with this text—'a woman at the bottom of it.' It would be strange in this world, made up, as far as we are aware of, of nothing but the two sexes, if a woman would not occasionally be found at the bottom of anything good! It is the injustice of the thing that makes me angry. Now there are hundreds of us poor fellows who owe all we are, all we have and all we can hope to become, in this world or the next, to the unselfish love of woman." The gentleman's face was flushed, and he spoke very warmly and feelingly, so much so that his wife, rocking her baby to sleep in the farther corner of the room inquired:— "But why should you care, John? It has always been so, and always will be. We don't think much about it now because we have been taught to expect it." "But you should care! and you should stand up for each other more than you do. There is one chapter in my life history that I have always locked in my heart, but to-night I feel as if it were my duty to open it for your inspection; and I do it for the love of woman—for the love of one woman who made me what I am worthy to be, the husband of a good woman." "Why, John," said Mrs. Haviland, softly approaching—babe still held tight to her bosom—"You absolutely frighten me." "Let's have the story," said the rest of the group, certain that something good might be anticipated; and John commenced, at first a little timidly, but gaining confidence as he proceeded. "When I first came to New York, at the age of twelve years, to seek my fortune I can call myself a precocious chap without danger of being accused of an unusual degree of self-appreciation. I was quick to learn everything, the bad as well as the good. My employer used profane language. I picked up the oaths he dropped with a naturalness that surprised myself even. The boys in the office all chewed tobacco. This was a little the hardest job I ever attempted, but after two weeks of nausea and indescribable stomach-wrenchings, I came off victorious, and could get away with my paper a day with the best of 'em. "True every word of it," continued the speaker. "One afternoon I was sent with a note from my employer to a house in the upper part of the city. I had n't anything to read, but I had a plenty of tobacco, and with that I proposed to entertain myself during the two or three hours I must spend in the passage. For some distance I did not notice who were beside me, but by and by a lady said very softly and pleasantly, 'Would you please, little boy, be more careful, I am going to a party this afternoon, and I should hate to have my dress spoiled.' "I looked into her face. It was the sweetest face I ever saw. Pale, earnest and loving, to my boyish heart it was the countenance of an angel."87"What in the world did you say," interrupted Mrs. Haviland, her bright eyes filling with tears, as she saw how the memory of this beautiful woman affected her husband. "Say! There was very little I could say, I think all I did for some time was to look. I managed to dispose of the tobacco, however, and wiped my mouth very carefully, all of which I felt certain she saw and mentally commented upon." "'Have you a mother, little boy?' she next asked in the same low tone. "'No ma'am,' I answered, and I felt my throat filling up, and I knew that I must swallow mighty fast to keep from sobbing. "'You have a father then, I suppose?' she kept on. "'Then the little boy is all alone in the world?' "'How long has his mother been dead?' and the dear woman looked away from my face, and waited till I could speak. "'Two years,' I answered. "'And you loved her?' came next. "'Dearly,' was all that I could say. She was silent for a moment, and then said so sweetly—oh! I shall never forget it—'and what do you think your dear mother would say—how do you think she would feel—to know that her little boy was guilty of such a disgusting habit as this?' pointing to my cheek where the tell-tale quid had vainly tried to stand its ground. "'I must leave now,' she continued, 'but here is my card, and if you come to me most any evening, I shall be glad to see you, and perhaps we can be of service to each other.' "She gave me her little gloved hand, and to my dying day, I shall never forget the sensations of that moment. I could not bear to part with her; without her I felt that I could do nothing—with her, I could grow to man's estate—a man in the truest sense of the word. From that moment tobacco never passed my lips. "As soon as I could muster courage I called upon the lady. Well do I remember how my heart beat as I waited in the elegant parlor for her to come down; and how awkward I felt as I followed my guide to her private sitting room. Here she got at every point of my life, and before I bade her good-bye it was arranged that I should spend two evenings of each week at her house, and I was to read and study on these occasions just what she thought best. "No lover ever looked forward to meetings with the mistress of his heart any more ardently than I did to these evenings with my friend. "I grew careful of my personal appearance—careful of my conversation, and strove in every way to be worthy this noble friendship. Two years passed in this delightful manner—two years that made me. My friend not only attended to my studies, striving also all the while to sow the right kind of spiritual seed, but she procured me a business situation with a particular friend of hers, where I remain to this day. Nobody but God knows what I owe this woman. During the last three months of those two years, I noticed that she grew constantly pale and thin; she never was betrayed into speaking of herself. Sometimes when I would ask her if she felt worse than usual she would reply:— "'Oh, no! I am only a little tired—that is all.' "One evening she kept me by her sofa much longer than was her custom, while she arranged lessons, and laid out work enough it seemed to me, for months. "'Why so much to-night?' I inquired, conscious that my heart ached, and vaguely suspecting the cause. "'Because dear,' she answered, 'I do not want you to come for the next week, and I am anxious that you should have sufficient work to anticipate, as well as to keep you busy. I think I can trust you to be a good boy, John!' "'I think you can, ma'am,' I answered almost sobbing. "I soon comprehended it all, and my grief knew no bounds. It is no use to go on. She died two days after; and when I hear folks saying: 'There's a woman at the bottom of it,' I feel like telling the whole world what a woman did for me."—Sel. It is a most fearful fact to think of, that in every heart there is some secret spring that would be weak at the touch of temptation, and that is liable to be assailed. Fearful and yet salutary to think of; for the thought may serve to keep our moral nature braced. It warns us that we can never stand at ease, or lie down in this field of life, without sentinels of watchfulness, and camp-fires of prayer. It had some grains of truth, at least,
That fable of the Sybarite,
For whom, because one leaf was creased,
The rose-strewn couch had no delight.
I think not even sanguine youth
Expects its gold without alloy,
But this is still the sober truth,—
A little pain can mar much joy. 'Tis pity that one thwarting thought,
One adverse chance, one sudden fear
Or sharp regret can turn to naught
The full content that seemed so near!
But this strange life of ours abounds
With notes so subtile, they afford
A thousand discords and harsh sounds
For one harmonious, perfect chord. A SERIOUS outburst of trichinosis is stated by the Veterinary Journal to have occurred at Leipsic in Germany. All classes of the community have been attacked by it, and at Stettin alone there were forty-one cases in one week. In America, too, the same journal states that trichinosis is either becoming more prevalent in the United States of America or it is more closely investigated and readily recognized. An outbreak occurred in Indiana in 1874, but only nine people were affected, and three of these perished. One pig was the origin of the outbreak. Its flesh, which had been converted into smoked sausages, and was full of trichinæ, had been eaten in an uncooked state. The Western States, which are the chief pig rearing regions, are much infested by trichinosis; and an examination of the flesh of pigs in South-eastern Indiana proved that from three to sixteen per cent are affected. It is calculated that in the Western States 5,000,000 pigs are killed every winter for the consumption of a large portion of the United States; and if only four per cent of these are trichinosed the total number disposed of for food would be upwards of two hundred thousand. Considering our extensive imports of pigs from Germany and pork from America, it would appear that our immunity from this terrible disease must depend on the fact that we habitually cook our food well. Useful Recollections When Angry.
The great Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, composed the following subjects of reflection, to be used when he found himself in the heat of anger. They are equally as useful now in the nineteenth as in the second century, and should be generally remembered:— 1. That men were made for each other; even the inferior for the sake of the superior, and these for the sake of one another. 2. That invincible influences act upon men and mold their opinions and acts. 3. That sin is mainly error and ignorance—an involuntary slavery. 4. That we are ourselves feeble, and by no means immaculate; and that often our very abstinence from faults is due more from cowardice and care of our reputation than to any freedom from the disposition to commit them. 5. That our judgments are very rash, and apt to be premature. "And in short, a man must learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment upon another man's acts." 6. That no wrongful act of another can bring shame on us, and it is not men's acts which disturb us, but our own opinion of them. 7. That our own anger hurts us more than the acts themselves. 8. That benevolence is invisible, if it be not an affected smile, nor acting a part. For what will the most violent man do to thee if thou continuest benevolent to him, gently and calmly correcting him, admonishing him when he is trying to do thee harm saying, "Not so, child; we are constituted by nature for something else; I shall certainly not be injured, but thou art injuring thyself, my child." Count Your Mercies.
By A. S. Hutchins
To more frequently count the mercies so graciously bestowed upon us by our kind Heavenly Parent, would greatly soften, and often quite diminish, the trials, temptations, and afflictions, of life. It would do much to smooth the pathway of life, and to enable us to run with patience and greater success the Christian race. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." Temptations to repine under discouragements, would not so frequently intrude into our hearts. Oh! that with the opening of each new morning, our hearts might awake with responsive songs of praise and gratitude, to the Giver of every good and perfect gift; that they may be tuned every day to his honor and glory; and that in words, and acts of love and kindness to all, we may in some measure reflect a Saviour's love to the world, as the peaceful waters reflect the gentle beams of the sun. Oh! that we may be suitably impressed with the "depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God," and of his manifold mercies to the children of men. "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8:32. "Count the mercies which have been quietly falling in your history. Down they come every morning and evening, as angel messengers from the Father of heaven. Have you lived these years wasting mercies, renewing them every day, and never yet realized whence they came? If you have, Heaven pity you. You have murmured under afflictions; but who heard you rejoice over blessings? Ask the sunbeam, the rain-drop, the star, or the queen of the night. What is life but mercy? What are health, strength, friendship, social life? Had each the power of speech, each would say, "I am a mercy." Perhaps you have never regarded them as such. If not, you have been a poor student of nature and revelation. What is the propriety of stopping to play with a thorn bush, when you may just as well pluck sweet flowers, and eat pleasant fruits?" A. S. HUTCHINS. A MAN may drink moderately but steadily all his life, with no apparent harm to himself, but his daughters become nervous wrecks, his sons epileptics, libertines or drunkards, the hereditary tendency to crime having its pathology and unvaried laws, precisely as scrofula, consumption, or any other purely physical disease. These are stale truths to medical men, but the majority of parents, even those of average intelligence, are either ignorant or wickedly regardless of them. There will be a chance of ridding our jails and almshouses of half their tenants when our people are brought to treat drunkenness as a disease of the stomach and blood as well as of the soul, and to meet it with common sense and a physician, as well as with threats of eternal damnation, and to remove the ginshop and rum sellers for the same reason that they would stagnant ponds or unclean sewers. —Cardinal McCloskey arrived in Rome after the election of the pope. —Four-fifths of all the Baptists in the world are found in the United States. —All the popes have been Italians since the election of Adrian VI, of Utrecht, in 1522. —The New York Bible Society distributed by gift and sale during January, 4,178 Bibles and Testaments. —The debt on St. Ann's Protestant Episcopal church on Brooklyn Heights, is said to amount to $140,000. —The personal gifts made to Pius IX., since he became pope, amount to over $140,000,000, not including Peter's Pence. —The Mormons are building a magnificent temple on the summit of a high mountain in Manti, Utah. Five hundred men are at work on it, and it will not be completed for four years. —It is estimated that the number of Catholics in San Francisco is not less than 150,000, which leaves to the non-Catholic portion 126,265 white persons, and 31,950 Chinese and colored races. —The expenditures of the American Bible Society for the current year have thus far exceeded the donations by $50,000. It has made grants of 200,000 copies of the Scriptures during the year, and appropriated $110,000 to the foreign field. —The receipts of the Young Men's Christian Association of this city, during the past year, were $28,582 and expenditures $28,736. As many as 255,509 persons visited the building for the purpose of association work during the year. —The Presbyterians have organized over one hundred new churches on the Pacific coast during the past nine years, and erected a fine theological seminary in San Francisco, which has already sent out fifteen active young ministers. —The Roman Catholic sees and vicariates in Great Britain and Ireland and the Colonial Empire number 126, and the total number of Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom is estimated at 6,000,000. Among them are 36 peers and 48 baronets. The number of patriarchs, archbishops and bishops throughout the world who acknowledge obedience to the Roman pontiff, is 1,160. —The church property of New York city is valued at $56,191,600. Of this the Episcopal church has $24,175,000 distributed over sixty-three parishes. The Catholics come next, with property valued at about $11,000,000. The Presbyterians rank third and the Dutch Reformed fourth. The total indebtedness of the churches is a little over 13 per cent of the valuation. —The low rates of coal have forced many of the large mine owners into bankruptcy. —This country maintains forty thousand postmasters; and only twenty thousand soldiers. —There are ninety-seven young ladies in Wellesly College, Mass., who are now studying Greek. —The latest internal revenue receipts of the month show a decrease of $500,000 since last year. —General Grant and wife were formally presented to the king and queen of Greece on Saturday, the 9th. —Ten Centenarians died in New York city last year, the oldest of whom was one hundred and eleven years old. —During the month of February, twenty-three persons were examined by the Commissioners of Insanity of San Francisco. —March 9, the great railroad bridge over the Raritan river at New Brunswick, N. J., was burned, and railroad travel and traffic are temporarily suspended. —March 7, a fire, in the small town of Spar-tenburg, Pennsylvania, destroyed every business house in the place including the Masonic lodge, postoffice and depot. Loss, $50,000; insurance $25,000. —A dispatch from Trieste, March 9, says: The Austrian steamer Sphinx from Cavallo, with 2,500 Circassians on board, caught fire and went ashore near Cape Elia. Five hundred lives were lost. —Since July 1, San Francisco has exported 82 cargoes of wheat, embracing 3,131,000 centals, valued at $7,257,000. During the corresponding period in the previous season 277 cargoes of wheat and flour were exported. —There are fears of a famine in certain parts of Peru, owing to a failure of the cereal crops for want of rains in the interior, while on the coast, where rains have been almost unknown, there have been disastrous floods. —During the year 1877, books and pictures to the value of $254,935.07 were exported from the Consular District of Leipzig to North America, with music to the value of $8,983.23, the total amount being less by $17,800.52 than the year previous. —Boston University now has 670 students, and is reported to be prosperous in every way. It is proposed to endow a professorship, to be filled by a woman, and several ladies of high standing are endeavoring to collect the necessary fund $40,000. —Atlanta, Georgia, was visited by a tornado on Sunday. The Episcopal church was blown down during service. With great presence of mind, the rector told the congregation to throw themselves under the seats. Eighteen were more or less severely injured. The City Hall was unroofed and several other churches were injured. —A New York paper says salary reduction has begun with the school teachers, who are obliged to give up $152,000 of their salaries to the cause of economy and reform. This is the work of the board of education, who have a $5,000 clerk, a $5,000 auditor, a $5,500 superintendent, a $4,500 assistant superintendent, and a $5,500 president of the Normal school. —The number of immigrants who arrived at New York during December was 3,067 of whom 1,026 were females. Germany sent 974, England 699, Ireland 396 and Italy 247. The total number of immigrants arriving during the three months ending December 31, was 13,020, of whom 5,264 were females. During the corresponding quarter of 1876, the total arrivals were 13,903. —There are 79,000 miles of telegraph wire in the United States and 6,850 offices, or one mile of line to every thirty-six square miles of area. England has 75,000 miles of line and 5,600 offices, or one mile of line to every one and a half miles of area. Russia has 31,500 miles of line and 900 offices, or one mile of line to every 330 square miles of area. —The Southern Pacific Railroad Company has filed with the Secretary of State its annual report for the year 1877, from which it appears that its capital stock is $90,000,000; amount subscribed, $38,122,000; amount paid in, $36,763,900. The amount received from transportation of passengers and freight during the year is $3,961,606.61; the expense of running the road for the same time has been $2,005,358.65. The indebtedness of the company is $30,488,622.62; $20,300,000 on the first mortgage bonds; the amount due the company is $67,067.14.