THE relation of the cigarette to crime was the subject of some startling statistics presented before the National Conference of Charities and Corrections of Cincinnati. Of the boys in the Illinois State Reformatory between the ages of ten and fifteen, ninety-two per cent. were confirmed cigarette-smokers, and eighty-five per cent. so addicted to the habit, at the time of their conviction, as to be termed “cigarette fiends” by the court.
The superintendent who compiled these figures, asserts that the cigarette works tenfold more injury to the boy under fifteen than do intoxicating liquors, and more than any other one factor starts him on the road to criminal life.
While it is true that not every cigarette fiend becomes a criminal, the fact remains that the habit is acquired through evil associations; it involves demoralizing deception on the part of the boy at home; and by enfeebling health and will, makes the lad an easy prey to temptation.
Professor DeMotte, of Bryn Mawr, visiting a tobacco house in Brazil, noticed a black fluid trickling slowly into the vat of tobacco about to be made into cigarettes. Upon asking what it was he was told, “Rum, molasses, and opium; to give spice to the cigarette.” These are specific facts which admit of no controversy. Deductions thereupon can be easily made by every reader.—Our Youth.
PROTESTANTISM IN AUSTRIA.
WHAT is known as the “Los von Rome” agitation in Austria, of which we have made previous notice, says the Christian Work, continues to elicit bitter discussion. According to the official organ of Protestantism in Austria, the Evangel Kirchenzeitung, the movement, especially in the provinces in which Germans predominate, has shown a steady progress in recent months, and starting originally as a political movement, has become a purely religious and ecclesiastical agitation. The ten thousand converts called for by Representative Schoenerer have long since been secured, it is said, and the number is now nearly twenty thousand, of whom nearly three-fourths have connected themselves with the Protestant churches, and one-fourth with the Old Catholic, only a handful refusing to affiliate with either communion.
Within the last two years forty new preaching places have been established, twenty-one Protestant churches have been dedicated in Roman Catholic districts, eighteen such churches are now in process of being erected, and twenty-nine others are in contemplation. Forty-three new pastorates have been established. This does not suit the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church, who have recently inaugurated a counter-agitation, in which they are energetically aided by the government. But the work goes on, and gives no evidence of decline.
THE RIGHTS OF BARBARIC PEOPLES.
WRITING in a recent number of the Outlook, Dr. Lyman Abbott gives expression to this sentiment: “I deny the right of a barbaric people to retain possession of any quarter of the globe. What I have ‘already said I affirm: barbarism has no rights which ‘civilization is bound to respect.’”
This sentiment which Dr. Abbott so unhesitatingly affirms has long been a conviction with nations, and is having an especial vogue in these days with those nations that esteem themselves the cream of civilization. Italy attempted to apply the principle to Abyssinia, and France, Germany, Britain, and Belgium have had greater success with their essays at the practical application of it to desirable regions of the Dark Continent. All the great powers of the world have shown their belief in this principle during the recent troubles in China, and the only thing that has prevented the partition of the Celestial Empire among the allies has been the jealousy and distrust of one another’s motives with which every move or suggestion looking to the eagerly-desired division has been viewed.
If Dr. Abbott’s maxim be regarded, then in it consists a threat against the ownership of land by any people on earth. If barbaric people have no right to territory, then the first step, and the only necessary moral argument, to deprive any people of their country is the proof, or rather the assumption, that they are barbaric.
If this principle of morality is just in reference to nations, why may it not furnish a basis for a code of morality which shall also apply to individuals and to property rights?
How much more civilized and more cultured it would be for trust barons and monopoly lords, modern captains of industry, to found their achievements, not upon might,—their power to act free from danger of competition, which is after all but a kind of brute force,—but rather to defend and justify their methods by the higher level of culture upon which they stand,—the protection they give to art, the encouragement to literature, and the magnificent endowment to universities.
But already there is an echo from the future of the justification of modern means of acquiring wealth from the modern method of employing it when so acquired.—Catholic Mirror.
CHURCH EXEMPTION FROM TAXATION.
At the last State election in California, a constitutional amendment was adopted which exempts from taxation houses of worship actually owned by any religious congregation and used exclusively for religious services. It was the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco who was the principal spokesman when the Legislature was induced to submit the proposition to a vote of the people; and it was the vote of San Francisco that carried the measure at the election. It was practically a Catholic measure, for the “Protestant” ministers who accompanied the archbishop to the capitol, acted merely in the capacity of henchmen. They wanted the exemption for their churches, but they went in on the archbishop’s influence to secure it. Political expediency and the example of other States secured the votes of members for this species of State support of religion. But the practical application of the measure has given rise to a number of legal questions. Attorney-General Ford has promulgated an opinion that churches that receive revenue from the renting of the church buildings or any part thereof will not be exempt from taxation, no matter to what purpose that money is devoted. In other words, churches exempt from taxation must be used exclusively for religious worship. He also states that the assessor is amply clothed with power to exact statements and examine any persons relative thereto, for the purpose of ascertaining whether property is used solely and exclusively for religious worship.
SLAVERY IN THE PHILIPPINES.
COLONEL J. N. MORRISON, Judge Advocate U. S. A., is well known in the West. Colonel Morrison was a Missouri lawyer who, in 1893, was appointed by President Cleveland to be a clerk in the judge advocate’s office at Washington. When a vacancy occurred in the office of judge advocate, Morrison was appointed to the place with the rank of major. During the Philippine trouble he was assigned to duty in the Philippine Islands, and recently was promoted to the rank of colonel. The New York World has discovered that more than one year ago Colonel Morrison made a report to Washington relative to the conditions of the slave trade in the Philippines. This report was suppressed, and was not made public until the World printed it in its issue of July 21. Colonel Morrison’s report deals in full with slavery in the Philippines, and, according to the World, bears every evidence of careful inquiry.
Here are some of the most pertinent of the results of his observations:—
The slavery here has all of the essentials of the negro slavery formerly existing in the United States.
For instance, a person—man, woman, or child—will be captured in war or kidnapped (privately and secretly or otherwise) in time of absolute peace; or one person will owe another a debt that he fails to pay, and the creditor will thereupon take the debtor’s child—son or daughter—or his sister or brother as a slave. These are the usual methods of converting free people into slaves, but not the only ones.
When a slave is obtained in any way, he is simply the property of the owner. The owner will find him and otherwise take care of him. It is to his interest to do so, for the same reason that it is to his interest to take care of a horse or a carabao that belongs to him—i. e., because he is his and is property that has a value.
The master has the same right to sell him that he would have to sell a horse, and they are constantly being bought and sold everywhere on the island, except among the Zamboangenians in the Zamboanga district.
The offspring of slaves belong to the masters of the parents. Generally in this island the father and mother belong to the same person, and in cases where they do not it is the rule among some of the peoples for the offspring to belong to the owner of the father, while with others they belong to the owner of the mother.
Among the Christian Visayans on this island slaves over twenty-one years old who become Christians are liberated by direction of the Catholic priests after they shall have been baptized by them.
As was also the case in the former slave States of the United States, owners do not have the right to kill slaves because they belong to them. I am not quite sure that this is the case everywhere here, but the opinion I have formed from what I have learned is that it is. Moros enslave Moros, as well as pagans, and pagans enslave other pagans. But I do not think that there are any pagans who enslave people of their own tribe, except in cases where bad men steal the children of others of their own tribe, and run them off and sell them to Moros or Christians, or to pagans of other tribes.
Among the people newly enslaved the young boys and girls sell for more than men and women do, unless the women have children that are enslaved, and which they will not run away from and leave in slavery. The men are very apt to escape, and therefore will sell for very little.
Twenty-five Mexican dollars (worth $12.50 in American gold) is about the average price for a good boy or girl, according to my information. Men are of so little value that I am told that those who fall into the hands of slave-takers along with the women and children are apt to be killed rather than taken.—Commoner.
Fears of Another Boxer Uprising in China
The uncertainty of the conditions in China as regards the maintenance of peace was shown in the cablegram which the Italian charge d'affaires at Peking sent to his wife, warning her not to come to China at the present time. The United States general appraiser of customs and tariff commissioner, who sailed recently for China, has left his wife and family behind, tho he had intended taking them with him. Fears of another Boxer uprising are the cause of this apprehension on the part of foreign officials in China. A correspondent of the London Times, writing from Peking, asserts that immense quantities of arms and ammunition are being manufactured in China, and that large supplies of the implements of war are being imported by way of the Yang-tse Kiang. The British troops at Peking, which have been there during the past year, are now being replaced by fresh troops, and Chinese officials are much incensed over the matter.
Magnetic Observatories
The government has entered upon the work of establishing a system of magnetic observatories for the purpose of ascertaining the deviation of the compass from the true north. The first of these institutions will be established at Sitka, Alaska. As the magnetic poles of the earth do not correspond with the polar axis, the magnetic needle, in almost every part of the earth, deviates from the true north. The knowledge of this deviation is essential to the safe navigation of ships. The magnetic north pole is located in 97 degrees west longitude, and 70 degrees, 5 minutes north latitude, the longitude being reckoned from Greenwich. The location of the magnetic south pole has not been so definitely determined.
Boers Determined to Continue the War
LORD KITCHENER reports from South Africa that 13,000 Boers are still under arms, and that a large number of British troops are still necessary in the “wearing-down process.” These troops are much scattered, some of them being in Cape Colony. Steyn, De Wet, and Botha have all written to General Kitchener, declaring their determination to continue the war. They are planning to hold all captured British as hostages, in case General Kitchener carries out his latest proclamation in regard to the banishment of all Boers hereafter captured under arms.
A New System of Telegraphy
A NEW system of telegraphy is now in working order between Budapest, Hungary, and Fiume, on the Adriatic Sea. This system is an ingenious combination of the telephone, the telegraph, and photography, messages being written on sensitized paper by ray light, and developed and fixed by an automatic process. A speed of 40,000 words an hour is claimed for this new system. The line now working is 375 miles in length, and negotiations are now in progress for the installation of the system in other countries.
War Looms Between Colombia and Venezuela
An uncensored despatch from Central America states that war has practically begun between Colombia and Venezuela. The Venezuela Liberals are openly assisting the Colombian rebels, and the Colombian Government in turn is helping the enemies of the president of Venezuela. The Colombian Liberals are said to be receiving also the active support of both Ecuador and Nicaragua. The Colombian Government is in great financial straits at present, $1 in gold being worth $40 in Colombian currency.
French Ambassador Leaves Constantinople
M. CONSTANS, the French ambassador to Turkey, has left Constantinople because of dissatisfaction over the delays of the Turkish Government in settling the question of the indemnity to be allowed the Quays Company, and also in the matter of other claims which the French Government is pressing upon the sultan. This does not indicate the breaking off of all diplomatic relations with the Porte, but is simply a demonstration of France’s displeasure over the matter.
Irregular Rains and Crop Damage
Advices from India state that the rains have been irregularly distributed, and in many places insufficient rain has fallen. In other parts of the country the land has been drenched and crops greatly damaged. There is a slight decline in the number of persons on the relief lists, the total now being 507,000.
Knights Templar Conclave at Louisville
The 28th triennial conclave of the Knights Templar was held at Louisville, Kentucky, beginning August 27. About 40,000 Knights were billed to be in line in the parade which was to begin the conclave.
Russian Forest Fires and Anti-Jewish Violence
TERRIBLE forest fires have been raging in several of the provinces of Russia, and the damage done is estimated at $50,000,000. The town of Penza, capital of the government of the same name, which had 50,000 inhabitants, is reported to have been practically wiped out, the inhabitants fleeing to the fields and woods. Jew-haters have laid the starting of the fires upon the Jews, and there has been much Jew-baiting in consequence.
Ancient Cities Discovered in Crete
SINCE the island of Crete has been rescued from the Turks, systematic explorations have been carried on by those interested in archæology. These excavations are bringing to light the remains and records of many ancient cities in Crete whose locations and even names had been lost to the world. It seems possible that the traditional claims of this island to a hundred cities will be substantiated by the explorers.
Great Strike Remains Unsettled
THE great strike is still unsettled, and both sides are still claiming victories. Several mills have been started during the week by the steel trust, and it seems probable that the strike will soon be broken, tho many mills continue idle. Chicago strikers are ignoring the injunction of the court in regard to picketing, and claim that they will test the injunction, but no arrests have yet occurred.
Electric Railway Traction Tested
A NEW system of electric railway traction has just been put through a successful test in Italy, where a train of five cars was moved at a rate of 45 miles an hour over a line 67 miles in length. This speed was attained without jarring, and was maintained on quite heavy grades. This new method of electric railway traction is known as the high-tension poly-phase system.
Slave Trading in Egypt and Arabia
The England has abolished open slave-dealing in Egypt, the traffic is said to be still carried on there clandestinely. In the neighboring Turkish and Arabian dominions, slave-trading is openly carried on. Consul Long, who is stationed at Jiddah, quotes the prices of the slaves in the markets there, and also at Medina and Mecca. The prices range from $80 to $500 apiece.
New Wire Insulation Process
The General Electrical Society of Berlin has just patented a new process of insulating wires which carry electrical energy. This is an envelope of a material that is said to reduce greatly the leakage of energy from electric wires. The inventors claim that this process will materially diminish the cost of both electric light and power.
Japanese Protest Honolulu Health Inspections
THE Japanese legation at Washington has lodged with Secretary Hay a strong remonstrance against the treatment accorded Japanese passengers by the health officers of the Treasury Department at Honolulu. It is claimed that the Japanese and Chinese are subjected to a humiliating and unnecessarily rigid physical examination at that port.
Czar to View European Fleet Maneuvers
The czar of Russia will start for Germany on September 9, to view the maneuvers of the German fleet in the Baltic, after which he will visit France to view the French fleet in its eastern maneuvers. Whether these visits have any political significance, or mean anything to the rest of the world, only the future can reveal.
Rising Sugar Consumption
In the Medical Times for August appears the statement that the world's consumption of sugar has nearly doubled in the last fifteen years, while in Great Britain it has trebled per head in the last forty years. According to this authority the English and Americans stand easily at the head among the sugar-eating nations.
Wisconsin Labor Opposes Asian Immigration
ORGANIZED labor in Wisconsin has taken a determined stand against the immigration of Chinese and Japanese workmen, and will petition the Wisconsin senators and representatives in Congress to vote for the re-enactment of the Chinese exclusion law, and also ask that similar provision be made to exclude the Japanese.
Brewers and Workmen Face Lockout
The National Association of Brewers has announced its determination to declare war on the National Union of Brewery Workmen on September 1. On the other hand the workmen have sent out circulars asking the members of their union to stand together. It is estimated that 20,000 men will be locked out.
Cigarette Manufacturing Declines
A TOBACCO journal states that in the year 1897 there were 4,153,252,470 cigarets manufactured in the United States; but that during the last three years the manufacture of cigarets has fallen off by nearly one and one-half billions, the decrease being due to the active crusade which has been carried on against it.
Texas Oil Gusher Kills Two
TEXAS continues to add to her already large number of oil gushers. One of the largest in the world was struck on August 26, and defied all attempts of the laborers to shut it off. So great was its force that two men lost their lives in seeking to control it.
Austria-Hungary Introduces Gold Currency
The directors of the Austro-Hungarian Bank have decided to begin the introduction of gold currency by a small issue of 20-kroner gold pieces. The government has collected a sufficient reserve of gold bullion to begin to replace paper money with gold.
Manila Harbor Improvements
The government has closed a deal with contractors for improvements in the harbor of Manila which will cost $1,950,000, the work to begin at once.
Texas Cotton Crop Estimated at 2.6 Million Bales
It is estimated that the cotton crop of Texas this year will exceed one-fourth of the total product of the world. It is placed at 2,600,000 bales.
HE KNOWS.
By M. C. DuBois
MRS. O. was passing through a time of trial—trials from without and trials from within. She had but lately become the wife of Mr. O., and she found the position of stepmother very perplexing. It was evening; her heart was heavy, her feet weary. She was tempted to believe she had made a sad mistake in taking upon herself the duties and responsibilities of a stepmother, altho she had earnestly sought divine guidance before doing so. Trials she had not thought of met her; trials sharp and cruel sprang up before her, until in anguish of spirit she cried out to God for grace to endure.
On this particular evening she felt more cast down than usual, as, Bible in hand, she sought her own room for a ray of light and comfort from the divine Word. “Doth not He see my ways, and count all ‘my steps?’” (Job 31:4) were the words her eyes rested upon. They were like healing balm to her aching heart, and brought peace and comfort to her troubled soul. For a time she had forgotten that God’s eye was upon her, watching over her in love, and that He saw her way, and counted her weary steps. What a comfort in the thought that He knew her faithfulness; He marked her self-denials; He knew every perplexity; and His loving hand was guiding, after all.
It came to her that she needed just the discipline she was receiving. God was leading aright. With renewed courage she went about her work the next day, determined to overcome difficulties, and to do every duty faithfully; for did He not know her way, and count every step she took?
Dear reader, is not this thought comforting to you? It is to me. How often we become discouraged over the trials by the way. There are privations, disappointments in various ways, and lack of appreciation to be endured; we are misjudged, found fault with, falsehoods are spoken against us, and the like; but never mind; He knows. Let this thought bring courage and peace: “Doth not He see my ‘ways, and count all my steps?’” We have abundant evidence in the Word that God knows all about us. The hairs of our head are numbered. He knows our name, and where we live. His eyes are upon us; His ears are open to our call; His hands are filled with blessings to drop upon our pathway.
Tired, perplexed mothers, let these truths comfort and strengthen you in your daily round of household duties. You could not tell the many steps you have taken to-day; but God counts them. Be cheered, and press on in the way of life. There is not a care but that Jesus is near to help.
O, that we would make the presence of Christ a living reality in the home, a present help in the cares and perplexities of every-day life. But we bear our burdens too much alone. We read that the disciples “went and told Jesus.” This is our blessed privilege to-day; and why are we so slow to learn the precious lesson? Dear wife and mother, why not go and tell Jesus all about that secret heartache, that trial, which at times seems more than you can bear? O, be comforted; He knows your ways, and counts your steps.
Do not try to bear your burdens alone. Christ is waiting to help you. Yes, He invites, entreats you to cast your burdens upon Him, with the assurance that “He careth” for you, for me. Praise His name.
M. C. DuBois.
Grand Lodge, Mich.
AH FAY.
(Condensed from “The Lady of the Lily Feet.”)
Fay was only a laundry boy. He had been something better. He had for one whole year worked as janitor in the mission in Chinatown. He was pretty small to be a janitor, for he was only twelve years old; but he could sweep, and clean windows, and scrub as well as anybody. But his great joy was his Sabbath usefulness. On that day, in his youthful imagination, he was the great factotum of the place. For it was Fay who stood at the door and gravely shook hands with every one that came in, and who ushered all to their places. It was Fay who looked out for strangers, who reserved the best seats for them, who hung up their hats, who found the hymns for them and pointed out the end at which to begin.
Certainly he was a model for sextons and janitors. But he not only attended to the mechanical part of his duties well, he was also the best exponent of the mission’s work that any visitor ever saw, for Fay was a convert from heathenism of whom any church might have been proud.
But Ah Fay did not come to this state of perfection without difficulty. Indeed, no! At the outset, when the missionaries offered him the position of janitor, his uncles objected. Now Fay was only a little Chinese waif whose father was dead and whose mother did not count in the reckoning of the Chinese mind masculine, and Ah Fay was, therefore, an orphan under control of his two uncles. They brought him to America at the age of nine, and he spent two precious years at the public schools. Then he went to work in a restaurant where the pay was fairly large, and the duties were larger. Being only eleven years old, Ah Fay could not endure it, and his health began to fail, and his cheeks to sink in ominously. Then his uncles took him out, and waited for him to get well.
Meanwhile, the missionaries offered him a situation, being strongly attracted by the personality of this black-eyed Confucian. Fay wanted to go, but his uncles forbade him, and told him several facts, attested by all the well-informed Chinamen of the colony, viz:—
“That association with the foreign people produced a peculiar madness on the part of the Chinese. That such Chinese invariably forsook the old customs of their ancestors, the true sons of heaven, and forgot their land, the empire of the sun, and the most favored of the nations of the earth. Moreover, these ignorant foreigners, as all Chinamen of learning knew, gave the Draught of Folly, a cup of foreign medicine which caused every Chinese immediately to believe all that the foreigner told him, so that he became his captive forever.”
It was to save their son and nephew from such an abominable fate that they refused to permit him to enter the foreign employ.
To which Ah Fay replied that the work was very respectable, being connected with a school; that the duties were light; that he was a true son of Confucius, and could not be influenced by the foreigners’ ignorant ideas of religion; that he would never drink any foreign medicine. Thereupon Ah Fay broke the lock of custom and went to the mission.
He stayed a year, and alas for his Confucianism. It faded out like a mist before the shining sun. He drank in foreign ideas with an avidity which astonished the foreigners. He became a devout Christian, and his black eyes shone like great stars as he told of his beloved “Jesus religion.” Then came the change. His uncles would endure it no more, and Ah Fay was dragged off to their laundry. The missionaries came to see him, and begged him to return, but with a grave, patient smile, he said:—
“Me workee laundly littee while,” and remained under the jurisdiction of his uncles.
Now the brightness left his eyes, and the happy, boyish light-heartedness slowly died out. He sometimes talked with his uncles, long, quiet, earnest talks they were, on his part, but angry and excited on theirs. An old Irish woman, who kept a fish market next door, one day saw them strike him with a hot iron, and she gave him some ointment to put on the burn; but he offered no resistance to the violence, and by and by he talked to them again. She often wondered what he found to talk about in that quiet way so long at a time, and why it made his uncles so angry; but he never told her, and not a word of Chinese did she understand.
The blows with the flat-irons were not the only violence that Ah Fay had suffered at the hands of his uncles. When the laundry was closed late at night, and on the particular fast days, the two men stood in the back room and bowed down to their wooden god; and when Ah Fay would not worship with them, they dragged him and knocked him down, so that he fell before the idol, and lay there for a time unconscious. When he would not place the incense, nor drink the wine, nor offer prayer before the house gods, nor bend in the worship of his ancestors, they beat him, and one day they cut him with their knives. But he did not die, at least not then.
After this he was violently ill. The old Irish woman came in one day, and told him to get the doctor; but his uncles despised the American medicine and would have none of it. They brought him herbs from Chinatown and made a tea, but he was too sick to drink it. Then his mind began to wander, and their fear of evil spirits returned. Without more ado they took his case in hand. Wong Yo set off fire-crackers in the front and rear of the house to frighten away any demons that might be lurking around, and Hop Hoy burned incense and said prayers to ward off the anger of the gods. When night came, and Ah Fay’s ravings had not yet ceased, they shut the doors, and stretched him on the ironing table, and tried to find the hole where the demons got in him. Finding none, they determined to make one for them to get out. With a sharp knife they made an incision in his side, and ran in a hollow bamboo stick as an outlet for the tormenting spirits. Poor Ah Fay tossed and groaned under his persecutors’ hands, and then lay in a stupor until morning.
But with morning his reason slowly returned. Summoning all his strength, while his uncles slept, he dragged himself to the door. With almost superhuman effort he boarded a passing street car, and sank into a corner, where he quietly fainted away.
In the other end of the car a missionary sat, and he looked up just in time to see Ah Fay’s head fall over, and his eyes shut in that deadly faint. With a bound he was by his side, trying vainly to restore him. After a time Ah Fay opened his eyes and recognized his old friend.
“Me jus’ go home mission to die,” he said.
Up the stairs they bore him, and laid him on his own white bed in the familiar room. They did all that human power, and love, and tenderness could do to bring back the ebbing strength, but it was too late. Day by day he slowly but surely failed.
“Me no want go laundry,” he said. “But Holy Spirit say go. Many times me pray Jesus, God make me good missionary go back China countlee, but Holy Spirit all time say, ‘Go laundlee, tell the uncles.’ Me no want go, but must go. So me go tell uncles. Me talk, talk, talk evly day. Me too muchee talk, then they hittee me so bad. Me no care, talk jus’ same. Now me come back mission littee while. No get well any more. Go home Jesus’ house much better. Me so glad.”
They buried him among the Christian dead, and upon the white stone was written:—11
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Three years later the mission sent out two notable converts as missionaries to China. They had been redeemed from the deepest heathenism; and as examples of men to whom much had been forgiven, they also loved and suffered much for Him they served. Their names were Wong Yo and Hop Hoy, and for many years their labors were known throughout the Christian world. But to them there is no memory so sacred as that of a green grave and a simple, white headstone in a far-away land, commemorating the sacrifice of the faithful Christian boy, Ah Fay.—The Helping Hand.
PEACE
By F. R. Havergal
And there was calm! O Saviour, I have proved
That Thou to help and save art really near:
How else this quiet rest from grief and fear,
And all distress! The cross is not removed,
I must go forth to bear it as before;
But, leaning on Thine arm, I dread its weight no more.
Is it indeed Thy peace? I have not tried
To analyze my faith, dissect my trust,
Or measure if belief be full and just,
And therefore claim Thy peace. But Thou hast died.
I know that this is true, and true for me,
And knowing it, I come, and cast my all on Thee.
It is not that I feel less weak, but Thou
Wilt be my strength; it is not that I see
Less sin, but more of pardoning love with Thee
And all-sufficient grace. Enough! And now
All fluttering thought is stilled, I only rest,
And feel that Thou art near, and know that I am blest.
—F. R. Havergal.
THE WICKEDNESS AND FOLLY OF KILLING BIRDS.
By Charles Dennison Kellogg
[Charles Dennison Kellogg, in Success.]
The thinking people of this country are gradually awakening to the fact that the mania for killing birds, which has existed for over a century, needs a substantial check to prevent the absolute extermination of the feathered friends of humanity.
The first intimation that something would have to be done to protect American animal life, was the rude shock caused by the announcement that the vast herds of bison were no more,—and the pitiful and abortive effort of the government to protect a few isolated specimens in Yellowstone Park. In the past five years, a similar sentiment has led to the creation of the Adirondack Park in New York, and much-needed restrictive legislation for the protection of deer.
What statistician will compute, what orator will present, and what legislators will provide the data, formulate the bills, and pass the laws necessary to save the wondrous bird-life of this continent from the fate of the bison and the deer?
The economic value,—the appeal to sordid commercial ideas, even if no phase of humanity should be reached in this age of commercialism,—should speedily bring about the passage of laws protecting bird-life.
Come out into the woods with me, and watch a pair of busy wrens or a hundred other birds as they toil from daybreak until sunset—and sometimes later. Try to count the number of trips they make during the day, and estimate, if you can, the quantity of destructive insects that is required as food for the family. You will find yourself growing tired of counting, and will gradually multiply the insects brought in at each trip by seconds, minutes, hours, and days, until the number will appall you. Then you will have a new idea of nature’s law of compensation; you will begin to realize that the birds you imagined were such a menace to your berries, cherries, apples, and other fruits, are really the protectors—and you can thank them for every sound, wholesome piece of fruit that is marketed, and also for the product of your flower and vegetable gardens.
If any of the sportsmen who pose before the public with records for having wantonly killed quail, grouse, and reed birds, could be made to see nature in the manner God meant they should see it; if they could study the charming domesticity of bird-life, or could realize the love that the parent bird bears to its young, they would never kill another bird. Birds do not sit quietly on their nests caring for their young all day; they have just as much work to do as any housewife, and they caress their babies just as often as any human mother.
If any woman who proudly displays a beautiful aigrette on a new bonnet could know the slaughter each of those plumes represents, she would never wear another. The plume is worn by the bird only when it is in its wedding dress—during the mating and nesting season. The bird can be more easily reached when returning to its nest. So the plume hunters wait until they catch it flying home; then they kill it, carve the plume out of the back, and the young birds die of cold or hunger. Each aigrette represents the slaughter of from four to six birds.
In the name of science, large numbers of birds, birds’ skins, and eggs are gathered for the purpose of study. It is claimed that this is necessary, in order to distinguish the different varieties of one family. But this is a mistake. Let the man of science leave his gun at home, let his heart be filled with love for the birds instead of the desire of possession, and he will find that he can get just as close to a bird as is necessary for study; that a mother bird will permit him to go right up to her nest and stroke her on the back just as one would stroke an old hen. A bird knows and feels the love that is in one’s heart. I have often taken friends and skeptical people into the woods, and never have I failed to show them the same results when there were no antagonistic minds present.
No words of mine can describe the thrill that comes over one when, for the first time, he feels the fearless love birds and animals have for us, when we assume the proper mental attitude—that of love, and cleanse ourselves of a desire to capture or kill.
Of all animated beings beneath mankind, the bird is the most innocent—the nearest akin to Eden. Open your Bible and see how these aerial spirits flit across its pages. It was a bird that Noah sent forth from the ark to learn whether a safe landing might be made. A raven fed Elijah, and Christ not only made frequent reference to birds in the parables, but declared that not even a sparrow falls without the knowledge of the Father in heaven.
And we Americans, practical and sentimental, chose the eagle as the symbol of our national glory.
Do I need to say more? Will not public sentiment, all powerful in this land, crystallize into legislation for the protection of birds?
FIGHTING THE NILE SUDD.
The difficulties and dangers of tearing a passage through the dense masses of floating vegetation which periodically obstruct the Nile, making navigation impossible, are well described in an article which appears in the August number of Pearson’s Magazine. A free waterway has now been opened up the Nile as far as Uganda. In all fourteen blocks of the sudd, as the drifting marshes are called, have been removed, the total length of the river cleared being 83 miles. The actual work was done by some 750 Soudanese prisoners under the direct orders of two young officers of the British Royal Navy. The following is an extract from a journal kept by one of them:—
Now, as to how we do it. On arriving at a block we tie up the steamer, and set everything on fire, then cut down all the dead papyrus which is on the sudd, until it soon looks like a very rough field. Then this field is dug into small sections four or five yards square; the trenches are dug to about two feet under water, the sudd itself being one, two, or three feet above water, and from six to ten underneath. Next we put pieces of wood round our section (cut up telegraph poles), fix a wire hawser round the section, shoved well down in the trenches and behind the posts, and bring the two ends on the steamer. The steamer then backs astern, and eventually pulls out the section, which floats away down stream. The wire is got on board again, the poles are recovered, and the steamer proceeds for another section. The force and jerk which the steamer brings on the wire severs the roots of the section underneath from the others—or at least sometimes does! That’s the idea.
HOW TO GIVE.
Give as you would if an angel
Awaited your gift at the door;
Give as you would if to-morrow
Found you where waiting was o’er;
Give as you would to the Master
If you met His searching look;
Give as you would of your substance
If His hand your offering took.
—Selected.
I Wouldna Gie a Copper Black
By Mrs. Barr
I WOULDNA gie a copper black
For ony mon that turns his back
On duty clear;
I wouldna tak his word or note,
I wouldna trust him for a groat,
Nor lift an oar in any boat
Which he might steer.
—Mrs. Barr