THE following interesting items are from a private letter by Elder M. C. Israel:—
You will remember that when we got the Australian Handbook, we selected the Geelong Free Library as the first one to which to offer the SIGNS and Good Health for a year. Elder Haskell, Elder Corliss, and myself went up there last Thursday [October 1] to see what could be done. I visited the library, and found that they had received some copies of the SIGNS, but none lately, except a few numbers that we sent a few weeks ago. These had been well read, judging from their looks. Good Health has been received regularly, and both it and the SIGNS occupy as good a place as there is in the room. The librarian is going to call here for our bound books next week. It is very interesting to me to visit the places and persons that we sent reading matter to two years ago. I did not then even dream of ever seeing them.
We arranged to send the SIGNS to the reading-room of the Albert Home Coffee-rooms, also a bound volume of the same and our pamphlets. The proprietors are religious, and keep the best house in the city.
Geelong and vicinity looks like a "delight-some land." The city proper, with East and West Geelong, covers quite a large extent of territory, and has a population of from fifteen to twenty thousand. It has the air of a country town, where land is not so valuable but that the citizens can have good-sized lots to build their residences on. From different parts of the city, green fields and little villages, forming a charming background, can be seen for miles. Rents are lower here than in Melbourne, and the cost of living is less.
I have visited Williamstown twice. They have a set of our bound books in the library of the Sailors' Rest; they have the SIGNS also, and we have furnished them with pamphlets and tracts, and all are well received.
The SIGNS has done and is doing a great deal to make a good impression on the minds of the people; for it shows them that we have no especial hobby, but that ours is a work of reform on all points where reform is necessary. Persons who have received the SIGNS once,715frequently ask for it when they meet us again, saying that they have been much interested in reading it. Persons on the cars have been heard to say, "These people are making quite a stir, and it is their literature that is doing it." A prominent man came in on Friday, and said he had been getting the SIGNS and tracts from the distributor at the Richmond Library; and after reading them, he had sent them to his friends. He believes that our views are correct.
Temperance Hall in Melbourne is the headquarters of the temperance organizations of Victoria. Here they have a library and reading-room, and a place for the sale of temperance literature. Brother Scott has furnished them with what publications we have on the subject of health and temperance, and has shown them a set of the temperance charts, one of which they have placed in their show window. They offer to act as agents for us in that line of our works, and to take subscriptions for our health journals. The temperance organization here is quite strong, and an earnest effort is being made to pass a local-option law and other laws in favor of temperance. Petitions asking for these laws have been circulated among all the churches. The decided position taken in our periodicals on the temperance question will make us many friends. I think more tobacco and liquor are used here than in America, in proportion to the population; but the people are very orderly. It is not common to see a drunken person, and one seldom hears profanity on the streets. I don't remember of hearing an oath since we came here.
Our forty-foot tent will be ready in about a week. It is made so that we can put in a twenty-foot extension at any time; this makes quite a good-sized tent to begin with. We think the weather will be suitable to commence tent-meetings in the course of a month. It has not been decided where the tent will be pitched first.
Our meetings are held in the front room of the mission at present; but when our numbers increase, we shall have to move into a hall in the city, where it will be convenient for all to attend. We have looked at Protestant Hall, just east of the Town Hall. We can get a room for Sabbath meetings for a small sum per week. The man who has charge of the hall was interested in the truth in England. He knew the SIGNS, and said he used to get it every week in England, and a Supplement every month. He was very friendly, and will grant us all the favors he can. Last week we sent a set of bound books and some pamphlets and papers to the Sailors' Rest in Calcutta by the first officer of the steamer Indus. The different lines of steamers and ships will take packages for us free to any of their places of destination.
Santa Barbara County.
By John Norton Loughborough
FROM November 4 to 8, while Brother Ings was holding meetings at Los Angeles, I met with the newly formed companies of Sabbath-keepers in northern Santa Barbara County. During my brief stay I held five meetings with these who have embraced present truth during the past summer under the labors of Brethren Smith and Owen. Of those still carrying out their covenant vows there are twenty-two. Ten of these are in Santa Maria, and twelve in Guadaloupe.
I held two meetings at the former place and three at the latter, and held one business meeting in Santa Maria in which some steps were taken in the tract and missionary work. On the Sabbath I baptized six in the lake three miles from Guadaloupe. These meetings seemed to be a source of encouragement to our people.
I was glad to learn from Brother Smith that there is a deep interest in the tent-meeting which is being held at Lompoc. Several there have already commenced the observance of the Lord's Sabbath; and as the tent-meeting is to continue there some three weeks more, there is hope of a company in that place. Brethren Smith and Owen are much encouraged with the result of their labors in this part of the county. May the Lord bless and strengthen them to follow up and extend the work.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
Held by Superstition.
As EVIDENCE of the power of superstition over minds that have always been held in bondage to it, a missionary in China tells of a man who wishes to renounce idolatry and join the church, but is kept back by his wife, who is willing to give up all her idols but one. This woman has "one only son of her old age, all her former children having died. She has made a sort of vow to their household divinity—the kitchen god, Tsao Wang—that, if he will spare her this son, she will not unlock from the child's neck an iron collar which she placed there in his first year. This collar is locked with a key which she carefully guards till the specified time, namely, till the boy is twelve years old. The idea seems to be that if this collar is removed before, the vow is broken, and the god is not bound to fulfill his part of the contract.
"This kitchen god is a paper picture of the god and his attendants, usually pasted on the mud stove. It is so cheap—costing only one cent—that the poorest can have its protecting presence. I could not baptize the husband, because, out of respect to his wife's feelings, he would not take down and destroy this idol. They were willing to destroy all the rest, including several expensive ones, and many ancestral tablets. The wife said she knew the god was nothing—but if her boy should die! Alas, the power of superstitious fears! This bit of paper keeps this whole family away from God."
Knowledge.
KNOWLEDGE is not to be sought merely for the sake of knowing, but that it may, when attained, be applied to practical use. Men are not intended to live ideal, but practical lives. They are placed here for activity. They have a great work to do, and it is important that they acquire knowledge to qualify them for their work. A man who wisely applies his knowledge for the accomplishment of good, can never know too much. But a man who hoards up, like a miser, the knowledge he obtains, and, either from indolence or indifference, does not employ it for the good of others, is utterly selfish, and, so far as his influence is concerned, might as well have remained in ignorance. Practically, his knowledge is useless. Know and do, obtain and give, is the law of life that every man should observe. No man should make himself the center of all good, but all he knows and all he has should be employed in diffusing happiness around him. This will make a man Godlike; for God is the great fountain of all blessing, and in proportion as we bless others, we shall resemble him, and be blessed ourselves. Do not dream your life away in abstract speculations, but employ all your knowledge and all your ability in honoring God and blessing humanity.—Methodist Recorder.
Present Circumstances.
By Congregationalist
It is a cheap thing to say, for example, if now I were only worth $100,000 I would give $50,000 to endow such an institution. It is true of most people that they know nothing about what they would do if they were suddenly to become comparatively rich. The strong probability is that they would at the same time become parsimonious. Besides, it is of no sort of consequence what one would do under different and impossible or improbable circumstances. But it is of vast consequence, both to ourselves and others, what we now do in just the circumstances in which we are.
The Spirit of Evil
By John Ruskin
The blind and cowardly spirit of evil is forever telling you that evil things are pardonable, and you shall not die for them; and that good things are impossible, and you need not live for them. And, if you believe these things, you will find some day to your cost that they are untrue.—Ruskin.
Los Angeles, Cal.
By William Ings
According to appointment, the meetings with this church commenced the 5th inst. Nine discourses were given, and five Bible-readings and two missionary meetings were held. Two of the discourses were given by Brother Loughborough after his return from Santa Barbara County. This church had been passing through severe trials, which had to a great extent separated them from God; but as the meetings progressed, the good Spirit of God returned, confessions were made, and harmony was restored. To God be all the praise.
Arrangements were made for more active work in circulating our publications. A good supply of tracts was ordered for the furtherance of the work in this beautiful city of thirty-two thousand inhabitants. Twelve dollars' worth of publications were sold, and some subscriptions were obtained for our periodicals, and we left that company feeling that a great load had been removed. They are now in a good condition to work in the Master's vineyard. May God help them from this time forward to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation. In company with Brother Loughborough, I go to Lemoore to fill appointments there.
WM. INGS.
California T. and M. Society.
By Anna L. Ingels
REPORT FOR QUARTER ENDING SEPT. 30, 1885.
Districts
No. of Members
Reports Returned
Members Added
Members Dismissed
Missionary Visits
Letters Written
Signs taken in clubs
SUBSCRIBERS OBTAINED
Review
Signs
Good Health
Instructor
Other Periodicals
No. 1
304
118
13
2
165
406
722
5
2
...
...
66
No. 2
98
40
1
...
22
111
174
9
...
...
4
...
No. 3
211
125
18
2
473
530
508
5
40
40
12
20
No. 4
137
41
21
...
520
423
236
...
2
...
...
18
No. 5
113
25
1
...
22
150
195
12
5
...
...
...
No. 6
75
21
2
...
16
302
151
...
...
...
...
...
No. 7
50
38
3
...
302
122
99
1
9
...
...
...
C. M.
...
5
...
...
3759
...
555
...
10
...
...
...
Total
988
413
59
6
5279
2103
2640
18
80
42
16
104
Districts
READING MATTER DISTRIBUTED
CASH RECEIVED
Pages and Pamphlets
Periodicals
Donation and Membership
Sales
Signs
Periodicals and Total
No. 1
33133
4983
$63 35
$22 45
$111 80
$202 40
No. 2
723534
1702
3 00
7 15
68 81
78 46
No. 3
100435
10888
3 60
...
64 90
68 50
No. 4
43033
2817
7 65
11 30
83 90
102 85
No. 5
8930
1729
11 15
4 70
61 75
77 60
No. 6
21845
1849
2 75
10 55
85 54
98 84
No. 7
6703
1002
9 25
10
33 00
42 35
C. M.
229809
24788
1238 13
109 50
12 50
1410 13
Total
1158422
49758
$1393 88
$165 75
$521 50
$2081 13
*City Missions.
As the camp-meeting was held during the closing days of September, the quarterly missionary meetings were necessarily postponed, and hence the reports were not received as promptly as usual. All of the societies have now reported, with the exception of Toll House, Nevada City, Vacaville, and Salinas.
The amount of work done, as here reported, presents the following increase over that of the last quarter: Members added, 53; reports returned, 60; letters written, 436; subscriptions obtained, 252; pages distributed, 649,790; periodicals, 7,744, and the cash receipts were $784.19 more than the preceding quarter.
ANNA L. INGELS, Sec'y.
Having Company.
AMERICAN housekeepers are apt to lose much of the enjoyment which comes from having guests in the home from making too much of the circumstance. Would there not be a gain in social enjoyment if the following hints were more generally regarded?
Let us not alter our dress or our mode of life because friends have come. If our clothes and our table, our manners and our habits, are what we judge fit for our means and our position, why should we improve them and give ourselves the needless confusion of change, just when we should be free to offer our guests the easy minds and ready thoughts which are much more important to them than seeing our best gowns or the unhomelike parlor in which we do not usually sit? Of course we give our best to our visitors. If flowers, fruit, a drive, or a concert, are rare luxuries with us, we naturally try to have them when we can share them with those under our roof to whom they are also luxuries, or, perhaps, daily pleasures. But let us give our real best, and not mistake our worse for it. Let us give cordiality and ease, not stiffness and pretense.
If a friend comes in upon a homely or scanty dinner, let us eke it out with bread and butter or a jar of canned fruit, and say nothing in depreciation. I remember hearing Agassiz tell of a visit he paid one day to Oken, the great naturalist, then living in some little village in Germany. The two men spent the entire morning in talk so interesting that time passed unob-717served. When they were called to dinner, there was upon the table literally nothing but a large dish of boiled potatoes, and salt. No remark was made; all sat down and were helped. "And," said Agassiz, his noble face glowing with genial pleasure at the recollection, "never in my life did I eat a better dinner."
When our occupations are such as can be seen and shared, let us admit our guests to them. This will make our intercourse fresh and natural, like that of young people and children, who fall into each other's ways instinctively. And we, in return, must adopt the hopes and fears, the wishes and curiosities of our guests, enrich our hearts by new sympathies, our lives by thoughts and feelings outside our immediate circle, and thus it may often prove that both the entertained and the entertainers have been to each other angels unawares.—Good Housekeeping.
Passing But Once.
A cold, quiet lady sat on the shady side of a pretty piazza at Saratoga. A young lady neice, who had just arrived that day, had inquired of her in a low tone who those people were, sitting on the steps, and she replied, "I'm sure I don't know, Mattie, who they are; I am here to rest. I don't trouble myself in regard to the other people who are here. I don't care to know them, and probably they will never cross my path again."
"Transients, only transients! Let me see, Auntie, what's that about 'passing this way but once?' " the young girl asked, meditatively. "I've forgotten exactly what it is, but it lingers in my memory, and I—"
Her sentence stopped abruptly; for just at that moment a pretty little girl fell down the piazza steps, hitting her head severely against the gravel walk. In another moment she was resting in Mattie's arms, and it was Mattie's sweet voice that was soothing her.
"Thank you, Miss, for picking Miss Gracie up," said the nurse, gratefully; "but I'll relieve you now. I'll carry Miss Gracie to her mamma."
"No, no, Nina!" sobbed the child, who was a frail, little thing about three or four years of age; "I'll stay with the pretty lady. She picked me up—she'll carry me to my mamma, won't you?"
Mattie smiled into the tearful, appealing eyes of the little one, as she answered, "Yes, dear; if Nina will lead the way, I'll carry you."
It was up one flight of stairs and into a beautiful suite of rooms that Nina led Mattie with the little girl in her arms. A pale young woman was resting upon a luxurious couch. She started nervously at their approach, and asked in a frightened voice, "Is Gracie hurt?"
"Only a little bruise," Mattie answered cheerily. "She'll hardly know she has been hurt after we wash off the stains."
"Please put her right down here beside me so that I can see her. I can't get up, I am an invalid, you see," the young mother said to Mattie; and then, after satisfying herself that her child's face was more soiled than injured, she said to her, "Run along with Nina, and get the blood washed off your face. Quick, dear; you make me faint."
Gracie had no desire to go with Nina. That was an every-day affair and had grown monotonous. She slipped her little hurt hand, still gritty with sand, within Mattie's, saying coaxingly, "I dess she will wash me, 'cause she loves me, 'cause she kissed me."
The mother's face flushed at what she considered Gracie's audacity in proposing that an elegantly dressed young lady should play the part of a nurse to her; but Mattie only smiled, as she kissed the child again, saying—
"I have often washed little faces, and I'm sure I'd like to wash this little hurt one if you will allow me. I think I do love the child already. In just that one thing I believe I am a little like my Master. I do love to have the little ones come to me."
The young invalid's eyes were moist as Mattie went into the nursery with the child; but when she returned with her, her face and hands cleansed, and with the bruises neatly covered with court plaster, and her tumbled curls softly smoothed, the mistiness about her eyes intensified into actual tears. She reached out for Mattie's hand and impulsively kissed it.
"I believe you are one of the ministering spirits we read about," she said, tremulously, "and I thank you truly for your goodness to Gracie and I. I have been so lonely here—so lonely. I know nobody, and nobody knows me."
Mattie bent down and pressed her lips to the white forehead.
"Then somebody will know somebody," she said, smiling. "We will know each other soon. My name is Mattie Berber. I have no cards with me, but I will leave you this instead."
She unpinned from the bosom of her pretty dress a bouquet of exquisite carnations, and put them in the frail white hand. The next moment she was running down stairs, humming a cheery song.
"What did you pick up that child for?" was the question her aunt asked when she reached her.
"I don't think I stopped to reason why I picked her up," answered Mattie, laughing a little at her aunt's severe look. "She fell; and I being on hand, it was the most natural thing in the world for me to pick her up."
Some ladies were talking a little way back. Mattie heard one of them say, "There is Mr. Lowe and his poor little granddaughter. His people raised a purse so that he could bring the child here to be treated."
Just below the piazza sat the old gentleman, in a suit of rusty black, with the invalid child beside him. A boy was just passing with a basket of delicious peaches. The sick child's eyes followed them longingly; but probably the old man's purse would not allow the indulgence, for he shook his head sadly in answer to the child's appealing glance. A bright silver piece fell into the peach boy's hand, and two large peaches were held by Mattie.
"Here, little one," she called softly, "see if you can catch these, dearie."
A flush of gratitude crept into the pale, thin face. She held out her hands, and catching the fruit, smiled her thanks.
"She called me 'dearie,' grandpa," whispered the child joyfully. "Am I dear to that pretty young lady?"
"Yes, yes, my child," answered the grandfather, smiling into the little face upturned to his, "all of the Lord's lambs are dear to the Lord's own."
The next day a fine-looking, cultured gentleman came to the hotel, bringing with him his old mother, who was sick, and whom he hoped would be benefited by the baths and the water. She walked about very feebly; and had it not been for two or three kindly souls who considered the jewel within the casket, she would have been very lonely; for her son had been obliged to leave her abruptly for some pressing reason.
As to looks, the old lady was not particularly prepossessing, except for a face telling of a tried and patient life. She was doubtless a battle-scarred veteran of the Lord's army. She had evidently borne the burden and heat of the day. Elegantly attired ladies held aloof from her. Of course, she could not be congenial to them. She was poor in regard to the culture of this world; and when she spoke, they fairly held their breath at her unconscious murdering of the Queen's English.
As she sat down that first day, just within the shadow of an open window reaching to the floor, she looked up deprecatingly, as if seeking a friendly face. Two ladies answered the suggestive look, and were soon talking kindly with her, and became so interested in her strange, quaint sayings, that in less than an hour the younger lady, Mattie Berber, was sitting on a hassock at the old lady's feet, her hand clasped within that of the aged woman. The other lady was called away just then by a friend. Standing off a little distance, she said,—
"Look there! Is not that a pretty sight? All that I can think of is these verses of Weatherly's:—
" 'Two hands lay clasped in sympathy:
And one was dainty fair to see,
And like a cloud when skies are bright,
So pure and white.
And one was toil-worn, wrinkled, hard,
Furrowed with labor, seamed and scarred,
Like chasm-broken, sunburnt lands;
So were the hands.'"
"It is quite evident that Mattie Berber is not a crippled Christian," said her friend.
"What do you mean?"
"Some one has remarked: 'The great difficulty with Christian manhood—and, I add, womanhood—is that it is too much deformed. Some are without arms; they have never helped any one over the rugged places of life. Some are without feet; they have never gone an inch out of their own way to save others. Some are voiceless; they have never, even by a word, encouraged any one who was cast down. Some are deaf; they have never listened to the voice of suffering. Some are without hearts; they do not know what sympathy and generous feelings are.'"—Sel.
The Home Circle.
By Amelia E. Barr
THANKSGIVING.
"HAVE you cut the wheat in the blowing fields,
The barley, the oats, and the rye,
The golden corn, and the pearly rice?
For the winter days are nigh."
"We have reaped them all from shore to shore,
And the grain is safe on the threshing floor."
"Have you gathered the berries from the vine,
And the fruit from the orchard trees?
The dew and the scent from the rose and thyme
In the hive of the honey bees?"
"The peach and the plum and the apple are ours,
And the honeycomb from the scented flowers."
"The wealth of the snowy cotton field
And the gift of the sugar cane,
The savory herb and the nourishing root—
There has nothing been given in vain.
We have gathered the harvest from shore to shore,
And the measure is full and running o'er."
Then lift up the head with a song!
And lift up the hands with a gift!
To the Ancient Giver of all
The spirit of gratitude lift!
For the joy and the promise of spring,
For the hay and the clover sweet,
The barley, the rye, and the oats,
The rice and the corn and the wheat,
The cotton and sugar and fruit,
The flowers, and the fine honeycomb,
The country, so fair and so free,
The blessing and glory of home.
"Thanksgiving! thanksgiving! thanksgiving!"
Joyfully, gratefully call,
To God, the "Preserver of men,"
The bountiful Father of all.
—Amelia E. Barr.
Health and Temperance.
By Editor
The Results of Prohibition in Maine.
IN the old rum times in Maine a man about thirty-five years of age entered a grogshop to fetch home to his wife and children a miserable inebriate. He appealed to the rumseller not to sell rum to this man. The reply was, "I have a license to sell rum; that is my business. I'll sell to any one who has money to pay for it. I support my family by selling rum." The man retorted, "It's your trade to sell rum, is it? You support your family, do you, by destroying other people's families? and for that you have a license, have you? With God's help, I'll see if we can't change all that." That man was Neal Dow. From that hour the agitation for prohibition was commenced. In 1851 Maine enacted a prohibitory liquor law. It has been on trial in this State long enough to test its efficiency. The success or failure of the law is not a question of opinion; it is a matter of fact. It is too late for men to speculate on this question. Every intelligent man ought to know that prohibition is a grand success. If it were a matter of opinion, we could summon ex-governors, congressmen, ex-attorney-generals, and judges of the supreme court of this State, all of whom have given their opinion, and they all agree that the law has been and is a great success. We do not claim that there is no liquor sold in Maine; but, as ex-Governor Chamberlain says, "The laws against intoxicating liquors are as well executed and obeyed as the laws against profanity, unchastity, and murder."
What are the facts?
In 1830 thirteen distilleries in this State manufactured one million gallons of rum. Now, there is not a distillery or brewery in the State. In 1833 there were five hundred taverns, all but forty of these having open bars. Now, if a hotel proprietor wants to sell liquor he must keep it in a private room, in an out-of-the-way place, where it can be found only by diligent inquiry, sometimes in the second or third story, sometimes in the cellar. In 1830 nearly every grocery store sold intoxicating liquor as freely as molasses. Barrels of rum, whisky and brandy were on tap in the open store. Now, nothing of the kind can be found in any grocery store in this State. In 1832, with a population of 450,000, there were 2,000 places where intoxicating liquors were sold—one grogshop to every 225 of the population. Now, we have about one liquor dealer to every 800 inhabitants. All of these are secret sellers excepting town and city agencies. In the old rum time liquors were displayed in decanters and bottles on the shelves and in the windows of the dealers; now, it is either carried on the person of the seller, or hid away under the floor, in a hole dug in the cellar, in the walls of the building, in the bed-clothing, or in the stable or pig-sty of the man in the business or his kind neighbor.
Then, the saloons were all open; any one could buy all he wanted. Now, the doors are closed, and a watchman is stationed at the door to give the signal of an approaching officer, when the liquor awaiting sale is poured into a tub of dirty water mixed with kerosene oil.
Then, liquor was transported through the State in vessels plainly marked, and directed to living men engaged in the business. Now, it is transported in boxes marked "dry goods," in trunks, in flour barrels, oil barrels, tin cans marked "spirits of turpentine," and directed to persons that have been dead for years, or who never lived in the town to which they are directed.
"In 1832 the sales of liquor amounted to $10,000,000 annually, or $20 for each inhabitant. Now, the enemies of temperance do not claim that the aggregate sales in the State exceed $1,000,000—less than $2 per inhabitant. This is but one-tenth what the sales were forty years ago, and but one-eighth what they are on the average in the remainder of the Union." —Nelson Dingley, M. C.
The effect of the law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor is seen in the sobriety of the people of Maine. In reports of the actual arrests in sixty license cities we find the average number to be twenty-seven to every thousand of the population. In 1882 there were 1,357 arrests for drunkenness in Cumberland County, with a population of 86,360. This county includes Portland, the largest city in the State. In Androscoggin County, with a population of 45,044, there were seventy-five arrests for drunkenness, less than two per thousand inhabitants. This county includes Lewiston, with a very heavy foreign population. In Franklin County, with a population of 18,180, there were two arrests for drunkenness. In Oxford County, with a population of 32,618, there were no arrests for drunkenness. The number of arrests for drunkenness in the entire State in 1882 was 2,652, or four to every thousand of the population.
What do the facts show? That prohibition has not been a failure. If I had room, I would like to exhort, but I must stop.—Rev. W. S. McIntire, President Maine State Temperance Alliance.
No Tears.
PERHAPS not more than one newspaper had the story. It was headed, "A little boy of seven run over by a street-car and badly mangled." Perhaps scarcely one of the readers of that one paper paused to think about this trifle, in the busy rush and whirl of holiday time; and yet how much it meant to one small household! How their hearts ached when the poor little fellow was brought in and laid on his little bed!
His mother's eyes were so full of tears she could scarcely see to tend him; but she kept back from her quivering lips the cry that would have hurt his ears, and if her hands trembled, they were yet firm enough to do what was needed.
But the most wonderful thing of all was the bravery and patience of the boy himself, so crushed and wounded that it broke other people's hearts to see him, and yet so gentle and uncomplaining that it made his elders ashamed of every complaint they had ever uttered over lesser pains.
The doctor, though used to beds of pain, grew very pitiful when he found, after two operations had been performed under the influence of ether, that still another was necessary.
"I do hate to use so much ether," he said, "and yet it's too much to expect him to bear the operation without." The poor mite himself caught the words, and understood them, and his sweet, childish voice, conquering with his sweetness fear and pain alike, said, earnestly, "I'll hold still, oh, so still, and not cry once, if mamma will sing a song, and if she won't let the tears come into her eyes."
And then the mother sang—and only the pitying Father in Heaven who helped her knew how she kept back the springing tears—sang and sang, and the boy listened with his patient eyes fixed upon her face; and, meanwhile, the doctor took out piece after piece of bone from the poor mangled hand, and never one cry or groan came from the childish lips.
Ah, what a lesson it was for grown-up people, who cry out in their pain, and are not willing to bear the probing hand of the great Physician! Said one of the old saints, "There are no tears in the eyes of God!" No, because he knows the end from the beginning, and wounds us but to heal.—Sel.
The Evil of Skating Rinks
THE skating rink has not yet lost its power for evil. Chief McKane of the New York police force says, according to the New York Times of August 24: “Roller skating rinks ruin more girls than all other causes combined. My police records here are full of such cases.” And yet some still maintain that the rink is a good thing, because they know of girls that are skaters who have not been spoiled by it. Almost as well might it be claimed that war is a good thing because some soldiers have come home from it unharmed.—N. Y. Observer.
Lager-Beer and Longevity.
HERE are two testimonies respecting the influence of lager-beer drinking on longevity. The first is from the Northwestern Life Insurance Company of Milwaukee, Wis. This company has decided that it can no longer grant a life-insurance policy to a lager-beer brewer or to any one employed in a brewery, no matter whether he be ostensibly a temperance man or not. The reason they give is, "You can never get a good glass of fresh water to drink around a brewery; and our statistics show that our business has been injured by the shortened lives of those men who drink lager-beer."
The second is from the president of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. He says:—
"In one of our largest cities, containing a great population of beer-drinkers, I had occasion to note the deaths among a large group of persons whose habits, in their own eyes and in those of their friends and physicians, were temperate; but they were habitual users of beer. When the observation began, they were, upon the average, something under middle age, and they were, of course, select lives. For two or three years there was nothing very remarkable to be noted among this group. Presently death began to strike it, and until it had dwindled to a fraction of its original proportions, the mortality in it was astounding in extent, and still more remarkable in the manifest identity of cause and mode. There was no mistaking it; the history was almost invariable; robust, apparent health, full muscles, a fair outside, increasing weight, florid faces; then a touch of cold or a sniff of malaria, and instantly some acute disease, with almost invariably typhoid symptoms, was in violent action, and ten days or less ended it. It was as if the system had been kept fair outside while within it was eaten to a shell; and at the first touch of disease there was utter collapse; every fiber was poisoned and weak. And this, in its main features, varied of course in degree, has been my observation of beer-drinking everywhere. It is peculiarly deceptive at first; it is thoroughly destructive at last."
A Town’s Sole Surviving Saloon
The entire business portion of a Western town was reported as destroyed by fire; and when a charity association made inquiry, to render some assistance, it was discovered that a solitary saloon had been swept away.
SECULAR.
—The latest official census of China makes the population of that empire 880,000,000.
—Small-pox has broken out in Halifax, N. S. Thirty deaths occurred during the week ending November 18.
—General Sheridan’s annual report gives the number of men in the United States army as 24,705, with 2,154 officers.
—Louis Riel, the leader of the Indian and half-breed rebellion in Manitoba last winter, was hanged at Regina, N. W. T., November 16.
—It is stated that India will this year export 50,000,000 bushels of wheat, a fact that will greatly affect the wheat-growers of the Northwestern States.
—November 20, the Philippine Islands were visited by a terrible cyclone. Eight thousand buildings were destroyed, and twenty-two persons were killed.
—The entire adult population of St. Martha, a Canadian village of two thousand inhabitants, have pledged themselves to abstain from alcoholic beverages for a year.
—The coroner’s inquest fixes the responsibility of the fatal silver-mine disaster at Silver Cliff, Col., on the superintendent, who is pronounced guilty of criminal negligence.
—A dispatch dated November 16 states that Vesuvius is again in a state of eruption. Fears are entertained that the eruption will prove more serious than it is at present.
—General McClellan died of neuralgia of the heart, a disease which, according to the testimony of his physician, was aggravated, if not induced, by “too much smoking.”
—From the study of the drink question in Switzerland, it appears that the use of alcoholic beverages is largest in those cantons where wages are lowest and the people are poorest.
—There is great distress among the sufferers from the recent extensive fire in Galveston, Texas. It is believed that five thousand people have been rendered homeless, four thousand of whom must receive help.
—The total debt of the United States is now $1,848,340,333.74. The reduction during the month of October was $13,276,774. The public debt of France is $6,000,000,000, and that of Great Britain about half as much.
—Over 4,500,000 letters were sent to the dead-letter office at Washington last year. Of these 18,000 contained money, amounting to over $33,000; 20,000 contained drafts, checks, or money orders, and 84,000 contained stamps.
—Six men of the St. Louis street-car strikers are under arrest for blowing up two cars with dynamite, killing one woman and injuring other persons. They confess that they did the work, and that the plot was concocted in an assembly of the Knights of Labor.
—The British steamship Iberian is reported ashore in Dunmanus Bay, on the southwestern coast of Ireland, and likely to prove a total wreck. She has a crew of fifty men, and a cargo valued at £300,000.
—Lorenzo Snow, one of the twelve apostles of the Mormon Church, has been arrested for polygamy, and is held under $1800 bonds to appear before the grand jury. This is the most prominent arrest yet made, and causes a profound sensation among the Mormons.719
—The British are likely to make short work of bringing Burmah to terms. The most strongly fortified position has been captured, and the road to Mandalay is now practically cleared, as the intervening fortifications are comparatively slight structures.
—Mr. George Edgar of New York has invented a gun which is warranted not to burst. It is four feet long, and is made of corrugated plates of Russian iron. It has been thoroughly tested at West Point, being loaded nearly up to the muzzle with powder and wad and then spiked; but the result was entirely satisfactory.
—In his speech at the opening of the Reichstag, November 19, Emperor William expressed the hope that the war in the Balkan States will not be permitted to disturb the peace of Europe. But in the same speech he points out the necessity of increasing the grants to the army and navy of Germany.
—Dispatches dated November 20 state that travel over the Southern Pacific and California Southern Railroads is suspended on account of washouts and land-slides, the result of the heavy rains that have been falling throughout the State for the last few days. At Merced, Cal., three hundred passengers were storm-bound.
—Dispatches up to November 22 show that Servia's declaration of war against Bulgaria, made about a week before, was followed by prompt and energetic fighting. The Servian army, which is much stronger, numerically than that of Bulgaria, invaded the latter State at three different points, and for a few days was victorious in every engagement. Then the tide turned, and the Bulgarians were victorious. Both nations are tired of war, and there are rumors of peace negotiations. At the very latest there comes a rumor from Belgrade that the Servians have attained their supreme object in the capture of Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria.