It has now been one month since we reached Australia, and two months since we left San Francisco. We have availed ourselves of every source of information that we could, to learn about the country and the customs of the people. Our object has been to understand the best methods of labor in beginning the work here. Arriving in the midst of winter, and it being an unusually rainy season, there seemed to be but little else that we could do. As soon as we located, Brethren Scott and Israel commenced colporter work, and holding Bible-readings. Thus far success has attended their efforts as much as could be expected. It is a kind of labor that is appreciated among the common people and will give access to their hearts.
There is not that personal independence among the people here that there is in America, therefore it will be harder for them to take their stand when an unpopular truth shall demand it. When these islands began to be settled, foreign missionaries also came. These very naturally have a strong influence over the people, therefore any new doctrine that might be brought in is thought to be an intrusion upon their rights. When the Pilgrim Fathers first came to America, they had in view freedom of conscience. They desired to establish a religion without a pope, and a nation without a king. But when men departed from the ideas which they brought with them from their mother country, it was something that they did not appreciate. They did not receive new doctrines very readily. When one of their members thought that the Bible taught immersion for baptism and commenced to practice the same, he was banished to the western part of Massachusetts. There he would have frozen to death had not the providence of God favored him and his party. This was carrying out their free spirit according to their ideas. Unfortunately this seems to be the spirit that characterizes reformers, when they become established in their own ideas and ways.
But as long as the people regard the Scriptures as the highest authority, there is hope that God will still work for them. In these colonies this spirit seems to prevail. Here the Bible is a sacred book. It is the only book that we can rely on as a sure guide in these last days of peril. There is another feature of this people that is certainly commendable. As a whole, they are the greatest readers of any people in the world. Their free library in Melbourne ranks among the first in all the countries of the world. It is patronized by over one thousand readers a day. There are also many papers published here, and they too are extensively read.
The labor which has already been put forth has awakened in some an interest to read and to investigate the truth. When we arrived here, we found two that were keeping the Sabbath. We have already become quite well known in the suburban towns and in some parts of the city. Subscribers could be more readily obtained for a paper published here, than for one that is published in a foreign country. But it does not seem to be so with bound books. The people have a desire to read that which is published in other countries. They are anxious to obtain other people's ideas. In all of the principal towns in this country there are libraries, and books placed in them are sure to be read. They do not ask the question, "Have any of the rulers believed on him?" but, practically, it is the sentiment expressed in the action of many. The influence of leading men has much to do with the sentiment and feelings of the people. The longer we remain here the more interested we become, to see the work established in these colonies. We have no doubt
but that God has a people here, and when they once take their stand they will be as firm and ardent in their faith as those in any other part of the world. This is characteristic of the people. The English are warm-hearted and possess an ardor that is truly commendable. Already a goodly number of publications have been sold, and some subscriptions have been secured for the Signs of the Times. But the inquiry is everywhere raised, "Why do you not publish here?" It is home production that is encouraged in every branch of industry.
New South Wales has more favorable postal laws than Victoria. Any publisher can mail papers free to all of the other colonies. This includes Tasmania, New Zealand, and the Fiji Islands as well as the other colonies in Australia. There are other smaller islands, settled by the English-speaking people, that are also included in this free postage from the publisher. But in Victoria it costs one cent to send papers to subscribers whether in or out of the colony, and two cents to remail a paper published in America. We have as yet been unsuccessful in the renting of rooms where we could set up the form to print a paper. But this we are in hopes to accomplish before a great while.
There are other advantages that New South Wales presents for publishing, and as headquarters for the work in Australasia: it is a free port, and anything that is brought from America will be brought free of any duty, and direct to Sydney. But large steamers cannot come within three miles of Melbourne, so that all freight has to be transferred from a large steamer to a smaller one as they enter the river. The duty is very high on many things that Americans would want. There is twenty-five per cent duty on manufactured articles.
The climate is better here than in New South Wales, it is not as hot in summer, and it is warmer in winter. There is also more enterprise here. But on the other hand, Queensland, on the north of New South Wales, has a business connection with Sydney, and is an excellent missionary field, as it is growing at present, more rapidly than any other portion of Australia. Emigrants are brought there by the thousands.
It seems necessary that there be a paper published as soon as possible and sufficient help can be secured to conduct it. It would give impetus to the work and greatly strengthen the efforts of the workers. Had we a mission in Melbourne, and Sydney, and one also in New Zealand, and a paper published, the truth could be sent to all parts of the colonies and be shipped to all parts of the world. Canvassing is more difficult here than in America. Looking at the matter from our standpoint it would seem that the angels of God have prepared the way for the truth to go forward in a most remarkable manner. While in some respects there will be greater difficulty in starting the work, there are advantages when the work is once opened that are exceeded in no other portion of the world. It is also evident that the present openings will not long continue. There are elements now at work as in America, only more so in this country, that, unless the special providence of God interferes, will soon close many of these now open doors.
We feel deeply over the matter when we see the present aspect of affairs here. At present there are omens for good, and almost everything is favorable for going forward at once. But in a very short time everything may be changed. Everything is tending that way. Here are over four millions of English-speaking people that are anxious to read. These and the publishing of a paper are open doors whereby they may be reached. But these open doors are about to be closed. Shall we not then stir ourselves and do this work while we can? Once closed and ten thousand dollars and much suffering will not accomplish as much in a greater length of time as one thousand dollars will, at the present, in a short time.
We speak understandingly when we say that unless we work fast and improve the present opportunity to get the light before the people of this country, the work which might be done in this time of peace and prosperity will have to be done in a terrible crisis, and under most discouraging and forbidding circumstances. This state of things is just before the work here. But our courage in God and his work is good. God has given us some marked tokens of his favor since coming to this country, and we look forward expecting that he will give a spirit of co-operation on the part of the friends in America that are rejoicing in the light, and are surrounded with the blessings of home and friends. May God bless and give success is our prayer.
S. N. H.
A French Sunday Movement in Europe.
By D. T. Bourdeau
A FRENCH Sunday movement has been set on foot in Switzerland, to secure in said country, in France, and in those parts of Europe where the French language is spoken, a more strict observance of Sunday as the Sabbath. The heart and center of this movement is Geneva, the renowned city of Calvin, the great French reformer of the 16th century. It has organized a society similar to that in the United States, so far as securing the great end in view is concerned, which publishes a quarterly advocating its principles, called, Le Bulletin dominical, Organe de la Fédération internationale pour l' Observation du Dimanche: The Dominical Bulletin, organ of the International Federation for the Observance of Sunday. Besides this quarterly, a weekly has just appeared at Vevey, Switzerland, entitled, Le Jour du Repos,—The Day of Rest. This newspaper appears on Monday to avoid being taken to its subscribers by facteurs on Sunday, in imitation of the example of La Chambre Haute, a religious monthly published in France.
The editor of Le Jour du Repos speaks thus in his prospectus: "Here are the principal points which shall be treated in my journal: 1. The perpetual obligation to observe the fourth commandment; 2. The great importance of this commandment; 3. The necessity of adding sanctification to the cessation of all secular work; 4. The importance of the word of God, which is powerful to combat profanation (important on the religious side of the question); 5. Obedience to the law of God, even under the new covenant; 6. The necessity of works of charity on the Lord's day; 7. Temporal and spiritual blessings resulting from its observance; 8. The curse that rests on those who profane it; 9. The importance of Sunday in the work of missions among the heathen; 10. The good or evil that Christians can do by their example."
It will be readily seen that this programme presents capital admissions in favor of the ancient Sabbath and against first-day observance; for the fourth commandment, which it so highly exalts, enjoins the observance of no other day than that on which God rested, and which he blessed and sanctified,—the seventh day, answering to the last day of creation week. Although this platform presents to us who keep the seventh-day Sabbath the handle of the sword of truth which must demolish the Sunday institution in the eyes of the honest, yet it will, in connection with the Bulletin Dominical,—which treats the subject more from a civil and legal standpoint, calling for legal enactments,—exert a powerful influence in favor of the Sunday movement on the uninformed, and those who prize the traditions and customs of men more than the truths of God's word.
Le Jour du Repos resorts to the thread-bare stories of accidents and calamities on Sunday, which, though they would make every day the Sabbath in the eyes of every unbiased and reflecting mind (for accidents happen every day), will nevertheless exert the same influence in favor of Sunday-keeping that they did in the Dark507Ages; especially so as they are backed up by Satan's wonders that will sweep the masses. And the Sunday movement in the United States is doing much to ripen affairs in Europe. The crisis is forcing itself upon us with all its realities. We have no time to lose if we would make visible the Creator's great sign of royalty throughout the earth. May we be true to God in this last conflict between truth and error.
D. T. BOURDEAU.
Geneva, Switzerland.
Jerome’s Defeat and Victory
By Stephen N. Haskell
JEROME was heavily ironed and imprisoned in the dungeon of a tower in the Cemetery of St. Paul. His chains were riveted to a lofty beam in such a way as to prevent his sitting down, while his arms were forced by fetters to cross on his neck behind, compelling him to incline his head forward and downward. For two days he was kept in this position, and his only food was bread and water. His strength gave way, and his life was in imminent danger. His enemies, fearing that he would die in prison, caused that some of his irons should be taken off. They desired that he should die a more public and striking death.
The burning of Huss, and the treatment which he received at the hands of the council, had so exasperated the Bohemians that that body did not dare to at once burn Jerome. About two weeks after the death of Huss, and two months after his capture, Jerome was brought before the council, but without any definite result, after which he was taken back to prison, and every effort made to induce him to recant. It was hoped that the execution of Huss would have a salutary and mollifying influence upon the mind of his disciple. Two months longer he remained in chains, enduring the greatest harshness and severity of treatment. Prostrated by sickness in his noisome dungeon, his limbs painful from incurable ulcers, his energy exhausted, and his spirits depressed, he was again brought before the council, and called upon to abjure his errors and sanction the execution of Huss.
Judging from outward appearances Jerome would have been more likely to meet this ordeal unmoved than Huss, but the latter possessed what the former did not, a true Christian self-distrust which led him to throw himself with prayerful humility into the arms of Omnipotence. Jerome, conscious of his own strength, was self-reliant. The hardships of his imprisonment had unnerved him, and made the bold man fear and quail. His active disposition, love of travel, and former mode of living amid the indulgence which wealth allows, combined to give a poignancy to his sufferings such as were not experienced by the more simple and abstemious Huss. Born to command, it was exceedingly hard for him to bear captivity. Human weakness prevailed, and he signed a paper by which he declared submission to the council, and approved the condemnation of the writings of Wycliffe and Huss. To this, however, he added conditions and explanations which under other circumstances would have been in no wise acceptable to the council. His recantation closed with the following solemn oath: “I moreover swear, by the holy trinity and by those most holy gospels, that I will abide undoubtedly in the truth of the Catholic Church, and I do pronounce all those who shall contravene this faith with their dogmas, worthy of eternal anathema. And if I myself shall ever presume to think or teach anything to the contrary, I will subject myself to the severity of the canons, and shall be found exposed to eternal punishment. This copy of my confession and profession before this holy general council I freely and voluntarily present, and have subscribed with my own hand.”
But Jerome’s act of humiliation and surrender of principle did not secure his liberation. He was a prisoner still. The rigors of his confinement were softened, but that was all. After some months his enemies demanded severer measures, disclaiming all faith in the sincerity of his recantation. The men who had been successful in securing the condemnation of Huss by wicked misrepresentation now turned their attention to Jerome, and others, who, for various reasons, had become his personal enemies, brought charges against him. At the same time letters were received by the council from the nobles of Moravia and Bohemia, one of which was signed by not less than four hundred and fifty-two persons of distinction, protesting with earnest, indignant, and powerful language against the course pursued with Huss and Jerome. Thus the conflict went on. Meanwhile Jerome within prison walls was reviewing the past; his mind and conscience were active. The spirit of God wrought for him, and he became convinced of his error and heartily repented of it. His mind rose above the sophistry of the cardinals and his former horror of confinement and death.
The new charges that were brought against him occupied twenty folio pages of the historian who put it on record, and in no instance is the name of a witness given. Jerome refused to answer to these charges before the commission, but demanded a public audience. Finally this demand was granted with the privilege, not afforded Huss, of pleading his own cause and answering his enemies. It is impossible to give in this article any just idea of the power of oratory and eloquence which he displayed in this defense. The vast audience, tumultuous, filled with hatred, breathing out cruelty, had not the power to withstand it. At one time burning with indignation and seemingly beyond control, at another moved to tears, and then again to laughter as he exposed the absurdity of the charges brought against him, and met them with ridicule. That distinguished assembly listened to him with astonishment and admiration.
“O man worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance among men,” exclaimed Poggio, a celebrated Italian scholar who had held the office of papal secretary to no less than seven popes, and who was a careful observer and a man of critical judgment. In speaking of Jerome he says, “I do not praise him in any respect in which he was opposed to the institutions of the church. I admire his learning, his extensive knowledge, his eloquence and his skill in argument. It was wonderful to see with what language, what arguments, what oratory of face and gesture, what confidence, he answered his persecutors and summed up his own defense. It is sad that so noble, so superior an intellect should have been led off to heretical pursuits, if, indeed, the reports in regard to him are true.” He further says, “He adduced nothing that was not worthy of a good man; and if his real belief was what he professed, not only could no cause of death be found in him, but not even the slightest ground of accusation. His exposition of his own life and pursuits was admirable. It showed him great and virtuous. He stood before the council so fearless and intrepid, not only scorning to live, but welcoming death, that you would have called him a second Cato. When interrupted, as he often was, in his speech by clamorous and caviling persons, he left none of them unscathed. All the confusion did not break him down. He retained throughout his firmness and self-possession. How wonderful was his memory, that never failed him, notwithstanding his imprisonment of three hundred and forty days, most of the time in a dungeon so dark that he could not read. He quoted so many authorities of the highest wisdom and learning, so many doctors of the church, whose words testified in his behalf, that you might well have supposed the whole time of his imprisonment to have been devoted in undisturbed leisure to the study of wisdom.” What a contrast is this with his former appearance before the council! The weak man had become strong again with a strength that far exceeded that which he formerly possessed,—a strength not born of the outward circumstances, but of the power of God.
Virginia City, Nevada.
By E. A. Briggs; G. W. Colcord
OUR meetings at this place still continue with good attendance. Next Sunday night we expect to close this effort preparatory to the Carson camp-meeting. Thirty persons have signed the covenant; a Sabbath-school has been permanently organized, and arrangements made for continuing the Sabbath-meetings. There is a wide field open before these new converts for missionary efforts in spreading the present truth. May God help them to so labor and hold fast their profession that they may make their calling and election sure.
E. A. Briggs,
G. W. Colcord.
August 10, 1885.
The Missionary Spirit.
It cannot be impressed too deeply upon the mind and heart of every Christian that no church can afford to neglect its duty in the cause of missions. Christianity would have perished on the site of its birth, if the apostles had remained in Jerusalem till all the people in that city believed and obeyed the gospel. It is a suicidal policy that takes no thought of the regions beyond. Selfishness is as fatal to spiritual prospects as paralysis. The anti-missionary spirit is the spirit of anti-Christ. It may masquerade in the livery of Heaven, but its purposes are evil. Dr. Duff used to say that a church that is not evangelistic will very soon cease to be evangelical. Look at the history of the church and see if it is not even so. Those epochs in which the church was most prosperous were characterized by the greatest missionary activity. Periods of corruption and apostasy were periods of inaction. During the past eighty years those bodies that did the most abroad are the very ones that flourished the most at home. Those that did nothing to evangelize the world have been smitten with blight and mildew. It must be so from the very nature of the case. When the human body is in a healthy condition, the heart sends the blood to the remotest extremities. When the blood accumulates about the heart, death ensues. A running stream brings health and fertility to all the land. A stagnant pool generates malaria and pestilence. It is the light that extends the farthest, that shines brightest at home. We wish we could permanently engrave this truth on the memory of every preacher and elder. No church can afford to neglect its duty to the cause of missions.—Christian Standard.
The Duty of Deciding
SCARCELY less important than the duty of considering well any proposed course of action, before deciding upon it, is the duty of deciding upon it when it has been considered. Some people are so far from needing the warning of the popular maxim, "Look before you leap," that they look so long that they never come to leap at all. It is a good deal better to make decisions which sometimes lead to good success and sometimes to ill success, than never to make any decision, and so never to reach anything or anywhere. It is perfectly possible to use up so much time considering which of two enterprises we can most advantageously take up, that a quicker neighbor may carry through first the one and then the other, before we have made up our mind to take up either. This is a disastrous mistake. It is well to consider, to ask advice, to weigh counsel; but all that is useless without the decision which ought to follow close upon it. If you had the years of Methuselah, you might be able to afford to push off a decision for a century or so; but life in these days is short, and time is flying.—Sel.
Mental Laziness.
By Amelia H. Botsford
It is a bad thing to be lazy bodily; but that affliction possesses the great advantage over mental laziness, in that its victim must feel a wholesome shame which combines with the sharp spur of necessity to drive him into industry. But mental laziness too often exists unsuspected, and therefore unreproved, becoming daily a more fixed habit, until the brain, rusted out by inaction, can scarcely turn off a thought a week, instead of blessing its owner continually with new and happy ideas. Who can ever believe himself lazy? And yet, my good friend, why is it you have so long delayed answering that home letter, and why do you turn to your wife for the details of that little affair of two years ago which you might recollect yourself would you but make the effort? And you, too, most industrious of women, why was it you did not reckon up that bill of goods nor count your change, when shopping? If you would candidly review the events of a single week would your conscience be entirely clear of all stain of mental laziness?
It is really wonderful in how many different ways this dislike to intellectual exertion crops out. We yield our minds to the play of every chance suggestion; we walk the streets thinking of nothing in particular, and observing nothing in particular, we build castles in the air not the less unreal that they may concern our business; we find it too much trouble to keep accurate account of our expenses, or to make thoughtful plans for the week's work; we are too lazy even to use atlas and dictionary when we read.
It is not strange in the case of women, whose usual duties require attention to a dozen things at once in a way quite distracting, that the mind becomes unaccustomed to maintain any train of thought for much consecutive time. The necessity for constant oversight of Tommy and Mary, the planning for the next meal or the next mending, invade even the comparative leisure of the afternoon. At least the mind of the busy mother is active, but can this be said of the young girl bending over her fancy work? Ask her of what her thoughts are and see if you do not get for answer, "Nothing much." How much time slips away in this dreamy fashion even with the best of us, and we dignify it with the name of thought! Rather call it sheer idleness.
Much real laziness crops out in reading. How often a book is taken up to fill a little crevice of time when a little solid thought of our own would be vastly more appropriate. But instead we pick up a book or paper, and how much thought do we give its subject? It may be a topic of which we already have some knowledge; do we then compare, criticise, endeavor to array in compact form all that we know or have read on the same subject? Very seldom; it would be too much trouble to read that way. Instead our mind takes a dreamy cognizance of what is before it, without any distinct mental exertion; and, in consequence, an hour afterward we could not recall the principal heads of the article. Especially demoralizing is the popular way of reading newspapers; a glance here and there, a bit from this article, a few lines from that, the headings of two or three more, and how much wiser is any one a half-hour later? Nothing could be more destructive to all habits of attention than this trick of reading carelessly what is not expected or intended to be remembered.
In the choice of books the same laziness is displayed; a solid literature requires too much work, so the very lightest kind is preferred, and even fiction is read too superficially, for a novel that is worth reading at all is worth reading thoughtfully. Yet many young people pride themselves on reading a great deal, who have never read anything carefully in the whole course of their lives. By such foolishness they are constantly weakening their mental powers, for in time it is almost impossible for them to understand and remember the simplest narrative. In the days when books were few, men and women thought for themselves and did not rely on books to do it for them. Those were the days of sturdy, original common sense; if what men then said and did was not great, it was at least their own, worked out by their own brains, not absorbed from the records of other men's minds. And with all the wonderful advantages of our present time we shall fail of similar mental growth if we do not cease making crutches of our canes.
There is yet another form of mental laziness that should be noted: religious. Many people are genuine Catholics in one point, they do not believe in thinking for themselves. In the church in which early associations have placed them they remain, though they may not know enough of her doctrines to know whether they believe them or not. What proportion of church-members can answer intelligently the simplest question in the church catechism? No doubt if doctrine were thoroughly understood there would be some shifting from one church to another, for we often see a Methodist in the Presbyterian fold, or a Congregationalist among the Baptists.
As to the ignorance of the work of the church at home and abroad, its history and government, what occasions this, which is sadly prevalent? Surely not the absence of accessible information. But then, to read carefully and thoughtfully on these subjects requires more trouble than some of God's servants are willing to bestow. And yet for what purpose have these brains been created? Has one any more right to shirk mental labor than physical? In short, is it not really wrong as well as pitiable to be mentally lazy? We commend these questions to each reader who has been glancing listlessly over these pages. If he also believes a reform advisable, surely he will remember the command to build every one over against his own house.—Amelia H. Botsford, in Christian at Work.
Mothers.
THERE are two extraordinary things about mothers. One is their patience and the other is their impatience. He who sees a mother care for a child through a long and dangerous sickness, tending it by day and by night, not once merely, but many times, hoping on when all others despair, and keeping up when all others give out, and at last coaxing and loving the little creature back to convalescence, sees one of the sublimest things in nature. The same mother, when the child is well again, will sometimes exhibit an impatience with it that borders on the ridiculous. It is noisy, boisterous, inquisitive, careless as all healthy children are apt to be, and the mother wears out her soul in scolding it. This is often a case of cause and effect. The child has recovered its nervous force, but the mother has not. During the ten weeks' illness of a child its mother may expend the entire reserve of vital energy, and contract a large debt in that line besides, which she may be years in liquidating. She may never liquidate it, but live on fretful and irritable to the end—for a mother seldom passes a whole year without incurring some new drain upon her resources. It is for this reason that, in all arrangements of a home, the ease and comfort of the mother should be considered before all things. This is her right. Nor is it less the interest of the family, for their happiness depends chiefly upon her health and cheerfulness.—Religious Telescope.
The Home Circle.
GOOD MORNING.
Good morning! though a simple gift,
Has still a magic power;
'Tis as a cup of water passed
One in a needy hour.
Good morning! these two little words,
When clothed with Christian grace,
Bring such a wreath of happy smiles
Upon a friendly face.
The sweetness lasts through all the day,
When cheerful we begin;
The light and shade along life's way
Are nicely woven in.
Perchance a cloud may rise at noon
And dim the morning light;
Good afternoon will break the gloom
And bring a sweet good-night.
—Sel.
A Touching Incident.
THERE are often wells of thought and feeling in childhood, of whose depths parents little dream. We are so accustomed to think of our children's tastes, desires, and will as being reflections of our own that we, too, often forget to study their natures, recognize their individuality, and treat them as sentient beings. With such reflections I listened to the relation of the following touching incident:—
A little girl of this city, about ten years of age, was visiting her aunt in the country. They were discussing a certain book, and the aunt remarked:—
"Your birthday is near, and perhaps your mamma will buy it for you for a birthday present."
A tinge of sadness rested on the sweet young face as she quickly answered:—
"She could give me something else I would rather have, something I would rather have than anything else in the world."
"I'm sure," said her aunt, "your mamma will get it for you, if it does not cost too much."
"It will not cost money," replied the child, "it will not cost anything."
But she could not then be persuaded to tell what it was. After a long time the shrinking little spirit said:—
"Aunty, I will tell you part; it is something she gave me before little brother came. It is just not to do something for that one day; now don't you know?"
The discerning aunt drew the little one to her and asked:—
"Is it that mamma should not scold you on your birthday?"
A trembling "Yes," and long the dear head rested in silence on the bosom of that loving, patient aunt.
When I heard this little incident related by that aunt herself, my heart wept, and I quickly asked myself, "Am I not that mother? Have not the cares of a growing family caused me to be often less patient with my first-born, my darling Edith? Have not I, in the multiplicity of duties, been unresponsive to the heart-longing for a mother's tender caress and loving recognition of little services rendered?"
May the reading of these little paragraphs do other mother's good as the writing of them has done me good. That mother is a pious woman. I know she loves her little daughter as tenderly as I do mine. She didn't think how each impatient word was wearing a sore in that sensitive little heart. She didn't think she was robbing her child's future of the sweet memories of a beautiful childhood. She didn't think how she was cramping the powers of a lovely spirit that needed a continual sunshine for its development. Mothers, pause and reflect.—Ex.
A Phonograph in Africa
A PHONOGRAPH has been taken to Africa by Dr. Zintgraff, of Bonn. He intends to bring home with him phonograms of the savage dialects, which he will hire the natives to speak into the machine.
This exclamation, thrice repeated, each time with increased emphasis, brought to their feet four boys, who looked around for some way to escape.
"You needn't try to run, and you needn't burn your pockets either. You are caught, and I shall tell mother all about it. She doesn't allow her boys to smoke, and, Charley and Jack Dunn, I don't believe your mother would let you smoke if she knew it. I've a good mind to tell her."
"You are making a big fuss just for cigarettes," said Ben Stanley, in reply to his sister, who had surprised him and his companions in what they had supposed a safe hiding-place. "Cigarettes don't hurt anybody any more than sweet-fern."
"Then why don't you smoke sweet-fern?" asked Katie, quickly.
"Because we've got beyond such baby stuff as that," replied Jack Dunn. "That will do to begin on, but a fellow outgrows it before a great while."
"And do you expect to outgrow cigarettes?"
The boys were not prepared to answer this question, yet after some delay Ben ventured to remark:—
"Of course we expect to get to cigars some time; though almost everybody smokes cigarettes when they feel like it. I shouldn't wonder if father does. Anyway, he smokes a pipe out in the back yard when there isn't anybody to see him. You think he is all right, don't you? Grandmother says if I am ever as good as my father I shall be good enough, and I know you like Mr. Dunn."
"Yes I do, and father is good; but I heard mother say once that good people sometimes have very disagreeable habits. I am sure it would be better to help poor people with the money than to burn it up."
"Then what makes men do it?"
"I don't know, Jack, but if you will tell me what makes boys smoke, I will ask your father, and mine, too, why they smoke. The teacher said the other day it made boys cross and nervous, and I guess that has been the matter with Ben and Will. They haven't spoken real pleasant to me for a week. They told mother yesterday their heads ached enough to split, and I know what makes them. I shall let mother know, too."
Having said this, Kate Stanley turned to leave the boys, when they begged her to stop a minute. She was not easily persuaded, but at last she consented to stay and hear what they had to say.
"Is that the best you can say for yourselves?" she asked, when she found an opportunity to speak.
"Isn't that enough?" was responded quickly.
"More than enough," she answered. "You want to be smart and manly, and know how to smoke like gentlemen. Folks all smoke the same way, as far as I know. Esquire Blaine and old Dan Bussy, both of them, put one end of their pipes in their mouths and then puff."
"Esquire Blaine almost always smokes cigars."
"Perhaps Dan Bussy would if he had more money. But anything else is better than cigarettes made out of old cigar stumps picked up in the streets and gutters. I don't wonder they make you sick. It makes me sick just to think of it."
"Don't say any more," cried Ben. "If you want to stop anybody smoking, go to headquarters. Get father to stop, and I'll never smoke another whiff as long as I live."
"Nor I either," chimed in Will, who usually echoed his brother's sentiments.
"Get my father to stop, and Jack and I will throw our cigarettes to the dogs, and never puff again," added Charley Dunn. "The men are the ones to blame. Preach to them."
"I will," answered Kate; and it was not long before Mr. Dunn and Mr. Stanley found her arguments so convincing they were ready to set their boys an example it was safe to follow.—Temperance Banner.