The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

"THE ISLE OF PALMS." Dr. Talmage Tells Of His Ceylon Wanderings. A Press Sermon from the Text: "The Ships of Tarshish Fleet"- <?> 60:ix. - The Heathen Temples Crumbling Before Christian Light The Tarshish of my text by many commentators is supposed to be the island of Ceylon, upon which the seventh sermon of the " 'Round-the-World" series lands us. Ceylon was called by the Romans Taprobane. John Milton called it "Golden Chersonese." Moderns have called Ceylon "The Isle of Palms;" "The Isle of Jewels;" "The Island of Spice;" "The Show Place of the Universe;" "the Land of Hyacinth and Ruby." In my eyes, for scenery it appears to be a mixture of Yosemite and Yellowstone park. All Christian people want to know more of Ceylon, for they have a long while been contributing for its evangelization. As our ship from Australia approached this island, there hovered over it clouds thick and black as the superstitions which have hovered here for centuries; but the morning sun was breaking through like the gospel light which is to scatter the last cloud of moral gloom. The sea lay along the coast calm as the eternal purposes of God toward all islands and continents. We swing into the harbor of Colombo, which is made by a break water built at vast expense. As we floated into it the water is black with boats of all sizes and manned by people of all colors, but chiefly Tamils and Cingalese. There are two things I want most to see on this island: a heathen temple with its devotees in idolatrous worship, and an audience of Cingalese addressed by a Christian missionary. The entomologist my have his capture of brilliant insects; and the sportsman his tent adorned with antler of red deer and tooth of wild boar; and the painter his portfolio of gorge three thousand feet down, and of days dying on evening pillows of purple cloud etched with fire; and the botanist his camp full of orchids and crowfoots and gentians, and valerian, and lotus. I want most to find out the moral and religious triumphs, how many wounds have been healed; how many sorrows comforted; how many entombed <?> resurrected. Sir William Baker, the famous explorer and geographer, did well for Ceylon after his eight years' residence on this island, and Prof. Ernst Haeckel, the professor from Jena, did well when he swept these waters, and rummaged these hills and took home for future inspection the insects of this tropical air. And forever honored be such work; bet let all that is sweet in rhythm, and graphic on canvas, and imposing in monument, and immortal in memory be brought to tell the deeds of those who were heroes and heroines for Christ's sake. Many scholars have supposed that this island of Ceylon was the original Garden of Eden where the snake first appeared on reptilian mission. There are reasons for belief that this was the site where the first homestead was opened and destroyed. It is so near the equator that there are not more than twelve degrees of Fahrenheit difference all the year round. Perpetual foliage, perpetual fruit, and all styles of animal life prosper. What luxuriance, and abundance, and superabundance of life! What styles of plumage do not the birds sport! What styles of scale do not the fishes reveal! What styles of song do not the groves have in their libretto! Here on the roadside and clear out on the beach of the sea stands the coconut tree, saying: "Take my leaves for shade. Take the juice of my fruit for delectable drink. Take my saccharine for sugar. Take my fibre for the cordage of your ships. Take my oil to kindle your lamps. Take my wood to fashion your cubs and pitchers. Take my leaves to thatch your roofs. Take my smooth surface on which to print your books. Take my 30,000,000 trees covering 300,000 acres, and with the exportation enrich the world. I will wave in your fans and spread abroad in your umbrellas. I will vibrate in your musical instruments. I will be the scrubbing brushes on your floors." Here also stands the palm tree, saying: "I am at your disposal. With these arms I fed your ancestors 150 years ago, and with these same arms I will feed your ancestors 150 years from now. I defy the centuries!" Here also stands the nutmeg tree, saying: "I am ready to spice your beverages and enrich your puddings, and with my sweet dust make insipid things palatable." Here also stands the coffee plant, saying: "With the liquid boiled from my berry I stimulate the nations morning by morning." Here stands the tea plant, saying: "With the liquid boiled from my leaf I soothe the world's nerves and stimulate the world's conversation, evening by evening." Here stands the cinthona, saying: "I am the foe of malaria. In all climates my bitterness is the slaughter of fevers." What miracles of productiveness on these islands! Enough sugar to sweeten all the world's beverages; enough bananas to pile all the world's fruit baskets; enough rice to mix all the world's puddings; enough cocoanut to powder all the world's cakes; enough flowers to garland all the world's beauty. But in the evening <?> through a cinnamon grove <?> tasted the leaves and bark <?> condiment so valuable and <?> transported on ships the <?> cinnamon is dispelled if <?> rival bark. Of such great <?> the cinnamon shrub that years ago <?> who injured it in Ceylon were put to death. But that which once was a <?> of cinnamon is now a park of <?> residences. The long, <?> houses are bounded with <?> shrub and all other styles of growth congregated there, make a botanical garden. Doves called cinnamon doves hop among the branches, and crows, more poetically staled ravens, which never could sing, but think they can, fly across the road giving full test of their vocables. Birds which learned their chanting under the very eaves of heaven overpowered all with their grand march of the tropics. The hibiscus dapples the scene with its scarlet clusters. All shades of brown and emerald, and saffron, and brilliance; melons, limes, mangosteens, custard apples, guavas, pine apples, jessamine so laden with aroma they have to hold fast to the wall, and begonias, gloriosas on fire, and orchids so delicate other lands must keep them under conservatory, but here defiant of all weather, and flowers more or less akin to azaleas, and honeysuckles, and floxes, and fuchsias, and chrysanthemums, and rhododendrons, and fox-gloves, and pansies, which dye the plains and mountains of Ceylon with heaven. The evening hour burns incense of all styles of aromatics. The convolvulus, blue as if the sky had fallen, and butterflies spangling the air, and arms of trees sleeved with blossoms, and rocks upholstered of moss, commingling sounds, and sights, and odors until eye, and ear, and nostril vie with each other as to which sense shall open the door to the most enchantment. A struggle between music and perfume, and iridescence. Oleanders reeling in intoxication of color. Great banyan trees that have been changing their mind for centuries, each century carrying out a new plan of growth attracted our attention, and saw us pass in the year of 1894, as they saw pass the generations of 1794, and 1694. Colombo is so thoroughly embowered in foliage that if you go into one of its towers and look down upon the city of one hundred and thirty thousand people you can not see a house. Oh, the trees of Ceylon! May you live to behold the morning climbing down through their branches, or the evening tipping their leaves with amber and gold! I forgive the Buddhist for the worship of trees until they know of the God who made the trees. I wonder not that there are some trees in Ceylon called sacred. To me all threes are Sacred. I wonder no that before one of them they burn camphor flowers and hang lamps around its branches, and a hundred thousand people each year make pilgrimage to this tree. Worship something a man must, and until he hear of the only being worthy of worship, what so elevating as a tree! What glory enthroned amid its foliage! What a majestic doxology spreads out in its branches! What a voice when the tempests pass through it! How it looks down upon the cradle and the grave of centuries! As the fruit of the tree unlawfully eaten struck the race with woe and the uplifting of another tree brings peace to the soul, let the woodman spare the tree, and all nations honor it, if, through higher teaching, we do not, like the Ceylonese, worship it! How consolatory that when we no more walk under the tree branches on earth, we may see the "Tree of life which bears twelve manner of fruit, and yields her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations!" Two processions I saw in Ceylon within one hour, the first leg by a Hindoo priest, a huge pot of flowers on hi head, his face disfigured with holy lacerations, and his unwashed followers beating as many discords from what are supposed to be musical instruments, as at one time can be induced to enter the human ear. The procession halted at the door of the huts. The occupants came out and made obeisance and presented small contributions. In return thereof the priest sprinkled ashes upon the children who came forward, this evidently a form of benediction. Then the procession led on by the priest started again; more noise, more ashes, more genuflection. However keen one sense's of the ludicrous, he could find nothing to excite a smile in the movements of such a procession. Meaningless, oppressive, squalid, filthy, sad. Returning to our carriage, we rode on for a few moments, and we came on another procession, a kindly lady leading groups of native children all clean, bright, happy, laughing. They were a Christian school out for exercise. There seemed as much intelligence, refinement and happiness in that regiment of young Cingalese as you would find in the ranks of any young ladies' seminary being chaperoned on their afternoon walk through Central park, New York, or Hyde park, London. The Hindoo procession illustrated on a small scale something of what Hindooism can do for the world. The Christian procession illustrated on a small scale something of what Christianity can do for the world, but those two processions were only fragments of two great processions ever marching across our world; the procession blasted of superstition and the procession blessed of gospel light. I saw them in one afternoon in Ceylon. They are to be seen in all nations. Nothing is of more thrilling interest than the Christian achievements in this island. The Episcopal church was here the National church, but disestablishment has taken place, and since Mr. Gladstone's accomplishment of that act in 1889, all denominations are on <?> and all are doing mighty work. America is second to no other nation in what has been done for Ceylon. Since 1816 she has had her religious agents in the Jaffna peninsula of Ceylon. The Spauldings, the Howlands, the Doctors Poor, the Saunders and others just as good and strong have been fighting back monsters of superstition and cruelty greater than any that ever swung the tusk or roared in the jungles. But passing up and down the streets of Ceylon you find all styles of people within five minutes. Afghans, Kaffirs, Portuguese, Moormen, Dutch, English, Scotch, Irish, American; all classes, all dialects, all manners and customs, all styles of salaam. The most interesting thing on earth is the human race, and specimens of all branches of it confront you in Ceylon. The island of the present is a quiet and inconspicuous affair compared with what is once was. The dead cities of Ceylon were larger and more imposing than are the living cities. On this island are dead New Yorks, and dead Pekins, and dead Edinburghs, and dead Londons. Ever and anon at the stroke of the archaeologist's hammer the tomb of some great municipality flies open, and there are other buried cities that will yet respond to the explorer's pick ax. The Pompeii and Herculaneum underneath Italy are small compared with the Pompeiis and Herculaneums underneath Ceylon. Yonder is an exhumed city which was founded 500 years before Christ, standing in pomp and splendor for 1200 years. Stairways up which, fifty men might pass side by side. Carved pillars, some of them failed, some of them aslant, some of them erect, Phidiases and Christopher Wrens never heard of here performed the marvels of sculpture and architecture. Aisles through which royal processions marched. Arches under which kings were carried. City with reservoir twenty miles in circumference. Extemporized lakes that did their cooling and refreshing for twelve centuries. Ruins more suggestive than Melrose and Kenilworth. Ceylonian Karnaks and Luxors. Ruins retaining much of grandeur, though wars bombarded them and time put his chisel on every block, and more than all, vegetation put its anchors, and pries, and wrenches in all the crevices. Dagobas, or palaces where relics of saints or deities are kept. Degobas four hundred feet high, and their fallen material burying precious things for the sight of which modern curiosity has digged and blasted in vain. Procession of elephants in imitation, wrought into lustrous marble. Troops of horses in full run. Shrines, chapels, cathedrals wrecked on the mountainside. Stairs of moon stone. Exquisite scrolls rolling up more mysteries than will ever be unrolled. Over sixteen square miles, the ruins of one city strewn. Throne rooms on which at different times sat 165 kings, reigning in authority they inherited. Walls that witnessed coronations, assassinations, <?> those triumphs. Altars at which millions bowed ages before the orchestras celestial woke the shepherds with midnight overture. When Lieut. Skinner, in 1832, discovered the site of some of these cities, he found congregated in them undisturbed assemblages of leopards, porcupines, flamingoes and pelicans; reptiles sunning themselves on the altars; prima donnas rendering ornithological chant from deserted music halls. One king restored much of the grandeur; rebuilt 1,500 residences, but ruin soon resumed its scepter. But all is down; the spires down; the pillars down; the tablets down; the glory of splendid arches down. What killed those cities? Who slew the New York and London of the year 500 B.C.? Was it unhealthed with a host of plagues? Was it foreign armies laying siege? Was it whole generations weakened by their own vices? Mystery sits amid the monoliths and brick dust. Finger on lip in eternal silence while the centuries guess and guess in vain. We simply know that genins planned those cities. An eminent writer estimates that a pile of bricks in one ruin of Ceylon would be enough to build a wall ten feet high from Edinburgh to London; 1,300 pillars with carved capitals are standing sentinel for ten miles. You can judge somewhat of the size of the cities by the reservoirs that were required to slake their thirst; judging the size of the city from the size of the cup out of which it drank. Cities crowded with inhabitants; not like American or English cities, but packed together as only barbaric tribes can pack them. But their knell was sounded; their light went out Giant trees are the only royal family now occupying those palaces. The growl of wild beasts, where once the guffaw of wassall ascended. Anradhapuru and Pollonara will never be rebuilded. Let all the living cities of the earth take warning. Cities are human, having a time to be born and a time to die. No more certainly have they a cradle than a grave. A last judgement is appointed for individuals, but cities have their last judgement in this world. They bless, they curse, they worship, the blaspheme, they suffer, they are rewarded, they are overthrown. Preposterous! says some one, to think that any of our American or European cities which have stood so long can ever come through vice to extinction. But New York and London have not stood so long as those Ceylonese cities stood. Where is the throne outside of Ceylon on which 167 successive kings reigned for a life time. Cities and nations that have lived far longer than our present cities, or nation, have been sepulchered. Let all the great municipalities of this and other lands ponder. It is as true now as when the psalmist wrote it, and as true of the cities and nations as of individuals; "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish." All Under One Roof. A Whole City Full of Happy People Capitalists Said to Be Considering the Feasibility of Erecting a Vast Building Capable of Holding Twenty Thousand People Practical Architects admit that it is possible to put a complete city under one roof, and there are signs that before the century closes such an architectural miracle will be attempted in the eastern metropolis. Indeed, a rumor is printed in a New York paper that the entire block at the corner of West Nineteenth street and Fifth avenue, stretching east, has been bought up by a secret syndicate of benevolently speculative millionaires. It is hinted that Charles T. Yerkes is one of the guiding spirits in this tremendous enterprise. Mr. Yerkes is well known to the scientific world as the giver of the famous Yerkes telescope, and it is easy to understand how a man of his practical mind might be fascinated by the prospect which this gigantic scheme presents. Who the New Yorkers are connected with the Chicago business genius in this plan, which involves millions to start, can only be surmised at present. But it is shrewdly suspected that the brilliant son of a famous judge who abandoned law for business is one of these choice spirits, and that several very rich women of New York are also subscribers to the stock. One thing is absolutely certain in this connection. The real estate deal for the property has been consummated, and the former owners or penters of private houses in that block are seeking new abodes. But what does the plan actually propose? According to the best obtainable information from inside sources it may, unless the magnificent intention collapses, eventuate something like this: Every building on the block will be torn down and an absolute open space big enough for a football amphitheater will be thus laid open in the fashionable heart of the city. The foundations will be dug very deep and the main piles will be wrought iron. Iron interspersed with aluminum, with glass and with stone for pictorial effect, will be used chiefly in the construction of the building. This will be a huge oval shell with a spacious court, hotel, theater and spiral driving park of gradual ascent inside the central dome. The arrangement will be such that during summer the sides of the imperceptibly ascending spiral avenue can be thrown open to natural air, while in severe winter weather they can be closed tight, if necessary. The lower part of the huge oval shell will be arranged chiefly for the management of wholesale businesses, and on the second floor the employees and workmen in the vast hive will have their quarters. There will be fifty floors with an average height of thirty feet, but between some of the flats there will be floors that will contain halls and ballrooms leasable in turn by the neighbors of the covered city, so that the probable height of the building will be over half a mile. Each one of these flats will look out on the inner court and also on the street of the outside world, and each will be arranged for a family of six or eight persons. They will be so arranged in building the separate outside sections that none of their windows will look into those of an opposite neighbor. The sections of the apartment turrets or series of flats will be fifty in number. Hence the calculation in easy that about 20,000 people can be accommodated in this mammoth apartment palace. The rentals of these 2,500 most desireable flats will not average less than $2,000 a piece. This item along gives $3,000,000, or 5 per cent interest on the original investment of $1,000,000. Consider now the food bills of these 2,500 families, who will be supplied from the great central restaurant. These food bills will not be less than another $5,000,000 per annum, half of which, or more, may be reckoned as sheer, clear profit. Consider next all the stores, Turkish baths, theaters, etc. in this place will be owned and managed by the company, and that in addition to the constant profit accruing from those who live in the city will be the stream of traffic from the outside. For is it not clear that outsiders will come in floods to a place where not only everything is cheaper than elsewhere, according to quality, but where so much tremendous architectural beauty is set off by such unimaginable splendor of electric lights, shifting through all tints? It should be added that besides the spiral driving park, which will be large enough for five phaetons to move abreast, there will be several glass and aluminum aerial lakes or reservoirs on different floors of the central dome, into which water from artesian wells will flow. These will be lined with grassy banks, flowers and trees, and little bath houses, looking like kiosks, will be sprinkled here and there ont he borders. Some of these will be so arranged that in sufficiently wintery weather they can be thrown open and absolutely perfect skating rinks thus formed. In other parts of the vast central dome gymnasiums and chapels will be found, and, crowning glory of the whole, a magnificent newspaper will probably be published. Like the crystal palace at Sydenham, the entirety of this city in a city will be roofed over with plate glass, but it will be so constructed that at the pressure of a finger this prismatic crown can be lifted and laid aside to allow air from heaven free entrance, and also for hygienic purposes there will be various pumps and fans throughout the different compartments to insure daily purification of the atmosphere. Canada's New Premier MacKenzie Bowell Make But Few Changes in the Cabinet Hon. MacKenzie Bowell, appointed premier of Canada, to succeed the late Sir John Thompson, has as yet developed no radical views, and is expected to make only slight changes in the administration of his predecessor. He is a strong advocate, however, of extending Canada's commercial relations with Great Britain and the sister colonies. While he favors reciprocity with the United States he is not hopeful of much legislation in that direction. He will no doubt expend a large part of his energies in extending Canada's trade. Mr. Bowell was born in Ricking Hall, Suffolk, England, 1833, and went to Canada nine years later. In his early manhood he was a newspaper man. He was elected to parliament from North Hastings, and, after an active experience, was made minister of customs in Sir John McDonald's cabinet in 1878, a position he has held ever since. Story of Dr. Holmes This touching little story about Dr. Holmes comes from the new "Book Buyer." "Dr. Holmes, several years ago, asked a friend: 'What is your idea of happiness?' And the prompt answer: 'Four feet on the fender,' gave him great satisfaction. Some time later - perhaps a year or more - this friend found Dr. Holmes in his study, sitting alone by the fire, looking not very happy. To the visitor's solicitous greeting came the replay: 'Only two feet on the fender.'" Webster's Head A story told by Ticknor, who said it was a singular fact that the head of Daniel Webster grew larger after he had passed middle age. Ticknor, knowing Webster intimately, asked him about the matter and received the reply: "Yes, I find that I have constantly to increase the size of my hats." Racing Ostriches Gottlieb von Klackenberg, a South African Boer, has two racing ostriches. One of them has developed a speed of twenty-two miles an hour and has a stride of fourteen feet. The breeding of ostriches for racing purposes has been seriously interfered with by the passage of an anti-betting law by the English government. Precious Pearls In Ancient Times the Most <?> The value of pearls has been <?> ages commensurate with their <?>. In the East, especially, they have been greatly admired, and enormous sums of money have been paid for them. Pliny observes that pearls are the most valuable and excellent of all precious stones; and from our Savior's comparing the kingdom of heaven to a pearl it is evident they must have been held in very high estimation at that time. It is said that Julius Caesar gave a pearl to the mother of Marcus Brutus that was valued at £48,417 10s. of our present money; and Cleopatra dissolved one worth $250,000 in vinegar, which she drank at the supper with Marc Antony. From time immemorial there have been fisheries of pearl in the Persian gulf, the Red sea and in the bays of Ceylon; ad when Columbus arrived in the gulf of Paria on his first voyage to America he was astonished to find the precious gems abounding there in unparalleled quantities. His men landed, and saw the Indian women adorned with splendid pearls round their arms, as well as round their necks. But their possessors seem to have been perfectly ignorant of the true value of the gems, as it is recorded that an Indian woman gave one of the sailors four rows of her pearls merely in exchange for a broken earthenware plate. The Spanish king forbade anyone to go within fifty leagues of the place where such riches were found without royal permission, says the Gentleman's Magazine, and took possession of the fisheries for himself; but so cruelly did the Spaniards behave to the natives, making them by force dive for them and brutally ill treating them when they were unsuccessful in pearl finding, that one morning at dawn the Indians assailed the Spaniards, made a sanguinary slaughter of them, and, with dancing and leaping, ate them, both monks and laymen." The Mussulmans Wives How They Were Punished for Exposing Themselves Indiscreetly Dr. Jessuf Bloch, a native of Budapest, lodged upon the ground floor of a house on Bulak street, where he had an extensive practice among the Turkish population. The flat above was occupied by a boy and his harem, composed of three or four women, who, as is the custom, were jealously secluded from the gaze of all male creatures, says the Neuo Frel Presso. During the night of the first earthquake Dr. Bloch lay on his couch sleeping the sleep of the just, and all unconscious of impending danger, when suddenly the catastrophe came. The earth trembled, houses rocked, cracked and toppled over, and among the <?> house in Bulak street which <?> like a house of cards. <?> started from his sleep, when he <?> burst asunder and <?> shower of miscellaneous articles <?> couple of ladies dropped down upon him in the attire worn by the <?>. The doctor and the women <?> into the open air, and, in <?> of Dr. Bloch's innocence <?> stern Mussulman refrained <?> vengeance <?> two women, on being <?> the grand mufti, were <?> drowned in the Bosphorus <?> actually drowned, only symbolically <?> to speak, for they were <?> sacks and immersed in the <?> immediately drawn out again <?> accomplished. A Mighty Block of Granite When Cleopatra's needle was brought from the banks of the Nile and set down in Central park, New York, it was considered a great feat of engineering. Recently a block of granite weighing 1,217 tons was used as the pedestal of the equestrian statue of Peter the Great at St. Petersburg having been transported four miles by land over a railway and thirteen miles in <?> by water. The railway consisted of two lines of timber furnished with hard metal grooves between which grooves were placed spheres of hard brass about six inches in diameter. On these spheres the frame with its load was easily moved by sixty men, working at the capstone with treble-purchase blocks. Another huge block, measuring 35x16x14 foot was recently taken out at the Craignair quarries near Dalbeattie. Its weight was estimated at 650 tons. A block of granite measuring 97x11 foot was blasted some time ago from the quarries of Monte Grassi Ravene, Italy. The obelisk of St. John of Lateran, now standing at Rome is 105 feet high without the pedestal, and weighs 440 tons. Patriots In Japan Among the reasons for the almost uninterrupted success of Japan is prosecuting the war with China is the spirit of sacrifice and generosity exhibited by her people. Voluntary contributions amounting to almost $15,000,000 have been received by the government. The bank of the <?> which has given $1,000,000 <?> right, has also placed <?> interest free, at the disposal of the authorities. The noblemen and <?> merchants have been most patriotic and a number of them have contributed more than $100,000 each. Public spirit in China with relevance to the unfortunate <?>. <Last article on the page is illegible>