McHenry Public Library District Digital Archives

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 20 Mar 1878, p. 6

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

*•"' «• . ' *"' '• . , £ v : ; " ̂ • ' I - , . ..v;':,r ^..-^v.:,..-. ::p; ' '• •' '• * ••~.V...:.«;-..._..-..' ' <; v>- • "~c- 1 i *#*-• , „> u» W •& -> I Jl ^ i-li-' • " 4 ' - i _ ' • . • • • • • • • • . a::; >•• , '•ifTfoAtJCfcT FHIAjfCIER. ^ ':%r?ind Mrs. Thomas Petterkfti w- tfride in Thirty-first street, and have j^r^ded there happily for a great ^•^nany years. . Mrs. Petterkin wouldnt agree to the statement as . to the number of years, lor, being a Woman of fashion, she carefully con- teals her age, but Petterkin, who rather elights in age niid experience, has no .«uch weaknesses. They live in an ele- , Ittant house, and have moved in good jJMiociety ever siitoe there was any. Mr. Petterkin is very well to do, or *#ather was. He has a nice business, *?rh!eh yMris him a handsome income, t ^tnd he owns the house he lives in, and ,l^pas very pleasant surroundings indeed. Mrs. Petterkin is an excellent lady, her .'«©nlv fault being a disposition to emu­ late JBsop's frog, in a social way, and Kjbf making a rather heavier spread -than one ot her means ought to. She ,?j|s passionately fond of society, and her i Wfforts to get within the charmed ? ^circle, and stay there, have been simply herculean. And to the orodit of the , lady's perseverance and skill, be it *j Said, she has succeeded very well. *; Some months ago Mr. Ifetterkin ' 'itrayed into Wall street, and made a <. little venture in stocks. Unfortunately Tsfce won,and won a very considerable sum. We say unfortunately, for momentous results little expected by Mr. Petterkin then grew out of it. It is curious how ^mien are continuously doing things ^Jfhat other things grow out of, and * *ivhich are little expected. Fate is a ^perpetual surprise. Feeling good over his luck, and lov­ ing Mrs. Petterkin with a devotion that itVthirty years of married life had not en- i9|birely worn out, he devised a pleasant surprise for her. He laid in her lap •he delightful sum of $2,000, which was ^exactly the half of his profits, with the 'remark: , " Lavina, I have made exactly $4,000 ,to-day, outside my business. Tour soul has hungered and thirsted for an outfit of diamonds. This money will |my them. Go and get them and be fflfiappy, and make me happy." Mfcs. Petterkin was a loving wife. •" pelighted at this manifestation of * love on the part of her husband, she * Idssed and embraced him, as a proper Wife should,, and ended by shedding tears, which she assured him were of joy, and not of wo. „ But the next morning after Mr. Pet- ii terkin had left his home, Mrs. P. sat ^Hmd pondered. The ways of women •jjfcre mysterious, and there were many things which Mr. P. did not know. 'Notably that to make her way in so­ ciety and to keep up the appearance that was necessary for a lady in her position, she had run in debt for clothes - '-jftnd articles of taste and luxury to the •' Amount of just $2,000, all of which she fiad kept from the knowledge of Mr. being afraid of that gentleman's temper, which was touchy when it came «*. to matters financial, especially as one <• «f his rules was never to run into debt, i f Her milliners and dressmakers had be- ki-come importunate, and that very morn- T* ing she had determined to make a clean breast of it to Mr. P. and take the con- . sequences. Better would it have been for that j>t Wretched woman had she done so. But . .j^the enemy of mankind is always on t^|,hand to make suggestions which are j*jv wicked, and he put one into Mrs. P.'s mind. Why not take this money and pay off her creditors? But then Pet­ terkin Would want to see the jewels. ^[j'The Devil at her ear whispered: " Why j'^aiot buy the diamcnds on credit?" She b.-ti jumped at this method of a reprieve, .and went and did it. The cash went to . ^ V her creditors, whose hearts were glad­ dened, and the jewels were purchased -on credit, which she intended to save out of • the housekeeping money, and .„•! pay as fast as she comd. Petterkin #v ^contemplated the effect of the diamonds b*f and was happy. Mrs. Petterkin was •r - happy in the possession of them, and v :• "the fact she would not be dunned any more, and her creditors were happy in shaving their money. There was hap- *r4 pines* all around. d->v But the evil spirit was weaving his t'i'jweb around her. Sin cannot escape punishment, whether it is located in a dwelling cn Thirty-first street, or an humble lodging in Baxter. It always finds everybody out. We can't say this "from personal experience, hut we hare ibeen told so. £ast Thursday Mr. Petterkin met with a terrible loss. A bank failed, 111 which he had money, and, beside, nthe available stocks he had on which , he could have raised money, were in --rthe hands of the enterprising Bonner, had rehypothecated then*, and _ were gone, and he had $2,000 to pay that afternoon. What could he -do? He did not dare to ask an exten- «ion or any of his friends to help him, for it would have been injurious to his would have paid it all up long ago. and nothing would have ever come df it," But how was a woman to keep in de­ cent society on any such money as he had grudgingly allowed her, and how was a iady to appear as a lady unless she had everything she had got, and a great deal more. The upshot of it was that the wretch­ ed Petterkin was forced to acknowledge that he had done everything that he ought not to have done, and left undone everything that he ought to haVe done, and he apologized abjectly. He was closed up the next day, and is compro­ mising with his creditors at twenty cents on the dollar. But as the house and other real property k in the nair*G of Mrs. P., he does not mourn as one without hope. Mrs. Petterkin remem­ bers her hard battle with sorrow, and, while she never acknowledges that she was in the wrong, has firmly resolved never to go in debt again, and if she does, to ao it with the full knowledge and concurrence of her lawful husband. And so there is a fair amount of peace in the Petterkin family after all. May the lesson of this transaction sink deep into the hearts of our .readers!-- y. T. Mail. •> Texts Horse-ThieTtiS* TUB popular fury in rural districts against horse-thieves is thought to> be < by denizens of cities senseless and out of proportion to their offense. Why, when a horse-thief is caught, he is gen­ erally strung up to the first convenient limb, while the homicide is carried to Jail with favorable prospects of prov­ ing self-defense and escaping punish­ ment, is very plain to me since I have looked somewhat diligently of late into the incomplete and unsatisfactory crim­ inal statistics of our State. There are now some 750 indicted horse-thieves fugitives from justice at large, and per­ haps half as many more in Jails and in the Penitentiary. But where one horse- thief is known and indicted, near about 100 get away with the stolen horses; or, at least, where the thief who steals one horse is known and indicted, 100 horses are stolen and no clue of thief or horse is ever afterward obtained. About Austin they seem to be organized, and succeed month after month in getting away with the horses of farmers, stock­ men and city people. The thieves are unknown, and the horses are never re­ covered. If their success here is a cri­ terion of their general success through­ out the State, then the propor­ tion of 100 successful -steals to one failure and exposure is certainly within the bounds of truth, and on that hypothesis they have stolen 100,000 horses in Texas in the last three years. The magnitude of their operations and the difficulty of checking them, then, will explain the fury of their victims against such as fall into their hands. Knowing their game to be desperate they prepare for extremities, and are rarely caught without a fight and blood­ letting on both sides. Hence Sheriffs are not usually very enthusiastic in their pursuit- Owners of stolen stock are about their only pursuers, and when oyer taken by such the reader will readi­ ly infer due course of law will not be had. It is believed that the exodus of outlaws from the cattle districts of the West driven to the country east of the Colorado by Hall's police and the fron­ tier battalion, has given an increased impetus to horse-stealing, and that an organized band of hundreds are now operating in Middle Texas. The loss of farm-stock in some localities is fear­ ful. Farms are rendered useless, and families depending upon crops see the ving season passing away without being aole to plant or sow. Gen. Boone and Capt. Fisher have, by a perfect system of detection, brought the most dangerous conspiracy of land-thieves ever organized to grief and the conspir­ ators to the Penitentiary.--Austin Vor. Galveston News. II i Possible Cure for Hydrophobia. ONE deplorable fact stands out clear in the discussion on hydrophobia which has lately occupied so much attention --that the profession can do nothing for the victims of the disease. The history of medicine, however, gives us many instances in which the doctors have adopted valuable remedies em­ pirically used by common people, and there seems no reason why, without giving up their scientific researches for the wondrous chemical compounds with which we are nowadays dosed, they should not sometimes turn their attention to these humble sources and take advantage of popular experience It is to be hoped that they will not neglect the information given to them by a correspondent of the Lancet, who writes thus: "Many years ago, while traveling in Southern China, I remember being told FACTS AND FIGURES* DW®I> and canned fruits and of apples are important exports to Great Britain.--Dr. Foote'sJEteollk Monthly. were . »*• credit. A thought struck him! Why I by a French priest that the native doc :, no% raise money on his wife's dia- tors of Cochin China are in the habit " laondsr He would have ^ gone to Mrs. I of treating successfully the cases of hy Petterkin and suggested it, but unfor-1 drophobia prevalent, there by keeping tunately that. lady was on a visit to I their patients delirious during twenty- her mother, the wife of the excellent * • Rev. Mr. Badger, of North Killingly, Conn. He knew she would not object, . and so he Went and took the diamonds and marched with them to a promi­ nent jeweler who sometimes extends accommodations of ' that nature and boldly asked for a temporary loan upon "them. _ To <tj*e surprise Of Mr. Petterkin, the .jeweler looked at them for a moment, and coolly put them in his safe. "That's the kind of a loan you will -get on those diamonds," was his icy answer. '•What does this mean?" demanded Mr. Petterkin. "It means,1' replied the jeweler, " that a woman (think of the elegant Zfttrs. Petterkin being called a woman) four hours by administering successive doses of a decoction of the leaves of the purple stramonium. Some years afterward, in Randy, Ceylon, I was as­ sured by the Assistant Colonial Sur­ geon, a burgher educated at Calcutta that a child of his own, of about four years of age, was once bitten by a hy­ drophobic cat; that some weeks there­ after. the usual well-marked symptoms of hydrophobia having set in, he knowing no cure for the fell disease sent for a native Cingalese doctor, who had the reputation of being able to cure such cases; that this man j»ave the child some vegetable decoction, the nature of which he declined to reveal and which kept the child delirious for day and a night; and that KM! P about a 'day ana a when this delirium subsided the symp toought these stones of me four months I toms had disappeared, and the little .«go on credit, giving her name as j patient was and remained quite cured Mrs. Petterkin, and that I have been He thought this might be stramonium trying ever since to get my money, and So do I. The coincidence is curious.' heaven't been able to do it. I have the I --Fall Mail Gazette. goods now, and I shall keep them till I Jtaow something about them. That's «rhat it means. Mr. Petterkin retired dumbfounded and In bad order. A telegram brought Mrs*. Petterkin back in a few hours, and explanations were in order. She denied first, and then confessed, and then turned upon poor, Petterkin. If he hadn't beea so fearfully stingy and jne&n about housekeeping expenses, she --When you are serit.tSs!3rtttksi(5ering matrimony as a possibility of the near future it is best to put your creditors in good humor by asking for their au tographsuon bills of goods delivered The man who has a right to ask you for money may be a dun; but unless you pay him you are undone. It is al ways better to settle up before v«a set­ tle do^n.--N. Y. BerwL DURING the year 7,892 lodgings v fiven free at the Bowery Branch of the oung Men's Christian Association; 210 garments were given away, 88,470 meals were furnished, and 25,441 meals were sold. The meal-tiekets given to business men amounted to 10,750. There were 623 applications for em­ ployment. 119 of which were success­ ful. The aggregate attendance at all the meetings was 66,574, and 149 hope­ ful conversions were reported. OLD JOHN BERRY, that used to live up Lake Champlain, liked to tell a big story. One evening, Sitting in the vil­ lage store, he said he once drove a horse seventy-two miles in one day on the ice, when the ice was so thin that the water spurted up through the holes cut through it by the horse's corks. One of the bystanders remarked that seventj-two miles was A pretty good drive for one day. 44 Yes," said ifncle John* " but it was a long day in June." GERMANY is troubled because of the near-sightedness of its children. In Magdeburg, in the Dom-GYn? n iisium-- --cathedral school--Dr. [Niemann has just examined the eyes of 650 pupils, and found in the sixth class 23, in the fifth 25, in the fourth 39, in the third 63, in the second 58, and in the first 95, per cent, of children whose eyes were myopic. In the Kloster-Padagogium, of 776 eyes 23 per cent, were short­ sighted in the sixth class, 27 in the fifth, 42 in the fourth, 47 in the third, 56 in the second and 80 in th&first. The great increase in the number of myopic pu­ pils in the upper classes, to which at­ tention was called in the Ghamber of Deputies last year, is therefore well au­ thenticated. THERE were 148 suicides in New York City in 1877. By far the larger number of persons who took their lives were in the prime of manhood or wom­ anhood, between the ages of twenty and forty. Only two persons under twenty welcomed self-destruction; the period between thirty and forty was the most prolific of suicides. The nit- tivity of the suicides was as follows: United States, 44; England, 6; Ireland, 17; Scotland, 1; France, 2; Austria, 2; Germany, 59! There is no preponder­ ance in the German-born population of New York that will wholly account for these astonishing figures. It will be seen that the German suicides were thrice as many as the Irish, and nearly as many as the American and Irish combined. A GERMAN resident of Sitka, in Alas­ ka, writes in a very hopeful style about the Capital of Alaska. Sitka has 350 white inhabitants, of whom 275 belong to the Greek-Russian Church; seventy inhabitants are American-Germans, En­ glish, etc. It is not true that the Rus­ sians or their priests have left the place. They are still there. The climate of Sitka is mild and healthy; the waters are full of fish of all kinds; the whole year through there are wild geese and ducks, and the woods abound with game. The mountains contain gold and silver. A company from Portland, Ore., has opened a quartz vein which yields gold in an astonishing quantity. There are at least a dozen quartz-veins in the neighborhood of Sitka, rich in silver ana gold. It needs but capital ta de­ velop them. There are immense for­ ests of cedar. Potatoes and other veg­ etables can be raised all the year. The habor of Sitka, after that of San Fran­ cisco, is the best on the Pacific Coast. The steamer brings, every month, some $3,000 of dutiable merchandise. Fif­ teen thousand dollars' worth of skins are yearly exported from Sitka. The Indians are bold and troublesome since the departure of the troops. Their re­ turn, however, is not desired on account the demoralization they produced among the settlers. The forests of Alaska, its mineral productions and its fishy sea and streams, are becoming batter appreciated as they are mdre known. How Sniffles Intimidated the Dog. SNIFFLES, who lives in the Third Ward, read in some book, that in the Himalaya Mountains, where the dogs are extremely ferocious, travelers pro­ vide themselves with a pair of huge goggles, and when they see a dog in the way they put them on and walk steadily toward the animal, without saying a wqrd. The dog bristles up and stares hard for a, moment, and then all at once it wilts and slinks away. Now, Sniffles, in going to and from his home, was compelled to pass a house that had a savage bull-dog among its regular boarders, and it had often chased him a block or two, late at night, baying deep-mouthed welcome as he drew near home. Once he left quite a hunk of coat-tail in the dog's teeth as he jumped his own fence, and Sniffles swore that the next coat he had made should be ornamented with dog-but­ tons, against a similar experience. The expedient of the goggles struck Sniffles as an exceedingly happy one, and he determined to try it. So the first time that he went, down-town he invested in the biggest pair of goggles he could find, and green at that, in case he might meet any green dog, in his travels, that needed quailing. Sniffles went home earlier than usual that after­ noon, so anxious was he to try the new method on that dog. He met several inferior pups on the route, and, putting on the goggles, they immediately scam­ pered away, but they might have done that any way, you can't tell. Where one dogwood another dog wouldn't. Reaching the vicinity of the house where the bull-dog put up, Sniffles ad­ justed the goggles and moved cautious­ ly along, keeping a sharp eye--in fact, a big pair of goggle-eyes--upoo the well-known spot in the fence where there was a picket gone (he could Eicket out in the dark), through which e had seen his canine adversary so often emerge. He paused about twen­ ty feet away, fearing that if he was too near when the dog bounced out, he wouldn't observe the goggles at all, and would be far along in his repast before he could call his attention to them Sniffles waited and waited, but no dog appeared. At length he grew weary of watching and and began to whistle i Then he said 44 Come, / doggy," in low, gentle tones, and final­ ly, as there was no response, he yelled out, 4'Come out of there, you son-of a fun barrel!" As this failed to fetch im, Sniffles walked boldly up to the fence and looked over, and there lay the dog on the front step sunning him­ self, with both eyes shut. As Sniffles contemplated him in languid repose, he wondered why he had been afraid of him at all, and felt ashamed that he had been such a coward as to run away from him in the first place. "But I'll give the brute a scare, anvhow," thought Sniffles. So he walked boldly through the gate, all goggled as he was, and gave a little yell to rouse the creature up. The dog, awakened suddenly from a pleasing dream of tearing the watch­ dog's, honest bark off some wayfarer's leg, seemed confused for a moment. His first impression was that he was a performer in some amateur dog show, and that a big pair of opera-glasses were leveled at him from the gallery. Then he didn't know but that a pho­ tographer with a double camera was endeavoring to take his dogarytype. But it wasi? t long before his intellect came to his rescue. In the meantime Sniffles was staring as hard as he could through his goggles, trying to concen­ trate in his gaze all the stern intimida­ tion of which he had ever read. But to his dismay he saw a green bull-dog of enormous size rise slowly up, fixing a pair of green eyes, in which there was concentrated ferocity softened by a gleam of subdued exultation, full upon his own. Everything appeared green to Sniffles at that moment, especially his attempt to frighten such a dog. He rapidly made up his mind that there wasn't any such a breed of pups in the Himalaya Mountains, or they would never have bragged over the success of the goggles game. He tried to go out Of the gate, but it fast­ ened with a spring when he stepped in. The dog seemed to appreciate that fact; for he smiled grimly, showing a double set of teeth that appeared to Sniffles' excited fancy like the upper and lower set he had seen hauled around the city on a dentist's wagon. The cool delib­ eration of that dog was something awful. The brute finally raises up on his hind legs, and sort of whips his fore Eaws around his body, as if to warm imself up for the work he has in hand. Then he slowly advances with a regular butcher-boy air, and Sniffles is unable to make any impression upon him, though he goggles ever so goggly. Then came a sudden bound, a low, hungry growl and a shriek, and the air was immediately filled with fragments of clothing, ola boot legs, suspender- buttons, strips of paper collar, green toggles and bulldog. It would have een all up with Sniffles had it not been for the timely arrival of the owner of the dog, who rescued what there was left of him and sent it home. While the doctor was fixing him up he raved continually about green goggles, and wanted to whip any traveler from the Mountains of Himalaya. But they thought it was only delirium on the part of Himalaying there. He got well, but he is out of the dog-training business.--Cincinnati Saturday Night. ^Religious. f S mm* -* 'i waiting, fo him. doggy, [rMiTSE LOB1T8 PSAtitM. 'f* : • 4 # Father, God putfrnmed above. Thy name we hallow and adore; Oh, may Thy kingdom, ruled by love, . • EKfcend, and spread from shore to Oh, may Thy will be done below uf j As it is now performed in Heaven; j ' Mankind wonia conquer many a foe, r If all our hearts to God were given. A\ is : For temporal wants and daily bread Vfe must to that same God apply j Who caused Elijah to be fed; v..,« 4 i> • He still can all our wants supptjr. Forgive ns all the ills we've dona, s t , f. As we foreive, we hnmbly pray; * A* j Temptation H paths help us to sttttM : 1 DeliTcr us fros: evil's way. l t.'t Our Father, by inherent right t The kingdom and the power .are Thin#, '* And when our faith is changed to sight / - The glory ever shall be Tmne. --J. R. Burbank, in Albany Evening Journal. > Sttnday-Schooi Lessoafc rillST QUARTER. 1878. Meh. 17. Hezcki&h and the Assyrians .2 Chron.32: 9-2L Mch.24.--Manaaseh Brought to Repentance 2 ChronCS: 9-16, Mch. 31.--Review of the Lessons for the Qa&rter. SECOND QCAHTEB, 187$. April 7 Josiah's Early Piety.. 2 Chron. 34: 1-8. April 14-- The Scriptures Found and Searched... 2Chron.34:14-22. April 21--Jeremiah in Prison,.Jeremiah 33: 1- 9. April 29--The Rechabites -Jeremiah 35:12-19. May 5--The Captivity of Jt> . dnh Jeremiah 52: 1-11. M.iv 12--The Captives in Bab­ ylon.. -- Daniel 1: 8-17. May 19 -Dream of Nebuchad- nezzar Daniel 2:36-45. May 26--The Fiery Furnace Daniel 3:21-27. June 2--The Handwriting on the. Wall Daniel 5:22-81. June 9--Daniel in the Lion's __ Den Daniel 6:14-28. June 16--Messiah's Kingdom.. Daniel 7:9-14. June 23--The Decree of Cyrm».-2 Chron. 36:22-23. June 30--Review of the Lessons for the Quarter. and; do so daily with e<|nal pleasare. The soul, charmed with the beauty of the Gospel, is no longer its own; God, possesses it entirely; He directs its thoughts and faculties; it is His. What a proof of the divinity of Jesus Christy -j^ Yet in this absolute sovereignty He ha$: but one sum--the spiritual perfection of the individual, the purification of hi$i conscience, his union with what is truei---- the salvation of his soul. Men wondeipi . % at the conqests of Alexander, but hereC is a conqueror who draws men to Him-#1 self for their highest good; who unite* to Himself, incorporates into Himself, not a Nation, but the whole huxnau race!"--Oeikie's Life, and Words of Christi. j* -LI ; • ti - • • 'OifRTST has Confen^f all power for good--to renovate the weak* to heal the sick, to free from the power of evil spirits, to loosen the bonds of the innocent. It repels temptations, extin­ guishes persecutions, consoles the fee­ ble-minded- delights the magnanimous, guides travelers, stills the wares, nour­ ishes the poor, controls the rich*. . raises the fallen, props the falHnv, anq* preserves the standing. Prayer iSv the bulwark of faith; our araas and weapons against the adversary who"; waylays us on every side. Therefore, never let us go about unarmedL-^ffer- tuttian. Indian Sign-Language. • It is not generally known that the Indians of our plains; have a comnion language of signs--one perfectly under­ stood by all. Such, however, is the curious fact. It undoubtedly grows out of the necessity arising from their dis­ tinct dialects, which are as many and different as there are tribes. So uqin telligible is a member of one tribe to a member of another that they can no more understand each other orally than a Sandwich-Islander can understand a Russian. There seems to be rot even words in their languages which have common roots. This is singular when it is remembered that there are no nat­ ural barriers between the tribes. War is the only thing which has prevented a common intercourse, and yet, «p to within a few years, they have kept to their species like other animals, par­ ticularly preserving their dialects. Out of this has grown their sign-language. Not only Can they convey the usual questions and* answers of travelers who chance to meet--queries such as 44 Who are you?" " Where are you going?" *' How is the wood, water and grass?" but thoughts, opinions and declarations with shades of meaning. An incident, to illustrate this, occurred last winter, when the delegations went to Washing­ ton from the Red-Cloud and Spottea- Tail Agencies. There were representa tions from several tribes, andi among them one of Arapahces. This lan­ guage, it is said, no white man or half breed has ever learned. Friday, an old Arapahoe Chief, was their interpreter. He had been sent to St. Louis when a boy, but ultimately made bis way back to his tribe. Old Friday, overcome by civilized hospitality, was drunk, ana not to be found when it came Little Wound's turn to talk to the Great Fath­ er for his people. Of course, here was a dilemma. It was overcome, however, by Lieut. Clarke, who was in charge of the entire delegation. The Lieuten­ ant, placing himself in front of the Chief, signed for him to go ahead. He did, and, by means ol this sign-lan- guage, which Lieut. Clarke understands perfectly, Little WoiMid made an elo­ quent appeal for justice to his tribe. Sentence by sentence the Lieutenant gave the President tkis Indian's really eloquent address. The Indian sigr*language is not a spelling-out of words, of course, as they have no alphabet. It is partly ar­ bitrary, but mostly consists of signs which naturally indicate the desired meaning. For instance, the verb to see; this is made by closing the fingers of the hand (right generally) except­ ing the first and second; these extend­ ed are placed before the face and the hand moved outward. This, with other signs, is us«d positively or interroga­ tively, and in the past, present and future tenses. Being of the simplest forms, it can readily be seen how easiW such a language could be learned, ajMl how useful if practiced by civilized na­ tions amongst those who have neither the time nor ability to learn to speak a foreign tongue.--Cor. Chicago Tribune. --The Rev. Mr. PIaratanatissatarrun- anse preaches the Gospel in New Zeal­ and. Reverence for Jera» Ckrist. WE all know how lowly a reverence is paid to Jesus Christ in"passage after passage by Shakespeare, the greatest intellect known, in its wide, many- sided splendors. Men like Galileo, Kepler, Bacon, Newton ao>d Milton set the name of Jesus Christ above every other. To show that no- other subject of study can claim an equal interest, Jean Paul Richter tells ns that " the life of Christ concerns Him whov being the holiest among the mighty, the mightiest aniong the holy, lifted with His pierced hand Empires oft' their hinges, and turned the stream of cen­ turies out of its channel, and still gov­ erns the ages." Spinoza calk Christ the symbol of Divine wisdom; Kant and Jacobi hold him up as the symbol of ideal perfection, and Schelling and Hegel as that of the union ofi the Di­ vine and human. " 1 esteem the Gos­ pels," says Goethe, *4 to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from the reflected splendor of a sublimity, pro­ ceeding from the person of Jesus Christ, of so Divine a kind as- only the Divine could ever have manifested upon earth." "How petty are the books of the philosophers, with all their pomp," says Rousseau, " compared with the Gospels!" " Can it be that the writings at once so sublime and so simple are the work of men? Can He whose life they tell be Himself no more than> a mere man? Is there anything, in His character, of the enthusiast OD the am­ bitious sectary ? What sweetness, what purity in His ways, what touching grace In His teachings! What a lofti­ ness in His maxims, what profound wisdom in His words! What presence of mind, what delicacy and aptness-in His replied! What an empire- over His passions! Where is the manv where is the sage, who knows how to act, to suffer and to die witnout weakness and without display P My friends> men do not invent like this; and the facts-re­ specting Socrates, which no one doubts, are not so well attested as those about Jesus Christ. These Jews could never have struck this tone, or thought of this morality, and the Gospel has char­ acteristics of truthfulness so-grand, so striking, so perfectly inimitable,, that their inventors would be even, more wonderful than He whom they por­ tray." "Yes, if the death of Socrates be that of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God." Thomas Carlyle repeatedly expresses- a similar reverence. "Jesus of Nas^ areth," says he, "our divinest symbol. Higher has the human thought not yet reached." "A symbol of qjaite peren^ nial, infinite character, whose signifi­ cance will ever demand to be anew in- Suired into, and anew made manifest*." >r. Channing says: " The character of Jesus is wholly inexplicable on human principles." Matthias Claudius, one of the people's poets of Germany, lastoen- tury, writes to a friend: "No one ever thus loved (as Christ did), nor did any­ thing so truly great and good as the Bible tells us of Him even enter into, the heart of man. It is a. holy fenm, which rises before the poor pilgrim.like a star in the night, and satisfies his* in­ nermost craving, his most secretyearn- ings and hopes. 1 "Jesus-Christ," says the exquisite genius, Herder, "is, in, the noblest and most perfect]sense, the real­ ized ideal of humanity." No one will accuse tha-First Napoleon of being either a pietist or weak-mind­ ed. He strode the world, in his- day, like a Colossus; a man of gigantic in­ tellect, however worthless and depraved in moral sense. CocAwrsing, one day, at St. Helena, as his,custom was,, about the great men* of antiquity, and com­ paring himself with* them, ho suddenly turned to one of his suite and. askedi him, "Can you tell me who Jesus- Christ was?" "The officer owned thato he had not yet taJten mucri thought of such things. "Well, then," saidNapo>- leon, "I will tell you." He then com­ pared! Christ with himself and with the heroes of antiquity, and showed how Jtjsisfr far surpassed them. " I think I u&dierstand sottiuwhat rf human osr tsure," he corjanued, "and I tell you all these wer» men, aad I am a iuaa, but not one is- like Hjm; Jesus Christ was more than man. Alexander, Ci«sar, Chrarlemagive- and myself found­ ed great empires; but upon what did the creation, of our genius depend? Upon foree. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this vers day millions would die tor him." "The Gospel Is no mere book," said heat an­ other time, " but a living creature, with a vigor, a power, which conquers all that opposes it. Here lies the Book of Books upon the table [touching it reverently]; I do not tire of reading it, Joy Brinfers. move through life as % band of music moves down the street, flinging out pleasures on every side thromgh the air to every one, far and near that can listen. Some men fill 3he air with their presence and sweetness, as orehards in October days fill the air with perfume of the ripe fruit. Some women cling to their own houses, liike the honeysuckle over the door, yet, like them, sweeten all the region with the subtle fragrance of their goodness. There are trees of righteousness whfeh are ever dropping precious fruit around them. There are lives that shine lihe star-beams, or charm the heart like songs sung upon a holy day. How great a bounty and a blessing is to hoki the royal gifts of the soul s# that they shall be music to some, ani fragrance to others, and life to all! j| would be no unworthy thing to live foi% to make* the power which we have with*4 in us the breath of other men's joy; to scatter sunshine where only clouds an& shadows reign; to fill the atmosphere where earth s weary toilers must stands with a brightness which they cannot create for themselves, and which they long for, enjoy and appreciate.--Chris­ t i a n A d v o c a t e . ' " H A natural Wonder in Nevada* AMOBKJ the many curiosities of this State there is perhaps none more singu­ lar tham what is called the "Devfl'sh Punch Bowl," found to the southward of here, some eighty odd miles. It io- in a valley, like many to be found oa the eastern slope of the Sierras, sun* rounded by the towering heights ot this magnificent range, the garner of £ Nation's- wealth. The approach to the Devil's Punch Bowl is «p an elevq^ion or rounded hil of apparently igneous formation. The orifice of the Bowl is near the apex ol the hillv the rock of which projects over the sides of the Bowl. On looking into the vessel, at first the water has a dank green, appearance, but, on looking for a while longer, it becomes transparent* and,, throwing a stone into it, you can see it sink kito the water to unknown' deptbs. OHM* remarkable feature of the water is its immense heat, being a hot sulphurous punch at all times. Its heat, has been tested in many ways. Oae was putting a snake into it, which was cooked in> an instant. Another experi­ ment occurred here not long since. A party of Piute Indians were on a vrsit to this bowl, when one of the bucks ap- pix ached so near the edge that a j^pr- tion of the rock gave way and he waa- precipitated to the caldron bel®w. When he struck the water he was seen to stretnh out almost instantly, and be- fan to suik. The next day, however,. is scalpv boiled from his head, came out at a warm spring some 500 yards from, the base of the Bowl, followed by other })<>*'tio»ks of the body, boiled i'Joose and cooked done. These springy, of whieh.there e.re many, at a short distance from the Bowl, are not as hot as the water io) the Bowl, as is evidenced by ducks alighting in them in very cold weather, and as was demonstrated by a* friend of mine going into one, and almosti not getting out again, by feason of the-fact that when he got into the pool, he found a thin crust e<f sod formed the rim of the pool, tlio- water extendiaig indefinitely beneath, and whea> lie would eatch hold of ittto haul himself up, it would break and let him down again. Finally, by getting some ropes to Mm he was pulled owl, satis­ fied with experiments in a> strange plaae. The surface of the gncsrad gives with yoar w«5ght as you approach any of these springs in the valley around hot punch bowl, but She sod is such that it prevents you finxn going through, but the sensation in going over a giving surface, ovoff a bottom- • lless volcanic pool, is not oi the pleas-- antes*. Another appropriateness about tlr.s- vicinage is the great quantity of snakes that constantly dwell h/ire. It see?*s tx>>be the headquarter of continerjral snakedom. They ar«v here in all varie­ ties, of all characters- :*nd sizes. " i^ak aodJoe's" Lake of snakes in "Wild Western Scenes" is. motiving compared with his snakeshipT's dominion abound the Devil's Punch Bowl, the o*iginal snake of them all„3usKi fitting it is> then, they should attest His Majesty's ren- deavous.--Virgmm City (Ne*i) Cor*. Louisville Couri<w*J<mrnai. --Spikes says he has thought it oveir a good deal* and he wonders if the envi­ ous phenomena have bee* generally observed, that to-day was. to-mo*i;o\v yesterday, and yesterday yesterday wast to-day. To-morrow to-diy is tomor­ row, but, to-morrow tooaorrow is day after to-morrow to-day.. Yesterday tp. morrow is to-day, and yesterday to-day will be day before -yesterday to-morrow. The day after to- morrow to-day will be to-morrow to-r^orrow, and to- morrow- to-day will bft to-day to-morrow.--Ar. J. Graphic. / i

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy