McHenry Public Library District Digital Archives

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 21 Aug 1878, p. 6

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.- -- .., wf .f ••" --f";* • 7*~~ rCr:^^ -i. lit. I , ,?4b«,JMUJUfLdfclZ. -ijuii^.... *- 'j . "- » - S» « . _, yw?^,w +W* » > -P «?-; *• * w^T #*«• i •"* «c-~ ,-v: 7- *"•" *" '̂ i. *' .a* >-!, . •£ Tit muc um , Th* Rm«M DMtstoB of 8«c*y Scfean- Alitrael of;tk«, frwtit Uad Uwa- f>« N«Mb«ri»r AcrwOfM to ttoUl*- MCBt. ALTXDTNG to Sec'y Schurz' recent de- ' -cision that all the unsold lands donated 2-Jz by the Government to the Pacific Rail- f/ - road Company shall hereafter be open • to pre-emption and private entry, at v- the rate of $1.25 per acre, the Chicago . W.' Tribune savs: This will-open to private purchase ^ about 28,000,000 acres of land at $1.25 •*£ per acre. It is supposed by many that these are the only lands now obtaina- ble, or that are open to occupation by . ^ purchase, pre-emption, or under the Homestead or Soldiers' laws. As so , #i> much is said about the inability of ' poor men to get lands, we give as a <J matter of information an abstract of the Land laws as they now stand. To ^ ^understand this the better, it should be kr-^ stated that in all the grants of land to railroads the Government retained each r alternate section of land, which sec- .. tions are now and have always been |r open to purchase and pre-emption at $2.50 per acre. There are several 'pK modes of obtaining Government lands: (1) By purchase, oy "private entry"" v * or location; (2) location by land scrip; I* i <3) by pre-emptions; (4) by entry un- i. f der the Homestead law; (5) by entry under the special homestead provis­ ions in the case of soldiers of the late ilVp war. The proceedings in these cases are as follows. , 1. Any person having selected the land he "desires makes written applica­ tion therefor, describing it. If this land be of the character open to private entry, his application is recorded, and he pays the purchase money, $1=25 per acre, and receives a patent therefor. Under this form the quantity is notlim- ited, and there are no restrictions as to * occupation or cultivation. 2. Congress has granted at various times land to States for colleges and r 7 other institutions, and scrip has been F*,' issued therefor, which may be located ---- • on any land subject to private entry. The warrant or scrip is accepted in tent. and. for the most part, all capa­ ble of immediate cultivation, easy of access, with facilities of travel, trans­ portation and postal and telegraph service wholly unknown to the people vet living who tilled up Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin Iowa and Missouri. Dakota is twice the size of Minnesota, and as large as Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Kan­ sas is twice as large as Indiana, and Ne­ braska has about the sr,me dimensions. In Kansas and Nebraska there are many counties not vet Bottled to any extent, and where colonies or organizations of six, ten or twenty families migrate together they can have their lands selected by an agent for them in one body, thus form­ ing a community, and if they purchase the land from the railroads, or from the State, can secure the most liberal terms and long credit, or if they take under the pre-emption laws, each will have thirty-three months" time in which to pay for the land, or if they take un­ der the Homestead law, can be of mutual assistance in the way of labor and means until they can begin to pro­ duce. In all such cases the larger the number moving together the greater aid they will be to each other, tne bet­ ter terms they can make; but in every case they ought to have their land selected by a trusted agent beforehand, and then move directly to it. Wherever there are men wanting land, with the intention of laboring thereon, the land is abundant, easily reached, obtainable o» Anv terms; and in every case they will find liberal hands prompt to help them on their way. A Fatal Leap. .place of the cash at the rate of $1.25 per acre. 3. The pre-emption privilege is re­ stricted to the heads of families, wid­ ows or single men over twenty-one years of age, citizens of the United States, or who have taken steps to be naturalised. This right extends to 160 acres at $1 25 per acre on general pub­ lic lands, or at $2.50 per acre on tue alternate sections of land along the railroad routes. The person must go upon and occupy the land, and within three months tile a declaration of his purpose to purchase that quarter sec­ tion, and within thirty months, or two years and six months, thereafter, must lile proof of his occupancy and settle­ ment and pay the price thereof in cash. In case the settler dies before maturing his claim, all his rights succeed to his widow or heirs. Actual settlement is the essential feature of this privilege, there being a credit of thirty-three months for the purchase money. A. The Homestead law gives the right ^6 enter, free of charge, on any land open to purchase, 160 acres; he or she must be twenty-one years of age, the head of a family, a citizen or intending to become one; he must declare that the entry is for his or her exclusive benefit, and foi actual settlement and cultivation. At the end of five years" settlement and cultivation, upon proof ^hereof and payment of the office fees, .the person is entitled to a patent there­ to®. The applicant for a homestead can select 160 acres of any land, the cash price of which is $1.25 per acre; or he may take eighty acres of any of the reserved land, the cash price of •which is $2.50 per acre. 5. All the provisions of the Home­ stead law are extended to every soldier and officer of the army who served not less than ninety days during the late war, and who was honorably dis­ charged; the difference being that he may select 160 acres of land, including •*the reserved lands, tne cash price of which is $2.50 per acre, and the time of '%fee service in the army shall be deduct­ ed from the period of live years, re­ quired in all other cases of htoraesiead,' for settlement and cultivation. The benefit of this law is extended to the widow of a soldier, if unmarried, or, in case of her death or marriage, the minor children may enter the home­ stead. If the soldier died during the "term of his enlistment, then the widow or children shall be entitled to the ben­ efit of the full term of the enlistment. The total fees and commissions to be paid in case of a homestead is $18, of which $4 are paid when the final cer­ tificate is issued. From these particulars it will be seen -that any adult person may pre-empt -any portion of tne public land to the •extent of 160 acres of land held at $1.25 -an acre, or eighty acres held at $2.50 fjier acre, and pay for the same, without interest, at the end of thirty-three .months after taking possession. ,Or, under the Homestead law, every • adult may enter 160 acres of $1.25 land, eighty acres of $2.50 land, without 4$st, on the condition of cultivating and 'Occupying the same five years. Or a soldier, or the widow of a soldier, -or the minor children of a soldier, can center 160 acres of either description of land, and have the term of service in the army deducted from the live years' set­ tlement or cultivation. Land may be entered for homesteads by a duly ap­ pointed agent. Lands acquired under the Homestead law are not liable for '-^tebts contracted previously. lif" ?biection is urged that there is % land now open for settlement under *; > these laws, and that all the good lands ^ fjhave been taken up. This is not true r The Tribune then goes on to show lifaat theiv are nearlv 17,000,000 acres Of public lands in Kansas alone, open I Under the Homestead law, in farms of •' |60 acres, free of cost, or open under j * private entry at $1.25 per acre for cash, -Or under pre-emption, in farms of 160 * Acres, at $1.25 per acre, with thirty- ' %iree months1 credit without interest. $.-• THE Passaic Falls consists of a cata­ ract that plunges into the cleft of the rocks so deep that the fall from the edge of the precipice to the surface of the river below, where it boils and foams like a caldron, is about eighty feet. The sides of the river at the place are precipitous rocks, as smooth as the walls of a room, rising perpen­ dicularly from the water to the height of eighty feet. The depth of the stream is generally believed to be sixty or sev­ enty feet, but in reality it is no more than forty or fifty. About 200 feet below the falls the chasm is covered by a single-span foot­ bridge, perhaps fifty feet in length. This bridge affords a delightful view of the falls, but it makes one dizzy to look down to the water below, so great is the height. As a matter of safety, and to preclude the danger to people from yielding to the irresistible temptation of jumping off, it is guarded at the sides by an iron railing, eight or ten feet high. This bridge took the place of an old wooden one some years ago. From the wooden one the famous Sam Patch one day jumped off into the water be­ low, and the Paterson gamins of the day, bound qpt to be outdone, ven­ tured on following the experiment until there was generaSy a crowd of young­ sters there" who would take the eighty- foot leap at any time for twenty-five cents. They performed the feat by jumping off gently, balancing them­ selves with their arms, until they near­ ly reached the surface of the water, and then suddenly clapping their arms to their sides they disappeared under the surface. If they did not do this they were in danger of breaking their arms when they struck the water, and if they struck any other way than per­ pendicularly they would, of course, have their breath knocked completely out of them. But one or two narrow escapes put an end to this practice until last week. Then a lad named John Gannor made a successful leap. It was done at six o'clock in the evening, and there weqe several spectators who thought it a case of suicide and ran for ropes and grap­ pling-irons, but were astonished to find the youth, whom they went to rescue, sitting comfortably on top of a rock to which he swam. Hearing of the feat, two other young men, expert swimmers--William Ro- selle, of Mill street, and Thomas Dow- ling, of Marshall street, aged respect­ ively eighteen and twenty--went up quietly one night last week and did the feat successfully. Yesterday afternoon these same two young men were at the falls, and were seen standing on the bridge for a long time, as if contemplating its repetition, but no one appeared to pay any par­ ticular attention to them. They waited until there was a large throng of spec­ tators--several hundred--at the falls, as usual on Sunday afternoons, and then went to a neighboring saloon for a drink, and then returned to the bridge. Their evident intention was apparently to create a sensation. There was then an unusually large throng about the falls and several hun­ dred persons near the bridgie. Then they suddenly clambered upon the high railing, without divesting themselves of their clothing, and startled the spec­ tators by giving a loud whoop and plunging out into the air, on their way to the water, fully eighty feet below. William Roselle went down perpen­ dicularly, or straight as an arrow, and went under the water with a short, sharp " swoot,'1 like a sharp-edged stone. He arose to the surface like a porpoise and swam for the shore over- handed. Thomas Dowling made a misstep or a slip as he jumped, and turned over and over several times before he struck the water, square on his stomach, with a loud splash. He sank slowly to the bottom, and rose no more. It is sup­ posed that the fall of eighty feet, and striking on his stomach, knocked all the breath out of his body, so that he became unconscious. Great excitement prevailed, and such a multitude crusheu upon the 'bridge over the chasm that there was danger that it would break. So the police drove the people off. Persons flocked to the scene until 3,000 or 4,000 people blackened the edges of the precipice. A large searching party had failed to linenr Suffering la Nevada. THOSE who hare not recently ex­ plored the lower levels of the leading mines of the Comstock can have but a very faint conception of the heat pre­ vailing therein at the present time. The heat is terrible even in winter, when the air flowing naturally into such mines as have downcast shafts and forced into others with blowers is freezing cold, but now that the air on the surface has a temperature of from 75 deg. to 80 deg it is sim­ ply killing. Not only is the air as hot as the breath of a furnace, but in most places where men are obliged to work it is deficient in oxygen, that life- supporting ingredient having been burnt out by the many candles used and in various ways absorbed and ex­ hausted. A temperature of 120 deg. to 130 deg is so much above blood heat that the process of cooking begins in the human frame. But for the floods of perspiration covering the body the flesh would really be cooked to a cer­ tain extent. A temperature above the natural heat of the body undoubtedly attacks it and causes the flesh to un dergo the first stages of cooking. This happens to a miner the moment perspiration ceases to flow from the pores of his skin. The stomach is first affected, then the brain. It is proba­ bly through disorder of and sickness at the stomach that perspiration is checked. As soon as perspiration ceases to, flow the body begins to cook, and first 'of all, apparently, the brain, as the man at once becomes delirious --as wildly insane as any patient in a lunatic asylum Cases of this kind occur much more frequently than is supposed or general­ ly known. Of late they have been very frequent in the California and Consolidated Virginia Mines. When a miner suddenly begins to rave or talk incoherently his companions 41 doc­ tor" him. It is rough treatment they give him, but it is found to be very effective. The man affected is seized and carried to the coolest place in the vicinity, when he is bound hand and foot and put> through a process of rub­ bing. The friction is applied to the stomach, which is found to be the seat of the trouble, and in which knots nearly the size of a man's fist are found to have formed. These must be rubbed out, and as soon as they disap­ pear perspiration again starts and the man regains his senses. The rubbing is sometimes done with a gunny sack, but as this is liable to cause abrasion of the skin, a pick-han­ dle is preferred. To be rubbed down with a pick-handle in the hands of, a muscular miner is not such treatment as any man in his senses would be like­ ly to greatly desire, nor does the miner even in his delirium desire it, therefore he is tied in such a way that he cannot resist. The miners say that they can bring a man out all right by their method of treatment in less than half the time that it would be done by the physicians. The other day a thing happened in the Consolidated Virginia shaft which borders on the miraculous. A man was standing on a plank that was placed across the shaft when he suddenly fainted and fell upon his back, lying as securely along the plank as though he had been placed there with the greatest care. It was quite as wonderful, too, that he remained just as he fell suffi­ ciently long to allow his fellow-work- men to reach him and withdraw him irom his perilous position. Not once in ten thousand times would a man's life be saved when fainting in such a position.--Virginia City (Nev.) Enter­ prise. The Surprise of the Astronomers. gases; and here, therefore, in the coro­ na, is a self-iuminous gas, of which we know nothing. So, for want of a better name, it was called 44 helium." < Now we come to the present eclipse. It Is the period of least sun-spots. The surface of the sun has been very quiet and growing quieter for two years. Naturally, therefore, there are scarcely any protuberances--only one, and that a very little one, visible. This need not certainly surprise any one--it was to have been expected. But the spectroscope is applied to the corona. Several excellent views are obtained-- some of the best ever had. Yet in not a single one of them is the line 44 1474 K" visible. It has vanished entirely. The spectrum is " continuous." The cor6- na is nothing but reflected light. Its self-luminous gas--its "helium"--has gone. Grand tableaux among the as­ tronomers! Indescribable astonish­ ment! Now for the explanation; for science, must always find an explanation. Wet know the " helium" was there for a dozen times, and we know it is not there now. Hence it is doubtless some­ thing like the protuberances--a self- luminous gas, sometimes thrown up from the surface of the sun and some­ times not, but much more constantly so than are the protuberances. It is absent now, because of the extreme :«*. 4.1 iU,. VjUlCtUUC UA liUC 9UlliU;C UI 9UU. itP Then they fall to wondering, these astronomers, why, if the sun is so quiet, that there are not great changes of climate on the earth, and some predict terrible things to come in the future. In their astonishment they forget his­ tory. For at least 8,000 years, over which our astronomical history reaches, the sun has undoubtedly been passing continuously through its eleven-year periods of greatest and least surface activity, and yet in all that time the average heat bestowed upon this planet has not varied. We know that it has not for the reason, that if it had, the time of the earth's annual revolution would have been lessened or increased by the contraction or expansion conse­ quent upon greater cold or heat; but we know that the time of these revolu­ tions have not increased or diminished by a second in 2,000 years. It is true that it is not conclusive that, because a thing has not happened in 2,000 years in tne past, ir^may not happen in the next year in the future. " I don't know why my little Towser died," whimpered Johnny; "he never did so before." But, nevertheless, the expe­ rience of the ages puts the burden of proof on the astronomers, and, until experience shows it, we may live on fearless of any failure in the sun, whether the corona loses its " helium" or not.--Cincinnati Times. recover the body up to 16:30 last night, addition, there are 8,000,000 acres' The affair created the greatest sensa­ tion of anything that has happened in Paterson in a long time. --N. T. Sun. ;in •of State lands for sale on ten years' time, and 4,500,000 acres of railroad j land on eleven years' time. All this is tin the one State of Kansas. In Ne­ braska, Minnesota and Dakota, the lands of all kinds--railroad, State and --When Emerson recklessly wrote " Every natural action is graceful," ^ had he ever seen an angry woman jrablie laadft-Hue ot greater ex*, a stone at a oow P--<?rap/»c. THE point wherein the astronomers most agree about the late eclipse is that they are greatly surprised. What it is that they are surprised about we shall proceed briefly to tell: The ap­ parent diameter of the moon is, under favorable circumstances, a trifle larger than that of the sun, so that when the moon gets directly between us and the sun, we ought to see nothing of the lat­ ter. So we do not. But we see flaring out from under the dark edge of the underlying moon, reaching to a dis­ tance of some five hundred thousands of miles, a strange light which astrono­ mers have denominated the "corona " We see also strange tongues, or rather spouts and jets of flame, which appar­ ently shoot up at times from the hidden body of the sun, through the corona, and even beyond it. These are called the "protuberances." Now that wonderful little instru­ ment, the spectroscope, can tell us, within • certain limits, by the spectrum which it casts, the constituents of a light-producing body, even though it be as far off as a fixed star-- say forty trillions of miles. But always, and without possibility of mistake, can it tell us whether the light is from a body which produces its own light (that is, self-luminous) or whether it borrows its light from somewhere else (that is, reflects it.) The spectroscope has no trouble in dealing with the protuber­ ances. It pronounces them at once to be self-luminous--they are clearly in­ candescent gases, molten flame, call it what you will, thrown up from the sur­ face of the sun to inconceivable dis tances by powerful agencies of whose nature we can only guess. It has been observed, further, that these disturb­ ances, these throwing up of protuber­ ances, are greatest at the period of greatest " sun-spots" which occur, roughly speaking, once in eleven years Some fanciful astronomers have further supposed that this period of greatest sun-spots has much totlo with droughts pestilences and famines on the surface of the earth. That, we fancy, can be relegated to the days when the comet's fiery hair was supposed to shake horrid pestilence, etc., etc., etc. But with the corona the spectroscope did not get along so easily. It showed clearly that the body of it was reflected light; but there arose the query, What in earth, or rather in sun, is it reflect­ ed by ? Has the sun an atmosphere But there was something else. Hith erto every application of the spectro­ scope to the corona has shown a pe culiar line in the green portion of the spectrum, which has been baptized 1474K." A Dining-Room Picnic. A MASTER mind at present residing in a New Jersey town has grappled suc­ cessfully with the picnic problem. The mind in question belongs to a man who is an enthusiastic entomologist, and has a wonderful degree of skill in training insects. With the aid of half a dozen trained spiders, several educated cater­ pillars and a quantity of wild and hun­ gry flies and mosquitoes, he is able to furnish parties with all the pleasures of sS. picnic in his own house. Last week he gave an experimental picnic to a number of invited guests. The floor of his large dining-room was strewn with new-mown grass, plentifully mingled with thistles. Badly-cooked food, with lemonade that had been thoroughly warmed by the sun, was placed on the table, and though the guests were re­ quired to sit on the floor, they were ex­ pected to go to the table when hungry. The flies and mosquitoes entered into the spirit of the affair, and were as active as if they had been in the open air, while the trained spiders and cater­ pillars did wonders. In less than ten minutes the ladies unanimously ac­ knowledged that, unless, perhaps, the celebrated South African picnic, where a company of ladies from Cape Town accidentally sat down on a nest of white ants, and were devoured in ex­ actly forty-five minutes, with the ex­ ception of their hair-pins and one crotchet needle, no real picnic could have been more exciting. Only one insect--a trained spider--was accident­ ally killed, but the master mind has three others in training to take its place, and promises that his dining- room picnics Shall compare favorably with the best open-air picnics in point of really enterprising and efficient in­ sects.--N. ¥. frimes. Beliglous. . ^ THOU COULD'8T "V"U I THINK if thou could'st know, Oaonlttuit will complain, What lie« ooneenled below , , , Our burden and our pain; 1_: How juat oar anguish brinflB Nearer those longed-for thiagfr • We 8eek for now in vain-- I think thou would'st rejoice, and complain. I think if thou oould'nt see-^„ With the dim mortal tighf ' v. How meanings dark to thee Are ahadowa, hiding light; Truth'* efforts crossed and TO&Sft, life'n purpoM* all perplexed-- If thou could'st see them ri»h* , I think that they would seem all clear, ana wiM, and bright. » *•» J V",. And vet thou can'st not know, ; Iwf t Ana yet thou can'st not Wisdom and sight are slow " In poor humanity. If thou could'st trust, poor mil, Him who rules the whole, - Thou would'st find peace and Wisdom and sight are well, but Trust i International Sunday-School Less< THIRD QTTABXBB. A'ujr. 18 The Widow of Nam. Luke 7:11 Aug. ?&•--The Friend of Burners.... Luke 7:4C Sept. 1--Return of the Bevonty--Luke 10:11 Sept. ^--Tbe Good Samaritan Luke 10:2 Sept. 16--importunity in Prayer.. .Luke 11: Sept. 256- -liOTetousneur -- • Luke 12:1S Sept.29--Baiiew of the L«»ana for the Qt The Poor Man's Promise. THE Word of God isiull of pro; for the faithful trusting poor who 1 te God for help. The world offers only bare comp sation--no sympathy, no help in time of need, no promise. * What, then, does God offer? The whole Bible of hope and promise. But you say, I cannot carry all that. Then take a mouthful of promise for every day's food. " Trust in the Lord, and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed." This is rich and inspiring. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and trusting is the beginning of hope. To eiogood is man's active work, which he can find to do everywhere, and the promise is confirmed with the Divine oath, " Verily," thou shalt be fed. We are not wandering in darkness and un certainty. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." He is on the Lord's journey in the Lord's world, traveling toward the Lord's Heaven; and, if good and faith­ ful, shall enter into the Lord's joy! The Master said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in all things, with prayer and thanksgiving make known your requests unto God." " Your Heavenly Father knoweth you have need of these things." Fretting, care and anxiety belongs to those outside of the promise, but in God's children they are acts of unbelief and disloyalty. With trust for the future and thanks for the past, why can we not rest in 44 the peace of God which passeth all understanding?" •4 My God shall supply all your need," say8 the Apostle, 44 through the riches of llis grace, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 44 All you, need" and God knows it better than you do. Not all your desire or passion, for wisdom knows that many of our desires tend to ruin. Who can inherit these promises P 44 All who labor and are heavy laden," come unto Me, says Christ, and 4'he that cometh 1 will in nowise cast out," and 44 whosoever will, let him come." That means every man, woman and child. Is any one omitted? Who, then, will starve in the earth, which is the Lord's, with the fulness thereof, when we have such exceeding great and precious promises just suited to our need? Then to the despondent child of God we say, Arise, lift up thy head, look and liye. To the wanderer in the far country, Arise and go to your father, who has bread enough and to spare, and say, Father, I have sinned, and He will meet you from afar off, and give you the kiss of peace, the robe of right­ eousness, and the ring of honor*, with the feast of joy.--William H. Ingersoll, in Church Union. higher moral standard, to which! they are prepared to submit. It woulcf be very interesting and instructive t<j| learn from the report what is theiir state of mind and what sort of mental process they have gone through in coml ing to the resolution of joining thlSi Christian society. Very little lightf-^ however, is thrown on the matter, all though it is plain that the missionariei recognize the presence of mixed mo#? tives. They do not include auy of th|p converts in their statistical table, befc cause they 4 wish to test their motive*' before calling them Christians.' If would probably be a myare correct ex% pression if thev said that they wishe<| to elevate and purify their motivesfi 'Although many of those who haviS come,' tne report goes on to say, 4 ma#? desert us when the famine is over, yep a large number will doubtless be firmj °"'1 wW<»eer may have been their ruR • - - - - r - ~ Wre mean business and will guarau er. We now offer our entire stocfe ine .of a full and complete assortment and Shoes, Hats and Caps, Crocke' rices for CASH ONLY as'will greajj to removal to a new field of operati space to prepare a special price list, snrance to one and all that we will goods you buy ot us. Linen Suits elow Cost. Bring; djfong your fa: nd learn prices. ^1' YOUR8 TRULf, • I1. I>. Nature's Feathered Police Force. THK swallow, swift and night-hawk are guardians of the atmosphere. They check the increase of insects that oth­ erwise would overload it. Woodpeck­ ers, creepers and chicadees are the guardians of the trunks of trees. Warblers and fly-catchers protect the foliage. Blackbirds, crows, thrushes and larks protect the surface of the soil. Snipe and woodcock protect the soil under the surface. Each tribe has its respective duties to perform in the economy of nature, and it is an un­ doubted fact that if birds were all swept off the face of the earth man could not live upon it, vegetation would wither and die, insects would become so numerous that no living being could withstand their attacks. The wholesale destruction occasioned by grasshoppers which have devastated the West, is, to a great extent, perhaps, caused by the thmning-out of the birds, sucn as grouse, prairie hens, etc., which feed upon them. The great and inestima­ ble service done to the farmer, garden­ er and florist by the birds is only being known by sad experience. Spare the birds and save the fruit; the little corn and fruit taken by them is more than compensated by the quantities of nox­ ious insects they destroy. The long- persecuted crow has been found, by ac­ tual experience, to do more good, by the quantities of grubs and insects he devours, than the narm he does in all the grains of corn he pulls up. He, after all, is rather a friend than an ene­ my to the farmer.--kit. John (JV. B.) Telegraph. --It was Horace Smith who said, " Your voiceless lips, O flowers, are liv- But the green portion of ing preachers; each cup a pulpit and the spectrum is devoted to self-luminous each leaf a book." Christianity in India. THE Madras Atheasnum, and Daily Aeifl.s says the report of the past year of the American Arcot Mission shows that Tinnevelly is not the only part of Southern India where considerable numbers of the lower castes are in­ clined to give up heathenism for Chris tianity. The Madras paper says: 44 During the last year (we read) be tween 800 and 900 families, numbering about 6,000 souls, and residing in sixty different villages in North and South Arcot, have renounced their idols and formally accepted Christianitv. 4 The movement, although principally among the pariah caste, is by no means con­ fined to them. Pastor John states that of the eighteen villages he has received, two are composed of caste people, one including the monegar and eleven fam­ ilies. These have Droken the sacred thread from their bodies, taken off the lingum from their arms and eaten with me. In one village in South Arcot seven families, representing three dif­ ferent castes, together with eight fam­ ilies of pariahs, form a new congrega tion.' Although there have been some accessions from caste people, the great majority, it is plain, have come from the ouc-caste pariahs, who are as a class the most ignorant and degraded of all sections of the population. The higher ethical aspects of Christianity accordingly which lay claims upon their conscience and their conduct they are not in a position to appreciate^ but the beneficent side of it, as bestowing, not requiring, and as bestowing present temporal benefit, they can understand and yield themselves to. It is a com­ mon modern objection to Christianity that it sacrifices this present life to the future and is more careful to secure salvation hereafter than to promote men's comfort and happiness here This objection can hardly be advanced in the present case; the very opposite in fact is more likely to be brought for­ ward. That these poverty-stricken, de graded and despised people are seeking something better there can be no doubt; that material and social advantage is most prominent with them is most likely also true; but we also be­ lieve that they recognise in Chris- I tianity a spiritual power and a recognize in the movement a good im­ pulse, coming from the source of all good, they are fully alive, also, to the ignorance and moral imperfections of the converts, and know that the main work has to be done by a regular course of Christian instruction and discipline. But we agree with them that it is a great step gained when idolatry is re­ nounced for Christianity, although th# latter may be, at first, little more that a very vague aspiration and desire for better things. Everything depends, fciif the ultimate result, on the wisdom 6t the missionaries and the moral force andspiritual life already in the church.,v Business Morality. RELIGION bids men be honest, not because honesty is the best policy merely; be truthful, not because lying is unmanly only; be temperate, not be­ cause intemperate habits weaken the intellect and impair the vital energy, and, in short, put you outside the pale of society; but be all these from one supreme, absorbing motive--the fear you have of offending a loving God. It will be the thought of God and of Christ which will alone make us true to man. Our religion will not be of that kind which displays deep emotion in the words of our lips, and then goes out to drive very hard bargains, if not to steal. And what do some men mean by this business morality ? Surely not that God allows and winks at some rec­ ognized code of signals by which, If one man can over-reach another, it is all fairplay. Are the strict command­ ments of God to be admitted in the Church, and an expurgated and revised edition hung up in the counting-house P Of many business transactions it may be said, 44 Everybody does it," but the Christian man will say, 44 So do not I because of the fear of God " And so, too, will this powerful motive--the fear of God--purify into a bright, honest, cheerful single-mindedness and consid­ erate kindness, the reciprocal duties of employer and emp oyed. The servant will not reason, 44 tyly Lord delayeth His coming; I may do this trifling piece of commission, and no human eye will detect me." The landlord will not hardly press his tenant, though long- accepted precedents still flourishing around him may invite his imitatiorf. The workman will not 44 scamp" his work, or waste the time of his em­ ployer. Why? "Because of the fear of God."--Sunday at Home. Poisoning by the Swallowing of Peach Kernels. A FATAL case of poisoning by peach stones which has just occurred in Paris may serve as a warning to those fami­ lies in which children are allowed to look after themselves for hours togeth­ er. It may be assumed that very few children under the age, say, of ten or twelve have any idea that peach stones or peach blossoms are dangerous. They have been shown the deadly nightshade, and probably the wild hemlock, and have a canny dread of them; but nurse­ maids are not nearly so fond of point­ ing out the peach tree as an object of horror and aversion. The victim of che recent accident in Paris had cer­ tainly not been cautioned against the attractions of the peach. He had de­ veloped at the tender age of five and a half the faculty of reasoning on induc­ tive principles, and he saw no reason to doubt that as cherry and apricot stones contained eatable kernels, the nobler fruit had at least an equally de­ sirable treasure in its inmost recesses. Accordingly he secreted the stones of a number of peaches which had been sent to his mother from the country, and possessing himself of a hammer, when left alone, broke them open in­ dustriously and then set to upon a solid feast to which he did hasty but complete justice. The taste of the kernels was not perhaps on a par with the expectations previously entertained, but it would be ridiculous to go through the severe labor of cracking such harii shells without entering into the fruition of the labor when once finished. Se the unlucky child was found by his parent on her return writhing in the grievous agonies produced by prussic or hydrocyanic acid. The arrival and efforts of the doctor were vain, and an­ other item had to be added to the Ion j list of 44 deaths by imprudence." It is as well, now that the season of wall fruit has arrived, to explain what ex­ tent of poisonitig properties is pos­ sessed by the peach stone. * Thd writers on toxicology state that an ounce of the kernels contains about one grain ol pure hydrocyanic acid, and it is known that one grain of the poison will almost to a certainty kill any adult person. Two-thirds of a grain has very often been fatal, and, indeed may be regarded as a fatal dose for a child.--London Globe. ( Ms iMikiHi,. i

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