we migh, . 4g" style, ~ponoerning a small section became famili eat-king. This was impo Jews, not gniy because it gave oe the "imilbrity in that book and: both I es ao atment, has ' given strong belief that all three™ oa books a hands of the be ttpe ja gine about this king ) He was born about B. C. 500, and by rightful succession became king of Elam thirty-one years lat- er; (2) Though a Persian by de- sent, he became the king of Per- tia by conquest, B. C. 548; (3) The first year of Cyrus, therefore, must refer to the date of his conquest of Babylonia and consequent relations with the Jews. This was the twea- ty-first year of his reign over the Elamites, and the tenth over Persia. 4) He is called king of Persia, not cause he was so by birth, but be- cause Persia was the chief of his conquests. (5) His kingdom includ- ed nearly all of Western* Asia -- Elam, Media, Lydia, Persia, Baby- nia. The word of Jehovah--That is, the fixed divine purpose, as expre in the prophecy of Jeremiah, to the effect that after seventy years the ews should return. What is em- hasized here is not so much the ulfillment of the prophecy as the accomplishment of the thing pre- dicted. In the view of the writer, this purpose was actually accom- plished in the first year of Cyrus. Made a proclamation--Literally, 'Caused a voice to pass " indicat- Ing that the decree went forth by heralds. He also put the decree in writing, an additional note inserted to show that it was no invention 0) the Jews, but could be found in of- "7 documents. Thus saith Cyrus--The decree itself would be given in Persian, or Aramaic, and we have here 'the substance popularly reproduced for - Jewish readers All the kingdoms . . . hath Je- oval . . given me--Therefore it is right for him to give directions How iar with the God of heaven can only be conjec- tured. Josephus states that the king was made cognizant of the will of Jehovah respecting the Jews through the prophecies of Isaiah (45. 1-4; 44. 28). Though a pious king, it is not likely he knew and worshiped the true God, as former- ly was believed and taught. How- ever, it is natural that Cyrus should a.cribe his victories, not to his own rowess, but to the divine favor and Relp. At any rate, he is conscious of a divine direction in giving him- self to the building of a house for Jehovah in Jerusalem. His be with him--A com- mon form of blessing, scmething like our "Good-by. Let him go. There i is no coercion, the decree being purely permissive. None need return who do not wish to. he journey to Jerusalem is considered up (comparé the Songs of Ascents, Psalms 120-134). The purpose of their return is simply to build the house of vah. No far-reaching restoration of the Jews seems to be contemplated. " He is God--Generally supposed * to be a Jewish parenthesis. It can hardly be shown that Cyrus was a monotheist. 4. Let the men of his place help-- The meaning is, that a general re- quisition is made n non-Israe- lite people in neighborhoods where survivors "of the Jewish' captivity are found sojourning. half- voluntary assistance was to supple- ment the freewill-offering for the house of God; that is, the offerings of the Jews themselves, or of Cyrus, or of any Gentile who might desire to contribute. 6-11.--The execution of the de- erce. &. The heads of the fathers' houses--The social] leaders. heredi- tary chi They are here placed before the priests, or clergy, an in- dicaticu that the theocracy was not yet the recognized order. The whole community of Jews is summed up under ted lee laction to take. 'ey four --_ oThe se ok 'ssembly--Chapter given the régister of those who t) teturned' It includes "the men of people of Israel," ova Fas, e Levites, singers, rs, ser- vants of the temple, waa vchildrea of the servants of Solomon." In all there were 42,360 . 65. Singing men-- A low class, mentioned here after the servants. They seem to have been employed on secular occasions. 68. Set it up--An ------ for the restoration of the temple. 69. Daries--Worth about .'the same as an English guinea. The pounds an silvér were worth about $20 70. Nethinim--They represented the lowest startum of temple ser- vice. Dwelt in their cities--This of course was the result of a slow pro- cess, and not a fact of a moment en el ' CURIOUS CHINESE WAYS. A Traveller in That Country Sees Strange Sights. That the dvilnatien of China is ang cplke is strongly impressed up- on the man who travels far in that country, palin a writer in the Na tional Geographic Magazine. The reach of imperial authority is a constant subject of surprise and wonder. The card of an imperial prince, given to a traveler, will con- vey him safe and unmolested, and secure for him courteous treat- ror is the remotest borders of the China is the land the cities of wiich have no lights, no plan, no sewers, und nro sidewalks Her people have public spirit, no patriotism, . idlers, | national feeling and no secrets. Notwithstanding all these anom- alies, every province, every city, every hamlet is districted, and in amlets some respected citizen is recognized as head man. Ho !s held responsible for its good con- duct any crime is committed he is held till the culprit is found. In a land where there are few men are very close to the people, the guilty seldom escape. Numberless cases of social troubles and dis- pute are, through this arrange- ment, never brought to the courts. but are settled among themselves. The scholars rule China to-day. Dress is of more moment there than in any other country, yet the scho- lar, although poor and meanly dressed, is received with honor "ed the highest in the land. "The superior man" of the clas- ses is the equivalent of the "good man'"' with us. This man, his char- acter and his conduct, are the con- stant theme of approbation. His virtue, his honor, his social rela- tions, his manners in public and private are carefully defined. His dignity is among his highest quali- ties, and must be maintained at any cost. Tn contradiction to the popular idea of dignity, however, the super- jor man will play battledore and shuttlecock with his feet and fly Kites: while the boys, like old men, nd sedately by and look on. This he does as a method of instruction, | ®, and to show the children how the pec man can relax whe, his high purpose is to entertain and educate the young. To the Chinese the foreigner is a boor and a barbarian. It seems a hopeless task to teach him polite- ness. The Chinese wonders why the foreigner leaves his country at all. Is it too small for him to make his living, or has he come to observe the superior people? If so, he is to be commended. But, alas! What a boor he is! ---- 4 --_--- WOMEN HORSE SLAUGHTERER New Occupation For Gentile Sex to Choose. England has a curiosity in wo- men's occupations. Miss Mary: Payne is a feminine woman, but she is a slaughterer of horses for all that, anu rare a Government license for the j She operates t public whenever an accident cripples a horse so that @ cuick execution is a merciful The other day, when a race-horse fell in some races a the Midlands, it was Miss Payne who stepped into the course ona dispatched the animal with skill and tT eg roman: modern women of educa- tion are now in training as veterin- y in Ireland. to prac- | ™ Seale eur aes rare < sus ani : big fees are available to eG 8 pets. sinchaoae diy, = advisable to choot the mysterion: aerial -- be seemed tc them to be so' monster of the air. 'Happily they hesitatec long enough to see that there were human beings in the mysteriou- globe, writes a South African cor respondent of the London Daily But the incident should serve t remind those who expect exceed ingly rapid development in rura. South Africa, that many of the quaint ideas of tlie simple Voortrek kers still cling to the veld. The old type of Boer farmer is disap pearing before the advance of edu cation. But he is going slowly. I you read the Dutch papers you wil! still find very earnest and very in ignant correspondents protesting that the destruction of locusts is A BLASPHEMOUS ATTEMPT to oppose the will of the Almighty, who had sent the scourge as a pun ishment for the sinfulness of the people. You will still find farmer: protesting that the natural dis- eases of stock should not be inter- fered with, and suggesting that all the government veterinary surgeon: should be turned out of the country The traders and prospectors of the Transvaal tell many a delightfu! story of the simplicity of these old Voortrekkers, whose hospitality un- fortunately. was often but ill repaid One of the best known of these stories relates how a_ well-known mining magnate purchased a ric gold-bearing farm. It was at the time that the Boers first began to realize that some of the intruding strangers into their country were unaccountably willing to pay large sums for land. Prices rose, not be- cause farmers had the faintest idea of the value of the sums they de- manded, but simply because the large amounts sounded well in their ears. So when this magnate wish- ed to buy a particular farm-he was met with a demand for one hpndred thousand pounds in gold. The own- er would not hear of anything less. He did not know what one hundred thousand pounds meant, but = of = soba! sum ple drawn up and were to be signed on a given night. When the evening came the mag- nate drove up to thé farm with a bag of gold. All was ready, but the Boer insisted that this money must be counted out before his eyes. The othér agreed. He set out one thousand sovereigns in lines ON ONE SIDE OF THE TABLE. a is a thousand pounds,"' e Then 'at right angles he laid out one hundred gold c "That is one hundred pounds,'* he explained; "so you have the hundred thousand pounds."' And the Boer sigred the deeds and trekked away into the unknown with the gold, happy in th» thought that he ny sold his farm for a re- cord pri It is aot dificult to believe such a story whea one remembers that the chosen legislators of these old = Boers at tea publicly in the Raadzaal those quaint ideas re- printed in an ,appendix to Sir Percy Fitzpatrick's book "The Transvaal Froth Within." One of these eld par tacveniate, 1S denounced a proposal to erect pil- lar boxes in Pretoria as extrav- agant and effiminate. "He could not see,"- he said, "why people always wanted to be writing letters. He wrote none In the days of his youth he had written a letter and had n been afraid to travel fiftv miles ged more on horse-back and by wagon to post it, and now people com- plained if they had to go a mile." mi se old farmers were horrified to hear that godless people in Johannesburg had insulted the Al- mighty by firing bombs at the sky}! in time of -- ». endeavor to bring rain. and railway was only built ieoagh the sohtechess of calling it a "tram," Fierce dis- cussions arose on aproposal to des- troy locusts. and some members were xo offended at the ties affected v their more up-to-date colleagues that thev nropored that the size and shane of the reck-ties worn by leg- islators should be DEFINED BY LAW. But the Boer was never a match | > for the East End dealer. A farmer who had had some transactio' a sonnet, took ithe arming himself with a oner. Te trader worked out the somes by a form _ im arith- peculiarly his "Bak ' objected the B Boer, puzzl- "that i is ---- sented. ae cage deeds were|°" ereseition. . z ready-reck- There was omce a a young womar who freited about Ps tig bf 's true that she was sick, unsuc 'essful and poor. People were al ways failing her, tronbles were al ways multiplying. Her friends used w say it took Courage to go to ser rer, they were Bo sure of being me: by a complaint. This went on. say che narrator of her story, until she was thirty. Then one day, the read the story of a great naval disaster, when thr officers, knowinz that their shi; must go down before the enemy, set the band to playing, the flags to flying, anJ. dressed in uniform. with their white gloves on, waited to go down with their ship. As she read the story she sudden- ty grew ashamed of herself. Hov had she met disaster? Never with anything but téars and complaints "TI won't be as I have been any more.'"' he said to herself. 'When troubles come t© me, though I per ish as those officers did, I will meet -hem as they did--with flags flying the band playi ing and my white gloves on.' Ever so many troubles did come to her, but every time she met a new one she told herself: "The flags must fly to-day, the band play, and you must have your white gloves on! Sometimes, when a disappoint- ment in work seemed especially keen, she would even actually dress herself in her best clothes and with smiling facé go out to see a sick friend or to perform some act of cheerful kindness. And now, after ten years, if you were to meet her, you would say she was sailing; only smooth and pleasant seas, things come gs to her, she does not know why. She is & gentle, egg genial. wo- hér "Oh, it' s well enough for y m to talk, you who e never known a trouble in your life."' "A trouble in my life!" the cheerful woman said to herself, and stopped to think. "A trouble! Per- haps not; but now, at any rate, those which I thought I had seem no longer to have belonged to me. but tv some other person who lived centuries ago!" -- --__4a____-- A MINISTER'S TRIALS. Some '"If's'? That Conat Against Him--His Character. If he delivers a Sages sermon, ho is a backnum f he preaches extempore, he's a "shallow thinker If he is not constantly calling up- on his people, he is unsociable. Tf he visits to any extent, he is a gad- about. If he is married "he is an awful- ly nice fellow, but his wife doesn't amount to much." If he lives in in single blessedness (?) woe be to him. -the others--never speak to eac other at the guilds and parish so- cials, or else they do speak--gos- sip! If he is content to serve his Mas- ter and his people on a small month- ly sum (paid at irregular inter- cals} he is "cheap." If he timidly asks for a large enough stipend to keep his household "decently and in order," he is worldly-minded. If he would be "'all things to all men," he is @ hypocrite. If he is somewhat reserved, it is a cloak to conceal his sly attempts to foist a mediaeval priesteraft upon his people. ; mt he quotes the ina from which his best. ideas are is lacking in ee. It} 'ag fails to give due credit for these various ideas, he is dishonest and a thief. ---------- P-- FATHER OF THE FLEET. Lord John a G.C.B., Who is 84 rs Old. The senior " Admiral of the Fleet younger brother of present Marquis of Tweeddale, he was born | mini at Geneva on Au "93, 1827, and All the eligibles and many of | aRe ae WE te tase devs THE BALLYING-POINT, | from this arm of the sea. Mez ae went into the ana over Ba How a Young Woman was Cured af |'2955¢5, 1 Frettis down the Yukon to the gold field oe 5 ad &- f the Klondike river ne tr 'atter from Skaguay--were grave- yards in which many skeletons lic snow slides. lie whitening. Alongside are the bones of thou- sands of horses, mules, oxen goats--pack animals which fell ex- hausted during the awful rush to the north. TRAILS ABANDONED. Up the gulch from Shaguay, te the we saw twenty sacks of lour lying by the way, pieces of broken vehicles, crumbling road- houses, falien -- over roaring mountain stream: These trails are shapdcacd, for the White Pass and Yukon Rai. way from Skaguay has been built, and, of course, no one travels by crude trail when he can speed across the summits of the coast ranges in steam cars to the head of steamer navigation on the Yukon, and thus shorten the time requir- ed to go to Dawson, Forty Miles, Fort Selkirk, Fairbanks and other interior points But in those days of the initial ex- citement over the discoveries of fabulously rich placer gold fields in the north, these two towns werc veritable maelstroms. Through them rushed a tornado of human- ity, crazed with the lure of the north-- --men and women from every part of the globe. Each carried an average perhaps of $1,000. The 100,000 who hurried here in 1897 and 1898, therefore, brought approxi- mately $100,000,000. Most of them went away "broke."' FABULOUS CLEAN-UPS. The Kiondike placer eg were her day, in: claims. by ers, some by old-timers, called "sour-doughs,"' others by "checka- kos," new-comers me of these claims were marvellously rich. A claim was 500 feet up and down the creek bed, and as wide as from rim rock to rim rock. Single claiins was out in one winter, accor«l- ing to the crude methods of those days $250,000. Clean-ups of $50,- 000 to $100,000 were numerous. The winter of 1897-8 the Xlofi- dike produced $12,000,000 in gold, and more the next year, with lib- eral outputs for years to come. STAMPEDE ENDED. Yet to-day Dawsor, at one time glittering brilliant with its sprinkl- ing of millions of gold dust, is as quiet almost as a country gra.-- yard. The stampede has ended. The stampeders have departed for other centres of excitement. Cabins stand on every hand, deserted. et streets where once thou- s of men and women rushed, with courage and hope and energy, and high resolve, stalk the dejected employes of the Yukon Gold Com- pany, owned he Guggenheim i> Nain of New York, and Denver, 'ol. The entire sweep of the Klondike has been taken over from the Cana- dian Government by the Guggen- heims. Practically not another interest is there, and such as are known that it is only a question of a few months when they must sell out to coe Guggenheims. The Klon- ukon territory. MODERN METHODS. The crude placer mining methods of the carly days are no more. Te- sey huge dredging and steam-thaw- ing machifies are ated. The hills are being washed. away, the beds of the creeks overturned, and ld extracted from the frozen n a scale quite different front that of the rush times. It is thus the glory of these parts departed. Then it was crudity, dis- organization, chaos. Now it is cold, calculating, methodical work, gov- erned from the Guggenheim head- uarters.in New York, city, 5,000 It is system against nee was indescribable con- e selfish, organized tin where brave men nat ote country and located , and in this unequal strife fe the weaker individual ~ has lost. - PASSING OF PIONEER, oe i but a repetition of the his- of the pioneer work done by| dike is entirely within the British | st GIPSY #ERTUNE-TELLING. Arehduke Joseph Had Reason to Respect Their Sagacity. _.._ | The art of fortune-telling is no stars, as in astrology, and with the shuffling of zards or any other form of chance. Che "art" lies in the fortune-tel- ler's knowledge of human nature. it has not yet been given up by the rom the credulity of man. In the book, '"'Hungary and the Hungar- ians, » the author devotes a chap- ter to the Gipsies and their cus- toms. story of the Archduke Joseph is especially interesting. On one occasion the late arch- duke, when visiting the Gipsies on his mission of reform, asked tevér- al women to tell him his fertune: When, however, be addressed them in their own language, they refused to proceed, and on being erked the ceason, they declared that they = not "cheat one of their ow Asked by the archduke whether they sincerely believed in foftune- telling, the women laughingly re- plied, "No, that is good enough for the non-Gipsies.'" On another occasion the arch- duke was really warned by a Gipsy. Tt was just before the Battle of Sa-- dowa, in 1866, and he was sleeping in a peasant's cottage, when in the middle of the night he was awak- ened by a Gipsy. On the man being brought to the bedside of the arch- duke, he burst out into rapid Rom- any, declaring that the enemy was marked. ON, ie replied the Gipsy, ' cause the enemy is still a long "a ff " "How do you know this?" 'Come to the window," said the Gipsy, leading the archduRe for- ward to the narrow opening in the rough wall! and directing his gaze to the dark sky illuminated by the rays of the moon. "You see those birds flying over the wood toward the south 7' "Yes," replied ean eee * see them. What of 'What of it?' retorted the Gipsy. "Do not birds sleep as well as men? They certainly would not fly about at night-time thus had they not been disturbed. The enemy is marching through the woods south- ward, and has rig ey and driy- en the birds before him. Immediately orders were given for the outposts to be doubled and the entire camp to be awakened. In less than two hours after the visit of the Gipsv, fierce fighting was begun, and the greatest friend the Gipsies ever had was able to Lrealize that his camp and division, together with his military reputa- tion, had all been saved by the sa- gacity of a Gipsy. . + NO CHENESE TYPEWRITERS. The Reason for That is Found in the 50.000 Word Sigus in Use. Typewriters are now made for use in nearly a hundred different lan- guages, and they are sold all over the world; but os is still noe great nation which, for a very sim- ple reason, has no typewriters that write its tongue. The nation is China. The "Endiish alphabet has twenty- six letters, the Russian thirty-six e typewriter produced for the' Russian market is the largest made; but no typewriter could be made that would begin to be big enough for the Chinese language, which:has no alphabet but is repre- sentéd by sign characters, of which there are about fifty thousand. Of the grent number of words found in the English language only a small portion are u © or- dinary purposes of ment, and the rame is true of the characters used in the Chinese language; but the Gipsies, nor is it likely-to be lost|" so long as anything is to be gained pes ng with the aa, of in gt out ve not heard} i te MMe hduke } ii | conditions ia the past ing the future. This is » most im; question in connection with the investing of money, and almost absolutely esseu-/ successful ; not waiting louger, or at not purchasing sooner. Of the true investor need not worry over this feature, but even if you should intend never to sell your investment. it is alwaye a source of sat- isfaction to realize that yon bought it at # lower price than it would bring at present. There are two things that affect tne market for negotiable sccurities--that 's securities which are readily bought and sold. One ty the loaning price of money,) and the u.her is the geueral condition vf business, Sometimes these work sometimes in opposition, When weetingt together their power is irresistable. Usu- ally, however, they ere in opposition; money generally being low when bual- ness' is bad and high when business is good. The effect of these conditions is this. When mouey ratea are low and business bad and likely to get worse, high-grade bonds such as good municipal debentures will advance. The re is, of course, that municipal bonds are practically ani affected by adverse busincss conditiond a points above what could be obtained ia' loaning on the market-and at the same) time the safety of which is not alfected! by conditions of general business. This fact causes the price of th ds to' advance and the yield to fall antil the loaning price of money and the return on bonds are approximately equal. But middle grade bonds will remain station- ary for bad business conditions, tending to ae ques prices of all bat best bonds; are offset by the effect of cheap moncy.' Speculative bunds whose safety very largely ov the condition of, busi! nees will weaken in market their safety te in danger to such an ox} effect of cheap ness is guod aod money dear there is s tendency for high-grade bonds to de- cline; for the banks can «cell them as, they only yield a low rate of 4 to 412 per cent at ench a time, and loan the money at a better rate. Other bonds, more gecure the better the business out. look ts, will tend to advance. The present tendency is this. Money ts dear and business tery good, Indeed, in Canada. Therefore high-grade bonds should ease off. They will not do so to any appreciable extent hecause high- ¢erade municipal bonds are not handled on the Canadian markets, buf are dealt in wholly by private sale. Apt you will notice that the prices which good mau- nicipalities get for their bonds are lesq this year than last. In fact, from all appearances, the prices are getting dows to a Ipvel where they yield a return ap- prosching that on free money. Excellent business conditions, however, areyeaus- ing securities of = lower grade to ads vance, because their safety is gris: and because, yielding a higher rate, fluence them seriously. --_--_ -- ----* A BLOT ON ITS RECORD. The evil of adulteration, which legislation is doing much to remedy, | has its humorous phases, one of, -- is brought out in ne and the Criminal,' book} r>.C. Ainsworth Mitchell, the, head 'a the inspection bureau of, Scotland Yard. An eminent English counsel was} cross-examining Mr. Siemens, the electrical in & case in which dispute about the work-! 1 want you to, te in the. co 'seh oe on sa price, as. yielding a higher rate, and becoming tha ~ . - money market is not yet too high to on