The Supreme Court of Nebraska has decided that the reading of the Bible and the singing of religious hymns in the public schools is forbidden by the Constitution of that State. We are not surprised; we are not grieved. The decision pleases us and we believe it to be good law and in the interest of both justice and religion. Our readers know perfectly well that we hold that in public schools supported by Christians, Jews, and infidels, men of all faiths and no faith, and attended by their children, it is unfair and unwise to have any sort of religion selected and inculcated. We believe that it is the business of the church and not of the State to teach religion; and for the church to confess its incompetency and to ask the State, through such miscellaneous teachers as we have, to supplement its lack of service, is humiliating and shameful. We will trust and ask no tax-paid haphazard teachers to do the work of parents and the church.
The evil of this perfunctory religious teaching is positive as well as negative. We know of a multitude of public schools in our cities where a large majority of the pupils are Jews, and yet they have been required to sing Christmas carols in December, purely Christian songs, to the indignation of their parents. Such a requirement makes people foes to the public school system. In the time of Archbishop Hughes there was carried on a great conflict between Protestants and Catholics in this country, the Catholics protesting against the reading of the Protestant Bible as a required exercise. They were told that this is a Protestant country, and that if they did not like it they might stay away. That is precisely what they did. They started their parochial schools, which grew to a great system, which seriously antagonize our public schools.
And yet the great principle which separates the secular function of the State from the religious function of the State is only blindly seen by many good people. The summer school of the South, meeting in Knoxville last July, passed this resolution:—
“Conscious of our dependence upon the God of our fathers, and believing that the highest and truest civilization can be attained only by following the precepts of the great Teacher, Jesus Christ, we favor the recognition of the Bible in our public schools.”
Our American doctrine of utter separation of Church and State is, however, now usually accepted, at least in theory, and it is generally agreed that the reading of the Bible and religious exercises do not belong to the free public school. But some of those who wish us would lead the Bible out by the front door with all honor, ask us to open the postern gate to let it creep in again unobserved. They tell us—and we hear it from college presidents and from teachers’ conventions—that the Bible, banished as religion, must be brought back as literature. The Bible, they tell us, is the best and choicest of literature, and that it will never do to let children grow up ignorant of it; and before they have the word literature well out of their mouths they begin to talk about the importance of the Bible to teach the elements of religion and morals. The International Sunday School Convention at its late meeting in Denver passed this resolution:—
“WHEREAS, The Bible is not only the inspired word of God, but also the world’s greatest treasury of literature, and its reading is now excluded from most of the public schools of America.
“Resolved, That the Executive Committee is instructed to appoint a Standing Committee, whose duty it shall be to consider what means should be taken in the various States and provinces to secure the reading of the Bible, without comment, in the public schools of our land.”
Here the religious purpose is confessed, while the literary pretense is put forward. It is only the latter which the National Educational Association presented in its Declaration of Principles at Minneapolis:
“We hope and ask for such a change of public sentiment in this regard as will permit and encourage the English Bible, now honored by name in many schools, laws, and State institutions, to be read and studied as a literary work of the highest and purest type, side by side with the poetry and prose which it has inspired and in large part formed.”
Well, which is it, literature or religion? If it is religion, we will have none of it. There is a curse upon State religion. It makes men hate the church. That is the persistent trouble in Italy, in Spain, in France, and now in England. Give us a free church in a free State, and let their scope be kept absolutely distinct. Trust no State to teach your children religion, and do not think to impose your New Testament Bible and your Lord’s Prayer on Old Testament Jews.
Is it really literature and not religion that these gentlemen want? We do not believe it. It is not the literary charm, not the interesting stories, not the grandeur or the wit that they are thinking of, but the sacred character of the Book, that is, its religiousness. Indeed, we do not hear of any such anxiety to have the “Iliad” read, or “Paradise Lost,” or even Shakespeare, until we come into the higher schools in which literature is a special study.
But it is not as literature that we chiefly value the Bible. It is degrading to it to lower it to that level and make it a lesson of style or story. It is not the Beautiful Bible but the Holy Bible. It is impossible to put it on any other basis. Call it literature if you will, but it will be considered and treated as a religious book, and that will be the real reason for introducing and teaching it. We do not want to smuggle the Bible into the public schools under a false pretense. It is our one great Book of religion and as such let it be treated, the church’s sacred Book.—N. Y. Independent, Oct. 16, 1902.
A GENERAL MALADY.
By G.
LADY HENRY SOMERSET, president of the World's W. C. T. U., as quoted by the Union Signal, says that the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Ireland) has become a nation of drunkards, and that the liquor evil is increasing among English women, the number of women drunkards to-day outnumbering the men three to one. Every one of the great so-called civilized nations is going the same road. History tells of great nations going down when overcome by drunkenness; for instance, Babylon, the golden head of nations. But then there were abstemious peoples to overcome the drunken ones. Now, however, the nations are so nearly on equality in this respect that they are evidently all going down together. And this is what we have reason to expect; for “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26, 27. In the days before the Flood the corrupt degeneracy was universal, the same condition prevailed all over; and so it appears to be to-day.
In all the great world-powers, those that domineer the world, the rum habit and the rum traffic prevail. Over against these there is no power in sight of sufficient virtue and sobriety to become a great conqueror. The only prospective power, the only9power indicated in the prophetic Word as the successor of all this corruption, is the coming kingdom of Christ. James foretells the great conflict between capital and labor, now so prominent on all sides, and in connection therewith he gives the brethren this comforting assurance: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” And Daniel shows that the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall destroy all others, and fill the whole earth, and shall never be destroyed. So there is no hope of any permanent moral bolstering of present worldly governments.
The only hope that has any basis is the salvation of individuals. The only good influence that can come to society must come through the reformation of individuals. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only reformatory principle in the world, and that is a message, an appeal, to individual sinners. No society can be virtuous whose individuals are corrupt. The basis of all society is the individual, and if the foundation be unsound the structure can not stand.
G.
NOT EDUCATION SO MUCH AS RELIGION.
President Eliot, of Harvard University, frankly proclaims that popular education is a failure. (We quote from the Literary Digest.) He mentions in a recent address before the Connecticut State Teachers' Association various evidences of this as follows:—
1. Drunkenness, which no method as yet has been able to deal with successfully; and where prohibitory legislation has been enacted, the people have not been intelligent enough to make it effective.
2. Increase of gambling, “an extraordinary unintelligent form of pleasurable excitement,” “a prevalent vice among all savage people.”
3. Negative or worse results from universal suffrage.
4. “Gravest crimes of violence,” “committed in great numbers all over the United States, in the older States as well as in the new, by individuals and by mobs, and with large measure of impunity. The population produces a considerable number of burglars, robbers, rioters, lynchers, and murderers, and is not intelligent enough either to suppress or to exterminate these criminals.”
5. “The nature of the daily reading supplied to the American public affords much ground for discouragement.” “Since one invaluable result of education is a taste for good reading, the purchase by the people of thousands of tons of ephemeral reading matter which is not good in either form or substance, shows that one great end of popular education has not been attained.”
6. The popular theaters of to-day. “The popular taste is for trivial spectacles, burlesque, vulgar vaudeville, extravaganza, and melodrama, and the stage often presents to unmoved audiences scenes and situations of an unwholesome sort.”
7. Medical delusions. “Americans . . . are the greatest consumers of patent medicines in the known world, and the most credulous patrons of all sorts of ‘medicine men’ and women, and of novel healing arts.”
8. “That labor strikes should occur more and more frequently and be more and more widespread has been another serious disappointment in regard to the outcome of popular education. As we have all seen lately, the strike is often resorted to for reasons not made public, or, at least, not made public until after the strike has taken place.”
The Columbia State says: “It will at least be difficult to point to any fatal exaggeration in this arraignment.” And with this every candid, moral observer will agree. The Chicago Chronicle remarks: “The defects of our people lie in morals rather than in intelligence.” So also thinks the Columbia State. President Eliot would perhaps agree with this. There is no religion in mere intellectual education. There is, however, intellectual education in the Christian religion, which, sad to say, has been relegated to an hour or so a week to Sunday-schools; and these in the majority of cases are conducted in a half-hearted and indifferent manner. The only thing which could help matters can not come through mere intellectuality, but by a revival in religion which would bring back the sense of responsibility to parents and churches, which would bring religion, devotion, example, into the home and church life, a going back to the Word of God. But will the church do this? Will Christians, as individuals, do it? Will the things which bring defeat be forsaken, and will the church build on the Word of the living God—not through State-paid teachers; but through parents in the home, and through the church at all times? Only in this is there hope. The church has gone too far in apostasy to hope for much from her; but will you do your part, parent and Christian friend, in your own circle?
The only true education has its basis in the Bible.
Waking the Dragon
In spite of the strong tendency toward conservatism in China, forces are now at work which seem destined to arouse the slumbering dragon from his sleep of centuries. Many thinking men have warned the world of what might be expected if China should arouse and throw all her immense initiative genius into the work of preparing herself to cope with her adversaries. Possessing models of all the finest weapons of the world, there is nothing that could prevent the Chinese from making the same weapons, exact in every detail, and turning them out by the hundred thousand. In the light of these possibilities, the following recommendations, presented to the Chinese Government by two of her most influential men, should open the eyes of the world. They recommend—
First, That the scions of princes, dukes, nobles, and high officers of the crown be required to join the various provincial armies and obtain practical educations.
Second, That officers be appointed to travel in Europe and America “to have their eyes opened.”
Third, That a system of military conscription be enforced, so that in due time the entire male population of the empire may have obtained a military education, and the whole empire thus become one huge army if any crisis should demand it.
Fourth, That especially in the provinces of Shansi, Shensi, and Szechuen arsenals, cartridge, shell, and gun foundries be established, it being desirable to locate these establishments away from the seacoast, where they would not be at the mercy of foreign powers.
Fifth, That industrial mills and factories be established throughout the empire to manufacture foreign-styled goods.
Sixth, That all Buddhist and Taoist temples, monasteries and nunneries not sanctioned by the government be confiscated and converted into schools and colleges.
Seventh, Compulsory education of all male children, commencing at ten years.
Eighth, The establishment of military, law, and technical schools.
There is something business-like and aggressive in these recommendations to the Chinese Government. That government is not nearly so likely now to turn them down as it would have been before China’s recent experience with the forces of the powers. They are beginning to realize the necessity of making a stand for themselves, if they would retain in any degree the integrity of the empire. There is no more skilful imitator than the Chinese; and who can tell what will be the result when that mighty nation places itself on a war footing with the powers? It is bound to come to that place, and this recommendation is a long step in that direction. The little brush with the powers has given the incentive, and the indemnity which China is forced to grind out of her subjects will give zeal to the undertaking.
Reduced from Simile of the First Page of Our Next Issue.
The Unions and the Militia.
An action which is bound to have serious consequences has lately been brought to the attention of the public by the labor unions of the country. They have seen the militia of different States used against them when their members were engaged in threatening or riotous demonstrations, and a decree has been issued by various unions that their members must not join the militia, or that if in the militia already, they must withdraw therefrom. Withdrawals from the ranks of the militia have already begun at a rapid rate, and this has reached even to the officers. This matter is bound to be taken up by the government sooner or later. Just how it will work out no one can say; but a clash between the labor unions and the government is almost inevitable. The State considers the militia necessary for the protection of the public peace against rioting, organized or unorganized. It considers it necessary for just such emergencies as arose during the great coal strike in Pennsylvania, when lives were threatened by the wholesale, murders were committed, and buildings and mining property were destroyed. This action of the unions toward the militia seems like a bid for the continuance of such reigns of terror as were experienced there. The militia is drawn largely from the laboring class, and as these are brought more largely under the domination of the labor unions, the ranks of the militia will be thinned out until some other provision will have to be made for controlling such situations as existed recently in Pennsylvania. Will it be a compulsory military service, or a proportionate increase in the regular army? In the one case the government will have a heartless organization upon which it can not depend, in the other a terrible machine which will not hesitate to slay. In either contingency there is bound to be trouble ahead because of the anti-militia decree of the unions. Labor-union men who have belonged to the militia and have thus served against labor riots have been not only expelled from the union to which they belonged, but hounded from place to place and prevented from obtaining anything to do. This is making the union men afraid to remain in the militia, and is the cause of the rapid withdrawals.
A number of monument scandals have recently come to light in Paris. Last week it was discovered that the beautiful statue of Lafayette in the Place du Carrousel was beginning to crumble; and the present week the discovery was made that the statue of Washington in the Place des Etats Unis (United States Place) was beginning to fall away under the recent heavy rains. The latter was built a few years ago by subscriptions taken up in the American colony in Paris, and cost $60,000. Other discoveries of the kind have recently been made, showing that the makers, who were paid for first-class work and material have given neither. We are seeing the same thing in nearly every walk of life to-day.
England and Germany continue their preparations for coercing Venezuela into a settlement of their claims against her. Their joint claims are to be presented simultaneously, allowing the briefest possible period for reply, and the demands will be backed up by a number of warships of both powers which have already congregated in Venezuelan waters. Venezuela has made a virtual appeal to the United States for protection, but it is understood at Washington that the United States will not interfere in any way unless there should be an attempt made to seize territory in Venezuela.
The famous education bill passed the House of Commons on December 3 by a vote of 236 to 132, and England on that date took a long step backward in the matter of religious liberty.
Socialistic Prospects.
The Independent, in speaking of the increase of the Socialist vote in the late elections, especially in Boston, remarks: “Besides being confined to the two political parties aforementioned, the Socialistic movement in the United States bids fair to honeycomb the trades unions. Only last week, at the annual convention of the American Federation of Labor at New Orleans, nearly half of the delegates voted for a resolution in favor of Socialism. . . . Populism, as a distinct political force, has had its day. Political Socialism, however, is growing among all classes, except the farmers and capitalists, and if the American Federation of Labor should ever renounce its past and present policy of working along economic lines to the exclusion of politics, the Socialist movement would then receive such an impetus as might disorganize the present great political parties of the nation.”
In the three great legislative bodies of Europe recently there have been sessions of great violence; that is, in the British Parliament, the French Chamber of Deputies, and the German Reichstag. These sessions partook more of the nature of pugilism than of the usual parliamentary practise. In the French Chamber of Deputies the military had to be called in to remove refractory members, who refused either to leave the chamber or to heed the authority of the chairman in calling them to order. A duel now seems likely between the two expelled members, both of whom have chosen seconds. During the disturbance blows were exchanged freely between a considerable number of the members. In the Parliament and the Reichstag the legislators confined themselves to angry denunciations of one another and fist shaking, the latter in the very faces of the chairmen themselves. In the session of last year Parliament was disturbed by a stormy scene in which a number of members were dragged from their seats, and the Austrian legislative assembly was in a turbulent state for a number of days, with frequent personal encounters between the members. Our own Congressional body has not been free from such demonstrations. What is the lesson of these things? Do they teach us that the nations are being fitted for the enthronement of Christ, as our National Reform friends would have us believe? Is it only necessary now to acknowledge God in the national Constitutions in order that the fact of Christ’s kingship over the nations be accomplished? It would be difficult to cast a deeper reproach upon the cause of Christ than is cast by making such a claim. “My kingdom is not of this world.”
While the members of the fashionable set in London are preparing for an unusually gay winter season and entertainments on a large scale, the great army of unemployed is steadily growing. Thousands of unemployed daily congregate at the dock-yard gates literally fighting for a chance to do a day’s work. The police have found it necessary to protect the foremen who distribute the work tickets each morning. It is estimated that 500,000 persons are idle in the United Kingdom. The Board of Trade returns show the largest percentage for ten years past of unskilled persons out of work. The winter’s prospect for these is dark indeed. In Germany there are thousands of unemployed, and the cities have begun to vote relief to this class. There is also reported great destitution in central Russia on account of lack of employment, and beggars are swarming through the cities.
On December 8 the great dam across the Nile at Assouan was formally dedicated, to the use for which it was intended, by the Duke of Connaught. The purpose of this dam and the Assiout barrage is to store up the flood-waters of the Nile, distributing the water through irrigation ditches to the thirsty lands along the Nile, at the times when it is most needed. The cost of this great undertaking has been nearly as great as the estimated cost of the Panama Canal.
Mr. Thomas B. Reed, ex-speaker of the House of Representatives, died at Washington, D. C., on December 7. For a number of years Mr. Reed was one of the foremost politicians of the country. On the same day the United States Minister to Ecuador died at Guayaquil, a victim of yellow fever. On the 4th of December the United States Minister to Japan died suddenly of heart-failure while on a hunting trip.
A report from Korea states that in consequence of the total failure of the crops there, women and children are being sold in the public market or carried about the streets for sale, bringing from $1.25 to $20 each. Numerous merchants are finding the trade so profitable that they are said to be engaging in it on a large scale. There is the utmost destitution among the poor.
The new ministry of Spain is said to be a very strong one and one that is popular with the people. But this new ministry is reported to stand strongly for the reorganization and strengthening of the army and navy and the fortifications of the country. It favors the restoration of Spain’s naval power to the place which it lost in the conflict with the United States.
The past week has been one of storms in all parts of the world. Shipping has been greatly damaged, numerous lives lost, and on land blizzards have blocked the railways and caused much suffering to stock.
CHRISTIAN HOMES TRAINING GAMBLERS.
By Editor
Some of the ministry and laity of the Methodist Episcopal Church are discussing in public the question of card-playing from the point of view only of intrinsic moral evil, which they deny. That, however, is only part of the case. Another view demands attention, as the following thrilling account may show:—
In the Herald and Presbyter of Jan. 23, 1901, S. B. Alderson, D.D., stated that at a mass meeting in the Second Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, O., on a Sabbath afternoon, in the presence of two hundred men, a converted gambler and ex-saloon keeper made a statement which has created a profound impression, and that he transmitted it to the Herald and Presbyter that it might do good in a wider sphere. As gambling is spreading in this city and in all parts of the country, as large numbers of professing Christians engage in it, as it is reported that some Methodists and official members are known to engage in it in social clubs and elsewhere, and apparently no notice has been taken of it by the church authorities, we reprint in this conspicuous place the address as endorsed by Dr. Alderson:—
“I have been in the saloon business, with a gambling room attached, for the last four years, and claim to know something about what I am now going to tell you. I do not believe that the gambling den is near so dangerous, nor does it do anything like the same amount of harm, as the social card party in the home. I give this as my reason: In the gambling room the windows are closed tight, the curtains are pulled down, everything is conducted secretly for fear of detection, and none but gamblers, as a rule, enter there. While in the parlor all have access to the game, children are permitted to watch it, young people are invited to partake in it. It is made attractive and alluring by giving prizes, serving refreshments, and adding high social enjoyments. For my part, I never could see the difference between playing for a piece of silver moulded in the shape of money and silver moulded in the shape of a cup or thimble. The principle is the same, and whenever property changes hands over the luck of the cards, no matter how small is the value of the prize, I believe it is gambling.”
“Perhaps you have never thought of it, but where do all the gamblers come from? They are not taught in the gambling dens. A ‘greener,’ unless he is a fool, never enters a gambling hell, because he knows that he will be fleeced out of everything he possesses in less than fifteen minutes. He has learned somewhere else before he sets foot inside of such a place. When he has played in the parlor, in the social game of the home, and has become proficient enough to win prizes among his friends, the next step with him is to seek out the gambling room, for he has learned, and now counts upon his efficiency to hold his own. The saloon men and gamblers chuckle and smile when they read in the papers of the parlor games given by the ladies, for they know that after a while those same men will become the patrons of their business. I say, then, the parlor game is the college where gamblers are made and educated. In the name of God, men, stop this business in your homes. Burn up your decks and wash your hands. The other day I overheard two ladies talking on the street. One said: ‘I am going to have a card party, and am going to the store to buy a pack of cards. Which are the best kind to get?’ The other replied, ‘Get the Angel Card. It has an angel on the back.’”
“‘Think,’ said he, ‘of dragging the pure angels of heaven into this infernal business.’”
“After he had taken his seat another converted ex-gambler, who led the men’s meeting in the Second Presbyterian Church the following Sabbath, arose and said: ‘I endorse every word which the brother before me has just uttered. I was a gambler. I learned to play cards, not in the saloon, not in my own home, but in the homes of my young friends, who invited me to play with them and taught me how.’”
Instances coming under our observation confirm the tendency spoken of by the gambler, many of which are tragedies as appalling as any ever placed upon the boards of a theater.—Christian Advocate.
FORBEARANCE
By H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins
How often little trifling matters arise in our every-day affairs that tend to fret and annoy one. Some friend or member of the family has said or done something that does not exactly accord with our idea of things, whether we are always right or wrong in our view of the matter. David says in Ps. 37:1, 7: “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.” “Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”
Some may hold to habits we know are not right they may not sense the sinfulness of them, or perhaps they want their own way in the matter. But should we not learn to bear with their errors, when Jesus has borne so long and patiently with our frailties? Undoubtedly they too are striving to overcome their defect, and are we not placed in this world to help one another? If we give up to others when it is right we should (and we certainly can if we let self go), would they not be more apt to notice their defect and avoid it the next time temptation came? Besides, we can lift our heart upward, asking God to give them grace to enable them to discover the fault; there we can let it rest, believing the blessed Redeemer can master it far better than we are able to do. To be constantly finding fault with one about a mistake will only vex and cause hardness. At the same time we can learn the lesson of letting “patience have her perfect work.”
Instead of permitting feelings of hardness and coldness to come between us, just because we do not view things alike, we can be forbearing and take things in a kindly spirit. Those in error can not help noticing the good spirit manifested toward them in return for their harshness. “A meek and quiet spirit . . . is in the sight of God of great price.” Let us cherish it, and thus let the small, unpleasant, and often trying things we see and hear be kept within; avoid doing anything to shadow the pathway of your fellow beings. There can be happiness on both sides, and how many broken friendships might thus be saved.
The best way to correct a person is to build up and encourage his love for the perfect and noble and true. Then all the rest will follow naturally and easily. Another good way to help one overcome his defects is to talk to God a great deal more than we do to the person himself.
Our heavenly Father stands ready and willing to accomplish great things for those who yield up all to Him, and thus give Him an opportunity to work in them and through them.
H. E. SAWYER-HOPKINS.
A TRUE AND MOST INTERESTING STORY.
By Harry L. Lightfoot
[Harry L. Lightfoot, in Our Dumb Animals.]
In the winter of 1900 the writer, who is the owner of a handsome Newfoundland dog named “Duke,” returned in the evening from the village and was met at the entrance to the driveway by the dog, who tried frantically to jump into the sleigh, but was not allowed to. On reaching the barn and alighting from the sleigh, the dog licked my hands and prevented my unharnessing the horses for some minutes, as he insisted upon reaching my face and jumping up to my shoulders, barking furiously and unheeding a few sharp words which I spoke to him. I was compelled to put him in the barn, where he moaned piteously behind the closed doors.
When I entered with the horses he jumped up and kissed each on the nose and then gave me all his attention, following me into each stall and licking my hands as I was in the act of blanketing the horses. This duty finished, I took up the water bucket, opened the door and started for the spring, some distance from the stable, the dog pulling strongly on one side of the handle, trying, as I afterwards discovered, to lead me from the beaten path to the spring. Dropping the bucket on the snow, with the intention of examining the dog by the lantern to see if there was anything wrong with him, as he was acting so entirely foreign to his usual behaviour, he immediately started off over the embankment carrying the pail and refused to return when I called loudly to him in a rough manner.11Finally he dropped the bucket and continued alone farther down the pasture, only returning to me and barking loudly. I caressed him and spoke gently, so that he seemed quite delighted until I retraced my steps, when the barking commenced again. After completing my errand I went back to the house followed by “Duke,” who entered with me, strictly against my rules, as he has his own quarters. In the house he howled and cried continually until I was forced to go down-stairs and let him out, and in twenty minutes he commenced howling again and kept it up at intervals during the night.
Upon rising in the morning I was met at the door by the dog, who was covered with snow, and as he resumed the same method as on the night previous, I allowed him to take my hand in his mouth, as he persisted in getting hold of it, and started with him across the snow where he had made a regularly beaten path during the night to the edge of the woods beyond the spring. Seeing these tracks I realized something was wrong, as he left me, running on ahead, barking and wagging his tail as if he were delighted. He stopped suddenly and ceased his noise and laid down upon the snow, and when I reached him he was resting alongside of my favorite cat, which had been caught by the front foot in a fox trap. The dog, it appears, had kept the cat warm during the night, only leaving it to visit the house with the intention of arousing me, which was unavailing. Taking the cat out of the trap up to the house and placing it before the fire, the dog assisted in drying the cat with his tongue and licked the injured paw for some minutes at a time. Offering the cat some warm milk, which she refused, “Duke” lapped up a little and with his tongue put some of the milk to the cat’s mouth, whereupon she started in herself and he barked with delight and watched her daily until she was able to go outdoors.
This little anecdote, which is absolutely true in every detail, shows the wonderful sagaciousness of a beautiful animal.
LET SOMETHING GOOD BE SAID.
By James Whitcomb Riley
WHEN over the fair fame of friend or foe
The shadow of disgrace shall fall, instead
Of words of blame, or proof of thus and so,
Let something good be said.
Forget not that no fellow-being yet
May fall so low but love may lift his head;
Even the cheek of shame with tears is wet,
If something good be said.
No generous heart may vainly turn aside
In ways of sympathy; no soul so dead
But may awaken strong and glorified,
If something good be said.
And so I charge ye, by the thorny crown,
And by the cross on which the Saviour bled,
And by your own soul’s hope of fair renown,
Let something good be said!
—James Whitcomb Riley.
INFLUENCE OF THE MOTHER.
It is said that the men of the nation are what their mothers make them, as a rule. The home takes its cue and hue from her, and if a woman is, in its best sense, womanly—if she is true, loving, courageous, patient, wise, and tender—she, consciously and unconsciously, organizes and puts in operation a set of influences that do more to mould the destiny of nations than any man, uncrowned, with exceptional powers as a leader and worker, can possibly hope to effect. She it is to whom are given the unwritten tablets—the impressionable minds of little, confiding children. To her it is given to write the first lessons, to awaken the first ideas. She colors them indelibly with her own. If she keeps herself always an ideal to her children, as a wise and loving mother may, her influences follow them, even when they are merged into manhood and womanhood; even when they are swallowed up in the whirlpool of active life, and her teachings are never forgotten; the ideals she has held up before their childish eyes are vested with a sacredness of which nothing can despoil them. The voice with which men speak, in the expression of power, is the voice of the mother who bore them.
There is nothing more potent than this. There is no possible way in which women can so surely extend and intensify their influences and power, or make them felt in so great a measure upon the moral and social questions of the day, as by carefully and wisely rearing honorable, close-thinking, broad-minded sons and daughters. This is the highest duty—the greatest distinction conferred upon any one in this world, and woman alone was deemed worthy of the work, when God set her in the home as its queen.
For this work, then, she must prepare herself by enlarging every virtue, eliminating every vice. She can not hope to wear the vestments of high priestess over a vicious heart or a besotted mind. She must learn to rise above the “taking of endless thought for the ignoble morrow,” to hold herself above vulgar interests and mean details. She must rise above neighborhood gossip and petty meannesses, and by holding up to her own eyes grander and purer ideals, she will come to see that the life is more than meat, and the body greater than raiment.—The Commoner.
SECRET OF THE GAS MANTLE.
How It Is Made, and Why It Does Not Burn Out.
PROBABLY no one who has seen the flimsy white mantle that hangs about the flame of the up-to-date gas light, says an exchange, has failed to wonder of what material this non-combustible affair is made. It looks so like tissue paper, that despite reason one almost expects it to flash up in flame at any moment.
It is made of an ash consisting mainly of the oxides of certain rare metals. These metals are lanthanum, yttrium, zirconium, and others, which are rendered incandescent by heating to a high temperature.
A six-cord cotton thread is woven on a knitting machine into a tube of knitted fabric of a rather open mesh. This web has the grease and dirt thoroughly washed out and is dried and cut into lengths double that required for a single mantle. It is then saturated in a solution containing the requisite oxides, wrung out, stretched over spools and dried. Next, the double length pieces are cut into two, the top of each piece is doubled back and sewed with a platinum wire, which draws the top in and provides a means of supporting the mantle when finished from the wire holder.
After stretching the mantle over a form, smoothing it down and fastening the platinum wire to the wire mantle holder, the mantle is burned out by touching a “Bunsen” burner to the top. The cotton burns off slowly, leaving a skeleton mantle of metallic oxides, which preserves the exact shape and detail of every cotton fiber. The soft oxides are then hardened in a “Bunsen” flame.
