p. 475 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 30. (7/27/1904)

Earlier text: The Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation

“THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT.”

It is a fact which ought to disturb our national self-complacency that nearly every great disaster involving a terrible loss of human life is due primarily to two connected causes—greed and governmental corruption or inefficiency. “The trail of the serpent is over them all.”

The appalling loss of lives in the Iroquois Theater at Chicago was due to the fact that the house was opened to make money before it was ready, and that official inspection failed to detect—or at least to report and remedy—gross and criminal neglects and defects which exposed the audience to the dreadful fate that overwhelmed them.

In the General Slocum catastrophe it is plain that “money-saving” was responsible for imperfect fire-protection apparatus, inadequate life-saving appliances, and an incompetent crew. The fire-hose was worthless, the standpipes were useless, a large proportion of the life-preservers were rotten, the life-boats were a mockery. The ship was a death-trap in case of fire, as the fate of 700 victims irrefutably certifies.

Yet the General Slocum was “officially inspected” last month, and the Federal officials have had the monumental impudence, since the disaster, to declare that the boat and equipments were “all right.” But when Coroner Berry asked Inspector Lundberg, “When did you last inspect the Slocum?” that official declined to answer, “on the grounds that it might tend to incriminate me!”

Supervising Inspector Uhler said in Washington:—

What is the use of having the laws? They no longer act as a deterrent. We go out, discover a boat with rotten life-preservers, bad boilers, and a dozen other things, which some one is operating in defiance of the law. This is punished by a heavy fine. That is the limit of our powers.

Now what happens? The violator of the law appeals to a senator or congressman and others high in political authority. The fine is reduced. I know of scores of cases where fines have been reduced from $1,000 to $20, and others from $500 to $10. The records will show cases where fines of $1,500 have been reduced to $25.

Does any one suppose that the owner of a big excursion steamer cares for these fines, especially when to obey the law would mean the outlay of hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars?—Of course not.

Here is the fateful coupling—Greed and Corruption. Companies and corporations try to squeeze the last dollar of possible profit out of their enterprises, regardless of law or of the public safety. Inspectors are appointed through political influence, when the sole tests should be character and capacity. As a result, inspection is perfunctory or venal. Excursion ships are floating tinder-boxes, theaters (when not rigidly supervised) are death-traps, grade crossings make grim Death chuckle, and crowded tenements invite new holocausts.—N. Y. World.

HAVE WE REACHED A CRISIS?

Who among us has not watched the labor agitations, the long and fiercely contested strikes, followed by military domination in Colorado with almost bated breath? Who has not taken notice of the deadly intensity of the opposing factions? In some of the fearful outbreaks that have occurred, property has been destroyed, and human lives have been sacrificed with a recklessness that is appalling. We have emerged from one deadly strife only to be plunged into another more fierce and more terrible than the one which preceded it. For months military rule has prevailed in some parts of Colorado. The spirit of lawlessness and anarchy which has characterized the strikers and agitators has been duplicated by the Citizens’ Alliance, and by the military. Crime and disaster meet us on every hand, in our daily walks of life until we have grown so familiar with them that they no longer terrify us as they once did. The military power of our state is only able to restrain these turbulent elements from still more desperate acts of crime and violence by sheer force.

From this long reign of unrest, of uncertainty and disquietude, we find Colorado in a state of financial and industrial depression from which it will not soon recover. Men’s hearts are “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” These terrible things which are transpiring all about us, at our very doors, mean something, and it is well for us to know what they do mean. Are they not the mutterings of the fearful storm soon to break upon us? And are we ready for it? Have we finished the work God has given us to do?

Surely we are in the midst of times so fraught with peril and disaster that even the casual observer must ask himself the question, “What do these

things mean?” There is but one answer: it is the beginning of the end, and God has given to this people the answer to carry to the world.—Echoes from the Field.

THE GREED OF THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.

The liquor traffic is Satan’s two-edged sword; it destroys both the dealer and the customer. Satan has a penchant for destroying; “as a roaring lion, he walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” For this reason we are enjoined to “be sober, be vigilant.” I Peter 5: 8. Another significant warning is, “Wo to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev. 12: 12.

The strong drink evil is this adversary’s most effective implement of destruction. It goes steadily and persistently, night and day, and under all manner of garbs. It reaches the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned. As Satan is a destroyer, so his chief agent, the liquor dealer, partakes of his nature. He deems it an injury if the law undertakes to protect any class from his subtle attacks. He resists the law that would prevent his beguiling the poor laborer out of the hard-earned means so much needed for the support of wife and children. He resists the law that would keep the youth of minor age out of his den. And now the dealers in alcoholic beverages declare themselves and their business outraged because Judge Emmons, of Boston, has decided against the practise of selling liquors to women in public saloons. Thus the insatiate greed that attaches to this implement of destruction will brook no restriction, will regard no barriers, tho they be reared to protect the peace of the family, the virtue of women, or the innocence of children. But there is an ordinance that the rumseller will have to meet at the bar of the Supreme Court of the universe, whose penalty can not be set aside: “Wo unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness.” Hab. 2: 15.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY VINDICATED.

Some time ago we noted the fact that there was before the Louisiana Legislature a bill providing that any one convicted of doing business on Sunday should forfeit his license to do business at all for a period of twelve months. A correspondent of the Southern Watchman (Nashville, Tenn.) says that the bill has been defeated. Thus Louisiana has, for the time being, at least, declared for religious liberty. Of course this proposed law, as all such measures do, emanated from men professing to be ministers of the Gospel. It was an attempt to practically carry out a program suggested by the National Reform leaders when that movement was in its infancy, namely, to banish those who persisted in ignoring the Sunday institution. This bill was in harmony with the sentiment of a prominent “evangelist,” in which he said:—

I want to see the day come when the church shall be the arbiter of all legislation, state, national, and municipal; when the great churches of the country can come together harmoniously, and issue their edict, and the legislative powers will respect it, and enact it into laws.

This is the sentiment of a large and growing class of ecclesiastics and sympathizers, which is by no means strongest in Louisiana. That it has, for the time, been defeated by the better judgment of the Legislature of 1904, does not mean that it is annihilated. It is the expression of the spirit of the Dark Ages, which, altho checked by the rise of the Reformation, is fast gaining foothold as the spirit of Protestantism wanes. In giving it this temporary check, the law-making power of Louisiana has done an act of justice to her people, and done honor to the spirit of true liberty, for which the greater republic was established and nominally stands.

So now the three happiest countries for the Catholic religion, the three where it has the greatest liberty, are Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, three predominately Protestant countries; while the three countries in which the Catholic Church feels itself most under unwelcome restraint are Italy, France, and Spain, three Catholic countries. Here is a chance for students of freedom of religious thought to draw a lesson.—New York Independent.

ROMAN CATHOLICS AND THE BIBLE.

The Chronicle, a leading Protestant journal of the Bible, has this to say on the above, as quoted by the Literary Digest:—

In recent years the Catholic Church has changed its tactics in regard to the Bible societies. It no longer contents itself merely with the negative policy of condemning the work of these associations, but seeks in a positive manner to meet them in their own field by issuing translations of the Scriptures that have been made with the approval of the church. It is especially interesting to note that it is the Latin races of Southern Europe who are taking the lead in this matter. The Osservatore Romana, which is the official journal of the Vatican, has repeatedly published articles on this subject. In No. 107 this paper reports that the Vatican press is now publishing an edition of the Gospels and Acts in Italian, with notes; and that a committee is busily engaged in preparing this book, the purpose being gradually to accustom the people to the reading of the Bible and to make it "just as popular as it is among the peoples of Northern Europe."

But there is no change in purpose in this. The Catholic Church has been forced to this policy by two things: the work of the Bible societies, and the soul-hunger demand of the people. She meets it by a glossed translation of her own. But even of this we are glad. Some souls will read beyond the

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN EUROPE.

EXTREMELY curious and interesting is the contrast just shown between France and Germany in their treatment of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholic France, eldest daughter of the church, is driving the religious orders out of the country as relentlessly as the Philippines expelled the Spanish friars, and forbids them to carry on their schools. The president of this Catholic Republic goes to Rome, and can not pay a visit of ceremony to the pope. But the Emperor of Germany, when he goes to visit the king of Italy, pays a visit of extreme courtesy to the pope, and is most politely received. He goes back to Berlin, and one by one has the Falk laws against the Catholic Church repealed, until now there is nothing left to them. The Jesuits are welcomed back, and the Emperor William quite enjoys his trip to Canossa.

CHRISTIAN CITIES AND CHRISTIAN NATION.

“The world has never yet been blessed with a real Christian city,” says G. C. Lorimer, D.D. “In Greater New York there are 636,000 out-of-church Protestants, who are practically opposing the faith they profess, and the recent census taken in New York and in Liverpool and London of church attendance reveals a woful indifference to the ministration of the sanctuary. The disregard of the Sabbath, the tricks, frauds, and schemes in business, and the ebb in public conscience, all demonstrate clearly that our centers of population are far from being Christian in deed and thought.”

Dr. Lorimer could have found practically the same non-church-going conditions in all the large cities and many of the villages of the nations. If the lack of Christianity in the cities makes them non-Christian, it is fair to ask how a nation composed so largely of such cities and villages could be called a “Christian nation,” as National Reform and kindred elements so stoutly aver. How can the thing itself be of one quality when its constituent parts are of another? The “Christian-nation” idea is a perfectly palpable fallacy.

FORMATION OF THE DRUG HABIT.

Responsibility of Physicians.

THE Pharmaceutical Era, of New York, is against the refilling of prescriptions, and quotes a writer as saying that “in the great majority of cases, the source of the drug habit could be traced to prescriptions written by physicians in the regular way and filled and refilled until the patient had become addicted to its use.”

The Era remarks: “The testimony of experts on the drug habit corroborates this statement. . . .

“The statements about the drug habit made by Professor Eberle and Mr. Gordon at the American Pharmaceutical Association were recently fortified by a gentleman who has had every opportunity to study the question in actual life. It appears that the morphine habit especially is extremely common among the well-to-do. Women in society carry the use of the drug openly into drawing-rooms, taking the convenient little tablets during intervals of conversation.

“It is said that a large proportion of the slaves of this narcotic owe their first introduction to its influence to the family physician, or more frequently to young doctors who are anxious to make a sudden reputation for mastery of pain and insomnia. Nothing is more convenient or effective than a dose of morphine. The relief once found is sought again, and after a few trials the habit is established.

“It is easier to prevent the refilling of prescriptions than to reduce the number of ambitious and impecunious doctors. Attack the problem at the point of least resistance.”

The G. A. R. and the Union Label

The delegates to the New York State convention of the Grand Army of the Republic, recently held at Buffalo, declined to adopt a resolution contained in a letter from the Allied Printing Trades Council, that all printed matter used by the department shall bear the union label. The old veterans evidently realize that they stand as representatives of the whole people—as they did during the war—and not as champions of a class or trust. As defenders of the flag, and coming from all classes, they could not consistently imagine, much less assume, that the emblem of liberty is designed to wave over a select few, who would fain be recognized as having the right to a monopoly of any line of industry. Surely the G. A. R. ought to be the very last element to be drawn into anything like a factional contention, or the granting of special favors to any class of citizens.

AFFAIRS IN THE ORIENT.

TURKEY has permitted the passage of the Dardanelles to several Russian vessels which were ostensibly designed for hospital work in the Orient. At least two of these are now engaged in actual war operations in the Red Sea, hunting for contraband of war, and one is said to be receiving arms and armament at a French port. England is expected to land a protest with the Turkish authorities. Heavy losses have been sustained by the Japanese in recent operations about Port Arthur, tho the persistent report that 30,000 Japanese lost their lives there is not believed. The Japanese have captured the city of Kaiping, after a desperate resistance for three days by 30,000 Russians. Ciungtan, which is called the key to the Russian defensive works at Port Arthur, has been taken by the Japanese, and fighting is said to be going on continually in that vicinity. On July 14 the Japanese occupied Yinkow, the Russian garrison escaping with difficulty. In the advance on Yinkow a body of the Japanese was ambushed by the Russians, and lost heavily. It is now stated that a large number of Japan's heavy siege guns which were to be used in the reduction of Port Arthur went down with the transports sunk by the Russian Vladivostock fleet. Thirty thousand more Japanese troops have been landed in the vicinity of Port Arthur to take part in its capture. The great battle between the main forces in the vicinity of Ta Che Kiaou is daily expected.

Current Events

Strained relations are said to exist in Abyssinia between French and Russian missionaries. The Russians desire to convert Abyssinia into a fief of the Russian Holy Synod in order that the czar may acquire a moral protectorate over the empire of the negus. That would be a religious conquest which would naturally pave the way for subsequent diplomatic action.

The set known as the “four hundred,” of New York, is to be reduced to two hundred, in order that the “aristocracy of wealth” in that great city may be made more exclusive and aristocratic than ever before. Those admitted to this set will be they who are able to maintain the most princely palaces, and entertain in the most royal manner.

It is stated that the victims of the Turkish soldiers in the recent Armenian massacres numbered 6,000; that at the village of Akhbi the number of persons killed was so great that the bodies, which were thrown from a bridge, dammed the river, and that the Turks freed the channel by firing artillery into the heaps of corpses.

A British army surgeon at Rangoon, Burmah, reports that he has discovered a cure for the leprosy. He succeeded in cultivating the leprosy germs, and then produced a substance which destroys them. He reports success in the treatment of leprosy patients.

A great strike of butchers and packers in the large cities of the middle states is now in force. Over 45,000 men are reported to have stopped work, and several of the packing plants have been shut down.

The intention of the United States to send a fleet of war-ships into Turkish waters unless there was a prompt settlement of the school question, has resulted in the sultan giving the necessary orders.

Contracts which prohibit contractors from employing non-union workers are void, according to a decision of the judge of the Circuit Court of Milwaukee, Wis., on July 13.

The Republic of Panama is protesting against the United States assumption of authority over the canal zone before the completion of the canal.

The Russian Government is introducing some domestic reforms to allay the popular discontent while it is dealing with affairs in the Orient.

The Philippine Government has completed arrangements for leasing and selling the friar lands to individual occupants.

One of the St. Louis Assembly boodlers has admitted his guilt, and will be sentenced to the penitentiary for two years.

At Glenwood, Ill., on July 13, a railway collision resulted in the death of 22 persons, and the injury of 70.

An organization has been formed to include the union workers in all the marine lines in all the world.

Ex-President Paul Krueger, of the Transvaal Republic, died at Clarens, Switzerland, on July 14.

The renewal of revolutionary outbreaks in Macedonia is causing anxiety in diplomatic circles.

In a collision at Midvale, N. J., on July 10, 17 persons were killed, and 50 injured.

The total of deaths caused by the General Slocum disaster is officially placed at 958.

UNREASONABLENESS IN THE FAMILY GOVERNMENT.

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stittle

BY MRS. L. D. AVERY-STITTLE.

Did you ever see a piece of sackcloth? Perhaps not. It is not used as much now-a-days as formerly. People used to wear it next the skin as a sort of self-inflicted punishment or a sign of deep sorrow and dejection. Lay a piece of it against your cheek. What an uncomfortable sensation! Indeed, what absolute misery it gives to the sensitive skin. It hardly looks as if it could produce so much discomfort,—there are no large, sharp points woven into the cloth, no heavy spikes, nor cruel thorns,—it is only the tiny, rough strands, which enter into the texture of the cloth, that work the mischief.

“Well, but what has this to do with family government?”

Were you ever unfortunate enough to spend an afternoon or a day in the house where the father or mother had formed a habit of “nagging”? How uncomfortable you felt! Then, how much the inmates of such a home are to be pitied! Nothing is ever done quite right. Nothing ever quite suits. If Johnny builds the fire, he makes dirt. If he neglects to build the fire, he is shirking. If Mary sweeps the room, thinking to save her mother, it matters not how carefully she tries to work, she is sure to hear the peevish tones: “Dear me, Mary; what a smudge you do make! Didn’t I tell you to moisten your broom?”

“I did, mama; see, there is the pail of water.”

“Well, I should think so; mercy on us! See how muddy you are making the carpet! Do be more careful.”

Johnny comes home from school at night, full of enthusiasm and eagerness to show mama his latest drawing:—

“Do see, mama, teacher says if I work hard, I may be a great artist some day. Wouldn’t you be proud of me, mother?”

“I’d be prouder of you if you’d clean the mud off your boots before you came into the parlor,—and another thing: I’d like to know where you learned to speak in that horrid, high tone,—there—get off my lap! I’m too tired to hold a great boy like you; when will you learn to be a man?”

“I’m only ten,” trembles the little voice.

“That’s plenty old enough to have some sense of propriety,—now let me see your picture.”

A very pretty drawing was unrolled, which the really fond mother was surprised to see; but instead of a wise and loving word of approval, the only reply was, “That’s good enough for all I know,—now do go, and bring in the night’s wood.”

Is it any wonder that Johnny is discouraged and fretful and saucy? However, determined not to be defrauded of the commendation which the sensitive child believes his honest due, he approaches his father at supper time, and timidly holds up the picture which he has worked so hard to complete:—

“Aha; but of course your teacher helped you.”

“No, truly, papa, I did the picture all alone.”

“Don’t tell me that, young man; I don’t believe a word of it. But I think your cousin Willie can beat you yet, if he is a year younger.”

Neither parent noticed the tears in the young artist’s eyes as he turned sadly away, and neither knew the feeling of hatred and jealousy which burned deep in his young heart toward the little cousin, always till then loved so dearly.

That very evening those fond parents congratulated each other in the solitude of their own room over the fact that their Johnny was certainly a talented child,—and could beat his cousin Willie entirely,—in spite of brother Frank’s bragging over his boy’s drawings.

We have all seen strange things in life, I suppose. I once knew a mother, who certainly did not ordinarily seem to be lacking in mother love, yet, in a fit of sudden anger, I have seen that mother strike her child—a loving, blue-eyed little girl—such a blow that she fell to the floor on her face like a log. Why can we not use as much reason in the management of the little ones as in the care of the farm or the store or the dumb cattle? I have heard a mother rebuke her child with words of anger for committing some slight breach of etiquette, and the very next day smile upon him for doing the same thing,—simply because her digestion was better. On the other hand, I have seen parents who were apparently blind to the grossest acts of indecorum in their children. I have seen a nervous, weakly woman sit as tho deaf as an adder, while her little boy made racket enough to disturb the nerves of a Comanchee,—not out-doors in the streets, but in the room, where people were trying to hold conversation.

Then, did you ever notice that a child will be exactly what his mother represents him to be, that is, if he possibly can? and that he will do those things that his mother says he will do—be they good or bad—to the extent of his youthful ability?

“My little girl screams the moment I am out of her sight,” remarked an unwise mother in presence of her child one day. “I wanted to run over to the grocery yesterday,” she continued, glancing fondly in the direction of the little one, who was eagerly listening to every word, “and I undertook to leave her a moment with Mrs. Green,—she’s such a nice, kind woman; I told her that I was certain Jennie would scream the moment I left her, and sure enough she did,—and I had to run every step of the way to the grocery and back. I declare, I don’t know what to do with the child, I don’t suppose I can break her, her father says he was just like her when he was little”—with another fond glance at the child, who was certainly a good listener. Now, I ask in reason’s name, what could the child do to keep up its mother’s reputation as a truthful woman, but scream?

The same mother said to me at another time: “I don’t see what ails Jennie. She does dislike her grandma so! why, I can’t get the child to kiss her, and I feel so sorry over it; but I can’t do anything with her at all!” All this time Jennie was playing in the room, and, as usual, listening, so that I was not surprised at all when the little head shook its brown curls solemnly: “No, no; baby don’t like grandma; baby won’t kiss grandma.”

“Don’t you see?” asked the mother, with a worried look. Certainly I saw; but she did not.

Is the picture overdrawn?—I think not. Why, if the king of Great Britain should be one-half as unreasonable in the government of his kingdom as many of us are in the management of our children, what a hue and cry would be raised by the whole civilized world!

“Well, but WHAT can we do?”

What? Read James 1:5-7.

A SPARK THAT KINDLED FRIENDSHIP.

By Anna Pelzel

BY ANNA PELZEL.

MAMA, did you know some one is moving into the cottage next door?" asked Helen Vane, as she came home from school one day.

“No; and I am sorry to hear it, as I know they will be disagreeable. I told your papa to buy the place, as I did not want any near neighbors, but he said ‘poor people must live somewhere.’ He has no pride, and cares not with whom he mingles.”

“Mama, I fear they will give us trouble, as I saw three such rough looking boys, and one girl. They have red hair and freckled faces. O, how I hate red hair;” and Helen walked up to a large mirror and took a satisfied look at her own golden braids.

“Well,” said the mother “we must let them know from the start, that they have nothing to expect from us; and if we do not go near them perhaps they will know enough to keep their place.”

Now let us get acquainted with these new neighbors who are causing such an excitement in the Vane home. Their name was Douglass; a good old Scotch name, and its present bearers were proud of it. They had moved from the adjoining state for the benefit of the father, who was rheumatic, and this section was said to be dry and healthful. So here they were, strangers in a strange state. They had spent the summer’s savings to make a home, and winter coming on made prospects dull.

One would think the Vanes were bad people, but not so, only proud and vain, and not so full of the feeling that makes us “love our neighbor as our selves.” Mr. Vane was very unlike his wife and daughter. No one was too poor to be noticed by him. The charity seekers knew his hand was ever ready to help. The only boy, a lad of fourteen, was like neither of his parents; he had a warm heart, and would have played with the poorest urchin had not his mother kept a watchful eye on him, lest he make friends among the poor.

So no wonder his mother was so troubled over the arrival of three boys, as she knew she must be more on the alert than ever. The neighborhood was thinly settled, being a mile from the center of the town, so there were not many to come and make friends with the newcomers.

After they had lived in the cottage two weeks, Mr. Vane asked his family if they had called on their new neighbors yet.

“No, we have not; neither do we intend to,” said Mrs. Vane. “I give them credit for some sense. They do not force themselves on us, as I feared they would.” Mr. Vane knew from past experience, that to argue would be useless, so said something about “the Golden Rule,” and left the house.

He was a good man and comforted himself with the thought that he would make up to those about him for what his wife failed to do.

Albert Vane soon manifested a particular antipathy toward poor Mary Douglass, and never let an opportunity pass to tease her. He was ever making her conscious of her braids. But she took all his abuse so kindly, and without resentment.

One day Albert had a fine apple, and, passing her, he said, “Don’t you wish you had a little freckle face?” Before he knew what had happened,

Mary had grabbed the apple and taken a bite from it.

“O, Albert, that’s a good one on you.” “She was too quick for you.” “Next time you won’t be so smart,” came from all sides. Albert, of course, did not take it back, and the children enjoyed the joke as much as Albert would have enjoyed the joke.

Did Albert, too, enjoy it?—Far from it. In his heart he vowed vengeance, and it was not far distant.

One day while waiting for Helen to go to school, he watched her tie such pretty ribbons on her hair. It was his chance. So unnoticed he took a pair she had worn the previous day, and, putting them in his pocket, they went to school together.

The lines were just forming when they reached the grounds, so he stationed himself behind Mary, and quickly tied a ribbon on each braid. As soon as the room was called to order, Helen’s hand went to her hair for she had just espied her ribbons on Mary’s braids.

“What is it?” asked the teacher.

“Mary Douglass has stolen my ribbons.”

“Helen, I would not use such language. Can you prove it?”

Before she could answer, Mary arose in her seat, and with a voice full of suppressed emotion said, “Ma’am, I have not stolen her ribbons. That is something no one can accuse me of, and even accusation can not prove.” Poor girl, there she stood defending herself, and the evidence was with her, and she ignorant of all.

The teacher said, “Mary, I do not think you are lying. Some mistake has been made. I trust we shall be able to clear you; and if any one knows anything about this unpleasant affair, I wish they would speak out.” Silence reigned supreme. Mary was seated with bowed head, no sound was heard, but by the convulsed form, all knew a mighty storm was raging in her wounded heart.

“Well,” said the teacher, “we will proceed with the lessons. After school I shall investigate this, and I hope that Mary’s high standing will be restored, and indeed she has lost any esteem. I think a cruel wrong has been played on her, and I feel ashamed to have a pupil in my room who would be willing to do such a thing.”

The lessons had no interest, as the pupils were thinking of Mary, who had not lifted her head. “You may go home, Mary,” said the teacher, at the same time untying the ribbons from her hair.

(Concluded next week.)

THE LITTLE WHITE HEARSE.

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Somebody’s baby was buried to-day— The empty white hearse from the grave rumbled back, And the morning somehow seemed less smiling and gay, As I paused on the walk while it crossed on its way, And a shadow seemed drawn o’er the sun’s golden track.

Somebody’s baby was laid out to rest, White as a snowdrop, and fair to behold, And the soft little hands were crossed over the breast, And those hands and the lips and the eyelids were pressed With kisses as hot as the eyelids were cold.

Somebody saw it go out of her sight, Under the coffin lid—out through the door; Somebody finds only darkness and blight All through the glory of summer sunlight; Somebody’s baby will waken no more.

Somebody’s sorrow is making me weep— I know not her name, but I echo her cry, For the dearly-bought baby she longed so to keep, The baby that rode to its long-lasting sleep In the little white hearse that went rumbling by.

I know not her name, but her sorrow I know; While I paused on the crossing, I lived it once more, And back to my heart surged that river of woe That but in the breast of a mother can flow, For the little white hearse has been, too, at my door.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

A BOY WITH “NO CHANCE.”

Little Platt R. Spencer seemed born possessed of a desire to write. Living in the woods of the hills, with very little encouragement for learning, from his earliest years his great wish seemed to be to make letters. Up to his eighth year he had never owned a sheet of paper, but had marked on the smooth surface he had found.

At this time he got hold of a big copper cent, almost the first money he had seen. He entrusted the coin to a lumberman, and asked him to buy a sheet of paper at Catskill, the lumber camp, twenty miles away. Late that night the messenger returned. The boy, wearied with waiting, had gone to bed. At the sound of the arrival, he awoke, his first thought being of the promised paper. He arose, and with feverish eagerness tried to make characters on the smooth, white surface. His hand was too untrained, and the rude characters little resembled letters. Disappointed, he returned to bed, only to take up the struggle on the following days, and conquer the difficulties. Paper he could not afford every day, especially as he soon moved with his father to the frontier, in Ohio. There, birch bark, sand banks, snow drifts and ice were his most frequent writing surfaces.

His schooling was very meager,—a few months till he was twelve years old,—so he had to dig out his own learning by flickering candlelight. Books were scarce, and worth any hardship to procure. To continue the study of arithmetic, he had to have a book, and heard he could get one twenty miles away. It was winter, and he had no shoes, so he walked barefoot on the frozen ground and carried his treasure. Darkness came on and found him miles from home. His only food had been frozen turnips, found in a field. At length he found a settler’s cabin, where he was sheltered for the night. Under such conditions, he acquired a fair education and developed a system of penmanship that for years was almost universal in American schools. Spencerian business colleges were established in forty cities. The boy who learned writing with so much difficulty made the task easier for thousands of boys and girls, and lived a beautiful and useful life on the shores of Lake Erie, where he lies buried, at Geneva, Ohio.—Success.

TEXAS

Some idea of the State of Texas may be formed with the aid of a few statistics, says the Courier Journal. Its extreme length is 620 and its breadth 765 miles, comprising an area of 265,780 square miles. It has 243 counties, 19,500,000 acres of improved farming land, and farm property of the value of $962,000,000. The number of its farms is 352,100. Its population, as shown by the last census, was 3,048,710, being in point of numbers the sixth state in the Union. Those which exceed it are New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, whose aggregate population is 23,656,769. Yet their total area is only 262,010 square miles. This is less by 3,770 square miles than Texas, which would not be equalized were Connecticut and Rhode Island thrown in. If the population of Texas were as great to the square mile as New York's it would be 49,598,220, or nearly twice that of the five states mentioned.

WAITING

By J. E. H.

[By J. E. H., in S. S. Times.]

“They also serve who only stand and wait.” Yea, Lord, and many such perchance there be, Who, unawares, in patience serving Thee, Stand all day long before some fast-barred gate.

Beyond, there lie sweet dreams yet unfulfilled, Or hope deferred that sickens the stout heart And makes it far from gladness dwell apart, While faith yet keeps its clamorous outcry stilled.

Some wait with wistful faces ever set With eager longing toward the distant prize; And some, whose hope is dead, yet lift their eyes, Waiting and praying still with lashes wet.

So few that wait with smiling, hopeful cheer! Yet these serve best, for that they seem to say,— “Waiting is blessing; those who wait must pray, And praying brings the kingdom even here.”

A BURDENED WOMAN.

A daily paper has the following from a woman in bondage; and she speaks as a representative of many others. Our question is, why do they not break these shackles of fashion? They could clothe themselves in sensible apparel and look neither ugly nor dowdyish; thus doing would give them opportunity for gospel-of-health-and-comfort work to others. They might never be in the majority in a count of noses, but they would be right; and it is better to be right than to be president of the whole be-bustled, be-corseted, be-longskirted, be-pocketless brigade. But here is the cry of the burdened one; read it and go free:—

“Sir: I read the editorial in which you expressed yourself as pleased that the bustle was going to be worn again.

“Now, if you but knew how the majority of women suffer from the burdens of fashion you would do all in your power to bring about a new life for all womankind.

“We are obliged to follow fashions that are revolting to our nature in every way, for if we do not, we are made conspicuous by not conforming to these edicts of fashion-makers, are looked upon as old fashioned, out-of-date, antediluvian.

“Two of the most barbarous customs that were ever imposed upon womankind are those of being obliged to wear bustles or hoops.

“How I do envy the men the freedom they enjoy. Hair cut short so they do not have to worry to arrange to make it becoming. No skirts to always have to carry with one hand to keep from gathering up the dirt as they walk. Lots of pockets, so they are not burdened carrying a number of packages. While we poor slaves have not so much as one pocket to put a handkerchief in.

“O, please start the ball rolling that will deliver us from so much bondage. I am sure the newspapers could do this if they would undertake it.

“It is no wonder there is so much nervous prostration among women. They have enough to break nerves of iron or steel. A WOMAN.”

MANUFACTURE OF RADIUM.

RICHARD GUENTHER, United States consul-general at Frankfort, referring to the “radium industry” already developed in Germany and France, says: “Notwithstanding the difficulty in its production, a radium industry has already developed in Germany and France, and altho one gram is sold at a little less than $2,000, the manufacturers are said to have orders for several hundred grams. The demand for medical purposes exceeds the supply. Radium possesses all the important qualities of the Röntgen rays, in addition to the invaluable property of being ready for use at any time, and furnishing its rays without the employment of apparatus. It has been demonstrated that a small glass tube, not larger than a goose-quill, containing a little more than a thousandth part of a gram, is as effective as an expensive and complicated electric apparatus for the treatment of cancer—surpassing the best effects of the Röntgen rays. The ease with which radium can be administered locally, as, for instance, in the nose and throat, is an invaluable advantage.”

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