VOL. Ill
OXFOED, N. G., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1877.
NO. 33*
HVFr.CENCE OP C’llKlSTSASIl’I'Y.
The change in thought and
manners among tlio negroes of
Soudan and Guinea has been
very g*-eat in recent years, and is
attributable, in a large measure, to
the influence of Christianity even
over those to whom as yet the
Gospel has not boon directly pro
claimed. They are growing wea
ry of the superstitions of the old
time.—The snake house of the
King of Dahomey—whose abom
inations have been seen and de
scribed by travelers still living—
is a thing of the past.—This was
a sort of temple, in which serpents
of all sorts, some of immense size
"—were kept and held as sacred.—
They were fed so abundantly as
to be seldom mischievous; but so
highly reverenced were they that
when one appeared on the streets
of the town ho was saluted with
reverence, and none dared to
touch him. The King of Ashan-
tee, so lately humiliated by the
red coats under Sir Garnet Wol-
set^, has within a year sent to a
AVesleyan missionary, requesting
a visit from him to consult on ed
ucational matters. He w'ent and
was treated at every step with
the most marked respect.—Those
who have read Stanley’s account
of his journey over the same road
must be struck with the number
of things which that astute man
and daring explorer did not see;
but every facility for observation
was given to the Christian mis
sionary ;■ he saw every thing.
The king treated him with great
consideration, and strove hard to
perfect arrangements for the es
tablishment of an eduoafional in
stitute in his capital. But as a
politician—for State reasons—
the black monarch felt unable to
allow the Christian religion to be
taught, and the civilization of
Christianity from its doctrines;
and for these reasons only the ar
rangements were broken off for
the present. Before long, how
ever, not only Coomassie, but all
the great towns of the interior
will be centers of Christian learn
ing. The progress of Mohomme-
danism, of which wo have heard
so much of late, is regarded by
wise missionaries as an aid rather
than as an obstacle to the spread
of the true faith. It intensifies
the thirst for knowledge.—Nation
al liepository for July.
AWCIEMT PPNISIIMEWTS OF
DltUlN'KENNESS.
The offence of drunkenness was
a source of great perplexity to
the ancients, who- tried every
possible way of dealing rvith it.
If none succeeded, probably it
was because they did not begin
early enough, by intercepting
some of the ways and means by
which the insidious vice is incited
and propagated. Severe treatment
was oiten tried to little effect.
The Locrians, under Zaleuous,
made it a capital offence to drink
wine, if it was not mixed with
water; even an invalid was not
exempted from punishment unless
by order of a physician. Bittacus,
of Mitylene, made a law that he
who, when drunk, committed an
otfence, should suffer doublo the
punishment whicli ho w'ould do it
sober; and Plato, Aristotle, and
Plutarch applauded this as the
height of v/isdom. The Roman
censors could expel a senator for
being drunk and take away his
horse. Mahomet Ordered drunk
ards to be bastinadoed with eighty
blows. Other nations thought of
limiting the quantity to be drunk
at one time, or at one sitting.
The Egyptians put some limit,
though what it was is not stated.
The Spartans also had some limit.
Arabians fixed the quantity at
twelve glasses a man ; but the
size of the glass was, unfortunately,
not defined by the historians.
The Anglo Saxons went no further
than to order silver nails to be
fixed on the side of drinking cups,
so that each might know his
proper measure. And it is said
that this was done by King Edgar
after noticing the drunken habits
of the Danes. Lyourgus, of
Thrace, went to the root of the
matter by ordering the vines to
bo cut down. And his conduct
was imitated in 704 by Terbulus
of Bulgaria. The Suevi prohibited
wine to be imported. And the
Spartans tried to turn tlie vice
into contempt by systematically
making their slaves drunk once a
year, to show their children how
foolish and contemptible men
looked in that state. Drunkenness
was deemed much more vicious
in some classes of persons than in
others. The ancient Indians held
it lawful to kill a king when he
was drunk. The Athenians made
it a capital offence for a magistrate
to be drunk, and (Jharloraagne
imitated this by law, that judges
on the bench and pleaders should
do their business fasting. The
Carthaginia.ns prohibited magis
trates, governors, soldiers, and
servants from any drinking. The
Scots, in the second century,
made it a capital offence for
magistrates to be drunk; and
Constantine II. of Scotland, 861,
extended a like punishment to
young people. Again some laws
have absolutely piohibited wine
from being drunk by women, the
Massilians so decreed. The Ro
mans did the same, and extended
the prohibition to young men
under thirty or forty-five. And
the husband and wife’s relation
could scourge the wife for offend
ing, and the husband himself
might scourge her to death.—
Liberty of the Subject,’ by James
Paterson.
KiVOWEEDGF,.
Mill, become misanthropic, and
deny there are any foundations
for knowledge outside of a few
material facts and mathematical
axioms. Others are unwilling to
be dark and wandering spirits
over an abyss of doubt, and tiy
to find trutli through the medium
of the heart. They reach out
after God and the hope of im
mortality with the hand of faith,
and find God near, and are satis
fied and at rest. Now this, from
the nature of things, always must
and will be so. The type of faith
set up by Christ in a little child
was the ultimate fact of all our
philosophy and s'u ly. The result
ever must be that the most of
those who are widest and broadest
in their intellectual grasp and
penetration, and the most pro
found in their learning, will be
Christians. God hedges us into
himself on every side. If we
break through tho.'O hedges, we
must do it wilfully and determin
edly.—Interior.
inrw I I
BAROSIETBICAE APPABATBS.
’S'!£E NOIE'S’IIEKM SSTFATIOSi.
Every one who has started out
in life with a thirst for knowledge
has suffered disappointment. He
began with a few material facts
and moral axioms, and- learned
from these to expect sure footing,
however rough and difficult the
way might be, in whatever di
rection ho chose to travel. What
he took to be mountains ho found
to be clouds. What appeared to
him navagablo streams ho found
to be mirages. AVe suppose there
is no student who does not recall
the surprise and disappointment,
often painful, with which these
discoveries were made, and the
sense of weakness and worthless
ness which overcame him. Now,
the further he goes, tlie more la
boriously and extensively he
studies, the more of these disap-
pointuients ho must meet. Tl'.e
effect is widely dili'erent upon
different minds. Some, like Stuart
The Nouvelles Meteorologiques
describes a new self-recording
barometer, the construction of
which is pronounced to bo ot su
perior adaption to the purpose
required. The instrument con
sists of an ordinary syplion ba
rometer carrying a very light
ivory float, upon which is fixed a
vertical steel wire terminating in
a point. A horizontal needle rests
upon this point, and its other ex
tremity is in connection with a
doublo series of clook-v/ork, the
wheels of which move either for
ward or backward, aoooi-ding as
the ivory float rises or falls. The
movements of tire clock-work are
followed by a pencil wliioh drarvs
a curve upon a revolving cylin
der. This arrangement is regard
ed as far more advantageous than
that in which the connection be
tween the horizontal lever and
the wheel-work is an electric one
—subject therefore to all the un
certainties, which at some times
are considerable, of the electrical
batteries and connections.
Thus, in this improved barom
eter, no electricity is employed,
the entire apparatus depending
only upon gravity and atmos
pheric pressure, its regular and
reliable working being by this
means perfectly insured. An an
eroid barometer may be made to
record its indications in the same
manner as the mercurial, such
instruments having recently been
introduced and finding much fa
vor for their correctness of show
ing. A method has also been
proposed for applying a similar
automatic system of registration,
and with equally satisfactoiy re
sults, to the indications of the
magnetic needle.
Virtue is certainly the most no
ble and secure possession a man
can have. Beauty is worn out by
time and impaired by sickness.
Riches lead youth rather to dis-
traction than welfare, and with
out prudence arc soon lavished
away—while virtue alone, the
only good that is over durable,
always remains with the person
who once entertained her. She
is preferable both to wealth and
a noble extraction.
The labor troubles are not end
ed. So much is clear. lu more
than one district the coal miners
are at war with their employers,
and on the lines of some of the
railroads, a spirit still prevails
which tells more of a defeat than
of reconciliation. The Baltimore
and Ohio, and the Pennsylvania
roads are partially open. The
former company yesterday moved
twenty-three freight trains be
tween Baltimore and Cumberland.
Beyond the latter point the road
is still closed, and difficulties are
not improbable in the AA^’est A^ir-
ginia mountains. The Penns}'!-
vania Road has freight trains in
motion between Altoona and
Pittsburg; the record of incidents
connected with tlio reopening be
ing, however, unpleasantly sug
gestive of bad blood and future
annoyances. The gain both in
Pennsylvania and Maryland is,
then, decided, so far as the con
flict between authority and law
lessness is concerned. It is far
from complete as regards the
relations of the companies to
their workmen and their sympa
thizers. At AVest Albany yester-
dajq some apprehensions were
felt respecting the men in the
locomotive departments, but the
feeling was not of long duration.
The men refused to listen to the
appeal of the mischief makers,
and an entire resumption of work
to-morrow is anticipated. The
position on the Delaware and
Lackawanna and the Morris and
Essex is not satisfactory, though
the strike which was talked of
did not take ■ place last evening.
From Chicago and St. Louis the
reports leave little room for anx
iety. The most serious of all to
day’s tidings is from the line of
the Pittsburg, Fort AA^ayne and
Chicago, which remains in the
hands of the strikers.—AAsiW York
Times.
HOW 'FO sow SEEDS.
A NEW TiiEOStY;
The most successful seed sower
we ever knew lets his garden
ground get a little dry before
sowing. Then ho stretches the
line along where the seeds are
to go, sows the seed on the sur
face and then walks sideways
along the line, pressing the seeds
with “his flat foot.” He says he
never has a seed to miss, and so
he sows them thinly just where
every plant is to grow. There is
not only no waste of seed, but no
waste in thinning. Tliere is no
raking in of the seed, and the
whole is as simple as possible.
His wife is a good flowei'gardener.
Her mignonette and phloxes al
ways grow ; a ten-cent paper is
enough for the wliole garden.
She sows on the surface, “pats”
down, as she says, the earth with
the back of her oast-steel trowel,
puts the stick with the name in
the centre of the little patch, and
they sprout at once.—Amateur
Gardener.
A correspondent of The Lnylish Me
chanic insists tliat musical sounds stim
ulate tlie growth of plants, lie gives
an instance in iMiiiit. In a barreu sec
tion of rortngal lie built a small con
servatory and endeavored to cultivate
rose.s and other flowers under shelter,
but in spite of his iirecantious and in
dustry they did not llourisli. One day
he took a harmouiuiu into tlic green
house and jilayed for several hours.
This iiraetiee lie maintained for sever
al inoutiis and was surprised to see
a gradual but rapid recovery of Iiealtli
on the part of ids plants. He attrib
utes their improvement to the influence
of music and imfolds the tlieory that
the singing of birds is coductive to
vegetable life. Let the jiiano be moved
from drawing-room to the green-house
and let the young ladies of the family
practice there. Let the farmers of
Westchester County hire all the or
gan-grinders of New York to make
music in their corn-fields all the glad
Slimmer long. Let the brass bauds
bo sent into the wilderness until it
blossoms like the rose.—A. Y. Xribtme,
AVhen Daniel AVebstor was
once asked, “AVhat is the most
important thought that ever en
tered your miudf’ after a mo
ments reflection he seriously re
plied, “ The most important
thought I ever had was that of
my personal responsibility to. God ”
Jewish Statistics.—The Jews
recently held a convention in this
city, in which the following sta
tistics were made known : There
are in this country 250,000 Jews,
who are divided into 3,000 con
gregations; They own 5 hospitalsi
6 orphan asylums, and 3 institu
tions for poverty-stricken aged
Israelites. The value of their
synagogue property is $6,000,
000. They publish 15 papers
and periodicals, some weekly,
others monthly. The oldest Jew
ish congregation in America is
the one at New York called Shear-
ith Israel, and was organized in 10-
84, the next in ago is the Lancas
ter, Pa., congregation, 1776; and
then comes the Philadelphia
church, 1780.—N. Y. Observer.
The Core for Gossip.—AYhat
is the cure for gossip ? Simply
culture. Tliero is a great deal of
gossip that has no malignity in it.
Good-natured people talk about
theirneighbors, because, and only
because, they have nothing else to
talk about. The confirmed gossip
is always either malicious or ig
norant.—Reading is a safeguard
against gossip. People who can
talk of books do not have to talk
of persons. AFlien you see a
family in which literary maga
zines and newspapers are taken,
you see one where there is little
gossip.—-Bdbesonian.
—A natural pianist has been
discovered near Frostburg, Alle
ghany county, Md. His name is
AYilliam Tagan, sixteen years old,
who wears blue jeans pants tuck
ed into his boot tops, and does
not usually rejoice in a coat, but
ho plays over throe thousand
classical tunes in a wonderlnlly
accurate manner, and is consider
ed a musical jtrodigy.
The first duty of scholars has
been included in this one piece of
advice, to love those who teach
them as they love the knowledge
which they derive from them;
and to look upon them as fathers,
from whom they derive not the
life of the body, but that instruc
tion which is, in a manner, the
life of the soul.
AVo cannot conquer fate and
uecessit}^ yet wo can yield to
them in such a way as to be great
er than it we could.
'What will'd is tliero, of live letters
that by taking away two leaves oue J
Stone.
■a