TheCase Boolrtrf
True Narratives of Interesting Cases by a Former
Operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency
By DAVIO
. (Ooprrlghi t7 Um luuniaUuiuU rrut BukuU
WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS
Nipping a New York Backhand" Con
spiracy In the Bud
Pasquale LeonI came near to being
, one of the smoothest black-hand chief
tains In this country. But not quite.
He failed at the very outlet of what
would have been, bad It succeeded In
getting started, one of the most suc
cessful blackmailing and robbing con
spiracies that ever emanated from the
evil minds of the Italian Black Hand
men who live by terrorizing their fel
low countrymen in American cities.
LeonI ran a little private bank for
the accommodation of his own coun
trymen In Elizabeth street, In the low
er Italian quarter of New York City.
He made no pretense of doing a big
business,- nor of securing his deposl-
- tors and patrons against loss by any
great capital of his own. He bad
started In as a steamship agent, sell
ing tickets for a couple of the lines
that make a specialty of carrying the
cheaper class of passenger trade be
tween New York and the Mediterra
nean ports. That was ten years before
tne events here to be related ever
beean.
Prom a seller of steamship tickets
LeonI began to branch out, and soon
he was running a little Italian em
ployment agency in conjunction with
his original business. He satisfied ev
- erybody. concerned with his dealings
In this, and soon the Italian emigrants
who had found work through his of
fice began to entrust to him the task
of conveying safely to the loved ones
back In Italy part of the funds earned
by tbe newcomers In America. -
The private bank was the net step.
The newly arrived Italians were loathe
to trust their hard-earned money with
any of the strange bankers In this
strange land. Leon! was one of them,
a son of their own beloved Italy. He
bad welcomed them upon their arrival
at Ellis Island, he had brought them
up the bay and found them rooms in
the crowded quarters of the east side.
Work, they had secured through him,
and their steps In the new land bad
been generally guided by his advice.
What more natural than that they
should turn to him when they began
to accumulate little sums of money
which they wished to saveT .
LeonI took care of their money with
great satisfaction to them and con
siderable profit to himself. His power
and influence, and the prosperity of
bis little private bank so private
that the state bank examiners had
, nothing to do with It grew until in
March, 1911, he had on deposit In his
Elizabeth street office over $150,009
placed In his care by his trusting
countrymen. ' ;
I had never heard of LeonI until he
came to the office of the Burns De
tective Agency and asked for protec
tion. "It is. the Black Hand the Mano
Nera that is after me," he raid.
"They have threaten me. Me, Pas
quale LeonI, whom all good Italians
trust these bad men have threatened
that they shall take my life or I am
to give them $25,000;
He dove into his pocket as he spoke
and showed us a letter written In Ital
ian and addressed to him. Translated
it read: , '
"Dear Prosperous Brother:
"Many of the countrymen are out of
work. Times are not as rich with all
as they are with you. - Those who
, have much should help those who
have Httle or nothing. Brother, you
have much; we have nothing. - You
should be glad to help. There are
many of us. That we all should get a
little you must iglve much, But It Is
not much to you, who has so much.
Brother, you must have $25,000 to
give us in two weeks when we ask for
It, or we will remove you as a traitor
to your poor countrymen. ;
"The Beautiful Society."
It was a typical Black Hand letter,
except that the amount was away be
. yond tbe usual demand. '
"How. did you have the nerve to
come here about this?" asked the of
: fice manager. You know Italians usu
ally are afraid to speak even to their
wivea about communications of this
"To the police I would not go," said
Leonl. "But you t think I can trust
Anyhow, I will die before I give up
this money. I want yon to protect me
by finding the writer of this letter
and putting him In jail. I have heard
that you do such things very well."
The office manager turned to me.
"Want to take the case, Cornell?"
he asked. "We don't usually touch
anything of this sort"
"Certainly." I said. "It's all part
of the game to me."
Leonl and I got together then. I
took the letter and examined it care
fully. It was In a fairly good hand
writing and carefully punctuated and
phrased. , Apparently It was the work
of an educated man. :' v
., I reasoned that this letter probably
was the work of one of the men whom
Leonl had had dealings with in one
way or another, Probably somebody
who had deposited money with him
and who knew how prosperous the
private banker was becoming.
POLICE RECORDS SHOW PAST
Woman's Denial of Wrongdoing
Curio From Nsw ( York's De
: tailed Statement of Crime.
Ellen Peck, the "Confidence Queen,"
described In a recent story of her
career how she was accused of swin
dling the late R T. Babbitt out of
$19,000, and denied that she had ever
taken the money. This assertion
roused some of the older members of
the New York police force, whose re
a PrivateDetectivSe
CORNELL
"How did tbe letter come to you?"
I asked.
"It was shoved under the door at
night," he said. "I found it when I
open store in the morning."
I put the letter under a microscope
and examined it carefully. -
"Did It come Just the way it was?"
I asked.
"Yes." . '
''No envelope?"
"No, nothing but what you have
there.",,
That didn't sound good to me. Un
der the microscope the letter failed
to show any of . the dust or dirt
that would have adhered to It if it
had been carried untnclosed and, with
out a cover, pushed under the door of
an Elizabeth street store. Tbe letter
was crisp and clean; as if it had been
taken from an envelope that had shel
tered it in its travels until very re
cently. "Is this the only letter of this sort
you have?" I asked.
"No, no," he laughed. "There were
others. I tore them up. I paid no
attention to them until this one came.
It names a time when I must have
the money ready. That is why I came
here."
"Were the letters all in this hand
writing?" I asked.
He was a little slow in answering.
"Yes," he said, finally. "Yes, all the
same hand-writing."
"All right," I said; "let's go down
to your office."
He grumbled at this.
"It would not do for me to be seen
with you,", he protested. "The so
ciety has eyes everywhere. If .you
come to Elizabeth street with me its
spies will see and they will get suspl
clous. Then they will kill me as a
warning for others to be careful."
"All right," said I. "When can I
come to see you?"
"You want to see me in the office?"
"Yes, in your office."
"That is absolutely necessary?"
"Yes," I said, "It's necessary." j
All rigni, an ngui, ne nam. tonw
tonight then, at ten. The street will
be crowded so that you can slip In
without being noticed."
I put on some old clothes that night
and slouched through the crowds in
Elizabeth street until I reached Leoni'i
store. I went in, pretending to have-
some business at the banking window.
and when no one was looking I slipped
back Into the office.
"I want to take a look at your books
first of all," I said.
He was puzzled, but he turned over
to me his books. He had kept the
signatures of his depositors in a sin
gle big book, and this was what I
looked over most carefully.
I found what I had hoped to find
About a year before one "Ignaclo Mar
tina" bad written his name and his
address, "Whltefish. Wis.," in Leonl's
signature book in the same fine Ital
ian hand that bad written the threat
ening letter. There was no mistak
ing it The writing was too distinc
tive to be confused. --
I was on the point of telling Leonl
what I had found, but on second flash
I reasoned: "Here is an excitable
Italian, half crazed with fear,, and if
I tell him what I think I have found
he'll go up in the air, and if he doesn't.
plot to take his - private vengeance
he's almost sure to let someone know
what he's been told." So I said noth
ing, but looked through the book
without comment After a" short time
I left Leonl, Celling him I'd call him
up in a day or two. , ',
"Do you think you can catch them?"
he asked.
"I don't know," I said. "It's pretty
hard for an American to get onto the
crooked ways of these fellows, but
we've never failed on a case yet"
"Ah," he said. "But you never bad
a case like this?"
"No," said I; "that's true, too."
When I got back to the office the
manager said: "Well, how do you
like Black Handing aa far as you've
gone?" .
"That's a funny looking case to
me," I said. "It looks too easy to be
true."
I told him what I had found, and
what my theory shaped up like.
"Oh, drop it if you want to," he said.
"I don't think we care to be mixed
up in that sort of a mess. Do Just as
you please about it"
I bad already made a start on the
case and had discovered what I was
Inclined to believe ' was a striking
clue. The attraction of the man-hunt
had me, and I said: , 1 .
"I'll go on with it for a while at
least, If you don't mind."
Next day I went down to the Fed
eral bulhllng and looked over - the
names of Italians who had applied for
citizenship in this country. There ,1
found "Ignaclo Martina's" name again.
and in the same hand-writing as the
Black Hand letter that Leonl had re
ceived. I called np Leonl's bank on
the phone. Leonl didnt happen to be
in. If he had been this story proba
bly would never have been told. His
clerk was in and in answer "to my
question he looked up his books and,
round that ignaclo Martina suu was
living in Whiteflsh, Wis., that he got
his mail at the general delivery, and
that he waa a tall thin man with a
thin face. vV:; ;,-.!;
ollectlon of the matter waa very dif
ferent; they dug down into the de
partment's records and found, under
date of June 24, 1878, a confession by
Ellen Peck, of which the following la
a part;,- - :- . ;
"I used 14,000 of tbe money to pay
off a mortgage on the house; mort
gage waa paid to the Phoenix Insur
ance company. I paid out f 3,600 for
diamonds. I took them out of pawn
shop for Mrs. Laselle; she resided
then at No. I East Fourth street I
paid $2,500 to get them out of pawn.
I left for Whiteflsh that day. Thirty
hours later I was asking the postmis
tress of that little town if she had
any mall for "Ignaclo Martina." She
bad. Of course she knew that I wasn't
Martina so she wouldn't band over
the letter, but I bad a glimpse of It
and saw that It wos from New York.
I spotted Martina next day. He
was a villainous, though intelligent
looking fellow who lived in the Ital
ian settlement of the town without
any visible means of support. Now see
bow pure luck often makes a case for
a detective with scarcely any effort of
his own.
There was In Whiteflsh a private
Italian banker operating much after
the manner of Leonl in New York.
The Italians who lived in the town
were mostly men who worked on the
railroad, and their families. They had
begun to settle in the town a few
years before, and one Frank Cantlno,
a white-headed old Calabrlan, bad ta
ken upon himself the burdens of king
of this Little Italy. He made himself
political boss of bis countrymen first;
then he became their banker. He was
much respected and liked by his
countrymen and by Americans as
well. I found this out on tbe third
day of my visit to Whiteflsh because
on the night of that day Cantlno was
murdered in the room in tbe rear of
his little private bank.
The murder was a terrible shock to
the peaceful little town. Nothing of
the sort had ever happened in its his
tory. The tragedy had occurred on
Main street, no later than ten o'clock,
and was a crime of the boldest and
bloodiest sort. Cantlno had been
stabbed seven times, and any one of
tbe cuts would have been fatal.
I reached Cantino's office a few
minutes after the alarm bad been
spread. . There were no signs of a
struggle and no disorder of any kind.
Cantlno apparently had been stabbed
first in the neck as be was turning
away from his assailant stabbed by
someone whom he did not fear and
after that the assassin bad wreaked
terrible vengeance on his victim.- In
vestigation proved-that the bank had
not been robbed. Tbe safe was locked
and Cantino's papers and property
were all in order. . -
The local authorities began to seek
for the motive for such - a strange
crime,, but I put It down . as : Black
Hand work at once. . I reasoned that
Cantlno had been threatened even as
my friend Leonl in New York, that he
had refused to yield to the blackmail
ers, and that he had been slain as
promised In the threats.
With the permission of the sheriff I
began to go through the old man's pa
pers. I had not searched long before
I found what I was looking for. He
bad received threatening letters just
as I deduced. There were three of
them. The last one had threatened
him with death in two weeks if he did
not turn over a certain sum of money
to "the man who comes and asks you
for it" Apparently he had not done
this, and he was killed as a conse
quence. I waa disappointed in those letters.
I bad expected to see them in the
hand-writing of Martina. But they
weren't ' They were in another and
quite different hand, an educated Ital
ian band, but not Martina's, v ;
They are pawned now for $800. They
have been there one month and no
ticket-was given. I have used np the
$800 for general purposes.
"The biggest part of the rest is in
the house In the shape of furnishing
one set of furniture cost $550;. pi
ano waa $850 that Is, $850 in money
waa paid in exchange of an old one.
The carpet I bought cost at least $800.
Then there was a chamber set I
bought costing $360. There was a
china set bought in Brooklynall the
set might have cost $125 and might
However, I went at once down to
the house where Martina had boarded.
He was not in. He bad gone back to
the old country the night before. He
bad purchased his railroad and steam
ship ticket of old Cantlno several days
earlier, and last night he had gone,
leaving the bouse at nine o'clock.
I went from there down to the sta
tion and found that Martina bad taken
the midnight train for Milwaukee. He
would have had plenty of time to com
mit tbe murder.
At once I wired the New York of
fice of the Burns Agency what bad
happened and to have them watch the
boats of the Italian line on which Mar
tina had bought tickets. After this
I caught a train back to New York,
taking with me the .threatening, letters
received by Cantlno. To wblle away
the tedium of the long Journey I took
these letters out to re-read. Studying
them more carefully now I as struck
with the Impression that I had seen
that hand-writing somewhere before.
I was sure of it. I bad a piece of
Leonl's writing In my possession. It
was an address he bad written for me
In his office. I dug It up and careless
ly compared it with the Cantlno let
ters. Then I got a shock. The letters
were positively in Leonl's hand-writing!
It took some time for the signifi
cance of this to sink in.
Martina had written Leonl in New
York a practical duplicate of what
Leonl had written Cantino In White
fish, Wis. Leonl, the banker, who had
come to us with a threatening letter,
had written the same kind of a let
ter himself to a banker In Wisconsin.
And Martina had left Whiteflsh the
night that Cantlno was murdered.
Meanwhile the New York office of
our agency was watching the boats
that sailed for .Mediterranean ports.
Every 200 ml'es or so I would get a
wire advising me that such and such
a boat had sailed and nobody answer
Ins the description of my man had i
come aboard. Every time I opened a
wire I hoped to see the news that I
Martina had been arrested while try
ing to get out of the' country,' but
nothing of the sort occurred.
When I reached New York city I
didnt go to tbe office. I hailed a tax-
icab and had myself driven to within
a couple of squares of Leonl's bank in
Elizabeth street Discharging the taxi
man I walked down to the place, min
gling with the crowd In a way to make
myself inconspicuous. Leonl was back
of the cashier's cage. I walked in.
"Hello, Mr. Leonl," I said. "Seen
anything of Martina?" '
Leonl was a good actor but not good
enongh, '
"You bavent seen him, have you?"
he said. .
"Oh, yes," I said. "I saw him out
in Whiteflsh. He killed a fellow by
the name of Cantlno out there the
day before yesterday." i
I never watched anybody closer in
all my life than I did Leonl while I
was telling him this. No Anglo-Saxon
could have hidden what was going on
in his mind the way that little Italian
did. His expression waa one of sur
prise, only surprise, that I : should
mention such a thing.
How horrible!" he said, "How dis
tressing!"
He did it SO well that he fooled me.
have been over. I bought sliver at
the same placeIt might have been
$150 and perhape more.
"X bought the gas fixtures for the
house they were $260. I have the
bill of them. I bought what clothing
five of us have had. I have bills of
all of them in items. They amount
to $700 and more. I have tour chil
dren." The confession then goes Into de
tails about small Items, and closes:
. "I have bought Havana lottery tick
et! of Jackson A Co. I bought as
I said to myself: "You big -
fool! You guessed wrong, absolutely
wieng."
I went back to the office and began
to write up my reports, trying to find
a flaw in the theory I bad worked out,
Since I bad been up against Leonl and
bad played my big card and hadn't
brought anything out I felt that my
theory must be wrong. His expres
sion absolutely bad convinced me
But as I wrote and rewrote the rec
ord of my doings since Leonl bad an
piled at the office for a man, I couldn't
see where In the world I bad fallen
down. If I was any good at all then I
had worked up a case that pointed
straight to the end I had worked to
ward. If it didn't point that way ,
But I hated to believe that I bad
failed so completely.
Cantlno had sold Martina tickets
over the old Italla-Medlterranean line.
Our men bad ' been watching the
docks and boats of that company clos
er than any other. Nobody approach
ing Martina's description had sailed
on it. The second day that I was In
New York the report came that the
line wouldn't have another boat for
two weeks, and that no reservations
on that boat had been made from
Whltefish, Wisconsin. There had been
no reservation from Whltefish for
two months.
"Stung!" said the agency superin
tendent, "Your man got away on
some other line. I told you that you'd
better let that Black Hand stuff
alone."
But I hod my own private hunch, In
spite of the innocent expression on
Lecni's face. I made myself a mental
bet that Martina hadn't left this
country, and that I knew Just where
to find him In time.
It took some time. To make a Ions
story short, I went to the tenement
directly opposite Leonl's office In
E'.lzabeth street and rented the two
front rooms on the third floor. I was
dressed In the clothes of the average
Italian laborer, and while I was a lit- 1
tie too tall for a fair specimen, a pair
of gold rings in my ears helped out
the deception. I explained to the
woman who rented the rooms that I
was out of work and that I probably
would be at home a lot during the
daytime.
I was. Both daytime : and night
There wasnt an hour in the twenty
four that I, or Clutter, who came over
to help me, didn't have an eye glued
to tbe window that covered Leonl's
front door. He had no back door or
somebody would have covered that
tOO. .-V'
It took just ten days to clear the
thing up. It was about 3 in the morn
ing. I was watching, and the street
was empty. Along came a man in a
mackintosh and knocked at Leonl's
door. The door opened instantly and
the man went inside. In about halt
an hour he came out, looked up and
down the street and hurried in tbe
direction of Broadway, toward the
subway. He thought he had hidden
his tracks, but I rode up to Harlem In
the subway with him Just the same.
He got off at 125th street I fol
lowed him, and under the light of the
ticket seller's window I saw his face.
"Martina," I said, and he turned
with a gun in his hand.
. I hadnt taken any chances, and I
many aa 20 tickets at $40 each. I
don't remember anything more."
The Mother's Touch.
A faint odor of chloroform per
fumed the crowded street car and the
passengers watched in sympathy a
pair seated near the door. He was an
overgrown boy of IS, neatly but poor
ly dressed. His eyes were bandaged
and his head rested on his mother's
knee. She was thin and faded and
tired looking, and the moist handker-
had him covered. I called an officer
and turned Martina over to him. Then
as fast as a taxi could carry me 1
went downtown to detective headquar
ters, and from there to Leonl's In
Elizabeth street
We broke In the' door, and Leonl
Jumped up with a gun In his hand.
One of the plain clothes men twisted
It away from him and dragged him
out to whera I was waiting.
"Good morning, Leonl," I said. "I
Just pinched your pal, Martina, and
he confessed." .
We had hard work keeping him
from killing himself,
"That dog," he screamed. "That
dog!"
Had Martina confessed? Oh, no;
but before morning we had the whole
story. Martina told on Leonl, and
Leonl on Martina. They had framed
up a Black Hand conspiracy that was
a study In cunning. Leonl was to
find out when any Italian banker had
any money, and Martina was to go out
and scare him. Leonl had made Mar
tina write him the. Black Hand letter
so that he, Leonl, could appear as a
victim of that society, thus lessening
the possibility of suspicion that he
was a member of It. But for that
they might have been operating yet.
As It was, they hadn't pulled off a
single Job. Martina had killed Can
tlno as a warning to other banker.
And I had caught the pair of them be
cause Leonl foolishly had let me see
a sample of Martina's handwriting.
The Federal authorities took Leonl
off our hands. He Is doing twenty
years. The Wisconsin people gave
Martina life In prison.
PLANS RELIGION FOR JAPAN
Mr. Izawa Would Have It Center
About the Divine Right of the
Emperor.
Mr. Izawa, cx-vlce-mlnister of edu
cation, is the originator of a plan to
provide Japan with an entirely new
religion. The new religious body, ac
cording to the Japan Advertiser, is to
be called "The State Religious Com
munity of Japan," and Mr. Izawa ex
plains his proposal as follows:
"The Japanese Empire having been
governed by one Imperial family since
the very beginning, the emperor pos
sesses divine right. Such a policy can
hardly be found In any' other country.
In China It has happened that the em
peror abdicates his throne to be suc
ceeded by one of his former subjects.
Then, too, when the German emperor
spoke once of his divine right, he was
Btrongly criticised. But in Japan the
emperor is the descendant of Ameno-mlnakanuchl-no-Kaml,
tbe creator of
the world. Hence the imperial family
being a divine race is entirely differ
ent from the race of Japanese.
"This . Amenomlnakanucht-no-Kamt
is the only creator of the world, and
be has existed since the beginning and
still exists: He is called emperor of
Heaven In China, Buddha in India,
ond God In Western countries. My
plan is to gather a religious commun
ity around our emperor for the pur
pose of cultivating among its members
loyalty toward the emperor and of ele
vating their moral Ideas.
"As to the citizens of other coun
tries, they are all living under the gra
cious protection of the Creator of the
world, so that they can become mem
bers of this religious community If
they become subjects of the Japanese
emperor.
Mental Processes In the Brain.
We have no facts which at presem
will enable us to locate the mental
processes in the brain any better than
they were located fifty years ago.
That the mental processes may be due
to cerebral activities we may believe,
but with what anatomical elements
the individual mental processes may
be connected we do not know. . Not
withstanding our Ignorance, it would
appear best and most scientific that
we should not adhere to any of the
phrenological systems, however scien
tific they may appear to be on the
surface. We should be willing to
stand with Brodmann, believing that
mind Is a function or an attribute of
the brain as a whole, or is a concomi
tant of cerebral operations, but I at
least am unwilling to stand with the
histological locallzationlsts on the
ground of a special mental process
for special cerebral areas or for spe
cial cerebral cell groups. Shepherd
Ivory Franz, In Science.
Unavailing Hero Worship.
Herman Perlet, the musical director
and composer, was recruiting a phil
harmonic orchestra and had enlisted :
the services of an Italian acquaintance.
Among the instrumentalists he pro- j
cured was a very old man with, an
antiquated flute from which he was
able to get a wheezy tone now and
then. "Take him away!" ordered Per
let after the first rehearsal. "He can't
play the flute. What! Thata man can't
playa da flute!" gasped the sponsor.
"Not in this orchestra. Take him
away!" "Maledetta!" He rolled his
eyes heavenward. "Thata man can't
playa da flute!" And he beat his
breast in Indignation. "Why, thata
man he fighta with Garibaldi!"
Cucumber 40 Years Old.
A dispatch from Flndlay, O., to tha
New York American says: : Mrs.
John F. Moore of Arcadia has a cu
cumber 40 years old. When she was
Miss Sarah Lefferson, 40 years ago,
she pulled a small cucumber with a
portion of vine attached to it and
stuck it in a bottle. When it grew
large the cucumber was placed In a
bottle and sealed, and to this day' has
retained Its color and freshness.
chief clasped in her cotton gloved
hands told a mother's heart had been
bleeding. . Suddenly the boy drew a
long, quivering breath, as if waking
up to the cruel realisation of pain.
Everybody gased at him now. Hid
head rolled uneasily, his hand groped
restlessly until it was clasped in his
mother's, then he was quiet again.
Such a little, simple gesture, but It
made, every man and woman In tbe
car akin. Sometime in an hour of
pain they, too, had sought mother'r
hand (or comfort
An Old-Time
Thanksgiving
Br REV. JAMES M. CRAY, D. D..
Deu af l)w Moodr Bible lutiuu,
Oiw 7
TEXT "And all the people went their
way to cat. and to drink, and to vend
portions, and to make great mirth, be
sause they had understood the words that
wer declared unto them." Nehemltih
1:12.
Our rorefathers
befori all else
.were religious. Re
ligion separated
them from tbe fa
therland and all
that it means, to
face these "bleak
New England
shpres." The voy
age of the May
flower was as
sacred as Israel's
crossing the Red
sea. The clearing
of the forests, the
building of the
huts, the treaties
with the Indians,
the civil
compacts with one sn
Diner, were
of worship.
ail, in a way, acts
Thanksgiving day in
Its conception,- and
Its inception,
and Its observance 300 years ago was
only less holy than the Sabbath. A
ball game on Thanksgiving dayl As
Boon turn way from Jehovah and bow
down to Baal and AshtarothI
Ye Olden Times.
Read the sermons preached on
Thanksgiving day in "ye olden times,"
and compare them with the political
harangues of today. Shades of Increase
and Cotton Mather! They believed in
God then. They believed he gave seed
time and harvest and they had a god
ly fear of that Judgment upon sin
which might withhold the blessing
once, just once and then?
It will not do to say that the former
days were better than these. They
were not In some things. They burned
tallow candles then, and wore poke
bonnets; now we have the Merry Wid
ow hat and the are light. Tbey walked
on earth then, and sailed on the sea;
now we navigate tbe air, and know
the mysteries of the submarine. But
the presence of God was potent to our
fathers, and now well, we're not so
sure about It
Let us go back to Bethel Why
should not Thanksgiving day be made
a revival day? Not a day of gloom, not
the sourness of the Puritan, but his
gladness, for he had gladness, a real
gladness, tbe gladness ' that comes
from an enlightened recognition of his
bounty who Is the author and giver of
every good and perfect gift, the glad
ness that conies from a willing dedica
tion of ourselves to his holy service.
Post-Babylonian Judah affords a
good type of the observance of
Thanksgiving day. You will find the
story in the eighth of Nehemlah.
Laughter for Tears.
The people were gathered in a great
open air meeting, and Ezra read the
Word of God to them, while their oth
er religious teachers and civil gov
ernors explained fts sense. At first
they were afraid, and were moved to
tears, for conviction of sin had gripped
them;' but they were exhorted to
laugh Instead of weep, for It was a
holy day unto the Lord their God.
"Go your way," said Nehemlah, "eat
the fat, and drink the sweet, and send
portions unto them for whom nothing
is prepared, for this day is boly unto
our Lord; neither be ye sorry, for the
Joy of the Lord Is your strength."
This teaches us that there Is such
a thing as holy mirth, a Joyous festiv
ity unto the Lord. Indeed, this was
the prevailing Idea of all the Mosaic
feasts, which were social as well aa
religious occasions of the blgbest joy,
It teaches, us again that holy mirth
Is accompanied by benevolence and
love. What constant provision Is made
for the poor in all the Old Testament
legislation? Nehemlah was teaching
nothing new when he said: "Send por
tions unto them for whom nothing is
prepared." God's idea of repentance,
is, among other things, "to judge the
fatherless, to relieve the oppressed,
and to plead for the widow." .
It teaches us in the third place that
the mirth which breeds benevolence
Is Inspired not by material prosperity,
but by the knowledge of the word ol
the Lord. There was material pros
perity in post-Edenic times, but it led
not to mlrthfulness, and love, but to
Jealousy and murder. Cain was pros
perous, but he killed his brother,
There was material prosperity in the
days before tbe flood, for men were
eating and drinking, marrying and giv
ing in marriage, but God saw that
"every imagination of the thoughts ol
man's heart was only evil continually1
(Genesis 6:6). There was material
prosperity after the flood, for men
built cities and erected empires, but
they forgot God until he scattered
them to the four corners of the earth.
Oh, what good news God haa to pour
into our sad and heavy hearts out ol
his precious word, If we will listen to
It I Let us gather around, that word
on this Thanksgiving dayl Let it taks
the place which other things hav
usurped of late. Closed eyes will be
opened by it darkness will give plaes
to light end the garment of praise
will be donned Instead of the spirit of
heaviness. .. .- ;. ,
The Great Secret
, Loving God is the secret which re
conciles ell ' This is the secret of be-'
tng occupied, with interest in the
things of earth, without ceasing to love
die things of heaven. But ye divided
hearts, who have dreamed of a com
promise between heaven and earth,
and have appeared tormented with
tears and scruples, now know tbe
sause of your condition: Te fear God,
but ye do not love him. ,
Love bad speedily cut the difficulty;
everything for God, nothing for self.
Is Its motto. Everything for God. pro
vided God is mine. Then let him en
rich, or impoverish my life, let him
extend or limit my activity, let him
rratlfy or oppose my tastes; if I have
my (Sod, I have all things at once.
Alexandre R, Vlnet