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THE SAi\l) PILE.
A rosy cltild went forth to i)lny,
In tlie first flush of liopc and juldo,
AVliorc sands in silver beauty lay,
Made smooth by the rotreatmjf tide ;
And kneeling on the traeklcss waste,
Wlieuco ebbed the wiitel-s many a mile,
He raised in hot and trembling haste,
Arch, wall, and tower ; a goodly pile.
]>ut, when the shades of evening fell,
Vailing the blue and ])eactful deep,
Tlte tolling of the distant bell
Called the boy-builder home to sleep
He ]iassed along and restless night,
Dreaming of strirotnres tall and fair.
He came with the returning light,
And lo, the taitliless sands were bare.
Less wise than that unthinking child.
Are all that breathe of mortal birth,
"Who grasp with strivings warm and wild,
The false and fading toys of earth,
Gold, learning, gUiry. what are they,
Without the faith that kmks on high ?
The sand-forts of a child at play,
Which is not, when the waves go by.
THE DISEASE OE I^SEiiiDlCANCV.
An English paper, in some re-
cent utterance, reminded tlie
American nation of the appear
ance of’ an unmistakable evidence
that it is growing old. It pos
sesses “the tramp.” The waiTeft
with u.s, as war always leaves in
every country, many men
titteil}' demoralized. The hard
times have cut them loose from
remunerative work, and they
have become rovers, nominally
looking for cm[)loyment, but re
ally looking for life without it
They lost their self-respect if
they ever had any, lost their love
of steady industry, lost all desire
for independence, lost their sense
of manhood and of slianie, and
have imbibed the incurable dis
ease of mendicanev. A\ e mistake
the nature of the case entirely, if
we sup[)OBB that better times and
fair wages for all, u'ould cui’e
tlieso men, and relievo the coun-
of their i)resence and their
try
support. Ueprosy is not more
incuiabletliaiimendicancy. When
the disease has once fastened it
self ujton a man,—when, through
long months or years, he has
willingly and gladly lived on the
industry of others, and roamed
around without a home,—he be
comes a hopeless case, and noth
ing but the strong arm of the law
can make him a self-supporting
man.
The same is true of the dead
beat, who is only “the tramp” of
the city. He is not so humble a
man as the country tramp. He
dresses better and supports him
self in different methods. He is
the man who wants to get to
Boston or Baltimore, where he
has friends. He is the man who
lias just arrived from the South,
having run as far as New York to
get away from the yellow fever,
or' whatever trouble may be in
progress there at the date of his
application. He is the man who
wishes to gel money to bury his
wife or child. Or, he is about to
receive funds, but is in a starving
condition, and wants something
to assist liim in “bridging over.”
If you happen to have been born
in Vermont, he comes to you as
a Vermonter. Perhaps ho comes
to you because t'ou and ho hap
pen to have the same name.
There is no end to the lies he can
tell, and does tell. We have
some very genteel and higli and
mighty dyad beats in New York,
who never stoop to beg, but rise
to borrow, and forget to pa}'.
Wo know of one woman here,
claiming to be productively liter
ary, who apparently lives well on
the funds which a blight and
sweet-faced daughter borrows for
her. Now all those people are
hopelessly diseased. They can
never be restored to sound man
hood and vonianhood. What is
worse than all the rest is that
they perpetiiate their mendicancy
through their families. So we
have the tramps and the dead
beats, and the regular old-fash
ioned paupers, and they all are
alike, with some exceptiois, per
haps, in favor of the regular old-
fashioned paupers ; for now and
then there is one of these who,
much against his svill, has been
forced by circumstances into
pauperism.
What are wo to do with these
people? How is this disease to
be treated ? Tliese questions de-
nlaiid an early answer, for the
evils to which they relate are
increasing with alarming rapidity.
There is the general feeling that
they will take care of themselves,
so soon as prosperous times shall
return ; but, as we have already
said, this is a mistake. The dead
beat will never reform. The
tramp will be a tramp for life,
shifting from country to city as
his Comfort.3 may demand, and
ready to bo led into any mischief
which will give him grub and
grog. There onglit to be, this
very winter, in every State in the
Union, such laws passed as will
restrain the wanderers, and force
them to self-support in some
public institution. A standing
comniission of vagrancy should
bo instituted in every large city,
and every county in the land ;
and institutions of industry cs-
tablisiiod for the imrpose ol
making these men self-supporting,
and of curing them of their
wretched disease. We have lu
natic asylums not only for the
benefit of the lunatics, but for the
relief of the community, and
among the dead-beats and tramps
we have an enormous number ot
men who are just as truly diseas
ed as the maddest man in Utica,
or at the Bloomingdale Asylum.
Sjinething must be done with
them, and done at once, if we
are to have any comfort by day
or safety by night; for men who
are so demoralized as to beg from
choice, and lie by profession,
have 'but to take a single stop to
land in ruffianism. Already they
intimidate, and rob and murder,
to get the means to support their
useless lives.
It is only last year that we
heard of a force of five hundred
of them approaching a Western
city, to the universal alarm ot the
inhabitants. T h e disclosures
connected with the recent fraud
ulent registration in this city
show how easy it is, under the
lead of demagogues, to assemble
them by tens of thousands at
any point desired, and how read
ily they can be induced to perjure
their souls for bread and beer.
These facts menace both our
homes and our liberties. It is
not a tramp, here and there, such
as we have at all times ; but it is
au army of ti'ainps that can be
brought together on the slightest
occasion, for any deed of rascality
and blood which it may please
them to engage in. The evil has
come upon us so noiselessly—so
almost imperceptibly—that it is
hard for us to realize that we are
tolerating, and feeding tor noth
ing, a huge brood of banditti,
who will ultimately become as
monstrous and as disgraceful to
our country and to Christian civ
ilization as the banditti of Greece
or Southern Italy.
The one fact which we wish to
impress upon the people, and
upon legislators, in this article, is,
that the evil which we are de
scribing and commenting u])on is
not one that will cure itself,—is
not one that will bo cured by re
turning national prosperity,—is
not one that will be cured by
driving tramps from one State
into another,—and is a hopelessly
demoralizing mental diseilse. It
must be taken hold of vigorously,
and handled efficiently and wise
ly. There is not a month to be
lost. Thus far in the history of
the country we have been singu
larly free from any pauperism
but that which we have imported
from the great European reposi
tories of pauperism. But matters
have changed. The tramps are
not all foreigners. They are, to
a very considerable number, our
own "American flesh and blood,
and unless we are willing to see
the country diift into the condi
tion of the older peoples of the
world, where mendicancy has
grown to be a gigantic burden
and curse, and jianperism a thing
of hopeless heredity, wo must do
somothing to check the evil, and
do it at once.—Scribner, for Jan.
which one and another dealer
will begin selling at low prices,
in order to procure tlie money
needed in business. There was
hardlv ever a “ring” formed in
any trade that did not end inglo-
riouslv in the treachery of some of
its members.
So it will be with this kerosene
‘ring.” It may last for a few
months; but unless it proves an
e.xception to all I'ules, it will not
bold out very long.—Youth's
Companion.
THE
Those who use kerosene foi'
light have probably observed that
the price of oil has advanced very
greatly within the past few
months. In fact, it has more
than doubled at wholesale, and
the retail price usually keeps
pace with every advance.
The cause of this increase in
the cost of an article in almost
universal use, is a “combination.”
A great corporation has sought
to control the entire coal oil
product of the country. It is
large enough to threaten ruin lo
anv oil refiner who dares sell
below the price it fi.xes, and so
long as the high price brings
larger profits, no refiner has
strong inducement to sell a lower
rate.
Although this “ring” is very
injurious to the consumers of oil,
and although there is no other
reason for the rise in the price of
kerosene than the desire of jier-
sonsand companies ccniprisingthe
“ring” to giiiu large profits, they
have legally, a perfect right to
combine. So on the other hand,
consumers have an equal right to
defeat the combination if they
oan. By a universl law, a liigli
]3i'ice checks the use of an article.
It is not necessary for consumers
to combine. They naturally do
the very thing that makes all
plots to give a too high value to
anything so short-lived.
We Lave great foreign markets
for our petroleum. When the
price rises, less oil is boughi and
used. Tins in the home markets
soon leads to large surplus stocks,
AIV I?«E1DEE SlEERiCED.
One day an infidel was lectur
ing in a village in the north of
England, and at the close he
challenged discussion. The chal
lenge was accepted by an old,
bent woman, in the most ancient
attire, who went up to the lec
turer and said, ‘T have a question
to put to you.” “ Well, my good
woman, what is it ?” “Ten years
ago,” she said, “I was left a wid
ow with eiglit cliildroii utterly
unprovided for, and nothing to
call mv own but this Bible. By
its direction, and looking to God
for strength, I have been enabled
to feed myself and family. I am
now tottering to the grave; but
I am perfectly happ}’, because 1
look forward to a life of immor
tality with Jesus in heaven.
That’s what my religion has done
for me. What has your way of
thinking done for you I” “Vfell,
my good lady,” rejoined the lec
turer, “I don’t want to disturb
your comfort; but—” “0 that’s
not the question,” intei’posed the
woman ; “ keep to the point, sir.
What has your way of thinking
done for you ?” The infidel en
deavored age.in to avoid the
question ; the feeling of the meet
ing gave vent to applause, and
the infidel had to go away silenced
by an old woman.—Observer.
ELOWEiS WOKSMUPPEKS.
guitar or lute before it, and after
prayer still sit before if, sipping
sherbet, and talking the most
hilarious and shocking scandal,
late into the moonlight ; and so
again every evening until tlie
flower died. Sometimes, by way
of a grand finale, the whole com
pany would suddenly rise before
the flower and serenade it togeth
er with an ode from Hafiz, and
depart.—Athenonim.
FOEiVTAIlVS.
Very beautiful is the Persian’s
love lor flowers. In Bombay I
found the Parsees use the Victoria
Gardens chiefly to walk in, “to
eat the air”—“to take a constitu
tional,” as we say. Their enjoy
ment of it was heartily animal-
The Hindoo would stroll iinstead-
fastly through it, attracted from
flower to flower, not by its form
or color, but its scent. He would
pass from plant to plant, snatch
ing at the flowers and crushing
them between his fingers, and
taking stray sniff's at the ends of
his fingers as if he were taking
snuff. His pleasure in the flowers
was utterly sensual. Presently
a true Persian, in flowing robe ot
bine, and on his head his sheep
skin hat,
“lllack, glossy, ciirlM the fleece of Kar-KuP^
would saunter in, and stand and
meditate over every flower he
saw, and always as if half in
vision. And when at last the
vision was fulfilled, and the ideal
flower ho was seeking found, he
would spread his mat and sH
before it until the setting of the
sun, and then pray before it, and
fold up his mat again and go
home. And the no.xt night, and
afteii-night until that particular
flower faded away, he would
I'cturn to it, and bring bis friends
in ever-increasing troops to it,
and sit and sing and play the
The sluggish stream usually
has its source in the low morass
where sei'pents glide. All tlie
way from its foul head to its
dirty mouth malarial vapor arises
from it—which is “the jiestilence
that walketli in darkness;” an
unteeu enemy in the air. The
stream that looks like flowing
molten crystal, leaps from foun^
t iins far up the mountains, where
the air is pure and life-giving.
The former is a type of the politi
cal stream where the best men
are so slothful or misguided as to
leave the “caucus” or fountain in
tl.o hands of the dangerous classes-
II was a wise saying of one of
the fathers that if a patriot can
only attend one—the caucus ; or
the pole to vote on election day,
he better attend the caucus.
AVe pity those who are nervous
about pulpits and religions papers
touching politics. Such may be
interested to know that the dic
tionary defines the Word politics
as meaning “that part of ethics,”
etc.
If the great Republic over dies,
it will be because a better class
of people do not attend to
these political fountain beads.
Like the priest and the Levite,
they seem to pass by on the other
side, and leave the angel of Lib
erty, who has fallen among thieves,
to perish by the wayside. Ouat-
ting faithful attention to duty in
tills matter, is as really a sin as
committing others prohibited by
botii sacred and civil law. Dis
tinction is, of course, to wade be
tween the patriot and the partisan.
Political reading and printing
should be divested of “the hiss of
party hate ;” but failing longer
to look after the purity of the
fountain is sowing the wind to
reap the whirl-wind in our coun
try, and that at no distant day.
Reap it in blood on the hearth
stone, and in the the aslies of the
Temple of Liberty. It must be
no fitful, meteoric rousing to ac
tion ; but a steady, starlike flame
of patriotic, “eternal vigilance.”—
George May Fowell, in Church
Union
The roof of AVestmiiister Abber,
in London, long supposed to be
of oak, when’examined, last vear,
was found to be of chestnut. It
was sound and perfect, althougli
it had stood for eight centuries
already, which would go to show
that chestnut timber is pi'etty
good for building purposes.
A AVestern papers say: It is
simply absurd to talk about a
woman being c|ualified to fill
every position in life that a man
fills. For instance, what woman
could lounge around the stove in
a country grocery and lie about
the uuukber of fishes she caught
last summer ?