WEEKLY RECORD.
BEAUFORT, N.O.'
COMRARY OUPLD.
CHA8. M. SNYDER.
You can t depend oh evidence that emanates
from Cupid,
p0r lovers are in every sense exceptionally
Stupid,
v maiden may the knowledge gain that sets
-xr heart a-treniDie,
v, her face is all disdain, or so she
w. ..id dissemble.
t!:eii assumes a reticence that shrinks at
a-1 advances, . - -
i: -he feared the eloquence that speaks in
.,:( glances.
it .-lie looked upon embrace as liberty
jauinuing. ' ' i
n i didn't think a yielding grace addition
ally charming. " .
when the dear seems most afraid of these
advances tender,
rjn n is the time the cunning maid is wait-U-.jZ
to surrender. i
IVr every obstacle, she knows, gives ardor
to pursuing; .
' A !;itle coquetry bestows an impetus to woo
ing. ' , r
ht doesn't care to show her hearty is all
a thrill with pleasure, -
Ai:u : she puts her subtlestart in hesitating
leisure.!
A!th u.h the tremor of her lips all that you
seek confesses, t
Wh-reat in dewy neetrous sips await the
sweet caresses; ' -
XL i'h at the heaving of her breast the sweet
conviction rushes,
jVid while her drooping lids attest sweet
sihs and fervid blushes ;
all such blissful evidence serves but to
sartle lovers,
f, : one must bid adieu to sense who aught
in love discovers. -
"T- impulse only knows the way unto your
sati.-faction,
F reason simply prompts delay and chills
the heart from action.
Thi n presently you never know just how
your trouble ended,
The drifting streams together flow into a
rapture blended.
For there's a pair of ruby lips that yield
you draughts of sweetness,
An unison of thrilling sips in wonderful
completeness.'
Hu n as the maid seems nothing loth you're
sure to pause and wonder,
Just how it was, so blindly, both cculd ever
dwell asunder.
For you can't depend on evidence that ema-
liites from Cupid,
Si iK elvers are in every sense exceptionally
stupid. ;
THE KULIXG PASSION.
A Postoffice Lacks a Proper Assortment
of Colors in Stamps.
She had never' mailed a letter before, and
so she approached the stamp clerk's window
with the.same air that she would enter a dry
g' ds stor ;
"I ,would like to look at some stamps,
- 1 lease," she said. ' '
' - "What j denomination do you want?"
ked the clerk. j
"Pt nomination !'' This was remarked in
surprise. Slie hadn't supposed that stamps
eo)gef to an r church at all.
"Yes," replied the clerk, who saw no
necessity fir holding a lengthy palaver over
.-aic i.i-a j-miLn tfn.'ciaiiy wnen omer
peoj.le were waiting. ' ':i3 it for a letter or a
i - ... .
"0, I want to send a letter to my Uncle
John; he's just moved to "
"Then you need a two-cent stamp," inter
rupted the clerk, offering her one of that
value. ;
' I hardly; like that color," she observed,
h.'lding the brick-tinted stamp np to the
light anil surveying it critically.
The clerk lxked at. her in astonishment.
In his long experience in the postal business
he had. never before met a customerwho ob-
tl to the color of the stamps.
That is a two-cent stamp, madam. Please
Kand aside and letthe gentleman behind you
( me up." f
. 'Haven't you got them in any other
e-lor?" she asked, wholly oblivious bf the
7itU.-man behind." , ;
The clerk began to act cross.
"I never did like that shade of red," she
added. '
'"There
curtlv.
is ; only one color," he replied,
"That is strange," she mused." "I'd think
" "'f d keep them in different shades, so that
there'll be ome choice."
The clerk said nothing, but he kept getting
cr sser every minute, and murmurs of dis
aPprohation began to rise from the ever
'"Tigrhening line of people who would have
! een thankful to get their stamps without
t'otici-ing their hue. '
"You are sure you have none in a brighter
vl. f ,r even in a different color Nile green,
w'seal brown, or jubilee blue, for instance?"
"Yon can; put two one-cent tamps on
.r 'ur letter if you like," said the clerky who
-ic'an to see that the customer could not be
h 'wne l away from the window.
"Li t me see them, please."
' Two blue stamp were solemnly handed
" her, and the crowd began to hope that
at last she was suited.
' Ah, that will do," she said, as she took
"p the one-cent stamps and eyed them as if
tt.ey were samples of-dress goods. "1; like
"'at shade better. I'll take only one, if you
W-a-e." ! I
y And she handed the other back to the
1 , rk, who took it mechanically, but man
'Wdtoadd:; "Jf it's for a letter you'll need two. These
are one-cent stamps -and letter postage is two
cents per ounce."
( , I don'tj want to put two stamps on my
r," she said ; "I don't think they would
k well." '
"h reipiires two cents to carry a letter,
" adarn, andj you must either put a two
lt It stamp on or two ones. It won't go
Without. And I must ask you to please
"!rr.v, for. ypu are keeping a great many
1 pie away from the window."
" 1 hut's sitjgiiiar. I don't like the look of
two tog(.therp You are sure the other doesn't
r'';m seal-ibrown, or " ' .
-!" thundered the clerk,- getting very
rw1 in the face.
J hen I 11 have to see if I can suit myself
ewh,.reo j
Ai.d she departed. .
The lerk j replaced his despised red and
stamps, mopped his perspiring brow,
iilni
-egan to make up for lost time.
I Wm. H. Sivitek. !
.. dipped, in the Bud. ."j ,
atil ri jj.ave vou talf a dollar to get
' sin es mended". ;
'-Y,v. sir. . i . "
, 1 twentv-five cents to have them
""..''.M. di.tn't you?" !
UiiereisthechansK?" ' S -
, 1 dinino.'f i- -' .
Iiml'11 don,t know- ehT Whack you ?-
K-yoiing whack Napoleon whack
li'iTt ,'ce' wlu,tk whack whack
whaek vLatkw,,act whack whack
1 -w" f
- E
7
9
A NATIONAL PARK.
SOAflf fiTOtlTQ cn..
v.xo ojinji i xi IE CAA
a'xasx i-USASUKE GROUND.
Steaming Water. Impregnated With Si
phnr, Iron and Medicinal Salts, Gashes
op .verywnere-The Bow Hirer Pass of
ine Kockies the Great Natural Gate.
Copyrighted, 1887.1
flAT.fliTJV A T TJ-CTiT, . TTTl
, a a . wnen you are
crossing tne prairie a thousand things
u"m?s' Ul recollections of what
VOIl WCrs tonnrTit in i . .
"-s"u otuuoi remina you
that the great , grassy level must at
one time have been the bed and bottom of
a vast inland sea of which only our great
iib.cs now remain. JJut from this bust
ling town, the metropolis of the North
west provinces of Canada, you are more
man ever strongly reminded of the far
You not only see the black prairie soil, the
iiKe or which you observe in marshes and
uais uesiae low rivers, but you see the
v..
shore of the ancient sea, the edgs or side
of the bowl and a considerable bowl-
edge it is, for it rises 10,000 feet in the
air, in some places, and though you
think you could easily walk to the foot
of it from Calgary, you are mistaken, for
it is sixty miles away. That giant bowl
rim, as you easily guessed, is the Rocky
Mountain chain. Wonderfully grand
and beautiful does that gigantic granite
wall look from this distance with its
serrated upper edge all snow-clad and
taking on a-half a dozen delicate shades
of lilac, pink and blue that make the
giant piles ot rock seem a3 unsubstantial
as the clouds that float above us.
One little piece of that Canadian end
of the Rockies, just where we see them
from here, is a national Canadian park
that few of us of the United States ever
heard of, though in the nature of things
we are all likely to hear more and more
of it and that eedily. This new pleasure
reservation is called the Bauff National
Park, and comprises 216 square miles of
the most picturesque valley icenery and
the most majestic mountain riews imag-
inaTJle. The beauties of the place are not
alone responsible for its preservation as
a pleasure park, its main features being
the hot sulphur springs that distinguish
the region. Steaming water, heavily im
pregnated with sulphur, iron and me
dicinal salts of othe sorts, gushes from
the rocks in some places, and in others is
found in pools and cave bottoms. The
curative properties of this water for
those who parboil their bodies in it are
said to be wonderful in cases of paraly
sis, catarrh, rheumatism, Bright's dis
ease, diabetes and many common com
plaints, but I cannot voach for any more
concerning the springs than that they
are hot, sulphurous md mysterious.
As I write this, a host of aaen are putting
the finishing touches to grand three
story hotel, ' capable of iccommodating
300 persons, and containing baths, to
which this water is led in pipes from the
earth's laboratory; but at Jp resent every
thing here is so primitive and peculiar
that I rank a visit to it now as -one of
the choicest of experiences. Every turn
and incident recall soine of Charles
Dickens' observations, w2en all America
was younger and more crude, as he re
cords them in his "Anerican Notes.'
When the grand new hotel, which the
Canadian Pacific railroid is building, is
completed.the place willfloubtless be very
popular, but it will hi . modern, con
ventional and comfortable, like any
other resort, and all thf present charm
of rugged simplicity ad' Western raw
ness will have gone, liki so. many' other
peculiar phases of civilization, to that
place which Jim Fiskonce described
vasruelv but eraDhicallv! as "Where the
woodbine twineth." .1
The entrance to Bauff Is the Bow river
pass of the Rockies, a natural gate to the
Pacific through Which the pretty Bow
winds and races down' to the prairie
level. You leave the cajs in the night
and find a stage-coach yaiting to whirl
you over a government rtiad between the
stately mountains into she steep-sided,
narrow valley that the government has
set aside for eternity The moon plates
the pretty river with silfer and throws
into wondrous contrast the deep blue
sky and the snow-capped peaks that
pierce it. Now you rattle beside woods
primeval, now you rumble over a float
ing bridge across the restless Bow, and
presently you stop at a log-cabin hotel,
one story high, but long and rectangular
and roomy, probably the only log hotel
(except that one built purposely as a
curiosity in the Adirondacke) that you
will find in a resort of this kind. Further
1
on the road the last stop is made
at a frame house called "the Sanitarium."
There you will find simplicity so great
that the mind is appalled when it turns
to consider what must be the greater de
gree of it undoubtedly to be fund in the
log hotel. The office into whjch you are
shown has a bajr e floor, an iroh bar-room
stove, and two tables and a safe. One
table is the office desk, clcrkjs quarters,
proprietor's place -and general seat of in
quiry and authority. The jother table
serves to indicate that the apkrtment is a
reading, writing and smokin-xoom, par
lor and lobby, all in one. there is an
old Scotchman in charge wio, upon be
ing asked if it is possible toket anything
to eat, replies, "There's nothing to be
' - j'
na Duta bed at this time of nhrht.1
thligh that time is the only time of day
igm at wnicn tne transcontinental
from the East arrives. The only
r common ' room in t.h tar
two billiard tables and
theiale of pop, ginger ale, soda water
and! lemonade, for no laws in America
areio strict as the prohibitory drinking
lajs of the Nqrthwest provinces. And
yv there must be liquor , about for
t&se who know how to get it, since the
pncipal topic in the bar-room of the
Smitarium each morning while I was
thjre was the number and character of
tha cases of drunkenness of the night
bifore. Queer hotels are the Western
Qties. I Here in Calgary the gentlemen
jar provided with a trough and water by
the pail in the toilet-room of the principal
hofel, and in Winnepeg the best house
haf its dining-room where other hotels
hafe their cellars, eight or ten feet under
the ground. At this Sanitarium, in Banff,
th proprietor has hung canaries in cages
injhe hall between the bed-rooms, and at
dajbreak the birds sing so shrilly that
sleip is banished from the hotel.
7!he oddities of life at the Springs con
tinue at the baths. The principal bath
home is of logs a big slab-building
all Cut; up into double rooms, one in each
instince for the bath-tub and one for the.
cot vhereon one rests and is rubbed to a
high state of polish. Very aptly a long
and limber mountaineer, graduated at a
bourd from cutting timber to 'tending
the Bath, is the "rubber" for the male
patients. Each bath-tub is filled with
water registering 110 to 120 Fahren
heit; and when a patient feels his way at
firs, with one toe or finger, it seems in
credible to imagine that he will, if he
tries, gradually work his whole body
into, the steaming pool. In another log
hut are a cigar-case, candy-counter and
barter's chair the single store of Sul
phur Mountain. Oh ! it will ot be the
saae place at all when the grand hotel is
opened and there are marble floors
and French waiters, and rearular
e" dinners take the Dlaces of these
Rocky f Mountain" eccentricities.
"Are you going to the ball to-night and
will you take me ?" were the first words
addressed to me outside of the course of
the business of arranging for board at
the Sanitarium. The Questioner was a
buxom Englishwoman, the wife of a
resident, who stood by and waited for
my answer with as much interest, appa
rently as she who asked it Dossessed.
Strange as the question sounded, it was a
natural one. There was to be a ball
twenty-five miles away on the railroad.
There were many women and few men
in Bauff, and here came an extra and un
expected man into the presence of one
of these women who susnected that if
she did not secure him for herself some
other woman, less timid, would prove
more, fortunate. I am sorry I did not go
to the ball. Two or three wagon-loads
of dancers went from the park, attended
by the soldiers, in yellow-striped breecnes
and yellow-sided: capsset jauntily on
one ear. "Were many people tipsy?"
some one asked one of these prairie po
licemen next day. "Yes," he replied,
"but not too tipsy."
But if things are crude there, the park
and all its natural attributes are none
the less charming. Cascade Mountain
lifts its granite snow-capped mass 5,000
feet above you, and on its steep side the
melting; snow reaches your level in
bounds; of which one is a leap of 1,000
feet downward through" the air. Tunnel
Hill, 1,000 feet high, is easily ascendable
and full of, profit in grand scenery to
those who conquer it. Sulphur Mountain,
where the springs are, is skirted by a
substantial government road, from every
turn of which views exquisite or im
pressive are commanded. Between these
mountains is the narrow valley of the
green and racing Bow river which, at
one beauty-spot, is joined by the tiny
rippling spray, and at another is widened
into a glorious lake, whose surface re
peats the altitudinous scenery of the
sky and mountain peaks. It is a notable
experience to find oneself there after
only a four-days' journey from New
York, within forty miles of the highest
part of the Rockies.at an elevation of 5,000
feet above tide-water, close to the border
between! Alberta and British Columbia,
and in an atmosphere not only always
cool but where daylight lasts until ten
o'clock at night in fact, where every
night the sunset lingers faintly in the
west until within an hour or two of the
time for daybreak. And such a day
break! iAs the golden flame of morning
creeps downward from the mountain
tops that are the first to catch its light,
the snow fields of the peaks glow with
the colors of mother-of-pearl touehed
here and there with the lustre of tinsel
and the warmtn of glowing coals. Tiny
dew-clouds tear themselves from -the
tree-tops, and floating off dry up and
disappear, and finally the sun s unob
structed' rays fill the valleys with the
full glory of day. ,
Here is hearty invitation for the sports-
man quite as great ju
From the water one may take pike and
pickerel, and from the air geese, duck,
prairie fowl and partridges not as one
hunt3 for them with occasional reward in
the East, but in plentitude for all who
seek them. In the mountains me uumci
finds mountain sneep anu uic,
wr deer and wolves. For the geutler
idler there are. sail and row-boats, and,
for the lover of awesome nature, queer
caves, in one of "which after a steep de
scent by ladder, is a deep pond of hot
sulphur (water, where one may bathe in
puns naturcuibua without: fee or rubbing
by a backwoodsman. At some little dis
tance from the hotels, by carriage or
donkey ride up the valley ,are other natural
wonders of great beauty Devil's lake,
from which Devil's creek leaps torrent
like into the Bow and Ohost river, an
other exquisitely pretty mountain stream.
The Canadian government is spending
money with wise liberality in this beau-
mm preserve, ijevei, Droaa roaas are
going forward up and around the moun
tain sides, superb iron bridges are being
nuu across ine streams, tne picturesque
and lazy soidiers of the Northwest
police are established there in numbers
sufficient to preserve order and enforce
law; and before winter Jwhen the park
is just as attractive as in summer the
place will seem a pillar j of civilization
instead of an outpost of the wilderness.
A feature that will be conspicuous there,
and from which we Americans might
borrow to advantage, is jthe absence of
fees and expense to those who visit the
park. Few Americans, j comparatively,
have money to spare in such abundance
as is needed to see the wonders of our
Yellowstone Park. The very books that
are issued to tempt : us to go there
affright us with theiij Ksts of charges,
mounting far beyond a hundred dollars
for mere costs of sightseeing. Here in
Bauff Park there is nothing of the sort
You are charged exaclty as at Long
Branch or Minnetonka. jlf you ride you
must hire teams, of course, and if you
board you must pay the hotel bills, but
beyond the moderate hotel charges and
the quarters put out for he daily baths,
there is no absolute need to spend a
penny. Julian Ralph.
: .
NO MORE ALARMS.
How the Ameer Punished an Enterpris
ing Tonne Man.
The Homeward JfaiZp.says: Some
strange stories have been told of the way
in which Abdur Rahman lords it over his
people. There is a humor in his way of
playing the part of lord absolute which
can best be appreciated at a "distance, as
a story which has just reached us will
show. Not long ago, we are told, the
Ameer was sitting in durbar discussing
public affairs. The "Home" Department
had gone through their (work. Orders
had been issued to release certain
persons from the sorrows of existence,
when the durbar suddenly dashed
into greater things, and began to talk
about the English and thei Russians. A
man who had lately been introduced at
court, and was not well acquainted with
his sovereign's ways, remarked, "Lord of
the earth, let people say what they like,
but this humble one has been scanning
the political horizon with far-reaching
eyes, and the Russians are) coming." The
lord of the earth smiled 4 sweet smile
some of tne old cour
tiers who knew that
smile ' jalso smiled
and, turning upon him
with "the far-reaching
eyes," said:
"Bright jewel of our
durbar and sun of our understand
ing, art thou sure f this?" "The
lord of the earth is omniscient and
knows everything," replied he. "Well,
to be sure, we do see things, and
know one or two things, but we areH
old now. Moreover, yoa tree obstructs
our view. However, thou art young ; go
thou, therefore, climb the tree, watch the
cursed Muscovite's movements, and
when he is very close upon us come and
inform us. The tree is hih, so that thou
shalt be enabled to see a long way off."
Forthwith the man was led to the tree
and made to climb to the topmost
branches. To keep up his courage if lie
grew weary of his post, a guaTd with
bayonets fixed was told off to remain be
low. It is said the young man felt con
siderably elevated by his master's humor,
and felt very exhilarated at first; but
three days' contemplation of the beau
ties of .nature, even from such a com
manding position, is apt to tire one,' and
so he fell. They say he got hurt and
died. No one dares to raise alarms in
Cabul now.
THE ADVENTURES OF A PICTURE.
Hidden in a Chimney and Taken Through
Several Countries.
A valuable addition has been made to
the Mary Queen of Scots Relic Exhibi
tion at Peterborough, in the celebrated
full-length oil painting of the Scottish
Queen from Blair's College. ; The por
trait was formerly the property of Eliza
beth Curie (one of Mary's attendants at
the execution), and was bequeathed by
her in 1620 to the Seminary or Scots Col
lege at Douai, her brother being at the
time one of the professors there. At the
breaking out of the French revolution,
writes the Echo, the inmates of the col
lege were obliged to fly, and the portrait
was taken out of the: frame, rolled up,
and hidden in a chimney of the refectory,
the fire-place being afterward built up.
In 1814 it was taken from its hiding
place, transferred to the English Bene
dictine College in Paris, brought to
Scotland in 1830 by the late. Bishop Pati
son, and deposited in Blair's College.
The painting, which is eight feet by four,
is recognized as one of the few authentic
portraits of Mary and the portrait at
Windsor is supposed to be a copy. It
has been insured by the local committee
for $5,000, bringing up the total amount
of insurance of the relic to $172,000.
He Always Passed the Batter.
"Pass the butter, please," said Jones to
Smith, as the former tied two enos oi napmn
round his neck and shoveled aoouc iour
inches of fried potato into nis moutn witn
his knife. "Ah, thanks, Jones, for your
timely warning," replied Smith. "1 always
endeavor to pass the butter m this house.
In fact. I eive it as wide a berth as-possi
ble." This little bit of conversation was
met with a gentle titter from the balance of
the boarders, while the landlady gave Smith
a look that curdled the milk in his coflee.
reck'aSun. ..-v-"-" .;.:X- ;
F0KBEDDEN HONEY.
NEARLY A MLLLJON DOLLARS
NINETEEN YEARS.
IN
A Sermon Preached hy Rev. T. De "Witt
Talmage in Answer to Some Slisrepre
Kentations About the Brooklyn Taberna
cleLessons Drawn from the Bee.
Brooklyn, October 16. "Seven hun
dred and eighty-one thousand three hun
dred and sixteen dollars and twenty-four
cents have been paid In cash down in
this church for religious. uses and Chris
tian work during the nineteen years of
my ministry," said the Rev, T. DeWitt
Talmage, D. D., in answer to the misrep
resentations that have been going through
some of the religious papers depreciating
the work of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
After giving out the hymn
' Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Dr. Talmage preached a sermon, tne sub
ject of iwhich was, "Forbidden Honey,"
the text being I Samuel xiv, v. 43 : "I did
but taste a little honey with the end of
the rod; that was in my hand, and, lo, I
must die." Dr. Talmage said: .
The honey bee is a most ingenious
architect, a Christopher Wren among
insects, a geometer drawing hexagons
and pentagons, freebooter robbing. the
fields of pollen and aroma, a wondrous
creature of God whose biography,
written by Huber and Swainmerdam, is
an enchantment for any lover of nature.
Virgil celebrated the bee in his fable of
Aristacus, and Moses, and Samuel, and
David, and Solomon, and Jeremiah, and
Ezckiel, and St. John used the delicacies
of the bee-manufacture as a Bible sym
bol. Almiracle of formation is the bee ;
five eyes, two tongues, the outer having a
sheath of protection, hairs on all sides of
its tiny body to brush upthe particles of
flowers, its flight so straight that all the
world knows of the bee line. The honey
comb is a palace such as no one but God
. could, plan, and the honey bee construct ;
its cells sometimes a dormitory, and
som etimes a storehouse, and sometimes
a cemetery. These winged toilers first
make eight strips of wax-, and by their
antennae, which are to them hammer,
and chisel, and square, and plumb-line,
fashion ! them for use. Two and twO,
these Workers shape the wall. If
an i accident happen they put up but
tresses or extra beams to remedy
the damage. When about the year 1776
an insect, before unknown, in the night
time attacked the bee-hives all over
Europe, and the men who owned them
were in vain trying to plan something to
keep out the invader that was the terror
of the bee-hives, it was found that every
where the bees had arranged for their
own protection, and built, before' their
honeycombs an especial wall of wax
with port-hole through which the bees
might go to and fro, but not large
enough to admit the winged combatant,
called the Sphinx Atropos.
Do you know that the swarming of the
bees ', is divinely directed ? The mother
bee starts for a new home, and because
of this the other bees of the hive get into
an excitement which raises the heat of
the hive .some four degrees, and they
tnust die unless they leave their heated
apartments, and they follow the mother
bee and alight on the branch of
a. tree,: and cling to each other
and hold on until a committee of
two or three have explored the region
and found the hollow of a tree or rock
not far off from a stream of water, and
they here set up a new colony; and ply
their aromatic industries, and give them
selves to the manufacture of the saccha
rine edible. But who can tell the chem
istry of that mixture of sweetness, part
of it the very life of the bee and part of
it the life of the fields ?
Plenty of this luscious product was
hanging in the woods of Beth-aven during
the time; of Saul and Jonathan, lneir
army was in pursuit or an enemy tnat
by Gbd's command must be extermi
nated. The soldiery were positively for
bidden to stop to eat anything until the
work was done. If they disobeyed they
were accursed. Coming through the'
woods they found a place where the
bees had been busy, a great honey manu
factory. ; Honey gathered in the ho'lowof
the trees until it had oeniowcd upon the
ground in great profusion of sweetness.
AH the army obeyed orders and touched
it not save Jonathan, and he not knowing
the military order about abstinence
dipped the end of a stick he had in his
hand into the candied liquid and as, rel-
low, and brown, and tempting, it glowed
on the end of the stick he put it to his
mouth and ate the honey. Judgment fell
upon him, and but for special interven
tion he would have been slain. In my
text Jonathan announces his awful mis
take. "I did but taste a little honey with
the end of the rod that was in my hand,
and, lo, I must die." Alas, what multi
tudes of people in all ages have been
damaged by forbidden honey, by which
I mean-temptation, delicious and attract
ive, but damaging and destructive 1
Literature fascinating but deathful
comes in this category. Where one
good, honest, healthful book is read now
there are one hundred m'ade up of
rhetorical trash consumed with avidity.
When the boy on the cars comes through
with a pile of publications, look over
the titles and notice that nine out
of ten of the books are depleting and
injurious. All the way from New
York to Chicago or New Orleans
notice that objectionable books domi
nate. Taste for pure literature is
poisoned by this scum of the publishing
house. Every book in which sin triumphs
over virtue, or in which a glamour is
thrown over dissipation, or which leaves
you at its last line with less respect for
the marriage institution and less ab
horrence for the paramour, is a depression
of your own moral - character. The
book binding may be attractive, and
the pte dramatic, and startling, and the
style o writing sweet as the honey that
Jonathan dipped up with his rod, but
your best interests forbid it, your moral
safety forbids it, your God forbids it, and
one taste of it may lead to such bad re
sults that you may have to say at the
close of the experiment'or at the close of
a misimproved life-time.; t'l did but taste
a little honey with the rod that was in my
hand, and, lo, I must die."
Corrupt literature is doing more to-day
for the disruption of domestic life than
any other! cause. Elopernents, marital in
trigues, Bly correspondence, fictitious
names given at postoffice windows, clan
destine meetings in parks, and at ferry
gates, and in hotel parlors, and conjugal
perjuries 1 are among the damnable re
sults.; When a woman, young or old,
gets her head thoroughly-stuff ed with the
modern novel she is in appalling peril.
But some one will say: "The heroes are
so adroitly knavish, and the persons so
bewitchingly untrue, and the turn of the
story so exquisite, and all the characters
so enrapturing, I cannot quit them." My
brother, my sister, you can find styles of
literature just as charming thatiwill ele
vate and purify, and ennoble, and Chris
tianize, while they please. The devil does
not own all the honey. There is a wealth of
good books coming forth from our pub
lishing houses that leaves no excuse for
the choice of that, which is debauching
to body, mind and soul. Go to some in
telligent man or woman, and ask for a
list of books that will be strengthen
ing to your mental and moral condi
tion.T Life is so Bhort and your time
for improvement so abbreviated that you
cannot afford to fill up with husks, and
cinders, and debris. In the interstices
of business that young man is reading
that which will prepare him to be a
merchant prince, and that young woman
is filling her mind with an intelligence
that will yet either make her the chief
attraction of a good man's home or
give her an independence of character
that will qualify her to build her
own home and maintain it ; in a
happiness that requires' no augmen
tation from any of our rougher
sex. That young man o(r young
woman can by the right literary and
moral improvement of the spare ten
minutes here or there in every day, rise
head and shoulders in prosperity, and
character, and influence above the
, loungers who read nothing or read that
which bedwarfs. See all the forests of
good American literature dripping with
honey. Why pick up the honeycombs
that have in them the fiery bees :. which
will sting you with an eternal poison
while you taste it ? " One book may for
you or me decide everything for this
world or the next. It was a turn
ing point with me when in iWyn
koop's bookstore, Syracuse, one day
I picked up a book called -1 "The
Beauties of Ruskin." It was onlyabook
of extracts,but it was all pure honey, and
I was not satisfied until I had purchased
all his works, at that time . expensive be
yond an easy capacity to own them, and
what a heaven 1 went through in reading
his "Seven Lamps of Architecture," and
his "Stones of Venice," it is impossible
for me to describe except by saying that
it gave me a rapture for good books,
and an everlasting disgust . for
decrepit or immoral books that will last
me while my immortal soul lasts. All
around the church and the world to-day
there are busy hives of intelligence occu
pied by authors and authoresses from
whose pens drip a distillation which is
the very nectar of Heaven, and why will
you thrust your rod of inquisitiveness
into the deathful saccharine of perdition ?
Stimulating liquids also come into the
category of temptations, delicious but
deathful. t You say: "I cannot bear the
taste of intoxicating liquor, and how anv
man can like it is to me an amazement.5'
Well, then, it is no credit to you that you
do not take it. Do not brag about your
total abstinence, because it is not from
any principle that you reject alcoholism,
but' for the same reason that you
reject certain styles of food
you simply don't like the ; taste
of them. But multitudes of people
have a natural fondness for all kinds of
intoxicant. They like it so much that
it makes them smack their lips to look
at it. They are dyspeptic, and they take
it to aid digestion, or they are annoyed
by insomnia, and they take it to produce
sleep, or they are troubled, and they take
it to make them oblivious, or they feel
good, and they must celebrate their hi
larity. ! They begin with mint julep
sucked through two straws on the
Long Branch piazza and end in the
ditch, taking from a jug a liquid
half kerosene and half whiskey. They
not only like it, but it is an all-consuming
passion of body, mind and
soul, and after a while have it : they
will, though one wine glass of it should
cost the temporal and eternal destruction
of themselves, and all their families, and
the whole human race. -They would say :
"I am sorry it is going to cost me, and
my family, and all the world's popula
tion so: very much, but here it
goes to my hps, and now let it roll
over my parched tongue and down my
heated throat, the sweetest, the most in
spiring, the most rapturous thing that
ever thrilled mortal or immortal." To
cure the habit before it comes to its last
stages, various plan3 were tried in olden
times. This plan was recommended in
the books: When a man wanted to re
form he put shot or bullets into the cup
or glass of strong drink one additional
shot or bullet each day, that displaced.
so much liquor. .Bullet after bullet added
day by day, of course the liquor became
less and iess until the bullets would en
tirely fill up the glass and there was
no room for the liquid, and by that time
it was said the inebriate would be cured.
Whether any one ever was cured in that
way 1 know not, but by long experiment
it is found that the only way is to stop
short off, and when a man does that he
needs God to help him. And there
have been more cases than you? can
count when God has so helped the man
that he quit forever, and I could count
a score of them here to-day, some of
them pillars in the house of God.
One would suppose that men would
take warning from some of the ominous
names given to the intoxicants, and stand
off from the devastating influence. You
have noticed for instance that some of
the restaurants are called "The Shades,"
typical of the fact-that it puts a man's
reputation in the shade, and his morals
in the shade, and hi prosperity in the
shade, and his wife and children in
the shade, and his immortal destiny in
the chade. .' .
Now, I find on some'of the liquor signs'
in all our cities the words "Old Crow,"
mightily suggestive of a carcass and the
filthy raven that swoops, upon it. . "Old
Crow !" Men and women .without num
bers slain of rum but unburied ; and this
evil is pecking at their glazed eyes, and
pecking: at their bloated cheek, and peck
ing at their destroyed manhood and
womanhood, thrusting ' beak and claw
into the mortal remains of what was
once gloriously alive but now morally
dead. "Old Crow!" But alas, how many
take no warning ! They make me think of
Caesar on his way to the assassination
fearing nothing; though his statue in
the hall crashed into fragments at ; bis
feet, and a scroll containing the names
of the conspirators was thrust into his
hands,'yet walking right on to meet the
dagger that was to take his life. This
infatuation of strong drink is so mighty
in many a man that though his
fortunes are crashing, and his health
is crashing, and his domestic j in
terests are crashing, and we hand
him a "long scroll containing the
names of perils that await -him, he goes
straight on to physical, and mental,
and moral assassination. In proportion
as any style of alcoholism is pleasant' to
your taste, and stimulating to your
nerves, and for a time delightful to j all
your physical and mental constitution,
is the peril awfuL Remember Jonathan
and the forbidden honey in the woods of
Beth-aven. - -I
Furthermore, the gamesters indulgence
must be put in the list of "temptations,
delicious but destructive. I have crossed
the ocean eight times, and always one of
the best rooms has, from morning till
late at night, been given up to gambling
practices. I heard of many men who
went on board with enough money for a
European excursion who landed without
ehoueh money to eet' their bassrage ; up
to the hotel or railroad station. 'To
many, there is a complete fascination in
games of hazard or the risking of
money on possibilities. It seems as
natural for them to bet as to eat. Indeed,
the hunger for food is often overpowered
with the hunger for wagers, as in the case
of Lord Sandwich, a persistent gambler,
who not being willing to leave the dice
table long enough for the taking of food,
invented a preparation; ol food that he
could take without stopping the game ;
namely, a slice of beef between two slices
of bread, which was named after
Lord Sandwich. It is absurd for
those of us who have never felt
the fascination of the wager to speak
slightingly of the temptation. It has
slain I a multitude of intellectual and
moral giants, men and women stronger
than jyou or I. Down under its power
went glorious Oliver Goldsmith, and
Gibbo-n, the historian, and Charles Fox,
the statesman, and in olden times famous
senators of the United States,
who used to be as regularly
at the gambling house all night
as .they were in the halls of legislation by
day. Oh, the tragedies of the faro table!
I knojw persons who began with a slight
stake in a ladies' parlor, and ended with
the si icide's pistol at Monte Carlo. They
played with the square pieces of bone
with black marks on them, not knowing
that atan was playing for their bones at
the same time, and was sure to sweep
all ti e stakes off on his side of the
table. The last New York Legislature
sanctioned the mizhtvevil last sprint' bv
passii g a law for its defense at the race
track: , and many young men in these
cities lost all their wages at Coney Island
this s immer, and this fall are borrowing
from the money-tills of their employers
or arianging by means of false entry to
adjus , their demoralized finances. Every
man who voted for the Ives pool bill has
on hi: hands and forehead the blood of
these bouls.
But in this connection some voung con
verts say to me : "Is it right to play
cards ! Is there any harm in a game of
whist or euchre ?" Well, I know- good
men ' vho play whist, and . euchre, and
other styles of game without any
wageis. I had a friend who played cards,
with Jis wife and children, and then 4. t
the elbse said: "Come, now, let us have
prayep." I will not judge other men's
consciences, but I tell you that cards
are i4i my -mind so associafed with
the temporal and eternal damnation
of splendid young men that I should no
sooner say to my family: "Come, let
us ha re a game of cards, than I would
go into a menagerie and say: "Come,
let us have a game of rattlesnakes," or
into a cemetery, and sitting down by a
marbhi 6lab, say to the gravediggers:
"Com , let us have a game of skulls.'.'
Conscientious young ladies are silently
saying to me while I speak: "Do you
think card playing will do us any
harm?" Perhaps not, but how will
you :'eel if in the great day
of . e ;ernity, when we are asked
to givB an account of our influence,
some : nan shall say to you : "I was in
troduc ed to games of chance in the year
1887, in Brooklyn, at your house, and I
went on from that sport to something
more epeciting, and. went on down until I
lost nJy business, and lost my morals,
and lost my soul, and these chains that
you
Dec uii my vy l iota nun icct niu iuo
chains
on my
at the
last.
Stoc
of a gamester's doom, and I am
way to a gambler's hell." Honey
start, eternal catastrophe at the
gambling comes into the same
catalogue. It must be ver
very exhilarating
to go
into Wall
street, New lork, or
State street, Boston.or Third street.Phila
delphia, and depositing a small sum of
money run the risk of taking out a for
tune. Many men are doing an honest
and safe business in the stock market.
and you are an ignoramus if you do not
know that it is just as legitimate to deal
in stoc is as tb deal in coffee, or sugar, or
flour. But nearly all the outsiders
who go there on a little financial ex
cursior lose all. The old spiders eat up
the unsuspecting flies. I had a friend
who put his hand on his hip pocket and
said to me in substance : "I have there
the vali le of .a hundred and fifty thousand
dollars " Ilis home Is to-day penniless.
What was the matter? Wall street. Of
the vasjt majority who are victimized you
hear not one word. One great stock
firm gees down, and whole columns of
newsps pers discuss their fraud, or their
disaste :, and we are presented with their
features and biography.' ' But where
one . such famous firm, sinks, five
hundred unknown men sink with
them. The great steamer goes down,
andtall the little boats are swallowed in
the si .me engulf ment. Gambling is
gambli ig, whether in stocks or bread
stuffs, or dice or race-track betting.
Exhila-ation at the start, and a raving
brain and a shattered nervous system,
and a sacrificed property, and a destroyed
soul a, the last. Young man, buy no
lottery tickets, purchase no prize pack
ages, b 2t on no baseball games or yacht
racing, have no faith in luck, answer no
mysterious circulars proposing great
income for small investments, ' shoo
away he buzzards that hover around
our hotels trying to entrap strangers.
Go ou i and make an honest living".
Have God on your, side and be a candi
date fbr Heaven. Remember all, the
paths ( f sin are banked with flowers 'at
the sta rt, and there are plenty of helpful
hands to fetch the gay charger to your
door aind hold the stirrup while you
mount. But further on the horse plunges
to the )it in a slough inextricable. fThe
best honey is not like that which Jona
than took on the end of the rod and
brought to his " lip, but that which
God juts on the banqueting table
of Me
fey, at whichwe are all invited
to sit. l .was reading ol a boy among
th: mountains of Switzerland ascending
a dangerous place with his father and
the guides. The boy stopped on the
edge of the cliff and said: ' "There is a
flower 1 1 mean to get." "Come away
from there," said the father; "you will
fall offj" "No," said he, "I must get that
beautiful flower," and the guides rushed
toward him to pull him back, when they
heard him say, "I almost have it," as he
fell twi thousand feet. Birds of prey were
seen a few days after circling through
the air and lowering gradually ' to tho
place v here the corpse lay. Why seek
floweri off the edge of the precipice when
you may walk knee-deep amid the full
blooms of the very Paradise of God ?
The poet Hesiod tells of an ambrosia
and a nectar the drinking of which
would make men live forever, and 'one
sip of this honey from the Eternal Rock .
will g ve you immortal life with God.
Come off of the malarial levels of a sin
ful lifis. Come and live on the uplands
of graoe where the vineyards sun them-,
selves. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is gradous. Be happy now and happy
foreve: For those who take a different
course the honey will turn to gall.
For nany things I have admired
Percy Shelley, the great English
poet, but I deplore the fact that
it was a great sweetness to him to dis-
honor God. The poem "Queen Mab"
has in it the maligning of the Deity .
The infidel poet was impious enough to
ask for Rowland Hill's Surrey 'Chapel
that he might denounce the Christian
religion. lie was In great glee against
God a id the truth. But he visited Italy,
and one day on the Mediterranean with
two - friends in a : boat which was
twenty-four feet long he was com
ing ";oward shore when an hour's,
squall struck the w ater. A gentleman
standi ig on shore through a glass saw
manv joats tossed in this squall, but all
outrode the terror except one. that in
which) Sherley, the infidel poet, and his
two
Henda were saihne. That never
care
shore, but the bodies of two of
the
cupants were washed upon tne
beach J
one or them tne poet, a lunerai
as built on the seashore by some
pyre
cfassk al friends, and the two bodies were
consuned. Poor Shelley 1 He would
have io God while be lived and he prob
ably had no God when he died. "The
Lord knowetn tne way oi tne nguveous,
but tbie way of the ungodly shall perish "
..: . .
It is faell to think weU ; it Is divine to act
welL Horact Mann. 1