Newspapers / The Wilmington Messenger (Wilmington, … / May 23, 1897, edition 1 / Page 6
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6 THE WILMINGTON 5ESSENGER, SUNDAY, MAY 23, 1897. HEALTH OF THE BODY. REV. DR. TAIiMAGE PREACHES UPON OVERWORKED LIVERS. He Believes That Most of the World's Mor al Depressions Are Dae to That Hard--worked Organ and Urges His Hearers to Take Care of It. . Dr. Talmage's sermon of today has more to do with this life than the life to come and will be a warning against all forms of dissi pation. Text, Proverbs vii, 23, "Till a dart strike through his liver." Solomon's anatomical and physio logical discoveries were so very great that he was nearly 3,000 years ahead of the scientists of his day. He, more than 1,000 years before Christ, seemed to know about the circulation of the blood, which Harvey discovered 1,619 years after Christ,; for when Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, describing the the hu man body, speaks of the' pitcher at the fountain, he evidently means the three canals leading from the heart that receive the blood like pitchers. When he speaks in Ecclesiastes of the silver cord of life, he 'evidently means' the spinal marrow, about which, in our day, Drs. Mayo and Carpen ter and Dalton and Flint and Brown Sequard have experimented. And Sol omon recorded In the Bible, thousands of years before scientists discovered it, that in his time the spinal cord relaxed in old age, producing the tremors of hand and head, "or the silver cord be loosed." THE LIVER AND MORALITY. In the text he reveals the fact that he had studied that largest gland of the human system, the liver, not by the electric light of the modern dis secting room, but by the dim light of a comparatively dark age, and yet had seen its important functions in the God built castle of the human body, its selecting and secreting power, its curious cells, its elongated, branching tubes, a divine workmanship in central and right and left lobe, and the hepatic artery through which flow the crimson tides. Oh, this vital organ is like the eye of God in that it never sleeps! Solomon knew of it, and had noticed either in vivisection or post mortem what awful attacks sin and dissipa tion ! make UDon it, until the fiat of Almighty God bids the' body aid soul seperate, and the one it comraenas to the grave and the other it snds to . judgment. A javelin of retribution, not glancing off or making a slight wound but piercing it from side to side "till a dart strike through his liver." Galen and Hippocrates j ascribe to the liver the most of the world's moral de pression, and the " word melancholy means black bile. I preach to you the gospel of health. In taking a . diagnosis of diseases of the soul you must also take a diagnosis of diseases of the body. As if to re cognize this, one whole book of the New Testament was written by a phy sician. Luke was a medical doctor, and he discourses much of the physical conditions, and he tells of the good Samaritan's medication of the wounds by pouring oil and wine, and recog nizes hunger as a hindrance to hearing the gospel, so that the 5,000 were fed. He also records the spase diet of the prodigal, away from home, "and the ex tinguished eyesight of the beggar by the wayside, and lets us know of the hem orrhage of the wounds of the dying Christ and the miraculous post morten resuscitation. Any estimate . of the spiritual condition that does not in clude also the physical condition is incomplete. When the doorkeeper of congress fell dead from excessive joy because Bur- goyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and Phillip V of Spain dropped dead at the news of his country's defeat in battle, and Cardinal Wolsey faded away as the result of Henry VIII's anathema,it was demonstrated that the body and soul are Siamese twins, and when you thrill the one with joy or sorrow you thrill the other. We may as well recognize the tremendous fact that there are two mighty fortreses in the human body, the heart and the liver; the heart, the fortress of the graces; the liver, the fortress of the furies. You may have the head filled with all intellectualities, and the ear with all musical appreciation, and the mouth with all eloquence, and the hand with all industries, and the heart with all generosities, and yet "a dart strike through the liver." A REBELLIOUS LIVER. jcusi, ici Viu isLia.ii ycuyie avuiu uiie mistake that they are all wrong with God because they suffer from depres sion of spirits. Many a consecrated man has found his spiritual sky be fogged and his hope of heaven blotted out and himself plunged chin deep in the slough of despond, and has said: "My heart is not right with God, and I think I must have made a mistake, and instead of being a child of light I am a child of darkness. No one can feel as gloomy as I feel and be a Chris tian." And he has gone to his minister for consolation, and he ? has collected Flavel's books, 'and Cecil's books, and Baxter's books, and read and read and read, and prayed and prayed and prayed, and wept and wept and wept, andj groaned and groaned and groaned. My I brother, your .trouble is not with the heart. It is a gastric disorder or a rebellion of the liver. Tou need a physician more than you do a clergy-, man. It is not sin that blots out your hope of heaven, but bile.'. It not only yellows your eyeballs, and furs your tongue, and makes your head ache, but swoops upon your soul in dejections and forebodings. The devil is after you. He has failed to despoil your character, and he does the next best thing for him he ruffles your peace of minH Whpn Vi Rn-ve tVint vnn are Tint a forgiven soul, when he says you are not right with God. when he says that you will never get to heaven, he lies. If you are in Christ, you are just as sure of heaven as though you were there already. But satan, finding that he cannot keep you out of the promised land of Canaan, has determined that the spies shall not bring you any of the Eschol grapes beforehand and that you shall have nothing but prickly pear and crabapple. You are just as much a Christian now under the cloud as you were when you were accustomed to rise 1 the morning at 5 o'clock to pray and sing "Halleluiah, 'tis done!" 'My friend Rev. Dr. Joseph F. Jones of Philadelphia, a translated spirit now, wrote a book entitled "Man, Moral and Physical," in which he shows how dif ferent the same things may appear to different people. He says: "After the great battle on the Mincio In 1859 be tween the- French and the Sardinians on the one side and the Austrians on the other, so disastrous to the latter, the defeated army retreated, followed by the victors. A description of the march of . each army Is given by two correspondents of the London Times, one of whom traveled with the suc cessful host; the other with the de feated. The, difference In views and statements of the same place, scenes and events is remarkable. The former are said to be marching through a beautiful and luxuriant country during the day and at night encamping where they are suplied with an abundance of the best provisions and all sorts of rural dainties. There is nothing of war about the proceeding except Its stimu lus and excitement. On the side of the poor - Austrians It is just the reverse. In his letter of the same date, describ ing the same places and a march over the same road, the writer can scarcely find words to set forth the suffering, impatience, and disgust existing around him. What was pleasant to the former was intolerable to the latter. What made all this difference? asks the author. One condition only the French are victorious, the Austrians have been defeated.' " 1 So, my dear brother, the road you are traveling is the same you have been traveling a long while, but the differ ence in your physical conditions makes it look different as the reports in the London Times from the two correspon dents. Edward Payson, sometimes so far up on the mount that it seemed as If the centripetal -force of earth could no longer hold him, sometimes through a physical disorder was so far down that it seemed as is the nether world would clutch him. Poor William Cow per was a , most excellent Christian, and will be loved in the Christian church as long as it sings his hymns beginning: "There is a fountain filled with blood,"" ''Oh, for a closer walk with GodA" "What- various hinderances we meet" and "God moves in a mys terious way."; "Yet was he so overcome of melancholy, , or black bile, that it was only through the mistake of place instead of the river bank that he did not commit suicide. CHRISTIAN PHYSICIANS. Spiritual condition so mightily affect ed by the physical state, what a great opportunity this gives to the Christian physician, for he can feel at the same time both the pulse of the body and the pulse of the soul, and he can ad minister to both at once, and if medi cine is needed he can give that, and if spiritual counsel is needed he can give that san earthly and a divine perscrip tion at the same time and call on not only the apothecary of earth, but the pharmacy of heaven! Ah, that is the kind of doctor I want at my bedside one that cannot only count out the right number of drops, but who can also pray. That is the kind of doctor I have had in my house When sickness or death came. I do not want any of your profligate or atheistic doctors around my loved ones when the bal ances of life are trembling. A doctor who has gone through the medical col lege," and in dissecting room has tra versed the wonders of the human mechanism, and found no God In any of the labyrinths, is a fool, and cannot doctor me or mine. But, oh, the Christian doctors! What a comfort they have been in many of our house holds! And they ought to have a warm place in our prayers, as well as praise on our tongues. I bless God that the number of Chris tian physicians is multiplying and some of the students of the medical colleges are here to-day, " and I hail you and ordain you to the tender, beautiful, heaven descended work of a Christian physician, and when you take your diploma from the medical col lege to look after the perishable body be sure also to get a diploma from the skies to look after the imperishable soul. Let all Christian physicians unite with ministers of the gospel in persuading good people that it is not because God is against them that they sometimes feel depressed, but because of their diseased body. I supose David, the psalmist, was no more pious when he called on everything human and angelic, animate and inanimate, even -from snowflake teT hurricane, to praise God than when he said, "Out of the depths of hell have I cried unto thee, O Lord;" or that Jeremiah was more pious when he wrote his prophecy than when he wrote his "Lamentations;" or Job when he said, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," than when covered over with the pustules of elephantiasis as. he sat in the ashes scratching the scabs off with a broken piece of pot tery; or that Alexander Cruden, the concordist, was a better man when he complied the book that has helped 10,000 students of the Bible than when under the power of physical disorder he was handcuffed and strait waist coated in Bethnal Green Insane asy lum. "Oh," says some Christian man, "no, one ought to allow physical dis order to depress his soul. He ought to live so near to God as to be always in the sunshine." Yes, that Is good ad vice. But I warrant that you, the man who gives the advice, has a sound liver. Thank God for a healthful hepatic" condition, for as certainly as you lose it you will sometimes, .like David, and like Jeremiah, 'and like David, and like Alexander Cruden, and like 10,000 other invalids, be playing a dead march on the same organ with which now you play a staccato. DISSIPATIONS. My object at this point is not only to emolliate the criticisms of those in good health against those In poor health, but to show Christian people who are atrabilious what is the matter with them. Do not charge against the heart the crimes of another portion of your organism. Do not conclude because the path to heaven is not arbored with as fine a foliage, or the banks beautifully snowed with exquisite chrysanthe mums as once, that therefore you are on the wrong road. The road will bring you out at the same gate whether you walk with the stride, of an athlete on come, up on crutches. , Thousands of Christians, morbid about their experi ences, and morbid about their business, and morbid about the present, and morbid about the future, need the ser mon I am now preaching. Another practical use of this subject is for the young. The theory is abroad that they must first sow their wild oats and afterward Michigan wheat. Let me break the delusion. Wild oats are generally sown In the liver, and they can never be pulled up. They so pre occupy that organ that there Is no room for the implantation of a righte ous crop. You see aged men about us at 80, erect, agile, splendid, grand old men. How much wild oats did they sow between 18 years and 30? None, absolutely none. God does not very often honor with old age those who have in early life sacrificed swine on the altar of the bodily temple. Remem ber, O. young man, that while in after life and after years of dissipation you may perhaps have your heart changed, religion does not change the liver. Trembling and staggering along these streets today are men, all bent, and de cayed, and prematurely old for the rea son that they are paying for liens they put upon their physical estate before they were 30. By early dissipation they put on their body a first mortgage, and a second mortgage, and a third mort gage to the devil, and .these mortgages are now being foreclosed, and all that remains of their, earthly estate the un dertaker will soon put out of sight; Many years ago, in fulfillment of my text, a dart struck through their liver, and it Is there yet. God forgives, but outraged physical law never, never, never. That has a Sinai, tbut no Cal vary. Solomon in my text knew what he was talking about, and he rises up on his throne of worldly splendor to shriek out a warning to all the cen turies. Stephen A. Douglas gave the name of "squatter sovereignty" to those who went out west and took possession of lands and held them by right of pre occupation. Let a flock of sins , settle on your liver before you get to 25 years of age, and they will In all pobability keep possession of it by an infernal squatter sovereignty. "I promise to pay at the bank $500 six months from date," says the promissory note. "I promise to pay my life 30 years from date at the bank of the grave," says every infraction of the laws of your physical being. ' SOLOMON'S DIAGNOSIS. What? Will a man's body never completely recover from early dissipa tion in this world? Never. How about the world to come? Perhaps God will fix It up in the. resurrection body so that it will not have to go limping through all eternity. But get the liver thoroughly damaged, and it will stay damaged as long as you are here. Physicians call it cirrhosis of the liver, or inflammation of the liver, or fatty degeneration of the liver, but Solomon puts all these pangs into one figure and says, "Till a dart strike through his liver." Hesiod seemed to have some hint of this when he represented Prometheus, for his crimes, fastened to a pillar and an eagle feeding on his liver, which was renewed again each night, so that the devouring went on until finally Her cules slew the eagle and rescued Pro metheus. And a dissipated early life assures a. ferocity pecking away and clawing away at the liver yearin and year out, and death is the only Her , cules who can break the power of its 1 beak or unclench its claws. So also others wrote fables about vultures i preying upon the liver.. But there are ' those here with whom it is no fable, but i a terrific reality. j That young man smoking cigarettes ! and smoking cigars has no idea that he j is getting for himself smoked liver, i That young man has no idea that he ' has by early dissipation so depleted his : energies that he will go into the bat ' tie only half armed. Here is another young man who, if he put all his forces j against the regiment of youthful temp tations, in the strength of God, might drive them back, but he is allowing them to be re-enforced by the whole army of midlife temptations, and what but immortal defeat can await him? . Oh, my young brother, do not make the mistake thaFthousands are making in opening the battle against sin too late, for this world too late,' and for the world to come too late. What brings that express train from 'St. Louis into Jersey City three hours late? They lost fifteen minutes early on the route, and that affected them all the way, and they had to be switched off here and detained there, and the man who loses time and strength in the earlier part of the journey of life will suffer for it all the way through the first twenty years of life damaging the following fifty years. Some years ago a scientific lecturer went through the country exhibiting on great canvas different parts of the hu-. man body when healthy, and the same parts when diseased. And what j the world wants now is some eloquent scientist to. go through the country,1 showing to our young people on blaz-; ing canvas the drunkard's liver, the idler's liver, the libertine's liver, the gambler's liver. Perhaps the spectacle might stop some young man before he comes to the catastrophe and the dart strike through his liver. A FEW EPITAPHS. My hearer, this is the first sermon you have heard on the gospel of health, and it may be the last you will ever hear on that subject, and I charge you, in the name of God and Christ and use fulness and eternal destiny, take bet ter care of your health. When some of you die, if your friends put on your tombstone a truthful epitaph, it will read, "Here lies the victim of late sup pers;" or it will be, "Behold what lobster salad at midnight will do for a man;" or it will be, "Ten cigars a day closed my earthly existence;" or it will be, "Thought I could do at 70 what I did at 20, and I am here;" or it will be, "Here is the consequence of sitting a half day with wet feet;" or it will be, "This is where I have stacked my har vest of wild oats;" or instead of words the stonecutter will chisel for an epi taph on the tombstone two figures namely, a dart and a liver. There is a kind of sickness that is beautiful when it comes from overwork for God, or one's country, or one's own family. I have seen wounds that were glorious. I have seen an empty sleeve that was more beautiful than the most muscular forearm. I have seen a green shade over the eye, shot out m battle, that was more beautiful than any two eyes that had passed without injury. I have seen an old missionary worn out with the malaria of African jungles, who looked to me more radiant than a rubicund gymnast. I have seen a mother after six weeks watching over a family of children down with scarlet fever, with a glory around her pale and l wan face that surpassed the angelic. It all depends on how you got your sick ness and in what battle your wounds. If we must get sick and worn out, let it be in God's service and in the effort to make the world good. Not in the service of sin. No, no. One of the most pathetic scenes that I ever witness, and I often see it, . is that of men or women converted in the fifties, or six ties or seventies wanting to be useful, but they so served the world and satan in the earlier part of their life that they have no physical energy, left for the service of God. They sacrificed nerves, muscles, lungs, heart and liver on the wrong alter. They fought on the wrong side, and now, when their sword is all hacked up and their ammu nition all gone, they enlist for Emman uel. When the high mettled cavalry horse, which that man spurred into many a cavalry charge with champ ing bit and flaming eye and neck clothed with thunder, is worn out and spavined and ringboned and sprighalt, he rides up to the great captain of our salvation on the white horse and offers his services. When such persons might have been, through the good habits, of a lifetime, . - crashing their battleax through the'y helmeted iniquities, they are spending their days and nights in discussing the best way of curing their Indigestion, and quieting their jangling nerves, and rousing their laggard ap petite, and trying to extract the dart from their outraged liver. Better con verted late than never! Oh, yes, for they will get to heaven. But they will go afoot when they might have wheeled up the steep hills of the sky in Elijah's chariot. There is an old hymn that we used to sing In the country meeting house when I was a boy, and I remem ber how the old folks' voices trembled with emotion - while they t sang it. I have forgotten all but two lines, but those lines are the peroration of my sermon: . 'Twil save us from a thousand snares , To mind religion young. Congressional Extravagance. In a recent issue theFinancial Chron icle compares the Increase of the cost of government in the United States in the last sixty years with the increased cost of government in other countries in the same period, with the result of showing that while the increase in these other countries was forced chiefly by apprehensions of was, with us congressional extravagance and recklessness have been the preponder ating causes. In 18S6 our federal ex penditure, excluding interest on th debt, was $30,868,164; in 1896 it was $316,- 794,417 a tenfold increase. Our popula- tion and settled area have no doubt in creased greatly in that period and som part of the increased cost of govern ment was necessary. But considera tion of items shows that a large part of it was not necessary. In the last fifteen years our expenditure, exclusive of interest on the public debt, has In creased $129,890,000. There has been in that time no increase of our army and but a small increase of the navy. The bulk of our waste has been on things for which we have nothing to show. Since 1882 our annual pension expendi ture has been increase by '$78,000,000. though some years before 1882 Garfield had declared that the proper maximum had already been reached. Our annua' outlay on rivers, harbors, public build ings, etc., has risen by $30,000,000 in the; last fifteen years, though our needs have not increased in that proportion, useless offices, salaries, printing and luxuries cost us other millions of in crease. "Ours," said Mr. Cannpn in hi report at the last session of Congress, "is the only government in the civi lized world wherein the administrative branch assumes no responsibility for its demands for expenditure," but goes on piling up such demands without regard to probable income. There have been large increases in other countries, but they have been carefully adjusted yearly to probable income and have been dictated by sup posed military necessities. Sixty year ago, says the Chronicle, Great Britain was, as she is now, "the richest nation of the world." Her revenue was then $260,000,000; it is now $560,000,000. Her foreign trade has increased nearly six fold. The income from England's ariff in 1837 was 72 per cent, of the total rev enue, whereas it is but 44 per cent, and the laboring man pays in taxes, on the principal articles of consumption but one-fourth of what his grandfather paid. The area of the empire has grown from eight million square miles to eleven millions, and its population from 160,000,000 to 400,000,000. It is easily the 'first, the English claim, in commercial enterprise, ." financial re sources and wise administration. Ex penditures have grown in the sixty years almost equally with the revenue, but not in as great proportion as wealth The -interest on the public debt of the United- Kingdom is but 2 per cent., and the principal, which is now $3,870, 000,000, is $1,000,000,000 less than it was sixty years ago. During the past year $37,000,000 of the debt was paid off. Year by year taxes are increased or dimin ished on the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer so as to balance al most exactly the expected expendi ture, and this official alone can propose an increase of expenditure. It follows that he feels his responsibility, and only necessary appropriations receive his approval. All items are closely scan ned by the man who must find the rev enue to meet them. The system is not like ours one committee for "ways and means" and eight or nine other committees, each a law to itself, at work on estimates made up by the de partments, each eager to get as much as it can from Congress. Nor does the House of Lords, like our lordlier Sent ate, feel at liberty to swell appropria tions. Policy, not log-rolling, has caused the large increase of the budgets of most European countries, since 1871. The arming of France' after that year caused Germany to increase enormous ly her army expenditures, and the two countries have reacted on each other. When Germany armed, Russia had to do the same, and when Russia armed Austria had to follow her example. Italy, confronted with France on one side and Austria on the other, exhaust ed herself in armaments. In this gen eral increase of armies, the navies of France, Russia, Germany and Italy were also increased pari passu, so that, to restore the balance of sea power, England's nava expenditure is now four times as great as It was sixty years ago. She spends this year on her warships $109,190,000, against $21,500,000 spent by Germany, $47,425,000 spent hy France and $27,500,000 spent by the United States. The necessities of the military situation have caused nearly three-fourths of the increase of the running expenses of England's govern ment in recent years, and much the same may be said for the increase of other European governments. This cannot be said in defense of our in creased expenditure. During the last five years our outgo for pensions alone has exceeded the annual payment made by France or Germany for its army, or by England for its navy. Our increased expenditure is not forced on us by cir cumstances; it is needless waste. Moreover, the ratio of increase with us has been nearly twice as rapid as it has been in the hard-pressed States of Europe. Baltimore Sun. Defending Davis. In the course of an address at the unveiling of the confederate monument at Dallas, Tex., last week, Judge Rea gan took occasion to defend Jefferson Davis froi the charge of being self willed, imperious and stubborn. "More than four years of constant contact with him as a member of his cabinet," he said, ' "enables me to say that this was. a great mistake. His habit was, when he took up a public question on which he had to act. to exhaust all available sources of information on it before coming to a conclusion, always consulting freely "with the members of his cabinet, and with others who might be able to give him information. After doing this and reaching bis conclusion, the matter was settled with him. un less the presentation of new facts re quired further consideration," AN APPEAL FOR FAIR PULY. X'-f -' X"X - : ' Mrs. Davis Shames the Grand Army School Committee She Shows That "Secession" i Was Not Treasons-There Can he No True ' Union of the North and South So long as : the Former Insists on Falsely Stigmatlx. ing the Latter as a Combination of Trait ors. (New York World.) The report of the committee appoint ed by the Grand Army of the Republic to examine" objectionable matter relat ing to the civil war in school histories has come, it appears, to a very unex pected conclusion and it seems to me, one quite indefensible, at' least so far as it refers to the action of the Southern people on the subject of the war between them and the States of the north and west. The committee says a school history should be "truthful and impartial, and not offensive to the Senator or the peas ant, the New Yorker or the South Carolinian. Yet we cannot avoid the conviction that treason can and should 'be made odious." The definition the Century Dictionary gives of treason is "violation by a sub ject of his allegiance to his sovereign or liege lord or to the chief authority of the State." "Treason against the United States consists only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies." Treason, then, is a breach of allegiance, and can be coni mitted by him only who owes allegi ance to a superior powe.r either per ! petual or temporary. The State rights adherents contend ; that the only inalienable allegitance is that due to their State; that Congress is the creature of the States, and to be respected by' them Only so long as the Congress represents and - protects all sections in their rights of property and personal liberty. On the contrary, the larger part of the Northern people took exactly the opposite view, and consid ered Congress the supreme power In the erovernment from which there could be no appea,l and justified ' this view under- the warrant of the expres sion, "We, the people." The interpretation of the constitution accepted by the several states of the Union as it was after the Revolution seems to have differed essentially from that of the committee of the Grand Army. The people of Massachusetts have been apparently for all the years which have intervened since the war ! Union, but how will they stand when ! their children shall be taught that j secession as a power reserved by the theory of State rights is treason? Massachusetts, from the time of her admission into the Union certainly had ( incorporated in her constitution the ; right of secession. r If. the - assertion "of the right of secession had in the inception of our Republic been considered treason, would i Massachusetts have consented to such ! an outrage upon patriotic citizens as the incorporation of this "treasonable' ! doctrine into her constitution? Does it not seem, therefore, to the unpreju i diced mind that thoughtless men who j are hurling epithets of traitor and rebe! and proposing to make "treason odi ous" because of a differennt interpreta- I tion of a clause in the constitution, are laying themselves liable to be accused j of a mental violation of another clause I of the constitution, which in article V, j says: "No bill of attainder or ex post j facto law shall be passed?" Is their verdict, then, legal? Are their epithets j within the law as it existed before I860? ( Judge Chase, of the supreme court, a ! man very learned in constitutiona! jurisprudence, and surely one who j showed no leaning towards the Confed f erate government, was before 1860 so i fully committed to the right of seees f sion that when the Confederate Presi- - dent, made captive by the fortunes of ) war, asked not for mercy, but for a trial upon the merits of his case, he j evaded presiding at the tria,l and Mr. I Charles O'Conor, the captive nresi 1 dent's councel, openly declared that ( Justice Chase, should he try the case j could not with any appearance of con- i sistency avoid a decision in Mi Davis's ; favor. i Now, in view of article X of the ! amendments to. the constitution, sup j posed to be largely the work of James Madison, which says, "The powers not j delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to ! the States,? are reserved to the States re-. . spectively or to the people," does it not seem to the committee of the Grand Army that honest and patriotic men might very well construe the clause in two -ways, and. fight for their oninlons, too, without either party being "rebels or traitors?" One may not "rebel" against one's own delegates whom he has created, and it would seem there must be a superior power to the delegates elected by the people to represent and converse their interests: I and who is this power but the united ! power of the State which sent them? These delegates constituted Congress ! but the amendment to the constitution I has reversed this order. Now Congress is supreme. Our property in slaves Was recog nized and protected by the constitution and Congress, yet the negroes have been freed without compensation. But the South does not brand those who did so as traitors or rogues; yet one clause of the constitution, if any of them was obligatory, would seem to be as binding as another. Perhaps the abolition of slavery, though it was a gigantic wrong to the owners of negro slaves,- has in itself many elements of compensation, and the people of our section, though piungea in poverty by the act, are sil ent, admitting that possibility. Looking upon the Grand Army of the Republic as a body of brave men, who would not willingly antagonize their fellow citizens or outrage a gallant and fallen foe, I would suggest that they require that their school books give to each section their, due credit for sin-, cere though opposite convictions, for gallantry and for patriotism, state the ground of difference succinctly, , and then, if It seems to them nroDer. also I state that the constitution was amend- ? r -i ot?p -i i j. . cu in ow, a-xiu iud(, arucie XIII then made secession treason. They would be, I am very sure, very unwilling to believe that any honest man would suf fer his children to be taught that he was a traitor.or allow them to swell the chorus of those who tried to 'make treason odious in the person of theii; sires. I have long believed that the only way to heal the differences which have convulsed .our unhappy country is to render each to the other their due meed of praise, admit their different political interpretations of the consti tution and cease from railing and ap plying offensive epithets. When General Grant's former foes came long distances to march with re verent mien to his place of rest they did not do it as convicted and con fessed traitors, whose crime had benn- condoned, nor did the Grand Armj heroes receive them as such, but the hands of honorable foes clasped each other at the grave of their countryman as a pledge of renewal fellowship after a bitter struggle. If, then, I have interpreted this mani festation of a reunited country aright, how can the recommendations of the Grand Army committee be adopted by generous, fair-minded and honorable men?'. So long as each section emblazons on its flags the battles fought in a fra tricidal war, and acrimonious reviews are written of event which happened in the course of it, so long will people of the two sections bandy useless. epi thets; for submission to insult Is not more the prominent trait of the South ern than of the Northern people. For the conservation and cementing of friendship there must be equality and justice: I am the granddaughter of one of the New Jersey patriot soldiers of the Revolution, and my family were about equally - represented in the Northern and Southern army, and I cordially respect them both. My knowledge of their animus makes me confident that the rank and file of the Grand Army will see the justice of my plea for a cessaion on . both sides of railing accusations against an honora ble foe. MRS. JEFFERSON DAVIS. The Girard, New York, May 6. Some Stage Rlunders. Garrick first used concealed lights on the stage and it was quite common in his time to have long ranges of seats oc cupied by spectators on the stage, says an exchange. This arrangement had sometimes a ludicrous effect. Romeo, as he bore the dead body of Juliet from the capulets; went througn a crowd of peo ple; and in Macbeth the murder of Dun can was privately platted by the two chief personages in the very presence of a mob of fashionable spectators. Occasionally some innocent occupant caused great sport by assisting the actors. Thus Hamlet, betore addressing his father's spirit, as usual, threw oft' his hat when an officious lady, recollecting a re-, mark about a nipping and eager air rose and adroitly placed it on his head. In Pizarro a similar kindness was. once' done to Elvira, who is discovered asleep on a couch. Valdere enters, kneels and kisses her - hands, when Elvira awakes, and rising, lets fall her rich: velvet cloak as she prepares, like a tragedy queen, to repel her lover's advances. At inis crlt cai juncture a lady rushed forward, ex claiming, "Please, ma'am, you've drop- ped. your mantle," and tried to replace the mantle upon .Elvira's shoulders. A much more absurd mistake was made by a boy when Mrs. Siddons was giving one of her marvelous performances at Edinburg. As Lady Macbeth she went on the stage to go through the somnambulist performance. Before doing so she had sent a boy for some porter, but' the cue for her entrance was given before he re turned, and it was a moment of intense awe and stillness as she whispered, rub bing her hahds, "Out, out, damned spot," that a tiny figure, holding out a large pewter pot, at full length, entered from . the wings, exclaiming, in the shrilliest of cnildish trebles, "Here's your porter, mum." . , - - A more ludricous circumstance oc curred at Theatre Royal, Newcastle. Ma cready was thrilling a full house by his amazing histrionic powers as Hamlet, and a dreadfully solemn effect had just then been produced by the fall of the slaugh tered prince, when a loud voice, proceed ing from a tall man who boldly emerged from, the wings, dragging with him a friend, roared "It's all nonsence, Jack. He's not dead at all; I saw him just now -shaking that leg there." The audience was suddenly convulsed with laugher at this remark,: made by one who '" had dined well rather I than wisely, and in a moment of weakhss had been per mitted ,as the house was literally cram med, to occupy a place in the wings. . Great Is Texas. People in Texas as well as those outside the State frequently fail to realize the vast extent of the great Lone Star State, but the following from the New York Mail and Express serves as a reminder of immensity of Texas: "It is safe to say that four men out of any five picked out at hazard from the in-. expert would deny offhand a declaration that the entire population of the earth could be concentrated in the State of Texas, and still leave abundance of room for exercise. At first glance the propo sition does seem absurd, but let us look at the facta upon which such a calcu lation may be based. There are in the world, approximately, 1,488,0U0,ou(j persons or were before Weyler and the Indian plague joined forces. The earth's surface includes 51,238,800 square miles of terri tory, giving twenty-nine inhabitants to each square mile. There are in Texas 2C5.780 square miles. As each cf these contains 64u acres, the acres included in the State number 170, 099,200. To distribute here the population of the earth, we divide 1,488,000,000 by 170, 099,200, and find that each acre will have a fraction above eight and one-half per sons. For convenience of calculation this may be raised to nine. Nine persons to an acre. But what space, in feet, would this allow to each? An acre contains 43,560 square feet, therefore each person would have 4,840 square feet of real estate. The square of 4,840 Is approximately seventy.; therefore every person in the' world, if compelled to huddle in Texas, could be given a building lot seventy feet square enough for a modest cottage with a bit of lawn in front, a kitchen garden in the rear, and enough space on either side to be free of inquisitive neighbors. In other, words, take every man, woman and child on the earth and stand them at equal distances one from another in our State of Texas, and they would be compelled to raise their voices in arder to be heard in conversation. - Yet Texas is only one corner of this our country ons out of forty-five com monwealths, with less than one-half the representation of the Empire State in congress, and a population at present 300, 000 less than that of Greater New York. Truly we are ndt only a great people, but we live in . a great country. . Almost Contempt of Conrt Judge Randolph of Kansas was hear ing a divorce case last fall. The wit ness was the plaintiff, a white-haired man, broken in health and in spirit, and wearing a bronze button in his lapel. The examination was severe and the session monotonous. , "You say your wife abused you; tell us just how." thundered the at torney. 1 The witness looked appealingly at the judge. "Answer the ! question, sir," was the order from the bench. "Well, she said I was an old hypocrite to be proud of my war record. She said all the brave men who went to the war were killed, and that only the . cowards and deserters lived to come back, and " "Stop!" commanded the aroused judge, "This divorce Is granted. The court spent, four years in that war and the court came back." Chicago Times-Herald. A white minister, after conducting ser vices at a colored church," asked an old deacon to lead in prayer. The brother In black offered a fervent appeal for the white brother and said: "O Lord, gib him de eye cb de eagle dat he spy out sin a far off. "Wax his hands to de gospel plow. Tie his tongue to de line ob truth. Bow his head 'way down beneath his knees and his knees way down in some lonesome dark and narrer valley where prayer is much wanted to be made. 'Noint him wtd de kerosene He of sal vashun and sbt him on fire." Monroe, Enpuirer.
The Wilmington Messenger (Wilmington, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 23, 1897, edition 1
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