Newspapers / The Wilmington Messenger (Wilmington, … / June 13, 1897, edition 1 / Page 6
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THE WILMINGTON MESSENGER SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 189? PRAISE OF DOCTORS. DR. TALHAGE PATS A HlGtl TRIBUTE TO THE JIEDICAL PROFESSION. He Takes the Case of King Asa, Who Had the Gout, and Shows "Why the Doctors Could Not Cure Htm Piety and Medical Skill. ; It is not often' that men of one profession have much en- courdsnni iw men. 01 a,nui.irer profession, but. this sermon prepared by Xr. Talmage contains enthusiastic words for a clergyman to physicians. The text is II Chronicles xvi, 12, 13, "And Asa, In the thirty and ninth year of his reign, was diseased In Ihis feet until his "disease was exceeding great, yet in his disease he sought not the Lord, but to the physician's. And Asa slept with his fathers." At this season of the year, when medical colleges of all schools of medl cine are giving diplomas to young doc of the cities medical associations are assembling to consult about the ad vancement of the interests of theirpro fesslon, I feel this discourse is appro priate. KING ASA'S GOUT. . In my text Is King Asa with the gout. High living and -no exercise have vitiated tils blood, and my text presents him wMi his inflamed and bandaged feet onan ottoman. In defiance of God, whom he hated, he sends for certain conjurors or quacks. They come and ginve him 'all sorts of lotions and pana ceas. They bleed him. They sweat him They manipulate him. They blister him. They poultice h'im. They scarify him. They drug him. They cut him. They kill him. He was only a young man had a bad disease which, though very painful, seldom proves fatal to a young man, and he ought to have got well, but he fell a victim to charlatan ry and empiricism. "And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his , feet until his disease was exceeding great, yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fa thers." That is. the doctors killed him. In this Sharp and graphic! way the Bible sets forth the truth, that you have no right to shut God out from the realm of pharmacy and therapeutics. If Asa had said: "O Lord. I am sick. Bless the instrumentality employed for . my recovery. xmvw, scivain, &u u-iru get the best doctor you can find" he would have recovered. In other words, the1 world wants divinely directed phy sicians. There are a great many such. The diplomas they received from! the compared 1 with the diploma they re ceived from the High Physician of the universe on the day when they started out anu ne saiu co mem, awti uie sick and oast out the devils of pain and open the blind eyes and unstop the deaf ears." God bless the doctors all the world over, and let all the hospitals and dispensaries and infirmaries and asylums and domestic circles of the earth respond, "Amen." AVAtMl UI lil t? UiCTJHJIU piUlCBMlli W CT - ten meet in -the home of distress. We shake hands across the cradle of) ago nized infancy. We join each other in an attempt at solace where the paroxysm of grief demands an anodyne as well as a prayer. We took into each other s sympathetic faces through the dusk as the -night of death is falling in the sick--room. We do not have to climb over any barrier today In order to greet each other, for our professions are in full sympathy. You, doctor, are our first and last earthly friend. You stand at the gates of life when we enter this world and you stand at the gates of death when we go out of It. In the clos ing moments of our-earthly existence, when the hand of the wife or mother or sister or daughter Shall hold our night t - t ,211 I HAM MT ti-.s .ttj.nw nana, it win give u tmg m w uut-ujms moment if we can feel the tips Of your fingers along the pulse of the left wrist We do not meet today ,as in other days, in houses of distress, but by the pleas- Hill 'ill.'tu S oi Ajroti, fctiiu j. pivrtse: a. ci mrwn of iho.lrf lilnfucsja m rA swWi hwr. As in the nursery Children sometimes re enact all the scenes of the sickroom, so today you play that you arethe patient and that I am the physician, and take my prescription just once. It shall be a tonic, a sedative, a dietetic, a disin fectant, a stimulus and an anodyne at the same time. "Is there not balm in Gilead? Is there hot a physician there" AN HONORABLE CALLING. In the first place, I think all the med ical profession should become Chris tians because of the debt of gratitude they owe to God for the honor he has put upon their calling. No other call ing in all the world, except it be that , of the Christian ministry, has received so great an honor as yours. Christ himself was not only preacher, but phy sician, surgeon, aurist, ophthalmolo gist, and under his mighty power optic and auditory nerve thrilled with light its fit, and the clubfoot was straighten ed, and anchylosis went Out of the stiffened tendons, and the - foaming maniac became pMcid as a child, and the streets of Jerusalem became an ex temporized , hospital crowded with con valescent Victim of casualty and In validism. All ages have wroven the garland for the doctor's brow. Homer said: A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal, Is more than armies to the public weal." Cicero said, "There is nothing in which men so approach the gods as when they try to give health to other men." Charles IX made proclamation that all the Protestants in France should be put to death on St. Barthol omew's day, but made one exception, ajnd 'that the case, of Pare, the father of French surgery. The battlefields of the American revolution welcomed Drs. Mercer and Warren and Rush. When the French army was entirely demoral ized by fear of the plague, the leading surgeon of that army inoculated him self with the plague to show the sold iers there was no contagion in it, and their courage rose, and they went on to the conflict. God has honored this pro fession all the way through. Oh the advancement from the days when Hip pocrates tried to cure the great Pericles with hellebore arid flaxseed poultices down to far later centuries when Haller announced the theory of respiration, and Harvey the circulation of the blood, and Asceli the uses of the lym phatic vessels, and Jenner balked the worst disease that ever scourged Eu rope, and Sydenham developed the re cuperatlve forces of the physical or ganism, and cinchona bark stopped the ehivering agues of the world, and Sir lAstley Cooper and Ahernethy, and Hosock and Remeyn, and Grisoom and ' Valentine Matt, of the generation just- past, honored God arid t fought back death with their keen scalpels. ir we who are laymen in medicine would understand what the medical profession has accomplished for the in sane, .let us look Into -the dungeons where fife poor creatures used to be in carcerated madmen chained naked to the wall, a kennel of rotten straw their only sleeping place, room unventilated and unlighted, the worst calamity of the race punished with the very worst punishment and then come ami look at the insane asylums of TJtica and Kirkbride sofaed and pictured, libra ried, concerted, until all the arts and adornments come to coax recreant rea son to assume her throne- Look at Ed ward Jenner, the great hero of medi cine. Four hundred thousand people an nually dying In Europe from the small pox, Jenner finds that by the Inocula tion of people with vaccint from a cow the great scourge of nations may be ar rested. The ministers of th gospel de nounced vaccination, small wits carica tured Edward Jenner as riding Hn a great procession on the back of a cow and grave men expressed it as their opinion that all the diseases of the brute creation would be transplanted into thehuman family, and they gave instances where, thev said, actually horns had come out on the fojreheads of innocent persons and people had "be gun to chew the cud. Buit Dr. Jenner, the hero of medicine, went on fighting for vaccination until St has been esti mated that one doctor in fifty years has saved more lives than all the 'bat tles of any one Century destroyed. MEDICAL PROGRESS. Passing along the streets of Edin burgh a few weeks after the death of Sir James Y. Simpson, I saw the pho tograph of the doctor in all the win dows of the shops and stores, and well might that photograph he put in every window, for he first used chloroform as an anaesthetic agent. In Other days they tried- to dull human pain by the hasheesh Of . the Arabs and the .mad rep ore of the Roman and the Greek, but it was left to Dr. Jannes Stop son to introauce cniorororrn as an anaesthetic. Alas for the writhing sui jects of surgery of other centuries! Blessed be God for that wet sponge or vial in the hand of the operating sur geon in the clinical department of the medical college or in the sickroom of the domestic circle or on the battle field amid thousands of amputations. Napoleon after a Toattle rode along the line and saw under a tree standing fin the snow Larrey, the surgeon, Oper atlng upon the wounded. Napoleon passed On, and twenty-four hours af tervvard oariie along the same place, and he saw the same surgeon opera ting in the same place, and he had not left It. Alas for the battlefields with out Chloroform. Bnt now the soldier boy takes a few breaths from the sponge and forgets all the pang of the gunshot fracture, and while the sur geons of the field hospital are stand ing around htm he lies th'ere dreaming of home an'd mother and I heaven. No more parents standing around a suf fering child, struggling to get away from the sharp instrument, but mild slumlber instead of excruciation, and the Child wakes up and says: "Father, what's the matter? What's the doctor here today for?" Oh, blessed he God for James Y. Simpson and the heaven descended mercies df chloroform. The medical profession steps into the courtroom and after conflicting wit riesses have left everything in a fog, by chemical analyses shows the guilt or innocense of the prisoner, as hy mathe- mat'ical demonstration, thus adding honors to medical jusirprudence. This profession has dione wonders for puglic hygiene. How often they have stood between this nation and Asiatic cholera and the yellow fever. The mon uments in Greenwood and Mount Au burn and Laurel Hill tell something-of the story of those men who stood face to face with pestilence In southern oit ies, until staggering In their own Sick ness they stumbled across the corpses of those whom they had come to save. This profession has been the successfu advocate of ventilation, sewerage, drainage and fumigation, until their sentiments were well expressed by Lord Palmerston, when he said to the Engc llsh nation at the time a fast had been proclaimed to keep off a great pesti lence: "Clean your streets or death will ravage, notwithstanding all the prayers of this nation. Clean your streets and then call on God for help.' See what this profession has done for human longevity. There was such a fearful substraction from human life that there was a prospect that within a few centuries this world would be left .almost inhabitantless, Adam start ed with a Whole eternity of earthly ex istence "before him, but he cut off the most of it and only comparatively few years were left only 700 years of life, arid then 500, and then 400, and then 200, and then 100, an'd then 50, and then the average of human life came to 40, and then it droppped to 18. But medical science came in, and since the sixteenth century the average of hu man life has risen from 18 years to 44 and it will continue to rise until 'the average of human life will be 50, and It will be 60, and it will be 70, and a man will 'have no right to die before 90, and the prophecy of Isaiah will he literally fulfilled, "And the child shall die 100 years old." The millennium for the souls of men will be the millenniium for the bodies of men. Sin done, disease wall be done, the clergyman and the physician getting through with their work at the same time. DOCTORS FOR THE POOR. But 'it seems to me that the most beautiful benediction of the medical profession has been vl popped upon the poor. No excuse now for any one's not having scientific attendance. Dispensa ries and infirmaries eVeiywhere, under the control of the hest doctors, some of them poorly paid, some of them not paid at all. A half starved woman comes out from the lotv tenement house into the dispensary and unwraps the rags from her babe, a bundle of ulcers and rheum and postules, and over that little sufferer ben'ds the accumulated wisdom of the ages, fromEsculapius down to last week's autopsy. In one dispensary in one year 150,000 prescrip tions were issued. Why do I show what God has allowed this profession to do? Is it to stir irp your vanity? Oh, no! The day has gone by for pompous doctors, with conspicuous gold headed canes and powered wigs, which were the accompaniments in the days when the barber used to carry through .the streets Of London Dr. Brockelsbys wig, to the admiration and awe of the people, saying "Make way! Here come Dr. Brockelsbys wig." No; I announce these things not only to Increase the appreciation of laymen in regard to the work of physi cians, hut to stir in the hearts of the men of the medical profession a feeling of gratitude to God that they have been allowed, to put. their hand to such a magnificent work and that they have been called into such illustrious com pany. ., Have you never felt a splrft of gratitude for" this opportunity? Do yoii not feel thankful now? Then, I am afraid, doctor, you are not a Christian and that the old proverb which Christ quoted in his sermon may be appropri ate & you, "Physician, heal thyself." Another reason why I think the med ical profession ought to be Christians is because there , are so many trials and annoyances in that profession that need positive Christian solacer I know you have the- gratitude of a great many good people, and I know'tt must be a grand thing to walk intelligently through the avenues of human Mfe.and with anatomic skill poise yourself oh the nerves and fibres which cross anVI recross this wonderful physical system. I suppose a skilled eye can See more beauty even in malformation than an architect can point out in any of his structures, 'though it be the very tri umph of arch and plinth and abacus. But how many annoyances and trials the medical profession have! Dr. Rush used to say in his valedictory ad dress -to the students of the medical college, "Young gentlemen, have two pockets a small pocket and - a big pocket, a small pocket in which to put your fees, a large pocket in which to put your annoyances." In the first place, the physician has no Sabbath. 'Busy merchants and law yers and mechanics cannot afford to be sick during the secular " week, and so they nurse themselves along with loz- engesahd horehound candy until Sah- bath morning comes, and then they say, "I must have a . doctor." And that spoils the Sabbath momingchurch service for the physician. Besides that, there are a great many men who dine hut once a week with their families. During the secular days they take a hasty lunch at the restaurant, and on i-u,, cii tli . 1, iv,w -p. ,tu ! the Sabbath they make up for their six days' abstinence by especial gor- mandling, which, before night, ; makes -their amazed, digestive, organs ! cry out for a doctor. And that spoils the evening church service for the physician. Then they are annoyed by people coming too late. Men wait until the last fortress of physical strength is taken and death has dug around 1t the trench of the grave, and then they run fior the doctor. The slight fever which might have been cured with a footbath has become virulent typhus, and the hacking cough killing pneumonia. As hriiPh a rsm'tmiin -ahnnild sinlr his hin off Amagansett.and then put ashore In a yawl, and then come to New: York to fhp rin rfRp and wtanit to selt his vessel insured. Too late for the ship too late for the patient. WISE DOCTORS. Then there are many who always blame the doctor because the people die, forgetiting the divine enactment, "It is appointed unto all men once 'to die." Th'e father in medicine who an nounced the fact that he had discover ed the art by which to make menvin this world immortal, himself died ait 47 years of age, showing that .immortality was less than half a century for Shim. Oh, how easy It is when people die to cry out, "Malpractice." Then the phy sician must bear with all 'the whims, and the sophistries, and the deceptions, and the stratagems, and the irritations of the shattered nerves and the be clouded hrains of women, and more es pecially of men, who never know how gracefully to be sick, and who with their salivated mouths curse the doctor, giving him his dues.as they say about the only dues he will in that case col lect. The last hill that is paid is the doctor's hill. It seems so incoherent for a restored patient, With : ruddy cheeks and rotund form, "to be bothered with a bill charging him for old calo mel and jalap. The physicians of this country do more missioary work with out charge than all the other profes sionals put together. From the con cert room, from the merry party, from the comfortable couch on a cold night, when the thermometer Is five degrees below zero, the doctor moist go right away h'e always must go right away. To keep up under this nervous strain, to go through this night work, to bear all these, annoyances, many physicians have resorted to strong drink and perished. - Others have appealed to God for sympathy and help and have lived. Which were the wise doctors, judge ye? Again, 'the medical professionought to be Christians 'because there are pro fessional exigencies when they need God. Asa's destmcttan by unblessed physicians was a warning. There are awful crisis in every medical practice when a doctor ought to know how to pray. All the hosts of ills will some times hurl themselves on the weak points of the physical organism.or with equal ferocity will assault the entire line of susceptibility to suffering. The next diose of medicine will decide whether or not that happy home shall be broken up. Shall it be this medicine or that medicine? God help the doc tor! Between the five drops and the ten drops may "be tthe question of life or death. Shall It be the five or the ten drops? iBe careful how you put that knife through those delicate portions of the body, for if it swing out of the way the sixth part ! of an inch the patient perishes. Under such, circumstances a physician needs not so much consulta tion with men of his own calling as he needs consultation with that God who strung the nerves and 'built the cells and swung the crimson tide through the arteries. You wonder why the heart throbs, Why it seems to open and shut. There is no wonder about it. It Is God's hand, shutting, opening, shut ting, opening, on every heart. When a man comes to doctor the eye, he ought to he in communication with him who said. to the 'blind, "Receive thy sight," When a doctor comes to treat a para lytic arm, he ought to be in communica tion with him who said, "Stretch forth thy hand, and he sfcreched it forth." Wfhen a man comes to doctor a bad case of hemorrhage, he needs ba he in communication with him who cured the C issue If hlbod, saying, "Thy faith hath saved thee." " . PIETY AND MEDICAL SKILL. I do not mean to say that piety will make up for medical skill. A bungling doctor, confounded with what was not a very bad case, went Into the next room to pray. A skilled physician was called . in. He asked for the first practitioner. "Oh," they saM, "he's in the next "room praying." "Well," said the skilled doctor, "tell him to come out here and help. He can pray and work at the same time." It was all in that' sentence. Do the best we can and ask God ;to help us. There are no two men in all the world, it seems to me, that so much need the grace of God. as the minister who tfodtors the sick soul and the, physician who pre scribes for the disease body. Another reason why the medical pro fession ought to be Christians is be cause there opens before them such a grand field for Christian usefulness. You see so many people in pain, in trouble, in hereavement. You ought to be the voice of heaven to their souls. Old Dr. Gasherie De Witt, a practi tioner of New York, told me In his last days, "I always present the religion of Christ too my patients, either directly or Indirectly, and I find It Is almost al ways acceptable." Drs. Abercromble anti "Brown of Scotland, Drs.' Hey and FothergSll of England and Dr. Rush of our own country were celebrated, for their faithfulness In that direction. "Oh," says the medical profession, "that fs your occupation. That belongs to the clergy, not to us," My brother, there are severe Illnesses In which you will not admit even the clergy, and that patient's salvation will depend: upon your faithfulness. With . the medicine for the body in one hand, the. medicine for the soul in the other, ohi, what a chance? There lies a dying Christian on the pillow. You need to hold over him the 'lantern of the gospel until Its light streams across the pathway of the departing pilgrim, and you need to cry Into the dull ear of death, "Hark to the song of heaven's welcome that comes stealing over 'the waters!" There lies on the pillow a dying sinner. All the morphine that you brought with you cannot quiet him. Terror In the heart. How he jerks himself up on one elbow and looks wSldly into your face and says: "Doctor, I cant die. I am not ready to die. What makes It so dark? Doctor, can you pray?" Blessed for you and blessed for him If then you can knel down and say: "O God, I have done the best I could to cure this man's hody, , and I have fail ed. Now 'I commit to JtCiee his poor. suffering and affrighted soul.: Open Paradise to his departing spirit. THE LAST SICKNESS. But I must close, for there may he suffering men and women waiting in your (office, or on the hot pillow, won- dering why you don't come. But before you go, O doctors, hear my prayer for vonr eternal salTrtaJtiVMi - TRlP'sswvl wn'l 1 V your eternal salvation. 'Blessed will be ! 'the remard in heaven for the faithful christian physician, borne uay.through overwork far from bending over a pa tient and catching his contagious j ibreatb, the doctor comes home, and ;he lies down faint and sick. He Is too ; wreary to feel his own pulse or take the ! diagnosis of his own camplaint. He 5s ! worn out. The fact is, his work on earth Is ended. Tell, those people in the I office 'there they need not wait anv longer. The doctor will never go there again, ne jaas written tns last pre- ! scription for the alleviation of human pain. The people will run up to his i front steps and inquli-e, "How is the j doctor today?" All the sympathies of 'tne neignDornooa win oe arouseu arm there will be many pmyers 'that he who has been so kind to the sickmayhe comforted In Wis Hast pang. It is all over how. In two or three days his convalescent patients, with shawl wrapped around them, will come ito the f ront window and look out at the pass ing hearse, and the poor of the city, barefooted and 'bareheaded, will stand on the street corner, saying, "Oh, how good he was to us all!" But on the other side of the river of death some of his old patients Who are forever cured, will come out to welcome him,. and the physician of heaven, with kicks as white as snow, 'according to the Apocalyptic vision, Will come, out and say: "Come in, come in. I was sick and ye vlsiteki me." Caught by a New Game What"s the matter with you?" asked the head of the firm when he came in and found the junior partner pacing the floor like a caged Hon, according to the Detroit Free Press. 1 "Understand that this is strictly he tween ourselves," camelthe answer in an irritated voice. There are some things that a man wants to endure Without any assistance or sympathy from others. I was sitting here an hour ago looking through the mall. A well dressed man with pleasnat man ners came in and asked for you, stating that there was an Impontant matter of business about Which he must talk with you personally. We had a pleasant lit tle that, when he looked at his watch. said he seemed Ito 'have conflicting en gagements and asked if he might use the telephone. "Of course I consented, and showed him through the next room into the booth. "In about ten minutes he came out smiling, thanked me cordially and said he wrould 'be back in half an hour to transact his business with you. He wasn't more than out of the building when the telephone Jingled and the main office Inquired whom that mes sage twt St. Louis should .be charged to. "What message?" I yelled, excitedly. " Why, the one that just went over the long distance, of course.' "My knees quaked and my voice quavered as I asked how much it was. " 'Just $15.80 came the maddening reply. - "'Charge it to me,' I shouted, and then chased wildly around the block looking for the fellow. That was another fool trick. To think of a man of my age and experience being such an infernal chump. I'll hunt that fel low to the ends of the earth. But don't you say a word. Mind you." A Pointing Horse Senator George Chahoon, r memiber of the Stalte senate committee on forest fish and game laws, told me that he had a pointing horse that was as re liable as a pointing dog, although the horse pointed by sight instead of by scent. It seems that in the fall, in driv ing about the woods, he carries a gun in his hu'ggy to shoot such partridges as-he may come across. The first time heshot over hish orse the animal was badly frightened, and instead ' of run ning, simply sat back in the breeching. crouching near the ground on his hind quarters,' and trembled at the noise of the explosion. This became a ,habit, until now, no longer frightened at the sound of the gun, he appears to be on the watch for birds and often discovers one before his master sees it, and jalt once sits back in the .breehing and comes to a deaJd stand until Senator Chahoon shoots, when the horse re sumes his niarmal upright position and goes on till he sees another "hird. I told: the senator he should call his horse a setter instead Of a pointer, and perhaps he will accept the amendment. Correspondence Forest and Stream. A Clever Device In front of a window where I worked last summer was a butternut tree. A humming-bird built her nest on a. limb that grew near the window.and we had an opportunity to watch her closely. In feet, we could look right into the nest. One day, when there was a heavy shower coming up, we thought we would see if she covered 'her young during the rain. When the first drops fell she came and took in her bill one of two or three large (leaves growing close by and laid this leaf over the nest so as completely to cover it; then she new away. On examining the leaf we fourJd a hole in ft and in the side of the nest Was a small stick that the leaf was fastened to, or (hooked upon. After the storm was over, the old bird came hack and unhooked the leaf, and the nest was perfectly dry. American Sportsman. Dr. MauTier aa Poet - (R. H. Stoddard in New York Mail and Th th ne Wr. Georce-du Maurier. besides : his unique skill as an artist In black and white and his curious talent as writer of romances, possessed a genuine but unsuspected poetic gift, Is made manl r k nfr rhnHPs Savle In a recently published anthology entitled "In Praise of Music" It consists or seiecuuiia m pw and verse, and among the last is what purports td be a version of a little French poem by M. Sully Proudhomme, but which ic- MQri tua fniindrv bv Du Maurier him- self, and not an echo of the meanbag and manner of his original. 11 i wwiiuiugij natural. 'V. ' . ...... "Kindly watcher by my bed, lift no voice Waste not any words on me when the hour is nigh. Let a stream of melody but flow from cnmo aMt nraver. And meekly will I lay my head and fold my hands to . me. Sick am I of Idle words, past all reconcil ing, , . , Words that weary ana purpiex anu pander and conceal, - Wake the sounds that cannot lie, for all their sweet beguiling; - - - The language one need fathom not, Dut only hear ana ieei. Lt them roll once more to me, and ripple in my hearing, . . . Like waves upon some lonely beach where That I may steep my soul therein, and xrovinc nnncht. nor fearinff. Drift on through slumber to a dream, and through a dream to aeatn. Interesting to Antiquarians. Prom The New York Evening Sun) The rioting which took place at Col umbia, S. C, recently, in which tne students iof the South Carolina Uni versify came in contact with the police and militia, has a special Interest. Dr. Woodrow, the president, says that the-1 representatives of the law were ttres passers, although he had given them permission to go out upon the campus. He adds In explanation that 'he only did so because he thought thialt the of ficers of the state troops were gentle men. The point raised is an Interest ing' one from the antiquarian point of view. For many years the students ofj Princeton if they got into any trouble immediately took refuge on 'the cam- mis. Where they htaJd complete Immun- Ity. At Yale the right of asylum ended With the row in 1854, in which one or th'e townsmen was stabbed to death by a student. The students fled to South, College, which was - beleaguered with cannon hy the townsmen, who were oniv aopeasea oy xne personaa les of the president and faculty. At Oxford, Cambridge an'd Dublin uni versities the local police of the cities have no jurisdiction within the uni versity precincts, order being main tained 'by the academic authorities. The police 'have no power to arrest in the grounds of our colleges nowadays. The Boss and Campaign 'Contributions (Mr. J. B. Bishop, in the June Forum.) Upon what does the power of the bosses rest? How does it come about that the legislature of New York refards itself as the representative of Mr. Piatt rather than of the people. There is no longer ahy mystery about this. The power rests upon money, raised as " campaign contri butions" from both individuals and cor porations, but mainly from corporations. The system by which this is made to give one man control of the government was originated by Richard Croker, In 1893, when he was boss of Tammany Hall. When the republicans supplanted the democrats in power, Mr. Piatt adopted Mr. Croker's system as his own, and ex tended it over the entire state: I will cite some of the most outspoken defini tions of tins system which have been made in the recent past, and whicn, tnougn widely published, have never been contra dicted. Mr. Wheeler H. Peckham. one of the ablest and most honored members or the New York bar, declared in a public speech, in March, 1894, that the payment of money to the boss by corporations as the "price of peace," was general; namingone corporation which he said he knew paid $50,000 yearly, and adding that he had knowledge of a second which paid a similar amount. Mr. Henry O. Havemeyer, president of the sugar trust, testified before the senate investigating committee at Washington, in June, 1894, that the trust" made campaign contribu tions each year, to New . York political organizations, adding: "Every individual and corporation and firm trust, or what ever you call it does these things." Pinned Him Down - "John Henry Skidmore," said thlfe irate young woman, "I want to know wy you now spurn me, after winning my love and engaging yourself to marry me?"i "Very well Miss Teeters, if you insist upon it I will tell you." "I do insist." I "You have lately announced yourself a believer in theosophy." "I have. What of it?" "You declare that you have already lived several times on this earth," - "I do. Is that any reason why you should cease to love me?" . - "You say that you lived, in central Africa at least 2,750 years ago." "Yes, I did." -"And in eastern Asia 1,000 years before that?" .. "Just so." "Well, don't you see that all this disparity between our ages." - "I can't see that it does." "Then I will enlighten yau. I think that husband and wife should be nearly of the same age, the husband a little older than the wife. Certainly I cannot think of a marriage with you now that I have ascertained that there is such a disparity between our fires." "Very well, Mr. Skidmore, I will see whether the courts will entertain your view of the matter. Tomorrow I begin suit for $10,000 damages for breach of promise of marriage. Louisville Courier Journal. A Monster Flywheel The largest fly-wheel in use in this country is 40 feet in diameter and weighs 192,000 pounds. Four hundred hore-power Is required to turn this monster and, when . the full power is on, a point upon the cir cumference of the wheel tra veils .five and one-third miles every minute The wheel in question is a part of the enormous plant of the. Ohio Steel Com pany, at Youngstown.Lin the Buckeye state, and was built by William Tod & Co., of the same place. It is of cast iron, the rim being three-inch thick plates bolted together. The engine dirving this wheel has a cylinder meas uring forty-six Inches in diameter and sixty inches in length. , Ths engine is one of three used to generate the power required to mill the steel. The other two have fly-wheels weighing only 144,000 pounds each. In addition there are a number of smaller engines, the total horse-power of which aggregates the respectable total of 3,200 . Punished, for Yawning An English paper tells the story of the late Count Gleichen when the was an amhassador tn London. !At din ner party It was his hard luck to have conducted to table a lady of a taciturn and unresponsive nature. To all his polite nothings she answered not a word. Nothing daunted, (he continued to ply her with small talk, till at last she slowly turned her bead toward hhn and deliberate yawned. "Ah, anadam .' he said, loudly, "I also have got cold In my teeth," literary Evolution in America (Professor Benjamin W. . Wells, in the June Forum.) We are passing through the same stage of literary; evolution as the French ; only that with them the habit of literary criti cism and self-criticism makes the ten dency- more" marked - and more - easily studied. Here, as there. It might seem that, for the time the minds of men had overleaped themselves; as though in this strange nn du siecie we were pausing in our letters and art, uncertain of the on ward way, and seeking, in more acute rd- prehension, deeper penetration, and keen er analysis of what has been and is an answer to our perplexity of what shall be. Here, as there, originally, never absent, manifests itself too often in a studied ec centricity, and wastes its energy in a search for the novel and bizarre a search that is most futile when most successful. But as one reviews the field of American letters, one may take heart, of grace to say that our development in no way lags behind that or England, that it. has in it the promise of an evolution as brilliant, perhaps ' more critically all it is independent, and as varied, and sound . Above so is contributing an Important, perhaps an essential, part to the growth of a dis tinctly national literature. Fatal Age for Genius Among men and women of genius there seems to be a strange fatality connected with the age of 56. Some of the most renowned characters of the world have died on reaching that limit, including Dante, the Italian poet; Hugt Capet, king of France; Henry VIII, king of England; Henry IV, emperor of Germany; Paga nini, Italian violinist; Alexander Pope, the English poet; George Sala, English orientalist; Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome; Frederick I, king of Prussia; John Hancock, American statesman ; Maria Louisa, empress of France; Philip Mas sensrer. English dramatist; Saladin. the great sultan of Egypt; Robert Stephenson, English engineer; Scipio Afri.canus, Ro man general; Helvetius, French philoso- I pher and author; Henry II, the first of tne fiantagenei ime; ine eiaer riiny, o- I wion no t n po MoT anil aurhnr- Tiiliiia f o o c: o 1" man naturalist and author; Julius Caesar; Charles KIngsley, English author; Juan Prim, Spanish general and statesman; Henry Knox, American revolutionary general; Thomas Mifflin, American pa triot; Von Tromp, Dutch admiral; Abra ham Lincoln; Marryat, the novelist; George Whiterield, English founder of Calvinistic Methodist; Robert- Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen Eliz abeth; Johann Gasper Spurzheim, German physician and phrenologist, and Frederick 11, ' emperor o. Germany. A Laplander's Ureas The operation of dressing in cold weather in the far north Is so elaborate that.lt is difficult to understand hiow a deliberate boy or girl in Lapland can be ready for breakfast before dinner time. First two suits of thick woolen underclothing are put on, and over these goes a shirt of reindeer skin, with'-cloth- bands to fasten at the wrists; sometimes two of these shirts, or kaptas, are worn, and a reindeer vest 'beneath them. The trousers are of reindeer skin also. Two pairs of (a.r Ida.min 'is siirv 'to -hfLve tTvm.bl with his feet. Aroifnd the feet a peculiar grass, well dried, is carefully hounidland over all this goes the shoe. Buttons and hooks and eyes are scarce in Lap land; all clothing is fastened by strings, and it is dreadf uil to think of all the "harkl knots" that Lapland children have fumbled over Wtiilfe too sleepy to be amiable. The Moderator. The Degeneracy of Our Lawmakers (Professor JamesiH. Hyslop, in the June , Forum.) The trouble, of course, with our degen erating instiutions is to get rid of our lawmakers of the present kind. They are too much interested in postponing or es caping the day of judgment for them selves, to take up any reforms of a local kind. They may even endeavor to divert attention trom the evils here considered by raising false issues; hence the work must fall to other hands. While a goodly number ' of people are well enough con vinced that our politicians are a combina tion of fools and knaves whom- it were better to hang" and quarter than to send to the legislature for making laws, they are powerless to reform matters until the dense agricultural ignorance on problems of taxation is removed, and property hold ers are made to see . that no more black mail, in the form of taxes, is imposed to pay political debts by unwise charity, It is certainly an opportune time to agi tate widely this great reform, and there with to modify, directly or indirectly, the tendency to seek relief from taxation by disturbing the currency. Is anv, class of the communty equal to the emergency? An Interesting Kvolution. (Chicago Timejs-Herald.) Congressional methods are oassine through a notable evolution, of which conference committee legislation is a part. Ever since Speaker Reed's mas terful reduction to absurdity of the old rules of 'the house and his re-establishment of common sense as the prop er guide for the conduct of business a wonderful . change has come lover the lower house of congress and dispatch is now the watchword. The committees have Ibecoime more powerful, while in dividual members are mere ciphers. But the chief committees that are drawing all power to themselves are the committee on rules, Which says what measures shall and what shall not be considered and debated in the. house, and the committees of confer ence, wnicn gives form and shape to the legislation that Is to have the ultimate sanction of the house and the senate. It is an interesting evolution, though it has not yet reached its completed stage. . . The Electrical Piano. (Illustrated American.) A piano on an entirely new principle is announced from Germany. - The strings are stretched across the sound ing board as In the ordinary piano, but the entire hammer mechanism is ab sent. Instead, the depressing of the key puts in action a magnet, which automatically attracts and releases the wire, thus producing vibrations without the metallic stroke which accompanies the sound in the common type. The resulting effect upon the tones is said to be very remarkable. The high notes resemble those of an .Aeolian harp. The middle and lower notes are like a 'cel lo or an organ. It responds readily to every variation in power and expres sion. A- note can be' sounded for sev eral minutes without varying in qual ity. So radically different from all ex isting instruments are the effects that a. new style of music Is needed to bring out its capabilities. Senseless and Brutal. (Baltimore American.) The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals succeeded in hav ing a prominent horseman in New Jer sey heavily fined for docking Ms horse's tail, attention "being drawn to the case by the cries of the animal ft self under torture. It Is to be hoped that in time thfe cruel and disfiguring practice will entirely pass away, and : other states would do well to follow the example of New Jersey in hastening its 1. , j r I! , - "citj u Bcvere laws, siriyuy appueu to every proven case. The senseless and brutal idea that mutiiatioai of our domestic animals Is ornamental needs a. humane and efficient check. '
The Wilmington Messenger (Wilmington, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 13, 1897, edition 1
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