The Home Circle.
LABOR.
If there be good in that I wrought,
Thy hand oompelled it, Master, Thine ;
Where I have failed to meet Thy thought,
I know, through Thee, the blame ia mine.
One instant's toil to Thee denied
Stands all eternity's offense ;
Of that I did with Thee to guide,
To Thee, through Thee, be excellence.
Who, lest all thought of Eden fade,
Bringst Eden to the craftsman's brain,
Godlike to muse o'er his own trade
And manlike stand with God again.
The depth and dream of my desire,
The bitter paths wherein I stray,
Thou knowest who has made the fire,
Thou knowest who has made the clay.
One stone the more swings to her place
In that dread temple of Thy worth ;
It is enough that through Thy grace
I saw naught common on Thy earth.
Take not that vision from my ken,
O, whatsoe'er may spoil or speed,
Help me to need no aid from men
That I may help such
THE ORATORS AND ORATORY OF THE STUMP.
The pulpit, the bar and the stump
are the three conspicuous arenas of
American oratory. To these may
be added a fourth, hardly less con
spicuous, the legislative assembly ;
and a fifth, now grown to notable
influence, the political convention.
Of these, the last three may prop
erly be used to illustrate the Ameri
can notion of political eloquence.
The stump speech is a borrowed in
stitution in everything except its
name, though under that somewhat
primitive description it has flour
ished here more luxuriantly than in
its native land. Beginning in the
form of an appeal of the candidate
to the electiors in his own behalf,
it has broadened, until it includes
all forms of political discussion ad--dressed
to the public at large in
mass-meeting assembled.
Both here and in other English
speaking countries it has drawn to
itself a shade of disrepute, arising
in part from the disdain with which
a certain class of people look upon
politics, and in part from the fact
that cheap and unscrupulous arts ;
which would not be tolerated in the
-church, or even in the court-house,
have always felt more or leas at home
in the furious antagonisms of party
strife.
"The stump orator has not yet en
tirely recovered from the influence
of Thomas Carlyle's fierce satire
printed fifty years ago, a satire
which was in inself a tribute to the
influence of the hustings ; since in
order to reach the object of his at
tack he had to impeach the intelli
gence of the "two finest nations in
the world," and give them up in de
spair as "having gone away after
talk and wind." It is easy to see
that this clumsy criticism is only a
part of his general complaint against
the progress of society the voice of
the old regime recording its male
diction against the new era.
The stump has suffered in pies
tige far more, in our own times, on
account of a certain want of serious
ness in their work exhibited by the
orators themselves. This was illus
. trated at the end of General Harri
son's first campaign, when the
speakers who had taken part in it
gave themselves a dinner in New
York, at which they organized the
Spellbinders' Association. They
gained the title on account of the
interesting uniformity of language
in which their speeches were habit
ually reported in the press. Mr
Evarts, in his argument in de
fence of Andrew Johnson, said that
no speech could be so poor that the
newspapers would not describe it as
able and eloquent, these being the
lowest terms to which friendly re
porters could reduce even a worth
less discourse. So that the National
Committee, finding every speech j a speech is printed in the newspa
that was delivered described in pers to lead a wie man to lower the
prompt letters to tho headquarters, j standard of his art in presenting it
and by invariable reports in the j to an audience. The influence which
local newspapers, as having held the j the press has had on oratory lies in
audience "spellbound" for over two J another direction. The enterprise
hours, very naturally fell into the j of the modern newspaper tends to
vcav of desi;jnM.t:Tj t!-o eoalcr in exhut snbjrct5, to saturate the
v. ords
suggested
by .Lis phr;;e.
The jest has been perxietuated and
has undoubtedly taken away from
the stump some of the prestige and
dignity with which this form of pop
ular oratory wa once clothed.
STUMP SPEAKING IS DEMOCRATIC.
But notwithstanding all that the
stump has to contend with, it still
remains, and must always remain,
;a potent centre of influence. The
satire bred in high intellectual at
mospheres, which derides it, is
aimed at our form of government,
men as need.
-Rudyard Kipling.
at the management of their own
affairs by the people themselves, at
parliaments and all manner of rep
resentative assemblies, at that tre
mendous revolution which is grad
ually preparing the whole world for
the new order of things ; at "the
count of heads" as much as at "the
clack of tongues."
A LATTER DAY EVIL.
Another thing has contributed to
the decline of stump speaking in
popular respect. There was a time
when the honor of addressing the
people was regarded as a sufficient
reward for the time and labor in
volved. No one expected any other
compensation than the good will of
the community, finding expression
ultimately in a call to the public
service. It is a matter for regret
that very little of the campaign
speaking of to-day finds its recom
pense in glory either abstract or con
crete, but rather in an agreed allow
ance in the standard coin of the
realm. This is unfortunate, for the
inquiry which naturally arises in the
minds of the audinces as to the
amount of the speaker's per diem
obviously interferes with the atti
tude of mind which induces the
eager acceptance of truth. The sit
uation is emphasized when an ora
tor, as in the case of one of the most
famous of the present time, appears
in one campaign for one party, and
in the next for the other. Such a
thing gives a look of bloodless at
torneyism to the whole business,
and puts the audience on its guard
against the loss of self control which
is sometimes brought on by the
passion of the speaker.
FIAVE SOMETHING TO SAY AND YOU CAN
SAY IT.
There is no limit to the demand
for speakers, and the supply appears
to be limited only by the severe tests
required by a more enlightened pub
lic taste. There was a time when
the lawyer furnished practically
all the secular eloquence consumed
in the country ; but the every-day
citizen is beginning to find his voice,
since nothing is more natural than
that an age which desires to learn
should be willling to sit at the feet
of any one who knows the practical
realities of life. The idea is slowly
gaining ground tha; whoever knows
anything with thorough accuracy
has little trouble in telling it in a
form entirely acceptable. This was
illstrated in the recent national cam
paign, when Senator Hanna, who
was sixty years old before he at
tempted to make a public address,
was everywhere accorded a distinc
tion as an orator rarely attained
after a lifetime of training.
DEEPENING THE CONVICTIONS OF THE
HEARER.
There is nothing in the fact that
pub.ic with knowledge the things
about which the orator is to speak,
tt;king away from him the interest
which attaches to novelty and ex
clusive information. It is easy to
see that all this has tended to kill
certain kinds of oratory, and to put
under a high pressure all who seek
to influence the public thought,
that they may present common forms
j of knowledge in such a way as to
hold the attention and impress the
judgment or those who hear.
Indeed some, with strange per-
Tho Progressive Farmor, June 18, 1901.
versity, have claimed that the high
est attainment of the orator possi
ble in these days is to deal with the
convictions of the audience in such
a way as to emphasize the truth al
ready in their minds. Such was the
achievement of Mr. Bryan at Chi
cago. He stated no new facts, the
body of his discourse being taken
almost verbatim from speeches
which he had been delivering in va
riou parts of the countay for the
space of two years. There was
nothing in what he said to convert
anybody to the views which he was
defending, and in fact he converted
nobody to those views. But he did
a thing even more remarkable ; he
converted everybody that held those
views to him, in such a way that
they have taken a special interest in
him ever since. He found an an
dience already of his way of think
ing, though when he took the floor
the majority of the convention were
in despair because nobody had able
to make an intelligible statement of
his opinions in a tone of voice loud
enough to be heard. At last this
young man got the opportunity
which he went there to seek. He
had the look of an athlete as he stood
up in that tumultuous assembly.
His voice was strong and musical
and he had learned how to use it. It
reached the extreme limit of .the am
phitheatre, and as he spoke he made
every inflction count ; so that while
he did not add an idea to the sum
of knowledge and added but few
striking phrases to the familiar vo
cabulary of the discussion, it gradu
ally dawned upon the convention that
they had found in him their appointed
leader in the great controversy upon
which they were about to enter. Yet
his whole art consisted in summariz
ing the prejudices and convictions
of the convention audibly, so that
they could be heard and understood.
nARD WORK AND YOUR BEST EFFORTS.
There are orators who affect to
despise the smell of oil and to count
it as a superiority that they speak
extemporaneously ; but such can get
little comfort out of the study of
the lives and labors of those who
have made a permanent impression
on the art ; and, too, most of them
do not tell the truth, but are trying
to have credited to their genius
what in reality belongs to their la
bor, forgetting altogether that
there is no genius except hard work.
The stump has been the last field
of oratory to submit to the exac
tions of toil and care and unremit
ting attention to details. This has
been partly the fault of the public,
which has allowed itself to be im
poseed upon by patiently receiving
all sorts and conditions of speeches.
The schoolhouse and the newspaper
have gone far to restore even the re
mote rural districts to their natural
rights in these matters. Charles
James Fox once said that however
humble his audience he always felt
that -t was his duty to do his best.
That course was a good thing for
the audience and undoubtedly a
good thing for the orator, for in no
art is it ever safe for a man to fall
below the best that is in him. Sen
ator Jonathan P. Dolliver, of Iowa,
in Saturday Evening Post.
THE WONDERS OF A MAGICAL NUMBER.
Everybcdy knows the tricks that
can be played with the number 9
that mysterious property known as
the 'power of nine." But strange
things are sometimes discovered
with regard to other numbers, even
when we get into hundreds and
thousands. There is the number
142,857, for instance. At first sight
one would not suspect it of anything
singular ; it is only when we take to
multiplying it that we discover its
powers. We shall find that if we
multiply it by any number, from one
up to six, we shall arrive at pro
ducts expressed by exactly the same
figures as the original. Not only so,
but, with the exception that a differ
erent figure leads off each time, tho
order of figures is the same.
142,857 multiplied by 1 is the same.
142,857 " hv 2 is 2SS.714.
1 12 n:.r b - :; is r:-,:::.
142,857 " by 4 is 571,428.
142,857 " by 5 is 714,285.
142,857 " by t5 is 857,142.
But with this multiplying by 0 the
strangeness stops, though the result
of multiplying the number by 7 gives
the rather odd figure of 099,999,
simply lacking one to make the mil
lion. If the process is carried
further and the number is multi
plied by 8, 9, 10, 11, etc., the result
will be almost as startling as in the
c-ese of the smaller multipliers.
CHOOSING THE HIGHER.
As any book, however good, may
be a bad one to us, if it takes the
time whioh might be spent reading a
better one, so any work, any occupa
tion, may be comparatively bad for
for us, if we are free to choose, if
we are adapted to something higher.
In other words, we should aim to do
the highest and noblest things possi
ble and practicable.
No man has a right, for instance,
to develop his brute qualities, while
his higher nature lies dormant or
atrophied. It is a shame for a young
man with a vigorous physique, a fine
brain, and great possibilities, to
choose a career which brings his
purely animal qualities into ac
tivity and destroys his higher
manhood, for his nobler qualities
must inevitably perish for want of
exercise. Nature's law "Use or
lose," is inexorable.-
How many young men of ability,
of fine education, and robust health,
are literally throwing away their
lives in some degrading business
which elevates nobody, but, on the
contrary, demoralizes and contami
nates everyone who comes in contact
with it. Does it pay a young man of
godlike powers and infinite capabili
ties to ostracize himself from society,
to forfeit the respect of his fellow
men, tor the sake of a few paltry dol
lars which he has accumulated at the
cost of a debauched conscience, and
the destruction of his better self?
Can any amount of money or any
physical pleasure compensate for a
career on which society frowns, and
which one's better self condemns?
Dr. O. 8. Harden, in Success.
A COUNTRY LIBRARY.
R. C. Sackenken of Keystone, 111.,
writes as follows in regard to a coun
try library :
"Where the farmer's means are
limited, and that is the case with
most of us, a plan of co-operation
among the book lovers of a com
munity should be adopted. In this
way quite a circulating library can
be maintained at a very moderate
individual expense One has been in
existence in my neighborhod for a
number of years. It now contains
about 175 volumes ; has a membership
of twenty-four. The funds have
been raised chiefly through basket
sociables, lap suppers and the like.
A president and librarian are chosen
annually. When a sufficient amount
of money is on hand a special meet
ing is called or a committee appoint
ed by the president for the purpose
of selecting new books. These we
buy in the open market at the lowest
possible figure. We are ..thereby able
to affect a considerable saving over
the regular prices of dealers and
agents. Contributing to the support
of a book agent should be considered
as one of the small leaks on the
farm."
PLEASE EXCUSE HASTE.
An Army officer says that in one
engagement there were numbers of
young fellows who smelt powder for
the first time, and it is not surpris
ing that at times the recruits were a
a trifle unsteady.
"However," said the old officer,
"I only remember one case of actual
flight, and when I think of it I can
scarcely refrain from laughing.
"In the very thick of a hotly con
tested engagement one of my men
threw down his rifle and bolted.
" 'Here, you coward,' I roared after
him, 'what are you running for?'
"Without so much as a glance
overhis shoulder, the fellow replied :
'Because I'm in a desprit hurry, an'
I can't fly!'"
EUGENE FIELD'S ARITHMETIC.
The first book which Eugene Field
had printed was the "Tribune
Primer, ' ' published in Denver in 1882.
It was composed of short lessons in
different lines of study. As there
are said to be not more than seven or
eight copies of the book now in ex
istence, readers may be glad to see
two sreimon pnrasrrajh'a from the
lessens lu "ineulal arithmetic":
"If you have Five Cucumbers and
eat Three, what will you have left?
Two. No ; you are wrong. You
will have more than that. You will
have Colic enough to double you up
in a bow Knot for Six Hours. You
may go to the foot of the Class.
"If a Horse weighing 1,600 pounds
can Haul four tons of Pig Iron, how
many seasons will a Front Gate
painted Blue carry a young Woman
on One Side and a young man on the
Other?"
TO TEST BUTTER.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
A recent bulletin of the Depart
ment of Agriculture gives two sim
ple tests whereby housekeep
ers may ascertain whether they
are getting pure butter, oleo or
renovated butter. One of these tests
is by boiling and the other by a
method designed by Mr. C. H. Water
house. The first test may be conducted
in the kitchen as follows : Take a
piece of the sample about the size
of a chestnut, put it in an ordinary
tablespoon and hold it over a gas or
kerosene lamp, turned low, with
ohimney off. Hasten the melting
by stirring with a splinter of wood ;
then increase the heat and bring it
to as brisk a boil as possible. After
the boiling has begun, stir the con
tents of the spoon thoroughly, not
neglecting the outer edge, two or
three times at intervals during the
boiling always shortly before the
boiling ceases. Oleomargarine and
renovated butter boil noisily, sput
tering (more or less) like a mixture of
grease and water when boiled, and
produce no foam, or but very little.
Renovated butter usually produces
a very small amount. Genuine but
ter boils usually with less noise and
produces an abundance of foam.
The difference in regard to foam is
very marked. The Waterhouse test
is as follows : Half fill a 100 co.
beaker with sweet milk ; heat nearly
to a boiling and add from five to ten
grains of butter or oleomargarine.
Stir with a small wooden rod, about
the size of a match, until the fat is
melted. The beaker is then placed
in cold water and the milk stirred
until the temperature falls suffi
ciently for the fat to congeal. At
this point the fat, if oleomargarine,
can easily be collected together on
one lump by means of the rod,
while if butter, it will granulate and
cannot be so collected. The bulle
tin, which gives .detailed instruc
tions, can be obtained from mem
bers of Congress. Marriott.
Washington, D. C.
VALUE OF ART IN THE HOME.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The excellent article from the pen
of Prof. Jerome Dowd, of Trinity
College, published in The Progressive
Farmer of June 4th under the title
"Arrt In the South," deserves a
wide reading. In this materialistic
age, the value of art is often dis
credited. Our farmers too often
think that the ground which their
wives and daughters use for grow
ing flowers ought to be producing
beets or cabbage ; and the same spirit
pervades many walks of life. This
idea is very ably combatted by
Prof. Dowd himself, who says :
"If art had no moral or religious
significance, still it ought to be cul
tivated because it adds to human
happiness and makes life a little
more worth living. It is quite com
mon to have people say, 'Well, we
have plenty to do with the necessary
things of life. Art is not necessary.
Let us leave it alone.' Certainly it
is not necersary. Swine and goril
las do very well without it ; they
are satisfied to occupy their days in
a scramble for food. Their minds
minister only to their stomachs. It
is possible for men to live on the
same plane, and many of them do.
"But is it all of life to eat, drink
or sleep? If so, the teachings of
Scripture is falsified, and instead of
man being made a 'little lower than
the angels, ' he is indeed on a level
with the brutes. The ability to pro
duce art, and the finding in it one
of the joys of life, are the distin
guishing marks between man and
the lower species. 'Man lives not
by bread alone.' Instead of despis
ing art we should glory in it as a
sign of superior being. Who can
listen to the songs of birds, the sigh
ing of winds, the roar of the break
ers ; or look at flowers, trees and
landscapes and sunsets, or behold
the lighted dome of heaven, and not
believe that God intended mankind
to find a large measure of his hap
piness in the realms of Art?"
But my purpose in writing this
letter is to call attention to the com
mpnomnt duress of Hn. Cr
roii 1. Wright aexiveied ijeluro Uit)
graduating class of the A. & M. Col
lege, Raleigh, May 29th, which the
writer had the pleasure of hearing.
I was struck with some expressions
of his regarding the same subject so
aby treated by Prof. Dowd, whioh I
send you for publication if you
think them worthy. Said he :
"Art in any of its forms stimulates
ethical conduct. It induces the moral
state that is essential to happy rela
tions in society. It awakens slum
bering possibilities. It induces in
tellectual aotivity. It brimT"
bers of society to realize that de
true religious life which, after y!
conoerns happiness more than
other one element, makes sacrifi
easy, stirs our souls to the loft8
contemplation of creative po8
In short, it helps to make the tr?
man and the true woman. jjv 6
work of creative art is a revelati
to divine beauty ; hence it ia of th
deepest significance to religion and
to every element of social well beiu
Even the lowest forms of artist?
expression, so long as they embod?
art ideas at all, are beneficial. a
pecially among the common people is
this true. The cheap prints that
adorn the humblest homes have an
uplifting influence, and must be con
sidered as positive evidence of the
existence of an aspiration to some
thing better. Cheap reproductions of
art works help to educate and bean,
tify the lives of the masses of the
people.
"Some time ago, in riding up town
in New York on the elevated, I hap.
pened to sit beside a shop girl. Her
whole attention was engaged in
studying a popular magazine, and
my curiosity was excited to the ex
tent of watching her face and learn
ing the subject which was attracting
her. I found she was reading an ar
ticle relative to some of the great
works of our best artists, and in
studying the engravings which ac
companied it. At the cost of a dime
she was bringing into her life, at the
close of her day's labor, the company
of the world's greatest artistic geni
uses. She was forgetting her hard lot,
and drinking in some of the inspira
tion which enables the artist to
bring forth his highest creation ; she
was en nobling her own mind by the
ennobling influences of the work of
others ; she was fitting herself to in
sist that in her own home surround
ings there should be something to
cheer, something to attract, and
something to inspire ; and I believe
that could she have been followed to
her home there would have been
found some evidences of art produc
tion, cheap it may be, possible com
mon, but nevertheless a sure indica
tion of the existence in her own soul
of an inspiration after something
higher than the drudgery which she
was compelled to follow."
. H. P. Ranes,
A PROPHECY THAT CAME TRUE.
Mr. Greville was persuaded when
he was over sixty years of age to
attend a spiritualistic seance. Foster,
the presiding medium, was in great
form, and the revelations were
astounding. Greville sat silent, and
his aged, wizened face was as emo
tionless as a mask. Suddenly the
medium grew excited, and said to
the old gentleman :
"A female form is bending over
you. Oh, the extraordinary like
ness !"
Greville sighed.
"It is your mother !"
"Ah, poor thing," said Greville.
"I am glad of that."
"She smiles at you ; she says all is
well with her."
Greville sighed again, and said:
"I am delighted."
"She says she will see you soon.
You are old, and you must meet her
before long."
Then Greville smiled, and quietly
observed :
"That's certainly true. I'm going
this evening to take tea with her."
WHEN THE CHILD "PLAYS HOOKEY."
Children sometimes pretend to be
ill to escape going to school. Feign
ing illness to escape duty is called in
the army malingering and is always
punished when detected. A child
who habitually complains of head
ache just before school time should
be put on a sofa in a darkened room,
not permitted to read, nor look at
pictures, and have a hot-water bag
placed at his feet. If the ailment
is real this is the best treatment for
the early stages ; if it is feigned the
silence and solitude soon becomes so
irksome that the culprit i3 glad to
do anything to escape from them.
Other affected pains should be
treated us if tbpy were real, and it
should hi distinctly understood in
the family that the child who is too
ill to go to school, and to learn hi?
lessons, is too ill to be out of bed.
If a child play truant the lessons he
loses should be made up at home in
his play-time, and the mother should
take pains to see that this is done,
so that he may find truancy unprofit
able. He may be put to bed as soon
as he returns home on the assump
tion that he must be ill, because
nothing but illness should keep him
from going to school. Ladies' Home
Journal.
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