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"FOR GOD, FOR CO"3fTEY, AND FOU TRUTH."
COPT, 5 CEWS8.
VOL. X.
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 1899.
NO. 24.
SPRING
Surely.surely bees are humming in the mazy
tangles sweet;
Spring.with April smiles is coming: There
are lilies at her feet !
Mocking birds in beach-blooms singing thrill
with joy the dreamy air,
And the green is on the meadow, and the
wild flowers cluster there 1
r
A t, -Ir -JV -A -A-
An Onland
BY C. A.
Rufus Rundlett i3 another instauce
to prove that "the boy is father to the
man." When 16 years of age he helped
to invent an armor-clad coasting sled,
"the Kan turn-Scooter," and he alone
steered it down Wilkins hill to victory
over the "Number Seven" boys; and
- now he is commander of au armor-clad
f 3hip, quite as capable! doubt not,of
routing an enemy.
' - The schoolhouse in "Number Sis,"
where we underwent a mild form of
A education together, stood at the forks
of the county road, with the cross
town road, which led down Wilkins
hill, on one side and Mill hill on the
other. The county road extended
Dorth and south, along the crest of a
line, broad ridge of land divided into
ten. fertile farms, owned by as many
well-to-do farmers whose families
made up our school district
We young people of Number Six
had always been a little inclined to
look down on the boys and girls of
Number Seven at the Corners, near
the foot of Wilkins hill, for the deni
zens of Number Seven were a sorae
v what poor and shiftless lot. The
'y' larger boys were pugnacious and ill
" disposed, and unless a schoolmaster
were strong enough to thrash four or
five of them, he must suffer the hu
miliation of being carried out of the
schoolhouse.
At Number Six, on the contrary, the
pupils were well-advanced, self-re-Bpecting
and orderly. An able teacher
was required, but less to govern than
to instruct. Still, I now think that
the contempt in which we held the
Number Seven boys was rather phar
isaical, and I do not wonder they re
sented it. We nicknamed them "bog
trotters," and they retorted by calling
us "hill dogs." The two districts
also belonged to two rival political
parties, a fact which sharpened the
animosity between them,
i 4 Wilkins hill was the best coasting
place iu the county. It consisted of
five steep pitches, with intervals of
les3 abrupt descent between them,
which made altogether a run of more
than a mile, to the foot of the hill be
yond the bridge over Longmeadow
brook. It had always been, and is to
this day, the favorite coast of the
Number Six boys. Indeed, we boasted
that few, save Number Six boys, dared
Bteer a sled down that hill.
When the road was smooth and icy
terrific speed was attained on the low
est pitch, and any error in steering
might easily cost the coaster his life.
Boys from other places were usually
afraid to try the hill, but if a Number
Sixboy had not made the "run" at
13 or 14 years of age we deemed him
a backward lad.
The coasting sleds most in favor
with ua were small and narrow. They
were shod with half-round steel shoes,
which were slightly bowed to make a
"spring" space of an inch at the mid
dle of the runner. Our favorite pos
ture for coasting on this hill was face
downward, with toes exteuded behind
to aid in steering. Usually in start
ing at the top of the hill we ran for
ward, one after another, flung our
selves down on our sleds and thus set
off at speed.
On moonlit evenings, when there
were girls in the party, trains were
'Soften made up of ten or twelve sleds
V aoine of them large hand-sleds, on
) which four or five could sit at ease.
H, The forward or leading sled was called
5 the "engine" and was steered by one
v of the oldest, strongest boys. Such a
train, humming clown that long hill by
moonlight, gaining speed at every pitch
till it shot past the Corners at Num
ber Seven, going 60 miles an hour, af
forded an exhilarating spectacle.
There was an almost uninterrupted
view from top to bottom of the long
descent; and besides the steerer on
the engine there was a "hornman,"
whose business it was to blow a tin
horn if we saw a team or pedestrian
coming up. All the othefs, too, joined
: iu a tremendous shoutof "Road! roadl
' road!"
. The hill was so long that not more
1 than three or four coasts could be
inade in an evening and generally not
more than one during the noon inter
mission, when school was in session.
A hired man from one of the farms,
with a span of horses and a long pung
sleigh, saved us the drudgery of pull--ing
our sleds up the hill.
Laws relative to coasting were not
then very strict in Maine, and we sup
posed we had a right to coast down
the road at GO miles an hour. Nobody
had ever made any objection. The
only drawback to the sport was that
we had to run past the schoolhouse in
( Numb Seven, and the bog-trotters
were atf?ustomed to rush out and pelt
us with snowballs. The place was
IN WINTER.
There's a sense of summer sweetness In the
broad Melds and the dells
And a chime or is it fancy? of remem
bered heather-bells !
And the mildest suns ure shining, and the
skies are brlnht with blue,
And in gardens Love is twining all his rarest
wreaths for you !
Frank L. Stanton.
- At Jtr -r Jll -Jl. .r A
1
Sron-Glad.
STEPHENS.
three or four weeks before Rufus
Rnudlett devised the Rantum-Scooter;
the entire hill was smooth as glass.
Nearly every morning, noon and night
some of us Number Six boys were
coasting, and often there were parties
of 20 or 30.
The loafers and bog-trotters had
jeered at us as we flew past and snow
balled us as in former years, but be
fore long the Number Seven boys
actually undertook to stop all Number
Six coasters. They rolled great snow
balls into the road in front of the
schoolhouse and built a high fort clear
across the road. Four of our boys
who started to coast down were ob
liged to take to the ditch. The bog
trotters then rushed from their fort
and by pelting them with snowballs
forced them to run back up the hill.
They shouted that no hill dog should
pass that schoolhouse.
But as their fort stopped teams as
well as coasters, one of the selectmen
of the town ordered them to remove
it at once, and during the following
evening a train of ten sleds from Num
ber Six coasted defiantly by.
But the next noon they played a
new and worse trick on us. Eight of
ten of us set off to go down singly, one
sled a few yards behind another, when,
as we drew near Number Seven school
house, Rufus Rundlett, who was
ahead, noticed that Matthias Mousen,
one of the larger boys at the Corners,
was standing on one side of the road
and his brother Lem on the other.
"Look out for snowballs!" Rufus
shouted back to us. Neither he nor
any of the rest of us saw that a new
rope lay across the road on the snow
till the Monsen boys raised it and
caught us. Rufus' sled was capsized,
and all the rest of us were piled up in
a heap. Some of us were scraped off
our sleds, some had their sleds upset;
for the Number Seven crowd had
three or four boys at each end of the
rope, and as fast as a sled came along
it was caught by the rope and jerked
over. Meantime a dozen other Num
ber Seven boys were raining snow
balls upon us. We had to pick our
selves up, recover our sleds and get
away as best we could.
"Try it again!" they shouted after
us. "If you think you can run by
Number Seven try it again!"
For a day or two we had little dis
position to try ii again; they were too
big and too many for us to thrash, as
we would, perhaps have been justified
in doing, and wo did not dare to try
the coast; but we chafed under the re
straint and beat our brains for a de
vice to break it effectually.
"Dol" Edmunds, who, after Rufus,
was probably the most energetic of
our boys, proposed to run a big mar
ket pung sleigh down, taking one of
the thills under each arm as he lay
face downward on his narrow coasting
sled between them. This feat had
sometimes been performed on the hill
by the older boys. Dol's idea was that
the pung, loaded with ten or a dozen
boys, would break the rope or jerk it
away from those who tried to hold it.
It was evident, however, that if the
rope were so held as to upset his sled
the pung thills would drop and the
pung come to grief, to say nothing of
the danger to Dol himself from being
run over by it.
It was then that Rufus Rundlett
proposed to take the thills off the
pung and steer it down himself, by
lying directly beneath it on his own
low sled and grasping one pung run
ner at the forward upward turn in
each hand and planting a foot against
one of the iron braces of the runners
on each side. He declared he could
steer the pung in that way and be
completely covered by it.
The most of us were afraid, how
ever, that the bog-trotters would
scrape us off of. the pung with their
rope. At this stage of the argument
Rufus proposed making the pung into
a wooden armor-clad.
Dol and he worked nearly all the
following night. They took off the
low pung-box .and replaced it with one
far larger and stronger, made of joist
and pine boards. It covered the pung
runners entirely, being over eight
feet long by four feet wide, and the
sides rose to a height of over three
feet, quite sufficient to shield all who
sat within them. The box was made
fast to the runners and had a kind of
prow in front, projecting three or four
feet in a wedge-shaped triangle.
When they hauled it to the school
house next day everyone who saw it, in
cluding our woman teacher, agreed it
was the most singular "coaster" ever
seen in those parts. Rufus, when lying
under it on his little sled to steer, was
almost completely hidden from view;
p 1 fvi'il tri" (Town t'"1 tiv
essary that he should be strapped to
the little sled.
Rufus was ready to start at once,
but the courage of many of the boys
was not quite equal to taking passage
in so novel a contrivance. Indeed,
some little bravery was required, for
if Rufus failed to steer it broken necks
might be the result. Then, too, no
one knew how strong the bog-trotters'
rope would prove to be or what would
happen when we ran foul of it.
But next day, after we had eaten
our noon lunch, Rufus having sent his
father's hired man, with a span of
horses.down theliill in advance, placed
himself under the pung in position
for steering.
"Come on, boys!" he called, "who's
afraid?"
Dol Edmunds was the first to climb
in, and nine of us followed him.
"Shove off!" exclaimed Rufus, and
in a moment more we were gliding
down the first pitch. Altogether the
pung, the heavy box and its load of
boys must have weighed a ton. ' It
rapidly gathered speed. Down the
second pitch it swept, hummed across
the level stretch and took the third
pitch, faster and faster.
It was amazing that Rufus steered
so well, but he seemed to know how
at once. My own sensations swung
between terror and a wild elation.
Down the long fourth pitch we shot,
gaining tremendous headway. The
pung was now going so fast that the
jar and jolting motion had entirely
ceased. It seemed as if the road had
been oiled. The keen rush of cold air
cut our faces, and brought to my eyes,
I remember, was a haze of tears,
through which I saw dimly a wild pro
cession of hurrying trees and roadside
fences.
The Number Seven boys had seen us
coming. As we headed down the fifth
and last pitch we heard them shouting,
and seven or eight of them ran across
th8 road.
"They're stretching their rope!"
Dol exclaimed. Jumping to his feet,
he pulled off his red woolen muffler
and waved it defiantly, while we all
yelled like wild Indian". The bog
trotters yelled back defiance and raised
their rope. In their ignorance they
probably thought that, with five or sis
boys at each end of the rope, they
would be able to upset us.
But the next moment they received
an impressive object-lesson. The mo
mentum of the heavy pung was some
thing prodigious! We scarcely felt
the rope when we struck it, and the
next instant a dozen Number Seven
boys were taking .most extravagant
leaps as they were jerked into the road
behind us! All of them had been
gripping the rope hard, and some of
them were carried 50 feet before they
could let go! They wero about the
most astonished-lookiug boys that I
ever saw!
As for the pung, it did not stop till
it reached the foot of the hill beyond
the bridge over Longmeadow brook,
where we found the mau and horses
waiting to haul it back up to Number
Six.
The bog-trotter boys had not wholly
recovered from their discomfiture
when we went by; their school bell
was ringing, and when Rufus politely
asked them what they thought of our
blockade-runner they had little to say.
"Ho!" Lem eaid.feebly. "What do
we care for your old rantum-scooter!"
And the name stuck to Rufus' armor
clad. We soon came to call it the
Rantum-Scooter ourselves.
The Number Seven boys knew bet
ter than to attempt to hold a rope in
front of the blockade-runner again;
but they still imagined that the rope
would stop us, if only the ends could
be made fast. Next day at noon, when
we coasted down, we found that they
had drawn it tight across the road and
tied one end to a tree near the school
house and the other to a horse-post in
front of the grocery opposite. The
rope snapped like twine when we
struck it.
A day or two later, as we coasted
down, we found that they had collected
eight or ten ox chains, but they did
not dare to use them; perhaps because
they feared to kill some of us, or pos
sibly because the selectmen had threat
ened to have them punished if they
seriously molested us more.
After this they no longer tried to
stop U", but they pelted its hard with
frozen snowball?. For ordinary snow
balls we cared little, since we could
draw our heads down into the box as
we passed; but soon 'Thias, Lem and
some of the others began hurling heavy
lumps of ice into the pung.
To set such missiles at, defianc?,
Rufus and Dol rebuilt the box of the
pung, making the sides higher, putting
a top on it and covering it with sheet
iron.
During the following week we made
the coast not less than 20 times with
this curious contrivance. Lumps of
ice and even stones were launched at
it; but no violence which the dis
gruntled bog-trotters could inflict pre
vented our running their blockade as
long as tha good coasting weather
lasted. Youth's Companion.
The directors of the poor of North
umberland county, Penu., have de
cided to abolish salaried physicians in
the various districts of the county,
and hereafter pay a reasouable fee to
flin (loftori piiiplovn o'itu1.e of tr
MARVELOUS CIVIC INDUSTRY.
Shoreditrh In London Makes Profltabl
Ue of Street Sweepings.
In a letter from London a year ago
last summer, writes William E. Curtis,
I described a uoyel enterprise which
had been entered upon by the Shoie
ditch parish of London to supply elec
tricity for lighting the streets, dwell
ings and public buildings by
using the street sweepings for
fuel. Up to that date the parish had
paid about $30,000 per year for cart
ing the refuse to a barge on the river
Thames and towing it to a dumping
place in the sea, and about $20,000
annually for gas to light the streets
and parish buildings. About $60,000,
or $10,000 more than these annual
charges, which was met by taxing the
people, was invested in an electric
plant, which has since been run twenty-
four hours for six days in the week,
and twel vehours on Sunday, furnishing
9lectrical power for small manufac
tories duriug the day and for illumi
nating purposes at night. The street
sweepings have furnished almost all
the fuel necessary, The cost of coal
in addition was only $132. The total
expenditures for the first year were
$19,070 for wages, stores, supplies,
insurance, repairs and other purposes.
The interest, sinking fund, rents and
the ordinary allowance for the d, pre
ciation of the property "-as $10,k,Uo,
making a total of $29,275. The gross
receipts for the sale of light and
power including a credit equal to the
average charge for street lighting by
gas were $45,105, thus leaving a net
profit of $15,930 for the benefit of the
parish treasury, which will be used in
enlarging the plant.
Arrangements are now being made
lo use the escaping steam to heat the
Water of the public bath, instead of
allowing it to go to waste.
Furnaces have been added for burn
ing the garbage collected from the
dwellings which could not be used
for fuel, and this extra expense, which
was, however, comparatively trifling,
was more than offset by saving the
lost of hauling the garbage to the
barges.
The experiment has been so suc
cessful that other London parishes
are plannin g to adopt the same method,
and it is confidently predicted that in
a few years the entire city will be
lighted by electricity furnished by the
sweepings from its streets. London
is paved with wooden blocks aud small
boys are employed with brooms and
dustpans at frequent intervals from
daylight till dark to ke3p them clean.
The pans are dumped in large sheet
iron receptacles, which are emptied
twice a day into carts. In Shoreditch
parish each dwelling is supplied by
the vestry with two sheetiron buckets,
one for kitchen slops and the other
for paper, dust aud other combustible
waste from the household. The buck
ets are emptied once a day into garb
age carts. Hitherto a small tax has
been collected for this service, but
hereafter it will be performed free'of
cost.
Had the "Buck Fever."
When a hunter sees his first deer
chere i3 no telling just what he will
do. Sometimes he will try to shoot
without having his gun cocked, and
then again he will stand and stare at
the game without saying a word. A
good story is told on Frank Hughes
and Oden Eskill, who returned last
night from a hunting trip near Bad
Water. While patiently looking for
a shot Saturday, having had no oppor
tunity so far, they saw a deer's . tail
sticking out of the brush. Every once
in a while the deer would wiggle its
tail as if to invite them to come on.
They moved up cautiously, when the
deer ran out into a cleariug. The
boys followed and, to their surprise,
they saw five fine deer. Oden stood
paralyzed for a moment, and although
he had his gun in his hand ready to
shoot, he tremblingly said:
"Oh, Frank, if I only had my gun!"
Frank then tried to raise his gun,
but his muscles would not work, and
he stood there like a sphyux until the
herd ran away. The boys, however,
fired a shot after the deer to let them
know that they were alive and well.
Iron Mountain Tribune.
Sterne's Destitution.
Lawrence Sterne, the writer, was
the victim of the intensest poverty. A
little time before his death, being in a
state of destitution, he went one
evening borrow $25 from his
friend Garrick. Upon arriving he
heard music and knew that a part
was going on. He heard the merry
laughter, and gently replacing the
up-lifted knocker, retraced his steps.
We never feel our miseries so keen
ly as when contrasted with the joys of
others, and it is only then that we
realize Wordsworth's picture:
"And homeless near a thousand homes I
stood,
Ind near a thousand tables pined for food.
Another story of this writer does
not evoke so much sympathy. It was
known that Sterue used his wife very
ill, and in talking with Garrick one
day in fine sentimental style of con
jugal love and fidelity, said, 'The bus
baud who behaves unkindly to hi?
wife deserves to have his house burn
dowu over his head."
"If you think so," said Garrick,
quietly, "I hope yours is, well in-
DK. TAL-HAGES SERMON.
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "The Housewife's Perplexities"
Lessons Drawn From the Episode of
Martha and Mary Dally Trials Pre
pare One For Future Blessings.
Text: "Lord, dost Thou not care that
my sister hath left me to serve alcne? Bid
her therefore that she help me.' Luke x.,
40.
Yonder is a beautiful village homestead.
The man of the house Is dead and his
widow has charge of the premises. It is
Widow Martha, of Bethany. Yes, I will
show you also the pet of the household. It
Is Mary, the younger sister, with a book
under her arm, and in her face-ao sign of
care or anxiety about anything. Company
has come. Christ's appearing at the outside
of the door makes some excitement Inside
the door. The sisters set back the disar
ranged furniture, arrange their hair, and
in a flash prepare to open the door. They
do not keep Christ waning outsiae umu
they have newly appareled themselves or
elaborately arranged their tresses, and
then with affeoted surprise come out and,
pretending not to have heard the two or
three previous knockings, say, "Why, is
that you?" No, they were ladies, and al
ways presentable, although perhaps they
had not on their best. None of us always
have on our best. Otherwise very soon
onr best would not be worth having on.
They throw open the door and greet Christ.
They say: "Good morning, Master! Come
in and be seated!" Christ brought a com
pany of friends with Him, and the influx
of so many city visitors, you do not won
der, threw the country home into some
perturbation. I suppose the walk from the
city had been a keen appetizer. The
kitchen department that day was a very
Important department, and I think as soon
as Martha had greeted her guests she went
to that room. Mary bad no anxiety about
the dinner. She had full confidence that
her sister Martha could get up the best
dinner in Bethany, and she practically
said: "Now, let us have a division of labor.
Martha, you cook and I'll eit down and
learn."
u- The same difference you now sometimes
see between sisters. There is Martha, in
dustrious, painstaking, a good manager,
ever inventive of some new pastry, discov
ering something in household affairs.
Here is Mary, fond of conversation, liter
ary, so full of questions of ethics she has
no time to discuss questions of household
welfare. It is noon. Mary is in the par
lor. Martha is in the kitchen. It would
have been better for them to havo divided
the toil, and then they could have divided
the opportunity of listening to Christ. But
Mary monopolizes Christ, while Martha
swelters before the lire. It was very Im
portant that they have a good dinner that
day, for Christ was hungry, and He did not
often have luxurious entertainment. Alas,
me, it all the responsibility of that enter
tainment had rested with Maryl What a
repast they would have had! But some
thing went wrong in the kitchen. Either
the lire would not burn or the bread would
not bake or something was turned black
that ought to have been only turned
brown, or Martha scalded herself, and,
forgetting all the proprieties of the occa
sion, with besweated brow she rushed out
of the kitchen into the parlor, perhaps
with tongs in one hand and pitcher in the
other, and she cried out: "Lord, dost Thou
not cure that my sister has left me to 3erve
alone? Bid her therefore that she help
me." Christ scolded not a word. If it
were scolding, I would rather have Him
scold me than anybody else bless me.
There was nothing acerb in the Saviour's
reply. Ho knew that Martha had been
working herself almost to death to get Him
something to eat, but He appreciated her
kindness, and He practically said: "My
dear woman, do not worry. Let the din
ner go. Sit down here on this couch be
side your younger sister, Mary. Let us
talk ubout something else. Martha, Mar
tha, thou art careful and troubled about
many things, but one thing is needful."
As Martha throws open the door I look
in to-day, and I see a great many
household anxieties, perplexities, fatigues
and trials, and about them I am going to
speak if the Lord of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus will help me by His grace.
As I look into that door, in the first
place, I see the trial of nonappreciation.
That was what made Martha so vexed at
Mary. Mary, the younger sister, had no
proper estimate of the elder sister's fa
tigue. Just as now men havlDg annoy
ances of store and factory and shop, or at
the Stock Exchange, come home at night
and hear of some household annoyance,
and they say, "Oh, that's nothing! You
ought to bo in a factory a day and nave ten
or fifteen or twenty or 100 subordinates.
Then you would know something about
annoyance and trouble." Oh, man, let me
tell you that a wife and a mother has to
conduct at the same time a university, a
clothing establishment, a restaurant, a
laundry, a library, and has to be health
officer, police and president of the whole
realm! She has to do a thousand
things, and to do thorn well, in order to
make things go smoothly, and that is what
puts the awful tax on a woman's nerves
and a woman's brain. I know there are
exceptions to the rule. Sometimes you
will And a woman who can sit In the arm
chair of the library all day without any
anxiety, or tarry on the belated pillow,
and ail the cares of the household are
thrown upon servants who have large
wages and great experience; but that is
the exceptional speak of the great masses
of housekeepers, to whom life Is a strug
gle, and who at thirty years of age look as
though they were forty. The fallen at Cha
lons and Austerlitz and Gettysburg and
Waterloo are a small number in comparison
with those who have gone down under the
Armageddon of the kitchen. Go out to the
country and look over the epitaphs on the
tombstones. They are all beautiful and
poetic, but if the tombstones could tell the
truth thousands of them would say, "Here
lies a woman who was killed by too much
mending and sewing and baking and scour
ing and scrublng," and the weapon with
which she was killed was a broom or a
sewing machine or a ladle.
The housewife rises in the morning half
rested. At an irrevocable hour she must
have the morning repast ready. What if
the fire will not bum, what if the clock
stop, what if the marketing has not been
sent in? No matter that; it must be ready
at the irrevocable hour. Then the chil
dren must bo got ready for school. But
what if the garments be torn? What if
they do not know their lessons? What if
the hat or sash is lost? They must be
ready. Then you havo the duty of the day,
or perhaps several days, to plan out. But
what if the butcher sends meat unmastl
cable? What If the grocer furnishes your
articles of food adulterated? What if the
piece of silver be lost, or a favorite chalice
be broken, or the roof leak, or the plumb
ing fall, or any ono of a thousand things
occur? No matter. Everything must be
readv. The spring is coming and there
must be a revolution in the family ward
robe, or the autumn is at hand, and you
chest? How if the garments of the lost
year do not fit the children now? What if
all the fashions have changed?
' A young woman of brilliant education
and prosperous surroundings was called
down stairs to help In the absence of tha
servant, and there was a ring at the bell,
and she went to the door and an admirer
entered. He said: "I thought I heard
music in the house. Was it on the piano
or the harp?" She said: "Neither; it was a
frying pan accompaniment to a gridiront
In other words, I was called dowu stair
to help. I suppose sometime I shall havs
to learn, and I have begun now." When
will the world learn that every kind of
work that is right is honorable?
As Martha opens the door I look In and
I also see the trial of severe economy.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine households
out of a thousand are subjected to it either
under the greater or less stress of circum
stances. It is especially so when a man
smokes expensive cigars and dines at
costly restaurants. He will be very apt to
enjoin severe economy at home. That is
what kills tbousauds of women the
attempt to make 5 do the work of $7. It
is amazing how some men dole out money
to the household. If you have not got tha
money, say so. If you have, be cheerful
in the expenditure. Your wire will be
reasonable. "How long does the honey
moon last?" said a young woman about to
enter the married state to her mother. The
mother answered: "The honeymoon lasts
until you ask your husband for money."
"How much do you want?" "A dollar."
"A dollar! Can't you get along with fifty
cents? You are always wanting a dollar."
This thirty years war against high prices,
this everlasting attempt to bring the outgo
within the income, has exhausted multi
tudes of housekeepers. Let me say to
such, it is a part of the divine discipline.
If it were best for you, all you would have
to do would b just to open the front win
dows and the ravens would fly in with
food, and after you had baked ilfty times
from the barrel in the pantry, like the
barrel of Zarephath, the barrel would be
full, and the children's shoes would last as
leng as the shoes of the Israelites in tha
wilderness forty years.
Oh, my friends, all these trials and
fatigues of home life are to prepare you
for heaven, for they will make that the
brighter in the contrast! A dying soldir
was asked by a friend, "Have you any
message to send to your father?" "Yes,"
said he; "tell Urn I have gone home."
"Well," said the friend, "have you any
message to send to your wife?" "Yes; tell
her I have gone Lome." "You have other
friends. Would you like to send a message
to them?" "Yes; give them the same mes
sage. They will understand It. Tell them
I have gone home." And that heavenly
home wlli compensate," will fully atone, for
all the hardships and the trials and the
annoyances and the vexations of the
earthly home. In that' land they never
hunger, and consequently there will be no
nuisance of catering for appetite. In that
land of theiwhite robes they have no mend
ing to do, and the air of that billy country
makes them all well. No rent to pay there.
Every man owns his own house, and a
mansion at that. It will not be so great a
change to step into the chariot of the skies
if on earth you rode. It will not be so
great a change if on earth you had all
luxuries and satisfactions. It will not be
so great a change for you to sit down on
the banks of the river of life if on earth
you had a country seat.
Solomon wrote out of his own miserablo
experience he had a wretched home; no
man can beappy with two wives, much
less with 700,and out of his wretched exper
ience he wrote "Better is a dinner of
herbs where love i3 than a btalled ox and
hatred therewith. "-Oh, the responsibilities
of housekeepers! Kings by their indiges
tion have lost empires and generals
through indigestion have lost battles. One
of the great statisticians says that out of
1000 unmarried men thirty were crlmlnnls,
and out of 1000 married men only eighteen
werecriminals.showlng the power of homo.
And, oh, the responsibility resting upon,
housekeepers! By the food they provide,
by the couch they spread, by the books
they Introduce, by the influence they bring
nround the home, they are helping to de
cide the physical, the Intellectual, the
moral, the eternal welfare of the human
race. Oh, the responsibility!
That woman sits in the house of God to
day perhaps entirely unappreciated. She
is the banker of her home, the president,
the cashier, the teller, the discount clerk,
and ever and anon there Is a panic. God
knows the anxieties and the cares, and he
knows that this is not a useless sermon,
but that there are multitudes of hearts
waiting for the distillation of the divine
meri'y and solace in their hour of trials
and their home duties and their own fa
tigues. The world hears nothing about
them. They never speak about them. You
could not with the agencies of an inquisi
tion bring the truth out of them. They
keep it still. Tbey say nothing. They en
dure and will until God and the judgment
right their wrongs.
It is the self sacrificing people that are
happy, for God pays so largely, so glori
ously, so magnificently, in the deep and
eternal satisfactions of the soul. Self sa
crifice! We all admire it ia others. How
little we exercise of it! now much would
we endure? How muoh would we risk for
others? A very routrh schoolmaster had a
poor lad that had offended the laws of the
school, and he ordered him to come up,
"Now," he said, "you take off your coat
instantly and receive this whip." The boy
declined, and more vehemently the teacher
said, "I tell you, now, take off your coat.
Take it off instantly." The boy again de
clined. It was not bseause he was afraid
of the lash; he was used to that in bis cruel
home. But It was for shame. He had no un
dergarments, and when at last he removed
his coat there went up a sob of emotion all
through the school as they saw why he did
not wish to romove his coat, and as they
saw the shoulder blades almost cutting
through) the skin. As the schoolmaster
lifted his whip to strike a roseate, healthy
boy leaped up and said: "Stop school
master; whip me. He is only a poor chap:
he can't stand it. Whip me." "Oh," said
the teacher, "it's going to be a very severe
scourging! But if you want to take the
position of a substitute, you ean do it."
The boy said: "I don't care; whip me.
I'll take it; he's only a poor chap.
Don't yon see the bones almost
through the flesh? Whip mc."
when the blows came down on the
shoulders, this healthy, robust lad
come
And
boy's
made
no outcry; he endured it all uncomplaining
ly. We all sav "Bravol" for that lad.
Bravo! That Is the spirit of Christ! Splen
did! How much scourging, how much
chastisement, how much anguish will you
and I take for others? Oh, that we might
have something of that boy's spirit! Aye,
that we might have something of the spirit
of Jesus Christ: for in all our occupations
and trades and businesses, and all our
life home life, foreign life we are to re
member that the sacrifice for others will
soon be over.
Two Newark Girls Suffocated by Gas.
A leaky gas tube running from a gas fix
ture to a khs stove used to heat their room
caused the death of Pauline Handler,
eighteen years old, and Julia Sovna, six
teen years old, in Newark, N. J., a few