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VOL. X. .
PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1899.
NO. 34.
THE MORNIN'
Vhen the winter snow Is meltin', and the
furrow is a-showln',
An' there's gaps along the fences where
the drifts have broke the rails ;
When ye Bmeli the spruces an' the brakes on
ev'ry wind that's blowin',
An' hear along the mountainside the hounds
a-follerln trails ;
Then ye better put yer frock on, for the
, workin' days are here,
An' there's no time left for dreamin' in the
mornin' o' the year.
When the cows are standin' in the yard, contented-like,
a-cbewin',
An' the rooster flaps his wings an' crows
upon the barnyard gate ;
When the wind is sharp an' gusty, an' the
showers are a-brewin',
An' nature's wipin' off the snow like fig
ures on a slate ;
Then it's time to bang the buckets up an'
tap the trees agin,
For the sun is crowdin' winter out an' shov
in' summer in.
Florence
- A A -V A -A. A A rfW A .ft. 'Jlz t. A A: A A A A A- m. A
PHILIP'S PROMOTION.
A , ' r
4 By L. E. Chittenden.
"All right," said Philip, struggling
with his white tie. A servant had just
informed him that his father wished
to see him in the library.
Philip was arraying his comely self
for the Mortons' pat ty, and ns he fin
ished he surveyed himself a moment,
then taking up his gloves he stalked
down the stairs and into the stately
library where his father sat at a table
writing.
Philip's father was a great railroad
magnate of whom most men stood in
wholesome awe, but his stern face
lighted up wonderfully as the athletic
figure of his only son came up to his
chair and laid a hand affectionately on
his shoulder.
"What is it, excellency?" Philip
asked, and the tones of his voice sent
a thrill of pride through his father's
pulses.
"Sit down, Phil," said his father,
motioning to a chair near at hand.
"Were you, in that crowd last night
that nearly wrecked a horseless car
riage and frightened a horse that an old
woman from the country was driving?
She might have been killed if one of
you I fancy I know who (Philip
blushed) hadn't taken a flying leap
at considerable risk and caught the
horse just ia time and stopried it."
"Yes, I was there," said Philip.
"You see, father, the boys took old
Steele with them. He knows all about
inotocycles and thiugs like that, but
not much else. But Steele put on airs,
bo the boys pulled him off the seat,
and two or three of us tried to run it.
It really ran us," said Philip.laughing.
"Steele must have had his foot on
something we couldn't find it and
you never saw anything go so, father,
never. I really don't know where
they fetched up; perhaps they're going
yet, for Steele turned sulky and
wouldn't let them know where the
brake was." "
"I should think not," said his
father, smiling. "Of course, but for
the accident there would have been no
real harm in such a thing. "
"Except listening to Steele's lan
guage, father; it was electrically blue,
he was so upset in more ways than
one."
"But," went on his father, "is life
never going to mean anything but a
frolic and good time to you, Philip?
You are through school, and it is cer
tainly time for you to take a more se
rious view of life. You have no idea
of what it means to earn your daily
bread."
"Oh, but you do that for me far too
well, daddy," said Philip, laughing.
"In fact, you earn cake, too."
"Yes, that's the trouble, Phil, and
as long as you are here it will be
the same I am afraid. My boy, you
must cut adrift and steer for yourself
awhile I think." (
"When?" said Philip, with startled
face.
"Now," said his father, his voice
trembling a little in spite of himself.
"How much do ycyi owe in town?"
"Oh, two or three hundred I sup
pose," said Philip, his mind intent on
his father's meaning. 'You don't
think I have done anything wrong or
disgraceful, do you, father?" and
Philip's voice was very' anxious.
"No, no, my boy," said his father,
prompt!. "No, no, I am not dis
pleased with jou in any way, my son.
Heaven knows howl will get on with
out you but we won't talk about that
now. You have passes on all the
roads. Here is a check for $500.
Now go out west and begin at the
lower round of the ladder and climb
up." Here is a letter to my friend, the
superintendent of the Great Western
& Northern road. He will start you
at work. Good bye; don't come home
until you have earned your promotion.
It's all my fault, Philip; I haven't
brought yon up just right, but since
your mother's death I haven't been
able to refuse you anything."
There was silence a moment, then
Thilip came to his father's side.
"You aren't angry with me then,
father?" he said.
"No, no.Philip, no,no, only anxious
that you may grow into a manly man.
Good-bye."
Philip put hia boyish head down on
tlitlljack of his father's chair a minute,
theuwent upstairs, rapidly changed
0 THE YEAR.
When the eaves are all a drippin', an' the
neighbors' hens are crakin',
An' the shingles that have loosened go
a-flappin' on the roof ;
When the frost has put his staff away an' left
the roads a-shakin',
Ye will find the signs o' nature closely fol
lowed by a proof,
Ev'ry livin' thing is wakin' like as if it had
a nap,
And the year seems sort o' hummin' to the
spring child in its lap.
When yer voice sounds kind o' holler an'
coes thro' the woods a riuidn'.
An' ev'ry sugar house around is sendin up
a smoke ; .
When the woodchuck sets outside his hole,
aad robins are a singin',
We can safely be a-tellin' that the heart o'
winter's broke.
An' ye better git your frock on, for the
workin' days are here,
An' there's no place for a dreamer in the
mornin' o' the year.
Josephine Boyce, in Youth's Companion.
his clothes, packed his trunk and
valises, came down aud caught the
midnight train for the. west, and it
wasn't until he reached Topeka that
he found he had left at home his check
for $300 and had only a little silver and
his letter of introduction to the super
intendent of the great road that
threaded the west like a huge artery.
He found the superintendent's of
fice without difficulty and presented
him his father's letter.
After the superintendent had read
the letter from his great eastern
friend he looked keenly at the some
what slender, but athletic figure before
him aud smiled.
"I have an opening," he said, "but
it is by no means a bed of roses."
"What is it?" asked Philip.
"Not especially hard work, but it is
a lonely spot. There is a cut up the
road about 150 miles. It is in the
mountains, where washouts frequently
occur. Telegraph poles wash down,
wires are broken, etc. So it is neces
sary to keep a watchman there contin
ually. A railroad tricycle is fur
nished; also' a shack where, after a
fashion, one can live. Wages, 30 a
month. Think yon can stand it?"
The prospect was not alluring, but
Philip had made up his mind to accept
whatever offered itself without demur;
so he said, "Yes, thanks; I will take
it. I suppose there will be shooting
and fishing in plenty?"
"Yes, plenty of that, fortunately.
By the way, you will consider yourself
my guest for a day or two if jou would
like your father is an old friend of
mine."
"Thank yon sir," said Philip, grave
ly, "but I will go at once if you
please."
So the superintendent, well pleased
with his new watchman's pluck, fur
nished him with a list of directions,
supplies needed and passes. In the
few hours before his train left Philip
sold some jewelry and bought his sim
ple outfit.
Only one train a day from either di
rection stopped at his station unless
flagged. He was dropped at his new
abode just as night was closing in,
with supply boxes.gun, camera, valises
he had left his trunk in Topeka. He
made many journeys up to where his
little shack, or hut, literally hung on the
mountain side before his possessions
were landed on the floor of his one
room. It wa3 cold, but the former
occupant had thoughtfully left a box
filled with resinous pine knots, and
Philip soon had a fire crackling de
lightfully in the rusty stove "and after
a very frugal meal he was so honestly
tired that he slept as he had rarely
slept before, though on a "shake
down" of fragrant balsam boughs
covered with his great roll of blan
kets. Hunting, fishing and a touch of the
outside world through the books and
papers mysteriously sent him supplied
him with recreation outside of his
somewhat monotonous duties in the
weeks that followed.
Fortunately Philip thoroughly loved
nature, and the magnificent views all
around him were a source of- endless
delight.
"When I've eirned my promotion
I'll bring his dear excellency out
here," he thought. "I'll s.how him a
thing or two that will surprise him.
The only thing is there is nothing to
do here that will earn a promotion."
However, one day, far up in the cut,
he was tapping poles and scanning the
track over a deep culvert when all at
once he heard voices below him. He
dropped on his face and heard dijtinct-
1v thn rlptni'ls nf a nlnn tn rob tliA nnv
-.7 (k
car which would gonthrough in about
an hour.
Surely this was an adventure at last!
He ran back to the place where he had
left his tticycle just as the mail train,
which had side-tracked for a few min
utes on account of a hot-box, wa3 pull
ing out "Whoop," said Philip, then
whiz went a rope round the brake on
the rear car, and Phil and his tricycle
were going down grade tied to the
lightning mail.
He had tied on behind a freight
once or twice before this, and that was
fun, but this beat tobogganing and
everything else that he had ever heard
of in the way of speed. Hia front
wheel did not often touch the track,
and he clung for his life.
As the mail cars opeued at the side
no one saw him. "This means death,"
he thought, "if 1 am thrown off, and
I think likely it's death if I stay on,
but I must get home before that pay
car comes past. Evidently this is
either a promotion or a disgrace;
there's no middle track."
The train was slowing up though
it never stopped close by Phil's
shack. Unfortunately the tricycle
could not slow up with equal rapidity.
Phil's box containing knife and pliers
had tumbled off long bsfoi'e, and now
the tricycle tried to climb the rear
car, the rope broke aud Phil flew off
and landed near his own shack, for
tunately in a pile of balsam boughs,
while the mail car serenely proceeded
on its way.leaving behind it a wrecked
tric3Tcle and a winded rider.
Two men who had been standing in
Philip's door rushed to pick him up,
and when his head stopped whirling
around he looked into his father's eyes
and saw the western superintendent
standing near.
At this surprising event Philip near
ly lost his breath again, but knowing
there was no time to lose ho gasped
out the plan he had overheard of de
railing the pay car and then robbing
it, and the car was nearly due now.
So the two, each supporting au arm
of the dizzy watchman, helped flag to
a standstill the pay train, and then,
being forewarned, they went cautious
ly ahead, followed by the eastern pri
vate car containing several railroad
dignitaries and the pale young watch
man who had wished immensely to
participate in the capture of the rob
bers. The capture was effected with neat
ness aud decision, and Philip was re
turned to his own abode, where, after
entertaining his father and employer
at supper, they sat down before the
fire to talk thiugs over.
"I came out," said Philip's father
with dignity, "to see how you were
getting on."
"Badly enough without you, dad,"
said Philip, smiling, his hand in the
old place, "but I couldu't come to see
you until I had earned my promotion,
you know."
"There wasnothingin the plan that
prevented me from coming to see you,
though," said the older man, smiling
up into his son's face. "And I really
think you have earned your promo
tion, aud I shall take you home as my
contiden ial clerk "
"There's a bill for a broken tri
cycle " began the western superin
tendent, dryly. "Not allowed," re
plied his eastern friend promptly. "It
was broken in the company's service.
Sou, you are promoted." Chicago
Record.
STORY WITH A MORAL.
Clarence Won the Prize When He Stated
the Application of II is.
"I want each one of you little boys
to tell an original story next Sunday,"
said Miss Jones, the teacher of a
juvenile class in a Kadunk Sunday
school. "Now, how many will do
this? All who will, hold up hands."
Several pairs of dirty hands were
elevated. Next Sunday came and the
st ry-telling began. The fun started
from the head of the class, and moved
on in magnificence down the line, un
til Clarence Eugene Hobson was
reached. He hung his head, evident
ly not sure whether his story was
proper and applicable to the time and
place or not.
"Now for your story," said Miss
Jones, a saintly smile playing about
her mouth.
'Well it's not much of a story,"
said Clarence, diffidently.
"Go on," said Miss Jones.
"Well," said Clarence, "one day a
man was riding down a dusty road on
a poor little old animal. He saw a
crow on the, fence. Then he saw the
remains of a dead hog on the roadside
near. The crow flew down and eat
greedily for a miuute or two then got
upon the fence again and flapping bis
wings made fearful noise cawing. In
a minute a great big hawk flew down,
grabbed Mr. Crow and the feathers
flew thick for a while. There was no
more flapping of wings and cawing."
Clarence stopped and looked un
easily about.
"Well," said Miss Jones, in a
tenderly meant tone, "the story is all
right, Clarence, but I fail to see the
moral. Where is your moral,
Clarence?"
"Moral! Can't you see the moral?
Why, it's as plain as the nose on youi
face." said Clarence.
"We are from Missouri," said Miss
Jones, "and you will have to show
me.
"The moral," said Clarence, with
some enthusiasm, "is this: Don't
crow and flap your wings so gay and
giddily when you are chock full of
dead hog!"
The moral was seen, and Miss Jouea
said the story was a prize-winner.
Hit Toints Were O. K.
"Every joke should have a point,'
said the editor, as he handed back
some unavailable offerings.
"I think you will find mine all
punctuated properly," replied Mr.
Sjickers. Judg?.
Japan has a new lighthouse, made
of bamboo, which is said to resist the
waves better than any kind of wood.
THE CHIROS OF PORTO RICO.
Strange Tales Told About a Curious Reli
gions Sect.
Strange tales of a curious religious
ect in Puerto Rico are told, says a
JSinghampton letter to the Baltimore
Herald, by Rev. William Maxfield, a
returned missionary. The sect, which
carefully excludes foreigners, is
known as Chiros. One of its peculiar
ceremonies is that of "flogging the
devil."
This rite is celebrated every Friday,
at daybreak. In the seaport towns it
takes place on board fishing smacks
or other craft owned by members of
the sect, and often is attended by the
entire population of the village.
The life-size figure of a man sup
posed to represent his satanic majesty
is dragged on deck, and amid jeers
and curses, fastened to the yard-arm.
For some time the figure is allowed to
hang, then it is carried three times
around the deck of the craft, and fin
ally fastened to the capstan or some
convenient post, where the crowd pro
ceed to belabor it with clubs, shriek
ing that they have killed the devil.
When the clothes are cut into
shreds and the figure entirely de
nuded, exposing the block of wood
that serves as a head, it is repeatedly
dipped overboard, and finally chopped
into splinters and burned.
"It was in an inland town that I
first saw the ceremony," says Mr.
Maxfield. "I was roused from my
sleep by the passing of a howling mob,
dragging the form of a man, which
they occasionally jumped upon and
kicked. My first impression was that
some unfortunate wretch had incurred
their wrath, and they were wreaking
vengeance on him.
"Hurrying on my clothes I rushed
forth, hoping to save the body from
further mutilation at least. Follow
ing the crowd to the public square I
saw them halt and haul the body on
to the limb of a tree. Then I saw
that the figure was stuffed with straw.
"Quickly the bundle of rags was
fastened to the trunk, sticks were
piled around it, and soon the fire was
blazing merrily. Around this pyre
danced the disorderly crowd, until
suddenly there was an explosion,
and the figure was blown to pieces.
A bag of gunpowder had been fast
ened around the neck. Then the fire
went down, and the hootiug crowd
dispersed."
Another ceremony of this strange
people is called "Drowning the devil,"
and this is sometimes accompanied
with serious consequences. The vic
tim is a man or woman of incorrigible
temper, whom a neighbor has charged
with having a "devil."
Th e council of the "Chiros" is called
and evidence taken as to the truth or
falsity of the charge. If in the opin
ion of the board it has been sustained,
a day is appointed when the victim
shall be purified, and a spot is se
lected. This is usually a running
stream, as it is held that the devil can
not staud running water.
A crowd of worshippers form a ring
around the unfortunate subject and
march to the stream, chanting a weird
wail. Arriving, two of the strongest
men force the victim into the water,
and though he struggles violently,
they hold him under until "the devil
goes out" that is until he becomes
quiet; and frequently when taken out
prompt remedies have to be resorted
to to prevent death from drowning.
In one or two instances the victims
perished. After that the authorities
interfered, and ceremonies, of this
kind are now rare and conducted much
more carefully.
A l'erantbulatinjr Breakfast.
The perambulating breakfast vendor
is a feature in Havana. Men are seen
about 11 o'clock ia the forenoon tra
versing certain portions of Havana
with breakfast buckets made after the
fashion of the American laborer's
apartment bucket, in which are car
lied to the door fish, one kind of meat,
potatoes, bread and butter, coffee and
perhaps eggs of some other addition
al article. By this practice many fam
ilies avoid the necessity of cooking
the midday meal. The breakfast
vendor is not always an inviting look
ing character, but this matters little
with these people if he sells a fairly
decent meal, and if they can avoid
Laving to cook for themselves. In
very hot weather the practice is said
to be much in vogue. Chicago Rec
ord. The I'seful Ladybng.
Not many years ago Australian lady
bugs were imported into California to
make war on a species of scale which
was then rapidly destroying the orauge
grove3 of the Pacific coast. The little
mercenaries did their work effectively,
aud now California has sent them to
the aid of Portugal, whose orange and
lemon trees have lately suffered se
verely from attacks of the scale-insect.
From a few individuals sent to
Lisbon fwo years ago millions of the
ladybugs have since developed, and it
is reported that they are making short
work of the scale pest in Portugal.
An Egg From Madagascar.
The largest egg in the world is in
the museum of the Jardin des Plantes,
ia Faris, France. It was found in the
island of Madagascar by a French
naturalist, and is said to be equal in
bulk to 150 hen's eggs. It is supposed
to be the egg of an extinct bird of
mammoth size.
DE. TALMAGES SEKMXN.
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "A Great Man Fallen" A Euloey
of the Late Justice Field One of the
Most Notable Characters of Our Times
Whose Life Is Worthy of Emulation.
Text: "Know ye not that there is a
prince and a great man fallen this day In
Israel?" II Samuel Hi., S3.
Here is a plumed catafalque, followed by
King David and a funeral oration which he
delivers at the tomb. Concerning Abner,
the great, David weeps out the text. More
appropriately than when originally ut
tered we may now utter this resounding
lamentation, "Enow ye not that there is a
Erlnoe and a great man fallen this day in
srael?"
It was thirty minutes after six, the exact
hour of sunset of the Sabbath day, and
while the evening lights were being kin
dled, that the soul of Stephen J. Field, the
lawyer, the judge, the patriot, the states
man, the Christian, ascended. It was sun
down in the home on yonder Capitol hill,
Washington, as it was sundown on all the
surrounding hills, but in both cases the sun
set to be followed by a glorious sunrise.
Hear the Easter anthems still lingering in
the air, "The trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall rise."
Our departed friend came forth a boy
from a minister's home in New England.
He knelt with father and mother at morn
ing and evening prayer, learned from ma
ternal lips lessons of piety which lasted
him and controlled him amid all the varied
and exciting scenes of a lifetime and helped
mm to cue in peace an octogenarian, Blot
out from American history tbe names of
those ministers' sons who have done honor
to judicial bench and commercial circle and
national Legislature and Presidential chair,
and you would obliterate many of the
grandest chapters of that history. It is no
small advantage to have started from a
home where God is honored and the sub
ject of a world's emancipation from sin
and sorrow is under constant discus
sion. The Ten- Commandments, which
nre the foundation of all good law
Roman law, German law English
law, American law are tbe best foun
dation upon which, to build character, and
those which the boy, Stephen J. Field, so
oiten neard in tne parsonage at stoeK
bridge were his guidance when a half cen
tury after, as a gowned justice of the Su
preme Court of tne bnlted States, he un
rolled his opinions. Bibles, hymn books.
catechisms, family prayers, atmosphere
sancuiied, are good surroundings for boys
and girls to start from, and if our laser
ideas of religion and Sabbath days and
nome training produce as splendid men
and women as the much derided Puritanic
Sabbath and Puritanic teachings have pro
duced, it will be a matter oi congratulation
and thanksgiving.
Do not pass by the fact that I have not
yet seen emphasized that Stephen J. Field
was a ministers son. Notwithstanding
that there are conspicuous exceptions to
tne rule and tne exceptions nave built up
a stereotyped defamation on the subject-
statistics plain and undeniable prove that
a larger proportion of ministers' sons turn
out well than are to be found in any other
genealogical table. Let all tne parsonages
of all denominations of Christians where
children are growing up take the consola
tion, see tne star of nope pointing down
to that mangeri
Notice also that our departed friend was
, a member of a royal family. There were
no crowns or scepters or thrones in that
ancestral line, but the family of the Fields,
like the family of the New York Primes.
like the family of the Princeton Alex
anders, like a score of families that I might
mention, if it were best, to mention them,
were "the children of the king," and had
put bntbem honors brighter than crowns
and wielded influence longer and wider
than scepters. Tbat family of Fields traces
an honorable lineage back 800 years to
Hubertus delaFeld, coadjutor of William
the Conqueror. Let us thank God for
Buch families, generation after gener
tion on the side of that which is right
and good. Four sons of that coun
try minister, known the world over for ex
traordinary usefulness in their spheres.
legaj, commercial, literary and theological,
and a daughter, the mother of one of the
associate justices of the Supreme Court.
Such families counter-balance for good
those families all wrong from generation to
generation families that stand for wealth,
unrighteously got and stingily kept or
wickedly squandered; families that stand
for fraud or impurity or malevolence;
family names that Immediately come to
every mind, though through sense of pro
priety they do not come to the lip. The
name of Field will survive centuries and be
a synonym for religion, for great jurispru
dence, for able ehristianjournalism, ns the
names of the Pharaohs and the Cajsars
stand for cruelty and oppression and vice.
While parents cannot aspire to have
suck conspicuous households as the one
the name of whose son we now celebrate,
all parents may, by fidelity in prayer and
holy example have their sons and daugh
ters become kings and queens unto God,
to reign forever und ever. But the work
has already been done, and I could go
through this country and find a thousand
households which have by the grace of
God and blessing upon paternal and ma
ternal excellence become the royal families
of America.
Let young men beware lest they by their
behavior blot puch family records with
some misdeed. We can all think of house
holds the names of which meant everything
honorable and consecrated for a long
while, but by the deed of one son sacri
ficed, disgraced and blasted. Look out
how you rob your consecrated ancestry of
the name they handed to you unsullied!
Better as trustee to that name add some
thing worthy. Do something to honor the
old homestead, whether a mountain cabin
or a city mansion or a country parsonage.
Rev. David Dudley Field, though thirty
two years passed upward, Is honored to
day by the Christian life, the service, the
death of bis son Stephen.
Among the most nbsorbing books of the
Bible is the book of Kings, which again
and again illustrates that, though piety is
not hereditary, the style of parentage has
much to do with the style of descendant.
It declares of King Abijam, "He walked in
all the sins of his father which he had done
before him," and or King Azariah. "He did
that which was right iu the sight of the
Lord, according to all that his lather Ama
Elah had done." We owe a debt to those
who have gone before in our line as cer
tainly as we have obligations to those who
subsequently appear in the household. Not
to sacred is your old father's walking staff,
which you keep in his memory or the eye
glasses through wblch your motherstudled
the Bible in her old age as the name they
bore, the name which you inherited".
Keep it bright, I charge you. Keep it
juggestive of something elevated in
character. Trample not underfoot that
which to your father and mother was
dearerthan life itself. Defend their graves
as they defended your cradle. Family eoat
of arms, escutcheons, ensigns armorial.
Uon couccant, or lion dormant, or lion
rampant, or lion combatant, may attract
attention, but better than all heraldic in
scription is a family name which means
from generation to generation faith in
God, self sacrifice, duty performed, a life
well lived and a death happily died and a
heaven gloriously wonl That was the
kind of name that Justice Field augmented
and adorned and perpetuated a name
honorable at the close of the eighteenth
century, more honored now at the close of
the nineteenth. i
Notice also that our Illustrious friend
was great in reasonable and genial dis
sent. Of 1042 opinions he rendered, none
were more potent or memorable than those
rendered while he was in small minority
and sometimes In a minority of one. M
learned and distinguished lawyer of this
country said he would rather be author ot
Judge Field's dissenting opinions than to
be tbe author of the Constitution of the
United States. The tendency Is to go
with the multitude, to think what others
think, to say and do what others do. Some
times the majority are wrong, and it
requires heroes to take the negative
but to do tbat logically and in good
humor requires some elements of make up
not often found in judicial dissenters or,
indeed, in any class of men, There are sa
many people in the world opposed to every
thing and who display their opposition ia
rancorous and obnoxious wavs that a Judee
Field was needed to make the negative re
spected and genial and right. Minorities
under God save the world and save the
church. An unthinking and precipitate
,"yes" may be stopped by a righteous and
heroio"no." The majorities are not al
ways right. The old gospel hymn de
clares It:
Numbers are no mark that men will right
be found;
A few were saved in Noah's ark to many
millions drowned.
The Declaration of American Independ
ence was a dissenting opinion. The Free
Church of Scotland, under Chalmers and
his compeers, was a dissenting movement.
The Bible itself, Old Testament and New
Testament, is a protest against tbe the
ories that would have destroyed the
world and Is a dissentine as well
as a divinely inspired book. The deca
logue on Sinai repeated ten times "Thou
shalt not." Forages to come will be quoted
from lawbooks In court rooms Justice
Field's magnificent dissenting opinions.
Notice that our ascended friend Had such
a chnracter as assault and peril alone can
develop. He had not come to the soft
cushions of the Supreme Court bench step
ping on cloth of gold and saluted all along;
the line bv handclapping of applause.
Country parsonages do not rock their,
babies In satin lined cradle or afterward
send them out into the world with enough
in their hands to purchase place and'
power. Pastors' salaries in the early part
of this century hardly ever reached $700 a
year, Economies that sometimes cut into
the bone characterized many of the homes
of the New England clergymen. The young
lawyer of whom we speak to-day arrived
in San Francisco in 1849 with only tlO
in his pocket. Williamstown College was
only introductory to a post-graduate
course which our illustrious friend took,
while administering justice and halting
ruffianism amid the mining camps of Cali
fornia. Oh, those "forty-niners," as they
were called, through what privations,
through what narrow escapes, amid what
exposures they moved! Administering
and executing law among outlaws never
has been an easy undertaking. Among
mountaineers, many of whom had no re
gard for human life and' where the snap of
pistol and bang of gun were not unusual
responses, required courage of the highest
metal.
Behind a dry goods box surmounted by
tallow candles Judge Field began his judi
cial career. What exciting scenes he
passed through! An infernal machine waa
iionliiH t r, liim n n A InoIHa tlio H A nf tha
box was pasted his decision in the Pueblo
case, the decision that had balked unprin
cipled speculators. Ten years ago his life
would have passed out had not an officer
oi tne law snot oown nis assailant, it tootc
a long training of hardship and abuse and
misinterpretation and threat of violence
and flash of assassin's knife to nt him for the
high place where he could defy legislatures
and congresses and presidents and tbe
world when he knew he was right. Hard
ship is the grindstone tbat sharpens intel
lectual faculties, und the swords wltbx
which to strike effectively for God andL
one's country. i
Notice also how much our friend did for
the honor of the judiciary. What momen
tous sceues have been witnessed in ou
United States Supreme Court, on the-
l-.nv I r .1 , t . . i 1
ucuuu uiiu uoiore me ueucu, wueiuer, ihe
back, it held Its sessions in the upper room
of the Exchange at New York, or after
ward for tea years in the City Hall at
x uimuoiuiit, Ul laiui IU venal W
yonder capitol, the place where for many
vears the Coneressional Librarv was keDti
a sepulchsr where books were burled alive, ;
the hole called by John Randolph "the cave
of Trophonius!"
To have done well, all that such a pro
fession could ask of him, and tohavemade
that profession still more honorable by his.
brilliant and sublime life, is enough for na
tional and international, terrestrial and
celestial congratulation And then to ex
pire beautifully, while the prayers of his
church were being offered at his bedside,
the door of heaven opening for his en
trance as the door of earth ODened for his
departure, tbe sob of tho earthly farewell
caught up Into raptures that never die.
Yes, he lived and died in the faith of tha
old fashioned Christian religion.
Young man, I want to tell you that Jus
tice Field believed in the Bible from lid to
lid, a book all true either as doctrine or
history, much of it the history of events
that neither God nor man approves. Out
ment and ate the bread of which "if a man.
eat he shall never hunger." He was theur
and down, out and out friend of the church
of Christ. If there had been anything IU
logical in our religion, he would have
scouted it, for he was a logician. If there
bad been In it anything unreasonable, he
would have rejected it, because ha was a
great reasoner. If there had been in it any
thing that would not stand research, be
would have exploded the fallacy, for his
life was a life of research. Young men ot
Washington, young men of America, youn
men of the round world, a religion that
would stand the test of Justice Field's
penetrating and all ransacking intellect
must have in it something worthy of vout
confidence. I tell you now that Christian
ity has not only tha heart of the world on
Us side, but the brain cf the world also..
Ye tcbo have tried to represent tbe religior
of the l-'.ble as something pusillanimous!
uow U9 you account lor ine vnnsii.in lauu
of Stephen J. Field, whole shelves of the
law library occupied with his magnificent
aecision&f
And now may the God of all comfort
speak to the Dereft, especially to her who
was the queen of his life from the day when
as a stranger he was shown to her pew in.
the Episcopal Church to thla time of the
broken heart. Ho changed churches, but
did not change religion, for the church ia
which he was born and the church la
which he died alike believe la God th
Father Almighy, Maker of heaven and
earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begot-
ter ftnn an1 In tti pn m m n fil An ff ftnlnta
and la the life everlasting. Amen.