flit Centre f rmocrat.
BELLEPONTE, PA.
Tk Largest, Cheapest and Best Paper
PUBLISURD IN CENTRE COUNTT.
From th* Now York Otwerrer.
INTERNATIONAL LESSONS.
Third Quarter.
st sir HSSST a. uiu.t r, t>. o.
SEITEUIIKR 18.
Ijesson 12.
REVIEW.
Gointiv TUT:—' "Wp will bIM ilm l/nl from this
time forth tud for cftrßOM."—Pi. ilo: I*.
Central Truth: —God is able to save
unto the uttermost.
We have now reached our third quar
terly review.
The lessons of the quarter began with
the first chapter of Exodus, and have
taken ua nearly through that book. To
thotie who have faithfully studied them
they cannot have been otherwise than
deeply interesting. Probably to most
in our Sunday schools, the early por
tions of the Old Testament are less
familiar than the new. But the things
of which they tell us are not afar off.
They do have to do with our every day
experiences and needs. God's dealing"
with his ancient people were intended
to reveal his character and way*. And
he is unchanging in character. Hi*
ways, too, are essentially the same. It
has often been noticed that the manner
in which he now rescues a soul from sin
and prepares it for the heavenly land,
is much like that by which he delivered
Israel from bondage and trained them
in the wilderness fc* *L • promised in
heritance. In the story of Israel's es
cape from Egypt and wanderings in the
desert, Christians have found great in
struction and cheer. It colors some of
best hymns. Much of the phraseology
of the old-time prayer meetings was
derived from it.
Our first lesson was
ISRAEL IN ECIVIT.
In it we are told of the wonderful in
crease of Israel in Egypt, and of the
means the new Pharaoh used to check
their growth. But the more they were
atllicted, the more they grew. God's
watchful care of his people is never
ceasing.
t lur second lesson was
TUE COXING DELIVERER.
Just when the night of God' people
seemed darkest, Moses was born. In
this interesting lesson we have the
charming story of his preservation, as
delightful as any romance; of his train
ing in the wisdom of Egypt, and of his
flight to Midian. IIi great choice to
suffer affliction with t'.e people of God,
rather than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season, was a heroic example
for us. Some like summons to a great i
life choice comes to us all.
The third lesson was
THE CALL OR NOSES.
At the burning bush God commissioned
Moses to be his people's leader, and
pledged bis own faithful presence and
help. He taught him that in the fires
of atHiction they should never be con
sumed.
The fourth lesson was
NOSES AND AARON.
From the great tak the I-ord assigned ,
him, Moses diew back ; and so God gave
to him Aaron as his helper. He also in- '
structed Aaron to perform certain signs
in the presence of the people, that they
might see that the l,or>l was with htm.
It is noteworthy that these signs were
the first miracles wrought by mane agon- j
cy spoken of in the Bible.
The fifth lesson was
MOSES AND TNS MAGICIANS.
God now began ft series of visitations
tij>n Egypt to move Pharaoh to let Is
rael go. The magicians imitated some
of the divine miracles. Pharaoh was
unmoved, or only momentarily impress
ed. His heart was hardened byjudg
menu which were really mercies, lie
went, as all do who resist the calls of
God, from bad to worse. The lesson
teaches the great peril of trifling wub
the patience and grace of God.
The sixth lesson waa
THE rASSOVER.
The crowning visitation upon Egypt
WH the destruction of all its first-born.
It filled the land with terror. But
Israel was exempt. The means of their
escape waa the blood of a lamb sprink
led on the doorposts of all their dwell
ings. Every dwelling thus marked wns
"passed over" by the destroying Angel.
80, through the blood of the Lamb,
provided for us, we can be saved from
greater ill.
The seventh lesson was
THE MED SEA.
The destruction of Egypt's first-born
made such an impression of God's pow
er on Pharaoh that he now consented
to let Israel go. But hardly bad tbey
aet out when Pharaoh started to pursue
them. But God opened for them away
through the sea; and, by the same wa
ters which parted at their approach,
their enemies were overwhelmed—a
aure proof that "none can harm thoae
whom God protects."
The eighth lesson was
vas MANNA.
It wu the interesting and instructire
story of the way In which God fed bis
people, famishing in the wilderness,
1 with bree /4 from heaven. Are not the
resources of God abundant for us all,
and for all times? We are taught to
pray for our daily bread with fullest
trost. In Christ, too, we have living
apiritual bread, of which, if one eat, he
snail never hunger.
Tha ninth and tenth lessons were
TBI eOMBAMBMEim.
The manner in which these were given
waa solemn and impressive. Having
been proclaimed from the Mount, they
were written with the finger of God on
two tables of stone. These command
meats were formally given to Israel.
But the reasons underlying ibem are
universal. They are therefore for us.
The Saviour did not abrogate tbetn.
He gave to them a deeper application,
gad bp his gospel pats us in Ui way of
-
a better than any outward keeping of
them. He writes them on our hearts.
He shows ua how it is that love to God
and to roan is their perfect fulfilling.
The eleventh and last lesson was
IDOLATRY I'L'NISUED.
Hardly had the wonders connected with
the giving of the law ceased when Israel
fell into a great sin. Moses had gone
up into the Mount to receive other com
munications from God. He was there
forty days. Msunwhile the people grew
restless. They concluded that Moses
had perished, and begged Aaron to
make them an idol to go before them.
Aaron did this, and the result was a
punishment of great and terribly sever
ity. Thus he made them see how sure
sin, unrepentcd of, is to be punished in
due time.
Taken together these lessons show u
the free access it is possible to have with
God. Moses catue into most intimate
communion with him. He talked with
God. 11 we are equally ready to obey,
why may we not enjoy as well tut desire
the same ?
We are reminded that God hears
prayer. Even l'haraoh saw that Moses
had power with God. But he hud no
greater power than we may have.
In these lessons God is seen working
numerous miracles. We are sometimes
told that faith in miracles is unreason
able and dying out. Neither part of
the saying has any ground in truth. A
personal tiod muet be able to work mira
cles, and ready, too, to do it, when the
great occasion arise*. And, as to tbi*
taitli dying out, even rejectors of the
Bible aro full of it. They want, and
are ready to cred t, more miracles than
can be found in t 'ie Bible,
The one great lesson which runs
through all these portions of Scripture
is the peril of standing out against
God. and the safety and sure blessing
of obeying and trusting him. "Happy
is he that hath the tiod of Jacob for bis
help."
SEEING THE MIDMGIIT SI N.
Conyreetman CoAhen.tre at the North
{ape 0/ Eipland—Suntet no More—Arc-
L-- Sconce in f/.< Cape—The Rocky Senti
nel of the North of Europe—A'ray Sorth
of Iceland and Greenland —' htly fi.UOO
Miles A round the Earth.
NORTH CAI'K, lotplnwl, July 1,
1881. —It is tcu o'clock at night ami
we are in sight of the ca|ic 1 It grows
cold and colder. All wraps are or
dered up ami out, so that from the
deck we may survey the splendid head
land. Before taking 11 local view of
the situation, let us see where we are
—on our planet. Evidently wc are
in no ordinary out-of-the-way place.
The air, sea. sky, light, and most of
all, this mystic volcanic mountaiu isl
and—wild, bleak, black, hare and
jagged, u thousand feet sheer and clear
of the sea, ami its surface deeply in
vested in white —prove our strange
situation. The very air blows with a
strange chill, and the light, which
conies to us over the obliquely,
has iu it a sepulchral semi shadow in
the heart of its mild lustrousneas. It
is a sort of inner light, burning 111*01
the vestibule of outer darkness. It j*
a spot to philosophize upon. It hush
es the outer senses. It makes one feel
the limitation upon our will and
works; yet tiod has enchanted this
rocky promontory by His sunlight,
though He grants it but a brief sum
mer.
This was the end wo proposed in
making this long voyage aud yet lie
fore I left Trondhijem, I saw a hand
hill jiosted on a fish warehouse with
the heading:
: SPORTING AND ri.E.Vst'KX TRIP ;
TO
SPITSBERGEN
nr WAT or NORTH CAPE.
It is a-surred the festive public that
good hunting boats, with harpoons
and all necessary implements would
accompany the exjiediti<>n, and that
Mr. Ellertsen, H. S. ft. <). It. J. ().,
an eniincut Arctic explorer, would be
along; ami all for BlDo,toand fro?
What all these alphabetical prefixes
mean —though I surmise that the O's
refer to the Order of Olaf —I am not
assured ; but it was rather a damper
on our enterprise to know that it was
so easy to go so much further into the
wild Arctic sea.
At the North < 'ape we look out
upon the Arc tic ocean ; ami but for
distance and Spitsbergen, not to speak
of another small isle between, which
lies due north, we could see the Polar
sea, if not the pole! Let us lie con
tent with the prospect! Besides, have
we not gone eastward as well as north
ward '! We are over thirty degrees
north of New York and Chicago.
Our longitude has moved tis eastward ;
and the time, as meu reckon time, has
changed. Every five degrees eastward
has made a difference of twenty min
utes. Our meals and clocks must un
dergo their changes. We have come
to meet the sun east as well as north,
and are adding something to our lives,
as some men count living. Being ex
tremely north, and ihe circles of lon
gitude being less, we mark time more
rapidly than in New York ; and cer
tainly "make more time" than I have
known it to be made in Washington 1
But whether the degrees be long or
short, the real time is the same. A
degree here is twenty-two mills, while
at the equator it is four times as much.
80 accessible are these ultra north
ern places by steam voyaging on this
coast, that we forgot how far north we
were. Iceland is far south of us,
Greenland is below our line drawn
circularly westward, and Behring
Straits is not wit hi* our magic Arctic
circle. The pole of the magnet would
be found attracting us by its marvel*
ous energy, somewhere on the same
lines of latitude where we now move,
to the throbbing of the engine and
the motion of the aet.
llow doca thin wild north rock ap
pear ? It* size in not great compared
with other mountain!*, hut it it* u fit
ting end of a great continent. It. in
seamed with long line* of whito and
black, as though marked by fire and
thunder. It has its eaves washed by
epochs of oceanic tempest. At its
base is a green fringe of seaweeds,
which, on near inspection, wo find very
slimy and dangerous to stand upon.
Below this is aw hite liue of breakers,
in snowy contrast with the bleak
mountain and green margin. Our
vessel turns around the point and en
ters into the shadow of the mountain.
The harbor, if it be one, is as black as
ink. When wo stop the screw stirs
the dark tlood into flashes of green
und white, making it seem to boil with
unaccustomed noise, so deep is the si
lence and solitude. The throb of the
engine and the song of the sea cease,
and we are comimrtively quiet in this
lonely cove. \\ e are sent on shore in
the captain's gig, the captain himself
takiug the helm. But the landing is
difficult. The slippery boulders give
unsafe footing, and one woman at lust
hns to be carried ashore by the sturdy
suitors. The rest of us have to be
heedful of our steps before we are safe
under the frowning rock.
Some of our party —the more vig
orous Scotch young men—endavored
to ascend the gulch in the mountain.
It has been done, (fur captain has
done it twice; but not with such a
mass of melted and melting snow as
now fills up the gorge. We see thern
afar up, on hands and knees, patiently
climbing. They fail and have still
more trouble nnd danger in the de
scent. The captain calls his company
—a score of us—together, and the
difficulty of reaching the small boat,
es|>ecially by the ladies, is overcome.
On our return to the ship each one
lays down his trophy, line has a
piece of wood evidently borne by the
Gulf stream from American. It is
palmetto. lie holds aloft Bayard
Taylor's description, with his proof of
the existence of the grand river in the
ocean. lie dwells on Taylor's de
scription of the island, as it glowed
in the blended loveliness of sunrise
ami sunset, and wondered if bis pic
ture would fx* realized when miduight
came? Another Scotchman brings as
his trophy n beautiful green-cup, with
a diamond upon it, repeating the verse,
with a thrill of music in his voice:
Ilk* of (ram kef* IU 4rap of
Another lias his thermometer, nml
has been testing the beat of the wa
ter, and is reducing Baumer to Fah
renheit. Sme have rounded pebbles
as paper-weight souvenirs of the spot.
The captain, who has been far up ihc
mountain —looking like a little sil
houette against the immaculate snow
—brings u variety of Arctic flowerets
for general distribution. My wife lias
a handkerchief full of little love drops
of flowers on the tiniest of moss ten
drils. < Inc. sturdy engineer l>car* in
his buttonhole n big boquet of the
smallest and prettiest of flowers known
to the nomenclature of botanv. The
beauty of the tropics in its daintiest
sense is thus reproduced at this frozen
ami bleak end of the continent.
What a kind dispensation is that
which places amid the meagre raossc*
of this far-ofl" Arctic rock tlice little
flowers ? How brief is their summer!
May, June, all the seasons of the
florescence which are ours, are here
the work of a brief week or month.
These flowers are the smiles upon these
ultimate rocks. These are beauteous
proof* that summer has reached these
grim a'KKles, soon to be enveloped in
wintry gloom. They teach us to be
ltfti*t with our !■ n<9
Bar trtreM**! tparaol ffcajr mam*)!.
But it is no time to reflect or moral
ize. We prepare to move from our
enchanted, almost sinister, moorings.
The gloom which (,'arlylo, in his "Teu
fuldscroch," inspires, comes over the
soul .as we take our last look at this
"Infinite Brine," on which he located
the low ami lazy sun, slumbering on
his cloud couch, wrought of crimson
gold, yet with a light streaming over
the mirror of waters, like n tremulous
fire pillar —the porch lamp to the
palace of the eternal. Shall we real
ize this weird picture of the cynical
yet sublime critic? We shall aw.
Midnight draws near, and all are
anxious. The anchors arc lifted. The
unusual clangor disturb* one solitary
bird, a cormorant, which flies around
our boat as though inspecting the in
vaders of his melancholy home. He
is used to sitting upon these rocks—a
lonely fisherman —from which, unlike
the noble gull, he dive* for his prey.
Hteam i* up. The hour of twelve ap
proaches. All we on the qui vire tor
the midnight sun ! Twenty of us are
at the prow with our watches out.
The old orb i* radiant. The captain
call* out: "Five minutes of twelve 1"
Will the orb disappoint us? There
i* a heavy cloud above in the zenith,
but it is lined with silver, and a
mackerel line of cirrus clouds lies just
above hia majesty. lake a king of
day he is enthroned without obscura
tion between the long line of clouds,
sitting on pear! and amber, orange
and gold, all the hues of the prism in
tensified with soft, weird, raalance by
the struggle between sunrise and sun
set.
A minute to twelve I He still re
mains round and radiant. Twelve I
Hurrah I Hurrah ! It is doue, and
the cheers go up from this solitude,
arousing ita echoes. The rim of the
horiaoo, far off lo the north, where the
pole ia supposed to be, is silvered with
a jale, weird beauty. It grows pink,
and this Arctic desolation i* made a
living splendor.
IMf withdrew!) Into a vondcrou* depth,
Kar linking Intmpleiidor without en4l
This is tho wondrous phenomenon
which we have come so fur to witness.
Tho captain is oil the bridge. "11 fait
accompli," I sing out to lum from be
low
"Give it to me in good English,
Meister GJX."
1 say, "We are ull happy. The
grcnt transaction is
"Prepare to fish,the practical
response and emphatic order of the
captain. " r
The lines are out, the captain lead
ing wiili two codfish. I soon follow,
and the suitors are busy. Mirth goes
around ill each success. My wife, a
good fisherman, generally, tugs away
at her long liue until, like the gentle
admiral, she suddenly "goes below."
My courier, Bene, the Dane, catches
a monster, nil golden us the sun itself.
[Cheer*.] Then a Scotchman gets inn
hideous hog-fish of twenty-five pounds.
[Laughter.] Our stewardess, Julia,
hauls in a monster. [Benewed cheer*
and laughter.] And so we keep it up
until two in the golden morning, when
to sleep we go, covering the port holes
so as to pretend it is night.
We had made many sacrifices to see
this remarkable performance of our
luminary. Not that either of us was
over anxious to find a land where sun
set did uot occur. We had hoped
that there was no realm in this or the
future existence where "Sunset" might
not come. But I may be allowed to
remark that I have borne the sobriquet
of Sunset for so many years, and it
has sounded with uch sweet silliia
tion, that I had come to believe that I
had a sort of fee simple in its faeri
laud, with its gorgeous palaces and
! cloud-capped towers.
And must I now IK- disenchanted?
1 I)o I live and is sunset no more? Do
1 see a country where the sun is going,
going down amid a mice cn rone equal,
if not superior, to that Ohio evening
j years ago, which I tried to portray
1 with my |Kor jen —ami vet it does
not go flown ? Was it ii<t enough
that for ten long days, or day, there
was no night for us, and that the sun,
by gliding and glowing in the north
without a respite, had disturbed our
customary ex|erienccs ? The reac
tion might be too sudden. The failure
of our orb to set might—well, there is
no telling the cataleptic and other dire
consequences. But here was the pat
ent tact! Here were clouds and
lights, all the hue* of the prism in
splendid display, ami yet no sunset
after all! The unsctting ami the tin
sotnble sun ! Midnight, and yet light
all aglow! No gas, no candles, no
star*, no moon—only the fiery orb and
his "trailing clouds of glory." •
But is the sun not all-sufficient
without other fires? If he slays up
and sets not, what more can the hu
man heart desire? What wonder that
the Oriental mind clothed the sun
with the majesty of divinity, and that
the Magi saluted his coining with
worship, as the source of life ? What
wonder if the Ix-am* evoked music
from Memnon ? Is he nt the creator
of health ami the great benefactor ?
Ami wo have found a land where he
will not and does not set!
The sensatiou was as new as it was
humiliating to my amour proprc. I
recalled the word* of a Yankee char
acter :
"It's relly affoctin' to think how lit
tle these 'ere folks is missed that's so
much sot by. There ain't nobody, if
tbey's ever so important, but what the
world get* to goin' on without 'em
pretty much as it did with 'em, though
there's some little flurry at first."
How much can be done, after all,
in nature and in science, art and gov
ernment, without us. Governments
will run, men ami women dance, trade
proceed, without sunset! Here in
this land of the frigid zone, for ten
days and more, we had seen boats in
fufl rig and sail, mountains of lofty
altitude musical with fosses, glaciers,
miles in length, moving on their quiet
and steadv way, men hauling in fish
by the miilioo, whales disporting, and
a steamer pushing its mazy way
through deep waters shut in by vol
canic walls from angry sea* —and no
sunset! New York and America cal
lous to the fact and moving on rest
lessly, with alternation of lights and
shades, love and hate, had ami good,
night and day, thinking of everything,
and forgetting that sunsets arc not
everywhere and forever. Still, though
I have seen and recorded the fact that
sunset is no longer here, let there be
no hasty and premature obituaries.
To appreciate seriously these phen
omena we must go back to the rudi
ments of astronomy and geography.
Before we lost the invisible circle, and
while emdeavoring to decipher the
horscmau and the horse, through which
the circle is ascertainable, by faith and
science, let us look around —around '
our star! The first impression is that 1
it is round. That is not a complex ]
idea, but there are suggestions about :
it that to the ordinary mind are com- j
plicate*!, if not confusing, to the gen - j
oral experience. To such this circle j
and phenomena are a mystery. It is !
a mystery because above it, in ever
contracting circles, till it runs to
naught at the pole, the sun shines only
a portion of the year without going
under. Within it is a horison for a
part of the years which never hides
the blessed light, where our moon aod
stars forget to light their lamps, and
where the earth alone seems repairing
to the home of with H its goldzi^
urn.' When the Hpring begins, this
favored region has but a spot of con
tinuous shine, but it grows with the
over-widening circle from the pole to
the Arctic, until on a midsummer's
day, the day we left Troudhjem, it
has run down lines of lougitude twen
ty-three and a half degrees, or 66 de
grees 30 minutes north latitude. There
it tremulously lingers and moves to
the polar regions, there to make the
bright little gem of light from which
it started.
The other half of this process for
half a year is dedicated to the Ant
arctic, while night for six mouth*
folds its wing, rudiant with strange
auroras, over theso regions. These
vicissitudes are as orderly as the sea
sons of the moderate zones. It is our
experience which makes them seem
eccentric; and this cx|>erience gives
to the scenery, to time, to the clouds
i and mountains, the fjords and snows,
| the glamor of reality. We are, so to
• speak, inverted, home sense of the
■ comic, if not of the cosmis, relations
j we bear to space ami stars ami suns
j comes over us ; ami the light we bask
in at midnight is as strange as that
"which was never on the sea or land—
the consecration of the poet's dream."
Here are day of days, ami night of
nights ! This is plain to the eye, and
it takes ever so slight reflection to uu
: derstaud it fully. It is complex, un
til we remember that the earth goes
| round the sun —a problem which men
have lieen ready to defend even unto
death. Jo going around the sun, the
earth inclines its axis to the plane in
which it moves. It the earth did not
thus "tenderly iuclinc"—if it stood
| stiff and |>crpt-ndicular, without court
ing the graces—every inch of its sur
; face would have it* night and day
equally divided. But it plays the
erect only twice a year, nt the inter
section of the ecliptic and the equator.
These days of alisolute equity of dis
tribution arc- in the spring and fall.
But <> si determined that for a half
the time to one ami half to the other
j pole. The angle of this obeisance of
our earth to its plane rm-asurc* the
distance from the j*le to the circle.
It is a plain conclusion from these
facts, that the circle within which we
arc moving just now, girdle* the earth
with only 6,000 mile*. If we would
make a straight inarch around the
circle we would save one-fourth of the
journey in miles ; and if around where
we are now at this north cape on a
line of latitude, it would lie one half
! lew, or oue-fourth of the distance
around our globe at the equator. But
our business now is not "around," but
! down to the latitude nearer home.
8. 8. Cox.
Otd Hatches.
In the South Kensington Museum,
at Iyondon, is <t small watch alwiut 100
years old, representing an apple, the
golden ease ornamented with grains of
jxarl. Another old Nuremburg watch
ha* the form of an acorn, and i* pro
| vided with a dainty pistol, which per
haps served a* an alarm. In IxwdoD
is an eagle-shaped watch in which,
; when the body of the bird is ojiened,
a richly-enamelled face is seeu. They
are sometimes found in the form of
ducks or skulls. The Bishop of Ely
had a watch in the head of his cane,
and a Prince of Baxony had one in
his riding saddle. A watch made for
Cathariue 1 of Russia is a repeater
and a musical watch. Within is the
Holy Sepulchre and the Bmnan guard.
By touching a spring the stone* move
away from the door, the guard kneel
down, angels appear, and the holy
women step into the tomb and sing
the Easter song that is heard in the
Bu*iau churches. King George 111
of England had a watch not larger
than a 5-cent piece, which had 120
different parts, the w hole uot weighing
quite as much as a 10-cent piece.
He Firm.
Never knock under. Never! Al
j way* rally your forces for a more de*-
1 perate assault upon adversity.
If calumny assails you, and the
I world —as it is apt to do in such case*
■ —takes part with your traducers,
j don't turn moody or misanthropic or
worse still, seek to drown your uuhap
piness in dissipation. Bide your time.
Disprove the slander if you can, if
not, live it down.
If poverty comes upon you like a
thief in the uight, what then ? Let it
muss you as the presence of the real
thief would do, to energetic action.
No matter how deep you have gone
into hot watt* —always provide*! you
did not help the father of lies to heat
it—vour case, if you are of the right
kind of stuff, is not desperate, nor is
it in accord with the divine order and
sweep of things that life should have
any difficulties with which an honest,
determined man, with heaven's help,
| can surmount.
Singular Combat.
A travelior iu South Africa witness
ed uot long since a singular combat.
He sat musing one morning, with his
eye son the ground, when be noticed a
caterpillar crawling along at a period
|iaee. Persuing him was a boat of
small ants. Being quicker in their
movements, the ant* would catch up
with the caterpillar, and one would
mount his back and bite him. Paus
ing, the caterpillar would turn his
head, and bite and kill bis
asb zen m *^^9^
sigus of fatigue. The ants made a
combined attack. Betaking bimaelf
to a stalk of gram*, the caterpillar
climbed up tail first, followed by the
ants. As one approached, he seized
it in hid jaw* and threw it off the
stalk. The anta aeeing that the cater
pillar had too atrong a portion for
them to overcome, reported to strate
gy. They l>egan sawing through the
grans-stalk. in a few minutes the
stalk fell, and hundred* of ants jsunc
ed uimn the (alien caterpillar, lie
wua killed at once, and the victora
marched off in triumph, leaving the
foe'a body on the field.
HL'NTIXO FOK A WIFE.
JONATHAN JRSKH ON THE MtEAIi GIBI.S
have or ueiku oi.o aAt 09.
\N hy woman should dread to Ire
classed as "old maids" is a matter that
the majority of men caunot under
stand, tor the sensible portion of the
sterner sex look with something akin
to reverence uj>on a maiden lady who
i ha* outgrown the frivolity of youth,
and blossomed into a kind hearted,
pure minded, self-sacrificing woman,
ever ready to lend a helping hand to
assist the poor, or smooth the pillow
of the sick and suffering. Of oourse
there arc many old maids—the cross
and cranky one* —who are an excep
tion to this rule, but the good .Samari
tans among them are by no m-ans in
the minority.
However, notwithstanding the views
of men whose opinions are worthy of
respect, there is no disguising the fact
that the majority of the fair sex look
forward with horror to the day that
w ill see their names classed with those
of "an uncertain age," and to e*ca[H
therefrom, often sacrifice themselves
'hy marrying the most grace!c-- scani|M
that come in their way. On every
! hand are evidences of blighted, ruined
I lives, which arc clearly traceable to
1 marriage entered into to escape being
' calk*] old maids.
I Now, it is my firm conviction that
a great deal of the evil result* from
the proper parties failing to come to
gether in early life. In other words,
there are just as many young men
' who would make good husband-, who
-tav at home, languishing for female
society, as there are young girl* living
jin dread of dying old maids. One
; great mistake that many parents make
is prohibiting their children from
mingling socially with members of
the opposite sex. Many a young man
who is now wasting hits days and
nights ktafing around bar-room* and
cigar store* might have been a useful
and industriou* citizen, and a happy
husband and father, had hi* parents
encouraged him in mingling in the
society of good and decent girls, in
stead of confining hi* companionship
solely to boys of his owu age. I
know when my boy reaches sixteen,
no matter how bashful he is, I shall
say to him, "My soo, although it is
early for you yet to be looking out
for a wife, still 1 think it high time
that you should learn to appreciate
the value of female companionship.
Your heart is young and tender, and
just in the condition to fall desperate
ly in love with some fresh, blue-eyed
damsel of fifteen or thereabout* Once
desperately in love with a pure-mind
ed maiden, I am confideut that you
will never do anything to disgrace
your parents, or leave a stain upon
your memory to be regretted in the
years to cotne, when you have ac
quired more discretion and judgment.
Now go and fall in love, and if you
haven't got the cash for ire cream,
theatres, and the other necessities for
courtship, you may drawn on me
every week for a reasonable amount,
and I shall consider it money well
invested.
That is the way I talk to my
son—yes. and if he js'too big a booby
to bunt up a girl to love, I shall fir.il
one for him, and if he don't love her,
I'll "whale him" within an inch of his
life.
Why is it that in nine cases out of
ten you find the women really worth
marrying—the pure-minded, sweet
faced, obedient, industrious, faithful
one* —united to men who often treat
them little (setter than slaves, while
men who are really parogen* of hus
bands so frequently have wives un
worthy of therof 1 jail 1 tell you the
reason. The bold, ffltd fellows, who
have plenty of check, go forth, and,
metaphorically speaking, pluck the
best fruit la the market. The sbv,
timid fellows must wait patiently un
til circumstances throw them iti the
way of some shrew of a long-tongued,
brazen-faced female, grown desperate
at the neglect of the sterner eex. and
rather than not have any huslmnd,
tbey meet the timid Benedicts half
way and do a large share of the court
ing themselves. It is thus that good
men and pure women often get the
very refuse and scum of the market,
while the real matrimonial prices are
picked up by adventurers of both
sexes who are really undeserving of
their good luck.
"And did your late husband die ia
the hope of a bleased immortality, 8i
ter Btiggiogs?" inquired the new min
ister, who was making his first call oa
a fair widow of his congregation,
"Bless you, no!" was the response; j
"be died io Chicago."
- MaL' d . ■ J