ssks WT. Z'VtK 7.W rfyrK- Ww- v THE GUERDON OF A SONG. WKITTEX FOE TIIE DISPATCH BY H. H. BOYESEN, Professor at Columbia College and Author of "Idyls of Norway," "Gunner," Eta How noble he looked as he stood in the hall. The bonny scald, and his voice ran;; loud; llis toeard was tawny, his shape was tall. And his mien was bold and proud, liat the spearmen quaked as they heard him sins And their fear they scarce could bide; rot the! e gathered a cloud on the brow of the King, And dark stood the Frince at his si Jo. 1L For the love or the twain, though their 1 earts might glow, To their tpeech no sweetness did lend; And the friend of the one was the other's foe. And his foe w as the other's friend. It was perilous oft to the wrathful sirs Haldane, his son, to name, Or stir with a breath the smoldering ire That might burst with a blaze into flame 11L But the dauntless scald, as he stood In the ring Of the brawny spearmen, before the board. And the firelight leaped iith nanton spring. And glinted in shield and sword,. In a. wreath he wound of cunning rhymi The names as the harp he smote. Till the gently rang in harmonious chime, As they rolled from his tuneful throat. IV He cng of King Harold's deeds of might, How he pledged to his brido the daring vow To win all Xorway's realm in light And set the crown on her brow How like a j oung eagle he rose in the light Of the dawn, with a rush of sound. And the 30 kinglets like mice in fright. Went hiding in holes in the ground. V. And he sang of Haldane, the hero bold, v ith the claws and beak or the eagle race. And his kingly gaze, so proud to behold, And lordship stamped on his face. For the eaglet springs from the eagle's brood, And the crow from the brood of the crow. And the meaner bird shows the meaner mood. But the eaglet gives blow for blow. VL But lo, as he sang, the lowering cloud, That had darkened the fac of the King, Did it seem to lift m the sight of the crowd, To spread and at last take wing; And perrhance the Prince, as the sweet strain rang. Resounding withm his soul, I igot his nth and the hat and pang o, envy and burrowing dole. VIL 1 o- scarce had the lingering murmur died. In the harp's sonorous breast, While the tremulous strings still shook and siehed. And shivered into rest: H hen up sprang the King from Mb throne and flung From his shoulder the purple cloak; Ai d the Prince snatched a glittering ring that clung To his arm, and thus he spoke: VIIL '1 il e this, good scald, for thy noble song, 1 ouLa-t spoken braely and well." A .d the King: "Take this, and wear it so long 1 rndures thy song to spell." A '.tie father and son stood awhile apart, wicp forwird, twice back, they stepped, 1 en King Harold clasped his son to his heart. And the brawny spearmen wept. IX. 1 en a shout went up that shook the wide hall d m ido the black rafters ring, A a tney cheered till tht armors clanked on tin. wall. Acne llaiZ lo the Prince and King "No-a hall to the Prince and the King " I u the scald btood silent amid the wild glee, .Nor touched ho the gifts. "Behold, I i-ive our pardon, my lords," quoth he, iy song is not paid w ith gold." A. Then take thy guerdon," King Harold cried, ! it ever so rich, be it ever so rare, II -.rant it if weal oi woo betide, J it bv the high god" I swear." ( I ' cried the Priuce, "fair scald, I tro I ot thee no less than mr sire, A 1 .11 mike the (.elf-ame nw 1 , rant tce thy heart's, desire." XL T'ir u n aroe and the sun went dow n m nun a car and many a day. An we Ueiils grew green and the fields rrin hrown, wlUe mountain; stood cloaked in gray. U r fikwasn ilre,n withered gms, Vi ilu fluttering tongues oi dusky red. II' iflllf ' 111 ill J 7' 1 1 ill A rumor swift through the lana did pass, Which Oiled each heart with dread. XIL "Prinro Haldane has gathered an armed host. His father's sway of the land to defy. The Prince is a Tebel! The Prinoe makes boasts ne'll conquer the realm or die." The messenger arrows flew thick and fast And hit in the peaant's door, And northward the war-bands swept like a blast, And trampled the meadow's floor. XIIL Anon the armies stood face to face And the wolf came skulking ont of his den. For the woods that engirdled the battle place Were filled with steel-clad men. And the raven screamed in the chilly morn, ATirt flftTmftrt it .rtlVliv -i For alas, 'twas King Harold's eldest-hoA Had drawn his sword against the King. XIV. And the King'j eye burned with a baleful flame, And grisly he looked like a god grown old: His cheek was aglow with wrath and shame, And dread was he to behold. Hi son from aught ho could there espy. With his Drand unsheathed and bright His head held high and hate in his eye, But wan was his cheek and white. XV. Then the voice of the war-horn broke forth amun. Its hollow note was hoarse and deep. And the mountains flung back the ominons strain With echoes from steep to steep. But oh, what a shout from the rebel rout; And oh, what a thunderous roar, As the wrathful King's men came rushing out Anil aown on their foremen bore! . XVI. But ere yet the arrows the space could span, And the storm of weapons had broken loose. Aloft on a rock was seen a man Who waved the white shield of truce. And the King in amaze on the sign did gaze, And he checked the fierce assault. But the Prince w ith marvel beheld the white blaze. And he bade his spearmen halt. XV1L So there above the gi im vanyard's rinr Stood Guttorm aloft, the daring scald, And he faced the Prince and lie faced the King, And be laced them unappalled. SIy lords," he cried, w hen the wrathful hum Was hushed in the warrior's thronj. "I crave of you peace; for now I comi The guerdon to claim lor my song.'" XVIIL Tlfa "Prince stood long distraught with woe. And pride and sham in his bosom warred; Then .lie bended his stubborn knee to his foe. His father, his King, and his lord. And long did King Harold gize-iu pain On that noble bended head. With mist in his eje, yet his heart was fain That nCfcXorseiran's blood was shed. XIX Sow brightly the sun in splendor broke From the bloody clouds that had veiled It o'er. No more was heard the black raven's croak, And leashed were the hounds of war. The King's stem heart was turned to his son With a love that was deep and strong, But the blessings of peace which tho land had won Were the guerdon, forsooth, of a song. Abont the Tongue. Pearson's Weekly. J "The boneless tongue, so small and weak. Can crush and kill," declared the Greek. 'The tongue destroys a greater horde," The Turk asserts, "than does the sword." The Persian -proverb wisely saith, "A lengthy tongue an early death." Or sometimes take this form instead, "Don't let j our tongue cut off your head." "The tongue can speaka word whose speed," Say the Chinese, "outstrips tne steed." While Arab sages this impart, "The tongue's great storehouse is the heart." From Hebrew wit the maxim sprung, "Though feet should slip, ne'er let the tongue." The sacred writer crowns the whole, "Who keeps his tongue doth keep his soul." A Financial Mystery Solved. t WBITTXH TOE TUB DISFATCII.1 "White What becomes of all the counter feit coins placed in circulation? Green I guess they are about evenly divided between the slot machines and the heathen. The ThUe Shield of Trues. THE THE CHURCH'S FAULT. Depends Too Much on Preaching and' Not Enough on Good Works. AN ANSWER TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. The Credentials of Christianity Not Its Creeds hut Its Deeds. REACHING THE HUMBLE CLASSES rWRITTEN FOB TITS DISPATCH.! I was commenting last week upon the answer that Jesus gave to a company of doubters. These men came from John the Baptist, bringing as their message a deep question. "Art thou He that should come," they asked, "or do we look for another?" That question, I said, touches the very heart of Christianity. It concerns the very essential assertion of the Christian religion, which is, that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed He that should come, and that we look for no other. "We all want to get that question answered. It underlies all the religious in quiry of our generation. The supremacy of Christ depends upon the solution of that question. We listen, then, with eager in terest to hear the Master answer. He bids the questioners stand by his side and watch him at his work. There is a great multitude about him, as there com monly was, and Jesus was occupied as al ways, in comforting, teaching, bettering and helping them. He set the doubters to see and hear. And presently turning to them, he sent his answer to the Baptist. The Answer of Good Deeds. "Go," he said, "and show John again the things which ye do. hear and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them." The credentials of Christianity, then, are not its creeds but its deeds. The best argu ment for the divinity of the Christian re ligion is its divine helpfulness. The best solution to the great question? which touch the truth of Christianity, and inquire whether it really came down out of heaven or not, is to be fonnd in the success of Christianity in comforting the sorrow" and helping the poverty of the world. Thus will the doubters find the answers to their own questions. This I desire to-day some what to enlarge upon. Whoever is in doubt about the Christian faith will find more help in charity than in theology. "Let him not rely so much upon the reading oi many Christian books, as upon the doing of many Christian works. Let him simply try, day after day, to live like a Christian, and he will presently find himself believing like a Christian. "Working Into the Spirit. Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowl edge. "Whosoever does the will of God shall know the truth of God. John the Baptist had faith enough as long as he was busy at his blessed work of helping people. It was only when he was shut up in prison, and had no chance of ministering to men, that he fell into doubt Try to live as Christ lived; think not of yourself, but of your brother's need; every day somehow help somebody; more and more learn the spirit of Christ; thus will you come uncon sciously and inevitably into the possession of all essential Christian truth. Whoever desires to be a missionary of Christ, whoever is not content to be a Christian all alone, but wants to make someon else Christian, will find the sermon that Jesus preached to be the most efieclive sermon, it you. want tlo bring some mem ber of your own household into closer rela tions with religion, it is not a good plan to talk a great deal. Urging people to attend Church effects but little toward making Christians out ot them. It is better to be the very best' kind of Christian that you can seven days every week. The Efficacy of Example. Tour thoughtfulness, your patience, your Christian good temper, your check upon your tongue, your constancy in your own personal Christian duty of prayer, of Bible reading, of attendance upon the service of the chuich, your everyday helpfulness, your unfailing ministry to the happiness and bettering of all about you, your deeds of charity, your Christian conversation this is better than all the persuasion in the world. If you want your husband, or your wife, or your brother to be a Christian, be a ten times better Christian your own self. It can hardly be said too oftenTthat a large proportion oi tne innaeis in the Christian world owe their unbelief to the inconsistent lives of people professing Christianity. When the devil wants to send a missionary to preach the doctrine of the pit, he gets a Christian. Many a Christian woman has kept a soul out of the church of Christ by her pride, by her arrogant manner, by her injustice, by her unkind speech. Many a Christian man has made a good bargain for his bank account and a bad bargain for the Lord Jesus Christ, and for his own soul, at the same time. Men are every day asking John's question: Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Is the Christian religion the religion of help and truth and righteousness, the divine religion which is trying to set up & kingdom of heaven down here on this sinful earth, or must we look for another? The Responsibility nf Christian!. And Christ bids them stand by as he did in the old time, and watch, not now him self, but his representatives, the Christians. And all depends upon what they see. And when they behold the Christian cheating the blind because they are blind, and exulting to outrun the lame, and putting the lepers out of doors, and lying to the deaf because they cannot hear, and rejoicing in the ruin and death of their fellow men, and preach ing to the poor the devil's gospel of tyranny and oppression and extortion, do they be lieve? Do they come in and beg to be ad mitted to such a church, and give their de vout allegiance to snch men's Master? "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come" it must needs be that men must find stumbling blocks somewhere along the path "but woe to that man" and ten-fold woe, if he call himself a Christian, and for a pretense make long prayers "woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!" All the emphasis of the Christian Church ought to be put just where the Lord Jesus Christ pnt it. The Church, like its great leader, ought to go about doing good. To open the eyes of the blind, to make the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, to cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead and to preach the gospel to the poor that is what the church is for. What the Chnrch Might Do. If the Church did that, there would be no problem of poverty at all. The men upon whose money the working classes depend lor wages, the employers of labor, the own ers, the lords and princes of the industrial world, are for the most part members of Christian churches. If they all had the Christian spirit, if they were all Christians, if they all tried to deal with the great prob lem ot pain and poverty as Christ did oh, what a revolution, what a transformation, what a foretaste of the milleninm, what a realization of the kingdom of heavenl Somehow, there is a difference between the chnrch and Christ. We think that we want to reach the masses. We desire to E reach the gospel to the poor. But some ow the poor are not at all eager to be preached to. We cannot persuade them into our beautiful churches. But when Jesus was here the only trouble he had was to get arfay from the "masses" long enough to cat and sleep. He journeys far up into the coasts of Tyre and Sidonwhere he thinks that nobody knows him. But within an hour some poor people find Him out He cannot be hid. He takes a boat and crosses the lake of Galilee, seeking a desert place on the other side where he and his disciples may get a day of rest But be PITTSBURG DISPATCH, hold a great company of blind and lame, and lepers, and mourners, and poor people, have gone around the head of the lake and have anticipated him. And when he ar rived at land, lol the eager multitude. "The common people heard him gladly." That can hardly be said of the Christian church to-day. Shortcomings of the Chnrch. At a labor" meeting in New York the name of Jesus was applauded to the echo, but they hissed the church. In England, in the present campaign, where both parties are trying to gain the labor vote, some of the workingmen's meetings have cursed the parsons. What is the matter? The matter is that Jesus Christ loved the poor, and that that is more than can honestly be said of the great company of Christians. - Jesus gave the poor that which is more valuable than all the money on the earth and under the earth, he gave them his attention, his thought, his sympathy, his love,, his life. The matter Is "that Jesus Christ preached the gospel to the poor; the "gospel of the kingdom," is the whole name of it, the good news; that is, that the King of the whole universe is the Father of us all, the Father of the poorest man that breathes, and that we are all brothers in one family. That is the gospel that Jesus preached to the poor, and he illustrated it and empha sized it by being himself the brother of the poor. We have left that gospel too long to be preached and practiced by the labor unions, the socialists, the communists. The "World Growing Better. Nevertheless, I believe that every new vear finds the world more Christian. Year by year even the Christian Church is being more and more converted to Christianity. The character of Christ, the example of Christ, is increasingly recognized as tieing the very heart ofour religion. And we are trying more and more to put the emphasis where He put it, to bring the second com mandment close ud beside the first, to show our love for God by loving our brother men. Everv vear the church is erowinff toward the realization of that blessed work of Jesus) which He showed to John's disciples. We are showing more and more of that divine helpfulness. Sociology is being studied as diligently as theology. Good works are being taught as the sign and fruit of faith. Wealth is being consecrated anew to the service of the Father in heaven. And the old reproach, the old unchristlikeness of the church, is being taken away. God hasten it George Hodges. BUBIAL 07 A SPANISH KISQ. The Curious Ceremonies With Which the Corpse Is Stowed Away. Pcart.on'8 WeeUy. "Upon the death of a Spanish King a singular andimposing ceremony takes place. When the religions rites have been cele brated the body of the monarch is borne on a magnificent catafalqne, and followed by the officers of state, the grandees of Spain, and the Princes of all the provinces, out of the palace ot the Escurial to the monastery, in whose vaults all the Castiliaa kings are entombed. The gate is locked. The High Chamberlain knocks three times. The face of a monk appears at the opening. "Who seeks to enter?" he savs. "Alfonso XII., King of Spain," is the re- ply. "Is the lung dead' The chief physicians and the principal officers then present their certificates that he is dead, and the gates roll slowly back to admit the King who comes to join the eternal sleep of his ancestors. When the final prayers of the church have been said, the coffin is borne to the vault and laidnpon a stone table. The lid is removed and the face of the King uncovered. The principal hidalgo in the kingdom then goes down into the vault, and, kneeling, puts his mouth to the ear of the corpse, calling aloud: "Senorl Senor! "Senor!" After the third call he rises, and ex claim?: "There is no reply. The King is dead. He will return no more. The Queen (or King) reigns." f BOVELTIES IK PUBHITTJBK. An Innocent Looklnc Easel That Becomes a Writing Desk. rwmTTEN ron Tin dispatch. l Some person, whose inventive genius would insist upon asserting itself, has in vented u new combination in furniture which will recommend itself, no doubt, to many persons who have a liking for fur nishings that have a touch of mystery about them. When it stands upright in the drawing room it looks like an easel holding a portfolio tha. one might easily fancy filled with choice prints. But there is acuriou. little knob on the top, which, being pressed, lets down the front of the portfolio. Instantly a pair of slender The Easel Desk. steel legs let themselves down from some where to support the front of the portfolio, which proves to be the shelf of the desk. Back of that are numerous pigeon holes, boxes, and all kinds of conveniences f for holding things, together with inkstands, pencils, rulers, calendars and all the other equipments of a reliable desk. In the top of the easel frame also is set a tiny clock, like the watches set in ladies' bracelets, only larger. Another easel of the same design lets down into a dressing table with much pale blue upholstery, a large beveled mirror and many brushes, boxes, and all kinds of ap pliances develop. To persons who are fond of novelty or to whom space in a room is of special consideration, these pieces of furni ture will be interesting and attractive. DAHCIHG IS COLLEGE TOWHB. i The Students Are So Graen That the Girls Have Lots of Fun With Them. N The college town is where the stage door is popular, said a pretty soubrette the other day. I remember once at Bethlehem, Pa., there were so many students gathered about the stage door that we had to appeal to the manager, who turned down the lights and let us out the front When "we went to go away some of these young fellows had lassos, and threw them over the girls they favored as they attempted to enter the om nibus. At New Haven two students followed the show to an adjoining town and sat in the front row every night for the smiles of a pair of pretty dancers. You couldn't help but smile, don't you Know, when you came on and 'saw the same two fellows. This pleased them immensely. The fun of it was theyhad never ventured to speak tp the girls during the whole time, though they stood at the stage door every night when we came out. Boys are so foolish! They fol lowed us until theV probably ran out of pocket money and had to return. Of course, in this way, off and""on',-the girls have lots of fun in spite of rules. It is all open and' innocent SUNDAY, JANUARY 81, OUR BOYS AND MONARCH OF THE WOODS. Habits and Characteristics of the Elk Their Musical Notes or Challenge Slerce Fights in tho Forests Roose velt Tells How to Hunt Them. tWItlTTZH FOB TUB DISPATCH. To my mind one of the most attractive sports of the West is elk hunting. The elk used to be found over almost the entire United States, but it now exists, in any numbers, only in the great mountain chains of the Itockies and of the coast ranges in Oregon and Washington. It is without ex ception the lordliest of the deer kind, and in size is second only to the moose. Noth ing can surpass the grand beauty of an old bull elk bearing his 12-tined antlers aloft with easy grace as he roars ont his challenge to all rivals. In some parts of the West afar from the settlements, the elk is still plentiful He offers to the hunter not only the grandest of trophies in the shape of his magnificent head and horns, but also an abundant sup ply of the best possible meat There is no venison upon which .one can live so long without tiring, as elk meat, the only drawi back being that it must be eaten hot, as the fat turns into regular tallow as soon as it cools. During the summer, while their horns are in the jrelvet, no true sportsman will shoot the elk, nor will he shoot cows and calves at any time save when absolutely in need of meat; but in September the vel vet drops off his horns and then each of the master bulls begins to collect a harem of cows, from five or six to 20 or 30 in nnmber. The Elk a Born Warrior. He keeps all the small bulls afar from ifcssssr ; i ..v iiv' . - mmrh,.. - - -. - BOTH THE PROUD WAHKIORS BEOUGHT LOW. this herd, and wages furious war against every rival of the same size and antler growth as himself. At this season the bnll has a very extraordinary and peculiar note. The frontiersmen call it whistling, but it is not like a whistle at all; it is more like a bugle, consisting of a bar or two of music on a rising icale, and then another bar or two on a falling scale, followed sometimes by three or four flute-like notes. It is most exciting to creep up to a bull when he is whistling in this way. - The first elk I shot in the season of 1891 was'obtoined in this manner. I was travel ing with a pack train in the mountains, rid ing at the head. It was a dark, lowering, rainy morning, and we were going np a small valley with steep, densely wooded hills on either hand. Suddenly, as we came out into a little glade, we heard, half a mile to our right, the challenge of a bull elk, speedily answered by a more distant note of defiance, evidently from a rival farther up the mountain. I and my companion, a tall, silent, old mountain hunter, instantly slipped off our horses and began to steal through the woods toward the sound. It was a great tamarack forest, and the ground at our feet was covered with water-logged moss, so that it was easy to walk without making a noise. As silently as possible we crept on from tree to tree in the gloom of the mighty evergreen forest, every minute or two stopping to listen for the challenge. The elk was evidently very mnch excited by the pretence of his rival on the distant mountainside, and he kept repeating his call at short intervals. Like Some Ferocious Wild Beast. When we first went into the woods and heard it from afar it sounded most musical, but as we drew nearer the sound had a harsh ring, which detractedfrom its melody, but which nevertheless sent a thrill through our veins. Nearer and nearer we crept, and each minute the roar of the challenge came booming down through the woods louder than before. Then we got near enough to hear the rattle of the great ant lers as the bull savagely thrashed the young trees and saplings. "Still nearer we crept, and from a particularly dense clump of young evergreens the roar came so near as to make it sound like the cry of some fe rocious wild beast The old hunter dropped behind and I raced silently forward toward the clump. In another moment I saw the tops of the great antlers projecting one on either side of a tree trunk. I was in mv buckskin hunting shirt, which harmonizes 'so well with the tree trunks that it is diffi cult for even the sharpest eye to distin guish it For a moment or two evidently the elk could not quite see what I was. Stepping to one side of the tree he walked a couple of paces toward me with the peculiar, stately grace of his kind, his shapely head and lordly antlers borne aloft by the great swelling neck. Then, as he halted, my bullet took him straight in the chest. Hound he, wheeled and started off, and with the second bullet I hit him in the flank. Either of the shots was fatal, and after a 30 yards run the lordly beast staggered, stopped, fell over on his bide and was in the death struggle as I drew near. In a minute afterward the old hunter aud I were standing admiring his hnse body and beautifully formed, clean brown legs. Both Duelists Fell Dead. Once I shot two bnlls while they were engaged in deadly combat with each other. I had been lying out in a high alpine valley over night with a companion. We had no blankets with us, nothing but our jackets, in which -vre had slept by the side of the fire all night Before dawn we were off, thread ing our way through the cool dim archways of .the pine forest, and just at sunrise we heard, half a mile in our front, the clatter of horns and the savage squealing which marks an elk fight Stealing up softly we .were soon within 125 yards of the combat ants, two 'powerful and evenly-matched bulls. They fought by charging each other like rams, the shock being tremendous as the great beasts,with bristling hair, flashing eyes and lowered .horns, crashed together. Once the antlers were interlocked, each strove by sheer strength and address to force his opponent back, and they stood for minutes straining with their haunches gathered nnder them, squealing fiercely at times; then they would separate, retire some little distance, fronting each other with glaring eyes, and again come together The great object of "each was to catch the other in the flank. The hair and hide on the neck and shoulders of the wapiti, as the elk is more properly called, offera nearly impenetrable shield; but the skin is softer on the flank and haunches, and almost the only serious damage that is ever done in a fight-is when the victor is able to catch the weaker animal in the flank as he -turns, or7 overtake and punish him about the rump ai 1892. he flees. I have never known a horn to go through the hide around the neck, although after a conflict the flesh will show great braises there nnder the skin. Sure of a Good Breakfast. In this particular instance, however, I interrupted the conflict long before it had time to come to a fatal conclusion, kill ing both combatants; one by a shot in the shoulder as they wrestled together, and the other by a bullet in the flank as it ran. We had had no breakfast that morning, and the first thing we did was to cut out a strip of steak from alongside the loins, build a fire, and roast on willow twigs little kabobs of luscious meat If taken in the open, an elk ean be run down by a good horse. I have never myself tried the experiment, but three years ago, near my ,ranch, a cowboy with whom I have often worked on roundups, performed the feat He was on the roundup and was driving some cattle out of a brush patch at the bottom of a coulee when an elk sprang updirectly ahead of him and went off at the swinging trot characteristio of the species. A trotting elk can go all day, but if it should be forced to gallop, though it goes very fast for a few hundred rods, it speedily tires. The cowboy on his speedy, wiry lit tle pony instantly dashed at the elk, forced it to gallop, and kept it on the run for nearly a mile; then it began to fag. He-then came alongside and threw his rope over the horns. With the utmost exertions, how ever, he was nnable to master it until an othor cow pnncher rode up and shot it with a. revolver. Tiieodoke Eoosevei.t: CrTKWTSTBY OF THE BODY Is a Large Part of the Instruction in Gotham Cooking Schools. rWMTTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. Superintendent Joseph, of the public schools of New York City, reports that the s"lr teaching of cookery has been wholly suc cessful in the schools. It forms a part of the work of the girls in the second and third grammar grades. The real object of the study is commendable. It is not so much the ability to make palatable dishes, though that is certainly to be desired, as it is the thorough understanding of food values, the choice of raw material with reference to their nutritive qualities, their composition and chemical changes, together with their effect upon the body. All these and mnch more are taught The physiology of feeding is andther topio of instruction, and the yonng girls in these classes under stand as well as any of us do that wonder ful chemistry of the body which trans mutes bread ,into blood and even into thought WEST POINT BRUTALITY. In Days Just After the War Riding Lessons Were Dangerous Instructors Took De light In Unseating tho Novices Better Methods Prevail t?oir. rWBITTEN FOB THE DISPATCH.! HEKE has never been a time when riding was better taught at West Point than within the last decade. It was systematic, thorough and practical yet not by any means all that should be taught, or all that might be taught in the cavalry department. Nowa days the cadet begins with wooden horses in the gymnasium, learning to vault on and off from any side. and then comes his schooling in the big, bare, cheerless riding hall weeks at a slow trot and the snafHe bit In my time we were marched to the hall, the galleries were thronged with giggling and delighted spec tators, and, with all respect to our first in structor, admirable as he was on drill or kindred duty, he seemed to take more de light in showing off the clumsiness and awkwardness of the beginners than he did in teaching them. Biding lessons began in the fall of our second year at the Point, and in our platoon there were probably a dozen yonng fellows who had never straddled a horse in their lives. They were from the New England and Middle States. We Westerners, es pecially the Kentucky set, had ridden, as a matter of course. The horse's were drawn up in line, with watering bridals and snafHe bits, blankets and surcingles. We were told to take them as they stood from right to left Somebij fellows got little horses, some big horses little riders, "but the odder it looked the more our instructor seemed to like it Mount was the order, and some of us were np in a second, and some were down. Then he got us on the track and the fun began. He had a long whip, such as is used by circus ringmasters, and his sole object seemed to be to unseat every man in the squad. With most of them there was no difficulty. They shot or slid off at every swerve, but those who were accustomed to riding from early boyhood were not so easily disposed of, and on those he-redoubled his efforts the girls in the . gallery tittering and giggling the while, and the horses kicking and plunging in response to the ringing crack of his whip. We had manv a day of this sort of thing; some of our fellows were seriously bruised and hurt, and all felt more or less aggrieved at being made a spectacle of on the first rides, just as we had been at plebe drills the year before. No one cared for qur feelings, however. That sort of sentimentality came up afterward, and when I was detailed 1o instruct certain "yearling" squads in '69 and '70 I found that visitors and spectators were excluded as they should have been before. Nevertheless, by the time of our graduation we had a score of excellent horsemen in the class and six or eight who never could be taught a secure or graceful teat or, what is even more difficult, a good hand. Now, the riding lessons are so sys tematic and thorough that very few cadets are graduated who are. not really good riders. Chables Knro, Captain U. 3-iA, Copyright, 1893. GIRLS. OUR MESSENGER BOYS. Eight Thousand Usually Examined to Find a Thousand That Are Competent Sys tems or Punishment What Becomes of Them Their Pay and Fines. ICOBKXSPOXDEXCX OP TnB DISPATCH.1 New Yoke, Jan. 3a -, ilEKE are about 2,500 r l messenger and tele ' v- eraph boys in the great city of New York. One half of this number are employed by the American District Telegraph Company, and the remainder are divided among three other companies. Of course, there are not so many in Pittsburg, but there are plenty of bright boys, there, and what I say of those in New York applies very nearly to them. When a boy applies for a situation we ask for his residence and put questions to him with a design to test his intelligence. We ask him what he would do if he was de livering a message under such and such cir cumstances, and we question him particu larly in regard to his knowledge of the streets, the various public buildings and points of interest in the city. Then we send a detective to the place he has given as his residence, in order to see if he has told the truth. To some of my young read ers this last proceeding may seem quite humiliating, but it must be remembered that we are dealing with a large number of strange boys, many of whom may have yielded to the temptations to wrong-doing always to be found in a great city. Yon can imagine how few really compe tent boys there are in New York (and the same rule would hold good in regard to Pittsburg) when I tell you that, in order to obtain the 1,200 boys suitable for our service during the year we have to "turn over," or examine and pass upon the quali fications of 8,000 or 9,000 boys in the course of 12 months. A Good Demand for Good Boys. This is pretty good evidence that there is a demand for bright and good boys not only in this vocation but almost every other, as merchants and business men would say if they were called upon to testify. You may think that the business of running errandk and carrying telegrams and messages is very simple, but in a large city, wherethe messenger meets "all sorts and conditions of men," he is very often required to use considerable judgment and discretion in dealing with people who may try to get the advantage of him. The position is one of considerable responsibility. In the course of the year our boys deliver 9,000,000 tele grams and messages. But our service, by constant care and strict discipline, is so well organized that in the course of the year, onr "damage account," resulting from the carelessness or dishonesty of our boys, is less than $1,000. Ihe hours of work of a telegraph or mes senger boy are called "tricks." The length of a day's regular service is ten hours, and there is a regular straight day trick and a regular straight night trick, and then there are special tricks from 7 A. 51. to 12 M. and from 4 P. M. to 9 P. M. The straight day trick is from 7 A.at. to 5 p, ar., and the straight night trick from 10 p. JI. to 8 o'clock A. JI. Salaries New York Boys Get. The newcomer receives one week's train ing before he enters upon actual duty. He commences with a salary of $3 50 a week; in three months, if he is competent, he is ad vanced to 54, six months later to 54 50, and so on until he receives the maximum salary paid for such service, which is ?5 50 a week. We have to maintain a strict discipline. We have a book called a "record book." Each numbered page represents a bov, and the number corresponds with the number of his badge; for, as you are probablv well aware, each boy wears a badge, and by this V. B. Frost. he is known in the office. In the "record book" is kept a diary of the misdoings of the boy. Here, for instance, is an imaginary page: John Smith. Besides Xo. 2M Silver street. Parents, Samuel and Marv Smith. Entered the service September 30. October 15 lost extra ticket. Fined 10 cents. November I collected money on a prepaid message. Fined 50 cents. Attempted to collect money on a telegram. Discharged. You will notice that the first item of mis conduct was comparatively trifling; the second involved dishonesty and was pun ished with a heavy fine. The boy. how ever, was still retained in the service with the hone that he might do better. Asrain he committed a grave offense and was dis charged. Just as a good boy has a fair chance for advancement, so a bad boy I mean a boy hopelessly and continuously bad will be pretty sure to receive severe punishment. How Messengers Aro Punished. As I said before, there is a very small percentage of loss, considering the vast amount of business handled. SupDOse you lived in New York and you sent a telegram to your father's office down town that your mother had just been taken dangerously sick. Naturally, you would be anxious to have the message delivered quickly. Sup pose the telegraph messenger boy, to save himself time and trouble, destroyed the message, ion would consider, would you not, that he ought to be punished very se verely, and so he would be. There are not many cases of that kind. When such an instance occurs the boy is prosecuted crimi nally and, if convicted, a circular some thing like the following is sent to all the messenger stations and telegraph offices in the city. American Diet. Telegraph Co. Messenger Department. Warning to Messengers. Messenger 5,984, John Smith, destroyed a telegram, was arrested, tried and sentenced to Elmlra Reformatory until 21 years of age. What becomes of all the messenger boys? It may be said that the average industrial life of a messenger boy is not over six months. Many get tired of the business; the work is too hard. Others are discharged under such circumstances that they could not enter the service again. But a con siderable number drift into the vocation of telegraphy, with which in their work they are so closely connected; they become clerks in the telegraph offices, or managers of the district messenger offices located in different parts of the city. Some bright boys, com ing in contact as they constantly "do frith business men, obtain situations in mercan tile houses or in tho. offices of brokers, bankers or lawyers. Bat wherever they have gone it can be safely affirmed that, aside, from personal character, the traininz thev have received in the' telegraph and messenger service has been invaluable to them and helped them on toward a business career. G. V. B. Fbost, Superintendent American District Tele graph Company, New York, IH a. IT DREAMS OF PEOPHECY. An Achin? Nerye That Precedes Dis ease Often Causes Them. FIRST APPROACH OP PARALYSIS. Epileptic Convni3ion3 Follow the HistjTala of an Iron Crown. PHEN0J1E.YA OP THE SH1D0WT EEALK WBITTET TOU THE DISPATCH. Impressions made upon the senses are fre quently the starting points of dreams, but though all nations have, to a greater or less extent, in all aees of the world, believed in the prophetic nature of dreams, we now know that the relation, in stead of being one of prophecy and fulfill ment, is simply that of cause and effect Very slight impressions made upon the sen3e during sleep are exaggerated by the partially awakened brain. For several years past I have made in quiries of patients and others relative to their dreams, and have thus collected a large amount of material bearing upon the subject With reference to the point under consideration, the data in my possession are exceedingly important and interesting. Among the cases which have thus come under my observation of diseases being preceded by morbid dreams are the follow ing: Dreamed lie Was Cat in Two. A gentleman, two days before an attack of hemiplegia, dreamed that he was cut in two exactly down the mesial line from the chin to the perineum. By some means union of the divided surfaces was obtained, but he could only move to one side. On awakening a little numbness existed in the side which he had dreamed was paralyzed. This soon passed off, and ceased to engage his attention. The following night he had a somewhat similar dream, and the next day, toward evening, was seized with the attack which rendered him hemiplegia Another dreamed one night that a man dressed in black and wearing a black mask came to him and struck him violently on the leg. He experienced no pain, however, and the man continued to beat him. In the morning he felt nothing, with the excep tion of a slight headache. Nothing unusual was observed about the leg, and all went on well until, on the fifth day, he had an apo plectic attack,accompanied with hemiplegia, including the leg which he had in his dream imagined to have been struck. A young ladv dreamed that she was seized by robbers and compelled to swallow melted lead. In the morning she felt as Veil aa usual, but toward the middle of the day was attacked with severe tonsilitis. Fulled His II air Out. A young man informed me that a day or two beforo being attacked with acnte menin gitis he bad dreamed that he was seized by banditti while traveling in Spain, and that they had taken his hair out by the roots, causing him great pain. A lady of decided good sense had an epileptic seizure which was preceded by a singular dream. She had gone to bed feeling somewhat fatigued with tne labors of the day, which had consisted in attending three or four morning recep tions, winding up with a dinner party. She had scarcely fallen asleep when she dreamed that an old man clothed in black approached her, holding an iron crown of great weight in his hands. As he came nearer she per ceived that it was her father, who had been dead several years, but who.e features she distinctly recollected. Holding the crown at arm's length he said: "My daughter, during my lifetime I wa forced to wear this crown. Death relieved ma of the burden, but it now descends to you." Saying which, he placed the crown on her head and disappeared gradually from her signt. immediately sneieit & Treat weight and an intense feeling of constriction in her head. To add to her distress she imagined that the rim of the crown was studded on the inside with sharp points.whieh wounded her forehead so that the blood streamed down her face. DTerfl Tfas an Inherited Dream. She awoke with agitation, excited, hut felt nothing uncomfortable. LookiDg at the clock on tne mantel piece she found that she had been in bed exactly 33 minutes. She returned to bed and soon fell asleep, but was again awakened by a similar dream. On this occasion the apparition reproached her for not beinjr willing to wear the crown. Shehadbeeninbed thilast time over three hours before awaking. Attain she fell asleep, and again at broad daylight she was awak ened by a like dream. She now got up, took a bath, and proceeded to dress herself with her maid's assistance. Becalling the par ticulars of her dream, she recollected that she had heard her father say one day that in his youtb.whilo being in England, his native country, he had been subject to epileptics convulsions, consequent on a fall from a tree, and that he had been cured by having the operation of trephining'performed by a ' distinguished London surgeon. Though by no means superstitious, the dreams made a deep impression upon her, and her sister entered the room at the time she proceeded to detail them to her. While thus engaged she suddenly gave a loud scream, became nnconsciocf and fell on the floor in a trno epileptic convulsion. This par oxysm was not a severe one. It was followed in about a week by another, and, strange to say, tins was prcceuou as ine oiner ov a dream other father placing an iron crown on her head and of pain being thereby pro duced. Since then several months have elapsed and she has bad no other attack, owing to tho Influence of the bromide of potassium which she continues to take. In the case ot a gentleman formerly under my treatment for epilepsy the fits are in variably preceded by dreams of difficulties With the head, such a decapitation, hanging, perforation ith an auger, etc. Effect of Incipient Sciatica. A lady, previous to an attack of sciatica, dreamed that she had caught her foot in a spring trap and that before she could be freed it was necessary to amputate the mem ber. Tho operation wa perlormed, but as . sho was released a large dog sprang at her and fastened his teeth in her thigh. She screamed aloud and awoke in her terror. Nothing unusual was perceived about tho leg, but on getting up in the morning there was slight pain along the course of thesciatlo nere, and this, berore evening, was devel oped into well marked sciatica. It would be very easy to pursue the sub ject further, but enough has been said to Hhow that the so-called "prophetic dre-ims," like all others, have their origin either in impressions made upon some one or more of the special senses or in recollections of previous impressions. We are therefore obliged to dismiss, as without any founda tion in fact, the notion that dreams have anything of tho nature of true prophecy about them. As to the other alleged extra ordinary dreams, such as those indicating tho occurrence of events of which the per son has no actual know ledge, 1 can only say that without denying the possibility or suoh occurrences, they have not yet been shown to be real. As I have said before m other relations there is nothing impossible outside the domain of mathematics, but there are a great many things apparently possible which have not yet been satisfactorily established, and until proven it is well to hold our acceptance of their reality In abey ance. William A. Haxxoxd, M. D. THE VALUE OP EMPHASIS. One of the Twins Used It to Get Two Fleeei or Fie Instead of One. Youth's Companion. A woman had a pair of twin sons so closely alike in looks and voice that often, when she was not paying particular atten tion, she herself was liable to mistake one - for the other. One day, after the twins had been plavinjr several hours out of doors together, one of them whose name might have been Jacob , came into the house and said: "Mother, !Uui hungry; I want a piece of pie." Without noticing which it was, she gave him the pie, which he immedietelr took around the corner of the house and ate; then returning, he said in an aggrieved tone: "Mother, want a piece ofpiel" AIL went well until poor Esau came in. a few minutes afterward, only to discover' how he and his mother had been cheated." ' 1 f3 a . Jt ti '
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