Republican news item. (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, April 03, 1902, Image 3

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    , K£?S?Eo2" THE WONDERFUL ISLAND' OE TORY.!"
- v Curious Customs | Jorsi Cats or Rati.
THE MAIN STREET OF TORY. SHOWING MANSIONS THAT ARE I TKr SWELL ICTEL CF TORY
RENT FREE. |
England lias another war on her
lir.ncls. She Is making preparations to
reconquer the island whose inhabitants
have a King of their own and who re
fuse to pay tribute to King Edward.
By a strange peculiarity of fate it is
known as Tory Island. It is a bleak,
desolate strip of land nine miles from
the storm-swept northwest coast of
Ireland, and contains a population of
about 500, who have their own lan
guage, their own Government and
their own costumes, as well as their
own King.
Being in their own opinion a free
and independent people, they refuse to
pay taxes to England or rent to the
landlord. In fact, they have paid
neither rent nor taxes for half a cen
tury. That is why England detailed
a gunboat to visit the island and help
a regiment of Irish constabulary evict
the obstinate inhabitants.
It will rot be the first time that an
expedition lias been sent against the
Tory Islanders. Seventeen years ago
England decided that a separate Gov
ernment on Tory Island could not be
(tolerated, and the gunboat Wasp was
sent to uphold the majesty of the
Crown. But the Wasp was wrecked
on the treacherous southwest coast,
and all her crew were drowned. Tory
Islanders regarded the disaster as an
intervention of Providence, and gave
thanks accordingly to their patron
saint, St. Columbia.
The King of Tory Island is a be
wliiskered, unconventional individual,
and very prehistoric, but ho lias re
sisted the British Empire successfully
for many years, and his people have a
fine disregard for everything English.
The present King is a giant in size.
His name is MeLoughlin. So strong
is King MeLoughlin that he can kill
an ox with his fist, according to popu
lar report.
The Tory Islanders are chiefly fisher
men. A Sligo steamer calls once a
week to bear away their catch. There
no cats and 110 rats on Tory Island.
Nor are there any policemen or pawn
shops. But the Islanders have a pub
lic house, or hotel.
According to tradition, the island was
once inhabited by a race of giants.
One of the giants erected a tower on
the island, which stands to-day in a
fair state of preservation. It is built
of undressed bowlders, with walls four
feet thick at the base.
Tourists seldom visit Tory Island ow
ing to the unconventional actions of the
natives. The latter resent intrusion
from tiie outside wor.d. A favorite
trick of the fishermen is to run along
side a steamer or sailing vissel and
ask tiie lookout to heave them a rope.
When a rope is thrown tl;e fisherman
hauls in as much of it as lie can and
then cuts tiia line. In this way tiie
fishing fleet in kept supplied with rope
at a minimum cost. The Tory Island
ers are evidently a healthy race, for
there is no doctor on the island.
SWORD AND PISTOL.
Two Weapons Combined For the ÜBO of
Officers.
While the place for an officer is at
the head of his column when going into
■battle, he is severely handicapped in
fl-'ng at the enemy with his revolver
by the necessity of carrying his sword
P
gj-
OFFICERS' COMBINATION WEAPON.
In one hand, and it has occurred to I)o
--inenic A. Ilicco that a weapon like the
one illustrated in tiie picture might be
useful at a critical moment. The gun
in this combination is so mounted that
while the officer is waving his sword
to his men he can at the same time
busy himself firing at the enemy in
front, picking cfi" men ready to fire at
either himself or some of his men. The
entire actuating mechanism for oper
ating the revolver is located in the
handle of the sword, and does not dif
fer materially from that of the ordi
nary repeating firearm. The barrel and
cylinder are pivoted cn the usual
handguarJ of the sword, and can be
tilted downward to expose the Interior
for ejecting the empty shells and re
loading. The inventor makes provis
ion for attaching this weapon to tho
sabre, rapier and cutlass as well, and
states that ariy one of these blades can
be used in conjunction with the gun.
In every 1000 British 11 en there are
thirty-five widowers; in 1000 British
women there are seveaty-eight widows.
The Searchlight in the Boer War.
The adoption of search-lights in tho line of blockhouses which Lord Kitchen
er is gradually establishing as a means of offensive and defensive warfare
against the Boers is found to be of considerable advantage. Night surprises
are prevented, and the enemy's movements can be learned with some cer
tainty. The upper light Is used for loug distances; the lower for the imme
diate vicinity.—From Harper's Weekly.
fencing is t!\e German Students' favorite Pastime.
PARTY OF GERMAN STU^NTs^, TAKINC3 PART IN A BOUT W1 I'll
SABRES.
Proficiency with the sword is often desired by the German youth studying
in one of the big universities far more than knowledge of the sciences or
arts. It is with the sabre that the German student defends himself, Instead
of with his lists, and the student whose face bears the sears of many duels
is held in higher estimation by his fellows that one whose chief claim to dis
tinction is his familiarity with the classics. For pleasure the students
engage frequently in bouts together, as shown in the above photograph.
TESTING SILVER COINS.
The Comprehensive Sj'stein In Vogue at the
Different Mints of the l/nited States.
Out of every fresh batch of silver
dollars made at the United States
mints half a dozen are sent to the
Treasury at Washington to be tested
as samples. If they turn out to bo of
the requisite fineness and weight it is
taken for granted the whole edition is
correct.
For the test the coin after being
weighed is rolled out in a thin fiat strip
more than a foot in length. Then the
strip is placed beneath a row of
punches, which punch boles in it, so
that after passing beneath the instru
ment it has the look of a colander.
A great many little silver disks are
thus obtained, and of these a dozen
or so are taken and assayed, to find out
how much silver they contain. Being
obtained from various parts of the
coin they represent fairly the average
fineness of the dollar throughout. If
HOW DOLLARS ABE TESTET).
the weight is too little, beyond a very
tiny fraction, the whole batch of coins
must be melted and made over again,
and the same thing must be done if the
fineness is not up to standard. Other
wise the assayer indorses the mintage
and the dollars.
Molt llemurkabla Flower.
According to a London special in the
Cincinnati Couimerclal-Tribune, the
most remarkable flower of the coro
nation year will be a quaint introduc
tion from Central Asia. According to
A REMARKABLE FLOWER.
the importers, it grows on a saucer,
without soil or water, and, without
showing showing leaves or roois the
bull) shoots out a red-brown flower,
with red and yellow tip sometimes two
feet long. When the flower Is off it
prefers to retire into the soil and to be
well watered, when it follows up with
a three-foot umbrella leaf.
A trout egg takes from thirty-Cte
to sixty days to hatch, according to tha
temperature of the water.
| The New (SoifFures g
| For the Coronation. |
The leading hair dressers of Loudon
are already preparing designs for the
special coiffures that will be needed
for the coronation of King Edward
VII. and Ills Queen, and not a few
ladies of high rank are devoting much
thought to the same important sub
ject.
The Goldsmiths and Silversmiths
Company, opining that the peeresses
will wish to carry their coro. ets In
their hands, have invented a very sim
ple and ingenious device whereby they
may do so, and at the same time lift
FOB THE YOUNGER DUCHESSES.
their trains as well. The coronet has
bands of silk loosely placed across it
in the cavity where the head goes,
so that milady lias only to sling it over
her wrist, and her hand will be quite
free for other duties. When the King
is crowned the peers put on—each no
bleman upon his own head with his
sown hands—their coronets. \Y iien the
Queen is crowned all the peeresses fol
low suit.
As all women will at once perceive,
the chief dilliculty the peeresses will
encounter will be that of placing their
coronets on so that they will remain
steady for the two hours or more dur
ing which they must be worn—that is,
until the end of the service. Also they
will require to fix them becomingly
without the aid of a maid and a look
ing glass.
Wherefore M. Lys, of Regent street,
to whose skill appeal personages of the
most exalted statiou. also duchesses,
countesses and marchionesses, whose
beauty of coiffure is beyond descrip
tion, is at this time bringing all his
art and skill to bear upon the im
portant topic.
The designs here given have SI. Lys'
sanction and are his own manipula
tion. They were sketched in his salon.
The full-face one shows the coronet
of a duchess, with its strawberry
leaves of silver gilt above a roll of
miniver; and again above, its crown
of crimson velvet, posed stately and
proud, over a beautifully draped curl,
half hiding, half revealing the brow.
The neck is most becomingly garnished
with clusters of little though thick
curls stealing from behind the ears,
abeve which the tresses are gracefully
and lightly bunched. The veil appears
from behind, where the coiffure is ever
FOB A MARCHIONESS.
so lightly rippled and coiled, the last
coil of all resting on the shoulders.
Supposing the feathers, as well as
the veil to be ordered, another picture
shows how they will be treated.
Again, the almed-at effect is an ab
sence of that top-heaviness which
might so easily ensue were not partic
ular pains taken to prevent it.
A third coiffure is more simple. It
is one that young peeresses will prefer
and choose. The salient feature it pre
scrts is that the contour of the h:ad
DESIGNED FOR YOUNG PKEEESOH-.
is preserved in all its beauty, the gen
eral cutlet being that of loops and'
waves of hair merging into one an
other, and at the back little, loose
curls, not too many, and cut quite
short.
DII. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVIN. 7 . .
Sul>.ioel. Tlio Cmi'l l!ol ™|on Itnc 17■ in
Till* World—<;lu'j*tlui |fy oiitl th« In
tellect—-Infltieiicu of thii GoHpel In Husl
iieis— Can You Get A lou;; Without It?
WASHINGTON, D. C.—ln this discourse
Dr. Talmage advocates the idea that the
Christian jwagion is as good for this world
as the neat, and will help us to do any
thing that ought to he done at all; I Tim
othy iv, 8, '"Godliness is profitable unto
all things, having promise of the life that
now is and of that which is to come."
There is a gloomy and passive way of
waiting for events to come upon us, and
there is a heroic way of going out to meet
them, strong in Cod and fearing nothing.
When the body of Catiline was found on
the battlefield, it was found far in advance
of all -lis troops and among the enemy, and
the best way is not. for us to lie down and
let the events of life trample over us, but
togo forth in a Christian spirit deter
mined to conquer. You are expecting pros
perity, and I am determined, so far as I
have anything to do with it, that you shall
not be disappointed, and, therefore, I pro
pose, as God may help me, to project upon
vour attention a new element of success.
You have in the business firm frugality,
patience, industry, perseverance, economy
—a very sti'ong business firm—but there
needs to be one member added, mightier
than them all, and not a silent partner
either, the one introduced by my text,
''Godliness, which is profitable unto all
things, having the promise of the life that
now is as well as of that which is to come."
I suppose you are all willing to admit
that godliness is important in its eternal
relations, but perhaps some of you say,
"All I want is an opportunity to say a
prayer before I die, and all will be well."
There are a great many people who sup
pose that if they can finally get safely out
of this world into a better world they will
have exhausted the entire advantage of
our holy religion. They talk as though re
ligion were a mere nod of recognition
which we are to give to the Lord Jesus on
our way to a heavenly mansion; as though
it were an admission ticket, of no use ex
cept to give in at the door of heaven. And
there are thousands of people who have
great admiration lor a religion of the
shroud and a religion of the coffin and a
religion of the cemetery who have no ap
preciation of a religion for the bank, for
the farm, for the factory, for the ware
house, for the jeweler's shop, for the office.
Now, while I would not throw any slur on
a post-mortem religion, I want to-day to
eulogize an ante-mortem religion. A relig
ion that is of no use to you while you live
will he of 110 use to you v.hen you die.
"Godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is aa
well as of that which is to come." And I
have always noticed that when grace is
very low in a man's heart he talks a great
deal in prayer meetings about deaths and
about coffins and about graves and about
churchyards. I have noticed that the
healthy Christian, the man who is living
near to God and is on the straight road to
heaven, is full of jubilant satisfaction and
talks about the duties of this life, under
standing well that ii God helps him to live
right He will help him to die right.
Now, in the first place, I remark that
godliness is good for a man's physical
health. I do not mean to say that it will
restore a broken down constitution or
drive rheumatism from the limbs or neural
gia from the temples or pleurisy from the
side, but I do mean to say that it gives
one such habits and puts one in such con
dition as are most favorable for physical
health. That I believe, and that I avow.
Everybody knows that buoyancy of
spirit is good physical advantage. Gloont,
unrest, dejection, are at war with every
pulsation of the heart and with every res
piration of the lungs. They lower the vi
tality and slacken the circulation, while
exhilaration of spirit pours the very balm
of heaven through all the currents of life.
The sense of insecurity which sometimes
hovers over an unregenerate man or
pounces upon him with the blast of ten
thousand trumpets of terror is most deplet
ing and most exhausting, while the feeling
that all things are working together for
our good now and for our everlasting wel
fare is conducive to physical health.
You will observe that godliness induces
industry, which is the foundation of good
health. There is no law of hygiene that
will keep a lazy man well. Pleurisy will
stab him, erysipelas will burn him, jaun
dice will discolor him, gout will eripp.'e
him, and the intelligent physician will
not prescribe antiseptic or febrifuge
or anodyne, but saws and hammers
and yardsticks and crowbars and pick
axes. There is no such thing as good
physical condition without positive work
of some kind, although you should s'.ecp
on down of swan or ride in carriage of
softest upholstery or have on your table
all the luxuries that were poured from the
wine vats of Ispahan and Shiraz. Our re
ligion says: "Away to the bank, away to
the field, away to the shop, away to the
factory! Do something that will enlist all
the energies of your body, mind and soul!"
"Diligent in business, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord," while upon the bare
back of the idler and the drone conies
down the sharp lash of the apostle as he
says. "If env man will not work, neither
shell he eat/'
Oh, how important is this day, when so
much is said about anatomy and physio
logy and therapeutics and some new style
of medicine is ever and anon springing
upon the world, that you should under
stand that the highest school of medicine
is the school of Christ, which declares that
"godlines3 is profitable unto all things,
having the promise of the life that now is
as well as of that which is to come." So
if you start out two men in the world with
equal physical health, and then one of
them shall get the religion of Christ in his
heart anil the other shall not get it, the
one who' becomes a son of the Lord Al
mighty will live the longer. "With long
life will I satisfy him and show him Sly
salvation."
Again I remark that godliness is good
for the intellect. !. know some have sup
posed that just as soon as a man enters
into the Christian life his intellect goes
into a bedwarfing process. So far from
that, religion will give new brilliancy to
the intellect, new strength to the imagina
tion, new force to the will and wider
swing to all the intellectual faculties._
Christianity is the great central fire at
which philosophy has lighted its brightest
torch.
The religion of Christ the fountain
out of which learning has dipped its clear
est draft. The Helicon poured forth no
such inspiring waters as those which flow
from under the throne of God clear as
crystal.
Religion has given new energy to poesy,
weeping in Dr. Young's "Night Thoughts,"
teaching in Cowper's "Task," flaming in
Charles Wesley's hymns and rushing with
arehangelie splendor through Sfilton's
"Paradise Lost." 'lite religion of Christ
has hung in studio and in gallery of art and
in Vatican the best pictures—Titian's "As
sumption," Raphael's "Transfiguration, - '
Ru'oens's "Descent From the Cross,"
Claude's "Burning Bush" and Angelo's
"Last Judgment." Religion has made the
best music of the world—Haydn's "Crea
tion," Handel's "'Messiah," Mozart's "Re
quiem." Is it possible that a religion
which builds such indestructible monu
ments, and which lifts its ensign on the
highest promontoreis of worldly power
can have any effect upon a mail's intellect
but elevation?
Now. I commend godliness as the best
mental discipline, better than belles lettrea
to purify the taste, better than mathemat
ics to harness the mind to nil intricacy and
elaboration, better than logic to marshal
the intellectual forces for onset and vic
tory.
Again I remark that godliness is profit
able for one's disposition. Lord Ashley,
before he went into a great battle, was
heard to offer this prayer: "O Lord, J shall
be very busy to-day! If I forget Thee, for
get me not." With such a Christian dispo
sition as that a man is independent of all
circumstances.
Our piety will have a tinge of our natural
temperament. If a man be cross and sour
and fretful naturally, after he becomes a
Christian he will always have to be armed
against the rebellion of those evil inclina
tions.
But religion has turned the wildest na
tures. It has turned fretfulntss into grat
itude, despondency into good cheer, and
those who were hard and ungovernable
and uncompromising have been made pli
abie and conciliatory.
Good resolution, reformatory effort, will
not effect the change. It takes a mightier
arm and a mightier hand to bend evil hab
its than the hand that bent the bow of
Ulysses, and it takes a stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie.
A manufacturer cares but very little for
a stream that slowly runs through the
meadow; but values a torrent that leaps
from rock to rock and rushes with mad
energy through the valley and out toward
the sea. Along that river you will find
fluttering shuttles and grinding mill and
flashing water wheel. And a nature the
swiftest, the most rugged and the most
tremondous—that is the nature that God
turns into greatest usefulness.
Religion will give an equipoise of spirit.
It will keep you from ebullitions of tem
per, and you know a great many fine busi
nesses have been blown to atoms by bad
temper. It will keep you from worriment
about frequent loss; it will keep you back
from squandering and from dissipation;
it will give you a kindness of spirit which
will be easily distinguished from that mere
store courtesy which shakes hands violent
ly with you, asking about the health of
your family, when there is no anxiety to
know whether your child is well or sick,
but the anxiety is to know how many
dozen cambric pocket handkerchiefs you
will take and pay cash down. It will pre
pare you for the practical duties of every
day life.
In New York City there was a merchant,
hard in his dealings with his fellows, who
had written over his banking house or his
counting house room, "No compromise."
Then when some merchant got in a crisis
and went clown—no fault of his, but a con
junction of evil circumstances —and all the
other merchants were willing to compro
mise—they would take seventy-five cents
on the dollar or fifty cents or twenty cents
—coining to this man last of all, he said:
"No compromise. I'll take 100 cents on the
dollir, and I can afford to wait." Well,
the wheel turned, and after awhile that
man was in a crisis of business, and he sent
out his agent to compromise, and the agent
said to the merchants, "Will you take
fifty cents on the dollar?" "No." "Will
you take anything?" "We'll take 100 cents
on the dollar. No compromise." And the
man who wrote that inscription over his
counting house door died in destitution.
Oh, we want more of the kindness of the
gospel and the spirit of love in our business
enterprises!
How many young men have found in the
religion of .Tesus Christ a practical help?
How many there are to-day who could tes
tify out of their own experience that god
liness is profitable for the life that now is!
There were times in their business career
when they went here for help and there
for help and yonder for help and got no
help until they knelt before the Lord cry
ing for His deliverance, and the Lord res
cued them.
In a bank not far from New York—a
village bank—an officer could not balance
his accounts. He had worked at them day
after day, night after night, and he was
sick nigh unto death as a result. He knew
that he had not taken one farthing from
that bank, but somehow, for some reason,
inscrutable then, the accounts would not
halance. The time rolled on and the morn
ing of the day when the books should pass
under the inspection of the other officers
arrived, and he felt himself in awful peril,
conscious of his own integrity, but unable
to prove that integrity. That morning he
went to the bank early, and he knelt down
before God and told the whole story of
mental anguish, and he said: "O Lord, I
have done right, I have preserved my in
tegrity, but here I am about to be over
thrown unless Thou shouldst come to my
rescue. Lord, deliver me." And for one
hour he continued the prayer before God,
and then he arose and went to an old blot
ter that he had forgotten all about. He
opened it, and there lay a sheet of figures
which he only needed to add to another
line of figures—some line of figures he had
forgotten and knew not where he had laid
them—and the accounts were balanced, and
the Lord delivered him. You are an infi
del if you do not believe it. The Lord de
livered him. God answered his prayer, as
He will answer your prayer, oh, man of
business, in every crisis when you come to
Him.
Now, if this be so, then I am persuaded,
as you are, of the fact that the vast major
ity of Christians do not fully test the value
of their religion. They are like a farmer
in California with 15,000 acres of good
wheat land and culturing only a quarter of
an acre.
Why do you not go forth and make the
religion of Jesus Christ a practical affair
every day of your business life and all this
year, beginning now, and to-morrow morn
ing putting into practical effect this holy
religion and demonstrating that godliness
is profitable here as well as hereafter?
How can you get along without this re
ligion? Is your physical health so good you
do not want this divine tonic? Is your
mind so clear, so vast, so comprehensive,
that you do not want this divine inspira
tion? Is your worldly business so thor
oughly established that you have no use
for that religion which has been the help
and deliverance of tens of thousands of
men in crises of worldly trouble? And if
what I have said is true then you see what
a fatal blunder it is when a man adjourns
to life's expiration the uses of religion. A
man who postpones religion to sixty years
of age gets religion fifty years too late. He
may get into the kingdom of God by final
repentance, but what can compensate him
for a whole lifetime unallcviated and un
comfortcd? You want religion to-day in
the training of that child. You will want
religion to-morrow in dealing with that
customer. You wanted religion yesterday
to curb your temper. Is your arm strong
enough "to beat your way through the
floods? Can you, without being incased in
the mail of God's eternal help, go forth
amid the assault of all hell's sharpshoot
ers? Can you walk alone across these
crumbling graves and amid these gaping
earthquakes? Can you, waterlogged and
mast shivered, outlive the gale? Oh, how
many there have been who, postponing the
religion of Jesus Christ, have plunged into
mistakes they could never correct, although
they lived sixty years after, and like ser
pents crushed under cart wheels dragging
their mauled bodies under the rocks to die.
So these men have fallen under the wheel
of awful calamity, while a vast multitude
of others have taken the religion of Jesi>
Christ into everydav life, and, first, in
practical business affairs, and, second, on
the throne of heavenly triumph, have illus
trated while angels looked on and a uni
verse approved, the glorious truth that
"godliness is profitable unto all things,
having the promise of the life which now is
as well as of that which is to come."
[Coryrfffht, 19U2. L. Klop cli ]