THE PItlSOX'S EVIL. mXA IF- xxx, 13, waste it. The following aermon Is a strong dissertation on the largo prls- of the curso in side their walls, ilia text Is i'taha "The boar of the wood doth and the wild beast of the field doth devour It." By this homely but expressive fl;;iiro David sets forth the bad Influences which In olden time broke in upon God's heritage, as with swine's foot tramping and as with swine's snout uprooting the vineyards of prosperity. What was true then Is true now. There have been enough trees of righteous ness planted to overshadow the whole earth had It not been for the axmen who hewed them down. The temple of truth would long ago have been completed had It not been for the icon oclusts who defaced the walls and bat tered down the pillars. The whole earth would have been an Eschol of ripened clusters had it not been that "tho boar has wasted it and the wild beast (jf the field devoured it." I propose to point out to you those whom 1 consider to be the destructive classes of coclcty. First, the public criminals. You ought not to be sur prised that these people make up n law proportion of many communities. In lSii'J of the 49,000 people who were Incarcerated in the prisons of the country "il.t.oii were of foreign birth. Many of ih. :n were the very despera does or boi ieiy, oozini; into the slums of our cilie?, waiting for an opportun ity to riot and steal and debauch, join ing tlie law gang of American thugs ami crtiliroats. There ate in oar eitle.i pe.ipie whose, entire business in life i:i t!) commit crime. That is as much their lm.ine;'s U3 jurisprudence ot medicine or tnerchanili.se is your busi ness. To it they bring all their en ergies of body, mind and soul, and they look upon the Interregnums which they spend In prison as so much un fortunate loss of time, just as you look upon an attack of influenza or rheu matism which fastens you in the house for a few days. It is their lifetime business to pick pockets, and blow up safes, and shoplift, and ply the panel game, and they have as much pride ol skill in their business as you have in yours when you upset the argument ol an opposing counsel, or cure a gunshot fracture which other surgeons havt given up, or foresee a turn In the market just before they go up 20 pei cent. It Is their business to commit crime, and I do not suppose that pnc In a year the thought of the immoral ity strikes them. Added to these'pro-, fesslonal criminals, Amerlcdn and for eign, there Is a large class of men whe are more or less Industrious In crime Drunkenness Is responsible for much of the theft, since ft confuses a man't Ideas of property, and he gets hit hands on things that do not belong tc him. Rum Is responsible for much oi the assault and battery, inspiring met to sudden bravery, which they musl demonstrate, though it lie on the fact nf t'ai next gentleman. You help to pay the hoard of ever) ci I'i'.iiial, from the sneak thief whe r.natcl'" a spool of cotton up to some j in n: .l:o enacts a "Illack Friday.' M ire than that. It touches your heart ia 1 1: - moral depression of tho com :.:':ty. You might as well think tc i! in a closely con lined room who: :.. -i' r,i people and yet not breath lb- lii,ucd air n3 to stand in a com i . where there are so many oi t'.t li'-praved without somewhat heinj i oi.' in i n.i limI. What is the fire that --.:v. your store down compared with t'..1 congregation which consumes youi :- :;;!.' What is the theft of the golf :; ! silver from your money safe com piled with the theft of your children'! virtue? We are all ready to arraigt criminals. We shout at the top of out v:;!c "Stop thief!" and when tho po-1 lice get on the track we come out hat !(. ; and in our slippers and assist ill the arrest. We come round the bawl i: :: rtillian and hustle him off to jus tic, r.tid when he gets In prison wha! do we do for him? With great gustc we put on the handcuffs and the hop p?e.;, but what preparation are we mak ing for the day when the handcuffi tr.il hopples come off? Society seemt to hay to these criminals, "Villain, gt in i!:tp and rot!" when it ought tc f,:i : "You are an offender agninst tin law, but we mean to give you an op porirnity to repent; we mean to helj you. Here are llihles and tracts nnc Chv.-tian Influences. Christ died fui Look end live." Vast Improve r.i' !. have been made by introducing : : i y into tho prison, but we want Foi:.";l:!i:g more than hammers anc ; ;:t; l.is's to reclaim these people. Aye v.e -...nit more than sermons on tin i' lljl at'i day. Society must Imprest th'.-.ii! men with the fact that It doei i.ot enjoy their suffering and that It 1; fitf-mpting to reform and elevate them The majority of criminals suppose tha rociety has a grudge against them, anc tiir-y in turn have a grudge against so cltty. I stopped into one of the prisons o one of our great cities and the air wa. lilio that of the Black Hole of Calcutta As the air swept through the wicket i almost knocked me down. No sun light. Y'oung men who had committei their first crime crowded in among olt offenders. I saw there one woman with a child almost blind, who ha been arrested for the crime of poverty who was waiting until tho slow lav could take her to the almshouse, wher be rightfully belonged, but alio wa. tbrust In there with her child, 'amii the most abandoned wretches of tha ' walling for bread and slothee town. Many of tha offenders In that lni ir- Tne,r ckea. prison sleeping on tha floor, with noth-. rhelr cheekbonea stand out The r ing but a vermin covered blanket over and are damp with alow coisua them. Those people, crowded, and 'Jon. Their flesh is puffed u with wan, and wasted, and half suffocated, Iropsies. Their breath la like that of and Infuriated. I said to the men, "How do you stand It here?" "God knows," said one man. "We have to i charnel house. They hearts.e roar tt the wheels of fashion overhtad and Jie gay laughter of men and'naldens stand it." Oh, they will pay you when A . . . , ..,, ' ' . . ind wonder why God gave to oJiera so tnev pet out? WhorA fnpv nnrnn nuch and to them so little; tome of hem thrust Into an Infidelity lke that they get out! down one house, they will burn three. They will strike deeper the assassin's knife. They are this minute plotting 5 the Pr German girl, wht, when worse burglaries. Many of the Jails '0,d Jn tho midst of her wretciedness are the beet place I know of to man- 'hat God was good, she said: 'No; no ufacture footpads, vagabonds and cut-1 food God. Just look at me. o good throats. I ;j0d." Among the uprooting and devouring ! In these American cities, wfose cry classes in our midst are the idle. Of Df want I Interpret, there are hindreds course I do not refer to the people who 9f thousands of honest poor vho are are getting old or to the sick or to jependent upon individual, city and those who cannot get work, but I tell tate charities. If all their voices you to look out for those athletic men could come up at once, it world be a and women who will not work. When sroan that would Bhake the foundation the French nobleman was asked why of tho city and bring all ea-th and he kept busy when he had so large a heaven to the rescue. But, for the property, he said, "I keep on engrav- most part, it suffers unexpre-sed. It ing so I may not hang myself." I do sits in silence, gnashing Its teeth and not care who the man is, he cannot af- jmcklng the blood of Its own irteries, ford to be idle. It is from the Idle waiting for the judgment day Oh, I classes that the criminal classes ero,hould not wonder if on that day it maue up. Character, like water, gets WOu!d be found out that son of us putrid If it stands still too long. Who i nad some things that belonged to them; can wonder that in this world, wl'.evo 1 ,0me extra garmen which mtcht have there is so much to do and n'l ihc!0)aje them comfortable on cold days; hosts of earth and heaven and h .''' some bread tbrust Into the asl. barrel are plunging into the conflict a: U j that might have appeased their hunger angels are flying and God is at w.rkjror a little while; some wasted candle and the universe is a-qunke with the 9r gas jet that might have kimlled up marching nnd countermarching, Oed their darkness; some fresco celling lets his indignation fall upon a ma;i that would have given them n roof; who chooses idleness? I have w:it h- B(,nie jewel which, brought to that or ed these do-nothings who spend their j phan girl in time, might have kept her time stroking their beard and retouch-! from being crowded off the prec ipices Ing their toilet and criticisms iiult.s- j Df iin unclean life; some New Testa terlous people and pass their days and 1 ,nent that would have told them of nights in barrooms and clubhouses, him who "came to seek and to save lounging nnd smoking and chewing that which was lost!" Oh, this wave of and card playing. They lire not only 1 vagrancy nnd hunger and nakedness useless, but they nrc dangerous. How; that dashes against our front door hard It is for them to while away tho 'steps. I wonder If you hear it and seo hours! lit as much ns I hear it nnd sue it! I Alas, for them! If they do not know have bten almost frenzied with the how to while away an hour, what will perpetual cry for help from ail classes they do when they have all eternity on nnd from all nations, knocking, knock their hands? These men for awhile: Ing, ringing, ringing. If the roofs of smoke the best cigars and wear tho jail the houses of destitution could, be best broadcloth and move In the high-! lifted so we could look down into them FOND OF FANCY WORK. Mrs. HeKialcr Dcllckta l Maklac Pretty Tabl Mat.. In the Washington aet Mrs. McKinley Is known for her clever crochet work. A she la not atrong enough to be an athletic woman aha has time to get op many new drsigns of fancy work, all of which are eagerly copied by the people who are privileged to drop in the white house of a morning when the presi dent wife is at leisure. It Is said that Mrs. McKinley has a new design for each new caller to tee, and that each one is a little prettier than the last. While she was away last summer she learned to make a kind of table mat to be used upon a bare table at luncheon est spheres, but I have noticed that very soon they come down to the pris on, the almshouse or stop at the gal lows. They af-the pest of society, and they stand In the way of the Lord's poor, who ought to be helped, and will be helped. While there are thousands of Industrious men who cannot get any work, these men who do not want any work come in and make that plea. Sleeping at night at public expense in the Btatlon house, during the day, get ting their food at your doorstep. Im prisonment does not scare them. They would, like It. Blackwell's Island oi Moyamensing prison would be a com fortable home for them. They would have no objection to the almshouse, for they like thin soup, if they cannot get mock turtle. I like for that class of people the scant bill of fare that Paul wrote out for the Thessalonlan loafers, "If any work not, neither should he eat." By what law of God or man is it right that you and I should toil day in and day out until our hands nre blistered and our arms ache and our brain gett numb, and then be called upon to sup port what In the United States arc nbout 2,000,000 loafers! They are a very dangerous class. Let the public authorities keep their eyes on them. Among the uprooting classes I place the oppressed poor. Poverty to a cer tain extent is chastening. lint nftct that, when it drives a man to the wall and he hears his children cry in vain for bread, it sometimes makes liini desperate. I think that there nre thousands of honest men lacerated In to vagabondism. There are men crush ed under burdens for which they are not half paid. While there is no ex cuse for criminality, even lu oppres sion, I state it ns a simple fact that much of the scoundrelism of the com inunity Is consequent upon ill treat ment. There are many men and wo men battered and bruised and stung lust as God looks, whose nerves would be strong enough to stand It? And yet there they are. The sewing women, some of them in hunger and cold, working night after night, sometimes until the blood spurts from nostril and Hp how well their grief was voiced by that despairing woman who stood by her invalid bus band and invalid child and said to the city missionary: "I am downhearted. Everything's againBt us, and then there are other things." "What other things?" said the missionary. "Oh," she replied, "my aln." "What do you mean by that?" "Wellr" she said, "I never hear or Bee anything goodfw It's work from Monday morning to Satur day night, and then when Sunday comes I can't go out, and I walk the floor, and it makes me tremble to think that I have to meet God. Oh, sir, It's so hard for us. We have to work so, and then we have so much trouble, and then we are getting along so poorly, and see this wee little thing growing weaker and weaker, and then to think we are getting no nearer to God, but floating away from him oh, sir, I do wish 1 was ready to die!" I should not wonder If they had a good deal better time than we In the future to make up for tlicri fact that they hnd such n bad time here. It would be Just like Jesus to say: "Come up and take the highest iwuts. You suffered with me on earth. Now be glorified with mo in heaven." Oh, thou weeping One of Bethany! O thou dying one of the cross! Have mercy on the starving, freezing, homeless poor of these great cities! I want you to know who are the up rooting classes of society. 1 want you to bo moro discriminating In your charities. I want your hearts open with generosity and your hands open with charity. I want you to bo made the Bworn friends of all city evangeli zation, and all newsboys' lodging houses, and all children's aid societies. until the hour of despair has come, Aye, I want you to Bend the Dorcas so nnd they sound with the ferocity of a clety all the caat tt clothing, that un wild beast, which pursued until It can dcr the skillful Manipulation of the run no longer, turns round, foaming wives and mothera and siitera and and bleeding, to fight the hounds. 'daughters these garments may be fit There is a vast underground city 'ted on the cold, bare feet and on the llfo lh.it is nnnnllinu and shameful. IKShlverlng limbs Of the destitute. 1 W MRS. M'KIM.EY AT WORK. (The Latest Mat Deslpnod by the Presi dent's Wife.) It is heavy enough for the hot dishes to rest upon, and yet it has a very lacey look. It Is made of butter-colored cot ton, very coarse and of the dye that washes. The design is a small round-nnd-roiind crochet stitch, which forms a scallop. As the pattern is carried around the mat a stitch is taken from the middle of the scallop, underneath, instead of in the end, as is the common way. This allows a little overlapping hhcll which Is very pretty. Mrs. McKinley makes the mats differ ent sizes and allows an oval design for the meat platter. MASQUERADING DOGS. VentrllaqaUt In France L'aes Anlmala In Place of Dummlea. Frella is a ventriloquist who is excit ing considerable attention abroad on account of his original methods. The average dummies do not satisfy him. His puppets come merrily on the stage; one eita in a small chariot, ap parently a lady of high degree; another draws the carriage with the air of a thoroughbred horse; a third stands up behind the carriage, a footman In splen did" livery. There is but one bint of de ception; like Hamlet's father's ghost, each of these puppets can a tail unfold the ever wagging appendage soou re veals to the careful observer the fact that tho puppets are puppies. Were any proof needed, Prelle discounts the necessity by pulling the heads off bis company before they leave the stage. The proceeding sounds cruel, jind j et it Is the kindest part of the business, for the dogs have apparently grown so wallows and steams with putrefaction You go down the stairs, which are wet and decayed with filth, and at the bot tom you find the poor victims on the floor cold, sick, three-fourths dead slinking into a still darker corner un tier the gleam of the lantern of the, police. There has not been a breath oi fresh air in that room for five years literally. There they are men, wo men, children; blacks, whites; Mary Magdalene without her repentance ami Lazarus without his God. These are tho "dives" into which the pickpock ets and the thieves, go, as well as a great many who would like a different life, but cannot get it. These placet are the sores of the city which bleeo perpetual corruption. They are tht underlying volcano that threatens ui with a Caracas earthquake. It rolls nnd roars and surges and heaves ana rocks and blasphemes and dies. And there are only two outlets for it the police court und the potter's Bold. It other words, they must either go tc prlBon or to hell. Oh, you never saw It, you say! You never will see li until on the day when these stagger ing wretches shall come up In the light of the Judgment throne and while al: hearts aro being revealed God will ash you what you did to help them should not wonder If that hat that you give should come back a jeweled coro net, or that garment that you this week hand out from your wnrdrobe should mysteriously be whitened and somehow wrought into the Saviour's own robe, bo In the last day he would run his hand over It and gay, "I was' naked and yo clothed me." That would be putting your garments to glorious uses. , 1 Besides all this, I want you to np- predate In the contrast how very kind-1 ly God has dealt with you In your com fortable homes, at your well filled ta bles, and at the warm registers, and to have you look at the round faces of your children and then at the review of God's goodness to you go to your room and lock the door-and kneel down and say: "O Lord, I have been an lngratc! Make me thy child. O Lord, tliero are so many hungry and unclad and unsheltered to-day, I thank thee that all my life thou hast taken such good care of me! O Lord, there are so many sick and crippled children to-day, I thank thee mine are well, some of them on earth, some of thorn In heaven! Thy goodness, O Lord, breaks me down! Take me once and forever. Sprinkled as I was many. years ago at the altar, while my moth PRELLE AND IMS DOG8. (Well-Trained Animals Take the l'lueo of Dummies.) necustouied to 'the heads with which they come Into the world that they lire scarcely eiuiiusiasuc nooni inn miui tional ones that the thought of Prelle has provided for them. At this juncture of the performance they made their bow nnd departed to ihe wings for fresh heads and postures new. One came buck ns a racehorse or a hunter; on his buck sat a real dummy with nn enviable expression. The dog horse galloped around, went over high hurdles, treated all obstacles as though they did not exist, nnd the rider simply sat on nnd smiled like a born ipxhunter. I'rellc stood round with n long whip, ami was content to smile nnd look beau tiful. Prelle Rays that he has been at the business ninny years, that the dogs were not easily trained nnd that he treats them well. Purnnlto In Antn' Kcata. It is certain that ants intentionally sanction the residence of certain in jects in their nests. This is the case, for instance, with the curious blind beetle, clavigcr, which Is absolutely dependent upon nuts, ns Muller first pointed out. It even seems to have lost the power of feeding itself; at nny rate it is habitually fed by the ants, who supply it with nourishment, ns they do one nuother. tw i. nnnthnr laver of noverM er held me, now I consecrate my soul and destltutlon-not so squalid, but al t ln ft hollar baptism of repent most as beipleia, You bear their In Ing teara. A Sped no for Itnrnn, A Parisian doctor has discovered' that a solution of one part of picric acid to 75 parts of water will surely and speed ily cure the most terrible burns and' Fvalds, and recommends that barrels of the solution be kept in foundries, etc., in which workmen could be immersed. The pain I instantly removed, lores and blister prevented and a cure com pleted In four or five days. Don't Go to Alaska FOR All Grocers Sell It. Cleans Everything. THS N, K.FA1R8ANK COMPANY, .JiM Chicago. 8U Louis. New York. Boa ton. riillailn)ilili J f(rj CANDY 256 506 'i' DRUGGISTS r Ripans TAEULES are intended for children, ladies and all who prefer a medicine disguised as con fectionery. They may now be had (put i up in Tin Boxes, seventy-two in a box), - price, twenty-five cents or five boxes for one dollar. Any druggist will get them if you insist, and they may always be obtained by remitting the price to The Ripans Chemical company Nn in SPRUCE ST M A DON'T SACRIFICE . . . Future Coun'ort for present seeming Economy, but tlie Sewing Machine with an established rrjtu that guarantees you long anl sat. is factory service,: ' Tl;e Wl;it ; - ' Its beautiful figured v 1 '"yr.-'X work, durable cousin l '.-tion, tine inecliiini- : ::i..:'--tu cal adjustment coupled with the Finest Set o Attachments, makes it tie Most Desirable Machine in ill. FRANK S. EIEG: MlDDLEULItCU 4aTSond for our beautiful haJf-tono catalogue. -j-Fir, Lie ar)d A(xicle9 Ir)surai)ce. SNYDEK'S old, and reliable Gel Insurance Agency, SELINSGR0VE, SNYDER COUNTY, PA Xilmor 7T. 33n.yc3.oi, Agent, SncecRsor to the lute William H. Snvder. Tim Vnr.'F.xpnllKTw.A of Ttfilinhlft TnRurnncfl is rrnnsenteil in inc hbt of Stnnuiiru Companies, from which to make a kcicciw libtte r the World over. ni hi b' i iHTa'i'iiin . ...i FIRE Iloynl, Liverpool, Enpr. (including foreign assets) f& Hartford, of Hartford, Uonn., (oldest American v-o.i y hi ! tt j y-i n. x liiuui j, nuri:uru, vjuuu. v.. Continental, New York, i i XT ir..l. 0.-' UHnuuu AminicuiJ. new xuik, .in LIFE Mutual Life Ins. Co. New York. w ' ACCIDENT Employers Liability Assurance Corporation, Accident Ins. Co. Subscribed Capital of -i il' r Fire, Jjife and Accident risks- acceptea at the iowori P0SB1"rfflBir tified by a strict regard to mutual safety. All just claims Pj I satisfactorily adjusted. Information in relation to all c'?,88?., ance promptly furnished ELMEinV.SNYDEIt. A8y unice on xaarxet Direei, o-- ,
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