ge: he ing 83 a e cream- yperative r open to s added blacklist sed ow- has been sventeen ongress. vin, Por- order at arriages Nn years resentad worth of rom the on a bet, has re- nsidered ress, liv- lit which a worth ir build- Charles city of pt a pre- mother months ng it to uel with sence of seconds. through ast year arriages, ‘number r the last to — "e 65 RR DN Vo HOMBLED T0 THE DUST. —_———— REV. DR. TALMAGE PREACHES . -— On Paul’s Conversion to the Christ He Persecuted. Hope For Those Who Have Fallen. TexT: “And as he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him’ a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou perse- cutest.” —Aets ix. , 3-5. The Damascus of Bible times still stands, with a population of 135,000. It was a gay city of white and glistening architecture, its minarets and crescents and domes playing with the light or the morning sun; embow- ered in groves of olive and citron and orange and pomegranate ; a famous river plunging its brightness into the scene; a city by the ancients styled ‘‘a pearl surrounded by em- eralds.” 4 A group of horsemen ars advancing upon that city. Let the Christians of ths place hide, for that cavalcade coming over the hills is made up of persseutors ; their leader small and unattractive in some respects, as leaders sometimes are insignificant in per- son—vwitness the Duke of Wellington and Dr. Archibald Alexander. But there is something very intent in the eye of this man of the text, and the horse he rides is lathered with the foam of a long and quick travel of 135 miles. Heurges on his steed, for those Christians must be captured and silenced and that religion of the cross must be annihilated. Suddenly the horses shy off and plunge un- til the riders are precipitated. Freed from the riders, the horses bound snorting away. You know that dumb animals, at the sight of an eclipse, or an earthquake, or anything like a supernatural appearance, sometimes become verv uncontrollable. A new sun had been kindled in the heavens, putting out the glare of the ordinarysun. Christ, with the glories of heaven wrapped about Him, looked out from a cloud, and the splendor was insufferable, and no wonder the horses sprang and the equestrians dropped. Dust covered and bruised, Saul attempts to get up, shading his eyes with his hands from the severe luster ot the heavens, but unsucess- fully, for he is struck stone blind as he cries out, “Who art thou, Lord?” and Jesus an- swered him; ‘‘I am the one you have been chasing. He that whips and scourges those Damascene Christians whips and scourges Me. It is not their back that is bleeding ; it is Mine, It is not their heart that is break- ing; itis Mine. I am Jesus whom thou per- secutest,” From that wild, exciting and overwhelm- ing scene there rises up the greatest preacher of all the ages—Paul—in whose behalf prisons were rocked down, before ‘whom soldiers turned pale, into whose hand Mediterranean sea captains put control of their shipwrecking craft, and whose epistles are the avant courier of a resurrection day. I learn from this scene that a worldly fall sometimes precedes a spiritual uplifting. A man does not get much sympathy by falling off a horse. People say he ought not to have got into the saddle if he could not ride. Those of us who were brought up in the country remember well how the workmen laughed when, on our way back from the brook, we suddenly lost our ride. When in a grand review a general toppled from the stirrups, it became a National merriment. Here is Paul on horsback—a proud man, riding on with Government documents in his pocket, a graduate of a most famous school, in which the celebrated Dr. Gamaliel had been a professor, perhaps having already at- tained two of the three titles of the school— rab, the first ; rabbi, the second, and on the way to rabbak. the third and highest title. I know from his temperament that his horse was ahead of the other horses. But without time to think of what posture he should take, or without consideration for his dig- nity, he is tumbled into the dust. And yet that was the best ride Paul ever took. Out of that violent fall he arose into the apostle- ship. So it has been in all ages, and so it is now. You will never be worth much for God and the church until you lose your fortune, or have your r:putation upset, or in some way, somehow. are thrown and humiliated. You must go down before you go up. Joseph finds his path to the Egyptian court through the pitinto which his brothers threw him. Daniel would never have walked among the bronzed lions that adorned the Babylonish throne if he had not first walked among the real lions of the cave. And Pauli marshals all the generations of Christendom by fall- ing flat on his face on the road to Damascus. Men who have been always prospered may be efficient servants of the world, but will be of no advantage to Christ, You may ride majestically seated on your charger, rein in hand, foot in stirrup. but you will never be worth anything spiritually until you fall off. They who graduate from the school of Christ with the highest honors have on their diplo- ma the seal of a lion's muddy paw, or the plash of an angry wave, or the drop of a stray tear, or the brown scorch of a perse- cuting fire. In 900 cases out of 1000 there is no moral or spiritual elevation until there has been a thorough worldly upsetting. Again, I learn from the suoject that the religion of Christ is not a pusillanimous thing. People in this day try to makes usbe- lieve that Christianity is something ior men of small caliber, for women with no6 capacity to reason, for children in the intant class under six years of age, but not for stalwart men, Look at this man of the text! Do you not think that the religion that could cap- ture such a man as that must have some pwwer in it? He was a logician ; he was a ‘metaphysician ; he was an all conquering orator; he was a poet of the highest type. He had a nature that could swamp the lead- dng men of his own day. and hurled against the sanhedrin he made it tremble. =. { He learned all that he could get in the schoel of his native village ; then he had gone to a higher school and there mastered the Greek and the Hebrew and perfected ‘himself in belles lettres, until in after years Me astonished the Cretans, and the Corinth- ians, and the Athenians by quotations from their own authors. I have never found any- thing in Carlyle or Goeth or Herbert Spencer that could compare in strength or beauty with Paul's epistles. I do not think there is anything in the writings of Sir William Ham- ilton that shows such mental discipline as you find in Paul's argument about justifica- tion and the resurrection. I have not found anything in Milton finer in the way of imag- ination than I can find in Paul’s illustrations drawn from the amphitheater. There was nothing in Robert Emmet plead- ing for his life, or in Edmund Burke ar- raigning Warren Hastings in Westminster Hall, that compared with the scene in the courtroom when, before robed officials, Paul bowed and began his speech, saying, “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day.”’ I repeat that a religion that can capture a man like that must have some power in it. It is time you stopped talking as though all the brain of the world were opposed to Christianity. Where Paul leads, we can afford to follow. I am glad to know that Christ has in the different ages of the world had in His disei- pleship a Mozart and a “Handel in music, a Raphael and a Reynolds in painting. an An- gelo and a Canova in sculpture, a Rush and a Harvey in medicine, a Grotius anda Wash- ington in statesmanship; a Blackstone, a Marshall and a Kent in law. And the time will come when the religion of Christ will conquer all the observatories and universi- ties, and philosophy will through her tele- scope behold the morning star of Jesus, and in her laboratory see ‘‘that ali thins work together for good,” and with her geological hammer discover the ‘Rock of Ages.” Oh, instead of cowering and shivering when the skeptic stands before you and talks of religion asthough it were a pusillani- mous thing—instead of that take your New Testament from your pocket and show him the picture of the intellectual giant of all the ages prostrated on ths road to Damascus while his horse is flyicg wildiy away. Then ask your skeptic what it was that frightened the one and threw the other. Oh, no, it is no weak gospel. It is a glorious gospel. It is an all conquering gospel. It is an omni- potent gospel. It is the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. Again, I learn from the text a man cannot becom~ a Christian until he is unhorsed. The icouble is, we want to ride into the king- dom of God just asthe knight rode into castle gate on palfrey, beautifully caparisoned. We want to come into the kingdom of God in fine style. No kneeline down at the altar, no sitting on ‘‘anxio =eats,”” no crying over sin, no begging ‘oor of God’s mercy. Clear the road aud ... n= ome in all pranc- ing in the pride of our soul. No, we will never get into heaven that way. We must dismount. z ‘'pere 18 nO Knignt errantry in religion, no fringed trappings of repentance, but an utter prostration before God, a going down in the dust, with the cry, ‘‘Unclean, un- clean !"—a bewailing of the soul, like David from the belly of hell—a going down in the dust until Christ shall by His grace lift us up as He lifted Pacl. _Oh, proud "hearted hearer, you must get off that horse! May a light from the throne of God brighter than the sun throw you! Come down into the dust and cry for pardon and life and heaven. Agaln, 1 learn from this scene of the text that the grace of God can overcome the per- secutor. Christ and Paul were boys at the same time in different villages, and Paul's antipathy to Christ was increasing. He hated everything about Christ. He was go- ing down then with writs in his pockets to have Christ’s disciples arrested. He was not going as a sheriff goes to arrest a man against whom he had no spite, but Paul was going down to arrest those people because he was lad to arrest them. The Bible says, ‘‘He breathed out slaugh- ter.” He wanted them captured, and he wanted them butchered. I hear the click, and clash and clatter of the hoofs of the gal- loping steeds on the way to Damascus. Oh, do you think that proud man on horseback can ever become a Christian? Yes! There is a voice from heaven like a thunderclap uttering two words, the second word the same as the first, but uttered with more em- phasis, so that the proud equestrian may have no doubt asto whom is meant : **Saul ! Saul!” That man was saved, and he was a persecu- tor, and so God can, by His grace, overcome any persecuator. The days of sword and flre for Christians seem to have gone by. Tho bayonets of Napoleon I. pried open the ‘‘inquisition” and let the rotting wretches out. The ancient dungeons around Rome are to-day mere curiosities for the travelers. The Coliseum, where wild beasts used to suck up the life of the martyrs while the emperor watched and Lolia Paulina sat with emerald adornments worth 60,000,000 sesterces, clap- ing her hands as the Christians died under the paw and the tooth of the lion—that Col- iseum is a ruin now. The scene of the Smithfleld fires is a haymarket. The day of fire and sword for Christians seems to have gone by. But has the day of persecution ceased? No. Are you not ecaricatured for your religion? In proportion as you try to serve God and be faithful to Him, are you not sometimes maltreated? That woman finds it hard to bea Christian as her husband talks and jeers while she is trying to say her prayers or read the Bible. That daughter finds it hard to bea Christian with the whole family arrayed against her— father, mother, brother and sister making her the target of ridicule. That young man finds it hard to be a Christian in the shop or factory or store when his comrades jeer at him because he will not go to the gambling hell or other places of iniquity. Oh, no, the days of persecution have not ceased and will not until the end of the world. But oh, you persecuted ones, is it not time that you began to pray for your perse- cutors? They are no prouder, no fiercer, no more set in their way than was this perse- cutor of the text. He fell. They will fall if Christ trom the heavens grandly and glori- ously looks out on them. God can by His grace make a Renan believe in the divinity of Jesus and a Tyndall inthe worth of prayer. Robert Newton stamped the ship's deck in derisive indignation at Christianity oaly a little while before he became a Christian. **Out of my house,” said a father to his daughter, “if you will keep praying.” Yet before many months passed the father knelt at the same altar with the child. And the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to look out from heaven upon that derisive opponent of the Christian religiop. and address him, not in glittering generalities, but calling him by name: “John! George! Saul, why persecutest thou Me!” . Again, I learn from this subject that there is hope for the worst offenders. It was par- ticularly outrageous that Saul should have gone to Damascus on that errand. Jesus Christ had been dead only three years, and the story of his kindness and his generosity, and his love filled all the air. It was not an old story, asit is now. It wasa newstory. Jesushad only three summers ago been in these very places, and Saul every day in Jerusalem must have met people who knew Christ, people with good eyesight whom Jesus had cured of blindness, people who had been dead and who had been resurrected by the Savior, and the people who could tell Paul al the particulars of the crucifixion— just how Jesus looked in the last hour, just how the heavens grew black in the face at the torture. He heard that recited every day by people who were acquainted with all the circum- stances, and yet in the fresh memory of that scene he goes to persecute Christ’s disciples, impatient at the time it takes to feed the horses at ths inn, not pulling at the snaffle, hut riding with loose rein faster and faster, Oh, he was the chief of sinners! No outbreak of modesty when he said that. He was a murderer. Hestood by when Stephen died and helped in the execution of that good man. When the rabble wanted to be unimpeded in their work of destroying Stephen and wanted to take off their coats, but did not dare to lay them down lest they be stolen, Paul said, ‘I'll take care of the coats,” and they put them down at the feet of Paul, and he watched the coats, and he watched the horrid mangling of glorious Stephen. Is it a wonder that when he fell from the horse he did not break his neck—that his foot did not eatch somewhere in the trappings of the saddle, and he was not dragged and kicked to death? He ‘deserved to: die miserably, wretchedly and forever, notwithstanding all his metaphysics, and his eloquence, and his logic. He was the chief of sinners. He said what was true when he said that. And ye: the grace of God saved him, and so it will you. If there is any man in tais house who thinks he is too bad to be saved and says, “I have wandered very grievously from God; I do not believe there is any hope for me,” I tell you the story of this man in the text who was brought to Jesus Christ in spite of his sins and opposition. There may be some here who are as stoutly opposed to Christ as Paul was. There may be some here who are cap- tive of their sins as much so as the young man who said in regard to his dissipating habits : “‘I will keep on with them. I know [am breaking my mother’s heart, and I know 1 am killing myself, and I know that when I die I shall go to hell, but it is now too late tostop.” The steed on which you ride may be swifter and stronger and higher mettled than that on which the Cilician persecutor rode, but Christ can catch it by the bridle and hurl it back and hurl it down. There is mercy for you who say you are too bad tobe saved. You say you have put off the matter so long ; Paul had neglected it a great while. You say that the sin you have : committed has been among the most aggravating circum- stances ; that was so with Paul's. You say you havo exasperated Christ and coaxed your own ruin; so did Paul. And yet he sits to-day on one of the highest of the heavenly thrones, and there is merey for you, and good days for you, and glad- ness for you, if you will oniy take the same Christ which first threw him down and then raised him up. It seems to me as if I cun see Paul to-day rising up from the highway to Damascus, and brushing off the dust from his cloak, and wiping the sweat of excite- ment trom his brow. as ha turns to us and Henry !—Saul, | all the ages, saying, ‘“Tais is a faithful say- | ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ | Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Once more, I learn from this subject that there is a tremendous reality in religion. If it had been a mers optical delusion on the road to Damascus, was not Paul just the man to find it out? Ifit had been a sham and pretense, would he not have pricked the bubble? He was a man of facts and argu- rents, of the most gigantic intellectual na- ture, and not a man of hallucinations. And when I see him fall from the saddle, blinded and overwhelmed, I say there must have been something in it. And, my dear brother, you will find that there is something In re- ligion somewhere. The only question is, Where? There was a man who rode from Stam- ford to London, ninety-five miles, in five hours on horseback. Very swift. There was a woman of Newmarket who rode on horseback a thousand miles in a thousand hours. Very swift. But there are those here—aye, all of us are speeding on at ten- fold that velocity, at a thousand fold that rate, toward eternity. May Almighty God, from the opening heavens, flash upon your soul this hour the question of your eternal destiny, and oh, that Jesus would this hour overcome you with His pardoning mercy as He stands here with the pathos of a broken heart and sobs into your ear: ‘I have come for thee. I come with My back raw from bleeding. I come with My feet mangled with the nails. I come with My brow ach- ing from the twisted bramble, I come with My heart bursting for your woes. I can stand it no longer. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I” AN ITALIAN HEROINE. Js Working in the Mines to Fetch Her ; Parents Over. - a1 the summer of 1890, a bright Jian girl came to New York and secured employment as a servaat, having in view the saving of money enough to pay the passage of her par- ents from Italy to this more favored land. A brief experience showed her that at the low wages she was able to obtain it would be a long time be- fore she could hope to see her parents here, and she decided to adopt the garhof a man, in order that she might obtain a man’s wages. She did so and readily found employment on a railroad which was being built in Pennsylvania. Despite the blistering of her hands and the hardships of the labor, she toiled faithfully for’ months, living by herself in a small hut not far from Hazelton, and as much as possible avoiding association with her fellow laborers, by whom the supposed effeminate young man was not held in high esteem. She had nearly accumulated the amount of money necessary to bring the jarents to America, when a former neighbor of the family in the old country was given eraployment on the railroad. and placed in the same gang with the strong-hearted young woman. He immediately rec- ognized her, and the fact of her dis- guise was re _orted to the foreman: but the latter, on hearing her pa- thetic story, did not order v7 dis- charge. He simply consented that she should go on with the work she had been pursuing, and at last re- ports she was merrily wielding the pick and shovel, happy in the assur- ance that her parents would soon be with her.—Goeod YMousekeeping. The Right Kind of Heroism. The ‘‘Historical Recerds of the Forty-third Light Infantry,’ that famous regiment which played a most important part in English warfare during tie last quarter of the eight. eenth century and the early part of the nineteenth, contains a stirring incident of prompt action which averted a tragedy. Worn out with ¢ hard march, the brigade under Capt. Lloyd approached the convent ai Benevente, where the cavalry and re: serve still remained, hoping toi shelter. They were disappointed. The con vent was occupied by several thou sand infantry, and the lower galleries were so densely packed with horses of the caialry and artillery that it was hardly possible for a man to make bis way among them. Two ot the officers stood looking ir at the dubisus prospect through the single door that gave ingress and egress. A sudden cry of alarm burst trom the lips of one. ‘‘Loox there!” he cried, pointing over the backs of the horses. At that moment one of the inside wooden shutters burst into flames, writes a contributor to Youth’s Com- panion. Horrified, the officers looked the hopelessness of the situation. It would be impossible to get the 6,000 men and horses out, and they must stand by and see their comrades perish miserably. There was no water near, and if there was, how could they get at the fire through those densely crowded horses? The flames crept upward toward the rafters. “Good heavens! Something must be done!” cried Capt. Lloyd. And then, with a motion to those outside to be quiet, the brave Captain leaped on the back of the nearest horse, and, stepping from back to back of the animals, ran to the blazing shutter, tore it from its hinges. and pitched it from the window. Then he made his way back to the door in the same way as betore. So quickly was the act pertormed that even the horses were scarcely disturbed. The building was saved, and there was no panic, which would have been as disastrous as the flames. The Captain's eyebrows and mustache were scorched, but that was all. “And they’li grow again” he said with a laugh. Fat Folks Are the People. A physician points cut that fat people endure most kinds of illness much better than thin people, be- cause they have an extra amount of nutriment stored away in their tis- sues to support them during the or- deal. Moreover, there arc many other consolations for persons of abundant girth. They are generally optimists by nature, genial and jolly companions, whose society is univers- ally preferred to that of people with angular frames and dispositions. at the burning shutter and realized. winds. ‘HANDLING FOREIGN MAILS. ‘ZOW IT IS DONE IN THE BIG NEW YORK POSTOFFICE. Accuracy and Rapidity of the System --Sorting Mail at Sea—Intricacies of the Work. ALKING along the gallery that overlooks the city department of the New York Postoffice where, even in broad daylight there twinkle thousands of electric lights, you will come to a stairway which leads you .into the northern end of the building, and there, in cramped, insufficient quarters, a corps of sixty men receive and distribute each week from Europe alone an average of one hundred thous- and foreign letters to residents of this city, and three hundred and fifty thousand additional letters addressed to out of town people by each of the incoming mail carriers. Just how long it takes a letter dropped by a friend in London to reach a resident of this city depends largely upon the speed made by the ocean greyhound which happens to car- ry the mail bag. But within twenty- five minntes aftor the black hull of the steamer has bezn made fast at the dock the ten wagons employed for the purpose have hauled to their destina- ion the entire mail, and in one hour and a half from its arrival two hun- ared and fifty pairs of hands have sorted and prepared the city letters and carriers are on their pay to de- liver them. The regular force espe- cially designated to take charge of this department is composed of its sixty regular men, and their hours of duty, or ‘‘tours,” as they are called, are from 12 m. to 9 a. m., and from 8 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon, ard from 5 in the evening till 2 the next morning. The overlapping of hours is designed to provide against the possibility of being shorthanded on the unexpected arrival of a large mail. Besides this regular force there are twelve additional employes, ‘‘float- ers,” so called, becanse their hours of occupation depend upon the tides and They may report at eight-and work until five, or they may be called upon at midnight to work until the distribution is completed. Opposite their names on the attendance book, which contains a complete record of every man employed in the depart- ment, is a cross, and if they were not known as ‘‘floaters’” they would be known as ‘‘emergency men.” The number of ports from which the mail is received in this city is 100 and the number of languages represented in the addresses is 100 multiplied by the various dialects spoken or written by people the round world over, and in the decipherment of this multiplicity of tongues there is rarely a serious mistake, although there is no one per- son specially commissioned to attend to this branch of the department. The “hards,” as the illegible or out- Iandish addresses are called in the slang of the office, are sent to the “blind reader” (which seems a mis- nomer) and his assistants, and by means of directories and the forty years of experience of the head of this department the most ill addressed let- ter seldom fails to find its proper owner. Of all the foreign countries it seems singular that India should fur- nish the best addressed letters and Russia and Italy the worst. With ref- erence to the latter country it is a curious fact that correspondents writ- ing to their friends on this side almost invariably neglect to prepay the post- age, and the carrier who delivers the mail in the Italian quarter always car- ries a small hand satchel to bring back to the office the money due for the ‘‘collect letters.” In adopting this course the writers take advantage of the law, which enables any one to send a letter to any point comprised within the postal union. In connection with the arrival of the boats carrying the mails to any part of the world the Government issues its weekly bulletin, in which each ship re- ceives an 1nitial letter, beginning with A and continuing through the alpha- bet. This letter is used to designate the mail that came by that particular boat. The same table contains in an- other column the exact time of the ar- rival of the mail at Quarantine and at New York, and the initial letter is used to trace any bit of matter that is either delayed or lest. The bulletin is, as a rule, dry reading, but a recent issue contained the interesting state- ment that live bees. might be shipped to the Philippine Islands under the classification of “‘samples.” The outgoing mails. from this city | are under two. classifications— ‘close’ and ‘‘open’’-—a “‘close’” mail being one that is made up for direct transporta- tion to some particular point, as, for | | hausted. | the mere escape of tears, which isonly | & symptom, but from the cessation of example, from here to Bombay, while the *“‘open” mail is via London or some other point. Inthe preparation of the bags for shipment the letters are assorted with reference to this dis- tinction. Every business man in New York is aware of the fact that any let- ter intended for a foreign port must the storm be calmed by soothing be placed in the postoffice thirty min- utes before the closing of the mail,and the average number of letters received in the last moments is trom six to eight thousand. This apparently unman- ageable massof mailis handled by eight people. Passing from tie drop where it is rzceived, the letter goes to the cancelling machine, which can by the | aid of a single man cancel, stamp and stack 35,000 letters an bour. From | this machine the letters are given to | the separators, who distributes them first with reference to the country to | which they are addressed and, second, according as they are for open or close mail. At the last moment the way bill must be made out and in dupli- cate. rate and detailed statement of the This way bill contains an accu- | number of letters, points of destina- | country from which they come and the weight of the entire mail, and when it is verified and properly checked on the European side it is the only re- ceipt which the office has for the mail that had passed through the depart- ment. The length of time allotted for this important is, at the outside, fif- teen minttes. The letters from this country to Eu- rope are of course carried to other countries under contracts made by the Government, and the report of the of- fice at New York is the basis upon which payment is made. This is true of all mail handled at this port with the exception of the mail from Can- ada, which merely passes through the office in transit. In all calculations the Foreign De- partment uses the gramme as the standard of weight and the centime as the standard of value, and the con- venience of this system, especially where weight isconzerned, may readily be seen from the fact that each letter is supposed to weigh ten grammes, so if the amount of weekly mail was, as it happened to be one week during this month, 6.237,170 grammes, the number of letfers would be 623,717. This thumb rule is used only for rough estimates, for the Thited States mei] is as accurately accounted for asthough cach letter were a fortune in itself, and the letter bill which accompanies the mail of the outgoing steamer is let- tered, numbered and marked in sucha way as to indieate the exact number of bags, newspapers, letters and regis- tered letters. The latter are inscribed ‘red bags,” and before any part of this mail can be removed from the of- ficial who has charge its exact detail must be verified and approved. To facilitate the immediate delivery of mails to important European cities such as Naples, which is en route to the general delivery of Modena-Turin, the Naples mail is placed in a sack within a sack and at the proper station is thrown on the platform while the main mail goes to the central point of the distribution. To prevent the loss of the mail bag every possible precaution is taken and each tag that bears the address is in duplicate. These tags are printed on the stoutest linen and are so tied that if the outer address becomes torn off or lost there will still be on the inside bag its counterpart giving the neces- sary information. The corps of the foreign department is more stable and changes less frequently than any other of the postal service, and thisis largely due to the fact that without experience it would be utterly impossible to master the intricacies of a business which presents as difficulties not only an infinite amount of technical detail and the reading of foreign tongues, but a knowledge of exigencies which may arise at any moment and are de- termined solely by the condition of winds and waves. A vast number of letters is distri- buted on the steamers themselves by employes who zre known as ‘‘sea P. 0O.’s.”” This experiment has proved a complete success, and on each of the boats there are two clerks end an as- sistant. How large an amount of matter is thus made ready for imme- diate transition may be inferred from the fact that they frequently work dur- ing the entire passage from sixteen lo eighteen hours per day.—New York Herald. LL —— Horrors of a Convict Colony. The Vladivostock, a newspaper pub- lished in Eastern Siberia, gives a tex- rible account of the sufferings of the Russian convicts of the penal settle- ments on the island of Saghalien. It says: ‘A warder named Khanoff and some of his assistants, who at one time were convicts themselves and had been raised to the rank of jailers, have been removed from their posts. . Khanoff’s treatment of the prisoners was so abominable that a number of them crippled themselves, cutting off fingers and toes, in order to be treated as in- valids and to be freed from his terri- ble cruelties. Others fled to the im- penetrable forest, where they suffered all the horrors of hunger. In a sat- chel belonging to a fugitive convict, who had been hunted down, were found some pieces of human flesh. In- vestigation revealed that this man had been one of a party of four, and that only one of them now remained. The others had been killed and devoured by their comrades. Similar cases of cannibalism are, according to the Si- berian journal, not infrequent.” i —— Tears and Nerves. My medical friend explains: As the muscular power that extends or ilexcs a finger is at a distance from the part moved, so the excitement to tears is from an irritation in a distant nervous center, and is removed when the nerv- ous center is either soothed or ex- The relief comes, not from tion and the central offices in this | | | If the storm in the nervous chain. measires—as when we soothe a child that is weeping from fear, annoyance or injury—-we quiet the nervous cen- ters, upon which the effect ceases. In children the soothing method sue- ceeds, and sometimes it succeeds in adults, although in adults the cessa- tion of tears is more commonly due to actual exhaustion following =a period of nervous activity. -—Boston Globe. ee Cleaning Buildings by Sandblast. The exterior of buildings sre now cleaned by the sandblast instead of the hose. The front is covered with stag- | ing, and the blast is applied by a sys- | tem of pines and nozzles carried by | the workmen. The stream of fine sand issuing from & nozzle removes a layer | 1-64inches thick from the surface of thr | stone, and a square foot of surface can be cleaned in ten minutes. The sand can be employed ¢ver again. —New York Dispatch, | | down our line and | hands as smooth as if it had been done SOLDIERS’ COLUMN “VETERAN THIEVES.” A Counter Claim to the Honor of Being First Hands at Stealing From the Enemy. IN“Wilder’s Bri- gade.” by Capt George S. Wil- son, 12th U. S,, he says: “Up to this per- iod of the war (February to April, ’63) our forces had, asa rule, respected the , property rights of citi- zens. Now a new policy had come into operation, and we were its pioncers—the first of all the Army of the Cumberland. * * Not only animals, but vast quantities of forage and other supplies were reg- ularly gathered in by us and distri- buted to the trogps, Henceforth this policy was largely followed by the Western armies,” etc. Followed, indced! Capt, Wilson you were away behind in the proces- sion. You may claim the honor of planting the first flag, being first over the breastworks, and anything else but stealing from the Johnnies, That we wiil not submit to. At Corinth, Miss., the 9th Ill. was mounted on mules, as you describe, in the Fall of 1862. In December, 1862, Col. Mersey’s Brigade (9th and 12th Ill. and 81st Ohio) was sent down the Mobile & Ohio Railroad to Tupelo, Miss., where they were met by the 7th Kan. Cav. (Jayhawkers) and Col. Cornyn’s 10th Mo. Cav., and I miss my guess if they had not all the forage provisions, tin buckets, sorghum mo- lasses, grindstones and sweet potatoes of three counties of north Mississippi. Had you seen them,ycu would willing- ly have madeaffidavit that every one of them, from the Colouel down, were born thieves and thatWilder’s Brigade were innocents in comparison, On Dec. 22, 1863, when we returned to Corinth, Miss., Forrest had cut all our railroads north. Grant had fallen back from Mississippi, and our garri- son was placed upon half rations. From this time until the end of the war we of Dodge's command were sup- plied in part by foraging parties. “Pioneers”? Not much. Why, you were novices at that business long af- ter we had become veteran thieves! We had several infanty regiments mounted months before Wilder's Bri. gade thought of mounting, and the 9th and 7th Ill. had Spencer rifles, the 66th Ill. the Henry 16-shooters. In April, 1863, while Bragg’s army lay fronting Rosecrans, your Genenal sent Col. Streight around to our army with a Brigade. Gen. Dodge's com- mand escorted him out to Tuscombia, Ala., stealing horses and mules enough to mount them: then we engaged For- rest at Town Creek, Ala.,, while Col. Streight started for Rome, Ga., but was captured before he got there. Dodge's command returned to Corinth bringing everything but the real es- tate along. All this at the time Wild- ers’ Brigade was ‘mounting and drawing their Spencers.” When it comes to stealing, our com- mand not only claims the cake, but the whole bakery.—Prrvare, Co. I. 31st Ohio in National Tribune. A WAR STORY. Which Anybody May Believe if They Want to Do So. The veteran had just finished a lec- ture to the Old Soldiers’ Club on military exactness and had been ra- ther severe on some who were disposed to be lax in their methods, particu- larly. a tall corporal with ore arm off When ue had finished the coporal stepped out in front of the soap box on which he had been setting. “May it please Your Honor,”he said mockingly, *I have a story to tell which may in some measure excuse my fault. You see thisarm,” and he held out the stump. “Well that is the result of two much exactness.” * The veteran showed his surprise and asked how it happened. | “Well,” went on the corporal, “it was this way: Along in 1864 when I was in the Army of the Potomac [ was fps you know a cavalryman, and one day 100 of our regiment were ordered out to act as =a reserve for a small sortie that was to he made to stir up the enemy. Every officer we had had been so raked over by our crusty old colonel for not hav- ing everything just right that life on duty was a burden. A captain was in charge ot our torce ana he had us ranged up in exact lineas if we were on parade and that too after the en my had begun to sling shells over our way and a man wanted to dodge in spite of hims 1° The captain v 0 ildn’t have it thoug: and there we sat, every head on a line, everybody's hand as 8'r.izht with every othr bridle hand down that line as if fixed by a spirit level. It was hard I tell you,but it didn’t last long, tor all at once a gun over on our right that had evi~ dently just got into po- sition blazed away with a ¢olid 20 pound shot and as I stand here holding up this evidence” and the stump went up again—*sohelp me gracious that shot swooned right snipped off 50 by a knife. Since that I haven’t been so confounded particular about being so confounded exact,” and the corpo- ral sat down amid great applause and overwhelming confusion of the veteran. -—Detroit Free Press. 2 hsb, [WO LITTLE maids were talking about Santa Claus. “He's a splend.i candy-malker,” said one. “Isn’t se!” said the other. “Why, last Christ- m:3 his taffy was so like that my mother makes that I couldn't tel. 'em apart. ”—Harper’s Bazar.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers