HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1894-7-19, Page 7r ILLL SOLICITUDE.
REV.• DR. TALIVIAGE DISCOURSES ON
THE RUSTIC IN THE PALACE.
11 4 Lesson for AM children in the manner
Which, Joseph meeeeved mis rather,
Jaeob—em Not Ashamed of Tour woor
Meleaves.
Boocinemes, July 8, --Rem Dr. Talmage,
Who is now nearing the Antipodes, on his
round -the -world eourney, has selected us
the subject to his sermon through the Dress
today, "The Rustic in the Palean' the
text beiug takea frone Gen. 45.28, "I will
.go and see him before I die."
Jacob had long since passed the hundred
year mile stone. In those timee people
were distinguished for longevity. In the
centuries afterward persons lived to great
age. Galen, the most celebrated physician
'in his time, took 80 little of his own medi-
eine that he lived to one hundred and
." forty years, A man of undoubted vera-
city on the witnesmstand in England swore
that he remembered an event one hundred
and fifty years before. Lord Bacon speaks
of a conutess who heel cut three sets of
teeth, Lind died ab one hundred and forty
years. Joseph Crete, of Pennsylvania,
lived one hundred and forty years. In
1857 a book was printed coutaiuing the
names of thirty-sevea persons who lived
one hundred and fomy years, and the names
of eleven persons who lived one hundred
and fifty years.
Among the grand old people of whom we
have record was Jacob, the shephed of the
tea. But he had a bad lot of boys. They
were jealous and ambitious, and every way
unprincipled. Joseph, however, seemed to
be an exception. But he had been gone
many years, and the probability was that
he was dead. As sometimes now in a
•house you will find kept at the table a va-
cant chair, a plate, a knife, a fork, for
lama deceased member of the family, so
Jacob kept in his heart a place for hisbe.
loved Joseph. There sits the old man, the
flock of one hundred and folly years in
their flight having alighted long enough to
leave the marks of their claw on forehead,
and oheek, and temple. His long beard
enows down over his chest. His eyes are
somewhat dim, and he can see farther
when they are closed. than when they are
open, for he men see clear back into the
time when beautiful Raohael, his wife,
was living, and his children shook the
Oriental abode with their merriment.
The centenarian i5 sitting dreaming over
the past, when be hears a wagon rambling
to the front door. He gets up and goes to
the door to see who has arrived, and his
ee long -absent sons from Egypt come in and
mire announce to him that Joseph instead of
being dead, is living in an Egyptian pal-
ace, with all the investiture of Prime Min-
ister, next to the king in the mightiest em-
pire of all the world! The news was too
sudden and too glad for the old man, and
his cheeks whiten, and he has a dazed
look, and his staff falls out of his hand,
and he would have dropped had not the
eons aught him and led him to a lounge
and put cold water on his face, and fanned
him a little.
In that half delirium the old mall mum-
bles something about his son Joseph. He
.sums: "You don't mean Joseph, do you?
myedear son, who has been dead so long.
YOU don't mean Joseph, do yon?" But
after they had fully resuscitated hire, and
the news was confirmed, the tears begin
their winding way down the crossroads of
the wrinkles, and the sunken lips of the
eld man quiver, and he brings his bent
fingers together as he says: "Joseph is
yet &live, I will go and see him before I
die,"
It did nob take the old man a great while
to get ready, I warrant you. He put on
the best clothes that the shepherd's ward-
robe could afford. He got into the wagon,
and though the aged are cautions and like
to ride slow, the wagon d1e. not get along
fast enough for the old man; and when the
wagon with the old man met Joseph's
eleariot coming down to meet him, and
Joseph gob oat of the chariot and got into
the wagon and threw his arras around his
father's neck, it was an antithesis of
royalty and rusticity, of simplicity and
pomp, of filial affection and paternal love,
whioh leaves ns so much in doubt about
whether we had better laugh or cry that
we do both. So Jacob kept the resolution
of tbe. text:—"I will go and see him before
I die."
White a strong and unfailing thing is
parental attachment. Was it not almost
time for Jacob to forget Joseph? The hot
suns of many summers had blazed on the
heath; the river Nile had overflowed and
receded, overflowed and receded again and
again; the seed had been sown and the
beervest reaped; stars rose and set; years
of plenty and years of famine had passed
on, but the love of Jacob or Joseph in my
text is overwhelmingly dramatic. Oh.
that is a cord that is not snapped,
though pulled on by many decades,
Though when the little child expired the
parents may not have been more than
awenty-five years of age, and now they are
saventy-five yet the vision of the cradle,
and the childish face, and the first utter-
ances of the infantile lips are fresh to -day,
In spite of the passage of a half century.
Joseph was as fresh in Jacob's memory as
ever, though at seventeen years of age the
boy had disappeared fronx the old home.
-stead. I found in our family record the
etory of an infanb that had died fifty years
before, and I said to my parents: "What
is this record, and what does it mean?"
Their chief answer was a long, deep sigh.
It was yet to them a very tender sorrow.
What does that all mean? Why, it means
our children departed are oure yet, and
that cord of attachment reaching across
the years will hold us until it brings us
together in the palace, as Jacob and Joseph
were brought together. That is one thing
that naakes old people die happy. They
realize ib is reunion with tholes frona whom
they have long been separated.
I am often asked as pastor—and every
pastor is asked the quabion— Will my
children be children in heaven, and for-
ever childreet?" Well, there wee no doubt
a great change in Joseph from the tinse
Jacob lost him and the time when Jacob
found him—between the boy 17 years of
age and the man in middle life, his fore.
lamed developod waltz the great bueepees of
Mato; but jaeole Wasjentni to gab envie
joseph anyhoweand it sled not make much
cliffeteueo te the old men whether the boy
looked older or looked younger. And it
. will be enough joy for time parent if he
ean gee back then son, that daughter, at
the gone of hasten, whether the depareed
3.0v0 -a. one shall oome a eherab or in fuil-
grown angelhood. There must be a chamge
wrought by that celestial elimeto and. by
those etipernai yeas, but ib will only be
from lovolinese tomore lorelinese, and
from health to move reelienb health. 0
panne ao y ou thiult of the darling panting
and White in membrateous croup, I want
you to know it willbe gloriously behtet ie,
that etend whore there has never been. n,
(Meth, toed whete all the sithabitaute will
liVe on in the gab e attire a loieg as God!
Mom=
pto e ph was Jeanie metwielastanding the
palace, and year child will be .your
ohild notwithstanding -all the 7:awing
splendor of everlasting noose What o
thtillimg visit was that of the old shepherd
to bhe Prime Minister Xoe01)111 1 ee° the
old. countryman melted in the palace look-
ing around at the mirrors and the foun-
tains aria the carved pillare, and lo 1 how
he wishes thet Rachel, his wife, was alive
and she could leave oome there with him
to see their son in his great house, "Oh,"
says the old. man within himself, "I do
wish Reehel meld be here to see all this!"
I visited at the farmhouse of tho father of
Millard Fillmore when the son was Presi-
dent of the United States, a.nd the octo-
genarian farmer entertained me untill 11
o'clock a night telling me what great
things he saw in his son's house at Wash.
ington, and what Deuiel Webster said to
him, and how grandly Millard treated his
father in the White House. The old man's
face was illumined with the story until
almost midnight. He had just been visit-
ing his son at the Capitol. And I suppose
it was something oe the same joy that
thrilled the hearb of the old shepherd as
he stood in the palm() of the prime minis-
ter. It is a great day with you when
your old parents come to visit .you. Your
little children stand around with great
wide-open eyes, woucleting how' anybody
could be so old'. The parents oan
not stay many days, for they are a little
restless, and especially at nightfall, be-
cause they sleep better in their own bed;
but while they tarry you somthow feel
there is a benediction in every room in the
house. They are a little feeble, and you
make it as easy as you cen for them, and
you realize they will probably not visit you
very often—perhaps never agate. You go
to their room after they have retired at
night to see if the lights are properly put
out, for the old people understand candle
and lamp better than the modern appar-
atus for illumination. In the moruing,
with real interest in their health, you ask
them how they rested last night. Joseph,
in the historical scene of the text, did not
think any more of his father than you do
of pour parents. The probability is, be-
fore they leave your house they half spoil
your children with kindness. Grandfather
and grandmother are more lenient and in-
dulgent to your children than they ever
were with you, And 'what wonders of
revelation in the bombazine pocket of the
one and the sleeve of the other! Blessed
is that home where Christian parents come
to visit! Whatever may have been the
!style of the architecture when it came, it is
a palsies before they leave. If they visit
you fifty times, the two most memorable
visits will be the first and the last. Those
two pictures will hang in the hall of
your memory while memory lasts'and you
will remember just how they looked, and
where they sab, and. what they said, and
at what figure of the carpet, and at what
door sill they parted with yen, giving you
the final good -by. Do not be embarrassed
if your father comes to town and he have
the manners of the shepherd, and if your
mother come to town and there be in her
hat no siga of costly millinery. The wife
of the Emperor of Theodosius said a wise
thing when she said, "Husbands remem-
ber what you lately were, and remember
what you are, and be thankful."
By this time you all notice what kindly
provision Joseph made for his father
Jacob. Joseph did not say, "I ean't have
the old man around this plaoe. How
clumsy he would look climbing up these
marble stairs, and walking over these mo-
saics! Then he would be putting his
hands upon some of these frescoes. Peo-
ple would wonder where the old greenhorn
came from. He would shock all the
Egyptian °exert with his manners at table.
Besides that, he might get sick on my
hands, and he might be querulous, and he
might talk to me as though I were only a
boy, when I am the second man in all the
realm. Of coupe, he must nob suffer, and
if there,is famine in his country—and I
hear there is—I will send him some pro-
visions; but I alit take a man from Pa-
dananam and introduce him into this polite
Egyptian court. What a nuisances it is to
have poor relations!"
Joseph did not say that, but he rushed
out to meet his father with perfect aban-
don of affection, and brought him up to
the palace, and introduced him to the
emperor, and provided for all the rest of
bhe father's da s, and. nothing was too
good for the old man while living; and
when he was dead, Joseph, with military
escort, took his father's remains to the
family cemetery. Would God all children
were as kind to their parents.
If the father have large property, and he
be wise enough to keep it in his own name,
he will be respected by the heirs; but how
often it is when the son finds his father in
famine, as Joseph -found Jacob in famine,
the young people make it vary hard for the
old man. They are so surprised he eats
with a knife instead of a fork. They are
oliagrined at his antediluvian habits. They
are provoked because he cannot hear as
web as he used. to, and when he asks it
over again, and the son has to repeat it,
he bawls in the old man's ear:
"I hope you hear that I" How long he must
wear the old coat or the old hat before
they get him a new one I Ho* ohagrinned
they are at his independence of the English
grammar! How long he hangs on! Seven-
ty years and not gone yet! Eighty years
and not gone yet! Will he ever go? They
think it of no use to have a doctor in his
last sicknese, and go up to the drug store
and get a dose of something that makes
him worse, and economize on a coffin, and
beat the undertaker down to the last point,
giving a note for the reduced amount,
which they never pay. I have officiated
at obsequies of aged people where the
family have been so inorditately resigned
to Providence that I felt like taking my
tax t from the Proverbs :—"The eye that
mooketh at its father, and refusali to obey
its mother, the ravens of the valley shall
pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat
it," In other words, such an ingrate onght
to have a flock of crows for pall-bearers1
I congratulate you if you have the honor
of providing for aged parents. The bias-
ing of the Lord God of Joseph and Jacob
will be on you.
I rejoice to remember that though my
father Sieved in a plain house the niost of
his days, he died in a mansion provided by
the filial piety of a son who had achieved
a fortune. There the octogenarian sat, and
the servants welted ou him and there were
plenky of horses and plenty of carriages to
convey him, and a bower in which to sit
on long summer afternoons, drenixting over
the pad; and there was not a room in the
house where he was not weloome, and there
were musical inetruments of all sorts to
regale him; and when life had passed, the
neighbors came out and expressed all honor
poesible, and denied him to the village
Maohpelah, and put him down beside the
Rachel with whous he hed Hired more than
half a century, Share your suocesses with
the oId people. The probability is that
the prinoiples they inculcated ashieved
your Marimba. Give than a Christian per-
centage of kindly consicittatioo. Let •S�.
mph divide with enoole the pietas) fields
of the sisterhood wbo reznalo unmarried
that they znight administer to aged pare
onto The brutal world calls these self-
sacrificing ones peculiar or angular; but if
you had had as many annoymmes as thee'
have lied, Xantippe would have been an
angel compared to you. It is easier So
take care of fine, fr °nicking romping chin
dren, than a one, childish old man.
Among the beat'womeri are those who al-
lowed the bloom of life to pass away while
they were oaring for their parents, While
other maidens were sound asleep, they
were soaking the old man's feet Or tuoking
up the covers around the invalid mother.
While other maidens were in the cobillion,
they were dancing attendance upon rheu-
matism, and spreading plasters for the
lame back of the sentenarian, and heating
catnip tea for insomnim
In almest every oircle of our kindred
there has been some (mem of self-saorifice,
to whom jewelled hand after jewelled hand
was offered in marriage, but who stayed
on the old place because of the filial obli-
gation, the health was gone and the at-
tractiveness of personal presence had van-
ished. Brutal society may call such a One
by a nickname, God oalls her daughter,
and heaven calls her saint, and I call her
domestic 'martyr.
Lee the ungrateful world sneer at the
maiden aunt, but God has a throne burn.
ished for her arrival, and one side of that
throne in heaven there is a vase coetain-
ing two jewels the one brighter than the
Koh-i-noor Loncloa Tower, and the
other larger than any diamond ever found
in the'districts of Golconda—the one jewel
by the lapidary of the palace eut with the
words, "Inasmuch as ye did ib to mother."
"Over the Hills to the Poorhouse" is the
exquisite ballad of Will Csirleton who
found an old woman who had been turned
off by her prosperous sons; but I thank
God I may find in my teat "Over the hills
to the palace."
As if to disgust us with tinfilial conduct,
the Bible presents us the story of Micah,
who stole the eleven hundred shekels from
his mother, and the story of Absalom, who
tried to dethrone his father. Bob all his-
tory is beautiful with stories of filial fidel-
ity. Epaminondas, the warrior, found his
chief delight in reciting to his parents his
victories. There goes oEneas from burning
Troy, on his shoulders Anchises his fath-
er. The Athenians punished with death
any unfilial conduct. Th.ere goes beauti-
ful Ruth escorting venerable Naomi aoroes
the desert amid the howling of the wolves
and the barking of the jackals. John
Lawrence, burned at the stake in Col-
earker, was cheered in the flames by his
ohildren, who said :—"0, God, strengthen
Thy servant and keep Thy promise 1" And
Christ in the hour of excruciation provided
for His old mother. Jacob kept his reso-
lution, "I will go and see him before I
die," and a little while after we find them
walking the tesselated floor of the Palace,
Jacob and Joseph, the prime minister,
proud of the shepherd.
I may say in regard to the most of you
that your parents have probably ensiled
you for the last time, or will goon pay you
such a visit, and I have wondered if they
will ever visit you in the King's palace.
"Oh," you say, "I am in the nit of sin I"
Joseph was in the pit. "Oh," yo say, "I
am in the prison of mine iniquity Joseph
was once in prison. "Oh," you say, I
didn't have a fair °Imam I was denied
maternal kindness!" Joseph was denied
maternal attendance. "Oh," you say,
am far away from the land of rim nativity I"
Joseph was fsr from home. "Oh," you
say, "I have been betrayed and exasper-
ated!" Did not Joseph's brethren sell him
to a pasielleig Ishmaelitish caravan? Yet
God brought him to that emblazoned ran
dance; and if you will trust iris grace, 10
Jeans Christ, you, too, will be empalaceds
Oh, what a day that will be when the old
folks come from an adjoining mansion in
heaven. and find you amid the alabaster
pillars of the throne room and living with
the Xing! They are coming up the steps
now, and the opauletted guard of the pal-
ace rushes in and says, "Your father's
coming, your mother's coming 1" And
when under the arches of precious stones
and on the pavement of porphyry you
greet each other, the .ecene will eclipse the
meeting on the Goshen highway, when
Joseph aid Jacob fell on each other's neck
and wept a good. while.
But oh,. how changed the old folks will
bel Their cheek smoothed into n'the flesh
of a little child. Their stooped posture
lif ted into immortal symmetry. Their
foot now so feeble, then with the sprightli-
ness of a bounding roe as they'shall say to
you, "A spirit passed this way from earth
and told us that you were wayward and
dissipated after we left the world; but mete
have repented, our prayer has been ao.
swered, and you are here; and as we used
to visit you on earth before we died, now
we visit you in your lieW home after our
ascension." And father will say, "Mother,
don't you see Joseph is yet alive?" and
mother will say, "Yes, father, Joseph is
yet alive." And then they will talk over
their earthly anxieties in regard to you,
and the midnight supplications in your
behalf, and they will recite to each. other
the . old Scripture paesage with which
they used to cheer their dagger.
ing fettle :—"I will be a God to
thee and thy seed after tlaee." Oh, the
palace, the palace, the palace! Thab 15
what Richard Baxter called "The Saints'
Everlasting Rest" That is what John
Bunyan called the "Celestial City."
That is Young's "Night Thoughts" turn-
ed into morning exultations. That is
Gray's "Elegy in a Churchyard" turned. to
resurrection spectacle. That is the "Cot-
ter's Saturday Night" exchanged for the
Cotter's Sabbath morning. That is the
shepherd of Salisbury Plains amid the
flocks on the hills oe. heaven. That is the
famine-sMuck Padan.aram turned into the
rich pasture fields of Goshen. That is
Jaoob visiting Joseph at the Emerald Cas-
tle.
!naming currants,
There was a time within the memory of
many when the mum was the standard
small fraib nearly everywhere. Now they
are seldom eon in Mae market. It is cer-
tainly not because there is no demend for
them. The reasons for this scarcity may
be explalued partly because of the depre-
dations of iusects the leaf slag being the
most destructive. A littie &beaten, how-
ever, jug at the right time evhen the worms
appear is all that is necessary, by the use
of a spraying of white hellebore, to destroy
them. By the myna of this insect many
of the bushes have died during the pa,st
few years. There is no more profitable
small fruit crop th the moment. It is al-
most certain of an annual crop and beers
heavily. The Fay is a good. early variety
and for the later ones the Holland and
Prince Albert come in after the others are
gone. Plant aimed Ave feet apart end mile
tivate well. trune by °agog out tho
woad and some of the Blender shoots to
keep the buehes capon yet maimed hi form,
—Western Rag
at Goshen and the gloritea of EgyPtian °mitt.
And here 1 ',mold like to sing the preises
A Pieneesing loath.
HereOhell aneith, of teetileseille, Redo id
lateen yeatti eld, ogg fest aye 14,41 ?IA;
Weeks,
tid gtoieing at the tate hil ine 4014
MSC MANEOUS READING,
WM. AS WELL AS GAY,
meacIlteg leosz Leisure Moments for 01c1
and Young., Interisting and Profita-
ble.
The Financial. Outlook.
Flowers all a bloomme
Song birds in the sky,
Real estate a boomin',
In bete by-andsby,
Trade is like er critter,
Balkin jes for fun,
Bat when onet ye get 'er
Goes ma a run,
Clouds hey silver linin',
Sunset brings the gold;
Life'll soon be shinime,
Ez it did of old,
A Song of Th.ree Singers.
1.
Wave and wiud and willow tree
Speak a speech that 410 man knoweth,
Tree that sigheth, wind that bloweth,
Wave that floweth to the sem;
Wave and winkand willow tree.
Peerless, perfeet poets ye,
Singing songs all songs excelling,
Fine as crystal music dwelling
In a welling fountain free;
Peerless, perfect poets three.
11.
Wave and wind and willow tree
Know not aught 02 1)0815' rhyming,
Yet they make Et silver chiming
Sunward climbing minstre1sy,1
Soother than all songs that be.
Blows the wind it knows not why,
Flows the wave it knows not whither,
And the willow swayeth hither,
Swayeth hither witlessly,
Nothing knowing save to sigh.
Stub Ends of Thought.
Some old people have an idea they are
oocupyingspace which younger ones want.
The agility of a man's tosague is no sign
of the size of his brain.
No woman can do as much as she says.
When a man says heis perfectly happy
he lies, and. when he lies ho is found out,
and when he is found. out he is not happy.
"Amen" is the only honest word in
some men's prayers.
War is elle butcher shop of diplomacy.
A man may need other things more
than money, but he wants money more
than anything. else.
Matrimony is pie to some, and " pizen"
to others.
A woman with a brokeo heart receives
forty times as much sympathy as a man
does in the same fix.
A profane oath is a malignant tumor
in the body of language.
THE DECLINE OE IdCA.RRIAGE.
EN do not marry nowadays
So everybody tells us
And I suppose we may
therefore conclude, by a
simple set of inference,
that women in turn don't
marry either. It takes two, of course, to
make a quarrel—or a marriage. Why is
this ? "Young people nowadays want to
begin whore their fathers left off." "Men
aro made so comfortable at present in
their clubs." "College -bred girls have
no taste for housekeeping." "Rents are
so high and manners so luxurious."
Good. heavens, what silly trash, what
puerile nonsense! Are we all little boys
and girls, I ask you, that we are to put
one anothee oft with such transparent
humbug? Here we have to deal with a
Primitive instinct—the profoundest and
deepest -seated instinct of humanity, save
only the instincts of food. and drink and
of self-preservation, Man, like all other
animals, has two main functions: to feed
his own organism, and to reproduce his
species. Ancestral habit leads him, when
mature, to choose himself a mate—be-
cause he loves her. It drives him, it
nrges him, it goads him irresistibly. If
this profound imp-ulse is really lacking
to -day in any large part of our rase,
there must be some correspondingly pro-
tound and adequate reason for it. Don't
let us deceive ourselves with shallow
platitudes which may do for drawing -
rooms. This is philosophy, even though
post-prandial. Lab us try to take a philo-
sophic view of the question at issue, from
ae point of vantage of a biological out-
look.
Before you begin to investigate the
cause of a phenomenon, " quelconque,"
'tis well to decide whether the phenome-
non itself is there to investigate. Tak-
ing society throughout—not in the sense
of those "forty families" to which the
term is restricted by Lady Charles Beres-
ford—I donbt whether marriage is much
out of fashion. Statistics show a certain
decrease, it is true, but not an alarming
ono. Among the laboring classes, I 3m -
:mine men, and also women, still wed
pretty frequently. When people say,
Young men. -won't naarry nowadays,"
they mean young men in a particular
stratum of society, roughly bounded by
a silk hat on Sundays. Now, wheo you
and I were young (I take it for granted.
that you. and I are approaching the fif-
ties), young men slid marry; even within
this restricted area, 'twas their whole-
some way in life to form an attachment
early with some nice girl in their own
sot, and to start at leost with the idea of
marrying her. Toward that goal they
worked; for that end they endured and
sacrificed many things, True, eveu then,
the long engagement was bhe ; but
the long engagement itself meant some
persistent impulse, sorao strong impetus
marriagewards. The desire of the man
to make this woman his own, the longing
to make this woman hoppy—normal and
healthy endowments of our race—had
Mill much driving power. Nowadays, I
seriously think I observe in mosb young
mon of the middle class around me a dis-
tinct and dims Mous weakening of the
impulse. They don't ,fall in love as
frankly, as honestly, as irretrievably as
they used to do. They
they plait and choose, they discuss, they
maids°. Th ey say themselves these
futile foolish things about the club, and
the flat, and the cost of living. They
believe in Malthus. Fancy a young man
who believes in Malthus 1 They Win in
13.0 hurry at all to get marled. But thirty
or fetter yeas ago young mese ez sea to
rush by blind instinct into the toils of
matrimony—because they couldn't help
themselves'. Snell La,odicea,n lukewarm -
noes betokens in the class which exhibits
15a wakening of impulse. That Weak-
ening of impulse is really what we have
15 tteconrit for.
Young Men of O certain typo don't
marry, eleocouse—they are loss of young
mon than formerly'. wild anitnals in
confinemenb seldom propagate their kind.
Oney a few caged birds will. contintle
their species. Whaterm upsote the leen-
once of the organism in an individual or
•
a raee tends first of all to offeet the rat
of reprocluetion, Civilize the rcid man
and he begins to deorease ab ono i
members, Turn the Sandwich. Island
into a binding community and the iiatlY
HaWailan refuses forthwith to give hos
ages to fortune. Tahiti is dwindling
From the moment the Tasmanians ever
taken to Noreolle Islaud,uot a single Tas
enonitin baby was born, The Jesuit
made a model communiey of Paraguay
but they catered the habits of the Para
guoyans so fast that the reverend, fath
ors, who were, of course, themselves cell
bates, Were oompelled to take strenuous
n
and even grotesque measures to proven
the complete and iramediate extin.OtiO
of their converts. Other oozes in absence
arise I might quote and I would, but
limit myself to these. They suffice t
exhibit the general principle involved
any grave upset in the conditions of lif
affects first and at once the fertility of:
-
Cspeoies,
'1.13ut colonists often increase with ra
pidity." Ay, marry, do they, where th
conditions of life are easy. At the pros
ent day most colonists go to fairly civil
ized regions;, th.ey are transported to their
new home by steamboat and railway
they find for the most part more abund
ant provender and more wholesome sum
rounclings than in their native country
There is no real upset. Better food and
easier lif o, Herberb Spencer has shown,
result (other things equal) in inereased
fertility. His chapters on this subject in
the "Principles of Biology" sb.ould be
read by everybody who pretends to talk
on questsons of population. But in new
anddifficult eolonies the inerease is slight.
1Vhatever compels greater wear and tear
of the nervous system proves inimical to
the reproductive function. The strain
and stress of co-ordination with novel
circumstances and novel relations affect
most injuriously the orgasaic balance.
The African negro has long been accus-
tomed to agricultural toil and to certain.
simpls arts in his own country. Trans-
ported to the West Indies and the United
States he foundlife no harder than of old,
if not, indeed, easier. Ho had sebtuidant
food, protection, security, a kind, of labor
for which he was well adapted. Instead
of dying out, therefore, he was fruitful,
and mentipliecl and replenished the earth
amazingly. But the Red Indian.ecaught
blatant in the hunting stage, refused to
be tamed, and could. not swallow civiliza-
tion. He pined and dwinecl and de-
creased. in his "reservation." The chaoge
was too great, too abrupt, too brusque.
The papoose before long became an ex-
tinct animal.
Is not the same thing true of the mid-
dle-class of England? Civilization and
its marks have come too quickly upon us.
The strain and sbress of correlating and
co-ordinating the world we live in are
getting. too ranoh for us. Railways, tele-
graphs, the penny post, the latest edition,
have played havoc at last with our nerv-
ous systems. We are always on the
stretch, rushing and tearing perpetually.
We bolt our breakfasts; we catch the
train or bus by the skin of our teeth, to
rattle us into the city ; we run down. to
Scotland or over to Paris on business;
we lunch in London and dine in Glas-
gow, Belfast or Calcutta. (Excuse iniag-
'nation.) The tape clieks perpetually in
our ears the last quotation.in Eries ; th.e
telephone rings us up at inconvenient
m.oments. Something is always happen-
ing somewhere to disturb our equanim-
ity; we tear open the Times with fever-
ish haste, to learn that Argentines or
Jabez Balfour has fallen, that Matabele-
land has been painted red, that shares
have gone up, or gone down, or evapor-
ated. Life is one turmoil of excitement
and bustle. Financially, 'bis a series of
dissolving views; personally, 'tis a rush;
socially, 'tis a mosaic of deftly -fitted en-
gagements. Drop out one piece, and you
can never replace it.
The first generation after Stephenson.
and the Rocket pulled through with. it
somehow. They inherited the sound
constitutions of the men who set on. rus-
tic seats in the gardens of the twenties.
The second generation—that's you and
me—felt the strain more severely; new
machines had come in to make life still
more complicated ; sixpenny telegrams,
Bell and Edison, submarine cables, even -
ng papers, perturbations pouring in from
all sides incessantly; the suburbs grow -
ng, the hubbub increasing, metropolitan
always, trams, bicycles unnunerable ;
but natheless we still endured, and pre-
ented the world all the same with a
hird generation. That third generation
—ah me! there comes the pity of it !
/ne fancies the impulse to marry and
ear a family has wholly died out of it.
t seems to have cited out most in the
lass where the strain and stress are
reatest. I don't think young men of
hat class to -day have the same feelings
owards women of their sort as formerly.
Nobody, I trust, will mistake me for a
laudator temporis acti;" in most ways
he moderm. young man is a vast improve-
ment on you and Me attwenty-five. But
believe there is really among yonng men
n towns less chivalry, less devotion, less
onaance than there used to be. That, I
ake it, is the true reason why young men
on't maim. With certain classes and
n certain places a primitive instinet of
ur race has weakened. think the
resent crisis the English marriage
narket is due, not to clubs or the coin
orb of bachelor quarters, but to the
mnulative effea of nervous (MOP 0:Veit-G-
ent.
0
3.
11
0
311
sm.; SLEEPS WELL.
HOW One woman Coven Ilrerseif of !M-
emnon la.
Insom alio is curable," rem racked the
woman in the bite hat emphatically, as
she declined lobster a la Newburg, "and
tho ours is only to be worked by one's
own efforts. I cured myself."
, "How did you. do ?' the girl in the
green bonnet anxiously inquired, taking
two spoonfuls of the rich dish.
"By exercise and temperate eating,"
replied her companion, looking from the
large mass of lobster on the plate to the
face of her neighbor, a peke nervous
creature who had been complaining of
sleeplessness,
"About a year age, after suffering
many things from inchgestion, I fennel X
was slowly losing my po•wor to sleep, so I
fled to my physician. For a month or
ewe I got along more comfortably on the
soothing doses he ,enve me, and then I
fell into the very bed practice of dosing
myself on bromedia, solfonel and allt
sorts of queesk pollees. Their use peave
me a glimpss down the broad, straight
road that loadoth to hysterics mad rem-
ote prostraloo, and I throw them away,
"Then it was I began to experiment
with a view to disoovering a ewe. I
overlooked )n3r tliot and struelt out tho
use of eon() and wine—anything 3.found
that excited my nerves, lett rap without
tm wink or sloop. I replaced the coffee
With tea, ono cup freshly made tend not
Wong for broctlfas b. At that raealel
teen:11100d heat as a steady article of diet,
ate myineot broiled, my eggs boiled: eleY
potatoes baked, and out dowxi my allow.
anco of hot bread ono -half.
" For leincheon I thole some cola meat;
a cold vegetable with French dressing,
more fruit, cold bread, a cup of hot bouil-
lon if I wished, and some simple sweets
For dinner I ate whatever was offered,
maly eatiog in moderation. 1 took my
allowance of any rich dish, tryiog to eat
jellies, puddings, and such digestible des-.
seats as far as possible ixi place of pastries
and, heavy dessert.
" Where X felt any of the usual signs of
indigestion I took a spoonful of a simple
charcoal preparation any physioion will
give to correet acidity, ancl, then I added
to these simple *lames the offioacy of
exercise. I could not afford to ride either
bieycle or horse, so I tried to walk at
least four or five miles a day. Then in
my bathroom in th.e morning I went
through all the SWedish movercumts I
auld learn before taking as oorct a bath
as I could healthfully stand. By and by
I bought a yard of rubber tubiug that
had a perforated nozzle at one end. This
I would fasten on the cold water faucet
of the bath tub and spra,y a gentle cold
stream up and down my backbone and
over my liver. Than, I found, had all
the exhilarating effect of an electric
shook, and after a vigorous rub down
with a Turkish towel I had little or no
languor as the result of a wakeful night.
"Following this regimen closely, add-
ing to my repertory of Swedish (mei-oleos
some of Sonclow's theories, particularly
those of strengthening the muscles of my
stomach, I found, I could sleep like a top
and rarely miss a night.
"When by unhappy chance I do find
any difficulty in dozing and feel 1 ant
growing restless and nervous, I set about
trying to make a remedy to euro ab once.
I usually begin by dumping the beister
off the bed and trying to get my head on
a level with my heels. If this does not
help me into a corafortable position I turn
about and lie with my head at the foot
of the bed. Orange flower water or syrup
will help to sooth excited nerves, so I
always keep a bottle of °newt these de-
licious, harmless extracts on my night
table, and for an hour try, bytakinglittle
doses and shifting my positien, to fall
into unconsciousness. When everything
fails I resort to the mustard plasters.
You buy them already prepared at any
apothecary's. Ask for the half strength
sort, and after moistening them accord-
ing to dixeetions on the box lay two on
the pit of the stomach. Let them burn
smartly three or five minutes, then MOVE)
them down to just inside the knee, and in
flve minutes more carry them down. to
the soles of the feet. They rarely fail to
set me dreaming in half an hour. If on
going to bed my feet are cold or my head
feels heavy, as though over full of blood,
I set my little plasters to work at once,
knowing PSI get no sleep until the blood
goes circulating warmly and my brain.
is clear and cool. Never get up and try
to distract your mind by reading, as some
people advise, and never give up trying
to get to sleep, and, above all things, try
to get a wink or two during tho day.
Give way to nods and yawns in the after-
noon and if directly after dinner yon
suffer a sensation of drowsiness, let it
have its way, and., bit by bin you can
conquer the most obstinate case of fre-
sorania."
Re Was a Plumber.
"The plumber joke is worked to death,
but Iwill tell you one anyhow, just be-
cause it is true," began a friend ye,ster-
day. "The young woman that figures in
the story lives on Broadway near Floyd
street. She was sprinkling the street this
morniug and used a hose that was sadly
in need -of repair. An itinerant plumber
carae along with a kit of tools slung over
his shoulder. He asked the young wo-
man if she wanted the hose fmed.
"'What will you charge ?" she an-
swered.
"The man looked at the hose critically
and theo said he would repair it for fif-
teen. cents. This was contrary to all
traditions relating to plumbers' prices so
the young woman told. th.e man she au
not believe that he was what he repre-
sented himself 'him to be.
"'Still,' she said, `go ahead and fix the
hose.'
"The man took ont his tools and soon
had the hose nearly as good as new. The
miss gave the man. fifteen cents. He
shook`his head and saicl he wanted forty-
five.
" Why, said the young woman in sur-
prise, 'you said you would do the workfor
fifteen cents.'
Yes, I know, he returned, 'lent there
was more work than I thought.'
"'Well, I was afraid you wasn't a
plumber when you first came up, but now
I know you are and am willing to give
you a certificate to that effect,' was what
the young woman said when.she genre the
mao his pay."
Young CanadalloIds Up the 01c1 Mans
" Say, popper, are you a patriotic Can,.
tedium, or ain't yer ?"
My four-year-old son approaches me in
somethingof the threatening spirit of
i
1812. As n the case of the younster of
eieleby years ago, he carries the day, and
with some trepidation I reply:
"Why, of course, my son I What
makes you ask ?"
"Monday's Dominion day. I want $5
to buy fixecrackeas I wasn't sure wheth-
er you were going to dispute the natural
rights of man."
o be sure, and so it is! 'When I wa.s
youngster--n.one of your business how
long ago—it seemed to nee that First of
Riles came around only once ±0 ±00 years,
Now how fast do the First, succeed each.
other! Some one's been tinkering witb
th.o almanac or something. I'll swear it
was only half a year ago 'that Jimmie lab
off. that rocket in my OThr. The place
hurts me still. Pinwheels, firecrackers
Why, bless me. a year ago'?
Well, I'm $5 poorer in money, but I'm
a million dollar patriot in the eyes of my
son. Let it ozone. The First is trying
on my old nerves en one way, but it
makes me younger in others. Ha, ha,
ha
Kept Mer Word.
Two young ladies 'Wen walking itt the
woods one day when they wore accosted
by an old and. Much shriveled gypsy, who
politely offered to show them their hum
band's fa,cos in a brook which ran near
by for a slight remanoration, So, pay.
mg the stun, they followed the hag to
the brook, as they vrere very ottrioUS to
see how she could do so wonderful a
thing, and also anxious to soo their fut.
uro husband, Mit instoad oe beholding
the faun of the mon they so fondly hoped
for they saw their 01'711.
"We esn't see nothing but our own
Moos," said one.
" Very true, mern," replied the saga.
01008 _forbore-tell/or, "hoe these will be
yea Intsbantle' faces when yen are mat.
med."