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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1896-12-31, Page 7THE MASK OF DECEIT. "WHY FEIGNEST THOU THYSELF TO BE ANOTHER ?" alley. Dr. Talmage Draws Some Startling ;masons Prom a, Unique Tcxt—royalty in. Disguise—Tile Accuracy of God's Pro- vidence in the Universe. Washington, Deo. 20. -In this sermon from rr Bible scene never used in ser- monic discourse Dr.Talmage draws some startling lessons and tears off the mask of deceit. The text is I Kings xiv, 6, "Why feignest thou thyself to be an- other?" In the palace of wicked Jeroboam there .is a sink child. Medicines have failed; skill is exhausted. Young Abijah, the prince, bas lived long enough to be- come very popular, and yet he must die 'aimless some supernatural aid be afforded. Death comes up the broad stairs of the palace and swings back the door of the sickroom of royalty and stands looking at the dying prince with the dart uplifted. Wicked Jeroboam knows that he has no right to ask anything of the Lord in the way of kindness. He knows that his prayers would not be answered, and so he sends his wife on the delicate and ten- der mission to the prophet of the Lord in Shiloh. Putting. aside her royal attire, she puts on the garb of a peasant woman and starts on the road. Instead of carry- ing gold and genie as she might have carried from the palace she carries only those gifts which seem to indicate that she belongs to the peasantry—a few loaves of bread and a few oacknels and a cruse of honey. Yonder she goes, hooded and veiled, the greatest lady in all the kingdom, yet passing unobserved. No one that meets her on the highway has any idea that she is the first lady in all the land. She is a queen in disguse. The fact is that Peter the Great work- ing in the dry docks of Saardam, the sailor's bat and the shipwright's ax gave him no more thorough disguise than the garb of the peasant woman gave to the queen of Tirzab. But the prophet of the Lord saw the deceit. Although his physical eyesight had failed, he was divinely illumined, and at one glance looked through the imposition, and he cried out: "Come in, thou wife of Jero- boam! Why feignest thou thyself to be another? I have evil tidings for thee. Get thee back to thy house, and when thy feet touch the gate of the city the child shall die," She had a right to ask for the recovery of her son; she had no right to practice an imposition. Broken heart- ed now, she started on the way, the tears falling on the dust of the road all the way from Shiloh to Tirzah. Broken hearted now, she Is not careful any more to hide her queenly gait and manner. True to the prophecy, the moment her feet touch the gate of the city the child dies. As she goes in the soul of the child goes out. The cry in the palace is Joined by the lamentation of a nation, and as they carry good Abijah to his grave the air is filled with the voice of eulogy for the departed youth and the groan of an afflicted kingdom. It is for no insignificant purpose that I present you the thrilling story of the text. In the first place I learn that wickedness Involves others, trying to make them its dupes, its allies and its scapegoats. Jeroboam proposed to hood- wink the Lord's prophet. How did he do it? Did he go and do the work himself? No. He sent his wife to do it. Hers the peril of exposure, hers the fatigue of the way, hers the execution or the plot; his, nothing. Iniquity is n brag, but it is a great coward. It lays the plan and gets some one else to execute it; puts down the gunpowder train and gets some one else to touch it off; contrives mischief and gets some one else to work it; starts a Ile and gets some one else to circulate it. In nearly all the groat crimes of the world it is found out that those who planned the arson, the murder, the theft, the fraud go free, while those who were decoyed and cheated and hood- winked into the • conspiracy clank the chain and mount the gallows. 'Aaron Burr, with heart filled with impurity and ambition, plots for the overthrow of the United States Govern- ment and gets off with a few threats and a little censure, while Blennerhas- sett, the learned Blennerhassett the sweet tempered Blennerhassett is decoyed by him from the orchards and the laborator- ies and the gardens and the home on the bank of the Ohio river and his fortunes are scattered, and he is thrown into prison, and his family, brought np in luxury, is turned out to die. Abominable Aaron Burr has it comparatively easy. Sweet tempered Blennerhassett has is hard. Benedict Arnold proposed to sell out the forts of the United States; to sur- render the Revolutionary army and to destroy the United States Government. He gets off with his pockets full of pounds sterling, While Major Andre, the brave and the brilliant, is decoyed into the conspiracy and suffers on the gibbet on the banks of the Hudson; so that even the literature—the marble tablature that commemorated that event — has been blasted by midnight desperadoes. Benedict Arnold has it easy. Major .Andre has it hard. I have noticed that nine -tenths of those who suffer for crimes are merely the satellites of some great villians. Ignominious fraud isa juggler which by sleight of hand and legerdemain makes the gold that 1t stole appear in somebody else's pocket. jeroboam plots the lie, contrives the imnosition,and gets his wife to execute it. Stand off from all imposition and chicanery. Do not -consent to be anybody's dupe, anybody's ally in wickedness, anybody's scapegoat. • The story of the text also impresses me with the fact that royalty sometimes. passes in disguise. The frock, the veil, the hood of the peasant woman hid the queenly character of this woman of 'Tirzah. Nobody suspected that she was a queen or a princess as she passed by, but she was just as much a queen as though she stood in the palace, her robes incrusted with diamonds. Anti so all around about us there are princesses and queers whom the , world does not recognize. They sit on no throne of roy- alty, they ride in no chariot, they elicit no huzza, they mals no pretense, but by the grave of God they are princesses and they are queens; sometimes 'n their pov- erty, sometimes in tihef :f denial, sometimes ie their • brat uggies of Christian service—God ki they are .queens. The world does e recognize them,` Royalty passing in disguise, kings without the crown, . conquerors without the palm, empresses withoutthe jewel. You saw her yesterday On the street. You saw nothing important in her ap- pearance, but she is regnant over a vast realm of virtue and gopdness--a realm vaster than Jeroboam ever looked at. You went down into the house of desti- tution and want and Buffering. You saw the story of trial written on the wasted hand of the mother, on the pale cheeks of the children, on the empty bread tray, on the fireless hearth,on the broken chair. You would not have given a dollar for all the furniture in the house. But by the grave of God she is a princess, The overseers of the poor come there and discuss the case and say, "It's a pauper." They do neIerealize that God hasburn- ished for her a crown, and that after she has got through the fatiguing journey from Tirzab to Shiloh and from Shiloh back to Tirzah there will be a throne of royalty on which she shall rest forever. Glory veiled. Affluence hidden. Eterna raptures hushed up. A queen in mask. A princess in disguise. When you think of a queen you do not think of Catherine of Russia, or Maria Theresa of Germany. or Mary queen of Scots. When you think of a queen, you think of a plain woman who sat opposite your father at the table or walked with him down the path of life arm in arm, sometimes to the. Thanks giving banquet, sometimes to the grave, but always side by side, soothing your little sorrows and adjusting your little quarrels, listening to your evening prayer, toiling with the needle or at the spinning wheel„ and on cold nights tucking you up snug and waren. And then on that dark day when she lay dy ing, putting those thin hands that had toiled for you so long, putting them together in a dying prayer commending you to that God in whom she had taught you to trust. Oh, she was the queen, she was the queen! You cannot think of her now without having the deepest emotions of your soul stirred, and you feel as if you could cry as though you were now sitting in infancy on her lap, and you call her back to speak your name with the tenderness with which she once spoke you would be willing now to throw yourself on the sod that covers her grave, crying, "Mother, mother!" Ah, she was the queen! Your father knew it. You knew it. She was the queen, but the queen in disguise. The world did not recognize it. But there was a grander disguising. The favorite of a great house looked out of the window of his palace, and he saw that the people were carrying heavy burdens, and that some of them were hobbling on crutches, and he saw some lying at the gate exhibiting their sores, and then he heard their lamentation, and he said: "I will just put on the clothes of those poor people, and 1 will go down and see what their sorrows are, and. I will sympathize with them, and I will be one of them, and I will help them." Well, the day came for him to start. The lords of the land came to see him off. All who could sing joined in the parting song, which shook the hills and woke up the shepherds. The first few nights he has been sleeping with the hostiors and the camel drivers, for o one knew there was a king in town. He went among the doctors of the law, astounding them, for without any doe- tor's gown he knew more law than any of the doctor's. He fished with the fisher- men. He smote with his own hammer in the carpenter's shop. He ate raw corn out of the ileal. 1•le fried fish on the banks of Gennesaret. Ha was howled at by the crazy people in the tombs. He was splashed of the surf of the sea. A pilgrim without any pillow. A sick man without any mealcament. A mourner with no sym iathetio bosom in which ho could pour Lha tears. Disguise complete. 1 know that .eicastnnclly his divine roy- alty flashed t ,.t as when in the storm on Galilee, as in the red wine at the wed- ding banquet. as when he freed the shackled demoaiao of Gadara, as when he turned a whole school of fish into the net of the discouraged boatmen, as when ho throbbed life into the shriveled arm of the paralytic, but for the most part he was in disguise. No one Saw the king's jewels in his sandal. No one saw the royal robe in his plain coat, No one knew that that shelterless Christ owned all the mansions in which the hierarchs of heaven had their habitation. None knew that that hungered Christ owned all the olive groves and all the harvests which shook their gold on the hills of Palestine. No one knew that ho who said "I thirst!" poured the Euphrates out of his own chalice. No one knew that the ocean lay in the palm of his hand like a dewdrop in the vase of a lily. No one knew that the stars and moons and suns and galaxies and constellations that marched on age after age were, as com- pared with his lifetime, the sparkle of a firefly on a summer night. No one knew that the sun in midheaven was only the shadow of his throuo. No one knew that his crown of universal dom- inion was covered up with a bunch of thorns. Omnipotence sheathed in a hu- man body. Omniscience hidden in a human eye. Infinite love beating in a human heart. Everlasting harmonies subdued into a human voice. Royalty en masque. Grandeurs of heaven in earthly disguise. As near as I can tell, looking over the calendar of the world's history, more grand, bright, beautiful things have happened on Friday than any other day of the week. They would not for the world go back to the holm for anything after they had once started. Such people are ready to be duped. Ignorance comes ainng perhaps in the disguise of medical science, and carries them captive, for there are always some mon who hat found some strangs„and mysterious wee, :n some strange place and plucked it i the moonshine, and then they Dover tht hoard fence okith the advertisements n. "elixir" ane panaceas" and "Indian mixtures" add "ineffable cataplasms' and "unfailing disinfectants" and "lightning salves" and "instantaneous ointments," enough tb stun and searift anti poultice and kill half the race. They are all ready to be wrought upon by such impositions. Ah, my friends, do not be among such dupes! Do not act the part of such persons as I have been desnrib leg Stand hack from all chieanery, from all imposition. They who i,raetiee such ilnpu.,itiin shall be exposed in the day "i God's indlination. They may. rear great fortones, but their dapple grays will be arrested on the road some day, as whr• ter; ass by the angel of God with rrawe sword. The light of the last day wil solus through all such subterfuges nor with a voice louder than that which at costed this imposition of the text: 'Con.'. in, thou wife of Jeroboam. Why feign. thou thyselfto be another?" With a voia. louder than that God will thunder dove. into midnight darkness and doom an death all two faced men, and'all :thavli. tans, and all knaves, and all jockey., and all swindlers.Behold how the par, pie put on the masks, and behold hoe the Lord• tears them off l My subject also impresses me witL how precise and accurate and particular ars God's providenoes. Just at tie n e meat that woman entered the pity th, child died. ;rust as it was prophesied, s it turned out, so it alwaysturns out The event occurs,the death ,takes p'ace, the nation is born, the despotism is over- thrown at the appointed time. God drives the universe with a stiff rein. Events do not just happen so. Things do' a,t go slipshod.. In all the book of God's providenoes there is not one 'if." God's. providences are never caught dishabille. To God'there are no surprises, no disap- pointments and no aooidents. The most insignificant event flung out in the ages is the onnnecting link between two great chains—the chain of eternity past and the chain of eternity to come. I am no fatalist, bat I should he com- pletely wretched if 1 did not feel that all , the affairs of my life are in God's hand and all that pertains to me and mine just as certainly as all the affairs of this woman of the text were in God's hand. You may ask rue a hundred questions I cannot answer, hut I shall until the day of my death believe that I am under the unerring care of God, and the heavens may tall, and the world may burn; and the judgment may thunder, and eternal ages may roll, but not a hair shall fall from my head, not a shadow shall drop on my path, 'not a sorrow shall tranflx my heart without being divinely ar- ranged—arranged by a loving, sympa- thetic Father. He bottles our tears, he catches our sorrows, and to the orphan he will be a Father, and to the widow he veil be a husband. and, to the outcast he will be a home, and to the most mis• arable wretch that this day crawls up out of the ditch of his abomination cry- ing for mercy he will bean all pardoning God. The rooks shall turn gray with age, and the forests shall be unmoored in the last hurricane, and the sun shall shut its fiery eyelid, and the stars shall drop like blasted figs, and the continents shall go down like anchors in the deep, and the ocean shall heave its last groan and lash itself with expiring agony, and the world shall wrap itself in a winding sheet of flame and leap on the funeral pyre of the judgment day; but God's love shall not die. It will kindle its suns after all other lights have gone out. It will be a billowy sea after the last ocean has swept itself away. It will warm itself by the fire of a consuming world. It will sing while the archangel's trum- pet is pealing forth and the air is filled with the crash of broken sepulchers and the rush of the wings of the rising lead. Oh, may God comfort all this people with this Christian sentiment! MARIE MAGNIER'S DIAMONDS. How the Preach Actress Secured a Couple of Dazzling Gents. Mine. Marie Magnier, of the Gymnast:, has the two largest diamonds now in Paris, and this is how she got them. Ono day she received from her jeweler a tele- gram asking her to come at onto to his shop. There she found a tall woman thickly veiled, who hold in her hands a ease with two superb diamonds in it. Big drops, almost as largo as the dia- monds, were fast falling from her eyes. "Mademoiselle," she said, "Mr. F. tells me that your fancy is to possess a pair of exceptionally beautiful earrings. These are all that you can desire. Could you pay down on them before 5 to -night the 100,000 francs which I ask for them?" The belle Magnier was startled. "Hum, ma bonne lemma,•' she said, in her brusque manner, "you are very cool over the master. You ask for 100,000 francs just as you would ask for a bushel of onions:" • The jeweler put his fingers on his lips and nodded deprecatingly. "Oh, very well," said Magnier, "if she is a queen." "She is a queen," answered the lady proudly, shutting the case with a clap. But Magnier had been touched by the sad voice, and also, let me say, by the blaze of light which had just disap- peared from her eyes, sn she said, meekly: "All right, I will drive hack to my banker and in an hour I shall be back with the money, madame." ' This is how she possessed the most marvelous jewels which ever adorned a first night in Paris. • She likes to tell the story of her bushel of onions, but to this day she never knew who was the woman. Tomatoes and Cancer. The "British Medical Journal' has entered uron a crusade to destroy the popular notion that tomatoes are pro- ductive of cancer. It might be a good thing if some of the American medical journals would enlighten the public upon the extremely small percentage of danger which is incurred by the eating of fruits. Since the aggravated appendicitis scare set in some time ago at least every other person has been afraid to enjoy raspber- ries, blackberries and grapes, owing to their dread of the disastrous internal lodgment of one of the numerous small seeds. The truth is that such danger is so rare as to be almost nihil; and it is well for the people to appreciate this fact,now that the season of fruits is here. Be Ye Grateful. If a follower of Christ is truly con- secrated and his life truly given up to God it will not be bard to do His will. Even all the commands of Jesus to his disciples will be done out of pure love for Him and not done as a sense of duty. Can we say Ido this all for the glory of God or do we do it that we ourselves may be benefited thereby? Each Christian should examine his own life, and when he is wont to say "it is a hard life," to think of what Christ has done for him. Scheme for Reviving Exhausted 011 Wella. A scheme is on foot to restore the pro- ductiveness of exhanted oil wells by elec- tricity. It is proposed to lower an eleo- trio heater into the well, turn on the cur- rent, and by the heat generated melt out the refuse matter which is clogging the pores of the stone, and thus allow the fresh upward •flow of oil. It may be ex- plained that the generally accepted idea in regard to the giving out of oil wells is not that the supply of oil in the well is necessarily diminished, but that the flow is arrested by the stopping up of the exit. The stone, through which the oil passes is of a very porous nature, and as the liquid is in a crude state, the dregs become thickened and settle in the rook near theadages of the bottom of the well. The common practice has been to disperse the block at the bottom of the well by torpedoes, but this wasfound expensive. The machine by which it is claimed the dead springs of the deep can be again made to .give up their wealthof oil is described as about three feet long and resembling an iron cartridge. It con- tains chambers packed with carbon, and so constructed as to radiate intense heat in all directions. Such rejuvenation of the dry wells of the oil districts of the' United States would mean a fortune to many a man who had been beggared by the failure of his well, and would add. millions of barrels, of oil 'to' the annual production of the country. If a sufficient quantity of heat can be generated and lo- calized by the new invention the plan would appear feasible. but it has yet .to. be proved whether thatis possible. ' The invention is said to be in the bands of a powerful oil monopoly, who are to test it thoroughly OUR OTTAWA LETTER THE TARIFF COMMISSION GETS POINTERS IN MONTREAL The Axe Still at Work—Siften aud.the C. P. Il.—Tho Patrons Sold out --Election is Cort, wall---Aiten Labor Law.--I'iariiaiuent Not to fleet Until march.. 11'r'oni Our Own Correspondent.] Ottawa, Deo. 21. --Clearer and clearer is it that the gentlemen of the Tariff Commission will have a most difficult task in store when they shall begin to draft their report for Council. It is easily to be seen that the Prime Minister ap- preciates this fact, for he is beginning to undergo another of las frequent changes of opinion and now oasts a favoring eye towards the Imperial Prefer- ential Trade soht le. But Sir Itiehard Cartwright is ether against this plan.. He still believes that our natural market is to the south of us. So perspicacious a gentleman must know well that we have little chance of getting free access to that market. If we make to the Americans threefold conoeesimes they May allow us to have a miserably small share of their market. There is nothing more that we can hope for. In Montreal, where the Tariff Commission has been 'sitting for some days past, sundry wit- nesses testified that American manufac- turers cf wall paper, of nails, and of several other articles, have of late been paying the duty and underselling Cana- dian manufacturers. I can imagine our Free Trade friends saying: " Thera is nothing to object to in that, The people get the benefit." It is true that some of the people get the benefit as things are now, but it also is true that these United. States manufacturers are selling goods more ohearty in Canada than they sell them in their own country. Their object, notably so in the case of the wall -paper men, is to .drive the Canadian manufac- turer out of existence. This end attained, the National Wall. Paper. Company, the huge trust that controls the whole trade in the United States, would immediately advance prices, and compel Canadians to pay through the nose for the cheap goods, which they had obtained while the killing.of operation was in progress. Now this has'a very strong bearing on the tariff question. If the Ottawa Gov- ernment gave the Americans free wall- paper the process of exterminating the Canadian concerns would be attained withuut three months delay. The manu- factories at Toronto and at Montreal would be closed down; the operatives discharged to shift as they could for themselves and the people of Canada would be sending their money across the border to make American capitalists rich. The same conditions of affairs obtains in scores of cases. The Ministers, if they are honestly desirious of doing their best by the people of Canada must recognize the strength of these arguments. But what can we expect of Mr. Fielding, whose object seems to he, like a latter- day Judge Tefferies, to hold a Bloody Assizes at which the unfortunate manu- facturer is to be convicted before he is tried, and to be harassed and brow beaten while making his defence. I say that Mr. Fielding deserves the strongest denunciation on account of his course daring`the sittings of the Tariff Com- mission. He is by way of being a judge, or, more properly, an arbitrator. Will any of his admirers have the temerity to say that he has shown any evidence of having an open mind on the questions that have come before the Commission? He has sought, he has gone out of his way to browbeat manufacturers and to create a feeling of unrest amongst the men engaged in the same business. You remember the case of Mr. F. W. Fear - man, Hamilton's great pork -packer. Mr. Fearman prejudiced his ease, so far as Mr. Fielding was concerned, by proving absolutely that, were it not for protection, there would be no Canadian pork -pack- ing industry, and that Armour, Swift and other Chicago and Cincinnati firms would make Canada a slaughter market for their goods. And , what had Mr. Fielding to say in reply to this? Noth- ing, save to inform Mr. Fearman that if he were in Mr. Fearman's place he would feel considerable apprehension as to what the future might bring forth. I submit that the Government made a serious error in permitting so prejudiced and so unreasonable a man to represent it in. its efforts to obtain the sense of the country on the tariff question. The Axe Still at Work. Here in Ottawa the good people of the city daily see new faces in the streets. They are those of Grit appointees to places in the civil service. Israel Tarte, like ono of those "recurring decimals" of our school -days, is continually bobbing up with a different value each time. In the present case, the Minister of Public Works is at the lowest_ value possible. I find that he has discharged, since his installation, seventy-two employee and has appointed sixty-eight, with every prospect of adding to the number. He began his adhninistration with a high- faluting proclamation to the effect that he was going to clean out the Augean stables situated in the Public Works De. pertinent. He 'has done so. He has 'cleaned out some scores of faithful serv- ants of the people, and in their stalls he has lodged a collection of knock-kneed and spavined party hacks. As a Hercu- les Mr. Tarte is a distinct failure. He more nearly resembles the Minotaur that the original Baronies slew, and that spent itstimein seeking for and devour- ing victims. Torte's promises areoast to the winds. As Canon Kingsley says in the Water Babies they amount to "Noth- ing at all, and puio bosh and wind." Sifton and the C. le- Be Clifford Sifton, heavy with promises and pompousness, comas to Ottawa to show the¢pople of Canada just how a department should be run. Already he has'had' several, interviews with Sir. Wil- liam Van Horne, of the C. P. R., and has arranged what ho modestly terms "a magnificent. immigration scheme" with him. Sifton, when in the Manitoba Gov. ernment, always 'was the firm friend of the C. P. R. Ho recognized the desirable- ness of "standing in" with the company, and he enlisted their, aid in his pursuit of the Interior portfolio, A few years ago, when the Conservatives were In power, injury by fighting the. C. P. R. in its efforts against the construction of. the Red River Valley railway. Martin at that time made for himself some lasting enemies, and the C. P. R. magnates, who are now hand in glove with Laurier. and Blair, were delighted to have an opportunity to aid in thwarting Martin's Cabinet aspirations. They worked for Sifton, and now Sifton is to aid them in: the work 'of selling their vacant lands in the Northwest. "flit , Government of Can- ada and the railway company are to go halves in paying the salary of Mr. John Scully, of Toronto, who is soon to go to England as an immigration agent. Any. immigrants who may be secured are to he settled on the C.P.R. lands. It is net hard to see Who hes the best end of the bargain. Canada will' get the immi- grants, the C,P.R. will get the immi- grants' money now and will get their money hereafter, when they ship wheat east. It is not often that Van Horne gets the worst of a bargain; in this ease be has almost all the advantage. Of course, there will be an uproar when the country hears that the people's good money is being spent to get the C. P. R. out of the financial .hole in which it now is. But the Administration will smile and say: "It is all right; we have some years to run yet." What with this deal, and with making the C. P.R. a present of the Crow's Nest pass, the Government is a veritable Lord Bountiful — with money and value that belong to the peo- ple. The Patrons Sold Out. As was anticipated, the bye -election in Cornwall -Stormont, rendered neces- sary by the death of Dr. Bergin, resulted in a victory for the Government. In ,Tune last there were three candidates in the field, Conservative, Liberal and Patron. Although elected, Dr. Bergin was in a minority of over eleven hundred votes when the Patron and Liberal ballots were counted together. In last Saturday's polling the contest was be- tween representatives of the two old parties. Mr. Adams, the Patron was got out of the way by means of an agree- ment arrived at between the Government and J. Lonkie Wilson, the Grand Secre- tary of the Patrons. Wilson, who poses as a farmer, hut who is a professional politician of the most undesirable type, ran against and was defeated by Major McLennan In Glengarry in June last. Wilson, before he joined the Patron movement, was a Liberal, and with the incoming of the Liberal Government lie renewed his association with his old political friends. When Dr. Bergin died it was Leckie Wilson who announced that Adams would be in the field, no matter who else entered it. Having made this proclamation, Mr. Wilson inti- mated that, if he were paid his price, he could induce Adams to retire. And the price of Adam's retirement was to be the conferring on Wilson of the Govern- ment patronage in Glengarry. The Gov- ernment fell in with the proposal and Adams dropped out. Henceforth. Wilson is to be the dispenser of Government sops to Liberal and Patron alike. What' do our friends who were Conservatives before they were Patrons think of this deal? In the hands of men like Wilson their interests are liable to be bartered at any moment. Election In Cornwall. The Administration was determined to win Cornwall at all costs. Twenty- five thousand dollars and a horde of Liberal workers were passed into the riding. Nine Ministers of the Crown visited the county, using threats, cajoler- ies and promises with unsparing hands. Mr. Blair was there. Of course he_had recourse to his peculiar methods. He told the people that the continuance of work on the Cornwall canal depended upon themselves, that is to say, if they voted Grit and returned Mr. Snetsinger the Government would reward them, while if they should sleet Mr. Leitch they would be punished severely,: The Dominion Government employes on the canal were given to understand that their course would be watched, and shot dismissal would follow any manifestationof independence. With the Dominion ballot,' adopted by the Conservative Govern- ment, secrecy Is obtained, and it would have been found difficult to ascertain how many mon voted unless the return- ing officers were false to their oaths. But in this case suspicion would have been held to be good and sufficient ground for the dismissal of any Dominion employe. Doubtless, before long, the Laurier Government will adopt Sir Oliver Mowat's numbered ballot, by the use of which the returning officer is ,enabled to find out, if he so desires, how any one of, or all of,' the voters marked their slips. Sir Oliver found the numbered ballot very useful in keeping in line Con- servatives who were interested in the lienor trade, His colleagues at Ottawa will find that the numbered ballot will serve the same end in respect of the Dominion Government employes. Allen Labor Law. Mention has been made in this corres- pondence of the small -soiled actions of the Americans in deporting Canadian workmen. Not satisfied with this, the Buffalo authorities the other day expelled from the country eight Canadian young ladies who were engaged in the noble work of hospital nursing. The Americans assert that they must protect themselves against foreign labor, and tell us that if a Canadian desires work in the States he must become an American citizen. It is in respect of this petty business that Canada stands pledget to retaliation. Mr. Laurier has said so, but between Mr. Laurier and "some of his colleagues there is a serious differ nee of opinion on this as on other phases of politics. We all know that there is a certain section of the Liberal party -a small section,. I hope—that possesses an inexplicable sycophantic fondness for the United States: They lick the hand that smiths them; they glory in ' taking the part of door -mats for Uncle Sam. Mr. Blair, the Minister of Railways, hates Conserva- tives, but loves Yankees. It hasbeen proposed that we compel American miners entering our gold fields in Brit- ish Columbia, to become British subjects. To n reporter the other day Mr. Blair expressed the utmost horror at such a proposition. Ho dial not believe, he said, that the Dominion Government would ever fall in with the idea, What does Mr. Blair want? 'Does ho think Cana- dians are a nation of jellyfish,, lacking in the backbone necessary. to the defense of their rights? He objects to "reprisal. " We are a long suffering people, . but, when milder methods fail, we should not be fearful of easing the same weapons as. our opponents. This continual toadying to the United States on the part, of Blair and Charlton, and half a dozen other prominent Grits, is .nauseating. T do not believe that it is a question of politics at all. It is nothing but a question of manhood. and. self•rospect. Let none make the mistake of thinkingthat we Will conciliate the United. States by. Joseph Martin, thought to do them an °meekly submitting to, the indignities that have been put upon us. If we stand UP for our rights, and keep a stiff upper lip We will secure the esteem of the Ameri- cans. Many of, us know them and admire them. It would be good for Canada if our rulers possessed some of that self- reliance or gall, or whatever you like to gall it,that is so dominants characteristic of the Americans. The senile benevol- ence and amiable platter of Blair should not be allowed to influence us. His acquaintance with the iniquities of the alien labor law is shadowy. Many of ns in Ontario could give him some valuable ieformation as to the manner in which Canadian workmen are harrassed while. we annually have thousands of Ameri- cans earning Canadian money andtaking it home to spend. Pail iauten t Net to fleet Until March. I am informed in good authority that the next session of 1)g/element will not commence before the first week in March. The revision of the tarifa, is expected to occupy the, months of January and Feb- ruary. Beyond the revised tariff, there will be little important legislation advanced by the Government. Mr. Israel Tarte, having closed his royal progress in the Northwest and in. British. Columbia, has planned another trip. He is to go to Paris—at our ex- pense—to finally (lose up the French treaty, Half a dozen letters exchanged between our Government and the French Administration would settle the few de- tails that remain. But Israel wants the trip, and Israel is going to get it, What he wants he gets nowadays. Let us hope that he will not take a fancy to the Parliament buildings, for Mr. Laurier could not refuse them to his friend Tarte the King -Maker, MEASURING CANDLE POWER. The Primitive Method alas Not Lost Ito Effectiveness. For measuring the lighting power, the most. reliable results are obtained by means of a grease spot. In its " most simple application the experiment can ba tried easily at home. A sheet of white paper with a grease spot In the center is put into a frame and placed between two flames of different lighting power; for instance, between an ordinary candle anti a lamp. When the frame is equally distant from the two unequally bright flames the grease spot can be seen plainly on both sides, By moving the frame with the sheet of paper slowly toward the less brilliant light, that is, the candle, it will arrive finally at a point where the grease spot has apparently disanpeared on both sides of the paper. This deception must always occur when on both sides of the paper an equal brightness prevails and no side light exists. Having reached this point it can be ascertained how much stronger is the light of the lamp than that of the Dandle.. If the candle is twenty inches distant from the paper and the lamp sixty inches, and yet the brightness on both sides of the paper is the same, then the light of the lamp will be as strong as that of nine candles. The calculation is based upon the distances, the figures of which are multiplied by themselves and then divided; here, for instance, sixty multi- plied by sixty and divided by twenty multiplied by twenty equal nine. This, of course, is the most primitive method for measuring light, but it is the principle for all the delicate instruments used he the laboratories. Tides or the pacific. The tides in many parts of the Pacifla are so irregular that each run differs from the one preceding. The tides at Hoi-hau, in the China Sea,are as hopeless a puzzle as ever. Though the customs authorities have four years' records, there is absolutely no rule to be deduced therefrom, and the Hoi-hau tides elude the wit of man to account for their con- tinuous irregularity; the best explana- tion given being that of a Chinese naval commander, who says that it is owing to the conformation of the land, and that the water has diiuoulty in entering the creek and is greatly and variably affected by different winds. The consul adds that at times the winds are as irregular as, the tides, now and again appearing to blow from all directions at once. Ia the harbor of Tonquin there is only one tide in the twenty-four hours. This irregu- larity is explained by the formation of two straits, through which the tidal wave has to enter into the harbor. The situation and constrnotion of these two• straits are such that the tide flows through one earlier than through the other, the difference of time ,being sufficient to entirely do away witone ebb and flew. Courage in Battle. There can be little doubt but that the' character of modern warfare and modern weapons develops the highest types of personal courage. The terrible destruc- tiveness of the quick -fire Maxim guns, the long and deadly range of the newest rifle, and the awful devastation of the torpedo, all call forth a moral courage which was unnecessary in the days of fierce hand-to-hand conflict. The courage required to coolly work machine guns amidst a hurricane of bullets, or to dash across an uncovered tract of country where every inch is ploughed with shot, and the mathematical possibilitiesof escape are infinitesimal, is of a much higher type than that requisite in a hand- to-hand struggle with knife or spear, sword or lance. The first calls for moral courage, the second only animal courage: When the lust of flg,bt and the heat of battle makes man's blood run riot, he will struggle with his fellow -man with all the pluck that is in his nature. Two dogs will do virtually the same. Seize one of the dogs, he will turn on you pluckily. Stone him, the probability is lie bolts. ANiobebyNecessity. "Dear me---" Tho hard, stern looking female scarce- ly suggested one who felt much sym- pathy for the Woes of her fellow creatures. —"It jest nat'rally ''makes me 'dry., hut—" She put aside the volumeto weep afresh. —"a woman that knew enough to write a nook book oughter hey arreceipt for peelin' onions dry eyed!" Conning it again, she resumed the concoction of the kidney, sieve. That Let film Rev. Mr. Julyjur Isis ' ne, come my little man, don't yen it is very wicked to fly that'kite.on r.. _.day? .Tamsey Badunne—'Taintno harm, neither; dat kite is made of de Chris- tian Union and de tails is made from an. old catechism, see? Fills a Long' Felt Want. She -What have you there, George? He—Oh, it's the new adjustable en- gagehneat ring—fits any finger. I have found it a Teat.'thing, I assure'yod. Will you try it on? L