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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1891-8-27, Page 5SUNDAY READING, The Ring at the Door. Lift up the everlasting gates The Ring before your threshold wits Shall Ho who life's great building planned Unwe'teemed at its portal stand 1 Is there a corner of yourheart Where you. weald dwell alone, apart, A eanetuare all your own/ Behold tie made it for Ms throne. Is there a darkness where, slineln- Yon dare not face your secret K41 Lo I there lie built His mercy seat, There lie your humblest soul will meet. Itaxe you a stately banquet hall Where guests from inapY a clime you call You see notany lave aright ttll Ifc enters with ins light. Ye rich ones. why win ye abide In poverty of lonely pride Your silver and your gold are dila, Your bouee is empty without Him. Ye lowly ones, if ye are His. Ye hare no need of palaces. Since that rich soul can lack tor naugla Who lets Ood into every thoua-ht. Gilt the everlaating gates: The ng at Me threshold waits, Enter, 0 Lord, and let ThYface Make gloriotie thisTny dwelling tilaeel —Lucy Lamm in Congregationalist. spent in this prayer of inaecence. They can not hang him. The words of truth are sere. �e does not look to the people to de- fend him. People always fail iss. He does not look to the law books to show his cause just, for the lam books are double -minded> but he trusts omnipotent principle. So if the event has bung long and heavily over yo Ur home and you have faithfully de - Oared God would, loose the clutch of the trouble, yen must cease from prayer at Samaria and "trust in the Lord, for he shall bring it to pass." 'rhe Lord is the law of the good inademanifest The fact that Jesus spoke to the woman of low origin in Sameria the low, Allows that the most trivial circumstance of daily tren- t 1 section is to be dealt Nvith exactly as the ! most momentous, 1 Making a garment it does not come out + right after your hardest effprts. , Rest. IWait, Now you will do it, perfectly. Look ing for a situation, tired, disheartened. 1Rest. Wait. No matter what the coedit- gencies may be. Weary discouragement is the "hail to thee" of Samaria reached. Here is an offer better than you imagined. , "1 that speak unto thee am he." , ; You who have been battens for your life with noble words similes the ecieuce teaches concerning the impossibility of the clutch of ' death upon the life that is youra cennipin tent, gore up at Samaria and see how quicks ly the flying water winnow spring up within you. As Jesus Cheist walken among the lowly so let this principle guide you through every vicissitude, great or small, "Christ awelleth not afar The king of emu° remoter star, Rut here amid Out poor and blind. Tbe bound and sutrering et our kind." The woman pointed to the seonntain Gerizim in plain sigha where the very same lesson was taught by Abraham's giving up the tension as to his offering all that be /Ad to the Lord ; trusting utterly, .4.11 the ages have lied their ministers of this law of life, that there is a. sure helper near every num, woman, and child, who will bring everything to pass for us when we give up the expectation of getting help from any other source. "1 'will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from wheuce cometh my help. Aly help cometh kern the torn, which made heaven and earth." Give up. the tension. The eagle ceases, from flapping its wings, and yet on and ins it soars with folded pinions resting in the law. The mountele auto which we look is the memory of the highest thought we have ever thought, or the bigheat word thoa now comes ea' to our min( esus Christ said that this was the worship in truth and in spirit. Whatever is true of spirit is true. In sprit all es geed. Thus when we speak of evil we are not speaking truth, for only that which is true of spirit is trite at ail. This is the only wooing of God that is am ceptable. "1 am God and there is none beside." God is spirit. Thou art my all. There is no higher truth we can speak than, Thou art my all. Whoever rests securest in this statement is manifesting Jesus Christ most. To him we go for help as we go to e spring for water indeed of going to a, send bank. The quality of your faith makes the men- ity of your sninistry. If you believe in God as your support do not stop short of the highest faith of Jesus Chriet, who made the fisb precipitate the gold within his being to pay the civil tex with. Faith ie the alembic wherein the right word is crystallized that makes you master over every eituatten. 'Neither in this place nor that place, neither for one alone but. for all. If you tome in the goodness of the divine law working for you at believe that all things are made ready for you eottcannotbut be e well of trust, a mountain of good faith to which the doubting and hungry come and dip in their cups for your ministry. Stand boldly by your faith. "1 that speak unto thee am he." Th a saving -from - poverty thought is the confideute in God as your ouly supply. There lave been people who prayed till they arose from praning and found money on the table or in their purse to help them witb. _Chen they were ante:In- ca to hold on to the words of aeknowledg- ment that God had indeed showxt forth through them exactly as in Jesus Christ. Dia he not say, ' Where I am there ye may be also ?" 'Why should we not be in the spirit of truth enough to believe that' all things are possible with God?" If one believes in the bounty of God keep close to him for you may dip your empty cup into bis full waters of supply and by a metaphysical process catch the prosperous mind.. If one believes in. God as his unfailing health, keep close to him for that metaphy- sical process which is like the outer air cleansing the airs of a room when the 'window is opened so may you catch health from his spirit of health. Good, all good, is yours by divine right. How well your deep heart knows this. It is your jesue Christ thought. Hold fast to it. "1 am he—thy Savior from poverty, misfortune, pain,trouble —Iam the Messiah." Come boldly up to that high thought in your mind. Trust it. The Lesson of Ris The reason for keeping, the Bible records is because they describe the religious experiences of every mind under each class of circumstances recorded. Every mien his its religious aspiration, Nvhieh is its perfume, as every flower ha e its per- fume, Political history teaches ethics, fixing tho mind on the results of intestico, justice, op- pression, liberty, as earned on by civil au- • thorities, Material history teaches whet cm be done with maeeriality. Tile silver caplost by a workman in a jar of acids, precipitat- ed by raraday, re -made by the silversmith, setisSee us that we need not be utterly bereft of silver cups, though they seem ut- terly gone. The Bible records use no mean- ingless or unnecessary terms. Jesus Christ means Word of Truth, or Child of God. The religiotia aspiration of each mind is its Jesus Christ idea—its word of absolute truth. Thorniest is a kingdom or realnt of thoughts. The most powerful, the oldest., the noblest, is its highest word of truth, or Jesus Christ, 4' Come and reign over as, ancient of days." Thus tbe walk of Jesus Christ through this realm of carnet or earthly experiences is at eaels atop of His going alloying teaching of what to do under all the kinds of expera ences we each have, in order to show forth Jesus Christ, or "let the same mind be in as that was ex Christaeses." Here is the lesson of what to do when we here been trying to be good and true for 4 long period, and as nothing seems to come out at it we are tired and discouraged. We have .been told positively by the epiritually-minded of every age that, "If we will strive to be good and, true, To eaeh et SIA there -will come an hour. When the tree °Info will leurst into flower, And rain at our feat a glorious shower a% Of something grander than ever we knew." Jesus Christ took up all our experiences on purpose, and in the midst of every one of them He spoke those words winell we must speak under like circumstances, Here He took up the weariness and discouragement of our geed motive when it sees no fruits in promielitn- "Ho sat thus on the well. - Do you remember the lesson He gave of what to say when you have bad olotbieg to eat for a lot% time from any cause what- ever': Do yon remember what words He told us to speak when physicial anguish and the desertion of friends have broken Our ]start? Well, in the same fashion He tells as wine to do when exhausted, discouraged, aishearteued with the struggle to succeed. He sat thus on the well in Samaria. Samaria mewls -watch post, or posted notice. Per- haps there is nothing that will merle itself on your face er give your whole character away to your acquaintances like that you choose to do when a turning point or crisis of thinking is reached by your mind. There comes a time when the young man who has thought worldly thoughts steadily, sudden- ly carries on his face the sure sign that he is a man of the world. There conies a time when the blooming • matron is called an old lady. This point just reached is Samaria. If the man or the woman can realize just the instant of weariness of the whole way of thinking and living and sit deliberately down and make the right resolve, a noble look will steal ever the face of the young man and a new beauty will illumine the woman's. Once a woman caught the gleam of this rest on the well of Samaria all in a flash and that which we are now carefully repeating was told to her from on high. So she sent out this word to all who would hear it: When you are disheartened and heart sore with the journey of your best efforts through this strange worlu, sit down and rest for the prayers yon have prayed and the true words you have said to be unto you a well of living water whose best draught you are about to drink, as Jesus I announced the 'most refreshing doctrine he had ever put forth from the well of Samaria upon which he rested. When you. have done the best you could seemingly all to no purpose put on your best clothes and sit down to wait for the heavenly guest who is to pass over your threshhold that day. This is the time when you are to "rest in the Lord and he shall bring it to pass." ,,,So a poor tired lit- tle mother with her hungry children cling- ing to her knees, deserted of her husband, friends insisting that if she had done differ- ently things would have been different, While she was doing her very best, obeyed this message and rested to wait for the heavenly good that must come to her that day. , And the good came. This is a work- ing prrciple to go by. In the science of mind metaphysics as taught by Jesus Christ, we are taught- all those words of truth which are everlasting arms under- neath, or the well of living waterupon which we may rely for each part of our journey. For instancenSuppose that you have been told that God, the Divine Prinaiple of Good- ness, is your sure health, ad, according to the law of prayer, or affirmative of truth, you have daily and hourin spoken the words, " God is my health: no sickness or.disease can get hold on this health, which is God." Yet sickness and disease seem to have a hold upon your health, and you are disheart- ened, do not force yourself to speak the words then. Rest, wait. The true heahh thoughb is 'bending over you. Soon it will descend, This is the moment of fruition. Fee iu the Oriental past they taught that the flower of truth blooms in the silence after the storm and stress of effort. This is the time when, if you speak or work or struggle, you must start the word over again. .An innoeent man condemned to be hanged says faithfully " I am innocent. I trust . in my innocence to defend me. Innocence is a wall of defence. Innocence is God. You can not hasig me. I defy you." Yet he Stands 0:1' the scaffold. There he stops from rine wisanteoss at the long night watches WrIERE ()RUBOR LINEA A Walls Over the Little island or Juan 'Fernandez. RIC A TRAV.ELLINV COIMESZONDRNT. The first thiug. a tourist does on going ashore et Juan Fernandez is to start for the famous lookout, from the top of which—so says the historian—poor Crusoe used to watch for a sail, and yet no sail from day to day." init be is likely to be long on the -way, though it is less than a mile from the landing niece, because there are several points of Interest to be viewed en route. First there are the people—a hundred hands to be shekels and a theusandeagermaestiona aussvered, for the arr!val sai a ship is loy no means a matter of every day, and when one harbor every lonesonie islander, old or young, troops down to meet her. Though voluntary exiles in this beauti- ltd p ace, where nature ha.s been lavish in supplying everything necessary to sustain life without labor, the colonists pine for news from the distant world, whose echoes • come to them, like angele" visite, "few and 'tar between." Though no longer a eonviet colony, as in days long past, the islana is virtually a prison, whose bolts and bars are ocean billows 1 and many a modern Crusce - voices his predecessor's " Oh. Fenn/del Where are t he charms That sages hare seen in thy ravel lielaer dwell itt the midst °cetera's Than reign in this horrible piaee." There are about 100 restdents on Juan Fernando?, mostly German and Chilizus renehmen and their families, for some years ago the island was Wined to ariceaUlerotn. palsy, who have now as many as Z30,000 heed, of hornen settle and twice as many sheep grazing on the narrow valleys and on the green hillsides, The cottage:: of the colonists are mostly withie sight of the landing, set, in the midst of orchards on the side of a hill sloping down to the sea, and the oppressive mimic* of Selkirk a tune has given place to the bleatieg and lowing of flocks and herds, the merrry shouts of children and sounds of bunion activity. The houses are extremely picturesque, being made of the btight yellow straw of wild oats, woven m and ont through bamboo wattles and, thatched with the same, Their bigh-peakeit reefs projeet all around far beyond the wells, ant the oloorwans are shaded by stresvethatched . porches, reminding one of Itrench-Canadian cottages along the lower nt. Lewreime or cbaletsin the valley of the Seine. Eachlittle home is enelosed within a Wall of stones and brushwood, its rustle gattweet overrun with luxuriant- vines; and within the in. closure are granaries, store houses and other outImildings, all eet upon poles to keep them out of the water ditnitg the heavy rains of June, July and August. There ie no winter in this latitude'but the wet season, though short, is more trying than northern ice and snow. Whoever go.es to Juan Fernandez finds himself eutbustastically welcomed by every soul on the islend, mid receives as many pressing invitations to lunch, to dine and to stop over until some other boat comes along as there are homes on the island; and if has been so thoughtful as to bring a few old books or newspapers he has earned the lasting gratitude of the people. Besides can iug for their flocks the settlers raise fruits and vegetables to sell to passing vessels. Tbe soil is wonderfully productive, especial- ly in the northeru valleys, where decayed vegetable matter an rich de osits of burn- ed earth have washed down frotn the moun- tains. Grass and oats spring up spontaneously in the open spaces and vegetables of all kinds grow abundantly wherever the seeds are scattered. Wild grape vines and fig trees bearing excellent fruit flonrish on the slopes, and there are many natural orchards grown from seeds planted a century ago by Selkirk and other mariners, Besides peaches, art -l- oots, pears, quinces and other iruitscommon to temperate climates, the chute, is every- wherc—e, speeies of -palm which produces a delicious berry—and amongan endless vari- ety ot indigenous trees are pimento (pepper), sandal, cork wood and myrtle. It appears that Lord Anson, an English- man, has doe° more or the settlement tout cultivation of this island than the govern- ment that owns it. He stopped here first by chance, m the year 1741, for the purpose of recruiting his ships after a succession of disasters in their passage around Cape Horn. The loss and danger he had experienced led him to establish a sort of a recruiting station on Juan Fernandez for his own and other disabled ships. He devoted months for the production here of such fruits and vegetables as sailors crave and caused quantities of seeds to be scettered all over the island, so that future voyagers might find a variety of refreshment Pk also left ashore a good many domestic animals that they might become numerous, for floe bene- fit of vessels in distress forprovisions, cast- aways and shipwrecked mariners. "He who plants an olive plants for his clulclren'e children." Lord Anson could not expect to derive snitch personal advantage from these benevolentactsnautbowmany liveshave been saved by his philanthropy there is no human record toshow. Afterhis death the papers fell in to the hands of Mr. Richard Walter, chap- lain of Centuriamwho compiled from them the most reliable description and accurate topo- graphical survey of Juan Fernandez that has ever been made. Though the tillable area, is small, because there is so little level ground, itis asserted that several thousand people might subsist comfortably on the main island alone, with- out any supplies from other countries beyond exchanging their surplus productions with passing vessels for clothing and groceries. The not very enterprising inhabitants of to- day live chiefly on fish and goats' flesh, of which there is an exhaustless supply. Boat loads of finest cod, rock fish, cullet, lobsters, lamprey eels, ac. may be caught as fast as they can be hauled in anywhere around the shores, and pheasants, pigeons and other birds are as abundant as the wild goats and rabbits. Attended by numerous volunteer guides trom among the hospitable settlers, we again set out for the lookout, but tiu•ned aside midway between the cliff and the landing to explore some remarkable -looking i caves n ahillsiae, toppedby ruinedfortifica- nous. These are all that rerriaan of the settle- rnent founded here by Spain in 1750, and of the Chilian penal colony established on the same spot in 1819. The Spaniards belle e greatfort and a town, both of Nvhich were destroyed the following year by a violent earthquake. They were immediately rebuilt and were in. good order and inhabited when Carteret visited the island in 1767. Earthquakes are frequent in the archipelago, and several within the memory of people now living have done considerable damage. Nothing reznains of the ancient fort but its foundation and a 'portion of the ramparts, imbedded in reddish clay and overgrown with weeds. The convict colony was es- tablished as soon as Chili gained her inde- pendence, and sometirnes more than a thousand criminals were here. Of course, after the manner of the Chillians, they were subjected to the most barbarous treatment in these gloomy dungeons, which are dug into the brow of the bluff facing the harbor, and extend several hundred •feet under ground in the form of vaults aod Your highest thought is that one which if it reign over you will make you glad, strong, vigorous, healthy, prosperous. It is your Saviorn-Messias. Not to come, but here already. Look for help from this truth, Pretty Sari) Repartee. An old man was on the witness stand and. was being questioned by Lawyer Howe. " you say you are doctor, sir?" "'Yes, sir • yes, sir." "What kind of a doctor ? " I makes intments, sir. I makes int - men ts." "What's your ointment good for?" " It's good to rub on the head to streng- then the mind." . "What effect would it have if you were to rub some of it on my head ?" "None ab all, sir, none at all; we must have something to start with." -Mem It is remarkable how much good people are willing to do when they can do it with- out costing them anything. "Westward the tide of empire takes its way," and westward it would seem one must go to find the big things of this Con- tinent. In the west are the biggest trees, the biggest canyons, the biggest fruit, and, it is asserted, the biggest cave. This last is only a recent claim, made since the discov- ery of a cavern in Josephine County, Ore- gon, about twelve miles north of the Cali- fornia, line and about forty, miles from the coast The party reporting the find describe the cave as one of great beauty, containing many passages in which are numerous semi- transparent stalactites, great milk -white pillars, and pools and streams of pure clear water. Several miles from the entrance they discovered a small lake of clear water and a water -fall thirty feet high. It is es. timatecl that the main body of the cave is 1,500 feet from the surface of the mountain and that the cavern itself is fully as large as the Mammoth cavern of Kentucky. Poor Kentucky, must it yield the palm so loug undisputed? pessages, somewhat resembling the Cate- Standing wlaere Crusoe stood ivheo he combs at Rome. The gates by widen the was numarch of alt he eurveyed—and his entrances were secured, disappeared long right there was none to dispute ---02M looks ago, and the passages that heve not fallen t offepee • My valleys and wooden ravines, in are pre-empted by wild dogs, bats, toads ' fair aim ry as the Happy Valleys of and centipedes. We dared not venture in- Rasselas, tilt recently seldom trodden by side, but one who did describes them in human feet ; envirened on every side by the these words. longswells. of the Peeifie; unbroken 1.4 the Rank ferns hung upon the sides; the, horizon except by the dlin shapes of islands walls overhead dripped with deatlallte belonging to the same group. sweat, slinsy drops mused down the side > ' Later we hunted up other relies of Sel- ena the au• was damp and, cold. TM:* kirk's stay. Great care has been taken to darkness reigned within the elepths, pene- preserve things just as he left them, so far treted by no wandering glea froni the as inexorable xime will allow. The "castle" . light of day, for heaven never sinfled upon hang slime succumbed to wind and weather, these dreary abodes of sin and sorrow. A ' and. the "country residence" as well; but iew of the Muer dungeons for the worst the cave, which has .also been a famous criminals were dug still deeper under sort for buccaneers, may easily be visite& ground, reached by rough stairways of earth, It lies in a ridge of volcanic eve:le and looks shut out front the upper vaults by strong t as if it might be the doer -way into the nuns doors. lhese lower dungeons were not of some splendid temple, The entrance is snore than nye feet long hy four feet high, fully fifteen feet high and the cavern, rana ' and from their size (Me MOM form some idea : Inek eboue thirty' feet, varying in height of the sufferings endured by the poor . front ten to eighteen feet. There are many wretches loaded with Mous, crushed down holes, or pockets, dug eato the inner surface by impeuetrable walls of mirth, in utter of reddish rock, which, perhaps, were klarknees, starved and beaten by ;heir cruel : Crusee's cupboards. There are rusty spike ' , guards, with no living soul to pity and no nails driven all avowed, where Ise may lame hope of relane but in death. By the aid of a hung his guile mini Isoueelteld oteneils end terch we saw deep boles scretelted in oue of those wouderbal garments and utehrelleS the walls. bearing the hnpress of human i made of goatskinn A stone oven, with a I fingers. Pentane s.onse etiltonpy murderer, eunken -solace for Are underneath it is visible goaded to madness by such tortures of mind ' in the back part of the cave, and 4 broad, and betty as drives %nee to tear their own ' dark =mike line reaehee to the roof—prolas flesh when buried before the vital :mark is „, ably made , extinct, hail grasped out the earth et his s While lies man Friday kept the heuee tidy, desperation and left the marks of hislicath 1 For 10" sure INv'ts his humle6s1t° 4° 6ch'n- Isgsuns must tile aly that entombed. him. eceorthng to one of the teeny long-winded As we sin:titled the svans os is &sees mans. souns that sailors sing pertaleing to Vrusott's ing mem the heavnair sett 'lied yet to mingle , a'ivent""s• with li:s etirSeS,3)14 itS Nit sepulchral throb i Nobody goes Te Juan Fernandez without was like the dying moan of an -melee. bringing away souvenirs in the shape of At last, about thirty yeareafter the found- Istlehs al° '4"es' The" .tli a wood peculiar ing of the volony, some litfi prisoners broke to the i'41'4 wineh makes beautiful "4e8' 1their elsailis, wintered the guards • having 4 rare grain and polishing well 100Se from , , and ese.tped. They seized the garrison awl. Your orrespondeut please ed her:40f better i for severe' days eon innessna as tbe isk.„4.by withering atwantity of ferna.a.nd moaaee Just tbea a Nantuelset whale ship happeunl th" grew about Crmme 449nne andratho &no to put Imo Cumberland bay for food and ' .1d 18 ' " ' " ' water. The couviets seized the -captain aed where he fen hie vete and held converse veeeel could possibly compelled him to take on board as many' of '' .1rith his faithful nets and hooest Friday - thew umber as his !', 4 care tub' i/re.5sed them in an album and ; carry. 'Im 1 sem them to my farawaY home for the in- swo hundred of them erowded ; and th,y threatened the ship's assess with i speetien of any who ceren to look. at thew. . inatalit death in case of failure to land them Wile" a't 11""' we s"iled away twilightwas 1 on the coast of Pern, whither they deter- 1"'"edillg evel‘ the "eau' though the ' mined to go, to escape the vermeauce of *be !eat rays Yet lingered j'a the sitY. We felt' ' Chiliau government. The captain of thiet; numeasurehlY rieher, Whig redeced to ' whaler rau over to the nearest land on the : realitYof romance faded 1810 the dietanee a amnia of Youthful slanss and so the eoest of Chili, asul, leading the couvicts to islana believe that it was Peru, put them ashore and the shadows of the night -114 other only about thirtyutiles north of Valparatso. dreams of eldhlheed's happy days. il l'ANNIt. D. MUM. SA:MAO° DE IVIIILU, June, 1801. Tiley soon found out their dangerous stole- tiou, Inn it is said dust every one of them suceeeded in eluding the Chilian authorities aull eventually jollied the annals at my, wlueli was at that thneadvancing upon Sall* tinge. Moat of the prisorers left upon the island escaped by different veesels and were scattered over the globe. nut very few of those engaged in the massacre were neap. tureil, and they were shot in the eentaal square of Chili's Capital, All this occurred less than forty years ago, Speaking of those days brings to usind the story of a former governor of Juan Ferreira den which isatin told and believed by every. body on the island, Looking up to the uttermost peaks of Yonita—an abrupt pre- cipice on all sides, rising 3,1100 feet into the blue—one sees the dim outlines of a blaels cross, and wonders how in the world it got. there. Many attempts have been made, by sailors and others, to sone the peaks but always without success, except in a single instanee. Ono day the governor of the conmet colony went out riding, as was his usual after-dinner testes% and when near to Yonita he beheld so remarkable a vision that Ise galloped back to the village in hot hastnand related that he SaW, away down in the valley, every tallman, dressedall bablaek and mounted on a very tall white horse. The strange rider had a face ghastly la its Nvhiteness, and turning he looked steadily at the governor" with eyes of flre, the glare of which made the fur hot all around," Trembling with fear the governor made the sign of the cross., Nvhereupon the phantom pat spurs to his horse and rode streaght up the precipice to the top of the peak, where he paused and loo184 back. -.Seeiug the sign of the blessed cross repeated the myste. nous horseman lilted his hands wildly as if in despair and plunged out of sight on the other side. Being a devout man and a believer in spooks the governor recognized this as an omen of impending calamity, which could only be averted by planting a crucifix on top of the peak. For this purpose he seleeted two criminals who were under sentence of death and offered them their liberty if they woulcl make the ascent and erect the cross. The prisoners resolved to hazard the at- tempt, as on the other hand there was the certainty_of death. Tools., ropes, ladders and. provisions weee furnished and they were sent off with the warning that if they had not succeeded in the course of ten days they would be 'immediately executed. For more than a week they toiled incessantly, driving spikes into the cliff, and day by day went up higher, letting themselves down at night by roges to the base of the precipine. On the eighth clay they reached the summit, almost dead from fright and worn to skele- tons by the terrible ordeal through which they had passed, so that for many hours they lay completely prostrated. The table on top of the peak is a vast rock, forty feet in diameter, and in the middle of it a clear spring bubbles up. One of the men bathed in the water and felt so refreshed that he at once knew it had magical properties. He peered over the western precipice to see where the cascade fell, when lo, directly below him, stretched from crag to crag over the awful gorge, was a clothes line full of linen shirts, white as snow. De- ponent does not say what this portended; but the convict called his comrade to come and see, ancl while they were looking a tremen- dous hutricane came up, compelling them to fall flat on their faces to avoid being blown over the abyss. After the wind had passed they looked again, but clothes and line had disappeared and nothing was to be seen but the bare rocks, T.Iseri they fell on their knees m prayer and an angel appeared, who showed them a tree suddenly grown up beside the spring and bade them use it for the cross. They did so; and then letting themselves down by theropss, hastened to the governor to relate their adventures. The tale so impressed that pious dignitary that he not only redeemed his promise by giving them liberty. but sent them home laden with gifts, and had crosses erected in various parts of the island and daily masses said by the soldiers for a long time after- ward. On that side of Crusoe's lookout which faces the bay a marble tablet has been set, bearing the following inscription: " In memory of Alexander Selkirk, mariner, it native of Largo, County of Fife, Scotland, who lived upon the island in complete soli- tude for four years and four months. He was landed from Cinque Ports galley, 96. tons, ,16 guns, A. D. 1704, and was taken off in' the Duke, privateer, on February 32, 1079. He died lieutenant of H. B. M. S, Weymouth, forty-seven years. This tabletis erected at Selkirk's lookout by Commodore Powell and the officers din B. M. S. 'Topaz, A. D. 1868." OrE—I17•ParaMINCI,LIMI Iffelt DOOR IN WAR. The Military Service Rendered Vast. The idea lately taken up in earnest in *he German anti Russian armies of using dogs for military purposes has been generally talked of as an innovation. This, however as Meunier shows in it learned article bi the Re ma Salad Pique, is it mistake. Dogs of war, it appears, were well known to the great minium of ancient Gino. The Greeks, Romans, Jews and Gentiles made use of the fearless, iutelligent animals, whose value is now onee again to be put to the teat. The Greeks lied dogs in every one of their fort. resses, and Pe Blaze, one of IL licunier's authorities, tells a good story of an outpost that was oecupied by strong watchaloga only. Opposite Corinth, facie% the sea, suck en outpost was situated, guarded by fifty doze. One night the enemy began to disembark. The garrison was drunk and the dogs had to keep back the aggress. ors. They fought like lsonstand forty-nine of them were killed. The only survivor, &sten rushed away in great haste, gave the alarm in the camp and the enemy was driven beck. The Hansoms, as every one knows, were less fortunate on it similar oceasion, where the geese performed the task of the dogs in calhug the attention of the soldiers to the ttaulis sealing the walls of the Capitol while the dogs were fast asleep. As punishment for the unfaithful servants 4 religious ceremony, at which even Pleutarch hen occasion to laugh on beholding it, was afterward annuallyperfonned at Rome. its chief feature was that tome dogs were taken through the streets with great pomp, whip- pedat every cress -road and in every public place, and finally hanged on a cross of the wood of the elder tree near the Temple of Youth. Even in the Sixteenth Century two Turks performed it similar ceremony in memory of the dogs which had devoured the corpse of Mohammed. In Dalmatian and Croatian garrisons dogs of war were kept in the Seventeenth Ceutury whose duty it was to reveal by their barking the presence of the Turkish soldiers; to to theirmasters and make them acquainted not only with the fact of the approach of the enemy, but also to point out in the forest the place where the aggressors were hidden. But, asks Al. Meunier, is it possible for a. dog to distin- guish different nationalities ? It is impossible to give it certain answer to this question, but so much is certain, that the ancients had very well noted thee the dog had this peculiar faculty. alinerva's temple at Dan - lit was guarded by dogs which were trained With such Imre that they could distinguish Greeks and barbarians, lavishing caresses on the fornaer and barking continually if any of the latter arrived. Axel not only were dogs made use of in ordinary warfare, but from the time of the Roman Empire downward almost to our own day the slave hunters have had invaluable assistance in their blood- hounds. M. Meunier describes Horace Ver. net's touching picture of the chin du fagi- molt, which creeps up with bleeding head and shattered ieet to his two friends, the drummers ; but does not mention the most famous of allrecent dogs of war, the faithful regimentshund, who went through the war and has now well earned .his place on one of the inageificent bas-reliets round the Sieges Saute at Berlin. Loss of an Afrioan Mail Steamer. A. cablegram was received at Liverpool on Wednesday morning by the African Steam- ship Co., owners of the steamer Soudan, an- nouncing the total loss of the vessel, though it was fortunately mentioned that all the passengers, crew, specie, and mails have been saved. The intelligence came from Sierra Leone, where the captain and all the others were brought by the British and African Steam Navigation Co's steamer Sherbro'. Capt. Cawthorn was in command of the Soudan, and in his cablegram to the owners he says the vessel first streok it sunken rock and foundered. Another tele- gram frona Gland Bassani said the disaster happened at Little Jabou, on the Kroo Coast, The Soudan was a magnificent steel steamer, comparatively new, having been built by the Naval and Construction Co., of Barrow -ha -Furness, about 18 months ago. She was between 4000 and 5000 tons bur - then, and at the time of the disaster had on board a valuable cargo of African produce, facluding palm oil, palm kernels, ivory, rubber, gum, coffee, cocoa, ac. One of her ports of call wass the great river Congo. Much sympathy is expressed in Liverpool with Capt. Cawthorn, who ie one of the I, a known and respected masters in the fleet. 8MTMCT KINIO MUM An adventure In Which eue, Australia* Miner Nearly Imo mas itare. I have heard a good many steriers from tilae to time of narrow escapes and painful exeperieueen but I think the tsiesp Panful predicament is to find yoerself perfectly des feneelees against an inspending danger, and you literally see death, perhaps in a meet ter- rible form, inenacin g yo a with instent extine- tion, yet continually tantelizing you with a hope of escape winch you know and feel to be impassible. These are the times when, your mental agony ia most keen. My name is John Deeon,shire, anEngliebe man by birth, 4 mining engineer by profes- sion. I:lut I went through a good deal en reepeal experience before I was able to tt e down to a consulting business. Whet. ever the preeious mural, gold, is found upon or beneath the face of the earth I beVe worked and lived the life ole. miner. II' itia pickax and shovel I have dug deep shafts Into the bowels of the earth, and it m el an adventure which loefel me whele so doing once in Australia, that I am ahoet to tells There were three of us in pertuetsben all stroug, bardy Euglislamen from QUO of the southwestern counties, allbonnd together by ties of deep friendship and by ebot still stronger boud of future fortune whieb we were seelenag ba cowmen ITOOM4404, BiU Treadwell and I liad taken up A, claim At Woohatta, a, mountain about meat hundred miles trent Brisbane where big TeittO et auriferous metal heti ixen found. Our paraphernalia consisted of two id ad very heavy iron linclots, Si, reel an piehs and shovels and caepenternt teals for reeking the bombe with whielt we lined the shaft as we dug, We took tune at thedigningnstem sthifte, beceuse the eir in the Omit became SO cell* fined as we got lower down *het we were leyed out by. that time. We worked in ig boots aed eurapere, and as we Micid QUO bucket with debris we sent it up, the buchea on the other end of the rope coming ntems to be filled. These iron blackens were tre. ,userelowsly heavy, weighing little short of 4 hundred pounda, and were large enough to carry at a pluch two men ineaeb, e bad dug about ninety feet azed it was my shift. Idy law was nearly tap, and I proposed. to tli one more bucket, send it to the pit's mouth And go up myself in the next Mien, it veme (loan empty. Bill Threatlwell had the next shift, be would come down itt the bucket passing me on the way, Well, 1 had fillerliny last bucket And had .ent it up the bboat; it was swinging up left forty feet Above me and I was still At ork backing and digging away at the amp soiloneking it httle hop for Tread- well to send up as soon as he should vomit down. It seemed it long time coning, that bucket which was to take me to light and air again, I was getting tired, for my work was uneeasing and I longed to breathe owe more the pure atmosphere. But, would that bucket never come down? I glanced up over sny shoulder to see where it was from me, and what 1 liaN nearly froze the blood in my %TIM That is literally the only 'donee 1 cart find to express my kelings for that moment. The big bucket tull of gravel and rock,/ and debris was within ten feet of the:Alert's mouth. But on ita way it had caught the descending bucket, and was carrying it up along with it. Tborope hung in anongloop below them. There they hung seventy feet above me, swaying from side to side with a gentle, undulating motion, the empty bucket toppling a little at every swing. 11 18 toppled over it would fall with tremendous speeilto the bottom of the shaft, the force of the fall would surely break tbe rope easel the heavy iron bucket would come with all its weight full upon Inc. In that small space there was no way of eseape for me, / should be herr', bly maimed, it not killed outright. I took all this in at a glance, though it has taken ine much longer 10 telt, I could not take my eyes oft nes terrible danger, and 1 could not, dared not eall out, for I dal not know but the stopping of the svinalass would wise the empty bucket to receive the last required jerk evhich would send it spinning down on top of me. Self preservation, however, is the first law of eature, so we used to write in our copy books at the old village school, and pres- ently—it seemed ages, but it could only hese been it few minutes —I began to lay the best plans in my power to avert the terrible death I dreaded. took my shovel and leaned it against the wall of the shaft,resting the banale upon the iron of my pickaxe, the handle of which I stuck in the soft, damp debris. Then I crawled under my frail protection to see bow near death was. Oh, those -were awful moments. I can tell yen. I never expected to breathe again the pure, fresh air I had so longed for it few mcmentts previously. The buckets were swinging above me, going slowly up to the top, when suddenly it yell of relief burst from my lips. A face was peering over the edge of the pit; it was Bill Treadwell's and he had discovered the danger. "Hold on it minute," he shouted, "and troll make it all right ln Then I fainted, and I didn't come to my • self until I found myself lying on the trestle bed in our little shanty, with Joe and 13111 beside me shoving brandy between nay lips and chafing iny hands. When they sew the danger they munedietely set to work to avert it. They hauled up the slack rope until they had released the empty bucket, then they slowly let it down. Then Treadwell came down in the other bucket and carried me up in his °ems in it dead faints That's all. It was a couple of weeks before I re. coveredfrom the shock, and the first piece of news I heard wheal I came to my senses was that Bill Treadwell had found the vein during his very next shift after my adven- ture. The Most Uneducated Country. India is prectically uneducated. The total number of scholars in schools and colleges of all sorts is only three and it quarter millions, or IS per cent. of the entire population. These are mainly confined to the canes and towns; but out of 930 millions in all India less -them eleven millions can read and write. A census of the illiterates hi the countries of the world places the three Sclavic States of' Roumania, Servile, and Russia at the head of the list, with about 80 per cent. of the population unable to read and write. Of the Latin -speaking races Spain heads the list with 03 per nent, follow- ed by Italy with 48 gier cent., Vraneo and Belgium having about 15 per cent The illiterates in Hungary member 43 per cent., in Austria 39 per cent, and in Ireland 21 per cent. In England we find 13 per cent, Holland 10 pex, cent., United States (white population) 8 per eent. , and Scotland 7 per cent. unable to read and write. When we come to the purely Teutonic States we find a marked reduction in the percentage of illiterates. The highest is in Switzerland, 2.5, and in the whole German empire it is 1 per cent., while in Sweden, Denmark, llaivitria, Baden, and Wurtenaburg there is practically no one who cannot mews and write.