HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1889-8-9, Page 2HENRY NORBERT'S STORY
Of the Death of Theodore Knight.
Br HENRY HAXLAND, IN TILE "NEW YORK HERALD,"
CHAPTER IV
"Look, Norbert, look 1" Knight centime.
ad. "here am I, Theodore Knight, Thirty
years ago I was born -on that first day of
June, 1856, I was born in the lap of luxury,
with golden epoon in my mouth, of a long
line of healthy, virtuous, intelligent and
highly educated eneeetors. err ctoh my
bringing up : in a home of virtue and culture,
by a good mother, a good father ; where I
ane aedulonely guarded from every breath of
evil, where I am tenderly nursed when 1. am
311, petted when I am well, corrected when
I do wrong, encouraged when I do right ;
wlsere every influence -materiel, mental,
moral -that beers upon me ie calculated to
make me healthy, intelligent and good. On
that same day -June 1, 1S56 -ley us say,
another baby, willy-nilly, ie boro'into this
world. He is born of a long line of °rim.
dnaisland paupers, people of low intelligence,
bad instincts, foul bodies. His father le a
drunkard, a thief, a wife beater, His
mother ie a drunkard, too, and something
worse besides. He is born in the slums of
able city, in a room reeking with filth. Ha
is brought up in squalor, under the auspices
of that father and mother. Hie play
ground ie the getter. His playmates are the
offspring of parents as abandoned as his
own. He is ill fed, ill clad, ill cleaned,
ill taught, He is beaten for nothing.
Every influence, material, mental, moral
that beers upon him is pestilential;
la calculated to degrade and brut-
alize him in body, mind and soul. Oh
Norbert, how can any man who ham a heart,
bow can he contemplate inequality and
iojustioe like this and continue to revel in
bis better fortune ? Into the race of life
these two competitors enter, one in perfeot
training, the other worse than untrained
and congenitally inferior; one given a long
Mart and every advantage, the other handi-
capped and meddled with a heavy burden.
lent stay. Follow us a little further. We
grow to maturity, that other man and I.
.tithe age of thlrby-to•morrow even, Irish,
bappy, virtuous, intelligent -I consummate
my earthly blies by marrying an angel of
womanhood, whose love Ihave been suffered
twain, and. whom I love. He brute, beset
that his heredity and environment made
Lim -he, a mere puppet in the hands of
neeceeelty-he oommits a murder, and is
banged or shut up blood-stained in prison
iter the remainder cf his days. What mea•
ser of world it it in which such things can
happen? unless, indeed, yon go with me in
the eonvietion thee beyond the grave our
accounts -hie and mine -shall be squared
and balanced; that there be who mowed
Lore in tears, shall reap in joy, while
it will be my turn to sin and suffer.
'Oh,' soma shallow people cry, 'he
had his chance. Obher men have risen
high from beginnings as low as his ; other
men have sunken low from beginnings as
;high as yours. He has hie chance to rise,
yon had your chance to fall. You were
both called upon to choose between the good
and evil. You ehoee the good. He chose
the bad. et was hie fault, it is to your
reedit.' All which, as you know, Norbert,
esmply begs the question, is superficial and
snacientifio in the last degree. For, in the
/net place, since we were bora unequal, no
ane will pretend that we had equal chances ;
and the second, when It was time for us to
•'us,' ooee, how came I by the propensity whioh
'reunited in my choosing the good ? How
sage he by the propenelty which resulted in
his ohooeing the bad ? You know what the
answer is -Heredity and environment. You
snow than the evil is one which we can
neither deny nor explain nor amend. But
beyond the grave ! There the tables will
be turned. The creditor will receive hie
free, the debtor will pay his debt. They
that mourn shall be comforted. The lamb
shall be first and the firet shall be last."
"Dear Knight," I rejoined, "yon . are
grappling with the old problem of evil; but
you have not solved it, though you think
yam have, You have removed it from this
aide the grave to the obher, that le all. Evil
en still there; and that is the inoomprehen-
;sible thing -that there should be evil at
all. You have nob solved the problem. Re-
duced to its lowest terms, your philosophy
1 this, that two wrongs make a right.
There is wrong here; therefore, as you eay,
ata egnare accounts,' there must be wrong
there.. You bave not solved the problem;
you may nob solve it. It le insoluble by
lean, like all the ultimate problems of life.
And aince yon may never eolve It, I warn
you to let it alone. Mach brooding over it
mte do no manner of good, but immeasurable
harm. That way madnees Iles. Even now
ase bow it ham embittered and darkened your
life. You have jumped to a terrible con -
elation, and instead of finding reab there,
you find only horror and increased vexation
al spirit). Think -think of Elinor, Knight,
So morrow she will be your wife. How
dreadful for her that her husband should
3oldauoh a creed
Y She dose not know it 2
Hon have never mentioned these matters
3e, her? Bub is oho nob a woman? And
item she nod love you 2 And what with her
woman's intnitioua and her wifely love, you
may be sure that, whether ehe speaks or re•
mains silent, she will feel that there is
something wrong, a shadow upon your life,
a rocreb between her heart and yours. Oh
%t le terrible for her 1 All the ultimate pro -
edema of life are ti moluble, unthinkable by
man's brain. The book of life is opened to
,m ab just one page ; the remainder la her-
, metioally sealed. That page we may road.
7t. is covered with perplexities, inooneieten•
oleo, anomalies, anachronisms, that baffle
and balk us ; and with cruelties and foul•
meoeeo that appall and horrify us. But the
sonnecbion of that page with the pages that
go before and come after -what the plot,
motive, meaning, purpose of the whole
hook may be, that we do not know, we have
,no means of learning, we cannot guerre,
though some of us perpetually try to do so.
Ole page we nee, written in rook and fire,
in testa andblood more harrowing than a
ipago from the annals of the Spanish In.
• qufefbion, we oannob hope to understand,
nor to explain, norbo reconcile to our donee
• of right and justice, because the premises
and the eonolusion are hidden from ue,
:.Men cannot by seeking find out God.
';filature, red in tooth and claw with rapine,
;xlerieks against our creed. We must stake
our God on faith, believing where we cannot
prove. We oan prove nothing i we can
only trust. 'Behold I know not anything ;
I can but brut.' Tennyson has Bung the
Whole pain perfectly. You -you have de.
vided one hypobheeld nub of a million that
are pedeiblo, and to that you cling as if
it were Ged'e authenticated truth instead of
one feeble man's Imagining. There are a
Million possiblo hypotheses, Iraq. Another
friend of mind, whose rest like years was
deebroyed by the omnipresent epoobaale and
mystery of evil, ham ooate to believe in a uni.
• verbal law of oomponsation, holding that no
ane !J ntienb animal, oyster se' man, prince
,..I pauper, is in the iong.ratebetter off than
another; that the higher your organization
and the more intone° and complex your en-
joymente, do is your suepeptibility to pain
greater, eo are your sufferings ales lnteuoer
and more complex. Still another man of my
aoqucintauoe professes the doobrine of uni•
venal metempoycbosie-that eaoh !park of
ooneoioueneoe, oath soul, is an indivisible and
iudeebructible entity, deetinad to peas
through every form, phase and experience of
life, from polyp to man, from slave to emper•
or, from sinner to saint, until in the end,
having completed the cycle, having exhaust.
ed all possible experience, it shall attain the
ooeditian of eternal reab and omnieolenee-
Nirvana. What do we know? How do we
know ? Question you yourself propounded.
We can bub trust :-
-Thab somehow good
Will be the final gcod of ill,
To pane of nature, eine of will,
Defeats of doubt and taints of blood:
That nothing walks with aimless feet,
That not one life shall be deebroyed,
Or oast ae rubbish to the void,
When God bath made the pile complete.
bhab there is indeed one far off, divine event•
toward which the whole creation moves,
We know nothing, we can know nothing.
Speculation ie worse than futile. And that
le why the brave man, the emancipated
man, never thinks of death."
" Well," said Knight, "there's none so
blind as he who will not see, And perhaps
I should congratulate you upon your ability
to silence the harsh voice of life, Drying
aloud terrible truths, with a few rhymes
from Tennyson. For me, I cannot do in I
cannot do it. For me, I oaa see no other
way out of the difficulty than a general reek
ening and balancing of snores beyond the
grave.•'
Ever since our talk had left the personal
ground and proceeded upon the abstract
Knight had showed no aymptome of that
terror which had weakened and unmanned
him at the outset, Bub now all at once he
turned deathly pale, and his eyes riveted
themselves upon the wall before him with an
expression of such livid fright that one
might have thought he saw a ghost bbere.
Huskily, almost in a whisper, "Norbert.
Norberb," he called out.
" What is it ? what ails you?" I cried,
starting up and advancing toward him. kle
looked like a man on the verge of a fainting
fit.
' What, what if -what if it should hap.
pen tonight ?" he gasped.
"Happen? Tonight? What do you
mean? Whab if what should happen to•
night?" I gneetioned.
If I should die to -night," be anewerod
in a tense, tremulous whisper.
" 01 1" I fall back in diegnst at his
puerility. I looked down upon him, white
and huddled up inlets chair. "I'm ashamed
of you, Knight," I said, " and you ought be
be ashamed of yourself,"
"I'm past shame, Norbert, far, long past
oheme. When lb comes to an nom between
shame and terror, shame goes to the wall."
" So I sea," I retorted, scornfully.
" Shame and self-reepeot."
"Yee, shame, roll -respect, ambition, love,
everything. Terror le the king of bhe emo-
tions. They all fall down and hide their
faces in its presence. Oh, Norbert, I am a
moat unhappy man. And yet yon spoke of
envying me, and you congratulated ma."
"Well, I take that bank. I don't envy
you, and I withdraw my congratulations."
'Do you know -do you know what I am
sometimes tempted to do ?" he asked,
"No. What ?" I queried,
"I am sometimes tempted to call out to
the sword to fall, and eo have an end of this
suspense.'
"I don't understand you," said I. "What
do you mean?"
"I mean -I mean -why defer the inevit-
able ? With this never ceasing horror and
dread of death upon me, why nob take my
life and eo learn the worst ab once 2 It's
bhe suspense, the daily, hourly, lingering
suspense that's killing me by inches, Oh, I
would prefer hell almosb to thie sorb of life.
Look 1 I am lying with my head upon the
block, waiting for the axe to fall. It will
be a relief -yes, it will be a relief when the
executioner deals hie blow. This waiting,
waiting, waiting, waiting -Oh, it ie onbear•
able 1 Yea, I am often tempted to put an
end to ib. Yon see, I kee p the means at
hand," He opened a drawer of his writing
table and took out a plstel, holding 10 up for
me to Bee.
"You coward!" I cried. Do you forget
theb you are a betrothed husband?"
"No, I remold -or beat ; but I don't know -
perhaps it would be better for her if -well,
anyhow, it would bo very easy, wouldn,b
it?" He pointed the pistol at himself, ae if to
illustrate how easy Ib would bo.
"For God's Bake, don't do that ?" I ex•
claimed. "Put down bhab pistol, Knight."
And I rose from my ,
oh
air half disposed to
take it from him,
The next thing I knew I heard him give a
sort of laugh, and then 1 heard the report of
the pistol going off, and the room was filled
with amok°, and I saw him lying at my feet.
There. I have told you the truth about
Knight's death as fully and as clearly as I
eon tell it. The only wish I have left in life
now f0 that you will read what I have write
ten end believe that I was nob hie murderer.
The oiroumebanoee have been all against me ;
I know that. He was to be married to the
woman who had rejeoted me ; we had quar-
relled ; then I was closeted alone with him
for two hoar! on the nighb preoeding his
wedding day ; we were heard to talk to-
gether excitedly and vchemenbly during that
meeting ; and finally I had teethed down
Main. calling for help and saying that Mr,
Knight had shot himself ; and the presump-
tion was that I had shot him. I told my
story, but it was intrineloally most improb•
able, and nobody believed 1b. Knight had
kepb his morbid state of mind a aeoreb to
all bheee who know him. There wee not a
single shred of evidence to oonfirm my story,.
to ehow that I had not manufaobnred it from
whole oloth. The jury found me guilty, and
on Monday morning the Court will sentence
me to prison,
Bub, an I have said, 1 aan boar all that.
I have reached a pass where 1 care very little
what happens to me, where I am callous
even to disgrace. Only ib burnt] my heatt
like fire to know that you think me guilty ;
to know that you hold me acoountable for
the destruction of your happineee, and that
you deoplao mo as one base and ignoble bo•
yond oontempb.
May God move your heart to believe what
I have written.
THE BRUSSELS POST, AUGUST 9, 1889,
0edea-dosittameasi' litem tterdearambet)ntreeeaermemeleittemste9 entre lret'
OI ZED:BY TEE FLOOD. FALLING LONG DISTANCES. 1 Tali KITCHEN DOOTOR, ENGLAND AND PORTUGAL,
d An
IAmerican Vlow of the ilelagaa 1llt
.1n7lir.
Tho Now York Sun Inc In the past been
rather unfriendly teBribaiu10 its orilioiem of
her foreign polloy, but the following article
in a recent nate would indicate a decided
change o£ sentiment on the part of that
An Uelress who Thinks her toter Wont
Do mu In lite Johnntowa 110*».
Mies Mollie Robbins, one of Chicago's
reigning moiety queens and an belreac to
nearly half a million, bas been crazed by tbo
Johnetown flood, Mita Robbins is neb over
20 years old. She is handsome and dtylieh,
and wears a fortune in d'amends. Thefami-
ly reside in the faehionabie quarter in Miohi•
gan avenue, in Chicago, Sae believes that
the man to whom the was engaged to bo
married was loot in the flood. In order to
e,ure her of bho delusion her mother and bro-
bbere have brought her to Pbiladelphla and
will take her to Johnetown, where ib le hoped
that a meeting with her affirneed husband
will restore her reason.
Miss Robbins appeared the other day at a
railway Station in Philadelphia. She ap-
proached one of the officials, and tapping him
on the shoulder, said :
" Ie this the safest road to heaven ?"
The facial was too much surprised to re-
ply to the question, and the young woman
continued ;
" Yes 1 You may think mo crazy, bub I
am not. I am as sane as you are, but I
want to find the safest road to heaven, and I
am told thie is ono of them,"
The man laughed and said he guessed this
was as safe a road as any other. She walk•
ed away from him, but returned later and
said :
I don't want you to have the impression
that I am crazy, because I am nab. I am
looking for the eafeeb road to a heaven of
rest for the summer, and if you aan direct
mo I will be very much obliged to you. You
see, I am the Goddess of Shade and Dew,
and if 1 can keep away the burning aun
from those of my eatellibiee1 will have
made their way smooth to the good spot.
Say, I have loot my wings 1 Can they be
in the carriage ?"
While the young woman was rambling on
in this strain to the astonished official an
aged, motherlylooking woman, eeoompani-
ed by a tall young man, stepped np to the
young girl and Bald : " Come, Mollie, dear
wo missed you." Ther the brio walked away.
The tall young man was Mies Robbins's
brother, and when he was men by a reporter
he said that the Johnetown flood was the
enure of his sieter'a present mental condi-
tion.
"The night before the flood she awoke
from a sound Bleep and etarbled the whole
household by her unearthly screams. It
was over two hours before we could oaten
her, and strange to say, when we gneetien-
ed her we discovered that she had dreamed
the dam heti buret at Johnetown, and the
flood had carried away her intended, who
was in that neighborhood, and had wombed
lie body up into a tree, where she had been
struggling to release it. She could not be
wholly quieted, bub imagined she was an
angel trying to pull the body from the tree,
and that unless she did eo she could not find
the pathway bo heaven.
" We brought her on to see one of Phila-
delphia's noted insanity epoolaiiete, and he
suggested we bake her to Jehuotawn and nee
if the surroundings and the meeting with
her intended, who woo not there ab the time
of the flood, bub whom she has since not
seen, will not restore her. She is very
quiet, in perfectly sane on all other aubjoobe,
and if this delusion can be dispelled we will
be happy.
' But the strangest part ie that the plain.
ly described twenty-four hours before the
flood exactly as 10 occurred. Oh, yes, we
were acquainted there, and spent two weeks
loot summer in the town. It ammo her in-
tended bad written to her the day before
the flood, telling her that he would not be
surprised If the dam should some day buret
and wash out Johnstown. That was on her
mind and evidently influenced her dreams,"
A Strong Diet,
One of the moeb popular fallacies is the
idea that the consumption of a large amount
of meat ie necessary for health or to main-
tain strength. It is a fact well known that
the strongest animals are vegetarian, No
farmer would think of fending his horses or
oxen beefebeak or road beef in order to add
to their strength, even if thin kind of food
were as cheap aa Dorn or grams. The elephant,
the etrongeeb of animals, is a vegetarian,
The same is true of the human race. The
gatherers of rubber -gum in South America
travel all day among the mountains, pen-
etrabing dense forests, climbing among the
moeb precipitous peaks, carrying ell the time
upon their shoulder°, a load moreaeing in
weight until it reaebee one hundred and fifty
to two hundred pound° ; yet they subaiab
upon a purely vegetable dietary, the ohief
artioleo of food being plantains and bananoe.
The Roman soldiers, who built each wonder-
ful roads, and carried a weight of armor and
luggage that would !tush the average farm-
hand, lived on ooaree brown broad. They
were temperate Indict, and regular and con•
ebanb in exercise, The Spanish peasant
works every day, and dances half the night,
yet eats only his blank broad, onions, and
watermelon. The Smyrna porter eats only
a little fruit, such as linea, yet he walks off
with a load ofa hundred pounds. The coolie,
fed on rice, ab' is more
clue and aan endure
more than the negro, e
£don fat meat. The
heavy work of the world is not done by men
who eat the greateeb quantity. Moderation
intdiet seems to be the prerequisite of endur-
ance,
ndueante,
Some Caution Necessary, Perhaps.
Luke Sohoolorafb, the minstrel, told a
oharaoterietio story ab one of the Elks' socials
recently. Ib wan of a jolly old Irishman,
who was addicted ho a very free use of the
bottle, much to the diegueb of his faithful
wife. She knew that he wee "going lb" ab
too fast a pace and ehe appealed to their
prleab to pull him up. In view of the oin-
cumebanoee, this prieob thoughbhe woe justi-
fied in employing one or two fairy tales, eo
when be met Pat on the sOreeb he palled him
aside and said :
" Pat, you're drinking boo hard. Now,
you know that you can depend upon what
I say, and I have no hesibanoy in telling you
that if you keep on as you are doing you will
ohange into a rat."
This awful prediction annoyed Pat greatly,
and when he went home ho told hie wife
about it. Of course, the worked ib up and
told him the prteah WAS undoubtedly tight,
Pat was deep in thought for some time. He
did hate very much to give up 11 toddy,
bub the rat idea was too much for him.
Finally he said t
" Luk hero, Bridget, av ye see the whis•
Imre an' tail oomin' an me, all I adkav you is
JIM to keep ger oyo on the oat."
The Horse Was Slow,
She -I am sorry, Mr, Browne, that I cau•
not bo otherwise than a 110tor to you. It le
getting late, by the way, and I think I had
better be home soon ; would you mind hur•
rying up the horse?
Tho greatest snuff -baking country in the Re (savagely) -Oh, nob ab all i bot you
world is France, though It shown a deolino in see, I expressly asked for an old horse, and
the habit, In 1860 the oonoumption woo 130 we are seven miles from tomo, and this nag
000,000 pounds, or seven ounoea per head.
Now 16 .111 five obnee0,
only make¢ three milds an hour. Get up
there, you,»-•[Herper'e Bazaar. 1 g
Spew. ation am 40 OW People Feel who
Telco 0040 tyunhles.
The amounb of mental or phyeioal suffer•
ing that immediately prooedea death has al•
ways been a question of interest. No report.
er would think of deeoribinp en execuecan
without attempting be give en aaelyelo of the
feelings of the condemned min on the seat•
fold, Tho remembrenee of the death agony
of a loved one Mean sauces more scute agony
than the idea of eternal respiration, People
have brooded Habil they wore almost driven
to madam over the thought that they
might be buried alive and awake to brief
oonooiouonesa in their :officio. cio. In thin akep•
Heel and pessimistic age 10 le net so much
death that le feared an the ppalne bhab are
supposed to a000mpeny it. Noveliets have
abcempted to picture the tbeughbe of a
drowning man during the few emends that
intervene between submersion and total lees
of sense. One of the most graphic pagee in
Victor Hugo ie that In which ho imaginer
the sensations of a man fallen overboard in
midooeen while the ehip is pulling out of
eight and he is gradually lapsing into lnnen-
sibility. Sympathetic persona have specul-
ated on the agony of anticipation that most
fill the mind of n man falling from a great
height, and consoled thomoelves with the
thought that ho was dead before he struck
the earth.
Phyoiologtate have Inbereoted bhemaelvee
in the general question, and espeoially, In
that in reference to persona falling from reab
heighae. Persons who have been rocas•
oitated alter drowning or hanging have been
able to give some deeoription of their mum.
tions, but those who have fallen ooneldorable
distances and escaped death have not, so
far as known, thrown any valuable llght on
the subjeot. It has bees, anppeeed bhab the
thrill of terror analogous to that which any
one feels when he perceives that he is in
danger of falling and eaves himself by a
sudden effort, is of such Intensity when the
elevation is lofty as to Immediately arrest
the vital intuitions and cause (loath without
a moment's suffering, In came of this kind
the newspaper reports usually add the con-
eeling thought that the victim of the accident
or suicide was probably dead before striking
the earth, and oonsequenbly spared both
physioial and mental suffering. There
never seems to have been any solid founds•
tion for the prejudice, since It is difficult to
suppose that a person could bo asphyxiated
in falling for three or four seconds at the
rate of from fifty to eeventyfivo feet a
second, the bime it approximately takes to
reach the earth from an elevation of from
250 to 350 feet.
The moat that we can suppose is that
reepirablon is enepended, and blob there
results a sorb of syncope or condition of
partial unooneoiousnees, not of sufficient
duration to cause aephyxla. Almost any-
one
nyone can hold his breath for a minute. Per -
eons who give public exhibitions remain
easily under water for two minutiae, end
°oral and pearl divers foa, mete than twice
that length of time. The e aro feats on
record bo prove this view of the care. In
tending euiafdes who have thrown them.
selves from the enapensien bridge at Cfnein.
aati,a height of eighty feet, have beon¢savod.
To fell this distance would require about
two emends, and the striking of the weber
would be the principal thing to be consider.
ed. A more romerkable case is that of the
young woman who threw herself from the
Clifton bridge in England, whioh la at the
height of 250 feet above the river. The time
of the fall was aboub four seconds, ae there
was a strong wind blowing, and her ekirta be-
ing inflated slightly retarded the downward
movement. She was at once fished out of
the water and taken to the hospital, where
she soon rescovered. Her only injurlee
were some contu,iora on the thighs and
back and a alight dieplaoemenb of the breast-
bone. Of sixteen others who lad attempted
aulofde from the same bridge only one man
had been taken from the water alive, and
he survived but a abort time. The young
woman in question remembered nothing
from the moment she left the bridge until
the recovered eeneoionenees,
The doctor who reported the previous
ease said that he had never known heforeof
the eurvival of any one that had fallen 150
feet, Such an Inatome, however, occurred in
Paris at a time when throwing ono'a self
from one of the lofty columns or other pub-
lic monnmente was a favorite mode of mut-
aide, A man threw himself from the min=
of the Beagle, which ie 150 feeb in height,'
bub, falling on a tent created for come work-
men ab the base, rebounded and ebruok the
sidewalk. The fall had been deadened in
such a fashion that, though painfully bruis-
ed, he was able to get np and walk away
eborbly afterwards, if nob ourede f the smi•
oidal mania, resolved, probably, in future
to seek death by a less painful and more
certain method.
The most notable cane of survival after
falling long distances ie that related by a
French writer, lied- Parville. Ib 1 that
of an Emit Indian living in the island of
Oghin, who fell from a cliff 300 metres high,
which is jueb the altitude of the Tower
Eiffel. H!e fall was broken by masses of
dense vegetation at the foob of Oho precipice,
and he moped without serious injariee. 1
is handl probable that the Eiffel Tower
Y
will ever bo a favorite place for euioldoe, the
outer slope of the walla rendering a perpend-
icular fall for any coneideralle distance im•
ponoible. Tho favorite method at preeenb in
Paris le to leap from the upper window of
the tall houses to the ebreet or into the ooure,
and death is certain. If a person hag no
domicile he would, perhaps, find the, towers
or obher lof ty monumentsconvenient; but,
as in Italy. all persons who have in their
manner anything suggestive of suicide are
watched, and in most noes fb is the
rule never to leave a person alone et the
top of a high monument. The last efforb to
commit amide in this manner failed ignom.
inlonely in Paris. A man who had not been
sufficiently watched throw himself a few
months ago from the Aroh of Triumph,
which is about as high as the columna of the
Baetilo. He was caught by the projecting
cornice a few feet belowwhence he was
removed with great difficulty, bub nob
eeriouelyhurb, lb is almost the only ease
of the kind that hae occurred for the last ten
years, though the Paris suicides average
nearly two a week, taking the year in its
entirety.
Double oaehmere is again Doming into
favor as a dress fabrio.
Why is there eo little enthusiasm about
the average roligione aetvlee 1 is it bocanee
there is to little faith 2 If ono really be.
lieved that somebody had left hien one
thousand pounds, ho would be somewhat
radiant over the circumstance and might
took as if he felt his oats a little. The
neighbors would say : There goes a glad
man, and they would bo right, Bub when
a 1000 Days that he ie an heir of heaven and
is going at fast an he eon to a plea, of which
the God of heaven has promised, saying, I
will give ib you, he is as dull, lugubrious
and forlorn lackingas if be were about to
bo hanged. Whais to be thought ? Just
that. loo does not believe a word el all he to
oontfnually saying. That's jamb about the
No of
The IloneR,s 01' F, nil as 0 owl -10 ehoul
110 lutea l,o the Morning-Vllex.
yelled ns n Medicine,
[Prom Medical Olasoioo.]
It la an observation not Ions important dm
true, that by attending merely to a propo
diet n phlegmatic habit may frequently b
changed into a sanguine one, and the hypo
ohoudriao may be ao altered au to become
cheerful and contented member of 000100y
Experience and observation show that a to
frequent and exoeeoivo use of animal foo
diapotet the fluids to petrification, and, 1
sanguine temperaments especially, oommunf
cater to the mind a degree of ferocity. Na
tions eubsisting chiefly upon the flesh of ani
male, like the Tartan, are, in general, mot
fierce than others ; and the same effeot 1
menifeeb to oarnivoroue animals ; they ami
a very disagreeable smell, and both thea
teeth and milk have an unpleasant and re
polling baste. Even an infant will refuse tit
breast when its nurse has eaten boo mut
animal food. Those who eat great quanti
tree of meat, and little bread and vegeoables
must neceeaorily acquire an offensive breath
It appears, therefore, to be moat suitable an
conducive to health to combine animal on
vegetable food in due proportions.
The proportion Gannet be minutely !moor
rained with respects to every individual
but, in e. gener'ol sort of way, It may be said
two thirds or three•fourbla of vegetables, to
one third or fourth part of meat, appears t
be the most proper, By thie judloiou
mixbure we may avoid diaeaaee arising from
a too copious use of either. Mnoh, how
ever, depends an the peouliar properties o
alimentary oubotanoee belonging to one o
the other of the different olaeeee.
The eating of fruit at the oommenoemen
of a meal, while it presents a bland or eon
genial material to the delicate lining mom
brane of the alimentary organs, forming
welcome preoureor to the more substantia
artioleo, many of which require protraete
energy for their elaboration Into nutriment
at the eame time, is, to some extent, a safe-
guard against the overfeeding which come
from reserving the fruits till the etomac
is already overloaded with enough, perbap
too much, of other food. Fraite should be
ripo when eaten on an empty stomach, an
for their laxative effecb should be tate
before anything else. In thio way conattpa
tion may, with many individuals, especial]
when the quantity of obher articles of th
meal is within reasonable limits.
There is probably nothing in which netur
has boon so bountiful to man, in whateve
temperate or hob climate he may be found
as in fruits. 10 is a characteristic of al
fruits that when ripe they may be eaten in
their raw state, and of many blab they may
be eaten cooked or raw. They consist es•
aontially of two parte, vis.; the juices and
cellular otruobures in whish the juices are
contained; and it Ie neeeesary to add that,
whilst the juices may be readily transform•
ed, the cella are nab eerily digested, and
when possible, are thrown away. This le
Been in such fruits as the orange and apple
when nob of good quality or not quite ripe.
In such fruits as the strawberry, the pine.
apple, the grape and even the banana, the
cell -wall ie very tale and thie n easily bro•
ken up, so that its presence is not percepti-
ble and the digestion of it cannot be difficult.
Ae a general expreoslou it may he abated
of any fruit that tbo variety which yields
the rfeheat juices in the greatest quantity,
whilst the cellular framework is the least
perceptible on mastication is the most pro-
ferred and the most digestible.
We can hardly omit hero asyIng what may
be understood from what has been said al.
ready, that though fruits in their ripest be
at the same time in their most perfect state,
they may, however, even in this state be
taken in too large quantity.
In the ease of a dyspepOia stomach. I
have known apples, a long time after they
had been taken down, brought ap again by
erection in the mane memos they had been
swallowed, and that even after two days,
An exoeosive amount of fruit, or if Buten
either in Ole unripe or overripe state, pro-
duces eerione disturbances in the system,
chiefly so beoauee of its tendency to ferment
and decompose within the digeetive tract
and to produce stomach and bowel disorders.
if these dietnrbaneee aro not toogreab or too
prolonged, they need 000aeion no special
anxiety. A dote of castor oil, to which 1
few drops of laudanum have been added, a
usually enftiolent bo °loan out the irritating
"debris," and in a day or two the natural
equilibrium 1 restored. If there 1 much
griping and pain with the movemente, and
them become too numerous to be comferh-
able, the dose of ail should be followed by
curtailing activity -by quiet and repose -
by a diet of meat broths, containing rice,
barley or sago by rice and milk, milk toast,
etc. The following recipe, known at the
Sun Cholera Mixture, le a useful and
"handy thing" to have about for "jntt
such disturbenoes,"
To make the San Cholera Mixture MI e
equal parte of tincture of cayenne, tincture
of opium, tincture of rhubarb, Demme of
peppermint and spirits of camphor, and mix
well. Dose, fifteen to bhirty drops in a wine
lase of
water,aocordin
gto e and isle
g g violence
of the attack,
Repeat every fifteen P teen or
twenty minutes until relief le obtained.
"Ill blows the wind that profits nobody,"
Bey! Shakeophere in Henry IV., and so
with many of the ogees of diarrhea brought
on by a little to muehindulgenoe to fruit If
our bilious friends would throw aside their
liver pills and study nature, while the is in
her moat smiling and bounteous mood,
would allow her to tempt them as Eve
tempted old Adam, they would take to
fruit, and bypleaeanb, natural and healthful
methods free themoolvea of the "thick bit•
Mae impurities" which make them a nui-
sance to themeolves au well as to all aroued
them, Biliousness ie one of those demons
that oan be pretty well exeroieed by proper
diet and due amount of cxareiee.
A gentle diarrhoea, brought on by eating
ripe fruit in Bummer, has frequently a eala•
Lary effect, Acid and astringent fruit, being
rather a medicine than food, 1 lees hurOful
to the healthy and to children than 1 nom.
monly Imagined. Instead of being noxuous,
se Boma imagine, in inflammatory disorders
it Fe of the great service. Persons of a think
and languid blood cannot eab anything more
oonduative to health than fruib, as it poesoea-
ea the property of attenuating and putting
ouch blood in motion,
Fruit diminiehed the acidity of the urine.
The alkaline vegetable salts which it oon-
taine become deeompobed in the system, and
converted into the carbonate of the alkali,
which pesetas off with the urine. By future
of Ohia result the employment of fruit is °al-
oulated to prove advaneageoue in gout and
other oases where the urine ehowe a tanden•
oy to throw down a dopoeit of lithio acid,
n
e great mayapple The Sun heartily en.
• donee Eugloud's oourae in regard to the
a Delagoa Bay Rtilway and bopee oho will
, bo able to forestall Portugal in her rather
o luoolenb denrande :-" The cancellation of
d the Delagoa Bay Railway concession by
o the Lisbon Government threatensa rupture
• of the tie which for upward of two aeuturiea
• has connected England and Portugal. Since
• the Portuguoae uprleiug natal) Spain in
e the seventeenth century, and the marriage
e of a daughter of the Houeo of Beraganza to
t Charles II, the mainbenanoo of Portuguese
✓ independence has been largely due to the
• virtual proteoborate exeroieed by Greab
o Britain. But for Eeglioh friendship, Port-
h gal would long ago have loob the remnants
• of its former poeeaeeione in Asia, inpludtng
; Macao in the Chinese waters and Goa on
the Indian peninsula, Bub for English
d armies it would have been effaced from the
d map of Europe during the Napoleonic ware ;
and but for Euglioh fleets it would have
• been deprived of its yeah transatlantic de•
pendency, which has aims developed into the
Brazilian empire.
" Still it mutt be r•.dmltted that the joint
o voyage of Hoglund and Portugal down the
a stream of national existence recalls the
fable efthe brew; and car then poto. To day the
• latter power le far more insignificant and
f the former incomparably ebrooger than wan
✓ the ease two centuries ago. For the dream
of Porbugueeo expansion, which seemed eo
t near fulfilment in the days of Vasco Da
• Gama, and which is nab yet wholly given
• np, rho only field left is that motion of
a South Africa, including the great valley of
1 tlreZambeei, which Ifo, bobween blozambique
d on the Indian Ooean and Angola on the
, Atlantic. Upon theme coast provinces,
Portugal, which has seen the Congo
e wrenched from her, has never altogether
h relaxed her hold, and she claims that, accord-
ing to the precedents of discovery and col-
onization, the Intervening beth of territory
d should belong to that' European country
n whose settlements and trading posts fringe
• it upon both flanks, Both France and Ger-
y many are understood to have recag:'zod
o this claim by diplomatic admiesione, al.
though not by formal treaty, and the impress•
e ion is current that both of the powers
✓ named:view with approval the withdrawal
of Ole Delagoa Bay oonceesion, whose effeot
1 will be to cheek the northward extension of
the British colonies at the Cape, 1b should
at the same time be borne in mind that
Great Britain has never acknowledged the
right of Portugal to control the navigation
of the Zambesi, or to monopolize the interior
tract stretching from Angola toMczambigua,
"As to the particular affair which is
now the subject of controversy, there seems
to be no doubt thab the Lisbon Government
in technically right, the grantees of the
railway oonoeasion having failed to comply
with the condition of the ooatraob. We
are told, however, that Lord Salisbury will
oontond that, as a matter of °amity and
equity, Portugal should have given an ex -
tendon of time, or at least referred the
question to arbitration. But how could the
dfeputanee agree upon arbitrators ? England
would eeareely accept Germany or France,
whose interesta in Africa aro by no means
indentical with here, nor Ramie, lest that
power should show Wolf amenable to French
influence. On the other laud, Portugal
woul 1 certainly reject) the arbitration of the
United Sbates, for Americans would
naturally prefer to see the finest part of
Africa opened up by a European people
whose language they speak and with whose
free inntibubions they are in sympathy.
,
Mntderous Proposition.
Bridgot- "Mr, Sophieigh 10 in the parlor,
mem.. ,,fltl s
Laura -"That hateful little dude again 1
I wish 1 could think of aetn0 plan to got
rid of him."
Brother John -"Why don't you try
(naeot powder on him, Lel ?"
The Ladies and the Franchise.
The ladies who don't want the franchise
and have published their names to a proteet
certifying as much are nob having it all their
own way. Mre. Fewoett, the late Post
Master Generale widow, and biro, Ashton
Dllke, in the ourrent Nineteenth Century,
bring them up with a sharp turn, and tell
them some very plain wholesome truth
though, like Ieaak Walton, with the live
froge in a pleasant way, " as if they loved
them." They banter their "protesting"
elstero on the "handsome manner" to which
they " aaknowiedge the Importance of
women" and they profess to be thankful
that, ea the lady meld about the mountains
aboub Lucerne, these superior parties ac-
knowledge bhab their cox ie"jut lovely,
alined:a good tee if the protesters themselves
had enperinbendod the whole eoheme of
creation." They are also pleased that the
signers of the " protect" indicate that they
approve of many of the late ameliorations in
the legal and educational standing of women
though it ie significantly hinted that with
porhape one exception, the names of these
protesters" were never mandated with
any efforts tobring such amelioration round.
After such pleeoanb little hand-ehakinga if
one may even
dare ioa
approach al the language
ar
usage of the
tin in auoh a gconnection,
theee ladies' get in' a good deal of strong
good "work,"withoub,as far as TRIITlioan see,
a single "foul." And 0o now there turnround
lieu with the " proteebers," And they will
need to do their beat if they mean to hold
their own. We frankly Say] that it does
not think they own. Bub let them do their
beat, In Mesdames Fawaebt and Dilke they
have opponents very cunning of fence and who
citronella for grand airs and poor arguments.
Cigarette • Smoking.
Smoking is far more common among WO•
men than is generally euspeoted, and we
cannot see why any lover of the weed should
ob oct to such a state of things. If it is so
good for the mon both young and old it oaa•
not be bad for the maiden and, the matron.
One who claims to know says that almost
all literary ladies smoke, and the same is to
be acid of all theatrical artistes, from Ma.
dame Modjeeka and the Llly downward or
upward, as such may judge, " Society," it
seems, was at first rather ebooked by ouch
free and seep ways, but soon got over its
oqueamiohneee, end now all women who are
thought or who think themoelvoe anyOhinq,
go in for the weed with a Will, Mrs. Cleve-
land, it seems, introduced the custom when
in the White Nome of handing round oigar•
ettee to her gueeOe with the coffee. Other
" moiety" leaders among our neiglboure are
oven call morn pronounced. How far the
faohiou rulers in the boot oireloa of Toronto,
we would not dare to assert, not being
quite the oracle on those matters. It will
bo vary nice when dainty gloved little wo-
neon flourish their cigars on Yong° St, of an
afternoon, and finish off by taking a "sip" of
brandy With their young men at their fen.
°rite restaurants, Oh, by all meow 1 Whoa
is good for the boys la and mint bo equally
good for the girls and, ao nothing could be
more stupid looking than the average dude,
it is well that the girls be brought down to
the same level, in order to their being,; in
due time, helpmtets for the poor fellows.
i
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e
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