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The Exeter Advocate, 1894-12-6, Page 7THE MI GENERA". BEV. T. row Avrrr TATawAGII 'DWELLS TeIL LEPROSY Olf' SIN. 181111o:10g sentente the World to Show the Way to Higher Joys -Spiritual Bappinees Attalned. Through a eettmettesplrit-lieerae Leers. Rev. :Dr. Talmage has chosen as the aubject of bo -day's sermon through bhe press, 'The Sick General," the text se- lected. being II. Kings -o, i- "He was a leper." Here we have a warrior sick; not with pleurisies or rhumatisms or consuinp- times, bet with a• disease worse than all , these pat together. A red mark has come out on the forehead, precursor of eoinplete disfigurement and dissointion. I have something awful to tell you. General Na,amaea, the commander-in- chief of all the Syrian forms, has the leprosy! It is on his hands, on his face, on his feet, on his entire person. The leprosy! Get oub of the way of the pestilence! If his breath strike you you are a dead maa. The comraanderan- chief of all the forces in Syria! And yet he would be glad to exchange con- ditions with the boy at his stirrup, or the hostler that blankets his charger. The news goes like wilifire all through the realm, and the people are sympathetic, and tbey cry out, ' 'Is it poseible that our greet hero here, who slew Ahab, and around whom we came with such vocifer- atiou when he returned from victorious battle -can it be possible that our grand and glorioas Naaman has the leprosy? Yes. Everybody has something he wishes he had not. Damia. an Absolem to disgrace him; Paul, a thorn. to sting him; Job, carbu.ncies to plague him ; Samson, a Delilah to shear him Ahab, a Naboth to deny him; Hainan &Mordecai to irritate hine; George Hainan, childlessness to filiet him; John. Wesley, a termagant wife to pester him; Leah, weak eyes; Pope, a crooked back; ,Byron, a club foot; John Milton, blind eyes; Charles Lamb, an insane sister; and you, and you, and you, something which you never bargained for, and would like to get rid of. The reason of this is that God does not want this woeld to be too bright otherwise, we would always want to stay and eat these fruits, and lie on theseleunges, and. shake hands in this pleasant soeietv. If God dashes out one of your pictures, it is only to show you a brighter one. If he sting your foot with gout, your brain with neuralgia, your tongue with an in- extinguishable thirst, it is only because he is preparing to substitute a better body than you ever dreamed of, when the mortal shall put on inemortalitY. It is to push you on, and to push you up to- ward something grander and better that God sends upon you, as he did upon General Naaman, something you did not want. Seated. in. his Syrian mansion - all the walls glittering with the shields which he had captured in battle; the eorridors crowded with admiring visitors who just wanted to see him once; music and rairbh, and banqueting filling all th,e mansion, from tessellated floor to pictur- ed ceiling-Naaman would have forgot- ten that there was anything better, and. would have been glad. to stay there ten thousand years. But 0, ho* the shields dim, and how the visitors fly the hall, and how the m.usie drops *dead from the string, and how the gates of the mansion slam shut with sepulchral bang, as you read the closing words of the eulogium- "He was a leper! Be was a leper 1" There was one person more sympathetic with General Naaman than any other person. Naaman's wife walks the floor, wringing her hands, and trying to think what she can do to alleviate her hus- band's suffering. All remedies have fail- ed. The surgeon -general, and the doc- tors of the royal staff, have met. and they have shaken their heads, as inuch as to say, "No cure, no care." I think that the office -seekers had all folded up their recommendations and gone home. Probably most of the employes of the establishment had dropped their work •and were thinking of looking for some other situation. What shall now become of poor Naaman's wife? She must have sympathy somewhere. In her despair she goes to a little Hebrew captive, a servant girl in her house, to whom she tells the whole story; as sometimes, when over- borne by the sorrows of the world, and finding no sympathy anywhere else, you have gone out and found in the sym- pathy of some humble domestic -Rose, or Dinah, or Bridget -a help which the world could not give you. What a scene it was; in of the grand- est women in all Syria n cabinet council with a waiting -maid over the declining health of the mighty general! "I know something," says the little captive maid, "1 know something," as she botaids to her bare feet. "In the land from which I was stolen there is a certain prophet known by the name of Elisha, who can cure almost anything, and I shouldn't wonder if he could cure my master. Send for him right away." "0, hush!" you say. "If the highest medical talent in all the laud cannot cure that leper, there is no need of your listening to any talk of a servant girl." But do not scoff, do not sneer. The finger of that little cap- tive maid is pointing in the right direc- tion. And how often it is that the finger of childhood has pointed grown person in the right direetion. 0 Christian soul, how long is it since you got rid of the leprosy of sin? You say, "Let me see. It must be five years now ?" Five years. Who was it pointed you to the Diviiee Physician? "0," you say, "it was my little Annie, or Fred, or Charley, that clambered up on my knees, and looked into my face, and. asked me why I didn't become a Christian, and, all the time strokingmy cheek, so I couldn't get angry,insisted upon knowing why I didn't have family prayers." There are grandparents who have been brought to Christ by their little grandchildren. There are hundreds of Christian mothers who had their attention first called to Jesus by their little ehildren. How did you get rid of the leprosy of sin? How did you find your way to the Divine Physician? "0," yon say, "my child - my dyingchild, with wan and wasted finger, pointed that way. Oh., I never shall forget," you say, "that scene at the °radio and the crib that awful night. It was hard, hard, very hard; but if that little one on its dying bed had not point- ed me to Chriett I don't think I ever would have got rid of 'nay leprosy." Go 'into the Sabbath sehool any Sunday and you will find huadreds of little fingers pointing in the same direction, toward Jesus Christ and toward 'Heaven. 'Years ago the astronomers calculated that there must be a world hanging at a •,certain point in the heavens, aied a large priee was offered for aQineone who could diseoVer that world. The telescopes from the great observatories were poented vainbat a girl of Nautueket, Mass, fashioned; a telescope, and looking through it discovered that star and won the pron and admiration of all the as- tronomiced world, that stood. amazed, at her genius. And so it is ofteu the case that grown people eannot see the light, while some little child beholds the ebar of pardon, the star of hope, the star of consolation, the star of .Bethlehem, the morxiing star of Jesus. "Nut many mighty mon, not erlany wise lemon are called ; but God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mignty ; and base things, and things that are not, to bring to nought thiags that are." 0, do not despise the prattle of little children whea they are speaking about God and Christ and Heaven. You see the way your child is pointing.; will you take that pointing, or wait anal, in the wrench a seine awful bereavement, God shalt lifb that child te another world, and. then it will beckon you upwaed? Will you take the point- ing, or will you wait for the beckoning? Blessed be God that the little Hebrew captive pointed. in the right direction. Blessed be God. for the saving ministry of Christian children. No wonder the advice of this little Hebrew captive threw all Naaman's man - sine and Benhadad's pelage into excite- ment. Good -by, Naaman! With face searified and ridged, and inflamed by the peetilence, and aided by those who sup- ported hini on either side, he'staggers out to the chariot. Hold fast the fiery coursers of the royal stable while the poor sick man lifts his Swollen feet and pain -Amok limbs into the vehicle. Bols- ter him up with the pillows, and let him take a lingering look at his bright apart- ment, for perhaps the Hebrew captive may be mistaken, and the next time Naaman comes to that place he may be a dead weight on the shoulders of those who carry him -an expiring chieftain seeking sepulture, amid the lamentations of an admiring nation. Good -by, Naa- man! Let the charioteer drive gently over the hills of 'Hermon, lest he jolt the invalid. Here goes the bravest man of all his day, a captive of a horrible dis- ease. As the ambulance winds through the streets of Damascus, the tears and prayers of all the people go after the world-renowned invalid. Perhaps you have had. an invalid go out from your house on a health excur- sion. You know how the neighbors stood aroun.d and. said, "Ah, he will never come back again alive." Oh, it is a solemn moment, I tell you when the invalid had departed and you went into the room to make the bed, and to remoye the medicine phials from the shelf, and to throw open the shutters, so that the fresh air might rush into the long -closed room. Good-bye, Naaman! How the countrymen gaped as the pro- cession passed! They had. seen Naamau go past like a whirlwind in days gone by, and had stood aghast at the clank of his war equipments; but now they com- miserate him. They say, "Poor man, he will never get home alive; poor • General Naaman wakes.up from a rest - lees sleep in the chariot, and he says to the charioteer, "How long before we shall reach the Prophet Elisha ?" The charioteer says to a waysider, "How far is it to Elisha's house?" He says, "Two miles." "Two miles I" Then they whip up the lathered and fagged -out horses. The whole procession brightens up at the prospect of speedy arrival. They drive up to the door of tile prophet. The charioteers shout "Whoa!" to the horses, and tramping hoofs and grinding wheels cease shaking the earth. Come out, Elisha, come out; you have com- pany; the grandest company that ever came to your house has come to it now. No stir inside Elisha's house. The faet was the Lord has informed Elisha that the sick captain was coining, and just how to treat him. Indeed, when you are sick, and. the Lord wants you to get well, he always tells the doctor how to treat you; and the reason why we have so many bungling doctors is because they depend upon their own strength and in- straction.s, and not on the Lord God, and that always makes malpractice. Come out, Blithe., and attend to your business. General Naaman and. his retinue waited, and. waited, and. waited. The fact was, Naaman had two diseases -pride and, leprosy; tlae one was as hard. to get rid of as the other. Elisha sits quietly in his house, and does not go out. After awhile, when he thinks he'has humbled this proud man, he sa,ysto a servant, 'Go out ond tell General Naaman. to bathe seven tiniies in the River Jordan out yonder five miles, and he willget entirely well." The message comes out; "What!" says the commander-in-chief of the Syrian forces, his eye kindling with an animation which it had not shown for weeks and. his swollen foot stamping on the bottom of the chariot, regardless of pain. "What! Isn't he coming out to see me? Why, I thought certainly he wonld come and utter some cabalistic words over me, or make some enigmatical passes over my wounds. Why, I don't think he knows who I am. Isn't he com- ing out? Why, when the Shunamite woman came to him, he rushed out and cried, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with thy child?' and will he treat a poor unknown woman like that and let me, a titled per- sonage, sit here in my ehariot and wait, and wait? I won't endure it any longer. Charioteer, drive on! Wash in the Jor- dan! Ha! ha.! The slimy Jordan -the muddy Jordan -the monotonous Jordan! I wouldn't be seen washing in such a river as that. Why, we watered our horses in a better river than, that on our way here -the beantifulriver, the jasper - paved river of Pharpar. Besides that we have in our country another Damascene river, Abana, with foliaged bank, and torrent ever Swift and. ever clear, under the flickering shadows of sycamore and oleander. Are not, Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ?" The fact was that 'haughty Naaman needed to learn what every Englishman and every American needs to learn -that when God tells you to do a thing you must go and do it, whether you under- stand the reason or not, Take the pre- scription, whether you like it or not, One thing is certain, unlese haughty Naanian does as Elisha coneraamde him he Will die of his awful sickness. And unless you do as Christ tonemands you, you will be seized upon by an everlasting westieg away. Obey and live -disobey and die. Thrilling, over -aching, under- girding, stupendous alternative ! , Well, Gen. Newnan. &mid not stand the test. The eharioteet gimes a jerk to the right line till the bet snaps in the horse's mouth, mia the whiz + of the Wheele and the flying of the dustshows the indighation of the great cefaineader. "He tamed, and art at away in a rage." So poople often mew got mad at religion. They v tipurate against ministers, agamst eleurehes, egaimet Christian pee- *, Oho would, thiak from their irate be- havior that God had been studying how to annoy and ex isperate and deraolisti then:, What has He been doing? Only trying to carp their death -dealing leprosy. That is all, Yet they , whip up their Imam, dig in their spurs, and they go away in a rage. So, after all, it seems that this health excursion, of Gen. Neiman is to be a dead failure. That little Hebrew captive might as well have not told him of the Prophet, and this long journey might as well not have been, taken. Poor, sick, dying; Naaman! Are you going away in high dudgeon, and worse than when you came As his chariot laths a moment his servants clamber er in it and coax him to do as Elisha said. They say ; "It's eau.. If the Prophet had, told you to walk for a mile on sharp spikes in or- der to get rid of this awini disease you would have done it. It is easy. Come, my lord, just get down and wash in the Jordan. You take a bath every day, anyhow, and in this climate it is so hot that it will do you good." The retinue drive to the brink of the ordan. The horses paw and neigh to get into the stream themselves and cool their hot flanks. Gen. Naaman, assisted by his attendants, gets down out of hie chariot and painfully 00Mee to the brink of the river, and steps in until the water comes to the ankle, and goes on deeper until the water comes to the girclie, and now standing so far down in the stream, just a little inclination of the head will thoroughly immerse it. He bows once into the flex', and eomes up and shakes the water out of nostril and eye; and his attendants look at him and. say, "Why, General, how much better you do look," And he bows a second time into the flood and comes up and the wild stare is gone out of his eye. He bows the third tirae into the flood and comes up, and the shrivelled flesh has got smooth again. He bows the fourth time in the flood and. comes np, and the hair that had fallen out is restored in thick looks again all over the brow. He bows the fifth time into the flood and comes up, and the horseness has gone out of his throat. He bows the sixth time and comes up, and all the soreness and anguish have gone oat of the limbs. "Why," he says, "I am almost well, but I will take a com- plete cure," and he bows the seventh time into the flood and he comes up, and not so much as a fester, or a scale, or an eruption as big as the head of a pin is to be seen on him. He steps out on the bank and says: "Is it possible?" And the attendants look and say: "Is it pos- sible?" And as, with the health of an athlete, he bounds back into the chariot and drives on, there goes up from all his attendants a wild "Huzza, ! Huzza!" Of course they go back to pay and thank the man of God for his counsel so fraught with -wisdom. When they left the pro- phet's house, they went off mad; they have come back glad. People always think better of a minister after they are converted than they do before conver- sion. Now we are to them an intolerant nuisance, because we tell them to do things that go against the grain; but some of us have a great many letters from those who tell us that once they were angry at what we preached, but afterward gladly received the Gospel at our hands. They once called us fanatics, or terrorists'or enemies; now they call us friends. • Yonder is a man who.said he would never come into the church again. He said that two years ago. He said, "My family shall never come here again if such doctrines as that are preached." Bub he came again and his family came again. He is a Christian., his wife a Christian, all his children Christians, the whole household Chris- tians, and you shall dwell with them in the house of the Lord forever. Our un- dying coadjutors are those who once heard the Gospel, and "went away in a rage." Now, my hearers, you know that this General Naaman did two things in order to get well. ' The first was -he got out of his chariot. He might have stayed there with his swollen feet on the stuffed otto- man, seated on that embroidered cushion until his last gasp, he would never have got any relief. He had to get down out of his chariot. And you have got to get down out of the chariot of your pride if you ever become a Christian. You can- not drive up to the Cross with a coach - and -four, and be saved among all the spangles. You seem to think that the Lord is going to be complimented by your coming. 0, no, you poor, miserable, leprous sinner, get down out of that. But he had not only to get down out of his chariot. He had to wash. "0," you say, "I am very careful with my ablu- tions. Every day I plunge into a bright and beautiful bath." Ah, my hearer, there is a flood brighter than any that pours from these hells. It is the flood that breaks from the granite of the eter- nal hills. It is the flood of pardon and peace, and life, and heaven. That flood started in the tears of Christ, and the sweat of Gethsemane, and rolled on, ac- cumulating flood, until earth and heaven could bathe in it. Zechariah called it the "fountain open for sin and unclean- ness." William Cowper called it the "fountain filled with blood." Your fa- thers and mothcrs washed all their sins • away in that fountain. Oh, my hearers, do sem not feel like wading into it? Wade down now into this gloreous flood, deeper, deeper, deeper, Plunge once, twice, thrice, four times, five times, six times, seven times. It will take as much as that to clear your soul. 0 wash, wash, wash, and be clean. I suppose that was a great time at Da- mascus when General Naaman got back. The charioteers did not have to drive slowly any longer, lest they jolt the in- valid; but as the horses dashed through the streets of Damaseus, I think the peo- ple rushed out to hail back their chief- tain. Naaman's wife hardly recognized her husband; he was so wonderfully changed she had to look at him two or three times before she made out that it was her restored husband. And the lit- tle captive maid, she rushed out, clapp- ing her hands and shouting, "Dia he cure yon? Did he cure yen?" Then mask woke up the palace, and the tap- estrY of the windows was drawn away, that the multitude outside might mingle with the princely mirth inside, and the feet went up and down in the dance, °and all the streets of Damascus that night echoed and rechoed with the news: "Se- aman's cared! Naaman's eared!" Dab a gladder time than that it would be if your seal should get cured of ite leprosy. The swiftest white horse e hitched to the King's chariot would rash the news into the Eternal City, Our leered. onee before the throne would welcome the glad tid- ings. Yoar Children op earth, with, more emotion elieu the little Hebrew %Wave, would node the eheage ill your leok aaal the chaage in • pale manner, awl would Put OW eroaad your meek and say : "Mother, guess you must have become a Christean, 1?ather, I thiak yoa have get rid of the leprosy." 0, Lord, God of Elisha, have mercy on us! • A ()IRCUl'UOUS SLJC,CESS„ I T was rabher clerk in the hallway when jalien Tones went upstairs to his new vex:tors, fourth floor beak. Someone else was on the stairs. He discovered a woman's form in the niche near the •second floor and theglimmering of a hand . holding back skirts for hiui to pass. There was a faint breath of exquisite perfume about her. "Exeuse me," he said. just then the gas flexed out in the lower hall. He made out a soft, oval face and ft dainty figure, as he passed. Julian was a big fedow,with featares of strength rather than oi beauty, bat for all that he was a "sensitive," whose impressions of people were as were as a dog's instinct about his master. The yateng woman's • 'atoms- phere" was agreeable It follewed him to his room. He lighted the gas and looked around. It was a goodish den for a literary work- er. The carpet of pale greens and. olives was almost new. The windows had lace curtains and a fair outlook. He sat down and tilted -back his chair. A curioas plot for a story had come into his mind. It seemed to start out of that chance encounter on the stake, yet he scarcely realized it then, so subtle is the action of the brain, His heart began to beat quickly. He had done a good deal of patient work in the past, with indifferent success, but smile impromptu mental activity was new. He took it as a good onion; He had a strain of what we call superstition in his nature. A strange dream had. im- pressed him with the belief that with his change of quarters something was to happen. -for the better. The bright, unique ideas came Pouring into his mind like a flood. They clam- ored for expression. Ile found a pencil in. his pocket and looked around for pa- per. lie had net a scrap. His trunks would not come till morning. If he stirred from the room to hunt up a sta- tioner the aroma, of the story would be sure to escape. Ile thought desperately of his cuffs, his shirt bosom, and execra- ted the motley wall paper. Had it been plain, it should have done duty as a tab- let. He sprang from the chair. The cov- ering of the • square table in the corner was of white cloth -imitation "marble." He sat down and marked. it off in. spaces. The pencil glided over it smoothly. He wrote quickly and -without effort. He knew he had never done anything like this before. Some one seemed to be dic- tating at his elbow. He had heard and read of such eases. Now he was the sub- ject. He wrote column after column., till the cloth was covered. He leaned back and surveyed it. He knew the thing was unique and exquisitely wrought out. It was a love story, with that dainty creat- ure on the dim stairway fitting through it. Julian's eyes grew misty. lie looked at his watch. The three hours he had been writing seemed but five minutes. It was early yet, not 11 o'clock. Be locked the door and went out on the street. He had a vague idea of ,getting paper from some hotel clerk. He could not feel easy until his story was in man- uscript. He turned into the avenue. Thethun- der of the elevated was in his ears. A team was dashing along recklessly un- derneath it. He attempted to cross. Round the corner was the — House. The subtle fascination of the story was yet upon. him. In the midst of it he was conscious of a sudden.shock, a pain crossing the sweetness, making horrible discord, then all became blank. He was pulled from under the feet of the horses. The blood flowed from a wound made by the cruel hoof. No address could be found on him and he was carried to the hospital. He had. been severely but not fatally injured. Brain fever set in, but an excellent eon. stitution was in his favor. In his sea- sons of delirium the marble oilcloth haunted him. Sometimes it hung over him like an awning with the letters like a thousand eyes staxing at him. Then they changed into Chinese hieroglyphics, and the young woman on the stairs was wrinkling her lovely brow in vain en- deavors to deeipher them. Again the cloth was waving like a banner from the roof of the Daily Fizzier. Through careful nursing he came out of the tangle at length, and began to re- call just what had. happened. His pre- vious story, which was to have inaugur- ated anew era, what had become of it? Four weeks he hadbeen lying there, they told him. In that time the room would be let to a new tenant, and .his story scrubbed off the clath by some wooden - headed chambermaid. He fretted and fumed over it. His omen of good. luck had been demolished by a sledge ham- mer. . "Don't you want to look over these papers?" queried the cheerful, pretty nurse, placing a pile before him. "You need to catch up with the times." Julian tossed them over half savagely and came presently upon something that made his heart thump. The story was looking him in the face from the columns of the Exaggerator. It was entitled "Into His Kingdom" The letters seemed to wink and blink at him knowingly. He read it through. There had been sew cely any alteration. Somebody had got ahead of the chambermaid and copied it, selling it as his or her own production. He should never be able to prove its authorship, Ile groaned in spirit. Presently he came upon a copy of the Daily Fizzier three weeks old. There he found the story headed by a sensational paragraph, Which was evidently its ruat appearance, the other paper being a copy. • Julian was half amused, half annoyed over the conjectures about the author. The paragraph set forth the production found on the oilcloth as the last effort of an unfortunate , son of genius. Driven to extremity, without a penny even to bay paper, he had fixed his last ideas upon the only white surface he could command, and then he had gone out into the night and committed snicide. One of those unidentified bodies at the morgue .was his probably. Could he have stated off despair twenty-four hours longer the lee would have been broken. • Julian breathed freer. The topyist, • then, had not palmed off the productiotu as his or her own, Ile c,oald yet claim it -Without dispute. eameaseseeeateaaareare-eareesee............. • As $0011 at he "wo.e en his feet he caller' on the editor of the Drily Fizzier, whe !mew ititn by sight, k ed bed prophOOtd SOnnes fOr him sumo tiny. sikorns I have bee a fi urietgtitla Vizeler lately as an impecaname suievite" said Sulam bluntly, • . The editor /aid don whis pea. plain "1" he sell. .1-111 , a toll tile etOry, "Like" another xnan, yot: Etwake to find yourseit famous.," said the editor offeriuse • his hand. "That story hes beet; copied all ever the country. It is a gem of its "I'm not sure I shall ever do 50 well again," said Tanen. 'What is onee done can be done again, You Will now eon:mend a hearing." "How did you get hold of it?" "It was sent b by -by-" eoxiaulting inemorandum-- by Miss Clara Wheeler, 142 — set." "Why, I wrote the story in thet house!" "She sent a note stating the facts, and Beaton, you know him, touched them up a trifle. None of us suspected you. The landlady believed your name was ,renes, but, on wooed thought, didn't know but it was Smith." "I had only a word with her when I engaged the room." "I may as well pay you to -day," said the editor as he filled out a eheck. A. glance showed Julian it was drawn, for one hundred dollars. He was in luck after all, it seemed. • Next he rode uptown and rang the bell at 142 -- street, How much had hap- pened sines he first went up those steps, leis than six weeks ago! The girl who opened the door looked at him, blankly when he asked f or Miss "Wheeler, and showed him into a small reception room -while she took bit card. He was presently asked to step upstairs, third floor front. The door was half open showing a prettily furnished interior. He tapped gently. There was a rustling behind a dark green portiere and a young woinau stepped out from behind it and greeted him with "Good. morning." She was the one he had met on the stairs in the gloom, he could swear. There was the same fain.t perfume about the garments and, besides he knew her atmosphere. "You are Miss Cora Wheeler?" She bowed. "And I am Julian Jones. 1 wrote the story on the oilcloth. I am told it found its way into print through you. I have come to thank you." Miss Wheeler was about as breathless asjulian. She motioned him to a chair and sat down. The facts he had present- ed rapidlygrouped themselves at once i logically n her mind "Then you did not suicide," she said, with. a mirthful glance at his muscular frame, adding, "I never thought you did." suppose I came pretty near ‘shuffie beg oil,'" he said, and he repeated his story. "I expected something of the sort had happened," said Miss Wheeler, "though there were all sorts of conjectures. The landlady called me up to read what you had written. She thought it might de- note, dennte—" "Insanity?" "It enchanted me. I write a little my- self, you see. I sent it to the Fizzier. It was copied everywhere. You are a gen, ivuTsi.L the right sort of inspiration," corrected Julian. It looks now as if the pair would go in- to partnership. • How a Prize Was Won. Mr. •James Payne tells an amusing story of the way in which Tennyson's "Timbuctoo" won, its prize at the Uni- versity. The examiners for thcayeafahe says, were. three -the Vice -Chancellor, who had a great reputation, but a violent temper, and who did not write very well; a classical professor, who knew no poetry that was not in a dead language, and a mathematical professor. It was agreed that eaeh should' signify by the letters "g" and "b" (for 'good" and what he thought of the poems, and the Vice had the manuscript first. When the mathematical professor got them he found "Tirnbuctoo' scored all over with "0" and though he could • not under- stand why, nor indeed the poem itself, did not think it worth while, as he atter- wards said (although the fact was he was afraid to ask the Vice his reasons) so he wrote e on the poem also. The classi- cal master thought it funny that both his predeeissors should admire so unin- telligible a production.; but, as he said, "he did not care anything about the mat- ter," and so wrote "g" on it also ; and as no other poem had three "g's" the prize was unanimously awarded to the author of "Timbuetoo." After all woe over the three examiners happened to meet one day, and the Vice, in his absolute fash- ion,fell to abusing the other two for ad- miring the poem. They replied very naturally, and with some indignation, that they could never have dreamt of admiring it if he himself had not scored it over with "g's." he said; "they were "q's" for queries, for I could not understand two consecutive lines in it." COLD BATHS. °right Of Nor$Ory .0.14 Me0. ." "Phree 111iu4 Mice " is in a mosie beolc of WOO, "A, Frogele Woeld A -Wooing Go " wee lieenee ic: ltiOte " L it; 6 Jai; k Hornet " is older thn the ie. -weal° mth eentery, "Pueey Oat, Pturey Cat, NV heee Have You Becn ?" detc$ from the reiga 01 Queen Elizabeth. " Boys and Girls Come (bit to Play" dates from Charles 11., as does aisO " Lucy racket Lost Her Pocket,'. " Old Mettler Hubbard," " GhoadY; GooSey Gander," •and " Old Mother Goose" apperently date back to the eix- teentb century, Cinderella, ' jack the GiantKiller," "Blue Beard, " and "Tom Thema)" were given to the world in Paris in 1607, The author was Charles Perrault, "I HuMpty-Dampty " was a bold, bad baron. who lived in the days of King John -and was tumbled from power. His history was put up into a riddle, the meaning of which is an egg, "The Babes in the Wood" was found- ed on an actual crime committed. in Norfolk, near Wayland Wood, in the fifteenth century. An old hease in. the neighborhood is still pointed out upon a inautelpitce in which is earved the en- tire history, How 1V1any Points Are There? Tell one of your friends that his sense of touch is defective, and of course, he will most likely protest to the contrary; then comes the opportunity to make the following,little experiment, Touch aim lightly with the points of two needles on the neck, juet below the ear, and distaat from one another about three-quarters of an inch. Ask him then how many poiats he feels, and he will be sure to answer one, the evidence of peo- ple present being required to make hira believe that, you are holding two points against his skin. Riley's Cora Care. Riley's charm for the euro of corns is a recipe well worth knowing, and it is perhaps interesting, too, as a bit of Hoosier folk -lore: Prune your corn in the gray of the morn With a blade that's shaved the dead, Aeid barefoot go and hide it so The rain will rust it rod; Dip your foot in the dear and put A print of it on the floor And stew the fat of a brindle cat, And say this o'er and o'er: Corny! morny ! blady ! dead ! Gory! sorey ! rusty! red! Foot-sy ! putty! fleory ! stew! Patsy!• catsy! Mew! „View ! Come grease My corn. In the gray of the morn! Mew! mew! mew! , IThe Tramp's See -Saw. A tramp with a blase many. r lackadai- sieally walked up to the rear entrance of a farmhouse and gently tapped at the door with his finger tips. The door was opened by a sharp -faced vision, who en- quired what the gentleman of leisure de- sired. "Madam," he said, -with a very pro- found bow, "I have a request to prefer." " Well, sir, be quick about it," was the not encouraging reply. "Madam, I would fain eat." Do you see that wood, sir?" she re- plied, pointing to a large pile of timber which had not been shortened to the re- - quired stove length. Slowly he turned his head and looked in the direction of the pointing finger; then, with as much calmness as he could command, he spake thus: . "Madam, you saw me see the wood, but you won't see me saw the wood." Before the woman had recovered from her surprise he had been wafted away with the parting breeze. A Bare Aid to Health and Beauty. Cold water applied externally is a matchless tonic. Like every other medical agent, it is not adapted to every case. There are conditions of aealth as well as disease when a cold bath might be fatal en effect. Peculiarities of temperament and disposi- tion and individual susceptibilities must be considered in water cures. Generally it is a wholesome habit to acquire and one that is rarely carried to excess. A, cold bath is most beneficial taken when the system is relaxed by indolence, sleepinese or mental unrest During con- valescence its cautious use is productive of the happiest results. • A cold shock from a shower is often beneficial for con- stipation, while in catarrhal and liver troubles cold water is an essential in the treatment. Of course., attention to de- taile is of the greatest importance. Done itt five minutes in a comfortable tem- perature and whole body rubbed or brushed into a glow of warmth the de- sired results should be obtained, whereas delay, eidgligence in making the toilet, and ignorant exposure to ehill will make the bath hurt,ful instead of beneficial. People who take cold easily will find a daily Cold bath an effectual prevention. For those unfortunates designated as nerve prostrated, habitual cold dips be- fore breakfast or after atiy great strain upon the neve e or socnal nitercourse, promises the boo results. etsrepentie, and corpulent -wo- men need the tonic effect of cold water at least onc,e in twenty-foar hones, Coldest Hind of a Cold Wave. "I see," said the grocer thoughtlessly, for he had forgotten that the man with the ginger beard was sitting behind the stove, see that the temperature drop- ped twenty degrees in fifteen minutes down in Texas the other day." "I don't call that nothing," said the man with the ginger beard. "I remem- per when there was a party of us campinl in the Black Hills that the temperature dropped so sudden that one of the mules in the outfit, which was in the act of kickina was caught an' froze that way, an' stood with hes heels in, the air two days. We had a thermometer along, but the cussed thing went back on us so I can't ezzaetly say jist how much of a' drop it was." "Oh, yes," said the school -teacher, "it' is a well-kown fact that at a tempera- ture of about forty degrees below zero the mercury freezes and hence cannot register." "That wasn't it at all, young man," said the man with the ginger beard, with fine scorn. "The darn mercury drapped so quick that the friction made it red hot and busted the ',glass." The mau from Potato Creek began. to snicker, but the man with the ginger beard stopped his mirth with a stony stare. The fastest shorthand writer in the world is a young Dublin man, George Bunbary. He can write 250 words in a minute. KENDALL'S PAY1N CURE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL REMEDY FOR MAN OR BEAST. Certain In its effects and never blister*. Read pideis below: KENDALL'S SPAVIN CURE Wu:rot:it 1.1., N.Y., Jon. 15. 1894. Dr. E. Z. KEMAL'. Co. GeatleSieri,-I bought a selendid 'bait:arse some time ago With a 8rutviti. Igothini for $S0. 1 hied. tilpiprin Cure. The .SUitvin is gone tor :Mid I haVe been Offered IPSO for the Sarno horse, 1 only had hlin nine weskS, sol got $120for tame S2 Worth of Kendall's $01trin CUre. youtettzly, W. 8. Mumma. KENDALL'S SPAVIN,_CURE litca, moo. 16, 1893. Dr. B. Z. iera camsco. e Sirs -I have lieed your Kendall'a Sptvlfl cure With gaod success for Curdmi on WO hOrtes anti 11 1* tho bestlAnIment 1 haVe ever tilted. YoUrs truly, Almnier • Price $1 per Bottle., Kabala by all nrugg_litS, Or addrest .r. ICENDAZZ COMPA:Nra tAesOuNam *ALIA, wet,