The Exeter Advocate, 1897-4-1, Page 7PRAISE FOR GREECE.
REV. DR.TALIVIAGE ON A SUBJECT
OF WORLDWIDE INTEREST.
He Shows What We Owe the (iirooks—.A
Debt in Language, Art, Heroism and
Med Mine—The Best Way to PaY the Debt.
Washington, March 28 —As Dr. ' Tal-
mage's sermons are published on both
sides of the ocean tibia discourse On a
snbject of worldwide' iuterest will attract
universal attention. His text was Bo
mans i, 14, "I ani debtor both to the
Greeks and to the barbarians."
At this time, wheu that behemoth on
abominetiOnS, Mohammedanism, after
having gorged itself on the caecassses of
100,000 Armenians, is tryine to put its
paws upon ono of the faieest7 of all na-
tions, that of the Greeks I. peeiteth this
sermon of sympathy and protest, for
every intelligent person on this side of
the sea, as well. as the 'other side, lilie
Paul, who wrote the text, is debtor to
the Greeks. The present ceisie is em-
phasized by the guns of the • allied
powers of Europe, ready to be uplimbered
against the Rellenes, and 1 ale asked to
speak out. Pant, with a master intellect
of the ages, sat in brilliant Corinth, the
great Aero-Corinthus fortress frowning
from the heighu of 1,080 feet, anti in the
house of Gains, where he was a guest, a
• big pile of money near him, .which he
was taking. to Jerusalem for the, poor.
In this letter to the Romans, wen%
Chrysostoin admired so much that he had
it read to him twice a week, Paul pries-
tically say se "I, the apostle, an bank
runt. 1 awe what I cannot pay, but I
will pay es largo a, percentage as I cart.
It is an obligation for what Greek Mora -
tire and tneek set ti !gore and Greek archi-
tecture and Greek prowess have done far
lee. I will pay all I ettn in instalments
of evangelism. I ale insolvent to the
Greeks," Hellas, es the inhabitants call
it, or Greece, as wo call it, is Weigel/l-
eant in sixe, about a third es large as the
state of New York, but what it leeks in
breadth it makes up in heigbt, with its
incuntains Cylene and • Eta Lunt Taygetus
and Tynaphrestus'etteh over 7,000 feet in
elevation, and it Parnassus, Over 8,000,
Just the country or mighty men to be born
in,for in all lands the most of the intellec-
tual and moral giants NSTre not born on the
plain, but had .tor cradle the native
between two enoutains. That country, no
part of which is more than 40 miles from
the sea, has made its epress upon the
world as ro other nation, and it to -day
holds a first wort:glee of obligation. upon
all civilized people. ''Aeliile we must leave
to statesmanship and diplomacy the set-
tlement of the intricate questions which
now involve all Europe and indirectly all
natione, it is time for all ehnrches'all
schools, all univereitill es, aarts, all liter
-
attire, to sound out in the most emphatic:
way tho devlaration, "I aan debtor to
the Graeae"
The (ireok Language.
In the first plain, we owe to their lang-
uage our New Testament. All of it Was
first written in Greek, except the book
of nianhew, ant that, written in the
Arm:mean language, was soon put into
Greek by our Saviour's brother James.
To the Greek language we owe the best
sermon ever preached, the be.st letters
,ever wirtten, the best visions ever kin -
"idled. All the parables in Greek. All the
miraeles in Greek. The sermon on the
mount in Greek. The story of Bethlehem
and Golgotha. and Olivet and Jordan
banks and Galilean beaches and Pauline
• 'embarkation and Pentecostal tongues and
seven trumpets that sounded over Pat -
mos have come to the world in liquid,
symmetrical, picturesque, philosophic,
unrivaled Greek, instead of the gibberish
language in which many of the nations
of tho earth at that time jabbered. Who
can forgot it, and who can exaggerate its
thrilling importance, that Chisb and
neaven were introduced to us in the lang-
uage of the Greeks, the language in
which Homer had sung and Sophocles
dramatized and Pato dialoeued and So-
crates discoursed and Lyourgus legislated
and Demosthenes thundered his oration
on "The Crown?" Everlasting thanks
to God that the waters of life were not
heedea to the world in the unwashed
cup of corrupt languages from which
nations had been drinking, but in the
clean, bright, golden lipped; emerald
handled chalice of the Mimes. Learned.
Curtius wrote a whole volume about the
Greek verb. Philologists century after
century have been nensuring the syne
reetry of that language, laden with elegy
and philippic, drama ;Ind comedy. "Odys-
sey" and "Riad," but the grandest thieg
that Greek language ever accomplished
was to give to the world the benediction,
the comfort the irradiation, the salve-
. tion, of the gospel of the Son of God.
For that we are debtors to the Greeks.
And while speaking of our philological
obligations let inc call your attention to
the fact that numy of the intellectual and
moral and theological leaders of the ages
got much of their discipline and effective-
ness from Greek literature. It is popular
to scoff at the dead languages but 80
per cent. of the world's intellectuality
w uld have been taken off if through
1 ned institutions our young men had
n t, under competent professors, been
drilled in Greek masterpieces, Hesiod's
"Weeks and Days," or the enlegium by
Sineonides of the slain in wen or Pin
dar's "Odes of Victory," or "The Recol-
lections of Socrates," or "The Art of
Words," by Corax, or Xenophon's "Ana -
basis."
klistory and the Greeks.
From the Greeks the world learned
how to make history. Had there been no
Herodotus and Thucydides there would
have been no Macaulay or Bancroft. Had
there been no Sophocles in tragedy there
, would have been no Shakespeare, Had
there been no Homer there would bane
been no Millen. The modern wits, who
are now or have been put on the divine
' rniesion amaing the world laugh at the
right time, can Itraced back to Aristo-
phanes, the Athenian, and many of the
jocosities that are now taken as new had
their suggestions 2,800 years ago in tbe
54 comedies of that in:aster of merriment.
Grecian inythology has beert the richest
mine ham which orators and essayists
have drawn their illustrations and
Painters the themes for their canvas,
and; although now au nearly ' exhausted
• iniee, Grecian mythology has done
a weds that nothing else could have
accoMplished. Hennas, representing the
north. wind; Sisyphus, vollipg. the) stone
up the hill, only to have the same thims
to do over again; Tantalus, with fruitl
above him that ho could not reach;
Achilles, with his arrows; Icarus, With
hie waxen wings, flying too'near the sun;
' the Centaurs, ball man and half beast;
Orpheus, with his lyre; Atlas, with the
• world on his bock—all. these 'and more
L470 helped literature, from the geadeates
speech on ocimmenceinent day tie Rufus
Olioate's enlogiura on Daniel Webster at
Dartmouth, Tragedy and comedy Were
born in the festivals of Dioeysius at
Athens. The lyrio and elegiac and epic
poetry of Greece 500 years betore Christ
has its echoes in the Tennysons, Long -
follows and Bryauts of 1,800 and 1,900
years atter Christ, There is not an effec-
tive pulpit or editorial chair or professor's
room,cultured parlor or intelligent farm-
house to -day in America or Europe that
could not appropriately employ Paul's
ejaculation and say, "I am debtor to the
• Greeks.
The fact is this—Paul had got much
of his oratorical power oi expression from
She Greeks. That he had studied their
literature was evident when, standing in
the presence of an audienee • of Greek
seholars on Mars hill, winch overlooks
Athens, he dared to emote from one of
their own Greek poets, either Cleantletts
or Aratus, dm:lazing, "As certain also of
your own poets have said, 'Fee we are
also his offspring.' " And he made ace
eurate quotation, Cleanthus, one of the
poets, having written
For we thiee offspring are. All things
that (troop . .
Are but the echo 'of the veice divine,
And Annus, one of their own palate,
had written:—
Doth care perplex? Is lowering danger
nigh? •
We are hie offspring, and to Jove we ily.
It was rather a risky thing for Paul to
attempt to cpeote e.xtemportineously from
a poem in a longtime() foreign to his and
before Greek scholars, but Paul did it with-
out stammering teed then acknowledged
before the most distinguished audience
on the planet his indebtednees to the
Greeks, eryiug out in his oration, "As
ono of your own poets has said."
Greek Architecture.
Fuetherniore, till 'nee civilized world,
like Paul, is indebted to the Greeks for
architecture. The world before the thee
of the Greeks had built monoliths, oho-
• liske, cromlechs, spliinxes and. pyramids,
but they were mostly monumental to the
deed whom they fallen to memorialize.
We are not certein even of the ntunes of
those in whose commemoration the ppm -
ends were built. But Greek architecture
did most for the lining. Ignoring Egypt-
ian precedents and borrowing nothing
from other panties, Greek arehitecture
carved, its own columns, sot its own pedi-
ments, adjusted its own, entablatures,
rounded its own molding and carried out
as never before the three qualities of
right building, called by an old author
"Emily's, utilitas, venustas"—naanely,
firmness, usefulness, beauty. Although
the Parthenon on the Aoropolis of Athens
is only a wreck of the storms and earth-
quakes end bombardments of many ma-
turies, anti. although Lord Eight took
from one side of that building, at an ex-
pense ot $250,000, two shiploads,of sculp-
ture, one shipload going clown in the
Alediterraneun and the other shipload
now to be Sound in the British museum,
the Parthenon, though in comparative
ruins, has been an inspiration to all
architects for centuries past and will be
an inspiration all the time from now un-
til the world itself is a temple of ruin.
Oh, that Parthenon! One never gets ove.•
having once seen it. But what must
have been when it stood as its arrhilese.
Ikitnos and Kallikrates, built it out 0.
Pentelican marble, 'white as Mont
at noonday noonday and as overwhelming. ilniele
above height. Overtopping the , le .ite
and majestic: pile and. rising from it, et,:
WaS a statue of Pallas Fromm...as
bronze, so tall and flashing ilist
far out at sea beheld the plume et lie.
helmet. Without the aid of the i.:ernst
God it never could have been plennet.
and without the aid of Clod the elaisei:
and trowels never could have constructe.:
it There is not a flee ohureh build:lig hi
all the world, or a, properly consult:sod
courthouse, or a beautiful art gallery, or
an appropriate audItoritim, or n tasteful
home, which, because of that, Parthenon,.
whether its style or some other style be
adopted, is not directly or indirectly a
debtor to the Greeks
But there is another art in my mind—
the most facthating, elevating and inspir-
ing of all arts and the nearest to the
divine—for which all the world owes a
debt to the Rellencs that will never be
paid. I mean sculpture. .At least 650
years before Christ the Greeks perpetu-
ated the human Mee and form in terra
cotta and marble. What a blessing to the
human family that men and women,
'nightly useful, who could live only
within a century may be perpetuated for
five or six or ten centuries! Row I wish
that some sculptor conteinporaneous with
Christ could have put bis matchless fornt
in marble! But for every grand and ex-
quisite statue of Martin Luther, of John
Knox, of William Penn, of Thomas Chal-
mers, of Wellington, of Lafayette, of any
of tbe great statesmen or emancipators or
conquerors who adorn your parks or fill
the niches of your grand academies,you
are debtors to the Greeks. They cbvered
the Acropolis, they glorified the temples.
they adorned the cemeteries with stat-
ues, some in cedar, some in ivory, some
in silver, some in gold, some in size dim-
inutive and some in size colossal. Thanks
to Phidias, who worked in stone; to
Clearchus, who worked in bronze; to
Dontas, who worked in gold, and to all
ancient chisels of commemoration. Do
you not realize that for inany of the wan -4
ders of sculpture we are debtors to the
Greeks?
The Art of Keisling.
Yea, for the science of medicine, the
great art of healing, we must thank the
Greeks. There is the immortal Greek
doctor, Hippocrates, who first opened the
door for disease to go out and hetelth to
come in. He first set forth the import-
ance of cleanliness and sleep, making the
patient before treatment to be washed
and take shunber on the hide of a sacri-
ficed beast. He first discovered the in
portance of thorough • prognosie and
diagnosis. He fornaulateci the famous
oath of Hippocrates which is taken by
physicians of our day. He emancipated
medicine from superstition, etepiricisne
and priestcraft. He was the father of all
the infirmaries, hospitals and medical
colleges of the last 28 centuries. Ancient
medicament and surgery hadbefore that
beenanatomical and physiological assault
and battery, and lone; After the time of
Hippocrates, the Greek doctor, where his
theories were not known, the Bible speaks
of fatal medical treatment wben it says,
"In his disease he sought not to the
Lord, but to . the physicians, and As
slept with his fathers." And we read in
the New Testament of the pcsir woman
who had been treated by incompetent'
doctors, who asked large fees, where it
says, t`She had suffered many things of
nannyhysicians and liad spent all that
she htd and was nothing, better; but
rat-het:grew worse." leir our glorious
sciende of Medicine and surgery—more
stibliMe• than astronomy, for we have ,
moreito do with disease than with the
stare; more beautiful than botany, for
bloom of health in the cheek of wife and
child is worth more to us that all the
roses of the garden—for this grandest of
all sciences, the science of bealing, every
pillow of recovered invalid, every wad
of Atnerican and. Eurepean hospital, may
well ory out: "Thank God for old 'Dr.
Hippocrates. I, like Paul, am indebted
to the Greeks."
Furthermore, all the world Is obligated
to Hellas more than it can ever pay for
lis 'heroics in the OallSe of liberty and
right. Indeed Europe to -day had not
better think that the Greeks will hot
fight There may be falliugs back and
vacillations and temporary defeat, but if
Greece is night all. Europe cannot put her
down. The other nations, before they
open the portholes of their men-of-war
against flint small kingdom, had better
read of the battle of Marathon, where
10,000 Athenians, led on by Miltitsdes,
trinutphed over 100,000 of their enemies.
Ap that time, in Greek council of war,
five generals were for beginning the
battle and five were against it. Canine-
acnus presided at the eouncils of war,
had the deciding veto, and. binnacles
addeessed him, saying.—
'15 now rests with you, Callimachus,
either to enslave Athens, or, by insuring
her freedom, to win yourself an brinier-
tality of tame, for never since the Athen-
ians evere a people • Were they In such
danger as they tire in at this moment. If
they bow the knee to' these Modes, they
are to be given up to Hippies, and you
know what they will then have to suffer,
brit if Athens conies victorious out of
this contest she has 15 in her power to
become the flint city of Greece. Your note
is to decide whether we tire to join battle
or not. If we do nor bring on a battle
presently, seine factions intrigue will
disunite the Athenians, and the city will
be betrayed to the Meds, but if we fight
before there is anything rotten in the
state of Athens I believe that, provided.
the gods will give fair field and no
favor, we are able to get the best of it in
the engagement."
Greek nerves.
That won the vote of Callimachus, and
soon the battle opened, and In full rues
She men of Miltiades fell upon the Per-
sian hosts, shouting: "On, sons of
Greece! Strike for the freecloni of your
country! Strike for the freedom of your
children ami your wives, for the shrines
of your fathers' gods and for the sepuls
°hers of your sires!" Wbile only 192
Greeks fell 0,400 Persians lay dead upon
She field, and many of the Asiatic hosts
who took to the war vessels in the har-
bor were censuined in the shipping.
• Persian oppression was rebuked, Gxecian
liberty was achieved, the cause of civili-
zation was advanced, and the western
world and all natious have felt the hero-
ics. Had there been no Miltiades there
miglet have been no Washington.
• Also at Thermopylae 800 Greeks, a
long a road only wide enough for a wheel
traek between a mountain and a marsh,
died rather than surrender, Had there
been no 'Thermopylae there might have
been no Bunkee Rill. The echo of
Athenian and Spartan heroics was heard
at the gates of Lucknow, and Sevas-
topol, and Bitiaeoeltburn, and Lexington,
and Gettysburg. English elagna, Charta,
and Declaration of American Independ-
ence, and the song of Robert Burns, en-
titled "A Man's a Man For a' That,"
were only the long continued reverbera-
tion of what was said and done 20 cen-
turies before in that little kingdom that
She powers are now imposing upon.
Greece heving again and again shown
that 10 men in the right are stronger
than 100 rnen in the wrong, the heroics
of Leonidas and Aristides and Theanis-
tocles will not cease their mission until
the last inan on earth is as free as God
made hien There is not on either side of
the Atlantic to -day a republie that can-
not truthfully employ the words of the
text and say, "I am debtor to the
Greeks."
Debt to the Greeks.
But now comes the praotical question,
How can we pay that debt or a part of
it? For we cannot pay more than 10 per
cent. of that debt in which Paul acknow-
ledged himself a bankrupt. By praying
Almighty God that he will help Greece
in its present war wi th Mohamnieudanism
and the concerted empires of Europe. 1
know her queen, a noble, Christian wo-
man, her face the throne of all beueil-
come and loveliness, ber life an example
of noble wifehood and motherhood. God
help those palaces in these days of awful
exigency! Our American senate did well
the other day; when, in that capitol
building whien owes to Greece its col-
umnar impressiveness, they passed a
hearty resolution of sympathy for that
nation. Would that all who have potent
words that can be beard in Europe would
utter them now, when they are so much
needed! Let us repeat to them iu English
what they centuries ago declared to the
world in Greek, "Blessed are those who
are persecuted. for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Another way of partly paying our debt
to the Greeks is by higher appreciation of
the learning and self-sacrifice of the inen
who in our own land stand for all that
the ancient Greeks stood While here
and there one cotnes to public approval
and reward the auost of them live in
privation or on salary disgracefully small.
The scholars, the archaeologists, the
artists, the literati—most of them live up
three or four flight of stairs and by small
windows that do not let in the full sun-
light You pass theta every every cley in
your streets without any recognition.
Grtib street, where many of the mighty
men of the past suffered, is long enough
to reach around the world. No need of
wasting our sympathy upon the unap-
preciated thinkers and workers of the
past, though Linnaeus sold his works
for a single ducat, though Noah Webster's
spelling book yielded blin more than his
dictionary, though Correggio, the great
painter, receiving for long continued
work payment of $39, died from overjoy;
though when Goldsmith's friends visited
hhu they were obliged to sit in the Will-
dOW, as he had but •one chair; though
Samuel Boyse, the great poet, starved to
death; though the author of "Hudfbras"
died iu a garret, though "Paradise Lost"
brought its author only $25 cash down,
with promise of $50 more if the sale
warranted it, so that $75 was all that
was paid for what is considered the
greatest poein ever written. Better turn
our attention to the fact that there are
at this moment hued -reds of • authors
painters, • sculptors, architects, brain
workers, without bread and without fuel
and without competent appatel. As far
as you can afford it, buy their sculpture,
read their books, purcbasetheir pictures,
encourage their pen, their' pellet', .their
chisel, their engraver's knife, their archi-
tect's compass. The world calls thena
"bookworms'' or "Dr. Dryasdust," but
if there had been no bookworms or dry
doctors of law and science apcl theology
there woulci have been no Apocalyptic
angel. They are the Greeks of our Nun-
oronto Type Foundry Co. Ltd.
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try and time and your obligation to them
in infleite.
Way to Pay the Debt.
But there is a better way to pay them,
ased, that is by their personal salvation,
which will never come to them through
books or through leareed presentation,
because in literatuve and intelectual
realms they are masters. They cart out -
argue, outquote, outtlogmatize you. Not
through the gate of the head, but
through the gate of the heart, you may
capture them. When men of learning aud
might are brought to God, they are
brought by tho simplest story of what re-
ligion can do for a soul. They have lost
cbeldren. Oh, tell there how Quest coin -
forted you wben you lost your bright boy
or blue es ed girl! They balm fou.nd life
a struggle. Oh, tell them how Christ has
helped you all the way throtigh 1 They
are in bewilderment. Oh, toll them with
how many hands of joy heaven beekoes
you upward! "When Greek meets Greek,
then comes the tug of was," but when a
warm hearted Christian meets a inan
wbo needs pardon and sympathy and
comfort and eternal life then comes vic-
tory. If you can, by some ineident of self
sacrifice, bring to such scholarly men
and wcneen what Christ has done for
their eternal rest:tie, you rnay bring them
in. •Where Deumethenie eloquence and
Homeric imagery would fail a kindly
heart throb may succeed. A gentleman
of this city sends tam the statetment of
what occurred a few clays ago among the
iniees of British Columbia. It seems
that Frank Colson and ;tem Smith were
down in the =anew shaft of a mine.
They hail, loaded an iron bucket with
coal, and Jim Reansworth, standing
above grouud, was hauling the bucket
up by windlass, when the windlass broke,
and the loaded bucket was descending
upon the two miners. Then Jim Hems-
worth, seeing what must be certain death
to the miners beneath, threw himself
against the cogs of the whirling • wind-
lass, and though his flesh was torn and
his bones were broken he stopped the
whirling wiedlass and arrested the de-
scending bucket and saved the lives of
the two miners beneath. The saperin-
tendent of the mine flew to the rescue
and blocked the machinery. When Jim
Hernsworth's bleeding and broken body
was put on a litter and carried home-
ward aud some one exclaimed, "Jim, this
is awful!" he replied, "Ob, what's the
difference so long as I saved the boys?"
What an illustration it was of suffer-
ing for others, and what a text from
which to illustrate the behavior of our
Christ. limping and lacerated and broken
and torn and crushed in the work of
seopping the descending ruin that would
have destroyed our souls! Try such a
scene of vicarious suffering as this on
that man capable of overthrowing all
your argtunents, for the truth, and he
will sit down and weep. Draw your
illustrations from the classics, and it is
to him an old story, but Leyden jars and
electric batteries and telescopes and Greek
drama will all surrender to the story of
Jim Reinsworth's 4cOh, what's the differ-
ence so long as I saved the boys?"
Then, if your illustration of Christ's
self sacrifice, drawn from some scene of
In -day, and yotu story of what 'Christ has
done for you do not quite fetch him into
the right way, just say to him, "Pro-
fessor—doctor—judge, why was 15 that
Paul declared be was a debtor to tho
Greeks?" And ask your learned friend
to take his Greek testament and translate
for you, in leis OWY1 way, from Greek
into English, the splendid peroration of
Paul's sermon on Mars hill, under the
power of which the scholarly Dionysius
surrendered—namely, "The times of this
ignorance God winked at, but now corm-
reandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hatb appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in right-
eousness, by what Mat1 whom he hath
ordained, whereof he hath given asstir-
ance unto all men in that he bath raised
him from the dead." By the thee he has
got through the trapslation front the
Greek I think you will see his lip trem-
ble, and there will come a pallor on his
face like the pallor on the sky at day-
break. By the eternal salvation of that
scholar, that great thinker, that splendid
man, you will have done something to
help pay your indebtedness to the Greeks.
And now to Gad the Father, God the
Son and God the Holy Ghost be honor
and glory and dominion and victory and
song, world without end. Amen.
A New Book Canvasser.
Here is a picture of the Roman book
canvasser. The snow white Mauritanian
steeds, with the heaving flanks, the
pointed ears, the crimson nostrils, are
reined up. From the chariot descended
the master, who, giving his flowing toga
an extra graceful fold, entered a house
on the Via Aurelia. Presently a Seythitrn
slave bellowed his lord, bearing in hit
sturdy arms a precious fassieulus, folly
illustrated, up to date and stmerbly
bound in Persian cloth, It was a Pliny
in 16 volumes, a subscription book. Stith
were the naethods of the canvasser in tile
palmy clays of Roane.
li we are to credit a recent florid de-
scription in a leading literary review.'
the Roman method is the way of a cer-
tain kind of book agent of to-day1-be
rides hi his own eoupe, drawn by what
the French call a steppare. The princely
canvasser never would debase his calling
by carrying the book he offers hthaself.
His servant in liVery totes it The:136°1e
he works for costs jr011). 21,000 to 22,500
a copy. It is a volume svbich common
people may not buy. It is only offered to
"shahs, maharajahs, emperors, kings,
presidents." Here are indeed the heroics
of the subscription book business.
THE PRACTICE OF MASSAGE.
A. Demand That it Should be Restricted by
Law to the Instructed Only.
While the public is protected by neces-
sary laws and regulations against the
deception and. quackery formerly existing
in many professions and vocations having
relation, to its bealth arid general affairs,
there exists no protection, under any
law or government, against the palpable
incompetency of a certain very numerous
class of masseurs and masseuses, who,
while professing a profound knowledge
of mechanical therapeutios in general,
and especially massage, are yet wholly
destitute of the requisite education, abil-
ity and talent.
In many oases 'where massage, as an
auxiliary to medical and surgical prac-
tice, would produce a most desirable
effect it is left to be applied by ignorant
impostors of either sex,with no qualifica-
tion beyond their own assertion displayed
on sign -boards or in deceptive advertise-
ments in certain newspapers. The danger
of this practice is easily perceived. The
limits of massage are well defined. But
these bold adepts of Ling and Metzger
fear no consequences, They will "rub' a
malignant tumor as cheerfully as they
will treat a purulent process or any in-
fectious disease when noli me tangere
should be the watchword. 1 have known
them, in cases of lateral curvature of the
spine to rub and exercise the muscles of
the concave side and consecrate this
method by giving to it the assuring name
of "Swedish" massage. Tbe embellish-
ment and modification of tbe female fig-
ure are the latest achievements in mod-
ern mechanical therapeutics of this cate-
gory. The fact is that the prevailing
massage operator," or so called "medi-
cal rubber," is well aware that he can
do no good. But his utter ignorance of
the physiological effects of massage pre-
vents him from knowing that hcan
inflict great injury.
It is strange that the United States
should possess the best physicians and
surgeons in the world, but tbe worst
masseurs. The virtue of massage is not
overlooked. But the difficulty of finding
educated and skillful men is the root of
the evil. Proofs of this assertion are visi-
ble every day. In a recert article in The
Medical Record a well known physician
remarks that: "Massage, to be of any
value, 1.1111St be properly and scientifically
done. There are many people who pose
as masseuse and masseuses who do not
know the first thing about the subject,
and these people must be avoided if one
would not do his patient ham."
Dr. Benjamin Lee,in his valuable essay
on "Swedish Movements and Massage,"
confirms this opinion by saying:—
"It is not too much to require that no
one of either sex shall attempt to perform
remedial manipulations upon our patients
who does not possess a knowledge of the
leading facts in anatomy, such as the
position and comparative size of the vari-
ous organs and the position and course
of the larger blood vessels and nerves and
of such facts in physiology as the func-
tions of tbe organs, the course of the cir-
culation, assimilation and nutrition, of
She modes of applying massage and
movements in such a way as to secure
the best results in the briefest time and
with the least discomfort to the patient,
of the effects produced locally and gen-
erally upon the system by the different
methods of procedure, of the order in
'which they should be used and of the in-
jury which may be inflicted by employ -
ng them improperly or be inappropriate
cases. No one is competent to acquire
such knowledge who has not had a cer-
tain amount of education. To these en-
dowments of nature and education must
be added a manual dexterity in the ap-
plication of the various procedures which
can only be acquired by careful training
under an experienced instructor. Hence
it will be understood that the stable and
the laundry are not, on the whole, the
best schools from which to graduate
practitioners of this art"
There exists no good reason why the
practice of massage should not be regu-
lated arid restricted. In Sweden and
other countries where the practitioners of
mechanotherapy enjoy the confidence of
the medical profession no one is per-
mitted to administer massage who is not
qualified by the state board of medicine.
The same naethod could easily be adopted
here. If a reputable masseur or masseuse
should apply to a state board of medicine
for a certificate, let his or her compet-
ency and record be voncbed for by a
certain number of physicians. I believe
that a legislative act of this kind would
be hailecl with delight by the public, the
medical profession and by all legitimate
masseurs. Mini something is done in
this direction cheap schools of massage
will continue to furnish grooms and ser-
vant girls with "diplomas," and a Valli -
able auxiliary to inedical and surgical
practice will reinain a constant source of
danger and abuse in the hands of uelet-
tered and unskilled asseeners.—Axel C.
Hallbeck- in n.levs York Sun.
A Suspicious Subject.
A gentleman was riding on the outside
of a coach in the west when the driver
said to him :--
"I've had a coin guy' me to -day 200
years old. Did you ever see a coin e00
years old?"
"Oh, yes. I have one myself 2,000 years
old."
"Ah," said the driver, "have ye?" arid
spoke no more during' the rest of the
journey.
When the coach arrived at its destina-
tion) the driver turned to the other With
an n onse y se Satisfied air and said ,
"I told. you as we druv' along 1 bacl a
coin 200 years old."
It'es 1
".And you said to me as you had one
2,000 years old."
'Yes,so I hove."
"That's not true."
"What do you mean by that?"
"What do 1 mean? Why, it's only
1897 now."—London Tit -Bits.
Vletolle kras Never Seen Parliament.
It is a curious circumstance that Queen
Viotoria has epver seen her "faithful
commorts" ne session. She is denied a
spectacle that zna,y be witnessed by the
humblest of her subjects. It cap bardly
be said with truth in these times that
the preseece of the sovereign in the
House of Commons would influenoe de-
bate. Neither does the other old consti-
tutional theory that the presence of the
sovereign would be a violation of the
freedom and the secrecy of the debaters
hold good in these days of verbatirn
newspaper parliamentary reports. Her
Majesty could Indeed be an uziobserved
spectator of the House of Commons at
work if she sat behind the grill of the
ladies' gallery, but this would not be
consistent with the dignity of Victoria,
and the fact remains that she has never
been in the House of Commons.
Hypnotism at a Fire.
The professional hypnotist who has
been in the city for several days had an
opportunity the other nighe of demon-
strating his power beyond contradiction
and in a manner that caused physicians
to look amazed and interested. Just
about the close of a performance at the
opera house last night the fire alarin was
sounded, and a lady anil a gentleman
attending had left their babe at the
house whieh was burning. when the
father disoevered the house on fire, he
seemed to have lost his reason and fran-
tically ran to the place and kicked
through a large window light, cutting
his shoe in three or four places and get-
ting an ugly gash in his foot, He then
'made a dive through the window, regard-
less of glass or sash, and ran into the
burning room from, where it took four
men to carry him, and assurances by
them that his only babe was safe ill a
house just aeross the street were uniseed-
ed by him.
They then carried him by force, which
required the combined strength of four
strong men, to where the child was; but
he evidenced symptoms of convulsions
and was placed upon a bed, and it
seemed that scarcely enough men could
get to hint to hold him there. In the
struggle the bedstead eta torn down. A
prominent physician began pmptutation
of a medicine to be administered. Mean-
while a boy bad gone for the hypnotist,
who came up, requesting those holding
the gentleman to release him, remarking,
"He is only sleepy." Then, gently plac-
ing his bands on his head, he said:
"You are almost asleep. You are going
to sleep. NOW, when I count three, you
will sieep." Tbe nem ceased his struggl-
ing and slept. }Ie was allowed to remain
quiet for only a few minutes, wheu the
hypnotist began 50. talk to him, assuring
him that lie would soon awake and
would know nothing about what had
happenen, which he did at the operator's
command and in amazement asked how
he ertme to be there and what had soiled
his clothes,. The babe was brought to
hinn and the hypnotiet quietly slipped
out of the crowd ants departed. Skeptic -
in regard to hypnotic power is a back
issue here. and the most learned men are
the ODOS most interested and puzzled.—
Palestine iTex.) Letter in Galveston
News.
Prison Sold at Auction.
The literature of auetioneering is full
of cleverness and verbal oddities, but
Carlow, England, nuns up with a line
of humor which is all the more effective
because it is so unconscious. An adver-
tisement recently printed there stated
that "the old gaol" would be offered in
one lot. It goes on to particularize with
enthusiasm and dilate with zeal coneern-
ing a "female prison of 30 cells," "debt-
ors' prison," "convict prison, containing
84 cells," "house of correction," ''tread-
mill" and "three throw pump," and "all
cells are lilted with double wrought iSon
doors, bolts and locks and floored with
granite or tags." In fact, "all modern
improvements" svould seem to be the
only additional necessity in the way of
enticing description.—New York World.
inextfngaisbable Fire.
An extended aeonnt is given in the
Cincinnati Enquirer of John Floyd' s dis-
covery of a peculiar kind of fire, inex-
tinguishable when once ignited. It is
represented as a substance havnig the
consistency of paste and harmless while
in a quiet state. The friction caused by
rubbing it agaixtst a hard sueeace
however, set it aglow, and nothing will
overcome the flame, the latter burning
with it bine light and an intense heat
until the compound is completely de-
stroyed by combustion, water having no
effeet upon it.
Dynamite and gunpowder require a
spark to ignite them, while powder pro -
'duces an explosion, but not a regular
Are. But to ignite this compound there
is Just the slightest friction of rubbing it
against some ordinary substance—there
is then no explosion or rapid spreading
of flames, but a strange, living lire, in-
capable of being stamped out or killed in
any known way. The inventor states his,
of wrt aisilksi is no togomn loses itptyl ca 3:alb< stonl7d 0 oil :In gg.re ecdc laInb