The Exeter Advocate, 1897-4-8, Page 7BUILDING THE CITY.
ii.NEHEMIAH'S RIDE TO THE RUINS
OF JERUSALEM.
•
The Enchantment of the Moonlight and
Nehemiah's Resolve -Love of the Church
of God -Ruin and Redemption .- The
Great Good That Comes From Trouble.
Washington' April 4.---Frorn the weird
a
and midnight experiences of one of
ancient times Dr. Talmage in his sermon
,draws lessons startlingly appropriate.
His text was Neltennah in 15, "Then
weut I up in the night by the brook and
'viewed the wall and turned back and,
entered by the gate of the valley, and so
returned."
' A dead city is more suggestive than a
living city—past Rome than present
sRome.ruins rather than newly frescoed
'cathedral. But the best time to visit a
ruins is by moonlight. The Coliseum is
far more fascinating to the traveler after
sundown than before. You may stand
by daylight amid the monastic ruins of
Melrose abbey and study shafted oriel
and rosetted stone and mullion, but they
throw their strongest witchery by moon-
light. Some of you remember what the
enchanter a Scotland said in the "Lay
of the Last Minstrel" :—
'Wouldst thou view fair Melrose aright»
Go visit it by the pale moonlight.
Washington Irvieg describes the Anda-
lusian moonlight upon the Alhambra
ruins as amounting to an enchentment.
My text presents you Jerusalem in ruins.
The tower down. The gates down. The
walls down. Everything down. Nehe-
miah on horseback by moonlight looking
upon the ruins, While he rides there are
some friends on foot going with him,
for they do not want the many horses to
disturb the suspasions of the people,
nese people do not know the secret of
Nehemiah's heart, but they are going as
a sort of bodyguard. I hear the clicking
' hoofs of the horn on which Nehemiah
rides as ha guides it this way and that,
' into this gate and out of that, winding
• through that gate amid the debris of
once great Ierusalem.
Rebuilding the City.
• Now the horse comes to dead halt at
the tumbled inasonry where he cannot
pass, Now he shies off at the charred tine-
. bers. Now he comes along where the water
under the moonlight flashes from the
'mouth of the arazen dragon after whioh
the gate was named. 'Heavy tweeted
Nehemieh! Riding in and out, now by
his old home desolated, now by the de-
faced temple, now amid the scars of the
city that hod gone down under battering
ram and conflagration. The escorting
party knows not what Nehemiah aneaus.
Is he getting crazy? Have his own per-
sonal sorrows, added to the sorrows of
the nation. unbalanced his intellect? Still
the midnight exploration goes on. Nebe-
math on horseback rides through the fish
gate, by the tower of the furnaces, by the
king's pool, by the dragon well, in and
out, in :ma out, =tit the midnight ride
et completed, and Nehemiah dismounts
from his horse, and to the amend and
confounded and Morcidulous bodyguard
declares the dead secret of his heart when
be says, "Come, now, let us build Jena-
ealem," "What, Nehemiah, have you any
•• money?" "Ne." "Rave you any kingly
authority?" "No," "Have you any elo-
quence?" "No." Yet that midnight
moonlight ride of Nehemiala resulted in
the glorious rebuilding of the city of
Jerusalem. The people knew not how
the thing was to be dope, but with great
enthusiasm they cried out, "Let us rise
up now and build the city." Some peo-
ple laughed and said it could not be
done. Some people were infuriated and
offered physical violertee, sayieg the thing
should not be done. But the workmen
went right on, standing on tbe wall,
trowel in one hand, sword in the other,
until the work was gloriously completed.
At that very time in Greece Xenophon
Was writing a history, and Plato was
making philosophy, and Demosthenes
was rattling his rhetorical thunder. But
all of them together did not do so much
for the world as this midnight, moon-
light ride of praying, courageous, home-
sick, close mouthed Nehemiah.
Love of the Church.
My subject first impresses me with the
Idea, what an intense thing is church
affection. Seize the bridle of that horse
and stop Nehemiah. Why are you risk-
ing your life here in the night? Your
horse will stumble over these ruins and
fall on you Stop this useless exposax.e of
your life. No. Nehemiah will not stop.
He at last tells us the whole story. He
lets us know he was an exile in a far
distant land, and he was a servant, a
cupbearer in the palace of Artaxerxes
Longima,nus, and one day, while he was
handing the cup of wine to the king the
king said to him: "Wbat is tint matter
with you You are not sick. I know you
must have some great trouble. What is
the matter with you?" Then he told the
• king how that beloved Jerusalem was
• broken down; how that his father's tomb
had been desecrated; how that the tern -
le had been dishonored and defaced;
ow that the walls were scattered and
broken. "Well," says Haig Artaxerxes,
"what do you want?" "Wella' said the
cupbearer Nehemiah, "I want to go
home. I want to fix up the grave of my
• father. I want to restore the beauty of
the temple. I want to rebuild the
masonry of the city wall. Besides I want
passports so that I shall not be hindered
in my journey. And besides that," as
you will find in the context, "I want an
• order on the man who keeps your forest
for just so much timber as I -may need
for the rebuilding of the city." "How
• long shall you be gone?" said the king.
The time of absence is arranged. In hot
haste this ,seeming adventurer comes to
Jerusalem, and in my text we find him
on horseback in the midnight riding
around the ruins. It is through the
spectacles of this scene that we discover
the ardent attachment of Nehemiah for
sacred Jerusalem, whicla in all ages has
been the type of the charch of God, our
• Jerusalem, which we love just as mucb
as Nehemiah loved his Jerttsalem. The
feet is that you love the church of God
eo inuch that there is no spot on • earth
so sacred, unless it be your own fireside.
viewing the Ruins.
,The church has been to you so much
comfort ancl illemination that there is
nothing that makes yen so irate as to
• have it talked against. If there have been
tinies when you bave been carried into
• captivity by sic:traces, you longed for the
church,. our holy Jerusalem, just as much
as Nebetniall longed :rOr his Jerusalem,
• and the Best day you came oat you came
• toethe house of tbe Lord, When the tem-
ple was in ruins, like 'late:mesh, yea
walked averted and looked at it, and In
the moonlight you stood listening .layou
• could beta, the vole of the dead organ,
the psaltn of the expired Sabbaths. What
Jerusalem was to Nehemiah" the ohurch
of God is to you. • Skeptics • and infidels
may scoff at the church, as an obsolete
affair, as a relic of the dark ages, as a
convention of goody goody people, but all
the impression they have ever made on
your mind against the church of God is
absolutely nothing. You would make
more sacrifices for it to -day than any
other institution, and if it were needful
you would die in its • defense. You can
take the words of the kiugly poet as he Isaiah, and that is to give up. You san
said, "If I forgot thee, 0 Jerusalem, let 1. have lost any child and can never
my right hand forget her cunning" You smile again." You say, "I have lost my
understand in your own experleiacie the property, and I never can repair nay for -
pathos, the homesickness, the courage, tunes." You say, "1 bave fallen into
the holy enthusiasm of Nehemiah in his
midnight, moonlight ride around the
ruins of his beloved Jerusalem.
Exploration Necessary.
salem. By night on borseback he rides
through the ruios. He overcomes the
most ferocious opposition. He arouses
the piety and patriotism of the people
and in less than two anonths—namely,
62 days—Jeranaem was rebuilt. That's
what I call busy and triumphant sad -
nese. •
The Desien of Trouble. •
My friends, the whole temptation is
with you whoa you have trouble to do
just the opposite to the bebavior of Nehe-
Again, my text impresses me with the
foot that beaere reconstruction there
must be an exploration of ruins. Why
was not Nehemiah asleep under the coy- then bring the hot iron out on the anvil
ers? • Why was not his horse stabled in and beat with stroke after stroke to ruin
the midnight? Let the police of the oity the iron, but to prepare it for a better
use. Oh, that the Lord God of Nehemiah
would arouse up all broken hearted peo-
ple to rebuild! Whipped, betrayed, ship-
wrecked, arnprisoned, Paul went right
on. The Italian martyr Algerius sits in
his dungeon writing a letter, and he
dates it, "Prom the delectable orchard
of the Leonine prison." That is what I
call triumphant sadness. I knew
mother who buried her babe on Friday
and on Sabbath appeared in the house of
God and said; "Give me a class. Give
me a Sabbath sobool class. 1 bave no
child now left me, and I would, like to
have a class of little children. Give me
a class off the back street." Mat, I say,
is beautiful. That is triumphaot sadness.
At $ o'clock every Sabbath afternoon for
years in a beautiful peeler in Philadel-
phia—a parlor pictured and statuetted—
there were from 10 to 20 destitute chil-
dren a the street. Those destitute chil-
dren received religious instruction, con-
cluding with cakes and sandwiches. How
do I know that that was going on for 16
years? I know it in this way: That was
the first home in Philadelphia where I
was called to comfort a great sorrow.
They had a spleodid boy, and he had
been drowned at Long Branch. The
father anct mother almost idolized. the
boy, and the sob and shriek of that
father and mother as they hung over the
coffin resound in my ears to -day. There
sin, and I never can stare again for a
new life" If satao cam make you form
that resolution and make you keep it, he
has rained you. Trouble is not sent to
crush you, but to arouse you, to animate
you. to propel you. • The blacksmith does
not thrust the iron into the forge and
then blow away with the bellows and
arrest this midnight; rider, out on some
mischief. No. • Nehemiah is going to re-
build the city, and be is making the pre-
liminary exploration. In this gate, out
that gate, east, west, north, south. All
through the ruins. The ruins mist be
explored before the work of reconstruc-
tion cau begin. The reason that so many
people in this day, appareetly converted,
do not stay converted is beeause they did
not first explore the ruins of their own
heart. The reason that there are so many
professed Christians who in this day lie
and forge and steal, and eommit abomin-
ations, and go to the penitentiary, is be-
cause ehey first do not learn the ruin of
their own bean They have not found
out that "the heart is deceitful above tUl
things, and desperately wicked," They
had an idea that they were almost right,
and they built religion as a sort of ex-
tension, as an ornamental cupola. There
was a superstructure of religion built on
.substratum of uereponted sins. The
trouble with a good deal of modern the-
ology is that instead of building on the
right foundation, it builds on the debris
of an =regenerated nature. They at-
tempt to rebuild derusalem before, in the
midnight of conviction, they have seen
the ghastliness of the ruins. They have
such a poor foundation for their religiou
that the first northeast storm of tempta-
tion blows them down. I have DO faith
in a man's conversion if lie is not eon- seemed to be no use of praying, for
verted in the old fashioned way—J ohnwhen I knelt down to pray the outcry in
13unyan's way, John Wesley's way, John the room drowned out all the prayer.
Calvin's way, Paul's way, Christ's even But the Lord comforted that sorrow'.
God's way. A. dentist said to me, "Does They did not forget their trouble. If e, n
that hurt?" Said 1: "Of course it hurts• should go any afternoon ioto Laurel Hill
It is in your business as in my pt•ofes- you would find a monument with thp
sion. We have to hurt before we can
help." You will never understand re-
demption until you understand ruin.
The Old and the New.
A man tells me that some one is a
member of the church. It makes no im-
pression on my mind at all. I simply
want to know wbether he was converted
in the old. fashioned way, or whether he
was converted in the DOW fashioned way.
If he was converted in the olti fashioned
way, he will stand. If he was tonverted
in the new fashioned way, he will not
stand. That is all there is about it. A
UM] comes to me to tan: about lanai )n.
The first question I ask him is, "lei t fel
feel yourself to be a sinner?" It he sey.
"Well, 1—yes,'' the hesittoiey makes. hie
feel that that man wants a ride on Nelte-
mirth's horse by midnight througit the
ruins—in by the gate of his efreetioo,
out by the gate of his will—and beiore
he has got through with that anainiebt
ride he will drop the reins on the lioneas
neck, and will take his right halal and
smite on his heart and say. "God he
merciful to me a sinner," and before la.
has stabled his horse he will take his eat
out of the stirrups, and be will slide
down on the ground, and he will kneel,
crying: "Have mercy on me, 0 God, ac-
cording to thy loving kindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender naereies.
Blot out my transgressions, for I acknow-
ledge nay transgressions, and any sins
are ever before thee." Ab, rny friends,
you see this is not a complimentary
gospel. That is what makes some people
so rnacl. It comes to a man of a ration
dollars'and impenitent in his sins, and
says, "You're a pauper." It comes to a
woman of fairest cheek, who has never
repented, and says, "You're a sinner."
It comes to a man priding himself on
his independence, and says, "You're
bound hand and foot by the devil." It
comes to our entire race, and says,
"You're a ruin, a ghastly ruin, an illimi-
table ruin." Satan ,soneetimes says to
me: "Why do you preach that truth.?
Why don't you preach that truth? Why
don't you preach a gospel with no repent-
ence in it? Why don't you flatter men's
hearts so that you make them feel all
right? Why don't you preach a humani-
tarian gospel, with no repentance in it,
saying nothing &omit the ruin, talking
all the time about the Redemption?"
B,ederoption a Farce Without Ruin.
I say, "Get thee behind me, satan." I
wool& rather lead five souls into safety
than 20,000 into perdition. The redemp-
tion of the gospel is a perfect farce if
there is no ruin. "The whole need nota
physician, but they that are sick." "If
any one, though he be an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel than
this," says the apostle, "let him be ac-
cursed." There must be the midnight
ride over the ruins before Jerusalem can
be built. There must be the clicking of
the hoofs before there can be the ring of
the trowels.
Again. My subject gives me a speci-
men of busy and triumphant sadness. If
there was any man in the world who
had a right to mope and give up every-
thing as lost, it was Nehemiah. You
say, "He was a cupbearer in the palace
of Shushan, and it was a grand place."
So it was. The hall of that palace was
000 feet square, ancl the roof hovered
over 36 marble pillars, each pillar 60
feet high, and the intense blue of the
• sky, and the deep green of the forest
fefliage, and the white of the driven
snow, all hung trembling in the uphol-
stery. But, any friends, you know very
well that fine architecture will not put
clown homesickness. Yet Nehemiah did
not give up. Then when you see him go-
ing among these desolated streets, and
by these dismantled towers, and by the
torn up grave of bis father, you would
suppose that he would have been dis-
heartened, and that he, would have dis-
mounted from his horse and gone to
• his room and said: "Woe . is me! My
father's grave is torn up. The temple is
dishonored. The walls are broken down.
I have no money with which to rebuild.
I wish I had never been born. I wish I
were dead." Not so says larehemiab. • Al-
though he bad a grief so intense that it
excited the commentary of his king, yet
• that penailess, expatriated Nehemiah
rouses Manseli up to reband the city. He
word "Walter" inscribed upon it and a
wreath of fresh flowers around the
name. I think there was not an bour in
20 years, winter or summer'when there
was not a wreath of fresh floevers around
\Vetter's name
Triumphan t Sad ness.
But tbe Christian mother who sent
those flowers there, having no child left,
Sabbath afternoons mothered 10 to 20 of
the lose ones of the street. That is beau-
tiful. That is what I call busy and tri-
umphant sadness. Here is a man who
has lost his property. He does not go to
hard drinking. He does not destroy bis
own life. He comes and says: "Harness
me for Christian work. My money's
gone. I have no treasure on earth. I
want treasures in heaven. I have a voice
and a heart to serve God." You say that
that man has failed. He has not failed—
he has triumphed.
Oh, I wish I could persuade all the
people who have any kind of trouble
never to give upl I wish they would
look at the midnight rider of the text,
and that the four hoofs of that beast on.
which Nehemiah rode might out to
pieces all your discouragements and
hardships and trials. Give up! Who is
going to give up when on the bosom of
God he can have all his troubles hushed?
Give upl Never think of giving up. Are
you borne down with poverty? A little
child was found, holding her dead
!nether's hand in the darkness of a tene-
ment house, and some one coming in
the little girl looked up, while holding
her dead mother's hand, and said, "Oh,
I do wish that God had made more light
for poor folks!" My dear, God • will be
your light, God will be your shelter, God
will be your home. Are you borne down
with the bereavements of life? Is the
house lonely now that the child is gone?
Do not give up. Think of what the old
sextoxi said when the minister asked him
why he put so much care on the little
graves in the cemetery—so much more
• care than on the larger graves—and the
old sexton said, "Sir, you know that 'of
such is the kingdom of heaven,' and I
think the Saviour ispleased when he sees
so much white clover growing :wound
these little graves."
Do Not Give Up.
But when the minister pressed the old
sexton for a more satisfactory- answer the
old sexton said, "Sir, about these larger
graves, I don't know who are the Lord's
sailats and who are not, but you know,
sir, it is clean different with the bairns."
Oh, if you have had that keen, tender,
indescribable sorrow that comes fronx the
loss of a child, do not give up. The old
sexton was right. It is all well with the
bairns. Or, if you have sinned, if you
have sinned grievously—sinned until you
have been cast out by the church, sinued
until you have been cast out by society—
do not give up. Perhaps there may be in
this house one that could truthfully utter
the lamentation of another:—
Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell—
Fell 110 a snowflake, frora heaven to
hell—
Fell to be trampled as 111th in the
street—
Fell to be scoffed at, spit on and beat.
Praying, cursing, wishing to die,
Selling my soul to whoever would buy,
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
Hating the living and fearing the dead.
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Jerusalem will be rebuilded. I pick you
up to -day, out of your sins and out of
your sorrow, and I' put you against the
warm heart of Christ. "The eternal God
is thy refuge, and. -underneath are the
everleting arms."
Wave Power.
B. Morley Fletcher, an associate mem-
ber of the British lostitute of Civil En-
gineers, has been engaged for solne time
in etterying on experiments in. England
looking tothe utilization of the force
developed by the rise and fall of the
WaVE1S of the sea. Many attempts bave
been made to use this enormous power
for mechanical purposes, and it has been
estimated that a very small fraotion of
the energy developed in the sea by the
winds would goatee for all human
needs. Yr. Fletcher has succeeded in
making an experimentel machine which
promises to be of real utility for many
purposes.
The machine is simply a pump ar-
ranged in an ingenious manner, so that
the waves shall work it up and down,
and the force of the stream of water thus
propelled may be used either directly for
operating engines or be =Tied to reser-
voirs and used froan these for producing
energy. lIr. Fleteher's macleine consists,
first, of a strong metal rod, the lower end
of erhich is held stationary at a fixed dis-
tance from the bottom of the sea by
means of , eains and anchors. Near the
I !ear en.' end built so that it can slide
on t.... an is a big, round hollow float,
shaped like a eheesebox. Attached to the
lower side of this float, oue on either
side of the central rod, are the barrels of
two long pumps whose piston rods are
made fast to a cross -piece on the central
rod below. It is evident that if the cent-
ral rod is held firmly the rise and fall
of the floating cylinder at the top will
work the ptuxtps. The difficulty to be
overcome lies in the fact that the central
rod would naturally rise and fall with
the float, To overcome this tendency Mr
Fletcher has carried the lower end of
the central rod down into the sea below
the zone of wave action, and there fast-
ened a great flat disk to the rod. This
disk offers so much resistonce to move-
ment that it holds the central rod prac-
tically stile while the float rises and falls
and does the purnping. A small machine
which was used at Dover hati a float
about 4 feet in diameter and a stroke to
the pumps of 4 feet, and this, when in
full action, developed 3.7 horsepower.
A plant is now being built which is
intended to develop 300 horsepower when
It is fully operated by the waves.—Nees,
York Sun.
• Do not give up. One like unto the Son
of God comes to you to -day, saying, "Go
and sin no more," while he cries out to
your assailants, "Let him that is with-
out sin cast the first stone at her." Oh,
there is no reason why any one in this
house by reason of any trouble or sin
should give up! Are you a foreigner and
in a strange land? Nehemiah was sal
exile. Are you penniless? Nehemiah was
poor. Are you boreesick? Nehemiah was
honaesick. Are you broken hearted? Nehe-
miah was broken hearted. But just see
him ba the text, riding along the Eileen-
eged grave of his father and by the
dragon well and through the flsh gate
and by the king's pool, in and out, in
aed out, the anoonlight falling on the
broltert masonry, which throws a long
shadow, at which the horse shies, and
at the same time that moonlight kindl-
ing up the eeaturos of this ina,n till :you
see not °rata, the meek of sad roan/2;116-
,state bis permission o? absence. He gets cenoe, bra the courage ancl hope, the
lais passports. He hastens away to J, ru. enthusiasm of a mux who knows that
cabinet offices.
An effort will be made during this
congress to have the number of cabinet
officers increased to nine. The proposi-
tion being agitated is to create a cabinet
department of commerce and industry,
says the Washington Star.
The first cabinet, that of Washington,
consisted of five members. The secretary
of state was paid $3,500 a year, and the
others $3,000 each. War and navy formed
one department, and there was no de-
partment of the interior or of agriculture.
The first increase in the number of cab-
inet officers was under President Jeffer-
son, who had a secretary of the navy and
a secretary of war instead of the two
offices being in one, The number re-
mained at six until President Taylor's
term, -when it secretary of the interior
was added. Just before the close of Presi-
dent Cleveland's first term the depart-
ment of agriculture was established and
a secretary of agriculture was created.
Prior to that there had been a commis-
sioner of agriculture.
The salaries of the cabinet officers
have been increased from time to time
until now they are $3,000 each per year.
During the first three or four adminis-
trations of the United States the cabinets
were not composed exclusively of men
who agreed in politics. Washington's
admtnistration was kept in a state of
turmoil by the disagreements between
Hamilton and .Tefferson, until finally the
cabinetwas broken up. Madison, john
Adams and Jaekson bad much trouble
with their cabinets. Madison had 17 men
in his cabinet during ttvo terms. Jack-
son had 19 and Grant had 21. It has
been a rare thing for it cabinet to remain
without change throughout an, entire ad-
ministration.
_
wad concluded, "in_ the event that you
should. not be appointed embassador to
England, could you not give me employ -
went on your railroad as flagman, brake-
man or something of the kind?" Mr.
Depew laughed heartily over the letter
and said that candor and, scope were cer-
tainly virtues of this remarkable appli-
cant. —New York Tribune.
Sun Buns a Printing Press.
Attempts have been made to utilize
the sun's heat to do useful roechanieal
work, and Ericsson, the Swedish inven-
tor, devised a form of engine in evbioh
the rays were reflected from and concen-
trated by a curved mirror upon a small
pipe filled with water, steam being there-
by generated, which was utilized to drive
a steam engine, furnishlog power to run
a printing press of two horsepower cap-
aoity—Boston Budget.
A Versatile Applicant.
The persistency, fertility and resource
of the oface seeker are often matters of
amazement even to the oldest num in
public life w.ho have coped with the
question for years. Chauncey M. Depew
recently received a most astonishing
epistle from a Pennsylvanian who seeks
to serve the country. The writer pre-
faced his letter with the remark that he
had been told that Mr. Depew would I e
made enabassador to England and marls
application for the • position of private
secretary. He went on with an aeseue
of his hunt for office by saying that pri
marily he had hoped. to get an offiee froto
Major McKinley, but that the president
bad disappointed bine •
He continued that he had. relied cm
Mr. Hanna next, but that lie was • also
.disappointed there. nen he turned. to
Colonel McCook, but Undine the latter
was uot to be in the celainet • t'be thought
he would like to go abroad and so ae
plied to Colonel John Haa for the post of
private secretary, understanding that he
was to be embassador. Ho inelesed a reply
from Colonel Hay, in which the latter
said that he had not been appointed em-
bassa,dor and dident know whether he
should be, and if he was he should not
need the services offered. Then the evriter
tartted to Mr. Deoew se a last resort
Drum and Bagpipes.
Of all the numerous instruments em-
ployed in our timea the oldest and most
widely known are the drum, harp and
bagpipe. The first of these, simple as its
construction is, has literally played an
important part in ornate. It (*Woe -lad
be the north of Asia, and Was for more
than 2,000 years the may in tram**
known to the rude and roving
MEXICAN PEARL FISHING -
The Annual Tield of the Gulf of California
is About $350,000.
The agent of the English proprietors
of the concession granted by the Mexican
republic for a nionopoly of pearl fishing
in tbe gulf of California recently arrived
in San Francisco and gave some inter-
esting details of the present methods OM -
played in their industry, which has con-
tinued ever since the occupation of the
country in the time of Cortes.
The whole coast of the gulf of Cali-
fornia- abounds in pearls and the cessions control the entire territory.
Until within the last few years native
divers wore employed, and the depth to
which they could descend did. not exceed
36 feet. With the introduction of diving
apparatus the limit of depth Vita in-
creased to 80 fathoms. The best divers
could formerly remain under water not
to exceed two minutes. A modern diver
thinks nothing of a two hour stop in
water 100 feet in deptlathough at greater
deptbs the stay is necessarily shortened
on account of the enormous pressure of
the superineuntbent water. A diver when
upon the floor of the ocean looks about
for the oyster which he tears from the
object to which it is attached, and places
it in a small bag hanging to a rope,
which is hauled into the boat on a given
signal, Sometimes the number of oysters
secured is large and at other times only
a few are caught.
The diver does not confine himself to
the pearl oyster alone, but if he sees a
rare specimen of coral or a new species
of shell he places it in his bag and sends
it to the surface, where it becomes the
property of the concession and one source
of its large income.
Last year the value of the pearls bar -
vested in Lower California was alone
$350,000. In addition 5,000 tons of shells
were exported, which were valued at $1,-
250,000 more. laced fishing is the entire
occupation of the natives, and La Paz,
the headquarters, a city of the peninsula,
with about 2.000 inhabitants, is solely
dependent upon the industry. The busi-
ness is one of chance, and the pursuit is
a fascinating one to the natives, who are
born gamblers.
Every oyster does not contain its pearl,
and only at intervals, and rare ones at
that, is a really valuable pearl discovered.
The largest one ever found was about
three-quarters of an inch in diameter,
and was sold in Paris to the emperor of
Austria for $10,000 Many black pearls
are found in Lower Califortia and are
valued higher than the pure white. The
large majority are seed pearls and are
only of moderate value.
San Francisco is not the market for
Mexican pearls, though it ought to be.
The harvest is exported straight to Lon-
don and Paris and distributed from
those great markets.
The dangers of pearl fishing have al-
ways been exaggerated, possibly to give
a fictitious value to the beautiful gems.
The loss of life in the fisheries itt Lower
California was undoubtedly larger before
the introduction of the diving dress, But
it is not art established fact that the
deaths were always caused by the shark
or octopus, though these marine monsters
were -without doubt responsible for the
loss of many lives. Every diver has plenty
of hair raising stories to relate of narrow
escapes from death, but as he is the only
witness of these affairs it makes the diffi-
culty to substantiate them so • much
greater, •
The occemation at best is a hazardous
one, and those who were engaged in it
before the introduction of divrag appar-
atus were always short lived. The demand
In the world's markets for pearls of extra
beauty is always far in excess of the sup-
• ply.—San Francisco Call. •
your sense of humor, almost as bad, in-
deed, as having no humor at all. A man
who is afflicted in this way says that he
can imagine no more inconvenient, if not
actually torturing, state of things. For
instance, he was mate traveling on a rail-
way train when a very pretty girl, whom
he chanced to face, did a thing that of
course no girl ought to do, but which the
best of there have been known M, stared
straight at the young man and smiled.
It was a very faint smile, but for all
that there was no mistaking it, What
was more, the girl kept ort smiling
whenever she had the chance. And the
young man? Well, he naturally wanted
to smile back. He was, in the first place,
appreciative•of such favors, and, be the
snood place, ho was at an age when they
were most appealliag. But smile back he
couldn't Again and again did he try,
and again and again did he fail. Never
had his affliction so dominated him. At
last he made up his mind that crack a
smile as would before they reached this
city, no anatter wbat it oost. It was no
use, though. Smile was just what be
couldn't, in that reeponsive way at least,
and he thus reached his joureey's end
without so much as a flieker of acknow-
ledgment crossing his countenance.—
New 'York Sun,
AN ENGINEERS STORY
LiFE ON A RAILROAD CONDUCIVE
TO DISEASE.
Mr. Wm. Taylor, of tientville, Attacked
With Rainey Trouble -So -Called Cures
Proved 'Useless, But Dr. ‘Villiants' Pink
Pins Restored His If paint.
From the Re latrine Advertiser.
There are very few employments more
trying to the health than that of a rail-
way engineer. The hours of labor are
frequently long, meals irregular, and rest
and sleep hurriedly snatched "between
runs," One of the troubles which very
frequently attack railway trainmen is
kidney disease, which up to a late period
has been looked upon as a disease d1 -
cult, if not impossible, to totally cure.
Although there exist numerous remedies
claimed. to be curee, the truth, is that
nothing had been found to successfully
cope with tnis terrible disease until the
advent of the now world -famed Dr.
Williams' Pink Pills. Chancing to bear
one day that Mr. Wm. Taylor, a resident
of this town, had been oared of kidney
trouble through the agency of Dr. Will-
iams' Pink Pills, a reporter called upon
him at his home to limr from him per-
sonally what he thought of his cere.
Mr. Taylor is an t nteneer on the Domin-
ion Atlantic Rana ee. his run being be-
tsveen Halifax and laantville, and he is
one of the most populAr di ivers on the
,reasneasee-rne. ad"-Theee
^-1-1 a—haesee--as'h:ansaa.--....e.
She Couldn't Stolle.
There are those whose power of expres-
sion is forever lagging behind their
sense of appreciation. They may feel a
thing deeply and they may see a thing
keenly, but somehow they can't make it
manifest. In some ca.sees they can't even
Many a woman has in silence relished
a "joke" just as fully as her friend wile
goes off auto perfeet guffaws over it. But
she gets none of the credit Ws really
tragie—tbas being =able ever to look.
_
11,:!
,4,11
;111H.V.#,H011.141.1tiIijI
0 .
Val
road. When asked by the reporter con-
cerning his illness he suid: "It was in
the spring of 1896 that 1 bad it severe
attack of kidney trouble. brought on by
cootinuous running on the read, and I
suppose it is caused by the oscillation of
the locomotive. It affected me but slight-
ly at first, but gradually grew worse. I
consulted a doctor and then tried two
or three varieties of so-called cures. Some
helped inc for it tante, but after stopping
the use of them I grew worse than ever.
I had noticed numerous testimonials In
the papers concerning Dr. Williams' Pink
Pills, and reading of one cure that was
almost identical with my own I decided
to give them a trial, and purchased four
boxes at a eost of $2. Bat it was $2 well
spent for I was completely coxed by tlae
use of the pills, and. have not been
troubled with my kidneys since. I Gan
therefore recommend them to others
similarly afflicted."
The experience of years bas proved
that there is absolutely no disease due to
a vitiated condition of the blood or shat-
tered nerves, that Dr. Williams' Pink
Pills will not promptly cure, auct those
who are suffering from Such troubles
would avoid much misery and save
money by prohaptly resorting • to this
treatment. Get the genuine Pink Pills
every time and do not be persuaded to
take an ienitation or scene other remedy
from a dealer, who for the sake of the
extra profit to himself, may say is "just
as good," • Dr. WilliamsPink Pills cure
evhen other raedicines fail.
• women ir, Jeintosee.
Mrs. Cobwigger—I'm going to thaw
my money out of the batik, dear, and
pat it in the one where • Minnie keeps
leer acoount.
Cobwigger—Do you think it a safer
bank?
Mrs, Cobwigger—Thereat zx� eorapart-
sort. Tata- give you eneek books With
lovely gilt edges.