Jacksboro Gazette. (Jacksboro, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 21, 1887 Page: 1 of 4
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Jack County Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Gladys Johnson Ritchie Library.
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JACKSBORO GAZETTE
ESTABLISHED IN 1880.
SUCCESSOR TO THE RURAL CITIZEN.
Entered at tlie Post-Office at Jacksboro, as “second class matter.”
“A Government of the People, by the People, and for the People."
VOLUME VII. NUMBER 41.
JACKSBORO, JACK COUNTY, TEXAS, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 21, 1887.
Subscription $1.50 per annm in advance.
a
7sh brM^
Tie Best
faterjroot
Coat.
SC -jzC- QC.
Attorney at Law. Surveyor & Notary Public.
SPORER, SPILLER & EASTIN,
Jacksboro, Texas
Jacksboro Laud aud Collecting Agency,
Do a General Exchange Business and Negotiate Loans,
Buy Sell and Lease Lands and Ranches, locate certificates
and obtain patents, render lands and pay taxes ir. all parts of
the State, perfect titles and furnish abstracts; and adjust ar d
collect all claims, notes and accounts.
Litigation of all kinds promptly attended to.
K
mmm
■jmmoBfflra,». i
PHYSICIAN & SURGEON.
OFFICE NORTH SIDE, m QTJARE.
Residence N. E. of Public Square.
Jacksboro, Texas.
PATENTS
Obtained, and all Patent Business attended
to promptly and for moderate fees.
Our office is-opposite tbe U. S. ^Patent
iviro can obtain Patents in less
those remote from Wa.shine ton.
odel or Drawing. "We advise as
free of charge: snd we
____ _ Unless Patent is Secured.
„• here to the Postmaster, the >Sipt.
Order Div., and to officials of ttie
Patent Office. For circular, advice,
terms and references to actual clients in
vour own State or county, write to
f C. A. S*0W & €0.,
Office. Washington. D. C.
T. D. SPORER,
LAWYER,
JACKSBORO, TEXAS.
inson <feWssl,
•AT LAW.
Tixab.
WALTER S. JONES,
KVETOR A LAND AGENT,
e farmers and stock men
or vacant land in Harde-
Childres, Cottle, and other
along the line of the Fort
Denver R. R. Office at
Hardeman county. Cor-
solicited. .
H. Henderson,
loss HO RIAL ABTISl,
of crinicultural, abscision
eraniologieal tripsis, also phre
hair cutter artd hydropatb-
: beard. Ail work phys-
executed.
a1 Discoverer,
the Icelandic lady who is
on the habits and
claims
The Samaritan Chief Visits London.
There is now in London the sheik of the an-
cient Samaritan people, Jacob-esh-Sliellaby.
Any one who has been at Nablous will re-
member the beautiful valley and the little
town nestling among the gardens under the
slopes of Gerizim, where the Turkish gov-
ernor’s house stands conspicuous; nor will he
have forgotten the quaint aud venerable little
synagogue, which is the religious home of
these Samaritans. The present head of the
^community was elected in 1874. His people
r now number only 135. He is the patri arch of
his clan.
“All we Samaritans,” he says, in his broken
English, “one family.” The object of his
visit is to raise a sum of £200 to redeem some
land belonging to his community, recently
mortgaged on ruinous terms to meet tie
Turkish exactions. Of late years these have
become unusually severe. “Governor, be
take one taxes, two taxes, three taxes, four
taxes all in one year. But the sultan, be get
very little of the money!” The land yielcls
com, grass, cotton and other crops. 1 here ;is
scarcely any trade in Nablous. One or two
of the Samaritans deal in stuffs from Damas-
cus. A few others cairy vegetables and such
like garden produce on donkey back from the
valley to the hilly villages around. But
without their land their means of livi ng are
seriously diminished, and the danger of ex-
tinction presses on the tribe. Sbeik Sliellaby
is known to Canon Liddon, who has helpel
him with a donation of £5 and a hearty letter
of commendation.
The Catholics have not unnaturally dft-
clined to aid, and even the liberal Jews still
prefer to have no dealings with the Samari-
tans. The matter presses. Shellaby has
been in London for seven weeks, in a dismal
attic in a by street off Fitzroy square. He
does not kno w how to plead his cause. Mean-
while his people are entreating him urgently
to return.—London Mews.
Wanted.
t in a Boston paper states
active servant is wanted, “who must
cook aud able to dress a little boy
ofcl.”
They are enlarging the Chinese public
:bool in San Francisco to accommodate the
irge increase in the number of pupils.
church is very bad form,
should get down on his or
His Teeth Told the Tale.
The prints of peculiarly arranged teeth were
found in some cheese in a house in Jers€y City
that was robbed a few nights ago. A colored
man who was arrested on suspicion was re-
quired to Vote a piece of the cheese, when his
teeth made the same marks as were up>n the
other piece, and he was committed for trial.—
Chicago Times.
A Wonderful New Color.
“Hortensia” is the name of a wonderful new
color seen for the first time in Louden this
season.^ It is unknown to artists of the brush,
and has beei i introduced fresh from the looms
of Lyons and the salons of Parisian modistes.
The tint is surprisingly vivid, anti yet has n
soft fruit bloom upon it irnlke any other
known shade1.
The Constructor of the Transcaspian.
Gen. Annenkoff, the constructor of the
Russian Transcaspian railway, is a man of 515
years of age, full of vigor, energy, and hope;
he is almost idealistic, despite his gray hairs
Three years ago he married a beautiful young
lady, 20 yeans old, member of a rich German
family.
A Cherokee Centenarian.
Capt. Nathaniel Fish, of the Cherokte na-
tion, is a fine specimen of the centenarian.
He is apparently not over 60 yearn old, walks
into Tablequali from his farm, seveu miles
away, once or twice each week and bach;
again, and is in sound health every way. He
recently cut two teeth.—New* York Sm .
Hotels on Broadway.
~ ~ ~ » j The Hotel World gives a list of thirty-six
Fnnn« Sent to Irejanri. | hotels on Broadway. twenty-six of which are
In a speech in Boston John Boyle O Reilly ; conducted on the European, three on the
American plan exclusively ami seven on both
thgt at a
i Boston *
#,000,000,
relative
low' estimate there were sent
$500,000, and from New York •
each year by the Irish to
in Ireland. “Not to make
their homes happy, not to make the people
comfortable, but to pay to save their lives, to
aave their little shelters, to keep the roof
over their beads, and to keep them from the
torch of Gtenbeigh.”
SECRET SOCIETIES
THE SUBJECT OF DR. TALMAGES
SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE.
the European and America# plans. These
thirty-six hotels on one street alone in this
city contain 7,575 rooms for guests.
An Austrian Mitrailleuse.
A mitrailleuse is about to lie tried i n the
Austrian army which weighs forty-eight kilos
aud can lie carried oua man’s back, and which
will tire 1,600 bullets in a minute and a half.
__ _ _ .,. . . . , lA1 As a defensive weajion it is thought to lx
Tnomas Badey Aldrich seized with without a rival.-New York Tribunal^^
stage fright at the reading in Boston for the
A Stage Frigate ned Author.
Long, allow memorial fund. He came for-
ward like an awkward schoolboy, stood first
on one foot and then on another, and seemed
A Soldier’s First Battle.
A veteran of the civil war gives thi* ex-
perience of his ftnt battle: The hours did
suffer real agony in his embarrassment, i not cn?wd into minutes, but the minutes al-
One bright Boston girl who knows n real poet
when she sees him, exclaimed in nnmzemeut:
“To think that he should be afraid of us!”—
Boston Transcript.
Seizure of American Bibles.
A.large ^consignment of American Bibles
, centaUTO^icopyright edition of the revised
version of the Beriptures, which was sent to
Woke ley, south Austin lia, has beeu seized |
and forwarded to the collector of customs to than ten minutes; I judged it had been twenty.
most extended into hours. I frequently found,
on consulting my watch, that occurrence ap-
parently of an hour's duration, wereieally
less than a half or a quarter of that tin Ml
As the sun rose, it passed into a cloud.
When it emerged, I fully expected it would
be some dlstanoo toward the zenith, and was
surprised to fiud it had advanced only a. few
degrees.
There was a light shower that lasted less
be held until it
fringe on the
Chicago Times.
is decided whether they in-
Eugiish copyright act.—
pv?
Ingersoll ut th« Bar.
Col. Robert G. Ingersoli was admitted to
practice at the bar in New York state lately
before the general term of the supreme
court. When he was asked to lie sworn lu*
refused, and affirm**! place thereof. He
then signed the roll.
Ji l»n 6. Saze’a Physique.
John G. ikixe was six feet two in height
and broad in proportion. He bad a magnifi-
cent head, which wa.*- finely poised upon broad
and stalwart shoukhrfc
Tiie evolutions of the troops on tue field ap-
peared slow aud awkward. They were really
effected with great promptness.
Gen. Lyon was killed before 9 o’clock, as I
very well knew. It was some days before I
could rid my‘elf of the impression that his
death occurred not far from noon.
The apparent extension of the houm wai
the experience of several persons on that Held.
I think it has been known by ninny, on th«
| occasion of their first battle. At Pea Ridge,
| an officer told me there seemed to lie about
thirty hours between sunrise and sunset.
Another thought it was 4 o’clock in the after-
noon when the sun was at the meridian.
It was only at Wilson Creek that I experi-
enced thi* sensation. On subsequent battle-
fields I bad no ret son to complain of my
Mtunate of time,—Y outb’s Companion.
“What Is the Moral Effect of Free Ma-
sonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights of
Labor, Greek Alphabet and Other So-
cieties?”
Brooklyn, April 17.—The Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, D. D., announced to his con-
gregation to-day that, as the Brooklyn taber-
nacle has been uncomfortably crowded for
many years, the trustees have purchased the
adjoiniug ground, on which a great church,
prayer and Sunday school room will be
built, which on Sabbath can be opened into
the main auditorium, thus giving room for
at least 1,000 more hearers at services. Six
thousand people are crowded into the pres-
ent building, 4,650 „ of these in pews and
about 1,500 seated in aisles and standing.
The improvement will aud greatly to this
capacity.
The subject of Dr. Talmage’s sermon to-day
was, “What is the moral effect of Free
Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights of Labor,
Greek Alphabet and other societies?” The
text was from 'Proverbs xxv, 9: “Dis-
cover not a secret to another.” Dr. Talmage
said:
It appears that in Solomon’s time as in all
subsequent periods of the world, there were
people too much disposed to tell all they knew.
It was blab, blab, blab: physicians revealing
the case of their patients, lawyers exposing
the private affaire of their clients, neighbors
advertising the faults of tho next door resi-
dent; pretended friends betraying confi-
dences. One-half of the trouble of every
community comes from the fact that so many
people have not capacity to keep their
mouths shut When I hear something dis-
paraging of you my firet duty is not to tell
you. But if I tell you what somebody has
said agaiust you, and then go out and tell
everybody else what I told you, and they go
out and tell others what I told them that I
told you, and we ail go out, some to hunt up
the originator of the ptory and others to hunt
it down, we shall get the whole community
talking about what you did do and what you
did not do, and there will be as many scalps
taken as though a band of Modocs had swept
upon a helpless village. We have two cal's
but only one tongue, a physiological sugges-
tion that we ought to hear a good deal more
than we tell. Let us join a conspiracy that
we will tell each other all the good and
nothing of the ill, and then there will not be
such awful need of sermons on Solomon’s
words: “Discover not a secret to another.”
Solomon had a very large domestic circle.
In his earlier days he had very confused no-
tions about monogamy and polygamy, and
his multitudinous associates in the matri-
monial state kept him too well informed as to
what was going on in. Jerusalem. They
gathered up all the privacies of the city and
poured them into his ear, and his family be-
came a Sorosis or female delmting society
of 700, diseu&sing day after day all the diffi-
culties between husbands and wives, between
employers and employes, between rulers and
subjects, until Solomon, iu my text, deplores
volubility alxnit affaire that do not belong
to us and extols the virtue of secretiveness.
By the power of a secret divulged, families,
churches, neighborhoods, nations fly apart.
By the power of a secret kept, great charities,
socialities, reformatory movements and
Christian enterprises may be advanced. Men
are gregarious—cattle in herds, fish in schools,
birds in flocks, men in social circles. You
may by the discharge of a gun scatter a flock
of quails or by the plunge of the anchor send
apart the denizens of the sea, but they will
gather themselves together again. If you by
some new power could break the associations
in which men now stand, they would again
adhere. God meant it so. He has gathei-ed
all the flowers and shrubs into associations.
Yoil may plant one forget-me-not or heart’s-
en.se alone, away off upon the hillside, but it
will soon hunt up some other forget-me-uot or
heurt’s-ease. Plants love company. You will
find them talking to each other in the dew. A
galaxy of stars is only a mutual life insurance
company. You sometimes see a n^i with no
out-branchings of sympathy. His nature is
cold and hard, like a ship’s mast ice glazed,
which the most agile sailor could never climb.
Others have a thousand roots and a thousand
branches. Innumerable tendrils climb their
hearts and blossom all the way up, and the
fowls of heaven sing iu the branches. In con-
sequence of this tendency we find men coming
together in tribes, in communities, in churches,
in societies. Some gather together to cultivate
the arts, 60me to plan for the welfare of the
state, some to discuss religious themes, some
to kiudio their mirth, some to advance their
craft. Bo every active community is divided
in associations of artists, of merchants, of
bookbinders, of earjienters, of masons, of
plasterers, of shipwrights, of plumbers. Do
you cry out- against it? Then you cry out
ugainst a tendency divinely implanted. Your
1 tirades would accomplish no more than if you
should preach to a busy ant hill or beehive a
long sermon against secret societies.
Here we find the oft-discussed question,
whether associations Unit do their work with
closed doors, admit their membere by pass-
words, and greet each other with a secret grip
are right or wrong. I answer that it de-
pends entirely on the nature of the object for
which they meet. Is it to pass the hours in
revelry, wassail, blasphemy and obscene talk,
or to plot trouble to the state, or to debauch
tho innocent, then I sav, with an emphasis
that no man can mistake, No! But is tho ob-
ject the defense of the rights of any cias3
against oppression, the improvement of tho
mind, tho enlargement of the heart, the ad-
vancement of art, the defense of the govern-
ment, the extirpation of crime, or the kind-
ling of a pure-hearted sociality, then I say,
with just ns much emphasis, Yes.
There is no ueed that we who plan for the
conquest of right over wrong should publish
to all the world our intentions. The general
of an army never sends to the opposing troom
information of the coming attack. Shall Wo
vho have enlisted in the cause of God am!
.uumuity, expose our plans to the enemy?
No! we will in secret plot the ruin of all the
enterprises of Satan ami his cohorts. When
| they exjiect us l»y day we will call U]*on them
; by night. Whilo they are strengthening their
j left wing we will doubleup their right. By a
; plan of battle formed in secret conclave we
| will come suddenly upon them, crying: “The
j sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” Bee res}’ of
plot and execution are wrong only when the
pbject and ends are nefarious. Every family
fs a secret society, every business firm and ev-
ery banking and insurance institution. Those
nien who have no capacity to keep a secret
are unfit for positions of trust anywhere.
There are thousands of men whose vital need
^ a capacity to a secret. Mcfi
talk too much and women, too. There is a
time to keep silence, as well as a time to
speak.
Although not belonging to any of the great
secret societies about; which there has lieen so
much violent discussion, I have only words of
praise for those associations which have for
their object the maintenance of right against
wrong, or the reclamation of inebriates, or,
like the score of mutual benefit societies called
by different names, that provide temporary
relief for widows and orphans, and for men
incapacitated by sickness or accident from
earning a livelihood. Had it not beeu for the
large number of secret labor organizations in
this country monopoly would long ago have,
under its ponderous wheels, ground the labor-
ing classes into an intolerable r rvitude. The
men who want the whole earth to themselves
would have got it before this, had it not been
for the banding together of great secret
organizations. And, while we deplore many
things that have been done by them, their
existence is a necessity, and their legitimate
sphere distinctly pointed out by the providence
of God. Such organizations are trying to
dismiss from their association all members in
favor of anarchy and social chaos. They will
gradually cease anything like tyranny over
their members and will forbid violent inter-
ference with any man’s work whether he be-
longs to their union or is outside of it, and
will declare their disgust with any such rule
as that passed in England by the Manchester
Bricklayers’ association, which says any man
found running or working beyond a regular
speed shall be fined two shillings and sixjience
for the firet offense, five shillings for the
second, ten shillings for the third, and if still
persisting shall be dealt with as the com-
mittee think proper. There are secret socie-
ties in our colleges that have letters of the
Greek alphabet for their nomenclature, and
their membere are at the very front in
scholarship and irreproachable in morals,
while there are others the scene of carousal,
and tlieyr gamble, and they drink, and they
graduate knowing a hundred times moi'e
about sin than they do of geometry and
Sophocles. In other words, secret societies,
like individuals, are good or bad, are the
means of moral health or of temporal and
eternal damnation. All good people n‘cog-
nize the vice of slandering-an individual, but
many do not see the sin of slandering an
organization.
There are old secret societies in this and
other countries, some of them centuries old,
which have been widely denounced a« im-
moral and damaging in their influence, yet
I have hundreds of personal friends wbo be-
long to them, friends who are consecrated to
God, pillars in tho church, faithful in all re-
lations of life, examples of virtue and piety.
They are the kind of friends whom I would
have for my executors if I am so happy as to
leave anything for my household at the time
of decease, and they are the men whom I
%-ould have to carry me out to the last sleep
when I am dead. You cannot make me be-
lieve that they would belong to bad institu-
tions. They are the men who would stamp
on anything iniquitous, and I would cer-
tainly rather take their testimony in regard
to such societies than the testimony of those
who, having been sworn in as members, by
their assault upon the society confess them-
selves perjurers. One of these secret societies
gave for tho relief of the sick in 1873, in this
country, $1,490,274. Some of these societies
have poured a very heaven of sunshine and
benediction into the home of suffering.
Several of them are founded on fidelity to
good citizenship and the Bibfe. * I have never
taken one of their degrees. They might give
me the grip 1,000 times and I would not
recognize it. I am ignorant of their pass-
words, and I must judge entirely from the
outside. But Clirlst has given us a rule by
which we may judge not only all individuals,
but all societies, secret and open. “By their
fruits ye shall know them.” Bad societies
make bad men. Good societies make good
men. A bad man will not stay in a good
society. A good mail will not stay In u bad
society. Then try all secret societies by two
or three rales.
Test the first: Their influence on home, if
you have a home. That wife soon loses her
influence over her husband who nervously
and foolishly looks upon all evening abse nce
as an assault on domesticity. How are the
great enterprises of reform, and art, and
literature, aud beneficence and public weal
to be carried on if evei-y man is to have his
world bounded on one side by bis front door
step, and on the other side by his back win-
dow, knowing nothing higher than his own
attic or lower than Ills own cellar? That
wife who liecomes jealous of her husband’s
attention to art or literature or religion or
charity is breaking her own scepter of con-
jugal power. I know an instance where a
wife thought that her husband was giving too
many nights to Christian service, to charita-
ble service, to prayer meetings, and to re-
ligions convocation. She systematically de-
coyed him away until now he attends no
church, waits upon no charitable institution,
and is on a rapid way to destruction, his
morals gone, his money gone, and I fear his
soul gone. Let any Christiau wife rejoice
when her husband consecrates evenings to tho
service of humanity, and of God, or charity,
or art, or anything elevating.
But let no man sacrifice home life to secret
society life, as many do. I can point out to
you a great many names of men who are
guilty of this sacrilege. They are as genial
as angels at the society room, and as ugly as
sin ut home. They are generous ou all suli-
jects of w ine suppers, yachts and fast horses,
but they are stingy about the wives’ dresses
and the children’s shoe*. That man has made
ihat which might bo a healthful influence a
Viurper of his affections, and he has married
it, and he is guilty of moral bigamy. Under
this process the wife, whatever her features,
' becomes uninteresting and homely. He be-
; comes critical of her, does not like tho dress,
does not like the way she arrnuges her hair,
is amazed that he ever was so unromantic as
to offer her hand and heart. There are secret
I societies where membership always involves
| domestic shipwreck. Tell me that a man has
joined a certain kind, and tell me nothing
more about him for ten years, and I will
write his history if ho be still alive. The man
is a wine guzzler, his wife broken hearted or
prematurely old, his fortune gone or reduced,
and his home a mere name in a directory.
Here are six secular nights in the we k.
! “What shall I do with them?” says the father
and the husband. “I will give four of tbeso
nights to the improvement and entertain-
ment of my family, either at home Or in good
neighborhood. I will devote pile to charit able
institutions. J will devote one to my iodg«,°
j I congratulate you. Here is a man who
says: “Out of the six secular nights of tho
week I will devpto five to lodges and clubs
and associations and one to the home, which
night I will spend in scowling liko a March
squall, wishing I was out spending it as I have
spent the other live.” That man's obituary is
written. Not one out of 10,000 that ever gets
so far on the wrong road ever stops. Gradu-
ally Uw health will fad through late hours,
and through too much stimulants he will be
first rate prey for erysipelas and rheumatism
of the heart. The doctor coming iu will at a
glance see it is not only present disease ho
must fight but years of fast living. The
clergyman, for the sake of the feelings of the
family, on the funeral day will only talk in
religious generalities. The men who got his
yacht in the eternal rapids will not be at the
obsequies. They have pressing engagements
that day. They will send flower's to the
coffin, will send their wives to utter words of
sympathy, but they will have engagements
elsewhere. They never come. Bring me
mallet and chisel, and I will cut on the tomb-
stone that man’s epitaph: “Blessed are the
dead who die in tho Lord.” “No,” you say,
“that would not be appropriate.” “Let mo
die the death of the righteous and let my last
end be like his.” “No,” you say, “that would
not be appropriate.” Then give me tho mal-
let and chisel, and I will cut an honest epi-
taph: “Here lies the victim of dissipating
associations!”
Another test by which you can find whether
your secret society is right or wrong is the
effect it has on your secular occupation. I
can understand how, through an institution,
a man can reach commercial success. I know
some men have formed their best business
relations through such a channel. If the se-
cret society has advantaged you in an hon-
orable calling, it is a good one. But has your
credit failed? Are bargain makers mor
anxious how they trust you with a bale ol
goods? Have the men whose names were
down in the commercial agency A 1 before
they entered the society been going down
since in commercial standing? Then look
out. You aud I every day know of commer-
cial establishments going to ruin through the
social excesses of one or two members, their
fortune beaten to death with ball players,
bat or cut amidships with the front prow of
the regatta, or going down under tbo swift
hoofs of the fast horses, or drowned in the
large potations of cognac or Monongahela.
That secret society was the Loch Earn. Their
business was the Ville du Havre. They
struck, and the Ville du Havre went underl
The third test by which you may know
whether the society to which you belong is
good or bad is this: What is its effect on your
sense of moral aud religious obligation? Now,
if I should take the names of ail tho people in
this audience this morning and put them on a
roll, and then I should lay that roll back of
this organ, and 100 years from now some one
should take that roll and call it from A to Z,
tuere would not one of you answer. I say
that any society that makes me forget that
fact is a bad society. When I go to Chicago
I am sometimes perplexed at Buffalo, as I
suppose many travelers are, as to whether it
is better to take the Lake Shore route or the
Michigan Central, equally expeditious and
equally safe, getting to their destination at
the same time. But suppose that I hear that
on one route the track is torn up, the bridges
are down and the switches are unlocked, it
will not take me a great while to decide which
road to take.
Now, here are two roads in the future—the
Christian aud the unchristian, the safe and
the unsafe. Any institution or any associa-
tion that confuses my ideas in regard to that
fact is a bad institution and a bad association.
I had prayers before I joined that society,
did I have them afterward? I attended the
house of God before I connected myself with
that union, do I absent myself from religious
influences? Which would you rather have
in your hand when you come to die—a pack
of cards or a Bible? Which would you rather
have pressed to your lips in the closing
moment—the cup of Belshazzarean wassail or
the chalice of Christian communion? Wiio
would you rather have for your pallbearers—
the eldei'S of a Christian church or the com-
panions whose conversation was full of slan^
and innuendo? Who would you rather have
for your eternal companions—those men who
5pend their evenings betting, gambling,
swearing, carousing and telling vile stories,
' or your little child, that bright girl whom the
Lord took? Oh. you would not have been
away so much nights, would you, if you had
known she was going away so soon ? Dear
me, your house lias never been the same
place since. Your wife has never brightened
up, she has never got over it. She never will
get over it. How long the evenings are with
no one to put to lied, and no one to whom to
tell the beautiful Bible stories.
What a pity it is that you cannot spend
more evenings at home in trying to help her
bear that sorrow. You can never drown
that grief in the wine cup. You can never
break away from the little arms that used to
be flung around your neck when she used to
say: “Papa, do stay with me to-night. Do
stay with mo to-night.” You will never be
able to wipe away from your lips the dying
kiss of your little girl. The fascination of a
bad secret society is so great tiiat sometimes
a man has turned his back on his home when
his child was dying of scarlet fever. He
went away. Befox-e he got back at midnight
the eyes had been closed, the undertaker had
done his work, and the wife, worn out with
three weeks’ watching, lay unconscious in
the next room. Then the returned father
comes upstairs, aud he sees tho cradle gone
and the windows up, and says: “What is the
matter?” On the judgmeut day he will find
out what was the matter.
Oh, man astray, God help you! I am going
to make a very stout rope. You know that
sometimes a ro|iciunkei' will take very small
threads and w ind them together until after
i a while they become ship cable. And I am
going to take some very small, delicate
threads and wind them together until they
make a very stout rope. I will take all the
memories of the marriage day—a thread of
laughter, a thread of light, a thread of
I music, a thread of banqueting, a thread of
congratulation, and l twist them together
; and 1 have one strand.
| Then 1 take a thread of the hour of the fir st
ail vent in your bous?, a thread of t he dark-
| ness that preceded, and a thread of the light
that followed; and a thread of the beautiful
scarf that little child used to wear when she
bounded out at eventide to greet you; and
then a thread of the beautiful dress in which
you laid her away for the resurrection; and
then I twist all these threads together, and I
I have another strand. Then I take a thread
: of the scarlet robe of a suffering Christ, and
j a thread of the white raiment of your loved
! ones before t he throne, and a string of the
harp cherubic, and a string of the heart sera-
| pliic, and I twist them all together, and I
have a thirel strand, “Oh,” you say, “either
1 strand is enough to hold fast a world!” No;
I will take these strands and I will twist them
| together, nnd one end of that rope I will
j fasten, not to the communion table, for it
shall bo removed; not to a pillar of the organ,
, for that will crumble in the ages; but I wind
It round and round the cross of a sympathiz-
ing Christ, and, having fastened one end of
the rope to the cross, I throw the other end to
you. Lay hold of itl Full for your life! Full
for Heaven 1
HOW TASTES HAVE CHANGED.,
AN OLD ROMAN CIRCUS.
A Place Where Blood Stained Visions of
the Past Greet the Mind’s Eye.
I proceeded to the circus erected during the
reign of Diocletian, in or about the year 284.
The amphitheatre is some 100 feet in height,
182 yards long, and 140 }rards wide—its entire
circumference being 528 yards. Forty-five
tiers of steps rise around the amphitheatre.
Tue circus is, on the whole, a peculiarly
Roman open air structure, its walls being
composed of enormous stones some six feet
long and three broad, while the flights of
galleries, leaning one against the other, con-
tribute most to the strength aud durability of
the edifice. Viewed from an eminence, the
circus looks like an extinct volcano, aud
generally reminds one of the Colosseum of
Rome. What blood stained visions of the
past obtrude themselves on the mind’s eye,
while one gazes on these still stout and sturdy
rains of semi barbarious age! Wrhat cries of
agony must not these old walLs have heard,
and what wild acclamations of triumph must
not have thrilled the echoes of these gigantic
round vaults and galleries at times when 70,-
000 spectator met to see Christians or gladia-
tors “butchered to make a Roman holiday!”
Hither were brought in chains tall, stalwart
rustics from the forests of Germany to wrestle
w;th famished tigers in the arena; pale faced,
white robed virgins, whose only crime was
that they were believers in the doctrines of
Christ, and who paid the penalty of their be-
lief, torn asunder by the fangs of angry lions;
su eject princes from the banks of the Danube
and athletes from the banks of the Arno;
slaves from the palaces of the rich, and serfs
from the hovels of the poor, whose blood, as
it flowed, and whose agonizing cries as they
rang through the ampitheatre, tickled the
palates of thousands of pitiless men and
women! Here sat the lordly patrican, sur-
rounded by lackeys, in his well cushioned box,
gloating over the gory flesh and bones of the
victim. By his side lolls his beautiful dame,
ablaze with jewels and reveling in the luxury
of purple and flue linen, while her eyes
sparkle with unwonted brilliancy, and her
sensuous lips quiver in the throes of delight
as she glances downward on the mangled re-
mains of forms once as symmetrical and fault-
less as her own.
These bouts of muscle took place quite fre-
quently at Verona. Every election of a
duumvir or an edilo was a pretext for one of
these blood feasts; while candidates for polit-
ical honors often got them up at their own
exjjense in order to curry popular favor, or
rich folks left legacies which were devoted to
the> sustaimuenfc of such orgies. In those
days people went to the circus just as people
go nowadays to the cafe or theatre. The
seveuty-two arcades around the amphitheatre
are at present let out to cheap jack venders
and sundry other peddlers, few of whom, by
the bye, have any adequate idea of the his-
torical surroundings of the peculiar market
place where they dispose of their petty wares.
Antiquarians and scholars generally protest
age inst the presence of the peddlers in such a
6pot, but times are hard and the corporation
has i very few francs in its treasury, and as
the letting of the arcades brings in profit, tho
sit}’ eidels prefer to dp as they are doing
rat xer than become bankrapts by protecting
the circus from vandalism and profanity.—
Verona Cor. .San Francisco Chronicle.
Retirements in the British Army.
A military paper, The Broad Arrow, com-
p’ains vigorously of the system under which
retirements on age are conducted in the
British army, arguing—age is no test of ef-
ficiency, mentally or bodily. Many men at
50 a; e more physically fit for hard work than
others ut 39; stiil the physically fit man of 46
is forced to go on a pension, bis place being
taken by a man younger, it is true, but not
of the same stamina. The number of strong,
active, intelligent officers at the present mo-
ment pensioned or half paid is a scandal to
the country, and a crying injustice to the tax-
payers. Li t tbo army be kept up, nay, let it
bo i iereased, but do not, whilst officers are
still u the prime of life, force them to retire
from the service nnd try to exist on a beg-
garly pittance. If an officer is unfit to serve
at 25, pension him; if he is fit physically to
serve at 60, retain him, no matter what his
ran k. —Boston Tran serif »t.
The Sort of Religions Works Most Fi«*
quently Called for—-Sermons.
“What sort of religious works are m >st fre-
quently called for by the persons w io fre-
quent the library?” was asked of the librarian
of the Young Men’s Christian c^^ciation tl>e
other evening.
“Works on Biblical study,” ho i eplic i
“There are more works of that kind called for
than of any other of those on religious stib-
jects. Of course, the books given or t here
cover a great variety of topics. And works
on science and art are much called for. ”
“Are the works of the old English divines
much'read nowadays?”
“No, not a great deal. Those old sta idbys,
Baxter's ‘Call to the Unconverted1 anc Dod-
dridge's ‘Rise and Progress of Religion iu the
Soul,’ which used to constitute, together with
the Bible, the entire library of a good many
ministers, are scarcely ever called for. The
younger class of readers know nothing about
them. 1 doubt if many have ever lie ard of
them. Bunyan is read a good deal. ‘The
Pilgrim’s Progress’ is frequently called for,
aud occasionally the works of Jeremy Taylor,
but you couldn’t class them as popular looks.”
“W hose sermons are read the most?”
“Spurgeon’s, by far. Talmage, I think,
comes next. Dr. Taylor’s sermons also are
quite popular. - But there isn't much ol a de-
mand for sermons, anyhow.”
“How ubout religious fiction?”
“There is a great deal of that read, en-
tirely too much. We aim to keep as li ttle as
possible of this class of literature on hand,
and try to stimulate tho young men who fre-
quent our library to read something more
substantial.
“Religious reading is very differen; now
from what it used to be. People used t> read
sermons a great deal, the old English se i-moira
which took two horn's to deliver, and p snder-
ous books on theology. They want every-
thing brief nowadays, short, spicy sermons
and treatises that come to the point directly.
They won't take the time to read an] "thing
else. Then, there is so much current litera-
ture to read. That takes up the greater part
of 1 lie average reader’s time, and much of the
stuff isn’t worth reading.”—New York Com-
mercial Advertiser.
A Serpent Charmer in Fails.
The bailiff,’like thesapeur, respects nothing;
everything is said to happen in Paris, from
the execution and expulsion of monarchs
down to the seizure of eight boa constrictors
for rent. Nala Damajanti is a serpent charmer
who coils around her every evening before an
applauding audience her eight ophidians, like
a lady her cats, pugs or cockatoos. She
sjieaks to them in Sanskrit—reminds them of
their Indian borne, likely, and assures them
their return ticket is still available.
Nala was accused of being an actress who
ielt a few years ago some debts to settle them-
selves, aud the creditor, believing he recog-
nized his old and absent debtor in a new
character, had her pets impounded till she
demonstrated that hers was a case of mis-
taken identity. This led to her confession.
81ie had never been out of France in her life;
she was born in Batignolles, that quarter of
the city famous for the manufacture of dis-
tinguished foreigners and antiquities; she
fell in love with an English acrobat, from
the dare devil manner iu which he made him-
self comfortable y.hile banging from the roof
of the circus by liis feet. They were married,
purchased tho good will of a serpent business,
with musical accompaniments,” and are pay-
ing off in weekly installments the price agreed
on. She cleared up all doubts and was at
once handed over her reptiles.—Paris Cor.
Chicago Journal.
The Antlers of tlie Deer.
Upon inquiring of old hunters, who were
supposed to know all about the habits oi deer,
I was informed that when a buck drej ped a
honi be immediately dug a hole iu the g 'oun>I
and buried it out of sight. Upon furtl er ir-
; vestigation, however, I was unable to find a
! person who ever saw a deer performing the
operation, or one who ever found a horn that
' had been buried by its owner or any other
; similar animal.
But in late years I have had several oppor-
tunities to learn where some of the naturally
shed deer horns go, if not all of them. The
deer shed their horns in spring, and th ly no
sooner fall to the ground than the wood mice
| attack them, and they disappear before the
j teeth of these little rodents so quickly that a
few weeks are sufficient to obliterate every
vestige of the noblest pair of antlers. Even
the squirrels like to gnaw the deer honn and
fresh Pones of various kinds, and it is thi?
natural or depraved taste that maker our
i common red squirrels rob birds’ nests when
j the young are nearly full grown; for, as i.
have observed, they devour the feet aud legs
of the birds only. I have frequently natlo
them drop the young birds they were slowly
torturing, and have always found that they
were eating the feet aud legs, perhaps besmso
these parts had a nutty flavor.—Ame.ican.
Agriculturist
The Queen and the Reporters.
Even the divinity that doth hedge a king
yields to the power of the press. Th? re-
porters who were puzzling over the toiles a
a recent court ball at Rome were tak ?n in
tow by King Humbert, to whom they frankly
stated their fixr and introduced to Queen
Margherita, with the suggestion that sha
should coach them. She did this wi h a
readiness and winning grace that completely
captivated the quilldrivers, dictetiug to l hem
a description of the handsomest ch esses. She
wound up with an injunct ion not to f< rget
her necklace of pearls, “for these are fl,a
things that especially interest your lad,
ers. ”—Boston Transcript.
--
In tlie House of-Her Friends.
Gambling is becoming domesticated,
youug girl from the country came to vis1
a fashionable house in New York. With
she brought $50 for spending money, the i-e-
sult of various sacrifices on tlie pari of her
people. The first evening of her stay
family sat down to a quiet game of pc
They played with chi;*?, which she a
“counters.” Their significance was onb
vcaled when she found she had last $50. Her
host pocketed the money.—New York Sun.
Tlie Order-of the Caliphate.
The fact h;
after her m;
dared by
the Cab;
a gracef;
the presi
clincd th
“Commander
k frequently
tinguiKlied men.
tt
:1 w
r
i just come to light that i won
i-riage Mrs. Cleveland was ten-
ithfcan of Turkey the Order of
The sultan made the offer in
y, but Mrs. Cleveland, through!
and the state department, de-
lft red honor. "Caliphat” m< ans
of tho Faithful,” and the ojder
bestowed on the wives of dks-
lls insignia is a sash.
A FJinly, Faithful Scotchman,
llev. D. J. McMillen was a flinty, faithful
| Scot* hmali, who, like bis countryman, John
| Knox, “never feared the face of day,” but
I his manhood and moral courage were severely
: taxed while carrying his work on in Ulu|I.
| On one occasion he made an appointment to
; preach m a town in the territory. A delega-
tion of Mormons waited on him and forbade
him preaching under penalty of death. He
j went to, the appointed place, laid his Biblo
| Jo wi-, and said to liie scowling crowd: “I
have the truths of tills book to offer to the
i teachable.” Then, placing his revolver on
! the opposite end of tho table, ho added: “I
j have bullets propelled by powder for the man
i that dares molest me iu the discharge of my
duty.’’—Rev. William Porte us iu Globe-
| Democrat
Tlie Tcliui«utci>cc Slilp Kailwiiy.
The Tehuantepec Bhip railway is not to be
affected by tbo death of (’apt. Eads, lie
finish'd all tlie drawings mid charts fertile
! work months before his death; the necessary
| sapitel is said to be ut hand, and »’|, indeed,
| that i. required is tue pa-: age of th i barter
asked of congress, which is looked for next
a—New York bun.
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Rogers, J. N. & Rogers, Alice M. Jacksboro Gazette. (Jacksboro, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 21, 1887, newspaper, April 21, 1887; Jacksboro, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth835102/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Gladys Johnson Ritchie Library.