University of California Berkeley BY JAMES E. POTTER, AUTHOR OF AMERICAN LECTURERS, ETC. ILLUSTRATIONS ARRANGED BY THE AUTHOR. STEPHENS PRINTING COMPANY, SANTA FE, N. M. COPYRIGHTED BY JAMES E. POTTER, 1897. I DEDICATE THESE TALKS TO ONE WHOSE INFLUENCE, IN A GREAT MEASURE, ENABLED ME TO PRODUCE THEM, WILLIAM J. MILNE. CONTENTS. TALKS ON NATURE. Nature's Influences. 7 Venus, 11 No Polar Sea, 15 Electricity, 17 Winds, 19 Spring, 21 Arbor Day, 23 Cultivate Flowers, , 24 Autumn Woods, 25 FARM TALKS. Mistakes of Farmers, 28 Industrial Education, 35 The Great West, 37 The Plaza, 39 Praying for Rain, 40 The Mexican Dog, 43 The Donkey, 45 The Minister at the Farm, 49 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. The Rocky Mountain Plateau, 52 Thoughts for Chronics, 60 Philosophy for Chronics, 61 Cheer for Chronics, 63 TALKS THROWN IN. PAGE. Nothing in the Book, 66 American Originality, 68 Contagion, 70 Modern Editorials, 72 Whiskers, 74 Poetry, . / 76 Spring Hats, 78 The Circus, / . . 80 Review the Mouth, 82 Mine Disasters, 84 Fairness, 85 How to Treat a Wife, .... 87 SOCIAL TALKS. Physiognomy, 91 Exertion, 94 Vacation, . 96 Citizen's Associations, 98 Usefulness of the Press, 100 Wealth and Newspapers, 101 Anlnherent Trait, 103 Hints, 105 Smoking, 106 Contentment, . 108 The Need of the Age, 110 Unity, 112 Generosity, 114 The Aristocrat, 115 Motherhood, 117 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. Patriotism, 121 Patriotism of Women, 124 I'AdK. A Better Age, : . . . 126 Inherited Greatness, . . ... . . . 128 Independence in Politics, 130 Memorial Day, 132 Fourth of July Facts, ........ 134 Independence Day, . . . . . . . . 135 FOREIGN TALKS. An Ocean Voyage, 139 Americans in England, . . . . . . . 142 Englishmen in America, 145 Across Europe, 147 The Czar of the Russians, 149 Paris, 153 Marchesi, '. 154 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. The Teacher's Relation to Society, .... 158 The Power of Language, . . . . . . . 163 The Use of Language, 165 Foreign Languages in District Schools, . . 167 Advice for Study, 168 Preparing for School, 169 Reading, 170 Read, 172 College Athletics, 174 Inductive Teaching, . 176 Commencement, . . 179 Graduation, .... 182 CHURCH TALKS. Church Ventilation, . 186 Sabbath Rest, 188 Faults of Christians, 189 The Church Collection, 190 PAGE. Church Responsibility, 191 Intelligence at Church, ....... 192 The Sermon, . . . . , 194 Modern Church Devices 196 Church Attractions, 197 Ritualism, 200 Proselytism, .202 Texts, 204 Enlightenment in Church, 206 Man's Highest Good, 208 Heaven,. 210 IfcfcUSTRATIONS. "Autumn Woods by Nature Pahited" ... 27 "Ma Crooned to Baby and Chirped to me'' . . 51 11 She will Plan it," 90 A Crown of Motherhood, 120 Emblems Dear to Lovers of Liberty, .... IBM Blanche Marchesi, 157 William J. Milne, . . 178 Russell H. Conwell, 199 There are some topics, both secular and religious, a knowledge of which can not be obtained by an ordinary course of reasoning. One treating of such topics by an alogy may gain the confidence of readers, if the reason ableness of that which is said appeals to the mind. TALKS ON NATURE. There are powers which harmonize and lead the minds of men. There are powers which mould and form men's characters. There are silent forces at work shaping men's destinies. The mind is susceptible of influences. Deeds are the results of these influences, and men become honored and respected, or dishonored and degraded, as the influences under which they exist are good or evil. Around us to-day unrecognized, are all the won ders of Aeolu's fable. Engines of swiftness and power, surpassing the two and thirty harnessed winds, are speeding up and down the continents. Invisible messages, swift as rays of light, and as si lent as waves of ether, are passing through the air, and under the seas. The broad prairies and the trackless ocean are no longer a barrier, and man now speaks to his fellow man with a thousand miles between them, as easily as if face to face. 8 TALKS ON NATURE, The influences which have led man to complete these inventions lie in nature. In their construc tion, man has used the same mathematical princi ples for his guide thai nature took for hers. His very laws are founded on the laws of nature, and man, with all his boasted wisdom, is in reality a be ing unconsciously swayed by the influences in na ture around him. Man received his first lessons in painting from nature. She painted her own beauties inverted in the silvery waters of lake and river. Man, recogniz ing in her, a master artist, ingeniously copied upon canvas the pictures that she had outlined on the waters. In autumn, nature gilds the woodlands with yel low and scarlet. In winter, she often transforms them all into sparkling crystals of frost work. Man, copying from" her. has stamped his more beautiful designs with silver, and inlaid them with exquisite traceries of gold. Men shape and mould with de vices that are wonderful and strange, but in nature are found every figure and curve from which they are all conceived. Rivers are continuously pouring their contents into the sea. The quiet force, evaporation, lifts their waters far above the earth, and noiselessly bears them back to nourish vegetation. Nature's wonderous mechanism has performed this amazing task for centuries, and never yet has the machinery clashed or jarred. To the thoughtful, this grand phenomenon has a hidden meaning. It is nature's NATURE'S INFLUENCES. 9 mode of speaking to humanity to tell them, great accomplishments are achieved by the persistent ef forts of unpretentious minds. A sunbeam comes silently to earth and illumines the pathway. It is but a single ray of light, and yet it contains rich sources of beauty and of power. Lodged in that simple beam are the many forces that create and support human existence. The fall ing rain, the blooming flower, life, motion, as well as thought itself, are but different forms of its all pervading energy. The commonest objects in nature are all endowed with fascinations as wonderful as the sunbeam, and they, like the salt that silently operates, influence us to make the most of our protean powers. Nature's forces are strangely linked with our own lives, and from them radiate the influences that inspire each and all with nobler, better purposes. In the changing seasons we see our own lives portrayed. They are nature's mirror which .con stantly reminds us of passing life, and, recognized or unrecognized, it is by them that we are influenced to show and do the good. The blooming spring has influences which lead to deeds of purity. Autumn, the harvest time, per suades men so to live that when waning manhood steals upon them, they may reap the fruits of a virtuous existence. Old winter, with clouded skies and drifting snows, influences all humanity to hope for a spring-time yet to come. 10 TALKS OK NATURE. It is not the strong and powerful, or the great and noble that exert the greatest influences over men. Nature's forces, the true influencers of man kind, lie on every side about us. Bryant sang the songs of nature for a life-time. Bacon ever found sermons in running brooks, and in nature, we all find good in everything, Such are the influences that are elevating and ennobling the ideals of men, and softening and sub duing their revengeful natures, Such are the in fluences that are hastening the day when Virtue and Mercy ne'er will be at war, and the only laws for peace and protection will be framed and executed by Love and Pity. Sweet influences, then speed the hour, When JUSTICE triumphs in her power, When TRUTH and HONOR shall attain, A higher eminence than Fame, And that which muses long have sung, A millennium in truth shall come. Mornings are glorious. The person who misses the first hour, from six to seven, loses the beauty and the poetry of the day. When nature works in any direction it counts more than when man works. When nature irri gates, meadows become green, foliage on trees thickens, wild flowers blossom. VENUS. 11 p. Oiten on a clear evening, when you look at the western sky, you will see a very bril liant object. Many people call this beautiful object the evening star, but those who have an idea of the difference in appearance of the heavenly, bodies, their position and movements, call the luminous object, shining brighter than any other in a canopy of blue, the planet Venus. Venus being an inferior planet, that is, her path around the sun being within that of the earth's path, is never seen high in the heavens, but near the horizon, just after sunset at night, or, when she is in the opposite part of her orbit, just above the horizon, shortly before sunrise in the morning. Ancient astronomers being ignorant of the earth's revolution upon its axis, supposed the brilliant star that they saw in the morning, to be a different star from the one that they had seen only a short time before in the evening, so they unknowingly gave Venus two names. Hespersus, the night, was her name when an even ing star, and Lucifer, the morning, w r hen a morning star. Modern astronomers, knowing the mistake of the ancients, discarded both names and appro priately applied to the most beautiful of all the planets the name, Venus, meaning in the Pagan mythology and religion, the goddess of beauty, and, on account of her brilliancy, they gave her the sign which is supposed to represent a mirror with a handle at the bottom. 12 TALKS ON NATURE. To a careful observer, Venus presents the same phases as the moon. Her light is first seen as a pale crescent, which gradually as she proceeds in her orbit, spreads across the disk, till finally her whole surface is illuminated. She then commences to wane till she has completed about one-half her or bit, when she is not visible. Any person can compute the distance of Venus from the sun by means of Keepler's third law. Ac cording to this law, the distance of Venus from the sun is seven-tenths the distance of the earth from that body, hence to a person on Venus, the sun would appear one-half times larger than to us. As Venus and Mercury are the only two inferior planets, only transits of Venus and Mercury can oc cur, and as Mercury is smaller than Venus, and nearer the sun, the transits of Mercury are of less importance than those of Venus. The transits of Venus are of great importance, be cause they afford a means of determining the dif ference between the sun's real and apparent alti tude, and by means of this difference, which is termed the solar parallax, the earth's distance from the sun is computed. The last transit of Venus oc curred December 6th, 1882, and the next will occur on June 7th, 2004, a hundred twenty-one years, six months, and one day from the last. Although telescopic observation of Venus is ren dered somewhat difficult on account of the intense brilliancy of her light, which dazzles the eye and augments the imperfections of the instrument, still VENUS. 13 observations correct enough to be conclusive have been made, showing that Venus is surrounded by an atmosphere of considerable height and density. According to observations made by Schroeter, there are mountains on the planet of immense height. It is said that the elevation of the highest is equal to one one-hundred-and-fortieth of the planet's radius, which would be twenty-seven miles, or more than five times the height of Mount Ever est, the highest peak of our earth. If it be true that clouds have been observed float ing across the disk of Venus, as has been observed on the disk of Mars, then we may conclude that Venus has both air and water, and consequently, might be inhabited by a race similar to the inhab itants of the earth. At the present time, astronomers are almost as well acquainted with the surface of Venus as they are with the surface of the moon. They are now not only able to tell her distance from the sun, the extent of her orbit, and the length of her years, but they can measure almost exactly, her degrees of in clination, the width of her zones, and her mountain peaks. What remains for science to reveal in the future can only be conjectured. It seems quite improba ble that in a few years, people who inhabit Venus, as they go about their daily tasks, will be observed by people of our earth, but it certainly can be no more absurd to predict this at the present time, in the present advanced state of science, than to predict. 14 TALKS ON NATURE. in the days of Tycho Brahe, that which the telescope has since revealed. Scientists have already completed those inven tions, by means of which, on rays of light, we could telegraph our thoughts to lunar inhabitants, why, then, shall we not predict that at some future day, our morning papers will contain intelligence con veyed to us from the inhabitants of this beautiful star. * * * * * The variations of the moon north or south, in as tronomical language, are termed librations. No other heavenly body is so variable in its movements as the moon. An eclipse of the sun is caused by the moon pass ing across the face of the sun, and so can only occur at new moon. An eclipse of the moon is caused by the moon passing through the earth's shadow, and so can occur only at full moon. The August moon is often termed the harvest moon. This is incorrect. The full moon which occurs nearest to the time of the Autumnal Equi nox is the harvest moon. This makes the full moon of September properly the harvest moon. It is the time of the harvest in England. NO POLAR SEA. 15 J*Q The favorable reports, as to the possi bility of reaching the North Pole, may Polar Sea. we j] ^ e acce pted with allowance. It is worth noticeing, that of all the explorers to the North, those who have proclaimed the project feo.s- ible have been the ones who abandoned the under taking at the greatest distance from the Pole. The only reason given for the probable existence of an open polar sea is that, as winter approaches at the far north, migratory birds take their flight in the direction of the Pole. No one knows that these birds stop at the Pole. They might continue their flight beyond, and enter warmer waters in the other hemisphere. As far as is known, nearly every condition of the planet Mars is similar to earthly conditions. The degree of inclination of any planet to the plane of its ecliptic, determines the length and severity of its sea sons. The earth and Mars differ but slightly in in clination. From correct astronomical observations, the length of the seasons of Mars has been as accu rately defined as those of the earth. With the tele scope, during winter in the northern hemisphere on Mars, the snow line is plainly seen to extend itself southward, and during summer in that hemisphere, the snow line is seen to retreat toward the North Pole, and finally settle and remain a distinct white belt of snow about the Pole. The condition of the ftorth Pole of Mars is no doubt the condition of the North Pole of the earth. 16 TALKS ON NATURE. Had the expedition of the great Parisian balloon, launched from the north of Europe with the ex pectancy of reaching the Pole, been successful, it would have settled on a snow bank rather than in an open sea. An open Polar Sea is not probable. The French define a passion as a whim impeded in execution. Had the Creator placed the barren regions of the Pole in easy reach of man, no doubt they w r ould have been ignored. At each successive eclipse of the sun, more is learned about the sun 7 s envelope, which is known as the corona, and which extends away from the surface of the sun for five or six million miles in all directions. When the sun is completely covered by the disk of the moon, the corona becomes visible, even to the naked eye. The corona is undoubtedly a gas different in its properties from any gas com mon to the earth. In the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, the Creator has wisely provided the things most necessary to man's existence, the most plentiful. Iron and copper, metals most useful to man, are most common. Man sets a high price on gold be cause 'it is a metal rare. That man risks life, and endures great hardships in Arctic regions in quest of gold, is to sustain conditions created by man and never intended by the Creator. ELECTRICITY. 17 >1 People arriving in mountainous sec tions from the lower levels, are sur- tncirp. prised at the electrical displays so com mon to high altitudes. The moving of the comb through the hair, the shuffling of the feet across the carpet, the rapid brushing of the fingers across the clothing are sufficient to generate electric sparks. The higher one climbs, the more common are these electrical phenomena, and many wonder at the cause. Electricity is an invisible fluid existing to a greater or a less degree on the surface of most sub stances. Electricity is composed of two entirely dissimilar constituents. As long as these two con stituents composing electricity are evenly balanced, the electricity never displays itself, but by friction they are separated, and as soon as separated, it is their nature to again come together and as quickly as possible. The rapid coming together of these two dissimilar constituents is always visible to the eye in the form of a bright spark, and their striking together is evident to the ear also as a sharp snap. Brushing the clothing, combing the hair, and the like, separate the two electrical elements more readi ly in high altitudes, because there the pressure of the atmosphere, tending to hold together the two electrical elements, is less. When a cloud containing one of the electrical elements, moves near a cloud containing the other, 18 TALKS ON NATURE, the two elements spring to join each other through the intervening space, and this is termed lightning. Often a section of the earth contains but one of the electric elements, and a cloud with the opposite ele ment passing above, brings the lightning which is likely to strike. Wherever these electric elements swiftly pass, they push aside every particle of the atmosphere, and form a complete vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the columns of air rush in with great rapidity to fill the vacuum. When these two columns of air meet, they crack as two boards might in coming together. This report is termed thunder. The use of lightning rods is to keep the two dis similar electric elements constantly united, so that there may be no sudden joining. A lightning rod out of repair allows the two elements to accumulate until there is sufficient to do damage. The rod at length becomes a medium for uniting the accumu lated elements, and so is the cause of a, conflagra tion. These theories of electricity have been established for years. They fulfill all conditions. They are generally accepted. Mectric lighting, electric motors, and instanta neous communication would be impossible without nature's electric discharges, known as lightning. It is an old idea that there is no great good with out its accompanying evil. WINDS. 19 No country, no locality is perfect in all conditions. Where a land has its ad vantages in some directions, it also has its disad vantages in others. The general public are often like children. They want all days holidays, and they never want to take any medicine, unless the medicine is sweet. The public reason but little farther than that winds are unpleasant and disagreeable, therefore a windy locality is an undesirable locality, a locality to be detested, avoided. Many sections, after weeks or months of contin ued calms, get all the wind which might have come through a long period, in a few moments. Besides the winds come with a whirling or rotary move ment, and with such force as to be destructive of life and property. The winds of other localities are not noted for their fickleness. They don't tear out a hamlet or demolish a city to-day and then disappear. They simply take a reasonable velocity that harms no body, and, from day to day, they exhibit a persever ance that might well be copied by the faint-hearted and changeable. Mountainous countries can never be subject to destructive cyclones, because great ranges and peaks are not favorable for the formation of the funnel- shaped, rotating wind-currents. If by chance, on some extended mountain plateau, such a current * should be produced, it would not pass far in its course, before a mountain chain, a bold summit 20 TALKS ON NATURE. would destroy the whirling movement and the ter rific force which damages and destroys. There are some things to be said in favor of winds. A windy locality might be a desirable locality. Winds purify. Men and animals breathe out the poisonous gases. All fires, all rotting vegetation and decaying animal existence send them out. Na ture's method of purifying is to attach the winds, and take all the impurities, destructive to man's healthy existence, far out on the great salt oceans. There, every impure vapor, every poisonous gas is regenerated, purged, cleansed. The person who would escape a windy section would escape a healthy section. In keeping dust out of his eyes, he would get disease germs in his blood. In keeping on his hat, he would lose his head. In straining at a gnat, he would swallow a camel. Before condemning winds, it is better to learn a few of their uses and benefits. Before escaping winds, it is better to learn if winds are not what is necessary to health and comfort. Before criticising the Creator's plans, it is better to learn the alpha bet of their benevolence and wisdom. The most willing critic, as well as the most unjust and unreasonable critic, is the ignorant critic. Let the winds blow. They bring us purity. They bring us health. They cleanse us. & & % $ Nature is the teacher on the farm and her lessons are moral inspirations. THE MEXICAN DOG. 43 gp. A Mexican dog is a strange creature. The typical dog of Mexico is lean, lank, s i en der, fierce, and with teeth white as Dog. ivory and sharp as a razor. He is always hungry, and always ready to leave his friends, the plodding donkeys and the driver of the old weather- beaten lumber wagon, and go on a foraging expe dition for a square meal. But a square meal doesn't fill up a Mexican dog. Four square meals for an ordinary dog still leaves the Mexican dog gaunt and thin and ravenous. An imported city dog from the states, recently arriving, sometimes goes out and picks a quarrel with one of these Mexican dogs. On the Mexican mesas, there are many skeletons of such inexperi enced American dogs, that thus foolishly obstructed the way of the native Mexican breed. A native Mexican dog holds his head low, his nose nearly always resting upon the ground. He spends none of his superfluous energies in barking, in making playful jumps about the donkeys, in running stray cats, or bounding friendly to exhibit affection for his master. He keeps the centre of the track directly under the old lumber wagon. When he goes from under that wagon, it may be relied upon that he is on professional business for himself. The domestic dog with a bone, never knows what struck him till he has lost not only his bone, but a piece of dog steak from his ribs, and a dog cutlet from his flank. He is then in too painful a condition, in too frightened and frightful a state, 44 FARM TALKS. to care or know the cause of his calamity. The domestic dog goes down to his grave supposing a cyclone struck him. Passers who, from a safe dis tance, watched the occurrence, know it was a Mex ican dog. The Mexican dog never shows affection, never exhibits fear, never retreats, never whines. He acts as quickly as he thinks, which is something like lightning. He never chews anything, but always swallows everything in the form of food. He seems to like donkey flesh or dog flesh as well as beef. It is a strange thing but true, that zoology gives no proper classification in which the Mexican dog could be placed. Another interesting species of the dog common to Mexico is the hairless dog. This dog is smaller than the above described, and the pure types are utterly devoid of hair. They are fairly intelligent, affectionate, and in winter are found crouching in sunny corners. For these remarks on "The Mexican Dog' 'no ex cuses, no apologies are offered. Before any subject like dogs or donkeys is treated in this volume, often days or weeks of careful observation and extensive re search are devoted to it. Before these lines on this genus of the dog were written, the animal had been carefully studied for about a year, but at a distance. THE DONKEY. 45 The donkey is ever an object of study. The more a close observer watches the habits, disposition, and characteristics of the donkey, the more this animal becomes an object of admiration, of wonderment. For ages the mental capacity of the donkey has been questioned. This has been owing to the lack of ability of man to properly understand and appre ciate him. Ignorant men wrongfully supposed, that any animal which would endure the impositions and indignities that this animal undergoes without showing revenge, retaliation of any kind, must lack mental capacity. They set it down at the begin ning of creation that the donkey was an ignoramus, and from generation to generation throughout the centuries, through force of habit, that opinion has gone unchallenged, and even to this day, the word, donkey, is a synonym for ignorance. It ought to be a pleasure for any writer to wipe away fallacies. To take any creature, misused and misrepresented, and place that creature in a true and accurate and honest light before the world. Listen. The present incorrect estimate of the donkey is owing to his having lived in advance ctf his age. The generousness, patience, perseverance, and intelligence of the donkey were not recognized, because, until recently, those have been qualities, in the estimation of the public, of but secondary importance. The donkey has a high and broad forehead. From most ancient times, the degree of intelligence has 46 FARM TALKS. been indicated by the height and breadth of the frontal bone. The donkey has large ears. He has not a beautiful and pleasing voice. The develop ment of any organ is commensurate to its use. The donkey learned early the lesson which many men and most children seldom acquire, that true worth is in listening, not in being heard. It is entertaining to observe the wisdom of the Creator in his plans to arrange all things for the convenience, comfort, and happiness of man. As soon as He created a winter, He laid up quantities of oil and coal to light and heat it. As soon as He created continents, He devised winds and storms and streams to sweep and purify them. As soon as He created a mountain, He made a donkey for man's convenience to ascend it. Be it the Alps or Appennines, the Himalayas or Rockies, there is the donkey, patient, sure-footed, and strong, ready for the ascent when man chooses. Load him with tenting and bedding, with bags and haversacks, with prov ender and cooking utensils, the donkey begins his journey toward the clouds with apparently but a single purpose. After hours, perhaps days of peril ous climbing, to at last reach the summit and con template the grandeur of the universe. It is a question among scientists, what thoughts pervade him, what feelings thrill him at such a time. Gazing from the top of Pilatus, Pikes Peak, or Mount Blanc, into blue mountain lakes, across miles and miles of landscape interwoven with stream of silver, along range after range of snowcapped summits, it is not THE DONKEY. 47 doubted but that he is pervaded with sentiments sublime. The milkman of the Rockies makes his daily rounds, his cask of milk securely strapped to his don key, and he serves his patrons, the mountaineers, with as great a degree of regularity as does his more elegantly equipped cousin of the city. Footsore and weary, the prospector hails the mountain milkman with joy, and eagerly draining the cup of its nutritive contents, strokes the donkey, thankful that one animal exists with the patience and dexterity, to reach him with sustenance in his long and perilous wanderings. The photographer, his outfit on his donkey's back, threads the brink of steep precipices, scales lofty peaks, and descends into deep ravines, securing views that instruct and delight the world. No animal holds a more conspicuous place in history than the donkey. Columbus, refused by King Ferdinand of the means to lit out the fleet for his voyage of discovery, had reached a ravine several miles from the city, when he was over taken by the royal couriers. Astride a donkey, he received the glad intelligence that Queen Isabella had pledged her jewels for his enterprise, the en terprise which resulted in opening a continent rivaling in invention, wealth, and magnificence all other continents of the world, God chose a donkey and put human speech in his mouth to reprove Balaam, not only for his disloyalty to his Creator, but his inhumanity to a dumb brute, and for cen- TALKS, turies the cruel whip of the driver has been stayed by the example of Balaam. Christ himself on a donkey, her colt at her side, rode up to the place from whence he ransomed the world. & & & * & Old Testament scenes are, for the most part, farm scenes. A majority of Bible illustrations are drawn from farm life. As the world moves on, many customs of Bible times become obsolete, but they are none the less instructive. Through the Bible, the primitive farm customs of the past instil moral precepts to-day. The moral atmosphere of the farm is pure. The intrigue and deception, often so common to thickly populated localities, are unknown to the farm. All people are moulded by their surroundings. Pure surroundings are inspirations to a pure life, Apples are the fruit that predominates in the markets in Autumn. They are the golden, luscious, harvest apples, such as were so common on the old farm. As the seasons roll, bringing one product and then another, so pictures of the farm life of the past stand out in the memory. .Inspirations that come to one on the old homestead in youth are the inspirations that cling longest in the mind in after years. Man made the city but God made the country, THE MINISTER AT THE FARM. Minister at It made me feel home-sick like, And aH our folks looked glum, And Ma and Pa seemed circumspect, When the minister used to come. We were asked how our souls might be. And prayers were soon begun, And sisters dear, they both would cry. When the minister used to come. We had the very best to eat, But our appetites were numb, For everything was so solemn-like, When the minister used to come. The maltese cat hid out of sight, Old Tige wouldn't sport and run, The Jordan boys all stayed at home, When the minister used to come. But when the minister's gig was filled, With honey and apples and meat, And the minister had gone, It wasn't long before we begun to eat. 60 FARM TALKS. The maltese cat came out to play, Tige leaped and sported free, The Jordan boys made a friendly noise. And sisters both kissed me. Ma crooned to baby and chirped to rm\ She gave us extra room, And we had a crack of butternuts, When the minister 'd gone off home, Pa just sat and laughed and sung, And whistled "Old Zip Coon/' And all our folks begun their jokes, When the minister'd gone off home- 'Ma Crooned to Baby and Chirped to Me.' 52 TALKS WITH CHRONICS TALKS WITH CHRONICS. Of all diseases known to the ^ civilized world, consumption is Rocto BBounfam the most baffling? the mogt viru . Flateau. lent> the most fata] Up to the present time, medical science has abso lutely no remedy. Physicians of all nations, on detecting this dread disease in any patient, know but one thing to advise. All counsel alike, "Go to the Rocky Mountain Plateau." The average physician devotes his time to study and to practice, not to travel. Why to the Rocky Mountain Plateau, how long on the Rocky Moun tain Plateau, and the nature of the life one must lead while there, are questions concerning which both physician and patient desire information. In consumption the physician ever determines the same conditions, an increased amou nt of moisture in the lungs, a loss of lung tissue through watery degeneration. The beginning of the discharge of sputa as the disease commences, its increase as the disease continues, and the final breaking down of the entire system when the amount becomes too great for its ready discharge, all later attest the THE HOOKY MOUNTAIN PLATEAU. 53 Conditions disclosed by the physician's first analysis. When the American consumptive is advised to go to this Plateau, the meaning is that he shall change from an atmosphere made moist by the evaporation of the Atlantic or Pacific, the Gulf, the Great Lakes, and streams and lakes innumerable, to an atmosphere devoid of moisture, for the Rocky Mountain Plateau is two thousand miles from the Atlantic, and it is protected from the evaporation of the Pacific by the great Rockies, over which, for a greater portion of the year, clouds do not pass till they have first discharged their rain, condensed by these cold and lofty peaks. To this high table-land, consumptives, not only from nearly all the states of the Union, but from most civilized nations of the world congregate. They reach the Plateau, often those in the first stages with only a hoarseness of the voice, indicating tuberculosis of the larynx, often those with a more serious affection of the lungs, and yet able to ride, walk, and enjoy life in the open air. Often they a.re brought by their friends on a cot or stretcher, and yet hopeful, as a last resort, of recovery here. Considering the number who arrive, and the critical condition of a large portion of them, it is surprising how few are returned in the unpainted box. This table-land is a dry and arid plain. It is a sunny plain. Each year, over three hundred sunny days are recorded. Summer and winter, spring and autumn, old Sol pours down his rays, seldom ob structed by cloud or mist. 51 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. Batter now than ever before, scientists realize that darkness and dampness generate sickness, that sunlight is death to all disease germs. Where man with his nostrums, to cure or to improve, fails, the sunlight with its power to penetrate, to cleanse, to revivify, comes to repair and to heal. Years previous to the permanent settlement of the Atlantic sea-board, the Plateau was making history, and here the Spaniard and the Spanish mission, long before the Puritan touched Plymouth Bock, had undertaken the education and civilization of the savage. The success of this work may be judged, when it is considered, that in all the three centuries of their labor, no bloody massacres, like those which so frequently occurred at the east, have blotted the record of the influence of the Spanish mission, and, whereas, to-day, in all the east, not a single wild tribe survives, on the Rocky Mountain Plateau, are numerous bands, kind, industrious, frugal, self-supporting, in the marts of trade, buying and selling, and only in color and language dis tinguished from the ranchers and cattlemen of the region. To the Mexican, force of habit is everything. As his ancestors wrought in Old Spain, with donkeys and oxen, carts and calashes, so he continued in his plateau and mountain isolation, and not until 1846, when Kearney's cannon shook the mud walls of his adobe,did he realize that times were changing, and that the pulse of progress was throbbing in a mys terious manner out in the busy world. That all THE KOOKY MOUNTAIN PLATEAU. 55 this was to effect him, however, never entered his head till in 1876, when the locomotive went tearing over his mesas and brought him to a recognition of the fact, that he had become a citizen of Uncle Sam's free republic, with a future and destiny before him. With the railroad came the Gentile and the Jew to the Plateau, and with their arrival business "enter prises began to assume definite proportions. The cities of the Plateau at once became a distributing point, and to-day wagon trains, east and south, are supplying the articles of commerce to villages at a distance of hundreds of miles. This has built up the great wholesale firms here, which now transact a larger business than any similar, west of the Mississippi. Persons accustomed to the east, where the pro ductiveness of any locality depends principally upon the rainfall of that section, would naturally doubt the possession of great agricultural facilities by a plateau dry and arid. It is true the fertility of this Plateau is dependent upon irrigation, but this, bv those familiar with agriculture under all conditions, is considered one of its chief advantages. Egypt, Palestine, and Persia, the most productive lands of antiquity, were entirely dependent upon irrigation, and the facilities of the ancients for obtaining and distributing water were rude and inconvenient. Nature is no respecter of times and seasons. If the eastern farmer's crops escape a drouth in spring, they may be ruined by a flood in autumn. 56 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. The melting snows of the Rockies furnish an exhaustless source of water for irrigation, and where aqueducts have been constructed to utilize this supply, the dairy, fruit, and grain interests of the Plateau have developed in enormous proportions, for the natural richness of the soil is unsurpassed, even by the famed sections which produce the giant fruits of the Pacific coast. As the means for irrigation here have thus far been perfected only in a small degree, the grazing industry has developed beyond all others. Owing to the sunny winters, sheep and cattle thrive on the ranges during the entire year, and the wool and cattle interests of the Rocky Mountain Plateau are world renowned. Throughout the entire region, from Wyoming and Utah, to Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, gold and silver have been found, and here to-day, gold and silver mines as rich as any in all the world, are awaiting the intelligence and capital necessary for their development. Coal sufficient for motor power and for electrical illumination is now being mined. No doubt the natural resources of the Plateau are unrivaled by any section of the same extent in the nation. The architecture of the American sections of the Plateau is, for the most part, modern. Dwellings are planned to receive, not to exclude the sunlight. It is no uncommon thing for a residence here to be so constructed, that the sunlight enters every room, and, thanks to the intelligence inculcated by con- THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN PLATEAU. 57 tact with disease, sunlight is a welcome guest in most households, and is seldom obstructed by shades or shutters. In many places, as at Manitou and at Las Vegas, are mineral springs whose waters are most palatable, and for others than consumptives, they are as curative as those of Carlsbad or Saratoga. Consumptives on arriving, invariably anticipate a speedy cure, and a return to their former locali ties in the east with a resumption of business in the old channels. They underestimate the fatality of the disease. A system once thoroughly impreg nated with consumption, when again subjected to the old conditions, is likely again to succumb to the old ravages. Often a patient apparently cured, and leaving for the east, barely reaches his former home, before, by loss of voice and difficulty in breathing, the return of the destroyer asserts itself, and with all his intense desire for old sights, old scenes, and old friends, he is obliged to face about and return to the Eocky Mountain Plateau, for health is dear. No one need suppose that life on the Plateau is an isolation. Churches are not bound down to old creeds, schools to old methods, or society to old customs. With a full realization of the evils of the east, and a knowledge of the good, men of mental calibre, who sought a home here, have planned and executed with skill and intelligence. In their plans law and order predominate, a regard for sacred things has been preserved, woman holds an honored position. 58 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. Neither the citizen nor the tourist grows dull for want of amusement here. Good horses for riding or driving can be obtained at the liveries, and for mountain climbing, herds of burros or Mexican donkeys are offered at five dollars apiece, possession for life, or at an absurdly small sum for use by the day or week. Perfect roads during the en tire year make bicycling truly a pleasure, and mild winters render tennis, croquet, and golf games even more popular than in the east. Some of the best opera and dramatic troupes of New York, Chicago, and Boston often play in the larger cities of the Plateau, and lecture and concert courses are maintained in true New England style, employing some of the best talent in the nation. With schools and libraries, clubs and societies, musical and elocutionary circles, there is no place for gloom or despondency. A dissatisfied, uneasy state of the mind, occasioned by lack of occupation and amusement, is a condition above all others avoided by those who realize that God made earth as well as heaven, and that he who appreciates earth most will be likely to enjoy heaven best. People here look on the bright side, and there is no spot in the world where this is easier than in a land of sunshine. Colonies of nearly all nations exist, and the Englishman worshiping in the Episcopal faith, or the German devoutly following the Lutheran creed are incidents now as common, as the original Spaniard paying homage through his Catholic THE ROOKY MOUNTAIN PLATEAU. 59 confessor. To them all, life here is a pleasure, a cherished blessing, and so they learn to live out their years with thousands of miles of land and billow intervening between them and the old hearthstone across the sea. In distant Jesuralem, anciently, (rod established a pool. An angel* it is said, went down at certain seasons into the pool and troubled the water. Whoever then first stepped in was made whole. In America, the nineteenth century reveals that God has established a plain. An angel, perpetual sunlight through all seasons, pervades the atmos phere of this plain. All, from whatever lands, who migrate here, are preserved in health and happiness, made whole. & % $ $ The idea held for so many years, that a long ocean voyage was beneficial to patients suffering with pulmonary trouble, has. now been generally discarded. Sailors having contracted lung trouble on the ocean are often cured on reaching high altitudes. Dry weather may not be most desirable for people who are well, but it is what the invalid often travels hundreds or even thousands of miles to experience. Many of the most dangerous diseases are contracted in damp localities. Most consump tives contract the disease near the sea or lake coast. They go to mountainous sections to escape damp atmosphere, that they may breathe dry air, 60 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. The use of excessive cold drinks isgen- era jjy conc i emnec i by scientific and me- f+* for . dical authority. It is said to be detri- vrironics. , i ,- i mental in the recovery or any having pulmonary troubles. The temperature of the stomach at all times is very high. The shock caused to the system by injecting water at a low temperature into this organ is great. Health seekers will find ihat climate will do much for them, if they are willing to live in a temperate manner and practice judicious laws of hygiene. No climate in the world can cure invalids who constantly violate important health rules. Temperance in all things is a virtue. "Macte vir- tute," proceed in virtue, should be the fixed motto of every invalid. In hight altitudes the air is more rare. People living in high altitudes, to acquire the necessary air, are compelled to breathe deeper and longer. Thus the lungs are benefited by the extra exercise in breathing. Physicians now understand symptoms well, and chronic diseases are nearly always detected with in a few days, or, at longest, in a few weeks after they commence. Physicians know too, the great effects wrought on these diseases by a change of climate. Honest doctors send their patients to the proper locaties, in the earliest stages. PHILOSOPHY FOR CHRONICS. 61 ^1.1 , To throughly understand and appre- S ciate chronics, one must be a chronic, p, . associate with chronics, and acquire Chronics. ^ e views of life and life's ennuies possessed by chronics. Where those in perfect health live with great hopes, an ambition which nothing will satisfy short of the bwnership of an electric railroad, a news paper, a fruit stand, or even the right for four years to the presidential chair itself, a chronic's great ambition is to become able to make the tour of an adjoining square, to reach the public park, to gain three pounds avoirdupois, and similar seemingly impossible feats. Some one has said, that the difference in men consists chiefly in the degree of their ambitions, and the poet Longfellow said, that the great reason why men did not achieve, was because they were troubled with great ambitions. The average chronic accomplishes what he marks out, because great ambitions do not deflect him from his pur poses. For the same reason, he marks out only the most beneficial things, and so is never engaged in the superfluous. There is a saying, prevalent only among chronics, but doubtless most true, that a chronic never dies. This might be explained on the ground that the unexpected is most likely to occur. After a close study of most of the types of the animal kingdom, it has been determined that the most ignorant are the most hardy. In the plant (>2 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. kingdom it is well known that flowers must be guard ed with tender care, while weeds are never in the slightest diseased. Some of the greatest men, from Cicero to Pope, have been chronics, while the average outlaw is a person to whom ill health is unknown. Those who know nothing, fear nothing, they never worry, and so are ever well. The most beneficial medicine for a chronic is exercise in the open air. Some of the best workers of body and of mind are first to succumb to disease. Wooded sections are considered healthy sections, because vegetation sends off oxygen, the element most vital to health. After a residence of a few years in high altitudes, the chest measurement is always increased. People returning to low altitudes breathe with great ease and freedom, owing to the extra lung capacity gained by life in the mountains. The validity of a man's claim to exist might be considered to depend upon the uselfulness of his existence. It is said that, in old age, the great philosophers have not regretted approaching death, because they realized that increasing feebleness was lessening their capacity for usefulness. CHEER FOR CHRONICS. 63 This subject of chronics is a tender one for many. People, generally, do not enjoy being told of their imperfections, . especially of their physical imperfec tions. Only the broad-minded and most forgiving will endure it. Speak of the imperfections of a man's business rival, the teacher, his neighbor, or his enemy, and you at once have his attention, often his approval. Speak of his own imperfections, and he is mad. Speak of his physical imperfections, tell him that his ear is too large, or his nose too small, or his hat under size, or that he has perforated lungs, and he will whip you if he can. If he can't, he probably will not speak to you again, and often will do everything possible to make your life a bleak and dreary waste, a Sahara without an oasis. This is not right. You benefit a man by telling him of his faults, even of his physical faults, and a man who is wise, when you do this, w T ill not be offended. This is a great age for inventions and improvements. There are devices now for dimin ishing the size of the ear, for enlarging the size of the nose. Hard study will make a larger hat neces sary. The right kind of climate will shrink the cavities of the lungs. So can one but know his im perfections, will one patiently hear of them from others, he may improve himself, cure himself, often make himself physically perfect. Mental perfec tion is more difficult to reach. Moral perfection is impossible, in all the history of the world, it only 64 TALKS WITH CHRONICS. having been attained by but one person, the Man of Galilee, but he started sinless, while you and I must start handicapped by the sins of generations of ancestors. If you are a physical chronic, put yourself in the best spot on earth to let nature work out the cure, then constantly take large doses of the climate, but remember that climate is powerless to do anything for you if your disposition is not right to receive it. Climate does nothing for a chronic that is not jovial, good natured, happy, joyous. The most hardy animal known, grief kills shortly, but not so rapidly as it kills chronics. If you are an ex-chronic, the dissease not having shown itself in years, become morose and sad and glum, and the destroyer will soon return, and you are in worse condition than a genuine chronic, es pecially if he be lively and gay. Ex-chronics have been dying on every hand simply because they became too dejected to live. Any chronic can be jolly if he tries. "It is not always the favorable things that surround us which make us happy, but the more favorable to which we look forward.' 7 But then there is much to-day to make us joyous. America has mountains just high enough, streams just deep enough, skies just blue enough. Of all the planets of the solar system the earth is best fitted for human life. Let us be thankful that we are aboard the earth, that we live in this enlightened age, that our lot is cast in America. CHEER FOR CHRONICS. 65 Chronic, heal thyself! Everything tends to make you think of heaven, so some of the time fix your mind on earth and its good things. God made them to be enjoyed, to help you to get well. If you do this you will get well, and when the grass is growing green and luxuriant over the grave of pessimists who thought you couldn't hold out much longer, you will be alive and active and singing jovial songs which only a recovered chronic knows how to sing with joy and gladness in every strain. 66 TALKS THROWN IN, TALKS THROWN IN. ''There is nothing in the book," is a common remark to hear. In most in- J" the stances, the individual who makes this I$oo^ remark considers that he has given the book a poor recommendation. In most instances, the individual who makes this remark has given himself a poor recommendation. The characteristic difference between the educated and the unedu cated is this. The educated observe closely and are appreciative. The uneducated observe care lessly and are unappreciative. Plants and animals and stones and running brooks have sermons for the intelligent. Nature and nature's works, man and man's works, have little or no interest for the unintelligent. Whether the book contains much or little depends upon the mind that peruses it. To the mind dull, unskilled, unaccustomed to think, to observe, and to appre ciate, the book has but little in it. To the mind active, thoughtful, accustomed to seeking out the good and to understanding arid appreciating it, most any book contains much. The great thing in this world is not for grander or more magnificent in art or literature, but more NOTHING IN THE BOOK. 67 appreciation for what we have. The ignorant critic is the most willing, the most confident critic. Those who know nothing, fear nothing, respect nothing, appreciate nothing, and so are most ready to criticize, and most likely to condemn. It takes genius to discover genius, an artist to understand art, intelligence to appreciate intelligence. The person who can't preach is most exacting of the minister. The person who can't intruct is most critical of the teacher. The person who can't com pose Ls most condemning of an author. The reason is simply because a person who has never accom plished a thing, unless he be exceedingly intelligent, does not understand the effort and skill involved. He may be a person who has not only ever worked with his hands, but has not thought and read and reasoned sufficiently, so that he has a standard by which to estimate mental efforts. The most gener ous, the most appreciative, are the most intelligent, and they always find something in the book, and ordinarily regret that they have not more time to devote to its perusal. There is so much now, that might be written that the great question with the author of a book is not how he may fill its pages, but what he ought to exclude from its pages. The great aim of the best authors to-day is not quantity, but quality. The great problem is not to secure more reading, it is to secure better, more inspiring, more elevating reading. There is enough in the book for those who can understand and appreciate it. ti8 TALKS THROWN IN. Smerican There are certain remarks which _ are made by ail people of all classes. Unginalu^. ^hese remarks are current and have been made so long and so often that everybody ex pects them to be made, and the making of them occasions no comment, engenders no criticism. In this day, if a young man, or a young woman has fairly good wearing apparel and fairly regular feat ures, and in conversation, will rely upon standard phrases, never attempting anything original, he or she may pass for a very nice young person, a very proper young person, a young person whose aquaint- ance and society may be cultivated with profit. In June it is always proper to say "The day is charming/' and, "What is so rare as a day in June?" and that, "June is the month of roses," and so on indefinitely, One in saying those things is always proper, always correct, gives no offense, harms no body, pleases most everybody, and soon acquires a reputation for being a very proper person. Let a person say that, "June is the month of young colts and baby donkeys," that, "June is the month of June bugs," that, "This day reminds him of his best friend, warm, genial, and inspiring," and the public begin to stare. Such a person engenders criticism, acquires the reputation of not being correct, proper, prim. He has stepped outside the bonds of con ventionalism, and that portion of the public which has but little originality itself, detests originality in others, and their method of punishment is ostracism, cold and heartless neglect. AMERICAN ORIGINALITY. 69 So the person who has allowed himself to be original is soon "the crank," the "awful person," the "unmannered person/' and the "person who says such terrible things." The Englishman of to-day is the most conven tional person in existence. The American of to-day is the most original. The Englishman terms the American's originality, drollery. The American terms the Englishman's conventionalism, nonsense. The Englishman ac quired his present degree of conventionalism through centuries of continual cultivation, polish ing, and veneering. The American acquired his present degree of originality through the necessity imposed upon him of clearing up a continent, and covering it with cities, railroads, telegraph and telephone lines. A competence has made the Englishman fat, stolid, and conventional. Necessity has made the American shrewd, inventive, and original. The leopard need not try to change his spots, neither need the American endeavor to lay aside his originality. An American endeavoring to ape the. English, to be conventional, is a sorry picture. It inspires both English and Americans alike with pity and disgust. Of all traitors, the one who is false to the principles of his ancestors, the honored customs of his native land, is most detestable. Let the American remain what nature intended him, ingenious, inventive, original. 70 TALKS THROWN IN. x* . Evils in this world are contagious. ^ * Measles, mumps, whooping-cough and small-pox, as well as many more virulent dis eases, are communicated by contact. It would be a hard and cruel world in which to live if the good things of life were not as contagious as the bad. Happiness is contagious. The driver of the white mule on a street car line out in New Mexico had made his trips as unvarying as the clock. From the morning hour till late in the afternoon he had sat on the old stool and scolded the white mule. He thought of the electric cars whirling along in the big cities. He was tired, w r orn, wearied, unhappy, downcast, dejected. So was the white mule. A happy jolly passenger boarded the front plat form of the car and took the reins. He shouted in tones that penetrated out into the distant sub urbs, "All aboard for the station." He laughed. So did the three men and two women passengers in the car. So did the weary driver. So did the white mule. The jolly passenger who now had the whip crack ed it at the bay horse coming down with another car. The jolly passenger hurrahed for the next president and a free republic. The four passengers of the other car swung hats and handkerchiefs. The tired driver of the first car was getting in terested and entertained, and consequently invigor ated and rested. He waved his hat to the driver of the bay horse. The white mule gave his stub tail a friendly wag and his bell jingled merrier. CONTAGION. 71 The cars sped swifter toward their distinations. The passengers told stories. By their tones it was evident they were good natured stories. The driver of the first car whistled. The driver of the other car sang. The jolly passenger, who had caused all the good nature for eleven persons and two dumb animals, passed back the reins to a happy, gratified, rested driver. The jolly passenger is one of the world's benefactors, one of the world 's philanthropists. To be appreciative is a faculty indicating intelli gence. Children should be early taught the importance of being cheerful and good natured. Habits formed in youth are lasting habits, and most good natured men and women practiced their good nature when young. The performer vvho has done well always has the sympathies of the public when the adverse critic appears. It is because public criticisms are for the glory of the critic, rather than for the improvement of the performer, published articles being for the perusal of not one but many. There is too little in the world to make hearts glad, too much to make them sad, for the adverse public critic to ever be come very popular. 72 TALKS THROWN IN. flQocUrn ^ n ^ weather, men of great men- P_. tal capacity doubtless feel excessive Editorials. heat more than others Editors feel the heat. Some editors succumb. Others do not. One finds occasionally a modern editor, who, dur ing such hot weather as we have every summer, has a novel way of supplying his readers with edi torial opinions, and at little exhaustion of his own intellectual reservoir. His method is this. From the editorial column of some neighboring news paper, he clips a thirty or forty line editorial on some prominent subject as the "Silver Question," "Capital," or "Congress," and then composes two lines to accompany it, saying for himself, "That is the correct idea all through. Editor so and so has hit the nail on the head. Come again." If the morning is excessively hot, and this modern editor feels deeply the need of giving himself ease and restfulness from thought, and his editorial column an especial big boom, he will clip a sixty or seventy line editorial on a subject like "Tariff," "Strikes," or "Cyclones," and then instead of compos- sing anything of his own, simply attaches a quota tion from Carlton, "Them's my sentiments too," and so his editorial column appears on publication. It is not necessary to condemn these practices. It is not wrong to portray them. It is not neces sary to even remark that the plan is a poor one. It is the privilege of the person who edits a news paper to edit it as he chooses. It is not necessary to suggest that such editorials are inferior to the MODERN EDITORIALS. 73 regular editorials which such an editor would pro duce in cold weather. They might be superior. Such editorials have this advantage. They give the editor a change. He may use a fan instead of a pen, the scissors and glue pot instead of head and intellect, muscle instead of mind. It gives him a chance to store up thoughts to be let loose during the next cool spell. The device is certainly one worthy of consideration. To take a quantity of intangible reading matter into the mind with no purpose of retaining it, weakens the memory. At the present there are so many newspapers, so voluminous, that the public are inclined to peruse them with a less degree of seriousness than for merly. To read is important but it is more important to think. N o person should form the habit of accepting what he reads before first testing it by his own judgment and experience. In this age, it is an important matter that both through the avenue of conversation, and that of reading, the impure and detrimental be discarded. No one should ever retain words or ideas that are not the best and purest. 74 TALKS THROWN IN. A. certain western editor seems to . . , , . , think that whiskers make the man, for, in remarking a on former presidential candidate, he suggests that he tarry at Jericho till he can raise a beard. Undoubtedly this editor is a bearded man. It is quite evident that he is wonderfully charmed with his whiskers and intellect, and not reasoning be yond his own horizon, he supposes no man can be very profound mentally unless he has whiskers. If he will study the subject of whiskers, he may be surprised, perhaps even chagrined, to learn that- many ordinary men have whiskers, while some ex traordinary men are beardless. Whiskers can't add anything to a man's mental capacity. They may rob a man of mental power. If the time some men spend in sprouting, growing, combing, oiling, powdering, and caressing whiskers was utilized in useful study, they would be too in telligent to make sarcastic remarks about beard less men. They would realize that some beardless man, with an intellect as long as their whiskers, might turn aside from his ordinary avocation, and give them a mental drubbing which would linger in their memory through this and into another life. Intuitive knowledge, the highest type ("lod be stowed upon women, mortals, or angels rather, entirely devoid of whiskers, A mean and most despicable man said not long ago. that the reason why women did'nt have whiskers was because they could'nt keep their mouths closed WHISKERS. 75 long enough to be shaved. The vile creature! He himself had a great, bushy beard, and, how natural, that he, too, should estimate the degree of intelligence by the amount of whiskers. He doubt less never travels, observes, or thinks. He probably can't read, and the world to such a being is of the same color as the glasses through which he views it. He might have been a barber who was jealous because he could'nt make money by shaving women. Achilles, Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Caesar, Cicero. Homer, Virgil, Napoleon, and Washington of the past, had no whiskers, and men of the present, beardless, are preachers, presidents, poets, statesmen, in fact, a majority of the great men of this and other nations. Now, no doubt this self-conceited editor would have had all these men tarry at Jericho till they raised a beard. Well, the poor man may yet learn, that the very reason these men have become great, is because they devoted their time and attention to other things than waiting about for whiskers to grow. He may learn, when too late, that the world moves, and now, more than ever, mind is superior to matter, mind is superior to appearance, mind is superior to whiskers. Laud the mind. Extol the intellect. Deprecate whiskers. Men should learn the truth when young before whiskers grow. 76 TALKS THROWN IN. ~ America has been criticised for its lack of poetic talent. The critics were individuals not in a position to know the extent of the ability of American bards. The writer once worked on a newspaper, out west, and at that time, occupied a position which enabled him to know. Many people who came to that part of the west, came for their health. We desired them to be able to read oar paper and in no way injure or undermine that for which they came. That we might gain the good opinion of the people who came, we suppressed much poetry. We published a little. There were a few readers, bold people, who would risk their lives in the pursuit of the strange and unreal. They demanded poetry. When they must have it, we nearly always gave them our own lyrics. That satisfied them and gratified us. In that way, you might say, we killed two birds with one poem. If we would have published contrib uted poems we could have killed a whole flock of birds with one of them. Our ambition was never to kill more than two at a time. Poetry was all right in ancient times, in the days of Homer. Then men didn't have to eat hurriedly, run to the office, dictate work to a score of employ es, and rush to keep a business engagement, In Virgil's day, men could sit around on couches, dream of the stars and winds and waves, and poetry was the natural product of such a life. In an age of dreamers poetry had its mission. Discovery and invention, progress and politics have changed all POETRY. 77 this. Poetry at the present is like a mummy or a mastodon, exhibited but not extoled, viewed but not admired, preserved but not enjoyed. Now, after the above, some will sav, ''This man is lacking in true poetic instinct." "He has no soul for harmony, rhyme, and rhythm." It's a false accusation. Many a poem which could not be trusted to public print, on a Sunday afternoon, is read to a dear and intimate friend. At such times, tears dim his eyes. He sighs. Often he grasps the hand and -feelingly says but the confidential, remarks of a friend shall not be betrayed. The first stanzas of most poems should be read in a sad but distinct and inpressive tone. The last stanzas should be read livelier and more enthu siastic. Poetry should always be followed by 'applause. $ $ $ & % Whether one is right appreciative of modern poet ry depends upon his age, habits of life, and the state of his affections. Strangers reaching mountainous countries, and being inspired by the beauty of the marvelous nat ural surroundings, are at once curious to know about the class of people first and most effected by nature's beauties poets. As soon as they learn what effect great altitude has upon sheep, crops, or calves, they next want to know how it effects poets. To collect and publish such information is a rich h'eld of journalism as yet uninvaded. 78 TALKS THROWN IN. <> . A man who can take a rear seat in ' church at Easter time and view, unmoved, the display of hats which adorns the heads of the ladies, must be a harsh, cold mortal, with no love of the beautiful, or the aesthetic. Easter will pass down the annals of history noted in two respects, at the date when Lent closes throughout the Christian world, and as the time when hats most nearly resemble a flower garden in full bloom. On Easter this year the writer was charmed with the display. Here a high hat, there a low hat. Here a round hat, there a square hat. But all hats, were big hats, all were sweet, dear, delightful, bewitching, entrancing, and all were really and truly a botanic al study. In the interval before the opening of the service, a hat was studied which shut off the view both of pulpit and preacher. The brim of this hat was or namented with ferns. Rising above the ferns on the edge of the crown were daffodils, hearts-ease, and lilies of the valley. From the center, and higher than all, arose a big double hyacinth, When the wearer tipped her head to the left, the organ and choir vanished and pulpit and preacher swung into view. When her head came back upright, organ and choir appeared and pulpit and preacher were gone again. There were scores of hats like this hat, only with different and a greater variety of flowers. Winged SPRING HATS. 79 creatures were deceived. A bumblebee which flew in at the open window, dived into a daisy, rested a moment on a honey-suckle, plunged at a clump of clover, and finally went out of sight altogether down in the corolla of a big morning-glory which ornamented a hat over by the middle aisle. It would thrill one when the minister said, "Let as pray/' to see all the flower gardens, a,s though joined into a single great garden, sink to a level of the backs of the seats. And when the minister said, "Amen," it was a sight one would never forget, to see the whole banks of flowers rise again to the higher level. At first one would suppose no men were present, but by closer search, now and then, as the great mounds of flowers would sway a little apart, here the chin whiskers of a bearded man might protrude, there a masculine shoulder, and often the crown of a bald head. Oh! the gay, the beautiful, the brilliant flower adorned hats. They fill our lives with pleasure. May the fashion never die. Never! The hat is the crowning ornament of dress. The selection of the hat reveals the taste of the individual. In countries at the far east, the hat indicates the nationality of the person. 80 TALKS THROWN IN, <_ Nothing excites a boy like the advent of / the circus. The very idea that panthers, Circus, leopards, tigers, and lions, animals of which he has read and dreamed for days and months, are actually in his native town, that they are to be seen and enjoyed by him, these thoughts make a boys's nerves tingle from head to foot. The boy who sleeps soundly the night before the circus comes is a dullard. The boy who rises later than four o'clock circus morning is sick. The boy who stays at home circus day and doesn't even look out to see the street parade, is a dunce. Pessimists will complain about the amount of money the circus takes out of the town. But if the pessimist will stay away from the show, it wouldn't take any of his money away, and what business is it to him what other people do with their money. Every pessimist, who by staying away from the circus and by denying himself in similar ways, accumulates a lot of money, is obliged at last to die and leave it. He not only misses the circus all his life, but at the end, suffers added pain in having to part with a fortune. People who go to the circus and enjoy their money while they live, at death only have to part with their friends. Fathers and mothers, state truly, when did you ever spend a dollar which gave you more genuine enjoyment than when you took your little five-year-old to the circus? How he did stare at the big snake, and crow at the monkeys, and shout for joy to see the comical clowns. THE CIRCUS. 81 "Does a circus do good? 77 Bless us, what a ques tion ! Don't you know that through lack of enter tainment and amusement, men who might be use ful citizens, helping to make others cheerful and happy, are led to be crabbed old pessimists, one of whom sours a whole neighborhood? Melancholy will drive the best of men to suicide. Scientists are discovering that most diseases orig inate through the nervous system. The man or woman forever in the same old treadmill, with no diversion, is laying the foundation for disease. It is cheaper to rest a day and give the circus manager a dollar, than to pay some sanitarium Five Hundred or a Thousand dollars, or to go to the trouble of an expensive funeral. Anything that drives away care and anxiety and grief is a blessing. That is why God created flowers and birds and mountain peaks and rippling lakes. The circus manager may not admit it himself, but he is one of the greatest philanthropists of the age. He helps to throttle care and grief. Grief, if left alone, will not only kill men, but dogs. If you didn't go to the circus last year, go this year. Be thankful that you live in a country that can afford a circus. Take every child that merits your love. ? & & & & What a great device a brass band is to cheer and inspire. What political party would expect to go through a campaign without martial music, with out a band? 82 TALKS THROWN IN. ~ . To moralize is condemned by many. To take a review of the past, and to lay plans for the future is distasteful to some. In the battle of life> there are those who do their best, others contend in an indifferent man ner. The person who, during the past month, gave to his labor his best efforts, who worked in an earnest manner, in an industrious manner, achieved some thing. He achieved something w r hich gives him pleasure to contemplate. To review the accomplish ments of the month is a satisfaction to such a per son. He gets his encouragement for the care and patient exertion which he should put forth this month, by admiring the results, which the care and patient exertion expended last, produced. A recast of last month is distasteful to any one who worked in an indifferent manner. A dissatis fied feeling is one of the punishments Nature sets upon careless, half-hearted endeavor. No one can derive any more pleasure from tasks poorly execut ed, than from tasks neglected and unperformed. Energy expended in producing imperfect results is wasted energy. It pays to either do a thing well or to let it alone. The accomplishments of last month should be object lessons for this month. The achievements for the first half of the year ought to serve as in spirations for the last half. It is right to take a recast of the month. The person who can do so with pleasure is a fortunate person, a person to be complimented, for his work is legitimate work 1IEVIEW THE MONTH. 83 honestly executed. In the main, what he conceived he achieved, and the tendencies of last month be come the determinations of this month, of future months, and future years. The person who has not pleasant thoughts of past accomplishments should produce somthirig better now. It is well to make new resolves. It is better to execute them. If this month is unsatisfactory begin anew next month. & $ & % Accomplishment is not so much a matter of ener gy as intelligence. Intelligence takes advantage of winds and waves. People most sucessful in their projects are those most judicious in their plans, A project well plan ned is a project easy of a successful execution. It is often remarked that experience is the great est educator. Experience will educate people who will stop to consider occurrences and their import. The difference in men lies chiefly in their ability to calculate and execute. Men are great or or dinary according as they have mind capacity for accomplishment. It is a pleasure for most people to recount past events. Children delight in hearing the experien ces of parents, and many a child makes useful re solves when parents relate occurrences of the past. 84 TALKS THROWN IN. ~. How common are terrible mine disas- ~ ters. In America they are frequent, Uisasters. ^^ no ^. more so than j n Europe or Afri ca. Every year hundreds of industrious workmen are buried in mines. Some are mercifully put out of existence in an instant, others, buried alive, suf fer the tortures of a living tomb till death comes to their relief. No one doubts that this great loss of life, this torture of wives and little ones, is due entirely to the greed of wealthy mine owners. The money kings are too desirous of increasing their fortunes, already enormously great, to be willing to spend the little money necessary to render their mines safe for the workmen employed. A noted American said, "All evils, no matter what their nature, may be summed up in one word, selfishness." The same motive that inspires murder, inspires a wealthy company to allow their laborers to work each day in the jaws of a death trap, and the blood of the slaughtered workmen is upon the hands of the selfish men who compose the company. Such men have few good motives which will reform them. They should be reformed. Mines, like banks and insurance companies, should be under the inspection of competent goverment officers. Mines that endanger the lives of the workmen should be closed till the owners are will ing to expend the money to make them safe. Men who work in mines have not the time or tact to urge legislation. Others should assist them. FAIRNESS. 85 g* > To attemp to stifle public expression on any subject is un-American. If a man, a union, or a society has opinions, the American idea is to give the opinions a hearing. If the opin ions are false, unreasonable, then the common sense and good judgment of the American people can be relied upon to stamp them as such. If the ideas are true, then the quicker societies, churches, and individuals learn of their truthfulness and adopt them, the better it is for all. "Truth is mighty and in the long run must prevail." The person who stops his ears, or his home, or his church, and will hear nothing on some subject of national interest, proves that he fears there is more reason in that subject than his limited mental ca pacity will enable him to refute. He exhibits his prejudice which is akin to ignorance. He stamps himself un-American for the American idea is fair play, both sides of all questions. Such men help the cause they persecute. Those "who were not moved by the slavery question itself, were influenced to oppose slavery because the cham pions of slavery endeavored to stifle public expres sion. There are many to-day who are becoming strong temperance advocates, not moved by the evils of intemperance, but by the fact that free expres sion of temperance ideas has been opposed. So with women's suffrage, it has made friends throughout America, not so much from the justice of the cause, but because there are some so narrow that they would prevent expression of opinion on that subject. 86 TALKS THROWN IN. Give all public questions a public hearing. It is all proper for a person to have his own ideas on a public question, but he should not attempt to com pel others to adopt and retain then,, for his ideas may be narrow or bigoted or even entirety false. The authorities of Galileo's age forced Galileo to declare that he had taught an untruth, that the world was not round. That Galileo retracted what he knew was true made no difference to the truth finalty being known and believed. Charles Sumner was clubbed in the senate chamber because he told the truth. This only hastened the dissemination throughout America of the truths Sumner advo cated. No one can burn or beat or club back the truth. Those who attempt it resort to the lowest, to brute force. Let falsehood or truth be told. Falsehood will die. Truth will live. & & & $> The discussion of any topic educates people upon that topic, often too upon other topics. Love of fairness is implanted in the heart by na ture. Children recognize fairness, and the es teem of a child can only be retained by fairness in treatment. The farther men get away from monarchs, the keener is their sense of fairness. The. more men experience justice for themselves the more they desire it for their fellows. HOW TO TREAT A WIFE. 87 Kou? to ^ * s an ^ sa yi n & that fools _ ~y,, in where angels fear to tread. 1 reat a (QJife. r^ more a man k nows about a subject, the more likely he is to consider it intricate and deep. The less a man knows about a topic the readier he is to talk and write of it. It has just been learned, that a majority of the essays on woman were written by bachelors, that a majority of the essays on man were composed by spinsters. It is strange but true, that many people insist upon doing something which they can't do, that many writers insist upon treating topics of which they know nothing. There is an article on this same subject that has been circulated from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the author reaches his climax, makes his principal point, by asserting that every married man should select and keep a certain cough remedy in the house ready to give his wife at a moment's notice. Now what an idea is that to spread broadcast through the country? Here is a young man in love. His sweetheart's beauty and brightness, her innocence and trustful ness have charmed him. He lives in a new, and enraptured world. He woos, will wed, but now comes the spectre to deter him from the contem plated matrimonial step. Above every thing, it tvould be his desire, after marriage to so treat the tender creature who trustfully confides in him, that he may be above and beyond reproach. He is inform ed that, in order to do this, he must at once select 88 TALKS THROWN IN. and purchase a cough remedy. Such a suggestion is to his affections like the hot desert wind to wav ing fields of corn, like alkaline water to the thirsty traveler, like glowing sunshine upon the fleecy snow. He turns, and now sits lonely in his dreary appartment and only dreams of happiness which might have been. Married men know that you don't have to plan how you will treat your wife. After you are a few months married, your wife will attend to all plans of that character, and your wits will be more exer cised in devising means to avoid executing some of them. If she wants a cough remedy, she will make her own selection. If she wants a feather trimmed cloak, it will be the same, or new sleeves for her dress or a new dress for her sleeves, or new flowers for her hat or a new hat for her flowers, she will plan it. All you need worry your mind about will be the payment of the bills. But don't be too much exercised about them. Feathers and flowers come cheap, and they will so enhance your wife's beauty that you'll consider them good investments as they truly are. If your wife wants to take a trip to the sea-shore she will plan it. You will hear about it before she starts before the ticket is purchased. Kisses that she might give away before marriage, you will earn afterwards. Don't be frightened either about this. That which costs nothing you never appre ciate. "That which costs nothing is worth nothing." HOW TO TREAT A WIFE. 89 After marriage, when you have become well acquainted with the person who was formerly your sweetheart, when you have contended with the world side by side, suffered together, grieved togeth er, rejoiced together, when there is a little one who clings to you both and to whom you both cling, then you will first comprehend the breadth and depth of true affection, then you will understand the great problem is not how to treat a wife, but what treatment you may apply to yourself to make you worthy of your wife. It is one of the greatest mistakes of humanity to ever study others and never study themselves. Examine yourself. Hunt out your own faults and failings. Correct them. Improve yourself and you will please your wife most, honor her most, and so treat her best. 'She Will Plan It.' PHYSIOGNOMY. 91 SOCIAL TALKS. A person with regular features takeg pleasure in the knowledge. Some with a nose too large or a nose too small, with a protruding chin or a retreating chin, with large ears, or hair of an unusual color, go through life grieving. All people want to look well. Some people want to be pretty. Most people desire to be good looking. There is a philosophy in all things. If w.e are willing to read and reason on any subject we can learn. The ancients considered the features that which determined the success of the individual. Regular features were not regarded with favor. Character, most often revealed through irregular features, was highly regarded. In all ages, pretty people have been greatly in favor among the masses. They have been but little in favor among philosophers. The great factor in accomplishment is to utilize time. The person who concentrates all his time upon a single project, no matter how great the project, achieves it. Pretty people, being in demand among many, seldom economize their time. They 92 SOCIAL TALKS. seldom concentrate their energies. They are sel dom associated with great deeds. A knowledge of their beauty renders the disposition of pretty people, odious. Homely people, people with irregular features, are left to themselves. From childhood there is but little social demand upon their time. Their amusement must be in their own occupation. Their time is utilized in doing something. They early acquire skill in some direction. They get their greatest enjoyment in doing what they like to do. Every tendency is to confine their energies to that in which they excel. So the great artists, the great musicians, the great masters of the world are de veloped. Whittier was a homely shoemaker. Lincoln was an ungainly rail-splitter. Napoleon not only had irregular features, but was almost a dwarf, being but about five feet high. Pope was a cripple. Byron was club-footed. Raphael was deformed and walked with a crutch. Socrates, the wisest man of secular history, was considered by the Greeks, the homeliest. Angel o, Aristotle, Archimedes, Plato and Pythagoras, the greatest among Greek and Ro man masters, had irregular features. Pretty people are born pretty. Good looking people become so through right living. The thoughts shape the countenance, and people with irregular features become good looking people if they are inspired by noble purposes. Revengeful thoughts produce a revengeful countenance, selfish PHYSIOGNOMY. 93 thoughts a selfish countenance, evil thougts an evil countenance, Forgiving thoughts produce a for giving countenance, generous thoughts a generous countenance, honest thoughts an honest countenance Irregular features are not to be deplored. They may indicate honesty, intelligence, genius. Sterling qualities accompany irregular features. If the pur pose be noble, the features become noble, and the person good looking. It pays to cherish high ideals, a noble purpose. $ * $ & $ Personal improvement, the bettering of the in dividual, is a matter of desire. A person pervaded with a desire for more knowledge, a higher degree of culture, will improve himself. There are a few people in some communities who will ridicule any person who attemps to use better language, to practice better morals, or to make him self more cultured and refined. The person who ridicules his neighbor's efforts to improve himself is actuated either by jealousy or ignorance. The person who ridicules improvement is but little re moved above the animal. If left to himself he would soon degenerate to the brute with which he has more in common than with civilization and pro gress. The future hopes of America center in the fact, that a majority of the American people, through more elevating reading and better schools and more intelligent conversation, strive to reach a higher plane of enlightenment. 94 SOCIAL TALKS. P fort Man is moulded by his work and sur roundings. Caesar ga-ve as a reason why the Gauls were hardier and braver than the other tribes against whom he contended, that they were farther removed from the influences of the Province, and that merchants least often penetrated to them, importing those things which weaken and effeminate the mind. The old Helvetians, the ancestors of the present Swiss race, were bold and brave and persistent. The Helvetians imbibed their boldness from ever living with a threatening avalanche at their back. They took on their bravery from the necessity of constantly defending themselves from stronger surrounding nations. They became persistent be cause they must live and build and harvest upon a steep and rocky Alpine declivity. The boy who remains at home, protected and shielded ever by a fond mother, does not acquire the force of character, energy, and determination to fight a successful battle in the industrial or pro fessional marts of the world. The girl who only plays on the harp or piano, never performing upon the cook stove or kitchen table, does not gain the development and experience necessary to fit her for first place in her own and her husband's home. Every experience helps to develop a person. Sea men become skilled on stormy seas. Warriors be come brave through fierce contests. Professional men become renowned through intricate and dif ficult practice. Inaction, ease, restfulness are not EXERTION. 95 taught or encouraged ar^where in the earth below, or heaven above. A man who is too restful to be of service on earth, God couldn't use in heaven. There is clothing to be made, sermons to be composed, prairies to be cultivated, patients to be healed, ora tions to be spoken, arid mines to be dug. Every occurrence of benefit to man or of service to God is the product of action, the result of labor, the consequence of exertion. The man who attemps to get out of work and responsibility, attempts to get out of being a man. He makes himself useless for earth, and. unfits him self for service in heaven. He becomes a nonentity, a nothing, a nobody. A competence, .happiness, prosperity, health are conditions attained only through constant exertion. In this world force of habit is everything. Learn early to strive, contend, acquire, achieve. Learn early honorable exertion, honorable work. & $ <> & $ The price of achievement is personal exertion, personal endeavor. Nothing improves any man like exertion. More men rust out than wear out. Sam Jones says that stagnation in the last station this side of damnation. There is no doubt that prosperity contributes to industry and that industry promotes virtue. A noted American said that all evils were cradled in the lap of idleness. Idleness is a natural result of both luxury and poverty. 96 SOCIAL TALKS. ~ . It is every man and ev 7 ery woman's duty to take a respite from work and worry at least once a year. The person who ever works and never rests becomes a person hard in sym pathies, unsociable, inflexible. He changes from a being with tenderness, pity, and affection in his na- tuie, to a machine, a mechanism, cold, harsh, re pulsive, exacting. Most people belong to the working class. Their duties may in the main be pleasant duties, but they are regular duties, their duties are confining duties, and the tendencies in every respect are to hold them ever in service. The man or woman who takes a reasonable vacation uses much will power, and leaves work at a time, when from appearances, the absence would neccessitate important affairs being neglected, the most necessary things going unac complished, and vital duties remaining unperform ed and suffering for want of attention. A person who has left all these things and gone off for a few weeks rest and recreation, can affirm in what a surprising way everything didn't go to the bad during his absence. Such a person has realized that the world and business moved during his absence, and he is often surprised at his own lit tleness and lack of importance when he came to see how well everything went while he was off duty. Take a vacation. It puts new life, new hopes, new courage into a worker. It give one a chance to reflect, make new resolves, and start again in a different and a better way than the one left off. It VACATION. 97 refreshes body and mind, and promotes health and contentment. It gives one a chance to see others on the stage of action, and often the lesson of how to accomplish more with less energy is learned. It gives one a chance to study and to appreciate na ture, and to acquire knowledge which can only be obtained through rock and stream and rippling lake and mountain peaks, all God's creations. & $ & & & Change of employment is often a means of rest and recuperation. A public drinking fountain is a public blessing. But somebody says, who would drink at a public drinking fountain? Oh! of course not the elite, the fastidious. But the average man and woman, the rank and tile, and the happy children would, and for them the Lord keeps the old w r orld moving. A man's gratitude, affections, memory are reached through his stomach. A person whirls along hun dreds of miles on a railroad train and retains but vague impressions of the towns and cities through which he is conveyed. The train halts at a city for refreshments and the man is fed. That city the man retains in his memory to his dying day. He speaks of it to his friends. He tells what a good meal he got there when passing over that line of railroad. Men may come and men may go, but the place where they are fed, that place will cling in their hea.rts and memories. 98 SOCIAL TALKS. ^ Citizen's Association such as most cities possess is a benefit. Associations. Public opinion to be of serv i ce must always have some channel in which it may con centrate and express itself. With no legitimate avenue in which to flow, the thoughts of men of in fluence, men who have the welfare of the city at heart, can never resolve themselves into deeds of usefulness and service to the city. Water does not rise higher than its source, neither does a city, in improvement and enterprise, become superior than the ideals for it of its representative citizens. If the surroundings which a person has planned are known, a fair estimate of the mind of the person can be formed without coming in actual contact with the person. So by passing up and down the thoroughfares of a city and viewing its public conveniences, a very accurate estimate of the minds and business capacity of its public citizens may be obtained. Small minds invariably occupy themselves with small projects. Great minds are not always those minds that occupy themselves with great projects. A mind to be great must not only occupy itself with great projects, it must be able to push to a successful termination great projects. A few years ago a man engaged a public hall in Chicago, went there entirely alone and held a polit ical convention. He nominated himself for the pres idency of the United States and passed through the canvass a candidate for the highest office in the land. CITIZEN'S ASSOCIATIONS. 99 That man's mind was occupied with a project great enough, and yet the method with which he pursued his project stamped his mind small and the man's importance insignificant. There are conditions in many cities which reflect a fair degree of credit to their leading citizens, but in most cities there is a need of better conditions. That means more improvements, greater projects successfully executed, and the promotion of public improvements, the accomplishment of public pro jects is the office of the citizen's association. 9 * * * * Every person's property is of more value located in a city that has a reputation for being beautiful, thrifty, and modern. One day's existence in such a city is worth ten in a city behind the times, with no conveniences and no beauties. United efforts are efforts that count for the suc cess of a project. A village or city with its officials united for the promotion of enterprises of benefit is the village or city that develops rapidly, and makes a desirable locality for homes. Property, located in such a place appreciates in value. Beneficial public projects can only be executed where the citizens are generous, liberal-minded, and harmonious. It pays to locate in a community that has a reputation for concord. 100 SOCIAL TALKS. The usefulness of the press is well il~ (Usefulness lustrated during the conventions of which are so common in America. 1'ress. Often the sessions of a convention are poorly attended by those even to whom the proceed ings are of interest. The age is a busy one for people of nearly all classes, and there is frequently but little opportunity for attendance at a conven tion. All the important events are chronicled by the public press. The press thus furnishes an au dience of thousands of people for a convention. This audience furnished by the press is not one made dormant and inattentive by a poorly ventila ted assembly-room. It is one refreshed, rested from the day's occupation, an audience in the peace and quietude of home. Such an enormous audience could not be accom modated by all the ch arches and halls of a city. So fitting an audience could be secured in no other way, for some men and woman who would not step foot into the convention of a society holding views opposed to their own, would yet read the press re ports. An audience so susceptible of influences could never be gathered, for, the home is the spot where the most convincing and most lasting im pressions are made. Intelligent people confess the power of the press. Only the unintelligent refuse to recognize the great value of newspapers, and that is the newspaper's best recommendation, the most convincing evidence of the newspaper's usefulness. WEALTH AND NEWSPAPERS. 101 1,1 Newspapers of the metropolis have formed the habit of giving glowing accounts of marriages occurring in . . . .,. wealthy families. To a casual observer, it might at first seem that so much attention by the public press to the mar riages among moneyed aristocrats, indicated a cater ing to the power of money, and that it was un- American. Such is not the case. In most things, the great metropolitan dailies are conducted in the interests of the masses rather than in catering to the favor of the classes. Many of the press accounts of these marriages, though extensive, yet ridicule and bur lesque the pomp and display entered into in order to let the marriage be a means of disclosing to the public the immense wealth possessed by the family. A foreign duke or count, who figures as groom at one of these marriages, is so portrayed in these accounts, that he is quite an object of pity to sym pathetic readers. Simplicity and love of sensibleness are so ground ed in the hearts of the American masses, that news papers dependent upon the masses for patronage, can not with impunity long advocate ideas entertain ed only by the aristocracy of wealth. Men of great generosity can not of themselves accumulate great wealth. By nature one condition precludes the other. Extreme wealth, in most instances, is a natural result of extreme selfishness. Selfishness is an attribute of ignorance. Newspa- 102 SOCIAL TALKS. pers that expect to continue publication in en lightened America avoid all semblance of being supporters of the views of the ignorant. ft * * ft As the world grows better, the spirit of competi tion does not develop itself so much in selfishness. The meter of the world's progress is generosity. It has been said that newspapers mould public opinion. In this age men think for themselves. The province of the newspaper of to-day is to voice public opinion. The more popular the newspaper, the more firmly is it enlisted in the support of the cause of the masses. The newspaper exists for everybody. Everybody's support is desirable. The newspaper that realizes this is the popular newspaper. In accomplishing reforms, newspapers benefit by keeping the public aroused to the necessity of their execution. After a newspaper has once champion ed a reform, it has nothing to lose and much to gain by being active in its promotion. A newspaper to be well estimated, in favor among the masses, must champion correct ideas, honest principles, and it must not take neutral ground on important reforms. The reading public think 7 and reason. A newspaper to be a popular newspaper must be brave and honest. AN INHERENT TRAIT. 103 fln ^nherenf ^hat a contrast there is in the pub- . lie eye between the person who I rait. wants to sell something, and the per son who wants to buy something. The person with something to sell is met coldly, treated often disdainfully, made painfully aware of the value of time to those to whom he would dis pose of his wares, and finally dimissed scornfully as though he had been an intruder upon their patience and endurance. The man who wants to buy something, if he has cash to pay for his purchase, is quite another indi vidual. He is received cordially, entertained civilly, assured that any amount of time is most generously at his disposal, and that no labor would be regret ted providing the proper and satisfactory article for the purchaser, the person who has money to pay, can be secured. Becently the writer had business with some pro fessional men. We had nothing to sell, rather our good opinion given or withheld might profit or in jure the men we interviewed. They knew it. A man at our side, seeking an interview with the same individuals, had books to sell. He was not a wel come caller. We were. There was a peculiar harsh, grating, stony tone for him; a soft, gentle, persuading, comforting, and sympathetic tone for us. It was difficult to find any chair at all for him. It was difficult to find a chair sufficiently easy, appropriate, and comfortable for us. He was quickly informed where all the other professional men, to 104 SOCIAL TALKS, whom there was a ghost of a shadow of a chance of his selling books, resided. We were led to believe that these other individualswere practically a nonentity in that city, that the spot where we then were was that about which all affairs of importance, all vital events clustered. The book agent passed out stabbed with neglect, irony, sarcasm. We went regretted, condoled, lamented. It was his Waterloo. It Was our Austerlitz. It was his chagrin. It was our triumph, The reason was not because he was our inferior physically, mentally, or morally. The reason was simply in this, that he had favors to ask while we had favors to grant. Because he wanted something while we wanted nothing. We may regret this phase of human nature exist ing, but it is prevalent here, everywhere. We portray the fact. Let philanthropists, if there are any not themselves effected, apply the remedy. $ % $ To be rude in manners is in no way against the morals. Boorish people may be sincere people. Extreme polish is often accompanied by insin cerity of manner and purpose. Insincerity is a quality that indicates a low standard of morality, Sincerity is a quality to be admired. It is a quality to be instilled, cultivated, developed. No feature of the character is more evident than sincerity, no feature adds more to its beauty. To be sincere is to be honored and respected. HINTS. 105 *.. There are many things to be said in favor ** of making home attractive. It is the nature of all people to get away from the unattrac tive and unpleasant. An untidy, uninviting, un comfortable home is often the cause of Sabbath des ecration. Woman no doubt may have a broad sphere of accomplishment in public good, but to her home she owes her first duty. There were lady delegates in a recent political convention. Pessimists will now frown and pro claim that politics have entered the home and will desecrate and soil it. Optimists will now smile and avow that the home has entered politics and will improve and cleanse them. There are two sides to most questions, and, as a man thinketh, so is he. No doubt Li Hung Chang is a close observer, and that his remark to the effect that American women are most beautiful is correct. Bat American women must not become vain owing to their beau ty. Woman's chief aim should be to cultivate goodness. The great Napoleon said, "A beautiful woman pleases the eye; a good woman pleases the heart; the one is a jewel, the other is a treasure." American young women can not be too careful as to the society they select. Those with whom they once associate are the grade with which they must ever be classed. This is not just but it is true. 106 SOCIAL TALKS. <> i The general conference of one of the Christian churches will not have its Sabbath school superintendents smoke. Without a doubt the reason is because superintendents are supposed to be models for children. But fathers in fluence children more than Sabbath school superin tendents, so should fathers not smoke? There is no man but that influences in a measure some child. So should no man smoke? Ought men to smoke? The earliest historical record of tobacco smoking was left by Columbus, He said, that the Indians on the various islands, which he discovered in the New World had a peculiar habit of rolling up the dried leaf of a certain plant which grew there, and, after lighting one end, drew the smoke into the mouth and lungs. We get our habit of tobacco smoking from the Indian. We have civilized the Indian much. Has he contaminated us some? But little is said on this subject because it is un popular to say much on it. Most men smoke. They formed the habit when boys, and now they don't care to be preached to about it. Intelligent smok ers admit at once that it is a troublesome habit, but they excuse it for themselves on the gronnd that they can stop at any time. No one claims that it makes a man strong, or fat, or more profound mentally, or better morally, For a long time railroad companies have realized that they would lose patronage if they allowed smoking in the regular coaches, and so all trains have a car especially for smokers. SMOKING. 107 Some men and most women do not smoke. To many of them tobacco smoke is unpleasant. Men of culture who smoke are regardful of the rights of others. Men of refinement do not smoke in the presence of those to whom tobacco smoke is disa greeable. * $ & & * Of all habits that of smoking is the most uni versal among all classes. The habit is as common among civilized nations as among the semi-civilized and barbarous. One of the features of the custom of smoking is that no one ever forms the habit in mid-life or old age. The habit of smoking is always acquired in boyhood, and the boy who does not contract the habit is the man who does not smoke. In Mexico, it is as respectable for women to smoke as for men. Mexican women do not hesitate to take advantage of this liberty which custom allots them, and in Mexico the pipe and cigarette are smoked by women young and old. Some Christian churches forbid its members smoking. Others take neutral ground on that question, but indirectly discourage the habit, Christian churches that have their origin since the reformation, are those most strict in condemning the custom. 108 SOCIAL TALKS ~ It is said to be a trait of young Contentment. , .. , . ,, /, people to live much in the future. We know that mature people dwell much in the past. Is it not a trait of most people to consider some other town, city, or locality from the one where they reside, to be more desirable? Owing to dissatisfaction with the present time and place, do not many of all classes lose much of the enjoyment of life? Because a person had much pleasure in youth doesn't mean that he must ever dwell on that happiness, and not enter into the joys appropri ate to mid-life and old age. Who wants to find his greatest enjoyment in doing the same thing throughout all the periods of his existence? If parties, socials, excursions, and picnics were the principal diversions in youth, then how fitting that in later years, one should find most amusement in reading, in studying nature, in loving and caring for children, and in quiet meditation. Social gay- eties are appropriate for the young. The young are appropriate for social gayeties. Home plea sures are fitted for the matured. The matured are fitted for home pleasures. There is no use and no sense in anybody being discontented with the present. The present time is not only a good time for any person, young or old, to live, the present place is a good place in which to live. But somebody says, "My city has not the advan tages or conveniences of some cities." That is un doubtedly true, but how is that city to acquire CONTENTMENT. 109 advantages unless there be somebody to fight for it? Who wants to live in a city where there is nothing for which to strive? Who wants to be so selfish as to enjoy advantages which he did riot help secure? To have low aims, or to have no aims, is the worst of crimes. A person who does not want to improve or help to improve his surroundings, both private and public, is a poor specimen of a citizen. There is but little genuine pleasure in possessing. The real pleasure is in acquiring. No doubt, of all the ages that have existed, this is the most intelligent, the most progressive, the most enlightened, cultured, civilized, refined. No doubt, of all nations in the world, America is the most genial, sunny, healthful, as well as the nation most fully endowed with the curious and the novel. This is the best age and this is the best spot in which to live. Come down to the present time and place and be content to live now and here. * * * * it This is a changeable old world. The man who doesn't make the most of the present is short-sight ed. The past is made up of the present, and any one who has not a happy present, later can not look back upon a pleasant past, The place where -enjoyment rules one day, the next grief may reign. Make the most of the present days. Don't look too much to the future, you may never reach it. Live for the present, and to be happy, and to make others happy. Clod scorns a pessimist. HO SOCIAL TALKS. q^e -I* 3 From dogs and donkeys, up through the animal kingdom to men and of tlje fcige. m0 nkeys, we find an aristocracy. Aristocratic dogs always associate with aristocratic dogs, aristocratic donkeys with others of their class, and men with a competence, accustomed to the easy side of life, to good living, to comforts, to many pleasures, perhaps luxuries, find their highest en joyment in association with others of their stamp. The Germans have a saying which, rendered into English, signifies about this: "Likeness of tastes is the chief bond of friendship." It is easy for people with similar thoughts, similar tastes, similar am bitions, to be good friends. Aristocracy is at home with aristocracy, intelligence with intelligence, simplicity with simplicity. If all people followed their own inclination, they would never associate with any except those of like conditions to themselves, and so they would see and hear but little new, and thus learn but little, acquire but little in thought and habit and charac ter. No person is more attractive than one living with aristocratic surroundings and opportunities for the gratification of aristocratic tastes, but who has acquired simple customs and simple ways from association with simplicity. Intelligence can find its greatest object lessons in children. Ignorance can imbibe most in the presence of intelligence. Any medium as the press, the pulpit, the public school, the dramatic or musical stage, which gives THE NEED OF THE AGE. Ill people of different conditions a knowledge of each other, which, by making people of different classes acquainted, thus improving their character, intelli gence, and disposition, is a public benefactor. & % & $ & We can only form a correct estimate of ourselves and neighbors when we have a chance of drawing intellectual and moral comparisons. War among civilized nations is becoming un known. Even nations differing in language, owing to the printing press and telegraph, are yet well acquainted, and arising disputes are settled by ar bitration. As states and nations know each other better, the one feature of surprise is that they differ so little in manners of living and social customs. The desires and ambitions of humanity are about the same the world over, and under similar conditions human nature is the same regardless of race or color. Public speakers get their greatest inspiration from addressing audiences in sympathy with their views. It is a pleasure for a speaker to talk to such au diences. It is a pleasure for such audiences to listen. The greatest good, however, does not spring from an assembly where opinions between speaker and audience are mutual, but from an assemblage com posed of a speaker in possession of great truths, and of hearers to convince, convict, and convert. 112 SOCIAL TALKS. How many sources are at work on every hand to make the old world better. Churches, schools, newspapers, literary societies, most musical and dramatical entertainments, lect ures, elevating conversation, all these and more are mediums through which good thoughts are ex pressed and disseminated. It is a sad thing, and too common to be ignored, that often some of these elements for good, through prejudice or through jealousy, are at variance. Why are the forces of evil always so thoroughly united, while the forces of good are often so sadly disagreeing? Ministers, teachers, lecturers, musi cians, and good actors and authors ought to be better acquainted. They ought, without arrogance or bigotry, to work more in harmony, that they might accomplish greater things for the progress of the age, and the upbuilding of humanity. Had Bacon and Schiller, and Hugo and Dickens, known pedagogues and pastors better, pedagogues and pastors would have fared better in the hands of the great authors. Would teachers, secular and reli gious, to-day, not shut themselves away from the great dramas and symphonies of Goethe and Les- sing, Hayden and Gottschalk, the stage, which in this and all former ages, has exerted a wonderful povver to promote virtue, to implant noble ideas, to inspire generous and self-sacrificing deeds, would be represented in a better light by the instructors of mind and morals. There is great need for a better acquaintance, a UNITY. 113 more complete understanding, between the philan thropic agencies of the age. This understanding the modern inventions for easy and rapid commu nication are bringing about. * k * * * It is not a bad plan to name our blessings and meditate on them. It adds enjoyment and con tentment. Any one discontented and unhappy should remem ber that it is the want of motive that makes most people miserable. America is doing most for national unity, because the great inventions of the age are American. By her inventive genius America inspires respect and fear. When nations respect and fear each other, they are content to exist without conflict. At an electrical exhibition in New York City, the governor of the state touched a golden key which discharged simultaneously- cannon in some of the principal cities of America, as also one in London, England. Europeans do not know but that, should they ever be bold enough to declare war on the United States, our inventors would rig up a ma chine, so that when the president touched a button, all their armies and navies would be annihilated at one discharge. There is pleasure in the thought that we are living in the safest age that has ever existed. 114 SOCIAL TALKS. GenerosHv ^ Jie ^ a ^ n ^ a corner stone of an institution of mercy and of charity is a significant event. Every motive which prompts the construction of such an institution is a gener ous motive. During the Middle Ages, every nation, every church denomination, every clan or sect was for itself. Almshouses, hospitals, and sanitariums were unknown. To-day America sends ship loads of food to starv ing Ireland and Russia. Christianity builds hospitals for the natives of India. The state erects alms- houses for the poor and destitute. Protestant and Catholic found sanitariums for the sick and suffering, Every person who can assist in a project for the benefit of others, benefits himself. He cultivates generosity, and generosity is the essence of all vir tues. The only possible way of transferring earthly riches to heaven is to give them away while living to assist noble projects. Learn how to be generous, Laud generosity. Practice generosity. & & & %> $ The world is often painted worse than it is, There are a few bad people, but there are many kind and affectionate hearts, that think of the safety and happiness of others first, and of their own wel fare and pleasure last. Among the masses, where natures have not been perverted with the greed engendered by the posses sion of excessive wealth, there is more generosity than selfishness. THE ARISTOCRAT. 115 Aristocracy is not a comfort. It is not a convenience. It is not a pleas- ure It does not pay for this wor id. It is in nowise a preparation for the next. An aristocratic person travels. The day-coach, though comfortable enough, brings him in contact with common people. Aristocracy is easily soiled, and he is obliged to be to the extra expense and inconvenience of arranging for accommodation in a more expensive coach which is attached to the same train, and which brings him to his destination no earlier. In countries where refreshment rooms are marked first, second, and third class, through accident the aristocrat enters a second class res taurant, and though the food is as good as any, he is obliged to leave with haste to protect his aristoc racy. He is hungry and sees fruits and ginger bread temptingly displayed at the street corner. He can't buy and eat like an ordinary mortal. He would soil his aristocracy. He visits art galleries and museums and might learn much, but an aristo crat never converses with ordinary people unless lie addresses them as servants, and in republics, ordi nary people will not be made servile, and so the aristocrat struts in silence and in ignorance. At home the aristocrat is more uncomfortable than abroad. He must be at great trouble and ex pense to locate his residence on a street where no common people reside. With a home near ordi nary people, his aristocracy would be destroyed. If an ordinary person moves into his neighborhood, 116 SOCIAL TALKS. the aristocrat must ignore him. To protect his aristocracy, his association must be entirely with people like himself. The chief possession of such people, aside from a little wordly wealth which creates theexclusiveness, is their aristocracy. Kind and loving and tender hearts are unknown to 'them, and the financial re verse which deprives the aristocrat of his wealth, also isolates him from every former associate. An aristocrat would be worse off in heaven than at home or abroad. The King of heaven, when on earth, pronounced his worst curses on aristocrats. The King of heaven taught that the only way for one to be great was to become lowly, for one to be exalted was to humble himself, for one to inherit heaven was to become like a child which knows no aristocracy. The King of heaven not only associa ted with common people, he became their servant, ministered unto them. The only person who truly enjoys earth is the one with no aristocratic tendencies. He associates with humanity, loves humanity, and is loved by hu manity. He not only enjoys all the blessings of this life, he need not dread death, for love to one's fellow- man is the great essential toward fitness for heaven. The aristocrat, deprived of the pleasures of earth, is debarred from the joys of heaven. Isolated from humanity, conversion can't reach him, the gospel can't reform him. He goes through the world de tested and is unknown in heaven. The aristocrat is an object of pity. MOTHERHOOD. 117 A paper published in New York City recently remarked: "The look on any married woman's face should convince the girls that the men are not worth the exertion neces sary to catch them." Do all the smiles and beauty of expression rest upon the contenances of unmarried women? Do trial and trouble, care and sorrow stamp the coun tenances of married women, and render them living warnings to the unmarried to avoid matrimony? Here is a young woman in love. The object of her affection, as she supposes, is manly, brave, and true. It is the happy spring time. Apple blossoms and lilacs mingle their perfume. The joyous rob- bins call to each other among the budding branches. It is the season when love responds to love, when every tendency of the girl's nature is to pledge life long, endearing affection and constancy to her am bitious lover. At this criticial period of the girl's existence, comes the spectre of the sad countenances of mar ried women to haunt and disturb her. The girl hesi tates. Hesitancy brings other and graver doubts. Hesitancy brings perplexity. Perplexity brings re gret. Regret brings the conclusion, that it is not yet too late to change. She rejects her gallant lover. She turns from the highway of matrimony to the byway of single-blessedness, warned by the sorrow ing, sorrowful countenance of the married woman. There are some now who draw a sigh of relief. They depict a deep, dark chasm which the young 118 SOCIAL TALKS. woman has escaped. They picture a life of ease and pleasure and happiness upon which she enters. She is a new woman. She has placed love under her feet. She serves not nature. Nature serves her. She is a heroine. Every decision has its attendant consequences and so has this of the heroic young woman. Her countenance must be moulded by the years as well as that of the matron. The thoughts shape the countenance. Here is the metallic woman who has thrust love from her life, and loveliness can not find expression in her features. Maternal cares and anxieties are unknown, and a mother's tender smile, the light that lies in mother's eyes can never beautify her face. Her thoughts are for herself. Her face shows it. Her deeds are for herself. Her features indicate it. Her life is for herself. Her countenance reveals it. If the young woman of the world will again stop to consider the face of the matron, she will find that nature deals kindliest with those who serve her. The face of the matron is not gay, but affec tion and sympathy have transformed it into a coun tenance kind and noble. Generosity and devotion have moulded the matron's features with expres sions loving and lovable. The woman who thrusts love aside and lives for the world, thrusts beauty and contentment and happiness from her, and becomes cold, heartless, and repulsive. Cleopatra put honest love from her heart. She became the ''Serpent of the Nile." MOTHERHOOD. 119 Elizabeth drove affection from her life. She be came the "Capricious, treacherous, and unscrupu lous Queen." The great women of the world have been moth ers. Victoria, Queen of the British, Mary, the mother of Washington, Mary, the mother of Christ, have placed a crown of honor upon the brow of motherhood which fanatics of the nineteenth cen tury can not remove. In all ages, the world has had great statesmen and noble warriors, men skilled is science and in craft, yet he wrote truly who wrote that, the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that moves the world. 1 A Crown of Motherhood. PATRIOTISM. 121 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. Pat "of m ^ * s cre ditable that a man l ve his own better than any other nation, that a man love his own city better than any other city, that he love his own family better than other families. Clod implanted this trait in the hearts of true men, that nations, cities, and homes might be protected and preserved, for man will defend that which is dear to him, that which he loves. . . This is nature, and it is better for a man to live and love and struggle in harmony with nature. The man out of harmony with nature is out of har mony with earth. He is out of harmony with God, for, "The works of nature are the thoughts of God." Every man should have a country, a city, a home dearer to him than others. He should be ready at all times to defend them. An inhabitant of America, who resides here, but prefers Europe, is out of harmony with his sur roundings and should migrate to Europe. A resi dent of one state, who stays there, but admires another state more, is foolish that he doesn't move. A citizen of one city, who is glad when some other 122 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. city carries off the honors would enjoy life better if he changed his location. It is right to believe our merchants, our churches, our climate, our papers, our lawyers, doctors, bar bers and babies superior to any, and one ought to take pride, experience satisfaction and pleasure in this belief. One ought not to blame an Englishman for being wrapped up in England, but one ought to blame an American for liking England better, es pecially if he continues to reside in America. There should be common sense and honesty in all things. A man who truly loves his city or his country will labor to improve them, as a man who truly loves his home will labor to improve that. A man does not love his city who countenances public officials who do not perform their duties, officials who do not care for and improve his city. A man proves his love for any project, any city, any country, by what he is willing to do for it not by what he is willing to do for himself. Nearly always the first element in any beneficial public act is bravery. A man who is not brave enough to fight against inaction on the part of officials, if necessary to suggest to them their duties, and to see that they perform them, is not brave enough to be a very desirable citizen of any city or community which desires modern institu tions, modern conditions, and modern men. The element upon which the success of most public enterprises depends is concentration of energies. The rebellion might have become a PATRIOTISM. 123 thirty years' war had Grant not have united and concentrated the Union armies. Napoleon was never defeated till he divided his forces. The en terprises of greatest benefit to any country have been accomplished when the citizens of that coun try were united, and they have only been willing to compromise differences and unite owing to their love of country. So applaud love of country, a sensible love which inspires us to curse the bad as well as to praise the good, a sensible love which inspires us to work for our country as well as to talk for it, a love which inspires us to unite for our country and oppose the men who would hold an office and not fill the office. Above all, applaud the love which inspires us to honor the man who honors the_uafcitm, be he public official or private benefactor. No love is purer, more sacred, more to be esteem ed than love of native land. Love of country is at the foundation of civilized existence. The idea that all patriotism in America has be come extinct is a false idea, and to teach or circu late false ideas is a crime. The more enlightened a nation becomes, the more its people realize the source of their happiness and prosperity, the more they revere the men to whom they owe their free dom. Is not this generation of Americans as en lightened as any former? 124 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. The dispatches said: "The Cuban if Sltl women fought like furies, hacking lo)omen an( ^ woun ding the Spaniards." Woman has ever held a reputation for warfare, but being weaker physically, in all ages her tongue has been considered her natural weapon. Of course the tongue is the mind's me dium of communication with the external world, and so woman has really been feared owing to her power of thought, owing to her superior mental ca pacity. That woman being weaker physically, should, during the centuries, develop intellectually and morally is most natural. That Cuban women who have endured more physical hardships, and un doubtedly developed more in physical than in mental capacities, should, when goaded by the atrocities of a foreign invader, take the field and exhibit physical prowess, bravery in war, is not surprising. The Amazon river takes its name from the na tive women on its banks, who, early in the history of the new world, united and assisted their hus bands in the defense of their homes from the in vading Spanish. History repeats itself, and again bands of armed women, Amazons who are Cuban women, have fought the invading Spanish. Existing conditions do not change quickly, but they change. The world has seen many centuries during which might made right. With 1776 a new era began to dawn. Then right made might, and right made sufficient might to overthrow injustice and oppression, and found a nation where right at PATRIOTISM OF WOMEN. 125 all times might be superior to might. In 1776, America taught kings and emperors a lesson which ever since has made them more subservient to right, and has caused them to be more cautious as to how they exercised might over their subjects, over their tributaries. The degree of oppression exercised by monarchial rulers has depended upon the distance at which the seat of their governments has been located from the United States. That a tributary so near as Cuba should suffer injustice is no doubt owing to the supposed dormant condition of Uncle Sam. Perhaps this physical exhibition of woman's pa triotism in this age was needed to arouse the gal lantry of republics. If the women of Cuba accom plished this, then their taking the field and contend ing as men was not in vain. Republics are better than monarchies because in republics leadership, the right to govern, does not depend upon the family in which one is born, but upon personal endeavor, honorable achievement. There are more republics in the world than mon archies. After the United States became free many countries changed their form of government and became republics. Most republics were formed by colonies rebelling from the mother country. The freedom enjoyed by the citizens of monarchies is due in the main to the fear inspired by republics. 126 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. GL Setter America might be considered the land of conventions. In no way is infor- &9 e mation on all subjects so thoroughly disseminated as through discussions, public and pri vate, that occur in connection with conventions. In improvement and progress, one section of this nation differs but little from another. That is because one section is well informed concerning the conditions in another. At the present, this is not so evident in foreign lands. In passing from one province to another of a European country, the change in intelligence and customs is great. That is owing to the lack of frequent public gatherings for the discussion of public questions. This dissimilarity in the degree of advancement is even more evident in Asiatic countries, where there are almost rjo means of rapid communication, and no public press. During the last three centuries, since the inven tion of the art of printing, the world has made greater improvement than during the previous fifteen centuries. The greatest strides in progress have been made since the arrival of the electric telegraph and the daily newspaper. Men are like animals in this respect. Those strange to each other are more likely to engage in war fare. Since railroads, conventions, the public press, the telegraph, and telephone have come into vogue, war has become almost unknown. It is said that had the numerous railroad and telegraph lines of the United States extended north and south, instead A BETTER AGE. 127 of east and west, the civil war would never have occurred. In the matter of assisting in the world's progress, America may feel a conscious pride. Though dis tances here are great, they are completely over come by our system of railroads, telegraph and tel ephone lines. Ours is a land of newspapers. Here it is almost impossible to climb so far back into the mountains that one can not telephone out to civili zation. It might be better to say, that in America civilization has gone so far back into the mountains, it is difficult to climb back beyond it. All this makes a great age in which to live. Man himself is transforming earth into heaven. With thorns and thistles, disease and death removed, earth will make a fit place for man to spend eter nity. It is Bible, too, that the righteous shall inherit the earth. This is not improbable, and no doubt America will be the first land prepared. & * & & When men erect barriers between themselves and their fellows, they retard mental development, they propagate ignorance. In many places, it is a growing custom to remove all intersecting fences, and often the lawns for an entire block are contin uous. This idea of cultivating neighborly regard, friendly relations with one's neighbors, is commendable. People who can agree in this world will be likely to get along well to gether in the next. 128 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. republic of the United States, that it differs from a monarchy in this, that whereas under monarchies, men may be considered great owing to birth, in our republic no one inherits great ness, that for one to be great here, he must become such through his own deeds. America is thought to be the land where neither the social advantages nor disadvantages of the ancestors are bequeathed to the child. Do we so soon get away from the customs of mon archies from which we descended ? Here are the press dispatches with the news that a grandchild of an ex-president is ill. This grandchild has done nothing to make him of national importance. Your child may be a more intelligent one than this child, but, if he were sick, the information wouldn't be telegraphed across the continent or cabled to Europe. It is quite evident that any supposed greatness about this child came through the accident of birth, through its being the grandchild of a great man. That is not a sufficient reason for greatness. Such a method of acquiring greatness is not American. It is not just to other boys. It puts a premium on inherited aristocracy, and discourages personal manly exertion and achievement. It makes many American boys feel that they can't be great be cause grandpa was not great, that their misfortune is in being born where they are. Our declaration of independence, said to be the INHERITED GREATNESS. 129 greatest human document ever constructed, de clares that all men are created equal. If this de claration of independence is wrong for America, and should read, all men are created of importance according to their grandfathers, then it would be a noble project to found another republic in some quarter where Jefferson's declaration of independ ence could be put in practice. Most of us would like to rear our children in such a republic. Most of our children would like to be reared there. If this old declaration of independence of ours is still right for America, why laud the babies for what, their grand parents did? If a baby shows intelligence, praise him. If he shows spunk, don't be sorry, for it is a sign that when he becomes a man, he will not be trodden upon by aristocrats. Give every baby full credit for all he is worth, but no more. If the baby, grown to manhood, makes a speech, writes a book, in vents a machine, or whips the British, give him full credit for this. If the speech be masterly, the book inspiring, the machine of great value, or if he gives the British an awful thrashing, laud him to the skies. He is then great from a correct stand point, and if you have superfluous money it may be fitting to put up a monument to him, though ma terial monuments add nothing to a man's greatness. This inspires other maturing babies to do what he has done, and thus, every decade, the nation be comes a more comfortable, happier, and safer land in which to live. This too is American. This is justice. 130 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. SnSepenaence An indication of the advancement JT and civilization of the age is the Jn 1 oinics. independence in politics exhibited by voters in America. A few decades ago there were no American news papers independent in politics. Now there are many. A decade ago almost every American was a party man. Now in America, thinking men, judicious men, men led more by reason than by prejudice, are becoming independent in politics. It is the nature of most men to be free and independ ent. It is the nature of all Americans. After the civil war, when most American homes had suffered the loss of at least one of their defenders, and the inmates of every home had seen the nation on the verge of destruction, men were often frightened by party leaders to remain within party lines that they might avoid a repetition of national disaster. By degrees voters learned that no one party con tained all the morality. Gradually they saw that no one party held the destiny of the nation. At length they began to break from party lines. Soon they formed new parties. Now a great portion of the voting public vote with any party which will right wrongs, which will accomplish reforms. Most professional politicians are in politics for financial reasons. They could only reap a harvest when voters remained in party lines. That voters should break the ranks, think for themselves, and vote as they chose irritated the men who were in politics for financial gain. INDEPENDENCE IN POLITICS. 131 It is characteristic of small minds when blocked in their purpose to call names. Professional pol iticians could think of no name in the English lan guage which would give vent to all the spite and hatred they bore the independent voter. They coined one. They called the man who dared think for himself, reason for himself, vote as he desired, a "mugwump." They called the independent voter other bad names. They hissed him. They derided him. They paid men big salaries to think out and write vituperous things against "mugwumps," in dependent voters. Every sect, no matter what its purpose, thrives un der persecution. Independent voters have thrived. Their numbers have increased. They have elect ed presidents. To be independent in politics is no longer a disgrace. The bravery of the independent voter is feared, his candor is respected, his cause is honored, and independence in politics has become a synonym for honest government. * # # * ift No reform is ever produced, no wrong is ever righted without contest. Public servants make a mistake when they imag ine they have been elected to rule instead of to serve. Public opinion in the long run can not be stifled. It will assert itself, and then only the officials who know they are servants, not rulers, are retained. Fortune is often a curse in disguise. TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. Memorial day is a significaDt national event. It has a meaning, an impor- tant one, to young and old at the north, but it is of no less import to young and old at the south. A north and south as two separate nations could not long endure upon the American con tinent. No matter what the issues dividing the two hos tile sections were at the beginning, when war com menced there was but one issue. Should the na tion survive or must it perish. That the nation should survive was as important to the welfare of the south as to the welfare of the north. To-day most southerners, all intelligent southerners, admit this, and so memorial day is of like significance to both south and north. The men who carried arms in 1861 to preserve the nation are no less patriots, than the men who carried arms in 1776 to found the nation. Cicero said: ''If we should give thanks to the one to whom we owe our birth, how much more grateful should we be to him by whom we are preserved, for, we are born without a realization of the fact, but we are saved from destruction with emotions of joy." There are but few men and women of this nation, who rememberdistinctly the tryingordeals in which we were placed from 1861 to 1865, but that appre ciate the patriotism of the Federal soldier. There are some who did not live during the war, or who never faced bullets, that do not realize the courage and sacrifice involved in being a patriot. They MEMORIAL DAY. 133 may speak disparagingly of the old soldier, but even such persons are more thoughtless than ear nest, and in a land of people loyal to their country and its patriots, adverse remarks on men who have faced death for the nation are too unpopular to be common. The ranks of the old soldiers are rapidly thinning. Those who remain do not step as briskly as formerly. Where once Memorial day was a day of marching, of military parade, of shouldering and carying of arms, now it is a day when elderly men in blue ride in carriages to the public cemeteries. Instead of trim and erect soldiers bearing muskets and firing salutes over the graves of their dead fellows, now worn and bent veterans scatter bouquets of roses and lilies over the mounds of their departed comrades. The latter has its influence not less than the former. Children watch the sacred ceremonies, and as long as a dead soldier's grave is a more sacred mound than another, there will be Americans willing to lay down their lives for America. Nations to endure must have their defenders. There will only be defenders so long as there is love of native land. Memorial day and Indepen dence day, public school and private seminary, orations and sermons, songs and symphonies should teach and inspire love for America. Then shall America exist among the nations of the earth, and ever continue vvhat she has thus far been, the model not only in improvement and progress, but in patriotism for all other lands. 134 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. Th b Wh doesn a * fo " 'Fourth of , 1 o e Jock the morning of the Fourth O f j u i y an d begin to shoot fire-crack ers, should have a physician to examine the con dition of his health. No boy who loves his country, who detests the old injustice of the British, and who enjoys fun,will be found in bed after the dawn breaks on that day, and that is early in July. To properly celebrate the Fourth of July gives a boy an awful appetite. Girls that assist get hun gry. A mother who doesn't have a short-cake for dinner, a strawberry short-cake everybody that is anybody know they are the only kind worth eating- is a mother with narrow sympathies and undeserv ing of the responsibilities of a mother. Some men and women, now that they are grown, act so prim and dignified that one would suppose they had never been children. It doesn't hurt the most dignified to shoot fire-crackers on the Fourth of July. We are a free nation. Celebrate the glorious fact. * & jj? & & The Fourth of July comes but once a year, and being Uncle Sam's birthday, it is fitting and proper to fire both large and small guns. It is entirely prop er to let off some big guns when Old Sol is visi ble in the east, to repeat the process when he reaches the zenith, and then to shoot them again when he sinks from sight in the west. Uncle Sam appreciates such a celebration, and it is as natural for young America to celebrate the Fourth as it is for them to speak English. INDEPENDENCE, DAY. the an ~ ni versary of the bi rth of the A meri- can nation. It also marks the anni versary of the birth of freedom throughout the world, After the days of the great Roman republic, to be free and independent had been a dream in the hearts and minds of the noblest and best men of all nations. For rulership to be vested in one per son, whose only right to rule existed in the accident of birth, was ever obnoxious to liberty lovers, Thoughtful people could never comprehend how one family could justly come in possession of ruler- ship, and rightfully, throughout the generations, hold it in their possession. The destruction of the selfish is their selfishness. This nation, the liberty loving people of the world who enjoy any degree of liberty, owe it to the self ishness, the tyranny, the oppression of George the Third, once king of Great Britain. This king, not content in enjoying a rulership to which the people had never elected him, became arrogant, bigoted, revengeful, intolerable. Honorable citi zens, who considered it unjust to be governed by a ruler whom they had not chosen, counted it doubly disgraceful to be ruled by one who was also a bigot, a tyrant, and an imbecile. George the Third relied upon the greatest army and navy the world had ever seen, with which to enforce his unjust claim as sovereign. Americans had but little more than the justice of their cause upon which to rely for rescue and defense. 136 TALKS ON NATIVE LAND. In all ages, the world has admired people who would bravely stand for their rights. The principle of freedom for which Americans contended, and their bravery in defying so powerful a ruler, so terrifying a monarch as England's king, inspired the respect and touched the sympathies of the free dom loving men and women of the world. Some of the greatest and best minds of Europe openly espoused the cause of the oppressed Americans. Better still, there were skilled warriors who had won honors on European fields, and who were willing to buckle on the sword and cross the sea to face death for the principle of freedom here at stake. Kosciuszko came. DeKalb, Steuben, and Lafayette came. Steuben organized and trained the Ameri can armies. DeKalb and Kosciuszko revealed to Washington the maneuvers of war which had won battles for the German and the Pole. Lafayette marshaled French troops along-side the American. King George and his great armies were beaten. The liberties conceived by the magna charta were, through the American Revolution, realized. Men not monarchs rule on this side the sea, and monar chy is a piece of historic heraldry throughout the civilized world. Pri nciples are greater than men. True men m ust ever be willing to lay down life for the sake of prin ciple. So the birthday of a great principle is greater than the birthday of a great man. So the birthday of the principle of freedom is of greater importance than the birthday of any man, one alone excepted. INDEPENDENCE DAY. , ^ _.. 137 I The Man of Galilee came for man's heavenly re demption. The declaration of independence came for man's earthly redemption. Only as earthly exist ence be secondary to heavenly, is the celebration of Independence Day secondary to the celebration of Christmas. Foreign nations are better understanding the relation of Independence Day to freedom as enjoyed by civilized nations, and so Independence Day is becoming a day revered by all to whom freedom is dear. Americans know well the hardship and suf fering encountered by the forefathers in establish ing the great principle that all men are created equal. The public schools of America teach patriot ism. The literature of the nation inspires patriot ism. True American mothers instil patriotism. America does regard her denfenders. No nation gives those who have faced death in its battles such protection. America does regard her patriots. No nation gives to its founders such respect. The memory of the heroes of the Revolution is sacred to Americans. The principle for which these heroes contended is sacred. Independence Day is sacred. When the sun is setting on the shores of Alaska, it has already risen on the coasts of Maine. Some where it is ever sunrise on American soil. As the sun in its course greets the stars and stripes, there American cannon proclaim freedom. Emblems Dear to Lovers of Liberty. AN OCEAN VOYAGE, 139 FOREIGN TALKS. On Ocean ^ n a P^ easan ^ J une afternoon, our ^ steamer, well furnished, lighted UoVQQe, throughout by electricity, and car rying the United States, French, and German mails, dropped down the harbor into the Lower bay, steamed on past Sandy Hook, and by six .o'clock we were well out on old ocean, the shores of home nnd native land fading to a dark speck at the west ward. The first morning at sea is the worst. Though sea-sickness can not be avoided, if one will strike bravely out, put foot on deck, stay in the open air, and not succumb, in the course of a few hours, or a day or two at most, he may begin to manifest an interest in his surroundings, This interest is likely to increase. In fact, the all absorbing topic for consideration may beCbme: "What's for lunch?" "How long till dinner?" Four times a day seem none too many in which to appease the appetite, after one has well settled down to life at sea. There is no place like old ocean to make one feel his own weakness and God's greatness. To sail on day after day, night after night, and to see and 140 FOREIGN TALKS. know of nothing but the great expanse of rolling waters, on which your frail craft is but a shaving compared with their immensity, inspires one with awe, and a feeling of reverence for the Architect of the Universe takes possession of heart and mind. In proportion to the distance a person journeys from his own shores, he realizes the necessity of a knowledge of at least one foreign language. Though a majority of our passengers were American citi zens, conversant with the English, many were French or German born, and a large portion of them were returning to visit friends and relatives at the old home places in the father-land, and, as we near.ed European shores, and the rugged slopes of the Hartz, the Rhenish scenes, and valleys of the Main or Neckar came more vividly to their minds, from day to day less English and more French and German conversation was evident, till at length, without a speaking knowledge of a foreign tongue, one would be inconvenienced. Lands End, the extreme southwest coast of all England, though barren and rugged, makes a pleasant picture for the eye to rest upon after a prospect for more than a week of rolling, foam- capped billows; but later* when the uplands sur rounding the sunny harbor hem the passage, and the land breeze, warm and scented, strikes the temples, when the towers and domes of a city are fast looming up in front, and the shore outlines resolve themselves into cultivated fields and gardens, then it is that one feels that the perils of the deep AN OCEAN VOYAGE. 141 are over, and that care and anxiety have been banished to another continent. The birds are singing once more. Their notes are all sweet. The most commonplace things are of the greatest interest and importance. One can now understand that none but a prisoner knows well the delights of freedom. One now can realize that in this world, the need is not so much for greater and grander in art or nature, but more appre ciation for what we have. God can create. He only needs better educated, and thus more appre ciative observers, * * * $ Within a few years, quick and accurate means of securing and reproducing on canvas, photographs of objects and occurrences have rendered the average school boy as well informed concerning the Scotish Lakes, the jungles of India, or the antiquities of Egypt, as many travelers who have actually viewed the objects themselves. It is a fact that a thoughtful listener will acquire more and better ideas in one evening from an illus trated lecture, than a careless traveler would secure in a month. Travelers too often see the objects from one point of view, and that when wearied and exhausted from excessive sight-seeing. Illustrated lectures give views of an object from different points, and no time or place is more favorable for acquiring ideas than at an evening lecture. U2 FOKEIGN TALKS, a No doubt America is a great nation, ittericans . , ln not in one respect, but m many respects. Not all Americans, but many Americans, are well aware of this. Americans who have once been abroad real ize this truth, for they have had opportunities to draw correct comparisons. Since a majority of the comparisons which Americans abroad draw, are much in America's favor, and since it is difficult for Americans far from home to restrain their ad miration of Uncle Sam and the conveniences of Uncle Sam's domain, an American abroad often becomes a detestable creature in the eyes of foreign ers. In both Protestant and Catholic churches of Eng land there is much ritualism. To many Americans ritualism is but another form of idolatry. The American feels that he is in a foreign country. He knows India is one of England's possessions. For the time being, he doesn't stop to consider whether the conntry be India or England. He calls the English ritualism idolatry, and all of Victoria's es tablished church that know anything about him hate him. The American attends the English courts and laughs at the gowns and wigs. He terms the form and ceremony he beholds there theatrical pom posity. Judges and barristers that know him detest him. The American visits the English parliament and listens to the reading of the queen's message to that AMERICANS IN ENGLAND. UB body in which she familiarly speaks of lords as "'Her subjects/ 7 and of Englishmen in general as "My people." This pleases him, and he wonders, in the very presence of lords and ministers, if they realize that they are subjects of a queen whom they didn't help choose. He is surrounded by crowds of Englishmen and remarks: "These are all Victoria's people. She owns every one of them* She said so the other day when she opened par liament. Wonder if they know whose they are. Why don't they go to America and be free?" Had the American any English friends remaining to him before, the last one has vanished now, and he has nothing to do but wait for the steamer to take him home. The American abroad must learn not to talk. He must cultivate his powers of observation, and leave his powers of expression idle till he is again under the stars and stripes. While in England, it is best for the American to eat kidneys, pie with out crusts, crusts without jam, and take his candle and go to bed as the Englishman does. He can show his surprise, and talk over the advantage of the American way of doing things, when he gets home. Victoria has been least oppressive to the classes of any of England's rulers. She is an elderly woman anyway, and it is only respect to her sex and her years, for an American inspecting her island, to sometimes say not emotional of course "Vivat Regina," live the queen. Uncle Sam expects as much of his family when traveling. 144 FOREIGN TALKS. Englishmen will not institute more convenient customs because American travelers ridicule the customs now in vogue with them. If Englishmen get a favorable idea of Americans who go abroad, they will be more likely to come here. When they gee the advantages in many of our ways, they will be more likely to adopt them. American methods now prevalent in England have been carried back by Englishmen who have visited America. * * * x * In two things the Englishman may at least claim superiority to the American, and the American Would show poor wisdom if he did not learn from even his old enemy. Profanity and slang are not admitted in the vocabulary of the Englishman who lays claim to good breeding. The Englishman says, that good breeding is surface Christianity, and so, good breeding will admit of neither profanity nor slang. _ Some say that it is wrong to remember an in jury. It is wrong to revenge an injury. In some instances, to prevent the recurrence of an injury, it is best to remember it. Great Britain misused and would have enslaved our ancestors. Our ances tors were brave, and through two cruel wars, they secured freedom to all Americans throughout the centuries. For Americans to forget this, w^ould be ungenerous. For Britain to forget the lesson taught her might bring other wars, or cause her to be less kind to the people whom she still rules. ENGLISHMEN IN AMERICA. ^ America travel. Distan- ces in America are great, and a per- Smerica son ' * n or( * er ^ & anywhere, must make quite a journey. To make long journeys soon becomes a habit of Americans, and so Americans are often met far from home. The person who ever stays at home learns little new. The person who travels much, observes much, draws many comparisons, learns much. He learns useful things, things that will improve him, that he can utilize, that make him a more serviceable citizen. Many American people know not only about America, they have been to Europe and are well in formed concerning European places, European peo ple, European ideas,habits, and customs. Theaver- age American knoivs not only both sides of his own nation, he knows both sides of questions that con cern his nation. The person who knows both sides of a question is really the only one fitted to judge of it. Judicious judges are American judges, judi cious teachers, lawyers, ministers, doctors, and bus iness men are likely to be American. An Englishman who has traveled, one who has crossed the Atlantic, is ordinarily mistaken for an American. After his trip to America his first re* mark on reaching England is, "Well, I declare, though I had read much about America, I never got an idea of the magnitude of America, its thrift and progressi veness. It beats anything I ever im agined!' 7 If he be a farmer, his property has all U6 FOREIGN TALKS, shrunken in importance. His big trees have be come saplings, his big meadows have become plots, his big fruits are dwarfs. He has learned that the big things^, the big projects are in America. An Englishman who makes a trip through Amer ica is a converted man. Ordinarily he is changed in his views of business, in his view r s of finance. He is a more generous man, a more intelligent man, a better man for what America has taught him. An Englishman who makes one voyage across the Atlan tic nearly always makes a second. Often he settles permanently in America. American people are accused of being boastful. Since America deals in the gigantic in nearly all lines, the accurate truths, told in England by Amer icans, seem fabulous statements to those who have never been to America. To believe the wonders of America one must see them. To see the wonders of America one must travel. To travel requires am bition, and ambition is characteristic of Americans. The Atlantic is not an impassable barrier. It is no longer a division between hostile nations. Its passage is as free to inhabitants of England as to those of America. If English people knew Amer ica better, they would be more certain of America's greatness, more appreciative of America's import ance, more enthusiastic in America's praise. More Englishmen should travel west. They will then have a better knowledge of this section of the globe, and so be able to form a more correct estimate of their own. ACROSS EUROPE. 147 t It is too lumbering an old stage-coach affair that bears us across continental Surope. Europe to be called a railroad train, though we attain a fair rate of speed, but the land scape outside presents objects so antiquated, that the train is truly more a type of the present century than anything discernable. Men with sickles are cutting wheat and rye, while it is being bound and stacked by women. In stone towers, old time wind-mills are grinding the harvest of last year, while oxen to wooden plows and don keys to drags of gnarled wood and roots are prepar ing the ground for the fall sowing. Christ crucified at all cross-roads, devout monks in cape and gown, soldiers to right of us, soldiers to left of us, pointed Napolean hats, peasants in long, loose waistcoats and wooden shoes, dogs instead of horses attached to milk wagons, bells on the stations instead of on the locomotives, peat for fuel, candles for light, wine for drink, chicken's heads and feet for meat, rye bread it is a view from a car window as the train sweeps through a rural district, or halts for a mo ment at a quaint hamlet, but it tells the story of the mental, moral, and financial conditions existing to-day in continental Europe, as well as they could be related after weeks of study and research. I have claimed, the greatest good that can come to an American from foreign travel is an added ap preciation of the comforts and advantages of Amer ica. By a second journey into the heart of what in Europe is best, that opinion is strengthened. Eu- US FOREIGN TALKS, rope has great cathedrals and great monasteries, great sculpture and great paintings, great fortresses and great armies, but over against all this I put one thing for America. America is the land where the children of the poorest have educational advan tages as good as can be secured for the sons and daughters of European nobles, and this, now and ever, must make America great in that which Eu rope most needs great men God's noblest handi work. * <$ % * How peculiarly the acts of men and nations, who are living a century or two behind the age, impress one. That Germans, half a century ago, made their wills before taking a journey over the first railroads which were being completed is not strang er, than that Li Hung Chang travels, taking with him from place to place his own coffin. Men can only get away from ignorance and superstition by thinking, reading, and observing. The last marriage of a granddaughter of Queen Victoria did not attract the attention of former royal marriages. Are the masses of Europeans becoming so wearied of supporting royalty in idle ness, that it is not a pleasure to have another family added to the list for maintenance? Amer icans, more than a century ago, decided not to long er assist in the support of European nobility. Their decision made a good deal of disturbance at the time. THE CZAR OF THE RUSSIANS. 149 (?za R uss i a crowns a czar. It would be ._. more accurate to sav that Russia oi me " allows a czar to crown himself. It is , i i f ii the custom tor the young czar to place the diadem on his own head. If liberty lov ing Russians should attempt to stop the coronation, the young czar would order out the Russian army, and tight as long as there were any liberty loving Russians alive who opposed him. The present czar, who calls himsel Nicholas Second, claimed the right to crown himself and rule all the Russians, because he happened to be born in a family known as Romanoffs. If by chance, he had been born in some family known as Brown, Smith, or Jones, this idea of crowning himself as ruler of the Russians would never have entered his head, but being born in that family, and at an early age learning what had been the custom of his ancestors, he determined to do as they had done, crown him self. He did it in public. After the death of his father, this young man issued a decree telling the Russians what he pro posed to do. The Russians, having become accus tomed to such a procedure on the part of former young men of this same Romanoff family, did not seem surprised at this fellow's audacity. In fact, they were expecting it and offered no objection to his intended course. If some of the Russians, who have heard how one man doesn't rule in Switzer land or in France or in the United States, but that all the people, rich or poor, wise or simple, rule, and 150 FOREIGN TALKS. if suchRussians should attempt to establish a sim ilar condition in Russia arid get this assumptions young man off the earth, then a thousand or more indolent and aristocratic Russians known as no blemen, who live in ease about the throne, would take this baby, of which Nicholas is the father, and crown that. The Russian troops would then be called out, and anybody, everybody, who claimed the baby shouldn't rule the empire would be killed. That an infant of its age could rule Russia shows how much actual labor and intelligence are invol ved in ruling. It is a hard and bloody thing to stamp out this idea that some babies are born to rule. France saw the United States do it in 1776 at a fearful sacrifice, and France determined that she was willing to undergo as much for the enjoyment of such a con dition. France began with her king, killed him, and then hundreds and hundreds of his near as well as his distant relatives. She supposed she had de stroyed the last vestige of royalty, and so elected a president and began to enjoy the fruits of a repub lic, but lo, a fellow over in Austria began to lay claim to the rulership of France on the gronnd that he had run away from France, saved his head, and that therefore by right of birth, he was the correct person to rule. The French people invited him to come home immediately and be killed. He beg ged to be excused, always lived abroad, and the present Duke of Orleans is one of his descendants. This duke has a great tendency to pass his time THE CZAR OF THE RUSSIANS. lol outside of French borders. This young man who has crowned himself czar of the Russians always had aristocratic proclivities* He was not better educated, not stronger physically or mentally than thousands of other young Rus sians, yet he never associated generally with young men of his abilities, but confined himself to a very exclusive class of^iddy noblemen about his father's court. Girls in every way his mental equal, and moral superior, he utterly ignored. When he final ly proposed, it was to another aristocrat, a grand daughter of Queen Victoria of England. She ac cepted him for the same reason that he proposed on the ground of noble blood and of being exceed ingly exclusive. Most people said they were well matched. So the sensible girls of Russia thought, and they were glad when the two aristocrats married. Everybody was glad, for nothing so improves an in dolent person, as a little care and responsibility. Marriage brings that alike to prince and peasant, and no doubt the past few years have put as much character into this young czar's life as all the period of his former existence. Everybody who has seen the baby says that it is a very nice baby, a pretty baby. It smiles, eats, drinks, and yells about the same as other babies of its age, but no one has yet discovered, any wonderful or peculiar traits about it which indicate that some day it ought to rule Russia. Years ago many freedom loving and patriotic Russians, to whom the idea of one person being 152 FOKEIGN TALKS. born to rule millions was obnoxious, came to the United States. Other Russians entertaining simi lar liberal ideas, and disliking to leave that country, from time to time, have blown up a czar with powder or dynamite. They have seen the foolishness of such a course, as a score of relatives have ever been ready and anxious to succeed to the annihilated czar's throne, and the new 7 czar, in fear for his own life, has only been more severe and oppressive to free dom loving Russians. So the czar is crowned. Americans, with the enter prise characteristic of Americans, always give the most extensive and interesting press reports both of the new czar and his coronation. American readers read the accounts with the intelligence and shrewd ness for which Americans are noted, and then they meditate. The results of their meditations are not favorable to the audacious young men w r ho claim an inherited right to rule Russians. & % & # Aristocracy is purely a temporary condition. If aristocracy is not destroyed by reverses, death an nihilates it. The underlying elements of aristocracy are ego tism and selfishness. In proportion as men cultivate generosity and love of fellow man, they attain to ideal manhood. Aristocratic rulers are to be pitied because, owing to the station in which they are born, they are prevented from cultivating these two elements of ideal humanity. PAEIS. 153 ~ . They say, "Nothing is great or small ex- 1 ans. com p ar i son ." Once I reached Paris after many days spent in England and the mid dle and southern European countries. I reached Pa ns from Venice, the city of St. Mark, from Florence, the city of the fair, from Rome, St. Peter, and the Vatican, and I said: "Paris is most magnificent!" This time I came to Paris from country districts. If Paris thus impressed me before, how idle would be a description of impressions now. Rome was not built in a day, and Paris can not be seen in a week. It can not be studied in a month. A morning walk to the Hotel des Invalides, the tomb of Napoleon, and across to the Trocadero, and Eifel tower, the highest structure in the world; an evening ramble to the Triumphal Arch, erected by Napoleon to commemorate his victories, and a turn of a mile and a half down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde, the center of all that is grand est and most beautiful in the city; a visit to the Pantheon, the tomb of Victor Hugo, and the Park du Luxembourg .in front where Marshal Ney was shot, and the Palace du Luxembourg where the best sculptors of France have wrought in bronze and marble; days in the Louvre, the largest art gallery in the world, studying the works of the great masters Reubens, Raphael, Titian, Van Dyck, Pousin, and Correggio, or a ride down the Seine on a passenger steamer, or out to Versailles on an om nibus, all this helps one to see and appreciate Paris, and gives ideas of history, art, and architecture. 154 FOREIGN TALKS. ^ i Throughout all lands, Paris is noted (qjarcriesi. ,, , . , . as the art centre or painting and of music, and to musicians everywhere, the name Mar- chesi is an important name, a noted name, a name to be honored, respected, revered. For a long time, Mathilde Marchesi has ranked foremost as a trainer of the female voice. Since the death of the Italian masters, Mathilde Marchesi has had no rivals. She is admitted the greatest vo cal trainer in the world. Mathilde Marchesi achieved her great success through her deep and all-pervading love of music. Her love for the art was such that she was willing to suffer much, endure much, that she might achieve much. For years this woman toiled at Milan and Florence with incessant zeal, that she might meet the musical artists of the world in Paris, and unfold to them the mysteries of the art. She bent her energies with intelligence and genius to inscribe her devices and discoveries in books to be read and studied by people of all nations, so> that, even those who could never hope to reach Paris, might yet avail themselves of the products of her labor. She wrought at the public institutions of Munich and of Brussels to so firmly implant the Marchesi methods in the great musical conservatories of Europe, that they must remain after their authoress perished. The world is never without a master in each and every art. The musical world has looked for the one who is to succeed Mathilde Marchesi. They MABCHESI. IBB find the natural successor in Blanche Marches! Cac- camisi, the mother's only child, Blanche Marchesi was born in a world of music. She was reared among sweet sounds. As naturally as others creat ed discords she created harmonies. At three years of age, Blanche Marchesi sang second parts, and was visited by Gounod, Godart, and Massenet. As a child she counted the mistakes of her mother's advanced pupils, and correctly rendered for the Mu nich students that which seemed impossible for others. The parents of Blanche Marchesi realized from the first that if their daughter was to follow the footsteps of the mother, she must instruct artists of all nations. To prepare her for the work, they early began to teach her the modern languages. The father and mother, masters of the Italian and German tongues, alternated with their daughter, requiring those languages to be spoken at intervals during the day. She acquired French from her Parisian surroundings. At an early age Blanche Marchesi spoke these three languages with an equal degree of fluency. English she accomplished later through her own efforts. The studios of Blanche Marchesi in Paris and in London are places at which congregate the better musical talent of Europe and America. They are resorts, too, of many of the more noted literary men and women of Europe. Mathilde Marchesi spent a portion of her life in bringing into existence the Marchesi method. 156 FOREIGN TALKS. Blanche Marches! started in full possession of the results of her mother's labors, and so she is not only bringing to a greater degree of perfection the world renowned method, but as a public singer, no artist of recent years has won greater triumphs. With the ambition and the industry characteris tic of the Marchesis for generations, Blanche Mar- chesi Caccamisi will no doubt continue the true ex ponent of the Marches! method, and the most artis tic and pleasing singer since the days of Jenny Lind. Blanche Marches!. 158 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. EDUCATIONAL TALKS. Too many are likely to nar- ^ f row the word society to s Relation that part of the public be _ To Society yond school age. The teach er's relation to society in the church or lyceum, at a convention or an evening party, does not differ materially from that of the merchant, mechanic, doctor, or lawyer. Every man is in duty bound to meet his fellow men. He is in duty bound, at such times, to express himself for the good upon ques tions of morality, to champion reforms, to impart information, to give advice, and a teacher is no ex ception. But the teacher, also, has a higher and a holier relation to society, and it is to the portion of it that, in one or two decades, will occupy every position from the carpenter's bench to the senate hall and pulpit. A teacher's relation to society is to that part- where influence tells. The minds he deals with are young, all ready to take impressions. Early im pressions are most lasting. The characters intrust ed to him are forming. They must take some shape, and if the teacher can bring strong influences to THE TEACHER'S RELATION TO SOCIETY. Io9 bear, he will mould them. Ministers deal mostly with matured intellects. They may keep men pure. Teachers deal with intellects immature and flexible. They may transform the coming man and make him pure. Every teacher is a home missionary, and working to reform the next generation. He sensibly goes down to the germinating plant, and he expends his labor where it must count. Under our present laws in most states of the Cnion, the children must come under the teacher's influence and be trained by him during the nine years when habits are forming. Then it is, that the child is selecting one of the great highways, good or evil, which he is to the follow through this world and into another. Who sustains a rela tion to society more vital than the teacher? As a rule young people are brave. They will attempt that which their seniors dare not. If they are unsuccessful in their undertakings, by the mass they are considered rash, if successful valiant. Whether a brave deed is crowned with failure or success, the same spirit of gallantry is the incentive, and much of the conservatism, for which older heads are famed, is nought but polite cowardice. No teacher can lead students and fit them for society, but a brave confident one. A teacher wonders at a spirit of disorder among his pupils. He is a hesitating individual with but little will power, and not enough of a philosopher to reason to the true cause of the difficulty. Often, 160 EDUCATIONAL TALKS, none but the students themselves are aware, that it is their bravery rising superior to his timidity, No one will estimate a teacher higher than he estimates himself, and a teacher who does riot be lieve in himself can not expect others to believe in him. Teachers must cultivate self-esteem and confi dence. They must be worth something, and so es timate themselves. A teacher above all others must practice what he preaches. He must not pretend. He must not attempt to appear what he is not, for the eyes of the young are first to discern deception. A teacher must have faith in his abilities. He must not only believe himself capable of discharg ing his duties as an instructor; he must know himself the possessor of that power and magnetism to lead and inspire. A teacher must study the inclination of young minds. If his students lack right motives, character, and reliability, these qualities must first be im planted well within the heart, and then all influ ences brought to bear to aid their growth and de velopment. If a teacher finds a liar among his pupils, in that student's mind he must instil the great truth, that, far above physical courage is moral bravery. In that student, he must cultivate all the truthful tend encies he may find, and in place of the false and deceitful part of his nature, he must implant that which will develop into the true and upright. THE TEACHER'S RELATION TO SOCIETY. 161 A teacher, in order to succeed in reforming and bettering the young, must either have entered the profession for that purpose, or have been thoroughly converted to the nobleness of the work, and believe in it, heart and soul. To train the young and so fit them that they may be an honor to society is the most sacred work ever entrusted to human hands. A man or woman in this business, with any other motive than to educate the minds, the souls of the rising generation for a useful existence in this world, and the enjoy ment of another and a better life, deserves to fail, and his failure is the greatest blessing society can receive. A teacher who instructs the young, only for pecuni ary gain, is a Judas selling his master for silver. A teacher must reason from his own life to the lives of his pupils. He must inspire them by just the influences that developed that which he knows is best in his own character. He must realize that with him rests the responsibility of laying the very foundation of society. In far away Italy, in the beautiful valley of the Arno, stands a tower. For its construction, cen turies ago, architects planned, laborers wrought, and all the Grand Duchy of Tuscany contributed. The foundation of the structure was entrusted to builders careless of responsibility. It was laid im perfect, and to-day, the famous campanille of Pisa, leaning from the perpendicular, is prevented from toppling to the earth, only because its great chime of bells is placed far to one side. 162 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. Carving and polished marble, fresco and mosaic- add not to its beauty. Travelers gaze, but they are attracted only by its deformity. Far up the valley, on the. banks of the same Arno r in Florence, the city of the fair, stands another tower. Not more, artistic in design, not more ex cellent in ornamentation, but upright on a firm foundation, it looks heavenward into the blue Italian sky. Delicacy of finish, wealth of sculpture, the purity of design of every figure and tablet, lend it a charm, Men stand in rapture, for Giotto's campauille is the model and mirror of perfect architecture, and the most beautiful building in the world. Society is a tower, planned by the Divine Ar chitect. The foundation of the magnificent struct ure is entrusted to teachers. Our youth is the ma terial with which they build. If it be a ruin, it attracts only by its deformity. If it be a monu ment, it is admired for its usefulness and beauty. Next to the mother's, the teacher's influence is greatest. A person can not ever be pouring and never dip ping. No class of workers require an opportunity to secure a new supply of material more than mind workers. The great instructors, writers, lecturers of the present age have been great observers, great travelers. THE POWER OF LANGUAGE, 163 s an an i ma l- In body man of differs but little from the remainder Canguage. of the animal creation. For some time, scientists claimed for man a superiority over other animals, inasmuch as he was supposed to possess mental attributes which they did not. Man possesses memory, reason, imagination, rec ollection, and judgment. These are mind qualities which early thinkers attributed only to the human race. By farther study, animals were credited with the possession of first one and then another of these mental attributes, till at last, the possession of reason alone was denied the animal. But then it was determined that the higher types of animals had every appearance of possevssing reason, and so. that man might claim for himself some superiority mentally over the beast, the scientist called the animal's intelligence, so much resembling reason, instinct or intuition. The remark at length became common. Man reasons, the animal does not, but acts through instinct or intuition. There has been further research as to the nature of intuitive knowledge, and every revelation con cerning it is to the effect that, if intuition differs from reason, intuition is much the higher and nobler type of knowledge. Thus it follows, that ig norant man in his desire to exalt himself above the animal in mind capacity, has utterly failed. To maintain a distinction between himself and the animal, as a last resort, man has been compelled to revert to a physical characteristic. Man now 164 EDUCATIONAL TALKS, claims that his superiority over the animal lies in the fact that he possesses a spoken and written lan guage, to acquire which the animal is quite incapa ble. Though this theory is not altogether invulnerable, from the fact that most animals communicate quickly and intelligibly, yet, as the communica tion is by a series of poorly formed sounds instead of regular and harmonious word formations, man is allowed to retain this distinction as the charac teristic difference between himself and the remain ing animal creation. So, not mind, but the power of speech, renders man superior to the animal be controls. Not rea son, but the power of language raises man above the beast, and to a place a little lower than the angels. & & & & A person who boasts of his correct use of the En glish proves how incomplete is his knowledge of this difficult language. A person who claims per fection in any branch of education proclaims igno rance, but especially is this true of the person who proclaims perfection in English. The English is formed from many other languages, both heathen and civilized. There are more words in English than in any other language. The vocabulary of the ablest scholars comprises only a small fractional part of the entire number of English words. The use of English violates so many rules of established grammar, that good English is often poor grammar, while good grammar is often poorEnglish. THE USE OF LANGUAGE, IBB People are better than animals ow- V L " ing to the power of language. To language. uge ^ 00( j } an g ua g e j s progress toward enlightenment. To use poor language is degener ation toward the brute. As language is the divid ing line between beasts and men, so good language is the characteristic difference between the edu cated and the ignorant. The higher the degree of civilization of any race, the greater is the number of words in its spoken or written language. The dictionary of the English, the German, or the French, is proof positive of the greatness and superiority of those nations. No race surpasses in culture and intelligence the En glish speaking people, and their dictionary is larger by several thousand words than that of any other race. To be able to use correctly a great variety of le gitimate words distinguishes the individual as re fined. To be the master of but few words, to be constantly resorting to grunts for words, and to slang for ideas, stamps the person as uncultured and ignorant. Language is the mirror of the mind. A person with narrow language has a narrow mind. A per son with incorrect language has a faulty mind. A person with iuipure and slangy language has a mind sensual and depraved. Every person that thinks, talks, and the manner and substance of his conver sation prove whether his thoughts have been low and base, or high and noble. In all ages, under all Itfti EDUCATIONAL TALKS, circumstances, no matter what the condition, heart and mind determine the language of the mouth. No study is so elevating, so profitable to the indi vidual, as the study of words. Words form the lan guage, and as the language is good or bad, the per son is admitted in circles cultured and refined, or relegated to a place among the coarse and ignorant. It is a wise provision of nature that no person shall be able to conceal his innate method of speech. One remark, one sentence, often a clause decides all, and it is unnecessary for society to class the in dividual. The individual himself determines his true location in the social sphere. Through in stinct, he seeks the place to ivhich his thought, as revealed by his language, allots him, and only in that circle is he at ease with himself and his sur roundings. It pays to reject slang, to cultivate good and pure and intelligible language. It pays to do this in youth, as the tendencies of youth are the habits of after years. It brings success. It promotes honor. It insures respectability. Study proper words. Mould correct sentences. Practice intelligent lan guage. * x * & One who knows little is unaware of his own im perfections, and so is confident and boasts. One who knows much understands that he is only at the surface of that which might be known, and so never vaunts. "Great knowledge is generous, little knowledge is egotistic/ 7 FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 167 An American superintendent ign Canguages of public i ns t ruc tion in the _ '" 1 . Southwest recently said in District Schools. his annual report ; 0ne of the most serious obstacles to the carrying out of the school law is the lack of knowledge of Spanish by teachers." If this be true, and teachers generally before taking charge of schools in localities where no English is spoken, acquire the foreign tongue used there, and impart instruction in that language, when will such communities be transformed into English speaking communities, and their inhabitants be inspirit and in truth what they already are in form, citizens of the United States of North America? The United States has ever been the home of the foreigner of whatever nation. It has been the pro vince of this nation to assimilate and Americanize the former inhabitants of other nations. This the nation has done by first teaching to the German, to the Frenchman, to the Italian, to all from what ever country, our language, the English. Why should we make an exception at this late day? Why allow America to be absorbed by the East and American progress retarded? Foreigners, who seek a home here, thankful that they are now citizens of the grandest republic on earth, should acquire our customs and language, and there is no place where this can be done so easily, readily, and naturally as in our free public schools. 16S EDUCATIONAL TALKS, Vacation days slip away. Idleness is not |or pleasure. The greatest pleasure w r hich can come to young or old comes through entertaining labor. But a few days, or a few weeks, of that kind of rest which requires of mind and body absolutely no exertion, suffices. A pupil who is so interested in books that he finds one of the pleasures of the vacation, practice in entertaining reading, the solving again of prob lems that were most difficult last year, and the perusal of the descriptions of states, countries, cities, and people from the geography, is one who will be a bright pupil in school, because he will know more than he has learned in class recitation. Every pupil when grown must work with mind or else with muscle. Physical work is honorable, but there are many who wish to do mental work, that are compelled to work with the hands for want of sufficient mental development. Any one in these days who hopes to engage in mental work must begin to develop the mind when young. Those girls and boys who devote a portion of the long vacation to easy and invigorating study will be best prepared for mental labor. The old Indian reservations on which the Indians were supported in idleness have now given way in many places to Indian schools. In these, the In dians are taught the arts of peace instead of being allowed to plot and drill in the science of war. PREPARING FOR SCHOOL. 169 ~ It pays to prepare for any important n ^ event. To acquire an education is the _ r most important event in the life of a OCrj.001. gi r j or k^ a young woman or young man. The success which a young person will make of the school year will depend, in quite a large de gree, upon the preparation completed for the open ing. Often principles are taught during the first few days after the beginning of school upon which de pends the work of the school year. The pupils who, through lack of preparation for the opening, failing to get these important principles, may be handi capped for the entire year, acquire the reputation of being dull, fail in their examinations, and be compelled to again take the entire work. Thus one year of school life is lost. The best acquirement supposed to be obtained in school is the gaining of useful habits. Teachers should instil habits of preparation. In this impor tant matter, the work of the teacher should be supple mented by the influence and authority of the parent. The parent should encourage, and if necessary, en force habits of preparation. To send the child to school on the day of opening properly fed and clothed is not sufficient. During the vacation, the child should have been inspired with the great necessity of acquiring an education. The child should enter school the first day with a mind willing and anxious to be taught. Prepare the children for school by inspiring them with a desire for knowledge. 170 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. ~ -j. The population of America presents great extremes in degrees of intelli gence. From the cultured American to the ignor ant Indian, the contrast is marked. Between these extremes, exists every gradation in the scale of en lightenment. It is easy to judge of the types of civilization in the nation by observing what arid how they read. The aborigines, except at the government schools provided for them, do not read. Those a little above the Indian types read, but their tastes are for reading excitable,, unreal, exaggerated, for mat ter that appeals to the lowest qualities of the mind, to hate, deception, revenge. The climax in the scale is reached with the educated American. He reads constantly and is entertained in the af fairs of the day, the news of the world. He not only desires the important occurrences of this and foreign nations, he wants them on the day of hap pening. Recent news charms him. Old news dis gusts him. He demands history when it is form ing. Events that transpire in Asia and Africa are good, but to please the intelligent American, the account of these events must be furnished him within the first twenty-four hours after they occur. The intelligent American reads fiction, but he de mands fiction which is a close and accurate por trayal of the real. Impersonation pleases him, but the characters must move and act and talk as the characters under the same conditions in real life. His tastes are for thoughtful articles, but they HEADING, 171 must' be based on reason, logic, and they must show judgment in every hypothesis, premise, and analogy, or their conclusions are stamped as incorrect and misleading. The reading public has now become the influen tial public. -Among the best classes of American citizens, there is no aristocracy of wealth. A man with riches, but with an inferior intellect and a small degree of culture, is not a man of influence. There are some who will endure him, but there are others who will ridicule him. His estimation by the intelligent is low. It pays to read. It is profitable to think. It is exalting to reason. America can have no aristoc racy as long as the people of America fix their high est estimate on intelligence. This is right. It promotes a higher state of civilization. It is American. & * & # * The greatest source of education is conversation. To converse with intelligent people means to be come better educated. It pays to select intelligent associates. America is not a land where art and architecture and music best thrive. The reason is, because in many sections of America, it is a greater achieve ment to become a skilled politician than to become a skilled artist. This unfortunate feature, time is changing, and, in all parts of the Union, each de cade shows a higher estimate placed on the finer arts. 172 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. 1^ -. Straws tell which way the wind blows and small traits reveal the character and dis position of the person. It has been said, if you know what one eats, when he eats, and how he eats, you may determine the condition of his health. It is positive if you know what one reads, and how he reads it, you may determine his degree of intelli gence. It is a broad rule, but a true rule, that a person who reads but little thinks but little. Savages do not read. Some not savages also do not read, but mentally they bear a close resemblance to the savage. Even more than intelligent conversation, our reading is the inspiration of our thoughts. If you constantly read bright, pithy books, newspaper articles full of ideas and so sharply and graphically stated that they penetrate, your mind becomes like the mind of your author, your conversation is im proved. You begin to use fewer words and more ideas. You talk less and say more. You talk to a purpose. You think. You think to a purpose. A dull speaker is a crow. A lively thinker and list ener in his presence is a king bird after him. There are men and women to-day of but limited use and influence, who might have been the in tellectual soul and life, not only of their family, but of their neighborhood, had they formed the habit of bright, active, and intelligent thought. They could have formed this habit by reading, by ever reading spirited articles, by forming a taste for the authors who write with a purpose. BEAD. 173 There are many men and women who are a power among their friends and neighbors because they think. They think because they read. They read because they know the value of the influence of read ing upon their minds and hearts. Their admirers wish that they too might be bright intellectually. They could if they would begin to think and read and continue it for, "What we do often, soon becomes easy to us." In adapting the organs of the senses to the physical structure, no doubt God intended to teach these lessons. He has given us one nose which is enough for all the nuisances with which we must come in contact, two ears and one tongue, for it is better to listen than to talk, two eyes with which to read, for reading is only another manner of listening. It is a poor plan to spend much time and energy in reading that which is not intended to be remem bered, for then one is forming the habit of forget ting instead of the habit of remembering. That only becomes a part of one's mind and soul which he remembers. The most valuable objects often occupy least space, so with the most valuable thoughts. Superfluous words always mar and distort the idea. The best writers are they who have the best thoughts, and the most direct, intelligent, and impressive manner of telling or illustrating them. Of books and newspapers, read those that are brave, that champion reforms, that oppose evils, that support the highest good of the state. 174 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. College athletics, as conducted by the great colleges of the nation, have be- come m ore of a detriment than a ben efit. The development of the mind has ever been considered the primary object of the college. It is not necessary for parents to send their sons to col lege in order to develop their muscle. The great American pugilists secured sufficient muscular de velopment to become world renowned, and they never saw the inside of a college. Their parents never paid a dime's tuition to a university of learn ing. There are scores of graduates leaving our great colleges who would gladlv exchange their diplomas, titles, honors, had they won any, for the ability of these pugilists. One must now turn pages of a Congressional Direc tory to find the name of a graduate of a great Amer ican college. There was a day when one must turn pages of such a record to find other than names of graduates of these colleges. Names of graduates of high schools, normal schools, academies, and smaller colleges are common in the congressional records. A young man, most any person, does but one thing at a time well. In one of the great univer sities, not only the minds of the young men who actually engage in the intercollegiate contests, but the minds of nearly all the other young men of the school are intent upon athletics. Every young man must try, for there is a possibility of his developing into something that would gain him a place on one of the regular university teams. COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 175 Young men can't travel all over the United States, giving exhibition contests of muscular feats, and still get their lessons. It might be otherwise were the young men to engage in mental instead .of physical contests. With part of the students traveling about the country, those left at the uni versity do not feel as much like study. Since part are allowed to go, professors do not feel like re quiring as much of those remaining. Professors must report about such a proportion of their stud ents for graduation, or it reflects upon the ability and energy of the instructor. So, at the great uni versities, mental requirements have continually lowered as athletics have absorbed the interest. In sections of the courses where young women are ad mitted, it has become easy enough for the girls to carry off the honors. A young man can't make his mark in the world on the strength of his diploma, not even if it be from one of the greatest universities in the land. A young man must make his mark on his mental inheritance, and on the mental capacity his school gives him. Athletics engaged in, not beyond the city where the university is located, contribute best to excellence of mental development. & & $ $ & A millionaire, who has given several millions to an American University, has recently paid his first visit to that institution. It is seldom that a man is found who realizes both the power of his money, and the insignificance of his own personal self. 176 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. q -I r-ng Normal schools have been founded to teach educators their trade. They 1 sacr^ing. champion the inductive or natural method of teaching. Among the statesmen of this nation, who bent their energies toward the training of teachers, are De Witt Clinton, Morgan Lewis, W. L. Marcy, Wm. H. Seward, and John Jay, while among the able ex pounders of the inductive method in this day are Edward A. Sheldon, John M. Milne, Lambert Sau- veur and Col. Francis W. Parker. Owing to his series of text books on the induc tive plan, to his skilled service as a lecturer and in ductive trainer, no educator has had a greater in fluence in promoting this method than William J. Milne of the New York State Normal College. The inductive method of teaching is not, as many suppose, a new method that has recently come into date. It is a method that has been growing in favor throughout the schools of this and other nations for years, and its origin dates back to the great Grecian philosophers. Pythagoras reasoned inductively Euclid taught an inductive philosophy. Socrates was a true in ductive teacher. Bacon of England and Froebell of Germany, as the dark ages passed away, revived the natural method, and to-day it has reached a state of perfec tion, and is accomplishing a work little dreamed of a century ago. The natural method is based upon certain laws of acquiring knowledge. The faculties INDUCTIVE TEACHING. 177 of the mind should be trained in their natural order. The idea should first be developed and then the words to express the idea. The pupil should be led grad ually from what he knows to what he does not know. No step should be taken in the dark. The natural method does not burden the mind of the pupil with many words and sentences, the meaning of which he is ignorant, but gives him ideas and leaves it for himself to devise words with which to express them. Inductive method instils logic, self-reliance, mental development. Normal educators have not established the induc tive method without difficulty. Like the introduc tion of most reforms, this of inductive teaching has been bitterly opposed. It is no doubt better that this was so, for, reforms established by strenuous efforts are lasting reforms, and inductive teaching is now so thoroughly planted in public apprecia tion that no amount of opposition can do it an in jury. William J. Milne. COMMENCEMENT. 179 Commencement week is the week ... when examinations are in progress. mem. These examinations are of vital im portance to every household, for they decide whether the child, during the past year, has acquired the nec essary mental capacity to fit him for promotion, or whether he shall remain another year upon the same work. We only know that objects are great or small, that children are wise or simple, by com parison. While the child is with father and mother at home, every little effort, every simple act of the child, in their eyes is magnified into an indisputa ble proof of the child's smartness. When your child enters the public school, it at once comes in contact with other intellects. There is something now with which to compare its mental capacity. In a few T weeks after your child enters school, the teacher knows definitely its intellectual endowment. The teacher views your offspring un prejudiced, for your child is no more to the teacher than fifty or a hundred others, Examination week is the period when the test is made, in order to satisfy you and the public of your child's proficiency, and so thoughtful parents, parents, led little by pre judice and much by reason, meditate on the results of these public tests, and do not seek to excuse their child's lack of mental endowment by unfounded accusations against the teacher or superintendent. Burns said: "To see ourselves as others see us." He might have said, to see our children as others see them. 180 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. Love of children is to be commended. It de velops parents, makes them broader and more gen erous. It was doubtless implanted by God for the protection and perpetuation of the race, yet all this love of the child is not the purest love as it is a selfish love. The more the parents see themselves reflected in their child the more intense is their love for it. If the child passes a good examination, the parents claim great credit as if it were inherited brains. If the child makes a miserable failure, the parents seldom trace back to the same source, but are more likely to attribute it to lack of training on the part of the teacher. When the child fails, how much better it would be for the parents to reason to the correct source, form a proper estimate of their child's ability, and in the future make up with home helps for that with which it has not been endowed. How much better when the child succeeds, for parents to give the teacher the credit, and show in every possible way their appreciation of noble work and unselfish devotion. Any man or woman who devotes this life to the training of the minds and morals of the young can not be paid in money. Commencement days are not only busy days for teachers, they are hard and trying days. The burdens of the year have been many and often crushing, and your child has occa sioned its due share of anxiety and labor. This is the week when you should take the teacher's hand in yours and express your gratitude. You would do this in a moment to one who might bequeath COMMENCEMENT. 181 your child a moneyed endowment, how much more fitting to one who gives your child mental and moral fitness. Attend the examinations. Admire the work of your neighbor's children. Learn if possible, where the ivork of your own may be improved, but do not leave the school till you have spoken words of thankfulness to your child's devoted trainer. What the next generation is to be, depends upon what the school teacher may decide to teach the young of to-day. The ennobling effect of music is not sufficiently appreciated. It requires less law and a smaller po lice force to control any city where the refining and elevating influence of musicians is felt. Educate a child properly in music, and it will develop into a person with more heart, a deeper, broader, and more appreciative soul. A change has come in the custom of young women wearing silk or satin for graduation in pub lic schools. In America where schools are free, nearly every graduation class is composed of some not able to purchase an expensive trousseau, and so young women from wealthy homes, but with sympathetic hearts, have discarded satin, and on graduation night a simple gown of plain white, dotted Swiss or India mull is proper. 182 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. ~ -, Graduation is a great ev 7 ent in a (graduation. i ,, V r. S ^ student s lire, r or a decade or more, you have toiled and plodded and contended in your school career. At length you are a senior, and you enter upon your final year at the public school. Weeks and months slip away. Graduation night is here. Class and faculty and dignitaries of the city are filing to their places on the rostrum. How your heart throbs with the excitement of the event. How the hearts of your fond parents in the audi ence throb with pride for you. Now you are standing in the glare of the foot lights looking down into the eyes of the audience. You are beginning your oration. Fans vibrate. The perfume of flowers comes heavy to your senses. There is mother looking up with joy and sympathy. Old neighbors are listening to your words with eagerness. You are approaching the last lines, the lines which had your greatest effort, the lines upon which you spent hours of labor. You have given them. It is over. The air is full of handkerchiefs. Now the feeling of fear and trepidation which you experi enced earlier in the evening have changed to pride at your applauded effort. You can't repress smiles of satisfaction. Mother smiles too, and brushes away a tear of thankfulness that God has given her this intelligent child. The class is standing, and as their names are called, each receives his diploma tied with ribbon, GRADUATION. 183 the document which is the printed proof of toil and struggle and at last victory. The words of advice which follow sink deep into your mind and heart. You resolve to be noted in the world, to see foreign lands, write other orations, and be a person of power, of influence, and of great and noble deeds. The audience is dismissed. A score of men and women in turn are taking you by the hand and say ing true and feeling things. There is much commo tion, and you hardly realize whether you are shak ing hands with a minister, a member of the board, or some relative who has traveled miles to witness your graduation. There is the underflow of thought all the time which keeps saying: "It is worth my struggle. Had I labored fifty instead of ten years, to-night would repay me for it all." It is the morning after graduation. Banked about the centre table are the baskets of flowers. Father and mother, and the little ones who now surely expect to graduate some day, are coilected in a group scrutinizing the diploma. The signature of the president of the board is compared with that of the superintendent. Your own name up in the middle is studied most, and father explains how near they came to naming you something else, and mother declares how glad she is that they didn't. This name is now dearer to her than any other. All wonder which paper will contain the best report of the graduation, and they calculate to whom they must send the account. To-day it doesn't seem possible that this event 184 EDUCATIONAL TALKS. could ever become an old event, an event whose memories could be dimmed by the haze of fleeting years. The streets and skies and landscapes of yesterday all appear .changed to-day. You are a graduate now. As you pass down the street, you feel it would be mean to look back, as you think there are faces at the window who have seen you, and that people are saying: "There goes one of our graduates. We are proud of him." You meet an acquaintance who did not congratulate you last night, and he is saying complimentary things. Passers turn to hear them and inquire of each other who you are. You hear the reply, "One of our graduates," and your generous heart is moved with sympathy for anybody who never graduated. This day, the happiest of your life, is over, and you wonder if all the days of a graduate's life are so sweet. You take the press reports to your room, read and re-read the accounts till late into the night. Other days come. Weeks slip away. At last there are intervals when you forget you are a grad uate. Being a graduate has become such a com mon, such an ordinary thing, that you don't hear father and mother tell of it with the pride you once did. You are active in business, in the affairs of the world. There are cares and sorrows, present joys and happiness, and it seldom occurs to you that you are a graduate. If perchance it does, you are obliged to reckon up to determine which was your class. GRADUATION. 185 Father and mother have both graduated from the school of earth. You realize that you must follow them, and that graduation now occupies your mind most. What father and mother were to you the night you graduated, you are to others now. You are completing the circle. You think what a school earth is for heaven. You understand that God couldn't use you there till he had first drilled you here. Every year you love more the hand that has chastened you, purged your life of the bavser metal. So we all pass to the final graduation. 186 CHURCH TALKS', CHURCH TALKS. Church A majority of the cultured people of ^ " .. city and country are in attendance Ctenfilalion. at Christian churches on Sunday. Ushers meet them at the door to welcome them, and to show them to seats. This office of the usher is all well and good. It renders him a prominent personage in connection with the service, but most people in this age know they are welcome in the house of God, and where seats are free, as they are at most churches, the wor shipers could readily select seats for themselves. There is one far more important duty of the usher than welcoming the people. It is to see that the church is supplied with abundance of fresh air. The main audience room of the average church, containing all the foul air accumulated during the day, is closed by the sexton after the evening service Sunday, and not again opened for a week. In the meantime the impure air becomes stagnant, for it is well known that most churches have no scientific means of ventilation. The germs of dis ease, shut up in the vile air of the church for six days, multiply, and, on Sunday morning, the au- CHURCH VENTILATION. 187 dience take their places in more poisonous and con taminating air than they left a week before Why, because people desire to attend church, should they be deprived of fresh air? In the usher's eagerness to display his elegant suit and immac ulate linen, why endanger the health of the wor shipers? It is right to preach much about sins of commis sion, but here is one of omission which the Christian minister ought to handle with fervor and with energy. No minister could do justice to such a theme in vile atmosphere. No congregation could properly receive such a burning discourse as this needs in any but a well ventilated church. Christ, not only most perfect of all men morally, but most profound of all men mentally, seldom en tered a church, but gave his sermons in the open air, from mountain peaks, by silver lakes. Christ did everything with a purpose, a definite intent, and no doubt he took his audiences into the pure, sweet air of heaven, that he might have more active and receptive intellects for the impressive truths he had to present. So give the worshipers pure air. Pure air is the element upon which man exists. Ventilate the churches. & % $ & Impure air is heavier and sinks to the bottom of the room. A church with a ventilator in the ceil ing is a relic of a less intelligent decade than this. 188 CHURCH TALKS. Q 11 ,1 Some people have an incorrect idea of ^ rest, of the use of the Sabbath. Desce;id- K*Sl. ants of the Puritans, and some who imbibed their customs, straighten down their faces and lock the piano on Saturday night, and there is no more music or jollity in or about the establish ment till the next Monday morning. No one either rests or serves God by acting that way. It is not in accord with nature. For a person to rest, he must simply get out of the old tread-mill in which he has been placed for six days, and get his mind away from the worry and anxiety of business perplexities. Music, entertaining reading, interesting con versation, and walks among the beauties of nature, the birds, trees, and flowers, all God's creations, enable one to best accomplish this. The worst Sabbath breakers are the men or women who grind all joyousness, all happiness, out of their homes on Sunday. $ % % % Sunday is a great blessing. Purely from a world ly standpoint it ought not to be utilized in labor. Burdened with the work and worry of the week, Sunday comes to one as a golden opportunity for mental and moral improvement. If Sunday be properly utilized, the remainder of the week be comes a greater source of pleasure to the individual, for, as the mind is made better and more intelli gent, the capacity for enjoyment is proportionally increased. SABBATH BEST. 189 ^ . Christians should be too liberal, broad, ** au s and generous to scorn being told of , . theirown, orthe faults of theirchurch. ItlpiSttaiis. Those are our Mends who tell us of our faults." In this age intelligent Christians do not claim salvation on the ground of their own per fection, on the ground of their own good deeds, but owing to their belief in a Savior kind, pitying, and merciful. Hence true Christians constantly labor not only to strengthen their belief, but to eradicate their faults, if they are church members, the faults also of their church. They can only correct faults by knowing them, hence they honor the speaker or the book which points our their mistakes. There is a very old book that teaches, "He that hateth reproof is brutish.' 7 This generation is so occupied in earning a com petence, righting wrongs, and executing projects, private and public, that often the entertainment and instruction of the next generation are neglected. In the matter of healthful amusement, every church owes its young people a duty. Girls and boys can not be kept where they may constantly feel the effect of good influences, unless systematic plans for that purpose are laid and executed. Early training is the training that avails most, is most en during. The church, the school, and the home should be incomplete harmony in their work for the young and in all, there should be a place for amusement as well as mental and moral instruction. 190 CHURCH TALKS. Vi ^ church calendar recently said: " Put a few twenty-five cent pieces in the plate to . day Thig ig bad suggestion from many standpoints. Different people have various ideas as to the object of the church collection. The great honor of small givings has been preached about till some suppose small givings are more creditable than large. Some suppose the collection is a religious rite in which the jingling should be occasioned by pennies and nickels. Others get the idea that the object of the collection is to give two well dressed .ushers an opportunity to march to slow music and display themselves. But few seem to realize that the trust ees, with the collection, are trying to secure funds to pay the running expenses of the church, and that quarters, halves, and dollars are just the thing for a church collection. <& & $> %> & Moral men support moral projects. Men are known by what they patronize. People show culture by exhibiting a due regard for sacred things. That so many people attend churches is a proof of the refined condition of society. It is impossible to divorce politics and religion. Impure politics contaminate the state, and when the state is corrupted the church must be effected, for, the people who comprise the state form the church. CHURCH RESPONSIBILITY. 191 (Trmrcri ^ n these ^ a y s mucn criticism is directed toward religious teachers. Responsibility. The pastor is held responsible for many church affairs and conditions. Church con gregations are inclined to hold themselves respon sible for but little. They are inclined to hold their pastor responsible for much. It is well for church attendants to remember that no pastor can be very enthusiastic, eloquent, and impressive, if his con gregation is half asleep or if its members indi cate by countenance and attitude that their minds are elsewhere, Any speaker draws his inspiration from his au dience. No one can address with profit people inattentive, stupid, and comatose. If a person can't be in an active mental state seven days in the week, it is a duty he owes to himself and his pastor to be thoughtful and meditative during the address on Sunday. & & * * * Any person who attemps to teach others should have a correct knowledge of conditions which can only be acquired through travel. The influence of teachers and ministers is great or small according as the people have confidence in their ability. The public gives little or much weight to a statement, in proportion as the person making it has had the opportunity to see and know. As the world grows more intelligent, the demand for teachers, secular and religious, who have knowledge gained from other sources than books, increases. 192 CHURCH TALKS. Snfelliaence ^ critic of church services, said, that * the music rendered at church is a at Ln urc H' commonly given reason for the crowded pews. As regretabie as is the fact, it is yet true, that in every church congregation there are people present whose principal object is some other than the mental and moral inspiration of the ser mon. This class of church attendants may have no special dislike for the minister or his methods. In truth, if the sermons are not long, and, if outside the pulpit, the pastor is social and entertaining, these persons may be among his most earnest sup porters. While the sermon is in progress, it is not always possible to locate the class who do not care for the sermon. Alive to the protection of their own re spectability, they sit erect, gaze at the preacher, and appear as knowing as it is possible for any one to appear in a public assembly where men and women, like the seats they occupy, are placed in rows facing one way, dumb to their neighbors and indif- erent to their surroundings. In most instances, the persons who will listen to a sermon, with no comprehension or appreciation of its merits or demerits, are those whose early training in home and school never taught them to think and meditate and recollect. They are likely to belong to the class who talk much and say little. They are likely to be persons of words instead of thoughts. Their minds have never known the pleasure of conceiving ideas. Their highest con- INTELLIGENCE AT CHURCH. 193 versational enjoyment is in repeating incidents rather than in giving expression to mind concepts. One is never too old to learn, never too matured to reform, never too superficial to begin to study, to conceive ideas, to digest ideas conceived by others, to remember, reason, compare, conclude. They who do not, should form the habit of listen ing to the sermon, not its spoken words, but its logic, thought, and argument. That will enable the indi vidual, not only to repeat the idea of the text, but to give a synopsis of the foundation plan, proof, and purpose of the entire discourse. It is the mind, often called the soul, that is eter nal. To expand the mind is to enlarge the soul. It is wicked not to think. It is a crime not to rea son. It is a sin not to remember. Capacity for heavenly enjoyment is measured by earthly intel ligence. Listen. Consider. Cultivate the mind. Understand and remember the sermon. &, & & & & Much is said about inattentive church attendants. None too much is said on that subject if it will make congregations more observant and thoughtful, but inattention may be a result of a lack of true and inspiring thoughts graphically illustrated by the minister. The pastor should know his congrega tion, and grade his discourse so that it may reach and influence the people. Common sense and reli gion are as essential in the pulpit as in business. The successful pastor is the one who has not only ability, but judgment and tact at his command. , 194 CHURCH TALKS. Most church attendants think. They ~ may make observations of the audience. ' n - They may listen to preludes and inter ludes, and be pleased. They may admire church decorations, and notice even the conduct of ushers and musical performers, but they are at church for the sermon, its mental and moral encouragements and inspirations, and of the sermon most people are attentive, thoughtful, appreciative In these days, many who listen to an able dis course can afterwards reproduce from memory its principal thoughts, its important illustrations, its convincing arguments. A synopsis of the sermon in print is again of interest next day, not only to the congregation who heard the sermon, but to the gen eral public who do not attend church, or who were in attendance at some other church denomination. There are two avenues to the mind, one through the ear, but another fully as convenient, and carry ing impressions that are often retained longer, through the eye. People who are much enter tained in a religious theme, and who desire to re tain its chief ideas permanently, if unable to remember them from the spoken discourse, yet have another and a better opportunity when the daily press reproduces a synopsis. After an impressive sermon has been produced, the more minds it reaches, the more is its likelihood of influencing arid benefiting. The minister who ignores the services of the daily press narrows the possibilities for good of his sermon. THE SERMON. 195 No one becomes learned from hearing much. One becomes learned from remembering much. The average sermon is not only a moral influence, it is an intellectual inspiration. It benefits most the person who remembers it best. The sermon should be heard, read, remembered. Most people hard pressed with work and worry for six days, look forward to Sunday with feelings of thankfulness and satisfaction. Sunday is the golden mile-stone of the w r eek. Children's day, the second Sunday of June, is every year becoming a more important event among churches, it is recognized as Flower Sunday, and the display of flowers often equals that of Easter. Out doors one is in touch with nature, with health, with heaven. It is well to worship in church es. One may worship in fields, in glens, in for ests. Bryant said: "The groves were God's first temples." Church attendance has a civilizing and refining influence upon any man or woman. Every item connected with church attendance tends to make one better. To array the person in presentable con dition, to make the heart right to receive moral im pressions, and the mind fit for mental influences, all this improves the individual. CHURCH TALKS. Most ministers P reach a brine to the efiect that the -1 forces ot good and evil are arrayed like two contending armies. If that be true, and the church is a citadel being stormed by Satan and his allies, then it certainly would be foolish to fortify with any other than the latest im proved devices. That means modern prayers, modern music, modern sermons, with modern in telligence to regulate and manipulate the defense. A church is not so much different from other en terprises but that ignorance will throttle it, while intelligence will prosper it. No use to give the devil all the advantage of modern appliances and then try to whip him. For man to successfully cope with an adversarv that defies the Lord himself, he certainly needs every assistance of this enlightened age. They called the social held at a church chapel a Longfellow social. There were many selections from the works of this poet, and the musical selec tions were his poems set to tunes arranged by musical composers. If church socials were devoted to the study of good authors, young people would gain inspiring thoughts, noble motives, and they would never be actuated to devote life entirely to gayeties. Amusements engaged in without a pur pose behind them do not leave pleasant recollec tions. A church social with no mercenary motive is commendable. CHTRCH ATTRACTIONS, 197 Church ^ P erson > no organization, can ^ afford to live behind the times. Attractions. TMs ig an age of changeSjr of in _ novations, of improvements. People who expect to be successful must utilize the advantages of the age. People who will not conform to the changed conditions common on every hand must not com plain if they are left at the rear. Churches must conform to the new conditions. There was a day when no instrumental music, even that to accompany the hymns, was allowed in the orthodox churches. In isolated localities, that is yet a custom. Most churches have now adopted organ music for the accompaniments. Some churches utilize even a fair sized orchestra. Churches are realizing now more than ever their proper mission. They realize that humanity can not be forced into being good. They realize that humanity must be influenced, persuaded, led into righteousness. For this purpose churches and church services must be made attractive. Men and women and children can not be instruct ed till they are first entertained. It is human na ture to desire entertainment. Religious teachers must conform to natural methods in their work if they hope to be successful. Religious teachers can not hope to convert souls until they get the people to the church services. They can only hope to get the people to the church services by making the services enthusiastic, attrac tive, entertaining. The minister who complains 198 CHURCH TALKS. that his people are oftener at the opera than at his church, doesn't compliment his own ability as a pastor. He admits that he allows the manager of the opera to surpass him in attracting the people. Even so entertaining a minister as T. De Witt Talmage resorted to a cornet in order to bring the people to hear his sermons. Russell H. Conwell has made his church the cen tre of attractive entertainments that he might fill the pews of the Temple, and bring six thousand people within the reach of his voice. This is not only policy, it is common sense, for what is the pas tor's mission if not to save souls? The Man of Galilee, the only ideal minister, the type for all, first attracted the masses that he might save the masses. To attract the masses, he resorted to the strange and unusual. He turned water into wine. He told strangers all that they had ever known or done. He walked upon the waves. Thou sands came, and he fed them with a few loaves and fishes. Fill the churches. If this can best be done with solos and quartettes and choruses, then use these. If best with cornet and violin and clarionet, use these. If best with fife and drum, then fife and drum were never used for a worthier, nobler pur pose. Attract the people within the hearing of the gospel that they may be saved by the gospel. Let there be less vacant pews in the churches on earth that there may be a grander host in heaven. Russell Ho Conwell 200 CHURCH TALKS. All institutions make mistakes. The Ritualism. cnurcn b as no t b eer]) j s no t now infal lible. The church has learned much by experience. The church has profited by discoveries, by inven tions, by the more generous and liberal views of humanity. The very ideas which, during the mid dle ages, were thought detrimental and destructive to the church, when well understood, have proved its blessing. A perfect age does not spring into existence in a day. Most good things are the result of a gradual growth. Some relics of dark ages yet exist in con nection with the church, but in the more intelligent communities they are fast disappearing. The average American church attendant reads and thinks. His mind is developed. Form, manner, ceremony of any kind, no longer impress or awe him. He recognizes them at once as a relic of a worse age than this, and they disgust him. The religious teacher, be he Protestant or Catho lic, who has ideas and expresses them clearly and forcibly is listened to in these days by thinking men and women who are thoroughly competent to weigh, compare, and conclude. They judge the Sunday discourse upon its merits. The min ister with true and inspiring thoughts does not scatter pearls before swine. They reach intellects competent to appreciate them. Long prayers dealing with foreign subjects, as though, "They shall be heard for their much speak ing," sermons treating of the abstract and the am- RITTJALISM. 201 biguous are no longer either popular or serviceable or useful, and ministers who insist upon talking much and saying little are readily understood, and they find employment only in isolated localities whose inhabitants do not read and reason. Hall and Vincent, Parkhurst and Satolli, as well as men less noted, but with ideas and convictions, have.been in demand among the thinkers, and their influence and usefulness have been in proportion to the qual ity of their thought and their clearness and ear nestness in expressing it. The church is doing more good to-day than ever before, because ministers have more intelligent audiences, because audiences have more intelligent ministers. It is a grand church for the age. It is a grand age for the church. Attitude and plati tude, ritualism and mysticism are vanishing. Every decade the church conforms nearer to its great model, the Man of Galilee. & % & & $ You will miss it if you undertake to measure a man's religion by the length of his face. Of all that has been said of the peculiar traits of man, one-half the depth and breadth of man's pre judice has never been accounted for. Lammas comes from the Anglo Saxon and means bread. Lammas Day is a day of religious observ ance. It is a feast day, and bread is the ingredient- used by the worshipers. 202 CHURCH TALKS. Proselxrtism ^ minister said, that the meanest person on earth, or next to it, is a church proselyter. This remark no doubt had re ference to one who would build up a new church denomination by securing the converts from other churches, instead of making them from the great masses of the unconverted. There is so much evil in the world, so much good waiting for the earnest, the skillful, and the in dustrious to accomplish, that it seems there could be no excuse for one worker intruding upon the legitimate field of another. Nothing, either in reli gion or politics, so arouses the leaders as desertion from the regular ranks, especially when it is in spired by intruders. This has given rise to bitter epithets such as proselyter, mugwump, and the like. After a leader has once acquired the habit of commanding, he is likely to be extremely severe with any who desire to join the forces of a rival. A rival leader is inclined to be most agreeable to any who desert other ranks to join his own. As a matter of consolation to religious and polit ical leaders who have been thus deprived of what they considered legitimately theirs, it might be well for them to bear in mind that those who desert and pursue a bubble, would have been of but little service had they remained. On the other hand, if by deserting they are attaining to something better, then honest hearts can certainly wish them no ill. For a leader to exhibit bitterness and hatred at a rival's success, even if it be to the detriment of his PKOSELYTISM. 203 own, engenders mistrust, lack of confidence in his ability to lead. The leader who attracts followers is the one who is brave and uncomplaining under difficulties. Only in war is it necessary to impose extreme punishment upon deserters. In both religion and politics, unless those who desert find noble inspira tions and worthy causes for their support in the new field, they soon return to the old fold, and the knowledge of having wandered, the experience en gendered, render them doubly repentant. It is safe to assert that no religious organization has ever had a broader influence for good than the Salvation Army, but unity is the absolute essential to prosperity in the home or in the church. It is too often the history of families, that what the parent founds and prospers, the children, through selfishness and jealousy, destroy. A feature adopted by some Christian churches is a pulpit editorial. This idea of an editorial, or a short address on some secular subject at the opening of the Sunday morning service, has been an established custom with Thomas A. Dixon, Jr., the preacher and lecturer of New York City, for several years. Some who would not otherwise attend church are thus attracted to hear an every-day topic of interest discussed. After a habit of church going is once formed, such people become regular attendants. 204 CHURCH TALKS. Most ministers consider it a duty to se- ] ec j. foe su bj ec t O f their discourse from the Bible. The Bible is a big book written by a great number of men. They lived centuries apart in the world's history. They recorded their thoughts in different languages. They wrote upon a variety of subjects. The book has become a volume greatly reverenced by Christians. It is natural that min isters should ever preface their sermons, no matter in what line they propose to talk, with an appro priate quotation from the Bible. Most officers of churches require this. Congregations expect it. Great sermons have been delivered from no par ticular Biblical text. It is said, that many a modern minister, infused with a great truth, and inspired with the importance of impressing it upon the hearts and minds of his hearers, prepares his dis course, and then searches for the appropriate Bible- text to accompany it. In such instances, the text serves rather to gratify the tastes and prejudices of the congregation, than as an aid to the minister. There are ministers who, in the light of the nineteenth century, deny the literal inspiration of the Bible. They claim to be searchers of the truth, and they maintain that the Bible will do more good, if presented to the people in a true and honest light, than if exaggerated and misre preserved. Such ministers consider parts of the Old Testament as allegory and fable. For this reason they do not value them of less importance, but place a high estimate upon them as adding to the historical in- TEXTS. 205 terest of the Book, as contributing to its literary merits. Saul of Tarsus was one of the greatest ministers. Holy Writ was at his disposal, but his sermons began without it. He wrought as an evangelist, wrote letters to people and to nations, discussed Bible themes, but not from Bible texts. The Man of Galilee preached. He drew the lines of morality closer than they vvere ever drawn before. He taught a doctrine which made it impossible for any person to live a stainless life. He knew Holy Writ, and as a child confounded the wise and learned. He taught from birds and flowers, from coins and candles, from sheep and foxes, from vines and fruits, but He took no Bible texts. Bible texts are a convenience. They are not a necessity. Noble thoughts may be impressed with them. Great truths may be instilled without them. They often serve a purpose. When a purpose is made to serve some Bible text, its usefulness is destroyed. A speaker pervaded with a great pur pose, if experience and power and accomplishment be at his command, will reach and bend and mould hearts regardless of Bible texts. A speaker with- out a purpose, devoid of tact and enthusiasm and judgment, with many Bible texts will do but little good. A Bible text does not transform a wordly man into a spiritual teacher. Great texts have no mysterious power to create great sermons. Great minds, the noblest handiwork of God, conceive great sermons and produce them. 206 CHURCH TALKS. A church ^educated soon de- generates to heathenism. No n iuri. doubt the unc i v iii ze d and bar barous customs engaged in by the tribes of India and of Siam were unknown to their ancestors. An ignorant church, in all ages, has become a supersti tious and a cruel church. Some of the most wicked atrocities ever per petrated have been committed in the name of the church, and have been the result of ignorance. As the world has become educated, the church has be come kind and generous and self-sacrificing. To day, only among the bigoted and among those un educated, are the old church feuds, which caused such slaughters in the past, cherished unforgiven. The few men and women of the church who re tain the old grievances, and hate with the old hat red, are living in an age of which they have no legitimate part. Thev are relics of former cen turies. They are not living with the noble aim of making their lives conform to the life and teach ings of Christ. They are not the eradicators of evils. They are the perpetuators of evils. Civilization and education, broad and gen erous and forgiving views in the church are render ing it an institution for good, instead of an agent for revenge and persecution. Formerly science ennobled the church, Now the church ennobles science. Formerly the state held in restraint the church. Now the church holds in restraint the state. Formerly humanity was a servant of the ENLIGHTENMENT IN CHURCH. 207 church. Now the church is a servant of humanity. There has ever been enough good teaching. The need of every age has been a comprehension of what was taught. It has required nineteen centuries for the church to grasp the lessons of the Man of Galilee. It will require many centuries more for humanity, through the church, to learn to thoroughly practice the lessons taught. Then death will not be a neces sity to transport humanity to heaven. Humanity will have transported heaven to earth, which is the inheritance of the righteous, and the church will have performed its mission. & $ & & The public school is the foundation upon which rests an enlightened church. In all ages, religion without education has meant oppression and per secution. As science and art and invention have thrived, church beliefs have given way to reasonableness. The Divine Being worshiped by the church of to-day is kinder than the One of previous centuries. Thirty-two thousand people were registered at a recent National Convention of Christian Endeavor. If Christianity is good for the old to die by, it must certainly be good for the young to live by. This organization, which sprang into existence so quick ly has spread to every town and city in the nation. It has become a powerful organization for good. It represents one of the best elements of society. 208 CHURCH TALKS. ^ rea ^ or does nothing in vain. ^ Often, man is occupied for cen- V300CU turies in attempting to discover the Creator's object in creating in some direction. At last, after man has studied and reasoned for ages upon the problem, he acquires the mental capacity to grasp the solution, and so through his own mental exertion man secures for himself the purposes of the Creator. For many centuries, lightning seemed to have no use. It was considered a scavenger to man. It was thought to be, in every way, an enemy to man's best interests. The Man of Galilee, being the Creator of lightning, when on earth nineteen cen turies ago and walking and living and talking daily with men, might have revealed to man, not only the fact that lightning could be harnessed and become a useful servant in rapid communica tion and locomotion, the Man of Galilee, had He so desired, could have revealed to man the rotundity of the earth, the revolution of the planets, the cir culation of the blood, the cause of eclipses, the application of steam, the use of antiseptics and anaesthetics in surgery. Though never in a single instance did the Man of Galilee make a remark which, after nineteen centuries, could be brought to prove he did not know all these great truths, on the other hand, in no instance can it be shown, that He made a single remark that would assist man in grasping any of them. The Man of Galilee realized of how great value MAN'S HIGHEST GOOD. 209 to man would be a knowledge of all the great truths that man, in the last nineteen centuries, has discov ered, but he was a religious teacher who didn't tell his pupils. He knew that of far more value than knowledge, was mental development, the power to discover knowledge for one's self. Had the Man of Galilee solved the great problems of science for man, through lack of mental exertion, His favorite creature might soon have degenerated to one ignorant and offensive. So it is evident that man's highest good is in mental and moral development, and that mental and moral develop ment can only be acquired by man himself. $* $> A church which has learned to work unselfishly for the prosperity of a rival church is one whose influence is great. The church generous even to other churches is the only one typical of Christ. Men and women are happy or unhappy according to the motive that actuates them in their work. It is a social law that the greatest happiness which can come to a person springs from labor expended in making others happy. No doubt God requires this life to be lived on earth, and that you and I shall exert ourselves here, that He may develop our capacities for labor. As we reason from God, we can only conclude that God desires workers. It is Bible that, "The hand of the diligent shall bear rule," and also that, "The slothful shall be under tribute." 210 CHURCH TALKS. The Creator does nothing in vain. He where all laws compel work, and drill man many years in physical and mental exertion, and then let the grave end it. If man is to enjoy an eternal existence, then earth must be a school for heaven, and the skills every one acquires here is used there. The Creator is a worker. His work is as careful and as painstaking in the minute as in the mam moth. He exhibits as great a degree of skill in the creation of shells and flowers and pebbles, as in the creation of worlds and suns and systems. The Creator has great tasks set aside for man, as soon as man can acquire the skill, working on small earthly models, to be trusted with actual work which begins in heaven. There being no sickness, no disease in heaven, men and women who were physicians on earth, will be sent on errands of mercy to heal the sick and suffering of distant worlds. Architects on earth will be architects in heaven. Architects of medium ability will at first be en trusted with tasks of ordinary importance. Ar chitects of great skill will be set at work at once on projects that demand great ability. Christopher Wren and Michael Angelo and Giotto may be shaping mountain ranges, glens, and landscapes of worlds now in process of creation. Painters of great ability on earth will have great tasks assigned them in heaven. Raphael, Titian, Van Dyck, Pousin, and Correggio may now be en- HEAVEN. 211 gaged in devising cloud effects and water reflections similar to those which we admire, and which we know surpass the paintings of the most skilled earthly masters. Painters of lesser importance will have smaller tasks at first assigned them. They may even be compelled to practice on canvass again for a time, till they have at least acquired the skill that Reubens possessed at death. There are great harmonies, great symphonies to be composed and played arid sung in heaven. En gaged upon these now may be Handel, Hayden, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, and Wagner, and later they will be enforced by Marchesi and Patti and Brahms. The young woman who had great literary ambi tions on earth, but who, owing to her poor compo sition here, could never get her productions in print, in heaven will be encouraged to compose, and her productions will be exhibited in quite a prominent place and there remain till the young woman has so improved through practice, that she will beg to have her first efforts taken down and removed. All authors of lesser importance will be in constant association with Bacon and Gray, Lessing and Schiller, Irving and Holland. Through contact with such master minds, and the spur of good natured rivalry, their productions will soon bear but little resemblance to those which they produced on earth. Hell will be composed of two classes. The first class will comprise all who, when on earth, were 212 CHURCH TALKS. they rich or poor, would engage in no kind of use ful labor. Their punishment will be to engage constantly in that labor which they most detested. The second class will comprise all who, when on earth, were industrious and skillful, but wicked. Their punishment will be to constantly be deprived from engaging in that labor for which they feel they were here so well drilled, so thoroughly pre pared.