“Everything which happens has its bent given by the events that
have gone before, and is brought into relation with those that come
after.”—_Forster._
* * * * *
The C. L. S. C. Class of ’86, just organized, will number over 12,000
members.
* * * * *
A very impressive lesson in economy (and who does not need one), may
be found in the following: A young lady in Wisconsin, who works in a
family for seventy-five cents per week and her boarding, desired to
read the C. L. S. C. course. No members living near her, and having
no opportunity to borrow the books, she was so anxious to gratify her
thirst for knowledge that she bought them, saving enough money from her
income of seventy-five cents per week. She is now zealously reading,
and expresses herself as delighted with the studies.
* * * * *
On the occasion of the recent visit of German astronomers to Colt’s
Armory, a Gatling gun was brought out and fired perpendicularly. The
heavy ball mounted into the air a distance of two and a quarter miles.
An account says that the ball made the ascent and return, four and
one-half miles in fifty-eight seconds.
* * * * *
The journal to be published by the lunatics on Ward’s Island, under the
title of _The Moon_, is not, according to the Buffalo _Express_, the
first periodical printed by the inmates of an insane asylum. Thirty
years ago, the _Express_ says, the prisoners in the Utica Insane Asylum
published a monthly magazine called _The Opal_, which contained some of
the craziest poetry ever printed. It quotes this couplet as an example:
Canst thou be the mackerel’s queen,
Blighted, plighted Isoline?
* * * * *
According to a reporter of that city, Miss Susan B. Anthony left St.
Louis the other day for Leavenworth with two medium-sized trunks for
baggage. At first the baggage-master objected to check them both
on a single ticket, and demanded pay for extra weight. “But,” said
she, “they together weigh less than the ordinary-sized ‘Saratoga.’
I distribute the weight in this way purposely to save the man who
does the lifting.” The clerk looked at her incredulously. “And you
tell me seriously that you do this simply out of consideration for
the baggage-men?” “I do.” “How long have you done it?” “All my
life. I never purchased a large trunk, for fear I might add to the
over-burdened baggage-man’s afflictions.” The clerk walked off and
conferred with the head of the department. Then the two returned
together. “Do I understand,” said the chief, “that you, of all women,
have been the first to show humanity toward railroad people?” “That
is a tenet of my creed.” “Check that baggage,” said the chief with
emphasis.
* * * * *
Those of our readers interested in C. L. S. C. work will find in our
department for “Local Circles” a great many valuable suggestions
concerning methods of study, questioning, conducting the work of the
circle, and, in some instances, plans may be found for courses of
lectures, concerts, etc. These reports are from members who have seen
the practical workings of their plans, and therefore speak knowingly.
* * * * *
London _Punch_ sent a pleasant greeting to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes on
his retirement from the professorship at Harvard, in this form:
Your health, dear “Autocrat!” All England owns
Your instrument’s the lyre, and _not_ “the Bones.”
Yet hear our wishes—trust us they’re not cold ones!
That though you give up bones, you may make old ones.
* * * * *
Take care, girls! A professor in Jefferson College, Philadelphia,
says that the habitual use of arsenic “for the complexion” causes the
clearness of the skin it produces at first to be succeeded by a puffy,
dropsical condition.
* * * * *
President Arthur’s New Year reception was interrupted by the sudden
death of one of his callers—the Minister from the Hawaiian Islands. The
music ceased, but the handshaking went on.
* * * * *
A forcible “temperance” argument from the Queen of England is found
in her last speech to Parliament: “The growth of the revenue has been
sensibly retarded by a cause which, in itself, is to be contemplated
with satisfaction. I refer to the diminution of the receipts of the
exchequer from duties on intoxicating liquors.”
* * * * *
Moral reforms move to victory slowly. The Mormons are liable to have
a rest because public sentiment, that was focalized against their
system a year ago in a law enacted by Congress, is in danger of being
inoperative. The friends of the commandment against Mormonism will reap
the harvest if they now enforce the law of Congress with as strong a
public sentiment as they inspired to enact it; otherwise we shall see
the movement a failure.
* * * * *
Girton College, the girls’ college at Cambridge University in England,
is about to be enlarged, and the plans for the new buildings have
been already drafted and submitted to the proper authorities. The
applications for admission have recently been very much in excess of
the accommodation at present offered.
* * * * *
The Alcott homestead in Concord—“Orchard Home”—standing next to the
“Way-side” home of Hawthorne, is a quaint-looking old mansion, with a
peaked roof and gables, high old-fashioned porches, and surrounded by
lofty oaks and elms. It was here that Miss Louisa Alcott wrote “Little
Women” and most of her other works, and here, too, that her younger
sister, Mrs. May Alcott Nericker, executed the beautiful sketches and
paintings that still adorn the parlor walls. It is now the home of
Professor Harris, of the Concord School of Philosophy, and author of
the series of articles on “Education,” now running in “THE CHAUTAUQUAN.”
* * * * *
At the 1880 meeting of the British Association for the Promotion of
Science Dr. Günther thus summed up the objects of museums: “1st. To
afford rational amusement to the mass of the people. 2d. To assist
in the elementary study of the various sciences. 3d. To supply the
specialist with as much material as possible for original research.
And in the case of local museums we may add a 4th. To illustrate local
industries and the scientific features of the district. In starting a
local museum we consider the best plan is to form a scientific society
(a local circle), whose first concern should be to get a suitable room,
well lighted and a good deal larger than there seems to be any actual
necessity for, the importance of this step becoming evident anon. The
next point should be to obtain as many objects as possible for a start,
and from the commencement every member should be required to do his
best in collecting objects whenever he has an opportunity.”
* * * * *
Prof. C. A. Leveridge, of Crawford, N. J., makes a very interesting
statement below, which we are pleased to transmit to our readers: “I
have a number of sets of cabinet specimens, lithological minerals,
representing the glacial and eruptive period, each set numbering 103
varieties and 160 altogether. A few of these came from the Centennial
Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, and some of the foreign are quite
scarce. They are interesting either for study or library, and make a
fine appearance. They are all catalogued, named, numbered, and located,
and each set carefully wrapped and packed in box. I have sold a number
and have received many acknowledgments of satisfaction. They are just
the thing for study, showing the coolings (crystallization), rubbings
and scratchings by the ice period. I have used a number of jaspers
instead of the rougher rocks, which I think is better. I sell a working
set for five dollars, and a cabinet set for ten dollars. There is to
me no profit, but I am an invalid and have these specimens, which have
cost me a great deal of money.”
* * * * *
The family of President Garfield have been spending the holidays all
at home together. Mrs. Garfield is busy arranging a memorial room,
set apart to contain relics and mementos of her illustrious husband.
The walls of it are covered with framed resolutions and letters of
sympathy, and there will be tables and cabinets loaded with similar
tokens. When the arrangement is complete, the room will be one of the
most noteworthy spots on earth, containing as it will expressions of
love and respect from people in almost every nation of the world.
* * * * *
The London demand for bonds of the late Confederate States of America
has recently become stronger than at any other time since the collapse
of the Confederate government. A large block was bought a few days ago
in Baltimore, on orders from a London banking house, at the rate of
nine dollars and seventy-five cents a thousand. The demand has resulted
in placing in the market several thousand Confederate dollars’ worth of
bonds that have been pasted on fire-boards and screens.
* * * * *
One of the inconsistencies of our civilization may be seen in this
item: “A Nevada penitentiary convict says that he was sent to prison
for being dishonest, and is there kept at work cutting out pieces
of pasteboard to put between the soles of shoes in place of honest
leather.”
* * * * *
The people of the oil regions of Pennsylvania were afflicted with the
spirit of speculation in oil, near the close of 1882. Professional
men, traders of every kind, women who had saved a few hundred dollars,
and, indeed, all classes of people, some with large sums of money, and
others with small sums, ventured to speculate. Oil went from fifty
cents per barrel up to one dollar and thirty-seven cents, and then
dropped back to seventy-six cents. The result is that a great many
people in moderate circumstances have lost all they owned. To hundreds
of men and women it has been as disastrous as if all their property
had been consumed by fire. _Moral._—It is wrong to speculate. It is
dangerous every way, and, besides, it is gambling.
* * * * *
The Rev. Leroy Hooker gives us his comparative view of some of the
poets in the _Canadian Magazine_ as follows: “It may not be too much
to say that among the English-writing bards of the century, Tennyson’s
only near competitor for the first place is Longfellow; and that
Longfellow’s title to a place above Lowell is based not so much to his
having projected upon the thought and sentiment of the century a more
potent and permanent influence, as upon the fact that he has given us,
in ‘Hiawatha,’ the nearest approach to a great epic poem that has been
produced within the period—not excepting anything that even Tennyson
has written.”
* * * * *
The Rev. E. J. L. Baker, a trustee of the Chautauqua Assembly,
died suddenly of heart disease at his home in Pleasantville, Pa.,
on Saturday afternoon, December 30. He had been a preacher in the
Methodist Episcopal Church for the past fifty years, and died in
his field of labor when seventy-three years old. He was at one time
presiding elder, and three times a delegate to the General Conference.
Once when the conference met in Boston, Massachusetts, he cast his
vote for Bishop Simpson and helped to elect him to the Episcopacy.
Mr. Baker was a man of dignified bearing, of exceptional strength and
force of character, and, while as a preacher he was not among the most
brilliant, yet in his sermons he presented the central truths of the
Bible in an interesting and powerful manner. Among ministers he made a
fine reputation as a debater in a deliberative body. He was a Christian
gentleman, a genial companion, and a workman that needed not to be
ashamed. He died full of faith in the gospel that saved him, and that
he had preached to others so many years.
* * * * *
A gold, open work C. L. S. C. badge by Henry Hart, of Brockport, New
York, is one of the latest inventions we have seen for members of the
C. L. S. C. It is a beautiful design, makes a handsome pin, and it is
sure to please every eye that loves the gold that glitters.
* * * * *
The attempt to injure the reputation of the lamented President Garfield
by publishing the letters that passed between him and Mr. Dorsey during
the presidential campaign, is a great failure. Mr. Dorsey is on trial
for the crimes he is alleged to have committed as one of the Star
Route conspirators. Let him be tried on the merits of the case, and
if guilty, let him be convicted, and if innocent, acquitted. But any
effort like that made recently to palliate the wrongs of the living,
at the expense of the dead president, will be resented by the American
people. The verdict of the people is that James A. Garfield was one
of our purest and best public men, both in his private and public
character. He was tried for nearly a score of years in that political
cauldron, the House of Representatives, and never found wanting. Let
him rest, for
“The death-wind swept him to his soft repose,
As frost, in spring time, blights the early rose.”
* * * * *
The Rev. Dr. Buckley, in the New York _Christian Advocate_, thus honors
a worthy public man: “To the Hon. H. W. Blair, United States Senator
from New Hampshire, belongs the special honor of having introduced
and eloquently supported to its successful adoption the amendment
prohibiting the employment in the United States civil service of
persons addicted to the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. The
citizens of New Hampshire and the friends of temperance throughout the
country will not soon forget this great service.”