Chapter XV: Preface (15)

One morning visitors staying in Venice were told that an ominous
report was in circulation concerning the Campanile, and that so
certainly was a disaster expected that the old architect who
had charge of the Palace of the Doges and of the tower of St.
Mark’s Cathedral had stolen out of the city, unable to bear the
thought of the approaching catastrophe. A guide took visitors to
the tower and pointed out little piles of sand that had trickled
down from between the bricks. It was dangerous to stand there
and the party retreated. The next night news went all over the
world that the Campanile had fallen. But the accident had not
happened suddenly. The Campanile had been through centuries
preparing for its fall. Slowly the moist air of the lagoon had
slaked the lime, and the acid of the smoke had disintegrated the
mortar. A thousand minute injuries were slowly inflicted, and
gradually the foundations settled and cracked.

So it is with character in individuals and communities. Falsehood, insincerity, vanity, dishonesty, selfishness and infidelity pull down institutions and bring even empires crashing in ruins.

(749)

DESTRUCTION NECESSARY

It has been calculated that, as fish produce so many eggs, if
vast numbers of the latter and of the fish themselves were not
continually destroyed and taken they would soon fill up every
available space in the seas. For instance, from 60,000,000
to 70,000,000 codfish are annually caught on the shores of
Newfoundland. But even that quantity seems small when it is
considered that each cod yields about 4,500,000 eggs every
season, and that even 8,000,000 have been found in the roe of
a single cod. Were the 60,000,000 cod taken on the coast of
Newfoundland left to breed, the 30,000,000 females producing
5,000,000 eggs every year, it would give a yearly addition of
150,000,000,000,000 young codfish.--_Public Opinion._

(750)

=Destructive Criticism=--See SATIRE.

DESTRUCTIVENESS

The size of a thing is not always the measure of its
destructiveness. We look at a big battleship and exclaim what
a huge instrument of destruction. Yet the tiny germ called the
tubercle bacillus is so small that it is said that 900 can find
room on the point of a small sewing-needle, and these germs
destroy more lives each year than the mightiest warship could
possibly do in action.

(751)

* * * * *

Sins and faults gradually ruin character, once they begin to ravage, as the bee-moths ruin the hive of bees:

Death and destruction of the community follow in the train of
the bee-moth. From the eggs hatch little sixteen-footed grubs
that keep well hidden in the cracks, only venturing out to feed
on the wax of the comb nearest them. As they grow they need
more and more wax, but they protect themselves while getting it
by spinning a silken web which prevents the bees from getting
at them. Wherever they go they spin silken lines and little
webs until, if several bee-moths have managed to lay their eggs
in the hive and several hundred of their voracious wax-eating
grubs are spinning tough silken lines and webs through all the
corridors and rooms of the bees’ house, the household duties
get so difficult to carry on that the bee community begins to
dwindle; the unfed young die in their cells, the indoor workers
starve, and the breakdown of the whole hive occurs.--VERNON
L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

(752)

* * * * *

Character, like corn, may be destroyed, not by the assault of a single great evil, but by many minute sins and faults. Vernon L. Kellogg writes thus of corn-root aphids:

I forget how many millions of bushels of corn were raised in
the State of Illinois last year, but there were very many. And
that means thousands and thousands of acres of corn-fields. Now
in all these corn-fields there live certain tiny soft-bodied
insects called corn-root aphids. Their food is the sap of the
growing corn-plants, which they suck from the roots. Altho each
corn-root aphid is only about one-twentieth of an inch long and
one-twenty-fifth of an inch wide, and has a sucking-beak simply
microscopic in size, yet there are so many millions of these
little insects, all with their microscopic little beaks stuck
into the corn-roots, and all the time drinking, drinking the
sap, which is the life-blood of the corn-plants, that they do a
great deal of injury to the corn-fields of Illinois and cause a
great loss in money to the farmers.--“Insect Stories.”

(753)

See VANDALISM.

=Detachment=--See ABSENT-MINDEDNESS.

DETAILS, PERIL OF

It is said of General Grant, when he was approaching Vicksburg,
that his officers, brave enough and willing enough, had so
little military experience that his orders to them were not
mere directions as to what they should do, but instruction in
detail as to the manner in which it should be done. It is said
that a collection of those orders would form a compendium or
handbook of the military art. The man of liberal training with
us has always much of that experience. The sculptor in America
can confide nothing to his workman. The editor often needs to
know how to set type. Many a time will you have to instruct
your bookbinder. Wo to you if you expect to hire a competent
translator! The educated man in America is only a helpless
Dominie Sampson if he can not harness his own horse, and on
occasion shoe him. He must in a thousand exigencies paddle his
own canoe. And the first danger which comes to him is that in
all these side duties he will forget the great central object to
which his life is consecrated.--EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

(754)

=Detected, Loss=--See THEFT, A CHECK ON.

DETECTION

One M. Le Roux demonstrated the value of the X-ray in detecting smuggled goods recently at the New York custom-house:

With every country using the X-ray at the custom-house and
post-office smuggling would soon cease, for there seems to be
no way to fool this little agent. Every means of baffling it
were tried at M. Le Roux’s test. Articles were wrapt in many
thicknesses of paper and woolen fabrics, and they were hidden
in all sorts of queer places, but once the X-ray got busy they
might just as well have shouted out their whereabouts, for not
a single hidden article escaped detection.--_The Technical
World Magazine._

(755)

* * * * *

The high prices of meat were indirectly responsible for
the arrest of Elmer McClain, a workman in a local factory,
in Kokomo, Ind. At the noon-hour McClain sat down with his
lunch-pail among his fellow employees and brought forth a piece
of fried chicken. The presence of such a high-priced article
of food in the lunch-pail of a man of McClain’s circumstances
created much comment among the other workmen.

The report spread to the street, and in a little while had been
circulated throughout the city, finally reaching the ears of
Schuyler Stevens, who had lost some chickens by theft the night
before.

Stevens informed the police, who, after an investigation,
arrested McClain, who admitted that he had stolen four pullets
from Stevens.

(756)

See EVIDENCE, PROVIDENTIAL; THEFT, A CHECK ON.

DETERIORATION BY DISUSE

Among the many startling disclosures with which scientific
investigation has made us familiar, one of the most extravagant
is the discovery according to which the nose is said to be
gradually losing its power to discharge its traditional function
in the case of the civilized peoples. When the sense of smell
vanishes altogether--as, it is affirmed, will infallibly be the
case one day--the organ itself is bound to follow its example
sooner or later. It is, no doubt, a fact that the olfactory
sense is much keener in the savage than in the civilized man,
and it is reasonable to conclude that the more we progress in
civilization the duller the sense will grow, and as nature never
preserves useless organs, when the nose loses its power of
smelling the nose “must go.”--London _Iron_.

(757)

=Determination=--See ABILITY, GAGE OF.

=Determining Factor Unknown=--See MYSTERY OF NATURE.

DEVASTATION

What a pity it is to see a garden given over to a herd of swine
that tear up the beds, trample on the seeds, wallow among the
flowers, spoil the fruits! This is the spectacle that is offered
our eyes every day by that beautiful and divine garden of
Youth when it is occupied, devastated, pillaged, by the lower
instincts, the coarser appetites.--CHARLES WAGNER, “The
Gospel of Life.”

(758)

=Development, Arrested=--See DEFORMITY.

=Development of the Ear=--See PRACTISE.

=Development, Slow=--See RETARDATION.

=Device for Safeguarding Freight=--See THEFT, A CHECK ON.

DEVICE THAT DECOYS

Several years ago _The National Geographic Magazine_
published a description of the angler fish, well known along the
New England coast because of a device by means of which it lures
and catches other fish. This device consists of filaments or
tendrils resembling seaweed, which are attached to the head.

When the angler is hungry, it hunts out a convenient place in
shallow waters, where its color and markings make the fish
indistinguishable from the sea-bottom. Here it lies quietly,
often as if dead, while its floating filaments, kept in motion
by the tide, decoy other fish, which never discover their
mistake until too late to escape from the angler’s merciless
jaws.

A bulletin by Theodore Gill, “Angler Fishes, Their Kinds and Ways,” recently published by the Smithsonian Institution, and from which these notes are obtained, says that the most extraordinary of all the anglers are those that carry lanterns to see with.

“Some stout-bodied anglers resorted to deep and deeper waters,
where the light from the sun was faint or even ceased, and a
wonderful provision was at last developed by kindly nature,
which replaced the sun’s rays by some reflected from the fish
itself. In fact, the illicium (a prolongation of the spine)
has developed into a rod with a bulb having a phosphorescent
terminal portion, and the “bait” round it has been also modified
and variously added to; the fish has also had superadded to its
fishing apparatus a lantern and worm-like lures galore.

“How efficient such an apparatus must be in the dark depths
where these angler fishes dwell may be judged from the fact
that special laws have been enacted in some countries against
the use of torches and other lights for night fishing because
of their deadly attractiveness. Not only the curiosity of
the little deep-sea fishes, but their appetite is appealed to
by the worm-like objects close to or in relief against the
phosphorescent bulb of the anglers.”

(759)

DEVICES, FATAL

It is easy to go into evil by the trapdoor of temptation; it is not so easy to retrace the steps.

The bladderwort is a water-plant and catches much of its
food. Underneath the surface of the water in which the plant
floats are a number of lax, leafy branches spread out in all
directions, and attached to these are large numbers of little
flattened sacks or bladders, sometimes one-sixth of an inch
long. The small end of each little bladder is surrounded by a
cluster of bristles, forming a sort of hollow funnel leading
into the mouth below, and this is covered inside by a perfect
little trapdoor, which fits closely, but opens with the least
pressure from without. A little worm or insect, or even a very
small fish, can pass within, but never back again. The sack
acts like an eel-trap or a catch-’em-alive mouse-trap. These
little sacks actually allure very small animals by displaying
glandular hairs about the entrance. The small animals are
imprisoned and soon perish and decay to nourish the wicked
plant. (Text.)--Prof. W. J. BEAL, _The Popular Science Monthly_.

(760)

=Devil, A Prayer to the=--See CHILDREN’S RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

=Devil’s Slide=--See EVIL, BEGINNINGS OF.

DEVIL, THE, CHOSEN

The course of some men makes it seem as if they had chosen the devil with more purpose than did this lawyer:

St. Evona, or Ives, of Brittany, a famous lawyer in 1300, was
lamenting that his profession had not a patron saint to look up
to. The physicians had St. Luke; the champions had St. George;
the artists each had one; but the lawyers had none. Thinking
that the Pope ought to bestow a saint, he went to Rome, and
requested his Holiness to give the lawyers of Brittany a patron.
The Pope, rather puzzled, proposed to St. Evona that he should
go round the church of St. John de Lateran blindfold, and
after he had said so many _Ave Marias_, the first saint
he laid hold of should be his patron; and this solution of the
difficulty the good old lawyer willingly undertook. When he had
finished his _Ave Marias_, he stopt short, and laid his
hands on the first image he came to, and cried out with joy,
“This is our saint--this be our patron.” But when the bandage
was taken from his eyes, what was his astonishment to find
that, tho he had stopt at St. Michael’s altar, he had all the
while laid hold, not of St. Michael, but of the figure under
St. Michael’s feet--the devil! (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES,
“Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(761)

=Devolution=--See DOWN GRADE, THE.

=Devotion to a Leader=--See KINDNESS STIMULATING DEVOTION.

=Devotion to Christ=--See CHRIST’S FACE.

=Devotion to Duty=--See FAITHFULNESS; LIFE, A DEVOTED.

=Devotion to Science=--See SCIENCE, DEVOTION TO.

DEVOTION TO THE HELPLESS

In a newspaper account of a shipwreck, a touching incident is thus described by a survivor:

There was one incident which came particularly to my notice--the
devotion of a woman to her blind husband. With her arm linked in
his, she sought the rail of the _Florida_ to be transferred
to the _Baltic_.

An officer grabbed the man and hurled him to the rear. “Women
and children only in these boats,” he yelled, as the man tumbled
backward. The wife ran to her husband’s side and, again taking
his arm, she appealed to the officer.

“He is blind! Can’t you see he is helpless?” she said. “I have
never left him. If he can not go in the boat with me, I will
stay here until this ship sinks under me.”

The unwritten law of the sea was waived before this plea,
and that lone man, sightless and helpless, was permitted to
accompany his wife, who would not leave the _Florida_ until
her husband was permitted to go with her.

(762)

=Dew, The Existence of the=--See SEPARATION.

DIABOLICAL POSSESSION

An old man, nearly octogenarian, who has been in bed for
twenty-seven years, being a harmless monomaniac, having the
delusion that his Satanic majesty always stood at his door
to prevent him from going out, suddenly one morning, early in
June, took it into his head that the devil was gone, whereupon
he got out of bed, and, with nothing on but his shirt walked
down to the quay (nearly a quarter of a mile) and jumped over.
Having been a good swimmer in his early days, he struck out, and
altho a boat put off from a vessel, he swam ashore.--_Public
Opinion._

(763)

=Diet=--See MEALS, SIMPLICITY IN.

DIET AND ENDURANCE

The Roman soldiers who built such wonderful roads and carried
a weight of armor and luggage that would crush the average
farmhand, lived on coarse brown bread and sour wine. They were
temperate in their diet, and regular and constant in exercise.
The Spanish peasant works every day and dances half the night,
yet eats only his black bread, onion, and watermelon. The
Smyrna porter eats only a little fruit and some olives, yet he
walks off with his load of a hundred pounds. The coolie, fed on
rice, is more active and can endure more than the negro fed on
fat meat. The heavy work of the world is not done by men who
eat the greatest quantity. Moderation in diet seems to be the
prerequisite of endurance.--_Public Opinion._

(764)

=Differences of Opinion=--See OPINIONS.

DIFFICULTIES, DISPERSING

An old man once said: “I have had a long life full of troubles; most of them never happened.” So most of the giants in the way, if we do not fear them, turn out as in this dream related by the Rev. S. Benson Phillips:

When I first heard the call to the ministry I was about twelve
years old. From that time until I was twenty-four years old,
it was a question in my mind as to whether I was equal to the
responsibilities and requirements of this holy calling. It was
one night, after I had been thinking of these things, that I
had the following dream: I thought that I was camping by the
roadside, and had retired for the night. A great giant stood by
my bedside. He offered to do me no harm, but simply stood by my
bed. I begged him to go away. This he would not do until I arose
and prepared to battle with him. Seeing my intention, he began
to walk slowly away. I followed him. To my delight, he became
smaller and smaller until he was nothing but a little boy, and
unable to do me any harm.

(765)

DIFFICULTIES, OVERCOMING

The difficulties encountered by the Prussians on their march
from Havre, by St. Lambert, to the field of Waterloo would have
put the endurance of any troops to the test. The roads were
ankle-deep from the heavy rains, and the defiles of St. Lambert
turned into a regular swamp, almost impassable for men and
horses; still worse for the guns and tumbrels of ammunition.
These were very numerous and far from being well horsed, sinking
at intervals up to the axle-trees. The horses’ floundering
caused a stoppage, and the most robust soldiers in endeavoring
to extricate the guns and ammunition wagons would drop down,
overcome by the fatigue of their exertions, and declare “they
could not get on.” “But we must get on,” replied their veteran
commander, who seemed to multiply himself, and might be seen at
different points along the line of march, exciting his men to
exertion by words of encouragement. “I have promised Wellington
to be up,” said Blücher, “and up we must get. Surely you will
not make me forfeit my word. Exert yourselves a little more,
and victory is certain.”--EDWARD COTTON, “A Voice from
Waterloo.”

(766)

See ILLITERACY.

DIFFICULTIES, SOCIAL

The only way to get De Quincey to a dinner-party was to send an
able-bodied man to find him and bring him by force. Occasionally
he revenged himself by making a stay of several weeks, so
that the difficulty of getting him into a friend’s house was
forgotten in the more appalling difficulty of how to get him out
again.--W. J. DAWSON, “The Makers of English Prose.”

(767)

=Difficulty Aiding Achievement=--See ADVERSITY HELPING GENIUS.

=Dilemma=--See SIMPLE-MINDEDNESS.

=Dimensions=--See UPWARD LOOK.

=Diminishing Numbers=--See SEASICKNESS.

DIMINUTIVES

Some years ago, when the bedding was not supposed to be as
fat as it ought to be, and the pillows were accused of being
constructed upon the homeopathic principle, a New Englander
got on a railroad car one night. Now, it is a remarkable fact
that a New Englander never goes to sleep in one of these cars.
He lies awake all night, thinking how he can improve upon every
device and patent in sight. He poked his head out of the upper
berth at midnight, hailed a porter and said, “Say, have you
got such a thing as a corkscrew about you?” “We don’t ’low no
drinkin’ sperits aboa’d these yer cars, sah,” was the reply.
“’Tain’t that,” said the Yankee, “but I want to get hold on to
one of your pillows that has kind of worked its way into my
ear.”--HORACE PORTER.

(768)

=Diploma Valueless=--See COLLEGE OR EXPERIENCE.

DIPLOMACY, COWARDLY

A distinguished divine was called upon to offer prayer in a
mixed company, when in accordance with the custom of the times,
he included in his petition to the Almighty a large measure of
anathema, as “We beseech thee, O Lord! to overwhelm the tyrant!
We beseech thee to overwhelm and to pull down the oppressor! We
beseech thee to overwhelm and pull down the Papist!” And then
opening his eyes, and seeing that a Roman Catholic archbishop
and his secretary were present, he saw he must change the
current of his petitions if he would be courteous to his
audience, and said vehemently, “We beseech thee, O Lord! we
beseech thee--we beseech thee--we beseech thee to pull down
and overwhelm the Hottentot!” Said some one to him when the
prayer was over, “My dear brother, why were you so hard upon
the Hottentot?” “Well,” said he, “the fact is, when I opened my
eyes and looked around, between the paragraphs in the prayer, at
the assembled guests, I found that the Hottentots were the only
people who had not some friends among the company.”--HENRY
CODMAN POTTER.

(769)

DIPLOMAT, A, AND MISSIONS

Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, at one time ambassador of Great Britain to the United States, gave the following advice to missionaries before the Fifth International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement, held at Nashville, in 1906:

I beg you to consider earnestly before you go whether you are
really fitted for the task before you. Do not be misled by love
of excitement or adventure, or by the glamour of the East. It
has a wonderful glamour, and any man of thought and feeling
who has been out there will “hear the East a-calling” for many
a year. But a great part of a missionary’s work, as indeed a
great part of the work of every profession, is hard drudgery.
To master an Oriental language, as you must master it if you
are to be of any use, is itself a labor of years. Judson used
often to sit and study his Burmese for twelve hours out of the
twenty-four, and, as I have said, it took him twenty-seven years
to complete his translation of the Bible. That is the kind of
toil you must be ready to face. I once saw a missionary attempt
to convert an Afghan. His manner of doing so was to walk up to
the Afghan on the road and say in very bad Persian, which was
not really the Afghan’s language, “Christ is the Son of God.” He
repeated the remark twice, receiving each time a monosyllabic
answer, and then he sheered off, having apparently no more
Persian at his command. This is the sort of thing which causes
the enemy to blaspheme. And remember Judson’s warning. Do not
be tempted to spiritual pride. Do not stand aloof and condemn
the diplomatist, or the administrator, or the soldier, because
their lives and their views are not what yours are. They, too,
know some things--some things which you can not know--and they,
too, are trying to do their duty. Above all, never look down on
the soldier. He may be rough and reckless at times, but he is
always ready to lay down his life for his country, and all good
missionaries should honor the soldier’s uniform.

(770)

DIRECTION

All life is short in itself. But we do not complain that the
night is short if we are looking for the dawn, nor that the
winter is short if we are eager for the spring. A short life is
long enough to take the right direction, and direction is the
main fact about our life. For our children we ask: How are they
coming out?--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermon in Illustration.”

(771)

* * * * *

“I’d have you know, sir,” said the Congressman from one of the
tall-grass districts, “that I am walking in the footsteps of
George Washington.”

“I see you are,” rejoined the wise guy, “but for some reason
unknown to me, you are headed the wrong way.” (Text.)--Chicago
_News_.

(772)

* * * * *

The following verses from an unidentified source carry their own lesson:

One ship drives east and another drives west,
While the selfsame breezes blow;
It’s the set of the sails and not the gales
That bids them where to go.

Like the winds of the seas are the ways of the fates,
As we voyage along through life;
It’s the set of the soul that decides the goal,
And not the storm or strife.

(773)

See DESTINY; FACING RIGHT; TENDENCY.

DIRECTION, SENSE OF

No one would suppose that a calf possest any extraordinary
amount of intelligence, but that one of these animals had a
well-developed bump of location is proven by the facility with
which this particular animal found its way home after it had
been taken away. A college professor writes of this incident
which came under his personal observation:

“I spent my vacation the past summer at my mother’s, three miles
from Siler City, N. C. My brother, who lived at Siler City,
had a three-months-old calf which he wanted to pasture at my
mother’s farm. Accordingly the calf was brought along the road
from the town. The next day the animal got out of the open gate
and returned home. I followed its trail; it had recently rained.
The calf first took almost a bee-line for its home; crossed a
small ditch, then came to a large ditch, which it wandered down
some distance, but returned and crossed near its direct line.
This was at a distance of a quarter of a mile from the road by
which it had been delivered, and all the space is covered by
thick forest.

“When the calf struck the main road it proceeded along this to
its home. This animal never had been out of its lot until it was
brought to my mother’s, and yet its sense of direction was so
accurate that it took a straight line for home until it reached
the road by which it had been brought. Then it depended upon its
memory of the road, altho it might have followed a path in a
much more direct line.”--_Harper’s Weekly._

(774)

DIRECTIONS

Cora S. Day, in _The Interior_, illustrates in the following paragraphs the value of the Bible as a book of directions:

They were looking through the medicine-chest in search of a
needed remedy when there came to light a half-filled vial, whose
torn label held but a part of the directions for use.

“Might as well throw this away. I have forgotten what it is,
what it is for and how to take it,” said the finder.

“Yes, take it out. It is no good without the directions,” agreed
the other. So the medicine was set aside.

There are a good many things that are no good to us without the
directions. Without the knowledge of how to use it, the most
useful tool or machine is of no more value to a man than so
much junk. With the directions, it becomes his assistant, his
servant, and does good work for him.

If you buy a sewing-machine, or a typewriter, for instance, you
are given a book of instructions which tells how to use it. In
addition, the agent usually gives you personal instructions
in its operation, making its ordinary workings plain to you.
But some day, when you are trying to run it alone, there comes
a hitch perhaps--something you do not understand, some new
development or complication. Then you are glad to turn to the
book of directions for help.

How about the book which gives directions for right living?
Preachers and teachers and parents can tell you many good things
when they are at hand; but the book can help you at all times.
Full of directions for every difficulty and sure to point the
way and lead you aright, it can be always near, ready to help in
all perplexities. (Text.)

(775)

DIRECTIONS, CONTRASTED

Russell Sage, it is said, directed by his will that his body
should be placed in a steel casket, weighing three tons, made
burglar-proof, locked and sealed. He made this bequest to
himself through fear that his physical remains might be stolen
for the sake of getting a ransom. During his long life he
accumulated a vast fortune and kept it. He probably spent no
more, fared no better, did no more service to his fellow men
than many a business man or employee of modest income.

The late Governor Hogg, of Texas, left no fortune to relatives
or to charity. He directed that a pecan-tree should be planted
at the head of his grave and a walnut-tree at its foot. His
purpose was to teach thrift to the people of his State. These
fruit-bearing trees suggest comfort and prosperity. There is no
fear that any one will steal his body, but a message of wisdom
and affection will continue to go out from it after the remains
have returned to dust. (Text.)

(776)

=Directness=--See SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE.

=Dirtiness, Removing=--See DISCIPLINE FROM CHANGE.

DISAPPOINTMENT

There are thousands upon thousands of models at the
Patent-office of inventions that are of absolutely no use
whatever. They represent the blasted hopes and often the
ruined fortunes of innumerable inventors who invested their
time and money in worthless ideas. The models forwarded by
these inventors to the Patent-office form a sort of museum by
themselves, and those who wish to look a bit beneath the surface
can find a story abounding in genuine pathos lurking in pretty
nearly every one of these foolish inventions. (Text.)--New York
_Evening Sun_.

(777)

See APPOINTMENT.

=Discernment=--See INTERPRETATION BY EXPERIENCE.

DISCERNMENT, LACK OF SPIRITUAL

You might as well talk to a child of the African jungle about
the glitter of New York’s Vanity Fair and expect him to
understand you as to talk to an unregenerate person about the
Kingdom of God and hope to make him comprehend the mysteries of
which you speak. He wouldn’t say or do anything to wound your
feelings for the world--he is too much of a gentleman for that;
but at the same time he gives you to distinctly understand that
the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to him. And tho,
after all, he may appear a much bigger fool to you than you do
to him, you must at least admit that his attitude is thoroughly
Scriptural.--F. F. SHANNON.

(778)

DISCIPLINE

A visitor to a pottery establishment was puzzled by an operation
that seemed aimless. In one room there was a mass of clay beside
a workman. Every now and then he took up a mallet and struck
several smart blows on the surface of the lump. Curiosity led to
the question, “Why do you do that?” “Wait a bit, sir, and watch
it,” was the answer. The stranger obeyed, and soon the top of
the mass began to heave and swell. Bubbles formed upon its face.
“Now, sir, you see,” said the modeler, “I could never shape the
clay into a vase if these air-bubbles were in it, therefore I
gradually beat them out.”

Is not the discipline of life just a beating out of the bubbles of pride and self-will, so that God may form a vessel of earth to hold heavenly treasures? (Text.)

(779)

See SUCCESS IN FAILURE.

DISCIPLINE AMONG CHILDREN

It required just one minute and fifteen seconds for three
thousand pupils and teachers of Public School 22, at Sheriff and
Stanton Streets (New York), to file into the streets after the
“four taps signal,” indicating that the building must be vacated
with haste, a few minutes after a fire had been discovered.
One incident indicated particularly the degree of discipline
instilled into the children.

Harry Kagel, one of the smallest boys in the primary department,
asked permission to go down-stairs just after the pupils had
assembled for the afternoon session. As the boy was passing a
room near the vestibule on the ground floor, he scented smoke.
Opening the door, he found a fire blazing in waste paper and
baskets. He did not cry out or run with fear from the building,
but, remembering what his teachers had told him again and again,
he ran quietly up-stairs to his class-room and whispered about
the fire in the ear of the teacher, Miss Dixey.

She called an older boy and sent him to investigate. In a minute
he was back with a verification. Then Miss Dixey hurried to Miss
C. Knowl, principal of the primary department, and to John P.
Townley, principal of the school, and the signal was sounded.

At once every child in the school went to his or her station,
and all were in line or at the post assigned in a few seconds.
Altho the thin smoke in the hallways, creeping into the
sixty-six classrooms of the four-story building, indicated
to pupils and teachers that this was not one of the regular
drills, there was no confusion, and with the exception of the
faces of pupils and teachers, which were a trifle more serious
than at daily drill, the program was carried out perfectly.

One of the teachers, assigned to the piano, began the march, and
the pupils began to file out of the rooms after the last bell.
Monitors took their places on the stone steps to guard against
confusion near the exits. Every door in the building was thrown
open by those assigned to that duty.

As soon as they were in the streets, the classes hurried away
from the exits, so that the march of those in the rear would not
be hampered.

In the meantime the janitor, Duncan Robinson, had gathered a
number of large boys of the grammar department and formed a
bucket brigade. They made short work of the flames. There was no
call sent in for the fire department.

(780)

=Discipline, Easy=--See SLACKNESS.

DISCIPLINE EVADED

Kassim Pasha, when Minister of War for Egypt, was very
particular in regard to the personal appearance of his officers
and issued stringent orders that they should never appear
unshaven in public. One day he met upon the street a lieutenant
who had bearded the pasha and disregarded his orders. “To what
regiment do you belong?” demanded the indignant minister.
“To the ---- regiment, at Abasseuh,” replied the frightened
lieutenant. “Get into my carriage at once so that I can carry
you to the encampment and have you publicly punished,” was the
stern command which followed.

The young man obeyed, and the twain rode along gloomily enough
for some time, when the pasha stopt his carriage and entered an
office where he would be detained for some time on business.
Seizing the opportunity, the culprit sprang from the vehicle,
darted into a neighboring barber’s stall and regained his
post before the return of his jailer minus his beard. For the
remainder of the route the officer buried his face in his hands
and seemed the picture of apprehension.

Abasseuh was reached at last, and all the officers were
assembled to witness the degradation of their comrade, who all
the while kept well in the rear of his chief. “Come forward, you
son of a dog!” cried the irate pasha, when there stept before
him an officer with a face as clean as a baby’s and a look of
the most supreme innocence. His excellency gave one look of
blank astonishment and then, with an appreciative smile breaking
over his war-worn features, turned to the assembled officers and
said, “Here, gentlemen, your old minister is a fool, and your
young lieutenant is a captain.”--Pitston _Gazette_.

(781)

DISCIPLINE FROM CHANGE

God frequently improves men by shaking them up and running them through scouring-machines of misfortune, like the wheat mentioned in this extract:

The grain reaches Port Arthur in carloads, and is examined by
a grain-inspector in the service of the Dominion Government.
If found to be suffering from smut, it is separated into three
grades, according to the amount of smut adhering to it. That
which is least dirty is scoured and brushed until all vestige of
smut is removed, while the dirtier grain is thoroughly washed
and dried before being cleaned. The scouring-machine turns
and tosses the wheat so vigorously that every grain becomes
highly polished, and is said to be in a better condition for
milling than ordinary wheat, since it has lost part of its outer
integument, which would have to be removed. (Text.)--ARTHUR
INKERSLEY, _The American Inventor_.

(782)

=Discipline, Military=--See OBEDIENCE.

=Disclosure=--See UTTERANCE.

DISCONTENT, DIVINE

An unidentified author writes thus of discontent:

When the world was formed and the morning stars
Upon their paths were sent,
The loftiest-browed of the angels was named
The Angel of Discontent.

And he dwelt with man in the caves of the hills,
Where the crested serpent stings,
And the tiger tears and the she-wolf howls,
And he told of better things.

And he led man forth to the towered town,
And forth to the fields of corn;
And he told of the ampler work ahead
For which the race was born.

And he whispers to men of those hills he sees
In the blush of the golden west;
And they look to the light of his lifted eye
And they hate the name of rest.

In the light of that eye doth the slave behold
A hope that is high and brave,
And the madness of war comes into his blood
For he knows himself a slave.

The serfs of wrong in the light of that eye
March on with victorious songs;
For the strength of their right comes into their hearts
When they behold their wrongs.

’Tis by the light of that lifted eye
That error’s mists are rent--
A guide to the table-land of Truth
Is the Angel of Discontent.

And still he looks with his lifted eye,
And his glance is far away
On a light that shines on the glimmering hills
Of a diviner day. (Text.)

(783)

=Discourtesy=--See BARGAIN-MAKING.

DISCOVERY, ACCIDENTAL

Blotting-paper was discovered purely by accident. Some ordinary
paper was being made one day at a mill in Berkshire when a
careless workman forgot to put in the sizing material. It may
be imagined what angry scenes would take place in that mill, as
the whole of the paper made was regarded as being quite useless.
The proprietor of the mill desired to write a note shortly
afterward, and he took a piece of waste paper, thinking it was
good enough for the purpose. To his intense annoyance, the ink
spread all over the paper. All of a sudden there flashed over
his mind the thought that this paper would do instead of sand
for drying ink, and he at once advertised his waste paper as
“blotting.”

There was such a big demand that the mill ceased to make
ordinary paper and was soon occupied making blotting only, the
use of which spread to all countries. The result now is that the
descendant of the discoverer owns the largest mills in the world
for the manufacture of the special kind of paper. The reason the
paper is of use in drying ink is that really it is a mass of
hair-like tubes, which suck up liquid by capillary attraction.
If a very fine glass tube is put into water the liquid will rise
in it owing to capillary attraction. The art of manufacturing
blotting-paper has been carried to such a degree that the
product has wonderful absorbent qualities.--Boston _Herald_.

(784)

* * * * *

Whether this story be true or legendary, it is a fact that many great discoveries have been the result of happy accident; or, as the Christian will prefer to say, the result of Providence:

It is said that the two Jansen boys had placed the spectacle
lenses, with which they were playing, at the proper distances
apart and were looking through them at the weather-cock on
the top of a distant church steeple. They were surprized at
discovering two things; first, that the weather-cock appeared
upside down; and, second, it could be seen much more distinctly
through the glasses than with the naked eye. Of course, they
called the attention of their father to this curious discovery.
Jansen, who was an intelligent man, and well acquainted with
the properties of lenses as they were known at that early
time, constructed a telescope based on the discovery of his
sons.--EDWIN J. HOUSTON, “The Wonder-book of Light.”

(785)

DISCOVERY, BENEFITS FROM

In the development of mineral resources and in manufactures,
higher education is paying even larger proportionate returns
than in agriculture. Practically the entire $2,000,000,000
yearly mineral production of the United States is directly due
to a few chemical and electrical processes which were worked out
by highly educated scientists. For example, the cyanide process
of extracting gold, worked out in the laboratory in 1880 by
McArthur and Forrest, is responsible for fully one-third of the
world’s gold production, making possible the five million annual
production of the Homestake mine in North Dakota and the one
hundred and forty-five million of South Africa, and many other
similar cases. The Elkinton electrolytic process of refining
copper is in the same way used now in producing 700,000,000
pounds of copper annually in the United States. The Bessemer and
the open-hearth processes of producing steel, by which nearly
all of our 23,000,000 tons are produced annually, are due to
the scientific researches of Sir Henry Bessemer, of Thomas and
Gilchrist, and of Siemens. Birmingham, Pittsburg, and a host of
wealthy cities could never have come into being but for these
discoveries. James Gayley’s discovery taught the practical
steelworkers how they could save one-third of their coke and at
the same time increase the output of their furnaces by a new
process of extracting the moisture from the blast. This alone
means the saving from now on of 10,000,000 tons of coal annually
in the United States.--New York _Evening Post_.

(786)

DISCOVERY, FORTUNATE

“Here’s the last quarter I’ve got in the world. Give me some
oysters, and go as far as you like,” was the combination of
announcement and request with which John Olson, a sailor
employed on the Scandinavian-American Line, greeted William Gau,
proprietor of a market on Washington Street, Hoboken, as he
entered that establishment.

Mr. Gau proceeded to open oysters. The sailor looked hungry, so
he made haste.

As the third oyster was pried apart Mr. Gau uttered an
exclamation. There was a big pearl. “Well, that’s the best luck
I’ve had in a long time,” he observed. “Isn’t it a beauty?”

“Wait a minute,” piped up Olson. “Didn’t I buy the oysters, and
didn’t you take the money? My oyster, my pearl. Hand ’er over.”

The oysterman protested, but the sailor argued so convincingly
that Mr. Gau finally acquiesced. They journeyed at once to
a jeweler, who appraised the jewel at $200, and threw in an
exclamation of admiration upon its white color for good measure.
It weighs about three carats.

(787)

DISCRETION

When I was a boy, a grim old doctor in a neighboring town was
struck down and crusht by a loaded sledge. He got up, staggered
a few paces, fell and died. He had been in attendance upon an
ancient lady, a connection of my own, who at that moment was
lying in a most critical condition. The news of the accident
reached her, but not its fatal character. Presently the
minister of the parish came in, and a brief conversation like
this followed: “Is the doctor badly hurt?” “Yes, badly.” “Does
he suffer much?” “He does not; he is easy.” And so the old
gentlewoman blest God and went off to sleep, to learn the whole
story at a fitter and safer moment. I know the minister was a
man of truth, and I think he showed himself in this instance a
man of wisdom.--OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

(788)

=Discretion in Attack=--See ATTACK, DISCRETION IN.

DISCRIMINATION IN PUNISHMENT

A farm servant named Auguste Bichet was condemned at Nancy
to six days’ imprisonment for stealing a franc, but was
complimented by the court for his honesty. Bichet stole a franc
from a shop counter and confest to the theft. But about the same
time he found a purse containing $125 and at once restored it
to its owner, refusing to accept any reward. The court exprest
its astonishment and admiration at the man’s honesty, but as
he had been convicted before, the president said they were
obliged to send him to prison. They did so with great regret and
complimented him on his probity.--San Francisco _Bulletin_.

(789)

DISCRIMINATION, UNFAIR

Taking $1,000,000 is called genius.
„ 100,000 „ „ shortage.
„ 50,000 „ „ litigation.
„ 25,000 „ „ insolvency.
„ 10,000 „ „ irregularity.
„ 5,000 „ „ defalcation.
„ 1,000 „ „ corruption.
„ 500 „ „ embezzlement.
„ 100 „ „ dishonesty.
„ 50 „ „ stealing.
„ 25 „ „ total depravity.
„ one ham „ „ war on society.

--Washington _Post_.

(790)

See POISON DRINK.

DISEASE BENEFICIAL

People have considered every symptom of disease noxious, and
that it ought to be stamped out with relentless determination;
but, according to Sir Frederick Treves, the motive of disease is
benevolent and protective. If it were not for disease, he said,
the human race would soon be extinct.

Sir Frederick took examples, such as a wound and the supervening
inflammation, which is a process of cure to be imitated rather
than hindered. Peritonitis, he said, was an operating surgeon’s
best friend; without it every example of appendicitis would
be fatal. The phenomena of a cough and cold were in the main
manifestations of a cure. Without them a common cold might
become fatal. The catarrh and persistent sneezing were practical
means of dislodging bacteria from the nasal passage, and the
cough of removing the bacteria from the windpipe. Again, the
whole of the manifestations of tuberculosis were expressions
of unflagging efforts on the part of the body to oppose the
progress of invading bacterium. (Text.)--New York _Sun_.

(791)

DISEASE, CAUSES OF

At the present moment there are two theories in the field
to explain the origin of contagious diseases--the parasitic
theory and the theory of the innate character of diseases.
The parasitic theory assumes that diseases are originated by
microbes first diffused in the atmosphere, and then taken into
the system by the air we breathe, the water we drink, the things
we touch. The advocates of the innate character of diseases
hold, on the contrary, that the disease is spontaneously
developed in the patient; the first cause is in morbid changes
which are purely chemical, changes produced in the actual
substance of the tissues and secretions without any external
intervention of microbes; the microbes, where they really
exist, being only a secondary phenomenon, a complication,
and not the scientific cause which actually terminates the
disease. Now, whatever may be the exact truth in this biological
controversy, it is evident that the first cause of such
disease must be sought in a defect of life, a feebleness, a
certain untoward disposition and receptivity in the organism
itself. The phylloxera devastates the French vineyards because
the vines have been exhausted by excessive cultivation;
tuberculosis fastens upon man because of obscure conditions of
bodily weakness and susceptibility; vigorous plants and robust
constitutions defying the foreign destructive bodies which may
fill the air--extrinsic influence and excitement counting for
little where the intrinsic tendency does not exist.

Revelation assumes that the man morally occupies much the same position. Environment brings the opportunity for evil, the solicitation or provocation to evil, so far do evil communications corrupt good manners; but the first cause of all must be found in the heart itself, in its lack of right direction, sympathy, and force; in a word, the scientific cause of sin is the spiritual cause--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(792)

DISEASE, EXEMPTION FROM

Breweries and tanneries and printing-ink factories confer
exemption from tuberculosis, and employees in turpentine
factories never have rheumatism. Copper-mining excludes the
possibility of typhoid among the workers.

Shepherds enjoy remarkable health. The odd odor of sheep appears
to exercise some influence tending to the prevention of disease.
Sheep are especially good for whooping-cough, so that in a sheep
country, when a child is taken down with that malady, it is the
custom for the mother to put it among the sheep to play. The
next day, it is said, the child will be well.

Men and women working in lavender, whether gathering or
distilling it, are said never to suffer from neuralgia or
nervous headache. Lavender, moreover, is as good as a sea voyage
for giving tone to the system. Persons suffering from nervous
breakdown frequently give their services gratis to lavender
plants, in order that they may build up their vitality.

Salt-miners can wear summer clothes in blizzard weather without
fear of catching cold, for colds are unknown among these
workers.--_Harper’s Weekly_.

(793)

=Disease Traveling=--See EVIL, VIRULENCY OF.

=Disguise of Temptation=--See IMAGINATION, LURE OF.

DISGUISED DANGER

The dangers to moral integrity most to be guarded against are those which come disguised, and are often hard to detect.