Chapter M: B. Banks writes a missionary lesson after the style of “Mother (3)

Two men walking across a little park in Washington (says Ida
N. Tarbell) saw Mr. Lincoln just ahead of them meet a crippled
soldier who was in a towering rage, cursing the Government from
the President down. Mr. Lincoln asked what was the matter.
“Matter,” snapt the soldier; “I’m just out of a rebel prison.
I’ve been discharged and I can’t get my money.” Mr. Lincoln
asked for the soldier’s papers, saying that he had been a lawyer
and perhaps could help him. The two gentlemen stept behind some
shrubbery and waited. The President took the papers from the
soldier, examined them, wrote a line on the back, and told him
to carry them to the chief clerk at the War Department. After
Mr. Lincoln had passed on, the gentlemen asked the soldier if
he knew who had been talking to him. “Some ugly old fellow who
pretends to be a lawyer,” was the answer. On looking at the
note written on the back of the papers, the soldier discovered
that he had been cursing “Abe” Lincoln to his face. He found
a request to the chief clerk to examine the papers and, if
correct, to see that the soldier was given his pay, signed A.
Lincoln.

(1387)

HELP UNRECOGNIZED

A night of terror and danger, because of their ignorance, was
spent by the crew of a vessel off the coast of New Jersey.

Just before dark a bark was discovered drifting helplessly, and
soon struck her bows so that she was made fast on a bar, and in
momentary danger of going down.

A line was shot over the rigging of the wreck by a life-saving
crew, but the sailors did not understand that it was a line
connecting them with the shore, that they might seize and
escape. All signs failed to make them understand this. So all
night the bark lay with the big waves dashing over it, while the
crew, drenched and shivering and terrified, shouted for help.

In the morning they discovered how unnecessarily they had
suffered, and how all night there was a line right within
reach by which they might have been saved.--_Evangelical
Messenger._

(1388)

=Helpers, Humble=--See SUPPLIES, BRINGING UP.

HELPERS, UNSEEN

Wireless ships suggest the value of our unseen helpers. Life
is a sea, and men are mariners. As long as the sea is smooth
we do not give much thought to our helpers in the unseen. But
smooth sea, rough sea, or no sea, the helpers are there, waiting
to be called. And behind them all stands the eternal Christ,
dispatching his cosmic soldiers, even as the Roman centurion
commanded his legions.--F. F. SHANNON.

(1389)

HELPFULNESS

Susan Coolidge puts into verse some suggestive questions upon opportunities to be helpful:

If you were toiling up a weary hill,
Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear,
Straining each nerve untiringly and still
Stumbling and losing foothold here and there,
And each one passing by would do so much
As give one upward lift and go his way,
Would not the slight reiterated touch
Of help and kindness lighten all the day?

If you were breasting a keen wind which tost
And buffeted and chilled you as you strove,
Till baffled and bewildered quite, you lost
The power to see the way, and aim and move,
And one, if only for a moment’s space,
Gave you a shelter from the bitter blast,
Would you not find it easier to face
The storm again when the brief rest was past?

(1390)

* * * * *

If I can live
To make some pale face brighter, and to give
A second luster to some tear-dimmed eye,
Or e’en impart
One throb of comfort to an aching heart,
Or cheer some wayworn soul in passing by;

If I can lend
A strong hand to the fallen, or defend
The right against a single envious strain,
My life, tho bare
Perhaps of much that seemeth dear and fair
To us of earth, will not have been in vain.

The purest joy,
Most near to heaven, far from earth’s alloy,
Is bidding cloud give way to sun and shine;
And ’twill be well
If on that day of days the angels tell
Of me, “She did her best for one of Thine.” (Text.)

(1391)

* * * * *

The Koran tells of an angel who was sent from heaven to earth
to do two things. One was to save King Solomon from doing some
wrong thing to which he was inclined; and the other was to help
a tiny yellow ant carry its load. (Text.)

(1392)

See INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE; LABOR, OPPORTUNITY FOR.

HELPFULNESS AMONG BIRDS

Mr. John Lewis Childs tells in the _Auk_ an instance of a
shrike he shot in Florida. The bird flew and tried to alight
in a tree, but was unable to do so and fell to the ground. As
Mr. Childs approached to capture him, the bird struggled up and
fluttered away with difficulty, uttering a cry of distress.
Immediately another of his kind darted out of a tree, flew to
his wounded companion, and circled about him and underneath him,
buoying him up as he was about to sink to the ground. These
tactics were repeated continually, the birds rising higher and
flying farther away till they had gone nearly out of sight and
safely lodged in the top of a tall pine-tree.--OLIVE THORNE
MILLER, “The Bird Our Brother.”

(1393)

=Helpfulness as Testimony=--See WITNESS OF SERVICE.

HELPFULNESS, HAPPINESS IN

“Guess who was the happiest child I saw to-day,” said father,
taking his two little boys on his knees.

“Well,” said Jim slowly, “it was a very rich little boy, with
lots and lots of sweets and cakes.” “No,” said father. “He
wasn’t rich; he had no sweets and no cakes. What do you guess,
Joe?” “He was a pretty big boy,” said Joe, “and he was riding a
big, high bicycle.” “No,” said father. “He wasn’t big, and he
wasn’t riding a bicycle. You have lost your guesses, so I’ll
have to tell you. There was a flock of sheep crossing the city
to-day; and they must have come a long way, so dusty and tired
and thirsty were they. The drover took them up, bleating and
lolling out their tongues, to a great pump, to water them. But
one poor old ewe was too tired to get to the trough, and fell
down on the hot, dusty stones. Then I saw my little man, ragged
and dirty and tousled, spring out from the crowd of urchins who
were watching the drove, fill his hat and carry it--one, two
three--oh, as many as six times! to the poor, suffering animal,
until the creature was able to get up and go on with the rest.”

“Did the sheep say, ‘Thank you,’ father?” asked Jim gravely. “I
didn’t hear it,” answered father. “But the little boy’s face was
shining like the sun, and I’m sure he knows what a blest thing
it is to help what needs helping.”

(1394)

HELPS THAT HINDER

Richard I, third Duke of Normandy, became involved in long
and arduous wars with the King of France, which compelled him
to call in the aid of more Northmen from the Baltic. His new
allies, in the end, gave him as much trouble as the old enemy,
with whom they came to help William I, his predecessor, contend;
and he found it very hard to get them away. He wanted at length
to make peace with the French king, and to have them leave his
dominions; but they said: “That was not what we came for.”

There are helps that become hindrances, and aids that are embarrassing in the end.

(1395)

=Hereafter and Here=--See EXCLUSION FROM HEAVEN.

HEREDITY

With regard to the inheritance of handwriting there can be no
doubt. Instances of close resemblances between the writings
of the members of one and the same family will readily occur
to every one. A particular slope in the writing or a mode of
looping the letters, or of forming certain words may be passed
on for several generations, especially when they originate from
a man or woman of pronounced individuality. (Text.)--C.
AINSWORTH MITCHELL, _Knowledge and Scientific News_.

(1396)

See TRANSMISSION.

HEREDITY, CONQUERING

How many people are kept back because of an unfortunate family
history! The son of the notorious bandit, Jesse James, some time
ago carried off the highest honor, _summa cum laude_, in
the Kansas City Law School. Judge Silas Porter, of the Supreme
Court of Kansas, delivered the address on the occasion.

For years young James has been the only support of his
widowed mother. He has worked in a packing-house, attended a
cigar-stand, and has done all sorts of things to secure an
education and make his way in the world; and at last he has
succeeded in overcoming the handicap of his fearful inheritance.

His success ought to be a great encouragement to the unfortunate
boys and girls whose fathers or mothers have disgraced them and
placed them at cruel odds with the world.--_Success._

(1397)

=Heredity of Drink=--See DRINK, HERITAGE OF.

=Heroes, Missionary=--See MISSIONS.

HEROISM

The newspapers tell us that the colored regiments continue to come in for praises for their good work at Santiago, and they seem to have as good a sense of humor as an Irishman:

The Rough Riders were in a bad position on San Juan Hill at one
time, and it is generally admitted that they could not have held
their position but for the splendid charge of the Ninth Cavalry
to their support. After the worst of the fighting was over a
rough rider, finding himself near one of the colored troopers,
walked up and grasped his hand, saying: “We’ve got you fellows
to thank for getting us out of a bad hole.” “Dat’s all right,
boss,” said the negro, with a broad grin. “Dat’s all right. It’s
all in de fam’ly. We call ouahselves de colored rough riders!”
(Text.)

(1398)

* * * * *

In the long watch before Santiago the terror of our great
battleships was the two Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers,
those swift, fiendish sharks of the sea, engines of death and
destruction, and yet, when the great battle came, it was the
unprotected _Gloucester_, a converted yacht, the former
plaything and pleasure-boat of a summer vacation, which, without
hesitation or turning, attacked these demons of the sea and
sunk them both. I have always thought it the most heroic and
gallant individual instance of fighting daring in the war. It
was as if some light-clad youth, with no defense but his sword,
threw himself into the arena with armored gladiators and by his
dash and spirit laid them low. And yet who has given a sword
or spread a feast to that purest flame of chivalrous heroism,
Richard Wainwright?--Hon. JOHN D. LONG.

(1399)

* * * * *

William H. Edwards, a ‘longshoreman, twenty-five years old, who
forgot race prejudice in his anxiety to be of service to his
fellow men, was awarded a silver medal by the Carnegie Hero Fund
Commission and also $1,000 to be applied to the purchase of a
home.

While the _Arcadia_, a freight steamer, plying between
Hamburg and Philadelphia, was being unloaded in June, 1908, an
explosion in the cargo occurred. Most of the stevedores working
below decks were knocked down and bruised, some being burned.
Many of the workers deserted the ship. Smoke and flames came
from the hatches. Cries of the injured below decks came to the
party of men waiting on deck.

Edwards volunteered to attempt the rescue of the imprisoned men.
Tying a rope to a lighter, he slid into the burning hold, but
could find nothing. Hearing groans he deserted his guide-rope
and bending low searched in the direction of the cries of pain.
After a long search he located Lucius Hubbard, a negro. Bearing
the unconscious and injured workman to the open hatch, he had
him hoisted to the deck and safety, following himself when
assured there was no other person in the burning vessel.

(1400)

* * * * *

The following dispatch from Mankato, Minn., is given by the Baltimore _Sun_:

With one foot cut off and his legs mangled, Rudolph Elmquist,
an eighteen-year-old railroad operator, crawled a mile to his
operating station and sounded a warning to Mankato, which saved
probably one hundred lives.

Elmquist tried Friday night to get on the evening freight-train
caboose for Mankato, where he boarded. He slipt and fell beneath
the wheels. The freight crew saw him fall and feared he had been
hurt. The train stopt about a mile away and began to back up to
investigate.

The St. Paul passenger train was nearly due and the track was
supposed to be clear for it. As one side of the curved track
is along a high embankment and river, a disastrous crash was
imminent.

Elmquist saw the train backing up the track and tried, waving
his arms, to stop it. Failing to find him in the night, the
freight crew prepared to go forward again.

Elmquist again tried to attract attention, but in vain. He then
began dragging himself over the grass along the track to his
station and reached his key about half an hour later, suffering
torture.

He wired the Great Western operator at Mankato: “My foot is cut
off and No. 271 is coming back to pick me up. She will have to
have help against No. 142, which is due at Mankato in a few
minutes.”

Then he fainted and fell across his desk. He was hurried to a
hospital, where it was said both legs would have to be amputated.

(1401)

See GRATITUDE; LOST, CRY OF THE; RESCUE.

=Heroism, Domestic=--See DOMESTIC HEROISM.

=Heroism in Disaster=--See COMPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE.

HEROISM IN FICTION

There is not a mine, not a railroad, not a steamship line, not a
life-saving station in America or Europe, not a city in America
or Europe, that has not illustrated in its history the capacity
of human nature promptly to do and dare and die. And these deeds
are done as modestly, as instinctively, as frequently as they
were in the days of the Civil War when thousands on both sides
faced each other in a battle whose issue, whether victory or
defeat, put not a cent into any soldier’s pocket; when victory
stood for no more booty or beauty than defeat. And since this is
so; since our plain American common people are easily capable
of heroic action and chivalric conduct, why do writers like
Howells persist in picturing us a people whose average life and
soul are represented by dudes and dolls, by selfish or silly men
and women; by knaves with a vast retinue of fools and tools?
The everyday heroism of the plain common people of America is
a rebuke to Howells for his low figures, and a justification
of the school of fiction that fills its pages with men and
women that stand for noble aspirations and inspiration. The
story of high endeavor is all that keeps the world’s eye on the
stars.--Portland _Oregonian_.

(1402)

=Heroism, Missionary=--See MISSIONARY CALL.

HEROISM, MODEST

Bicycle Policeman Ajax Whitman, the strong man of the
department, did a stunt on the new Queensboro Bridge, New York,
that those who saw will never forget, and the feat is vouched
for by a large crowd who witnessed the bike cop’s job.

Thomas Jones, of No. 102 Fourth Avenue, and Charles Schoener
went over to the bridge to string lines of flags from the
various towers. Both men are steeplejacks.

Jones went up the north tower of the bridge and Schoener the
south. The men used their little steeplejack seats and pulled
themselves up. They had rigged their ropes and pulleys and were
preparing to pass a line from one to the other to string the
flags across to their respective towers when Schoener saw Jones
suddenly go limp in his seat at the top of the tower flagpole,
fall forward against it and hang there.

“What’s wrong?” called Schoener.

“I’m gradually going,” was all Jones could call back.

Schoener slid down his flagpole as fast as he could, all the
time calling for help.

Down on the roadway below the towers Whitman was walking along
with his wheel. He looked up when he heard Schoener yelling and
then he spotted Jones, who sagged forward in his seat like a
lifeless man. Whitman dropt the bicycle and ran to the little
spiral stairway that leads from the roadway to the top of
the tower. Meantime, a large crowd had been attracted by the
flagman’s peril. All vehicles at work on the bridge were stopt
and people were running in all directions trying to devise some
means of being of use. Whitman suddenly came out at the top of
the tower.

Just as Whitman appeared in sight the seat in which Jones was
sitting became loosened and as the seat started to go downward
the decorator lost his balance and shot out of the seat head
downward. Whitman braced himself against the foot of the
flagpole and held out his arms. Jones’ limp body shot down and
the big policeman acted as a net. The body fell just across
Ajax’s big arms, and then both men went over in a heap as Jones’
weight carried the policeman from his stand against the foot of
the pole.

Jones was unconscious and when the two men fell to the narrow
flooring at the top of the tower he slipt from Whitman’s grasp
and rolled toward the edge, over the river. Whitman made a
desperate grab, got hold of Jones’ coat and held fast. Others
below then regained their wits and ran up with Schoener and
pulled the unconscious man back on the tower platform.

As for Whitman, if it hadn’t been that everybody stopt work to
watch the accident and so blocked the bridge no report would
have been made, but Whitman had to account for the block of
vehicles on the roadway and he did so by stating that “an
accident to a decorator caused a ten minutes’ block of traffic
on the Queensboro Bridge.”

(1403)

HEROISM RECOGNIZED

Pausing for a moment in its legislative activities, January,
1909, the House of Representatives listened to a eulogy of
John R. Binns, the Marconi operator aboard the steamship
_Republic_, who remained at his post following her
collision with the _Florida_.

Binns sat in his darkened cabin on the _Republic_ as long
as there was power to be had from the generators.

Mr. Boutell, of Illinois, amid loud applause, said that
throughout the whole critical period, “there was one silent
actor in the tragedy whose name should be immortalized.” He
specifically mentioned Binns by name, and in conclusion said:

“Binns has given the world a splendid illustration of the
heroism that dwells in many who are doing the quiet, unnoticed
tasks of life. Is it not an inspiration for all of us to feel
that there are heroes for every emergency and that in human life
no danger is so great that some ‘Jack’ Binns is not ready to
face it?”

(1404)

HEROISM, VOLUNTARY

S. D. Gordon, in “The Sychar Revival,” gives an incident several times paralleled in the histories of warfare:

There is a simple story told about the time when the British
were putting down a rebellion among the Ashanti tribes on the
west coast of Africa. One morning the officer in command came to
speak to the soldiers as they were drilling on the level stretch
of land. He said, “Soldiers, I have a dangerous enterprise
to-day. I need so many men. Every man that goes may lose his
life. It is as serious as that. I am telling you frankly. I
could draft you, but I don’t want to. I would like to ask for
volunteers. I want those who will volunteer for Her Majesty’s
sake to advance a pace.” They were drawn up in a straight line,
and thinking the men might be influenced by his look he swung on
his heel, and off, then back again and looked. The line stood as
straight as before. His eye flashed fire. “What, not a single
man to volunteer?” Then a fellow standing at the end of the line
next to him saluted and said, modestly, “If you please, sir,
every man has advanced one pace.”

(1405)

HIDDEN DANGERS

There is a little instrument used in war called a caltrop, named
from a kind of thistle. It consists of a small bar of iron, with
several sharp points projecting from it one or two inches each
way. If these instruments are thrown upon the ground at random,
one of the points must necessarily be upward, and the horses
that tread upon them are lamed and disabled at once. History
tells that Darius caused caltrops to be scattered in the grass
and along the roads, wherever the army of Alexander would be
likely to approach his troops on the field of battle.

(1406)

=Hidden, The, Exposed=--See DETECTION.

HIDDEN VALUES

In an effort to locate a diamond ring valued at $450, which an
elephant had swallowed while being fed peanuts, three expert
X-ray operators and four elephant-trainers worked a whole day
photographing by the X-ray process the entire interior of the
elephant. In making the pictures, the largest X-ray machine ever
made was used.

There were made eighteen plates in all to get a complete diagram
of the elephant’s interior. The ring was found in the beast’s
stomach.--_The Electrician and Mechanic._

(1407)

=High Prices Responsible=--See DETECTION.

HIGHER CRITICISM

What if Moses did not write the Pentateuch? What if it were
written by another man named Moses? When a child is hungry, it
is not interested in a dispute whether John Smith or James Smith
planted the apple-tree. What it wants is the apple, because it
is hungry. The patient has suffered a grievous accident, and the
surgeon must operate. In that hour ether must be used, or the
heart will not survive the agony. In such a critical moment, who
cares whether Dr. Morton or Dr. Simpson discovered the saving
remedy? It is ease from pain that the feeble heart demands. Your
friend is in trouble in Europe, and you must send him a cable of
relief. The English people claim that two Englishmen laid the
Atlantic cable, and that Cyrus Field was only their American
agent, occupying a very subordinate place, while Americans
say that Mr. Field was the father of the Atlantic cable. When
an emergency comes, and the child is in trouble in a foreign
land, the father does not care to dispute over the precedency
of inventors. What he wants to do is to send a message under
the sea. Don’t dispute over the Bible, therefore, but use the
Bible. He who analyzes a flower must lose the sweet rose. When a
pilgrim is crossing the desert, one handful of wheat for hunger
is worth a bushel of diamonds. Remember the use and purpose for
which the Bible was written. It is a guide to right living, it
shows the path to God’s throne.--N. D. HILLIS.

(1408)

HIGHER LAW, THE

It is told of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, that soon after
he was assigned to duty as midshipman, his vessel was wrecked
off the coast of Denmark. The Admiral commanding resolved to
save the young man, and ordered him to take charge of the
first boat which put off from the doomed ship. The Grand Duke
disdained safety thus bought and declined. “My duty is here,” he
said to the admiral, “and I must be the last to leave the ship.”
“Do you not understand, sir,” exclaimed the admiral, “that you
are under my command? And do you dare refuse obedience to my
orders?” “I know my duty,” answered the midshipman, “and I will
obey any orders you may see fit to give me, except an order to
leave the ship, where my duty now commands me to remain.” The
admiral gave up his point and Alexis was the last man to leave
the ship, and after landing, was promptly ordered under arrest
for disobedience of orders. He submitted without a murmur. The
admiral sent dispatches to the Emperor detailing the affair, and
the Emperor wrote: “I approve your having placed the midshipman
under arrest for disobedience, and I bless my boy for having
disobeyed.” (Text.)

(1409)

See DECEPTION JUSTIFIED.

HIGHER LIFE

Verestchagin, the famous Russian artist, once painted a picture
above the clouds. He climbed to the top of one of the Himalaya
Mountains, and lived amid the snow and ice, where the colorings
were gorgeous in beauty. There he portrayed the mighty peaks and
the beauty of the morning clouds as no other artist has ever
done.

Elevation of life has much to do with vision of soul.

(1410)

=Higher, Survival of the=--See GOOD VICTORIOUS.

HIGHER, THE

There is an old Dutch picture of a little child who is dropping
from his hands a beautiful toy. Looking at the painting, one is
surprized to see the plaything so carelessly abandoned; until,
following the child’s eye to the corner of the picture, one sees
a lovely white dove flying down into the child’s outstretched
hands.

That is the way it will be with all of us as soon as we actually begin to see the pure beauties and joys of the higher life. All our silly playthings will be allowed to fall out of our hands. We shall let go of fashion and luxury, and idle dissipation, and proud ambition, and greed for gain, and desire for men’s applause and for advancement in the world, and we shall stretch out our hands for the things that are best worth having. Those are the things which will stay with us. They will give something of their nature to our lives, and will ennoble everything they touch. (Text.)

(1411)

=Highways=--See PATHS, KEEPING ONE’S OWN.

HISTORY AND MUSIC CORRELATED

How closely our own history and our songs are connected! One
can not properly teach our “Star-spangled Banner” without
going quite into detail and telling the thrilling incidents
surrounding its creation. No wedding of poetry and music has
ever been made under more inspiring circumstances. It was caught
up in the camps, sung around the bivouac-fires, and whistled
in the streets. When peace was declared and the soldiers went
back to their homes, they carried this song in their hearts,
as the most precious souvenir of the War of 1812. Then there
are other patriotic songs, all one with our history. Boys, as
a rule, prefer these songs, and will sing them with a hearty
zest. I think they must appreciate the feeling of the young
major in a Confederate uniform, who said: “Boys, if we’d had
your songs, we’d have licked you out of your boots! Who couldn’t
have marched and fought with such songs?”--ELIZABETH
CASTERTON, “Journal of the National Educational
Association,” 1905.

(1412)

HOLDING THEIR OWN

Two tired tourists were tramping in Switzerland. They were on
the way to Interlaken, where they proposed to dine and pass the
night. Late in the afternoon, when hunger and fatigue began to
make walking unpleasant, they accosted a farmer.

“How far is it,” they asked, “to Interlaken?”

“Two miles,” was the reply.

They walked hopefully on. A half hour passed. Interlaken was not
yet in sight. So, seeing another farmer in a field, they shouted
to him:

“Are we near Interlaken?”

“Keep straight forward,” the farmer shouted back; “it’s just two
miles.”

The tired, hungry tourists trudged on again. Another half-hour
passed, and still no sign of Interlaken.

“Is Interlaken very far from here?” they asked a third farmer.

“No, gentlemen,” said the farmer, “it is only two miles.”

Then the tourists looked at one another, and the younger sighed
and exclaimed:

“Well, thank goodness, we’re holding our own,
anyhow.”--Cleveland _Leader_.

(1413)

=Holystoning=--See DRUDGERY.

HOMAGE

When Rollo, the Dane, made his treaty with Charles the Simple,
of France, by which he became a Christian and won Giselle, a
daughter of Charles, for his wife, one of the ceremonies to
be performed was to do homage. This was to kneel, clasp hands
with the king, and kiss his foot, which was covered with an
elegantly-fashioned slipper on such occasions--all in token of
submission. But the proud Rollo did all save kissing the foot.
No remonstrance, urgency or persuasion could induce him to
consent to it.

On the slipper which the pope of Rome for hundreds of years
has worn on certain state occasions, and which the kneeling
suppliant kisses, is embroidered a cross, the sacred symbol of
the divine Redeemer’s sufferings and death. (Text.)

But true homage is not ceremony, it is the attitude of the soul toward one who is greater.

(1414)

HOMAGE TO CHRIST

The following story is told of England’s Queen:

When Queen Victoria was but a girl they went to instruct her in
matters of court etiquette. “You are to go to hear ‘the Messiah’
to-morrow night, and when they sing through the oratorio and
come to the hallelujah chorus, we will all rise, but you are the
Queen; sit still.” So when they came to the hallelujah chorus
the Englishmen sprang to their feet and cheered, while the Queen
sat; but when they came to the place where they sang, “And King
of kings and Lord of lords,” she rose and bowed her head. That
was at the beginning of her reign.

But when she came almost to the end of her reign, and Canon
Farrar was preaching on the second coming of Christ, she sent
for him to enter the Queen’s box, and when he came in, Her
Majesty said:

“Dr. Farrar, I wish that the Savior might come while I am still
upon the throne, because,” she said, “I should like to take the
crown of England and lay it at His feet.” (Text.)

(1415)

HOME

Lamar Fontaine describes graphically the effect upon contending armies of the strains of “Home, Sweet Home”:

Just before “taps” every band, on both sides, sent the
strains of that immortal song, “Home, Sweet Home,” in
soul-stirring notes out on the wings of the night, quivering
and reverberating, with endless echoes from hill, dale, and
valley--and answered by a thousand brass instruments, bass and
kettledrums, and more than a hundred thousand living throats.
It was a time and scene never to be forgotten, for in that hour
Yank and Reb were kin, and the horrors of war, the groans of
the dead and dying upon the bleak, wind-swept field of death at
our very feet were forgotten, and the whole armies of the gray
and blue were wafted back to the quiet fireside of mother and
father, wife and babes, far, far from the bloody, corpse-strewn
plain beneath us.--“My Life and My Lectures.”

(1416)

* * * * *

How few people go into raptures over home. Helen T. Churchill did at least in this poem:

One spot alone on earth
Is fair to me--
There centers all the mirth,
There I would be.
There, only there, God’s sunlight pierces through
And all the heaven paints with stainless blue.

You praise this land as fair,
Its streams, its bow’rs;
The common weeds are there
As rarest flow’rs--
The fields Elysian. Ah, why should we roam?
One spot alone enchants--we call it home!
(Text.)--_The Woman’s Home Companion._

(1417)

See HEAVEN OUR HOME.

HOME ATMOSPHERE

The atmosphere of a home expresses a clearly defined reality.
The atmosphere is the spirit of the house, emanating from the
deep well of the subconscious mind of the homekeeper. God has
created no more gracious figure in His great world than that of
the wife and mother, who gives to the very place of her abode
her own quiet, buoyant, soothing spirit. What she is in the
unsounded deeps of her being will appear in time in the house
where she dwells and in the faces of the little children that
look up to her. On the other hand, the home of the card-club
woman and the home of the gad-about! Who does not know them and
shudder at the thought? Their atmosphere is that of restlessness
and spiritual poverty. Wo betide her children and her husband;
for she can not give them, after their day of temptations and
vexation, that by which they are renewed, the spirit of peace
and quiet confidence in good.--ROBERT MACDONALD.

(1418)

HOME, CHOICE OF A

An English swallow once selected a strange resting-place. At
Corton, Lowestoft, England, a naturalist discovered a swallow’s
nest with young birds in it on the revolving part of the
machinery of a common windmill.

The particular spot chosen was the “wallomer,” the outer edge
of one of the wheels. The revolutions averaged thirty a minute,
and the naturalist estimated that in that time the nest traveled
about one hundred and eighty feet. The young birds would
certainly be experienced travelers before they left such a nest.

The mother bird, when sitting, usually traveled tail foremost,
and when she entered or left the mill she had to make use of the
hole through which the laying shaft projected. To do this it was
necessary for her to dodge the sails, which were, of course,
hung close to the wall of the mill.

When the creaking and shaking of the machinery of a windmill
is taken into account, one can hardly fail to be struck with
the peculiar taste of the bird that chose such an apparently
uncongenial spot in which to rear her young.--_Harper’s
Weekly._

(1419)

=Home Discipline=--See FAMILY RELIGION.

HOME, FOUNDATION OF THE REPUBLIC

Judge Ben B. Lindsey who has secured many things for the children during the last ten years, such as playgrounds, detention schools, public baths, probation system, summer outings, fresh-air camps, etc., says in the _Survey_:

What began to loom upon me almost to oppress me, was the
injustice in our social and economic system that made most of
these palliatives necessary. I began to see more than I ever
saw in my life how the foundation of the republic is the home,
and the hope of the republic is in the child that comes from
the home, and that there can be no real protection, no real
justice for the child, until justice is done the home. More than
through books I saw through the tears and misfortunes of these
children, the defects and injustice in our social, political
and economic conditions, and I have to thank the child for my
education. After ten years I owe more to the children than they
owe to me. They have helped me be a better man, and, I am sure,
a more useful and serviceable one. I had learned to love to
work with them and for them in the boys’ clubs, the recreation
centers, through the court and probation work and in other ways,
and when I began to see, as I thought I saw, some of the causes
of poverty, misfortune, misery, and crime, I began to question
myself. Could I help do real justice to the child unless I could
help smash some of these causes that were smashing the homes,
crippling the parents and robbing the child of his birth-right?

(1420)

HOME LIGHTS

The light of the home is indeed glorious. We think of the
lighting of the lamps at eventime and find, in the coming of
that artificial day which sets the light in the window, a sign
of defiance to the night, as if it were a great triumph of human
intelligence. It is, indeed, a triumph. The thought of sending
on the heels of the day another day which keeps off the darkness
of night shows how well man has mastered the forces around him.
The spiritual light within the home, however, is greater than
this--the kindliness of husband and wife toward each other and
toward the children, the light on the faces of the home circle,
this is a more precious gleam than any which shines from star or
sun.--FRANCIS J. MCCONNELL.

(1421)

HOME, LONGING FOR

Come away! come away! you can hear them calling, calling,
Calling us to come to them, and roam no more,
Over there beyond the ridges and the land that lies between us,
There’s an old song calling us to come!

Come away! come away! for the scenes we leave behind us
Are barren for the lights of home and a flame that’s young forever;
And the lonely trees around us creak the warning of the night-wind,
That love and all the dreams of love are away beyond the mountains,
The songs that call for us to-night, they have called for men
before us,
And the winds that blow the message, they have blown ten thousand
years;
But this will end our wander-time, for we know the joy that waits us
In the strangeness of home-coming, and a faithful woman’s eyes.
Come away! come away; there is nothing now to cheer us--
Nothing now to comfort us, but love’s road home:
Over there beyond the darkness there’s a window gleams to greet us,
And a warm hearth waits for us within.

--EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON, “The Wilderness.”

(1422)

=Home Privacy=--See PRIVACY, LACK OF.

HOME, THE OLD AND NEW

The old home, with its family-room, evening-lamp, regular life,
and community of interests, has given place to a home in which
the family are all together for the first time in the day at the
evening meal, and then only for a brief hour, after which they
scatter to their several engagements. A little boy was asked by
a neighbor, as his father was leaving the house one morning,
who that gentleman was, and he replied: “Oh, I don’t know; he’s
the man who stays here nights.” This might well be a leaf from
the actual home life in our cities. In some cases fathers and
mothers too seldom see their children. Business claims their
daylight hours; committee, board, or lodge meetings claim their
evenings; and so the fathers are unavoidably, as it would seem,
away from home. The church and sundry organizations for social
service or self-improvement leave the mothers little time for
their own needy but uncomplaining households. The children have
their own friends and social life, in which the parents have all
too small a place and influence.--GEORGE B. STEWART,
“Journal of the Religious Education Association,” 1903.

(1423)

HOME VALUES

“American art-students,” says Mr. L. Scott Dabo, a writer in
_The Arena_, “make a mistake when they seek an ‘artistic
atmosphere’ in Europe. To go abroad in search of beauty betrays
soul poverty. The American who fails to find beauty in American
landscape or artistic atmosphere among his fellow students, will
never find either abroad, whatever he may induce himself to
think. After the student has been thoroughly formed at home and
merged into the artist, and not before, will he be capable of
appreciating at its true value what the rest of the world has to
offer.”

(1424)

HOME WHERE THE HEART IS

The following story is told of Hiram Powers, the sculptor:

Hiram Powers for thirty years wrought in Florence, Italy, away
from his native land. Here he produced the “Liberty” which
surmounts the Capitol at Washington, and such idealizations as
“The Massachusetts Puritan,” and “The California Pioneer.” When
asked once how he could keep so closely in touch with American
life, tho he had been away from his native land so long, he
replied, “I have never been out of touch with America itself. I
have eaten and slept in Italy for thirty-odd years, but I have
never lived anywhere but in the United States.”

As the sculptor lived in the United States while working in Italy, so it is possible for the Christian to be a citizen of heaven while staying and working here on earth. (Text.)

(1425)

HOMELESS

Joseph H. Choate tells the story of how he was approached
one wet, wintry night on one of London’s lonely streets by a
policeman.

“I say, old chap,” called the “bobby,” “what are you doing
walking about in this beastly weather? Better go home.”

“I have no home,” replied Mr. Choate. “I am the American
ambassador.”

This story is repeated in a pamphlet issued by the American
Embassy Association, whose purpose is to promote and encourage
the acquisition by the United States of permanent homes for its
ambassadors in foreign capitals.

(1426)

HOMESICKNESS

A young Swedish girl was very homesick. “You ought to be
contented, and not fret for your old home, Ina,” said her
mistress, as she looked at the dim eyes of the girl. “You are
earning good wages, your work is light, every one is kind to
you, and you have plenty of friends here.”

“Yas’m,” said the girl; “but it is not the place where I do be
that makes me vera homesick; it is the place where I don’t be.”
(Text.)--LOUIS ALBERT BANKS.

(1427)

HOMING INSTINCT, THE

The soul’s instinct toward the immortal life is like the instinct of these wasps:

Fabre, the wonderful French observer of wasps, experimented on
them in regard to the matter of finding and knowing their holes,
by carrying them away shut up in a dark box to the center of a
village three kilometers from the nesting-ground, and releasing
them after being kept all night in the dark boxes. These wasps
when released in the busy town, certainly a place never visited
by them before, immediately mounted vertically to above the
roofs and then instantly and energetically flew south, which was
the direction of their holes. Nine separate wasps, released one
at a time, did this without a moment’s hesitation, and the next
day Fabre found them all at work again at their hole-digging.
He knew them by two spots of white paint he had put on each
one.--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”

(1428)

HONESTY

A merchant prince once pointed out a clerk in his employ to a
friend, and said, “That young man is my banker. He alone has
entire control of my finances. He could abscond with a hundred
thousand dollars without my preventing it.” Seeing the friend’s
evident disapproval at so great trust in one man, he continued,
“I would trust him as I would my minister. He is absolutely
honest; he could not steal.” And there are thousands of such
men who have passed beyond temptation because of the ingrained,
undisturbed integrity, acquired by a reverence for right and
an early resolution to be true.--JAMES T. WHITE,
“Character Lessons.”

(1429)

See BARGAIN DISCOUNTENANCED; CHRISTIAN HONESTY.

HONESTY IN BUSINESS

The story is told of a young merchant who, beginning
business some fifty years ago, overheard one day a clerk’s
misrepresenting the quality of some merchandise. He was
instantly reprimanded and the article was unsold. The clerk
resigned his position at once, and told his employer that the
man who did business that way could not last long. But the
merchant did last, and but lately died the possessor of the
largest wealth ever gathered in a single lifetime.--NOAH
HUNT SCHENCK.

(1430)

HONESTY, INTERMITTENT

In his “Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier,” Dr. T.
L. Tennell tells of an escort of two villainous-looking Afghans
who had him in charge in turning back to Bannee from a journey
across the frontier. They had paid him the greatest attention
and brought him safely home. When he offered to reward them
for their good conduct in guarding him and his belongings,
they repelled the offer with a show of indignation, adding
that to accept money from a guest would be to break their best
traditions. But next morning, after he had entertained them
generously overnight, and sent them off with many expressions
of appreciation of their faithfulness, he found that they had
decamped with all his best clothes. Their honesty did not
survive the night.

(1431)

HONESTY REWARDED

A merchant required an additional clerk and advertised for a
boy. The first boy that answered was ushered into a vacant
room, and told to sit in a particular chair and wait. Looking
around, he saw upon the floor, just by the chair, a one-dollar
bill, folded closely, as tho it had been inadvertently dropt. He
picked up the bill, and satisfying his conscience that “finding
is having,” even tho on another’s premises, he put it into his
pocket. Almost immediately the merchant came in, and after a
few questions, dismissed the boy as not satisfactory. The next
boy was seated in the same chair, and he also saw a one-dollar
bill lying in the same manner beside him; but he picked it up
and laid it on the table. The merchant entered, and after some
questions, pointed to the bill and asked where it came from.
The boy said he saw it on the floor and put it where it would
be safe. The merchant said, “As it did not appear to belong to
any one, why did you not keep it?” The boy replied, “Because it
did not belong to me.” “My boy,” said the merchant, “you have
chosen the road that inevitably leads to business success. The
boy before you chose the wrong one. But how did you learn that
this was the right path?” The boy answered, “My mother made me
promise never, under any circumstances, to take what did not
belong to me; and I promised.” Later in life this boy became
Secretary of the Treasury.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character
Lessons.”

(1432)

=Honesty, Simulated=--See PRETENSE OF VIRTUE.

HONOR

When Regulus was sent by the Carthaginians, whose prisoner he was, to Rome, with a convoy of ambassadors to sue for peace, it was on condition that he should return to his prison if peace was not effected. He took an oath to do so. When he appeared at Rome he urged the senators to persevere in the war and not to agree to the exchange of prisoners. That advice involved his return to captivity. The senators, and even the chief priest, held that as his oath was wrested from him by force, he was not bound to go. “Have you resolved to dishonor me?” asked Regulus. “I am not ignorant that tortures and death are preparing for me; but what are these to the shame of an infamous action, or the wounds of a guilty mind? Slave as I am to Carthage, I have still the spirit of a Roman. I have sworn to return. It is my duty to go. Let the gods take care of the rest.” Regulus accordingly returned to Carthage and was tortured to death.

(1433)

* * * * *

If one is possest of a delicate sense of honor it is not necessary to bind him with promises to keep personal matters confidential:

A New England school-teacher maintained an intimate friendship
and spent much time with the poet Tennyson during his later
years. One evening, when the two were thus together, Tennyson
said that he would depart from his custom and narrate a personal
experience; but he had suffered a good deal from repetitions of
his tales by those to whom he had told them, and he would be
obliged to ask his friend never to repeat what he was about to
hear.

The American smoked on for a few seconds while Tennyson waited
for the promise, and then he said, “My lord, in my country a
gentleman would never make that request of another gentleman.”
“H-h-m!” said the poet, and looked out of eyes that wondered if
the quiet smoker opposite knew how much he’d said. Then he told
the story.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(1434)

See MONEY NO TEMPTATION.

HONOR AMONG BOYS

Two boys, John and William, both about the age of twelve, had a
dispute over a game of ball, when John said that such action was
mean and dishonest, upon which William immediately called him a
liar, and they began to fight. They were not quarrelsome boys;
they were serious and studious, but were boys of spirit and held
high ideas of honor and uprightness. The teacher, who was a man
of strong character, and a sturdy disciplinarian, came promptly
upon the scene and separated the combatants, and sent both
boys to their seats. The breach of school discipline had been
flagrant, and all expected that severe punishment would be meted
out to the boys. But nothing was said until just before school
was dissmissed, when the teacher called the boys before him and
said, “Do you think you did right in engaging in this fight?”
To which both boys said they did, and that they would fight one
another again upon the first opportunity. After some reflection,
the teacher turned to John and said, “John, will you agree
never to mention this subject until William mentions it first?”
John replied, “Yes, but I will lick him good if he ever does.”
The teacher turned to William and asked the same question, to
which he replied, “I will not start it, but if John does I
will lick him.” The teacher then said, “I think you are both
honorable and trustworthy boys, and I am going to depend upon
you to keep your word of honor, and not renew this fight until
the other begins it. Now John, you take William by the hand,
and tell him that you will never mention this subject unless he
first speaks of it; but if he does, you will lick him.” The boys
joined hands, and John told it over to William, and then William
told it over to John. The solemnity with which the proceeding
was conducted all the way through made a deep impression on the
entire school, who felt it to be a very sacred thing between
the two boys, and that it should never be even hinted at. This
was a lesson in courage, self-respect, obedience, fidelity and
self-control to the whole school, and it resulted in a lifelong
friendship between the two boys.--JAMES T. WHITE,
“Character Lessons.”

(1435)

HONOR, EXAMPLE OF

Horace B. Claflin, before he was twenty-one, had bought out his
father’s grocery business. Intoxicating liquors were at that
time considered an indispensable part of the grocery equipment;
but the young merchant, as soon as he came into possession,
emptied the wine-casks into the street. Later on he engaged in
the dry-goods business, a large portion of which was in the
slave-holding States; and when anti-slavery principles involved
a business loss to Northern merchants, Claflin announced himself
an uncompromising opponent of slavery. Such a stand and the
Civil War coming on cut off his resources and revenues, and he
was forced to suspend. He asked from his creditors an extension
of time on a basis of seventy per cent of his indebtedness;
but soon after resuming business Claflin paid off his extended
paper long before maturity, and also the thirty per cent which
had been unconditionally released, not only paying the entire
amount of his indebtedness but also paying interest on the
debt.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(1436)

=Honor in Failure=--See OBLIGATIONS, MEETING.

HONOR, THE ROAD TO

In one of his great debates on American taxation, Edmund Burke
once paused to say, with regard to the consequence of the course
he was pursuing: “I know the map of England as well as the noble
lord or any other person, and I know the road I take is not the
road to preferment.” But he took it, nevertheless.

The end of the right road is never obscurity or ingratitude or obloquy. It is the smile and welcome of God. Even here on the earth, the man who does right comes to his own. Of the men of his age in England, Burke is now among the most honored and will be among the longest remembered.

(1437)

=Honoring Mother=--See LOVE, FILIAL.

=Honors for Negro Girl=--See NEGRO EXCELLING.

HONOR’S ROLL-CALL

In a Decoration-day address Thomas Wentworth Higginson said:

The great French soldier, de Latour d’Auvergne, was the hero
of many battles, but remained by his own choice in the ranks.
Napoleon gave him a sword and the official title “The First
Grenadier of France.” When he was killed, the Emperor ordered
that his heart should be intrusted to the keeping of his
regiment--that his name should be called at every roll-call, and
that his next comrade should make answer, “Dead upon the field
of honor.” In our memories are the names of many heroes; we
treasure all their hearts in this consecrated ground, and when
the name of each is called, we answer in flowers, “Dead upon the
field of honor.”

(1438)

HOPE

Have hope! Tho clouds environ round,
And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow;
No night but hath its morn.

--SCHILLER.

(1439)

* * * * *

The world has no time and no use for the man who has no time and
no use for hope. A gentleman on being asked to contribute to the
erection of a monument replied: “Not a dollar; I am ready to
contribute toward building monuments to those who make us hope,
but I will not give a dollar to help perpetuate the memory and
influence of those who live to make us despair.”--JOHN E.
ADAMS.

(1440)

* * * * *

Hope was the one thing that remained in Pandora’s box. While it remains men may courageously face life and the future.

When Alexander the Great crossed into Asia, he gave away almost
all his belongings to his friends. One of his captains asked
him, “Sire, what do you keep for yourself?” “I keep hope,” was
the answer of the king. (Text.)

(1441)

HOPE DEFERRED