Chapter M: E. Hume-Griffith, in her “Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish (9)

A citizen noticed a medal on the breast of a soldier. “You have
been in the war, I see,” he said. “Yes,” he replied. “I’ve been
through one war, and that accounts for my medal.” “In what
battles did you fight?” The soldier smiled and said, “I was
never at the front; my business was to bring up supplies.”

Many a man or woman will never get to the front of a great pitched battle, but he or she can help to win the victory by “bringing up the supplies.” Out of sight, in the rear of the fighters, we can bring up supplies to aid their efforts.

(3127)

=Supply According to Capacity=--See CAPACITY LIMITING SUPPLY.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

The story is told of a tramp who came to a certain valley, which
was inundated by a freshet in a river. There was a great demand
for help to carry persons and property in boats to a place of
safety. The tramp threw down the bundle, which contained all
he had in the world, and declared: “This is my harvest.” He
demanded ten dollars a day, and went to work at that rate. This
was true philosophy. He kept out of the labor market until the
“conjuncture” of supply and demand was all on his side, and
then he went in.--Prof. WILLIAM G. SUMNER, _The
Independent_.

(3128)

=Support by Faith of Others=--See DEPENDENCE.

SURFACE LIVES

There is plenty of light and heat in the desert. The occasional
oases that cheer the traveler show that the soil is rich enough
to grow vegetation. Water is the one thing it needs to make it a
fertile garden. Sometimes a few feet beneath the surface there
flows a river. If the parched and fainting pilgrim would pause
and dig deep enough he might find the cool, clear water that
would quench his thirst and help to save his life.

So many a man is content to live on the surface of life and suffer thirst of soul, whereas, if he would “let down his bucket for a draught,” the deeps of better inspiration--a true water of life--might always be reached. (Text.)

(3129)

SURGERY, IMPROVEMENT IN

Within our own time, another great man of the Washington type,
Count Cavour, has been slain by medical bleeding precisely as
Washington was. The worse Cavour grew, the more his doctors
bled him, and he finally succumbed under the treatment, in the
flower of his age and in the midst of his usefulness. It is,
therefore, not unfair to conclude that the final cessation of
a practise so barbarous, so opposed to common sense, has been
due to the increase of physiological knowledge and to that
increased reliance on nature and careful nursing, and diminished
reliance on “physic,” which is the result of this knowledge,
and that its continuance in any country is simply a sign of a
low condition of medical research. The advance in conservative
surgery has been simply enormous. The great operations have been
robbed of their terrors, and with their terrors of much of their
danger, and nothing has made more progress than contrivances
for preventing the loss of blood. In fact, in the practise of
to-day there is nothing of which so much care is taken as of the
patient’s blood. Not only is he left in possession of all he has
already got, but every pains is taken to increase his supply
of it. Nobody “lets blood” now but assassins, and “toughs” and
suicides--a curious sign of progress, but a sign of progress it
is.--New York _Evening Post_.

(3130)

SURGERY IN KOREA

Medical science in Korea is wofully deficient. Native doctors
have but two instruments--a little flat knife-blade and a long,
sharp knitting-needle-like instrument. The former is used for
bleeding or scraping, and the latter for plunging into the body
to make an exit for the disease devil. It is always surgically
dirty and a joint is a favorite place for its insertion. Septic
conditions arise which render the joints permanently immovable.
Medical missionaries are continually called upon to give aid to
children of from eight to twelve years of age with stiffened
knees or elbows.

(3131)

SURPRIZES IN BOOKS

There are the “pleasant surprizes” of publishing--books
undertaken with the expectation of about paying expenses that
have soared away to the hundred-thousand mark. Others are
“undertaken because they are known to be works of great merit,
and while the publisher may not have much hope of a satisfactory
result, there is a chance that the merit of the book may in
time make an impression on the public.” Then there are those
undertaken because “they strike a new note in literature, which
may receive the appreciation of the public.” “David Harum” is
called “the greatest surprize.” Seven or eight publishers had
declined the book, and only two persons in the house accepting
it had much hope that it would pay expenses. For six months
after publication a few thousand copies were disposed of; its
ultimate sale was nearly a million.--_Appleton’s Magazine._

(3132)

=Surrender, Total=--See RESERVATION.

=Survey, The Larger=--See POINT OF VIEW.

SURVIVAL

Mr. Vernon L. Kellogg gives the imaginary feelings of a minute scale that infests oranges during their growth, on finding out that he and his kind were the common prey of the orange beetle:

He soon learned that of all the orange-dwellers who are born,
only a very, very few escape the beetles and other devouring
beasts who pursue them. And he was highly indignant when one
shrewd orange-dweller told him that it really was a good thing
for the race of orange-dwellers that so many of them were
killed. “For,” the shrewd orange-dweller said, “if all of us who
are born should live and have families, and not die until old
age came on, there would soon be so many of us that we should
eat all the orange-trees in the world, and then we should all
starve to death.” And this is quite true.--“Insect Stories.”

(3133)

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

“Among every hundred men who become firemen only seventeen
are ever made engineers,” says Warren S. Stone, chief of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, one of the most powerful
labor organizations in the world. “Out of every one hundred
engineers only six ever get passenger runs. The next time you
see a white-haired man on the cab of a big passenger locomotive
don’t wonder at all at his white hair, but make up your mind
that he has the goods or he wouldn’t be there. It is a case of
the selection and the survival of the fittest. It takes nerve to
run the fast trains these days, for you sit at your throttle,
tearing across the country at the rate of more than a mile a
minute, and if any one of a dozen people, down to the man who
spiked the rails, has made a mistake you ride to certain death.”

(3134)

See NATURE’S AGGRESSIVENESS.

SUSPICION

Two promoters once called on Mr. Russell Sage to try to interest
him in a certain scheme. They talked to the great financier
about an hour. Then they took their leave, having been told that
Mr. Sage’s decision would be mailed to them in a few days. “I
believe we’ve got him,” said the first promoter hopefully, on
the way uptown. “I don’t know,” rejoined the other. “He seems
very suspicious.” “Suspicious?” said the first. “What makes you
think he was suspicious?” “Didn’t you notice,” was the reply,
“how he counted his fingers after I had shaken hands with
him?”--New Orleans _States_.

(3135)

* * * * *

The people who make it their chief business in life to see that
they are not imposed upon very frequently wrong others in their
over-eagerness to maintain their rights. The following incident
has a valuable lesson for all impulsive folk who are also a
little inclined to suspect the motives of other people.

A countryman, says an exchange, came into a village store with a
very angry demeanor. “Look here,” he began sharply, “I bought a
paper of nutmegs here yesterday, and when I got home I found ’em
mor’n half walnuts. And there is the young villain I bought ’em
of,” he added, pointing to the proprietor’s son.

“John,” said the father, “did you sell this man walnuts for
nutmegs?”

“No, sir,” was the ready response.

“You needn’t lie about it,” exclaimed the farmer, still further
enraged by the young man’s assurance.

“Now, look here,” said John, with a good-natured smile, “if you
had taken the trouble to weigh your nutmegs, you would have
found that I put walnuts in extra.

“Oh, you gave them to me, did you?” asked the man in a somewhat
mollified tone.

“Yes, sir; I threw in a handful for the children.”

“Well, if you ain’t a good one!” the man remarked, with restored
good humor. “An’ here I’ve been making an idiot of myself. Just
put me up a pound of tea, will ye. I’ll stop and weigh things
next time.”

(3136)

=Swearing=--See CONSCIENCE; OATHS.

SWEARING A WASTE OF CHARACTER

General Washington, in an order issued August 3, 1776, said:
“The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked
practise of profane cursing and swearing, a vice hitherto little
known in an American army, is growing into fashion. He hopes
the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to
check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we
can have little hope of the blessing of heaven on our army if we
insult it by our impiety and folly. Added to this, it is a vice
so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense
and character detests and despises it.” Swearing is a great
waste of character!

James says: “But above all things, my brethren (and my Juniors),
swear not; neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by
any other oath; but let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay;
lest ye fall into condemnation.” Swearing is a great loss of
soul! James asks you to be specially watchful against the habit
of swearing. “Above all things”--that is, you will find it more
difficult to keep from this sin than it is to keep from many
other besetting sins.

(3137)

* * * * *

If Satan can not get a boy or girl to swear with the tongue,
he will try to get a swear through the hands or feet. Slamming
a door when you are mad is hand-swearing. When you have been
corrected and go out of the room as tho each step would put
holes in the floor you are foot-swearing. Sometimes a swear
spreads over the face like a cloud across the sky. Swearing is a
great loss of happiness!--J. M. FARRAR.

(3138)

See SELF-RESTRAINT.

SWEARING A WASTE OF TIME

Swearing is a great waste of time. Stop the leak in the kettle.
This kettle is an hour with sixty drops of time in it. If there
is a leak in the kettle the little drops of time will be lost.
Sixty drops and the hour-kettle is empty. Swearing is a bad
habit and will surely wear a hole in the kettle. It is difficult
to swear without getting angry. Sometimes the kettle is emptied
before the hole is made. How? Anger starts the kettle boiling
and time runs over and is lost. Swearing is a great waste of
time! In sixty minutes of temper an hour has run over.--J.
M. FARRAR.

(3139)

* * * * *

Wednesday, April 27, was Grant’s birthday. Some one told the
following interesting story about him: “While sitting with him
at the camp-fire late one night, after every one else had gone
to bed, I said to him: ‘General, it seems singular that you
have gone through all the trouble of army service and frontier
life and have never been provoked into swearing. I have never
heard you utter an oath or use an imprecation.’

“‘Well, somehow or other, I never learned to swear,’ he replied.
‘When a boy I seemed to have an aversion to it, and when I
became a man I saw the folly of it. I have always noticed, too,
that swearing helps to arouse a man’s anger; and when a man
flies into a passion, his adversary, who keeps cool, always
gets the better of him. In fact, I never could see the use of
swearing. I think it is the case with many people who swear
excessively that it is a mere habit, and that they do not mean
to be profane; but, to say the least, it is a great waste of
time.’”--J. M. FARRAR.

(3140)

SWIFTNESS OF BIRDS

The inexperienced gunner will declare emphatically that any old
bird can fly at least a mile a second, but science is of the
opinion that the swift, the most speedy bird of all, can make
but 250 miles an hour. The swallow can cover ninety-two miles in
an hour and the eider-duck ninety miles. All birds of prey are
necessarily rapid in their flight; the eagle can attain a speed
of 140 miles per hour and the hawk 150 miles. The flight of most
migratory birds does not exceed fifty miles an hour, and the
crow can accomplish but twenty-five.

A falcon belonging to Henry IV of France escaped from
Fontainebleau and was found at Malta twenty-four hours later,
having covered a distance of at least 1,530 miles. Sir John
Ross, on October 6, 1850, dispatched from Assistance Bay two
young carrier-pigeons, one of which reached its dove-cote in
Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 13th. This was comparatively slow
time for the distance, two thousand miles. It is probable that
flights which have occasioned astonishment by greatly exceeding
the average have been materially assisted by aerial currents
moving in the same direction.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(3141)

SWINDLING

An instance of “high finance,” under the guise of religion, is set forth by the daily press in the case of one, Carl Helmstadt, of whom this is said:

The detectives report an instructive conversation with this man,
who tells clergymen he is a brand from the burning and needs
their prayers for deliverance.

“How many ministers have you swindled?” the detective asked
Helmstadt.

“Oh, I don’t know how many.”

“More than one hundred?”

“Sure,” answered Helmstadt. “Why not? We kneel down and pray
together, and we both weep. Then I tell them I feel greatly
relieved, spiritually. Then I sting them for a few dollars.”

(3142)

SYMBOL OF LIFE

Men talk sometimes as if the passage of a ship through the sea
or a bird through the air is a fit symbol of man’s passage
through this world. I do not think so. A better symbol would be
the passage of a plow through the soil leaving a furrow behind.
What does the furrow include? All the memory of every beautiful
picture and landscape you have ever seen. It includes the memory
of every experience, every sweet association, every tie of love,
whether of father, mother, wife or children. All these, whether
living or dead, speak to you. They have a voice, a language that
you will understand.--GEORGE L. PERIN.

(3143)

=Symbol of Life, The Tree a=--See TREE A SPIRITUAL SYMBOL.

=Symbol of Sacrifice=--See MEMORIAL OF LINCOLN.

SYMBOL, POWER OF A

The waving folds of an American flag are credited with saving
a house in the midst of the fire following the earthquake in
San Francisco in April, 1906. The house stands at 1654 Taylor
Street. As the fire crept up to it, its owner determined it
should go gloriously and ran up a flag on the roof pole. The
eaves had caught fire, but a company of the Twentieth United
States Infantry, under a lieutenant, passing a block away, saw
the banner waving proudly amid the smoke. “A house that flies a
flag like that is worth saving,” is the expression the narrator
puts on the lips of the young officer. The men ran to the place,
beat off the flames and saved the house.

(3144)

SYMBOLIC PREACHING

A good example of symbolic preaching is afforded in the following descriptions of a sermon by a Chinese evangelist named Li, of Changsha, China, on the value of the soul:

Mr. Li began by describing a clock, without naming it, calling
it dead and yet alive. He showed that it has all the parts of a
living mechanism, but that this mechanism is dead; without two
great essentials. The clock was then shown to the audience and
they were led to see that a spring is the source of power, but
that power must be applied to the spring before the mechanism
does its work. The preacher skilfully illustrated by these
facts the importance of the soul, and the relation which it
bears on the one hand to man and on the other to God. About
twenty minutes were devoted to this illustration, after which
the preacher quoted a number of texts from the Scriptures
bearing upon the teaching of the value of the soul.--G. E.
DAWSON, _Missionary Review of the World_.

(3145)

SYMBOLISM

In Japanese art every flower has a meaning. Certain flowers
must never be seen together. Certain others must never be seen
apart. Then, again, everything goes in threes--blossoms, boughs,
or sprays. Even furniture has a meaning. The details of this
etiquette are endless, and, to the Occidental mind, bewildering,
unless one “has an imagination”--or, at least, an esthetic
sense to which its poetic features can appeal.--MARSHALL P.
WILDER, “Smiling ’Round the World.”

(3146)

SYMBOLS

The Chinese claim that they do not worship the idol in their
devotions, but rather the thought or the spirit that the idol
represents. So they worship at the shrine of “Long Life,”
“Happiness,” “Offspring,” “Ancestors,” “Agriculture,” “Heaven,”
“Earth,” “Rain,” “Sunshine.” The bat means happiness; the peach,
long life; the pomegranate, many children; the dragon, power;
indeed, everything has its significance. This explains their
designs upon cloth, embroideries, cloisonne, and porcelain,
every figure and stroke having its meaning. The material thing
represents a thought.

Is there not a legitimate use of symbols? And may they not be made to have a language that speaks through the senses to the soul?

(3147)

* * * * *

Symbols may have value to those who can interpret them, even if we can not:

An American lady was at a dinner party with Mr. Li Lo, the
eminent Chinese philosopher, when she said:

“May I ask why you attach so much importance to the dragon in
your country? You know there is no such creature, don’t you? You
have never seen one?”

“My dear madam,” graciously answered the great Chinaman, “why do
you attach so much importance to the Goddess of Liberty on your
coins? You know there is no such lady, don’t you? You have never
seen her, have you?”

(3148)

=Symbols Interpreting Realities=--See REALITIES, INVISIBLE.

SYMBOLS, THE VALUE OF

In a private letter, written to a local paper by a resident of Cazenovia, N. Y., who is dwelling in Japan, the following was related:

I must tell a story connected with the visit of our American
fleet. One day, just as some of the troops were marching to the
railroad station, an enormous arch which stood just in front of
the station took fire. Instantly one of the Japanese soldiers
climbed to the top and brought down the United States flag
that hung over in his direction. No greater act of courtesy
could be performed, according to Japanese ideas than to save
our flag from harm. But when without a moment’s delay, one of
our blue-jackets ran up the other side of the arch, as tho it
were the rigging of a ship, and snatched the Japanese flag just
before it fell, tho his hands were scorched and he was nearly
choked by smoke from the burning evergreen, the crowds nearly
went wild with excitement and could not stop cheering.

(3149)

SYMPATHY

When the great steamer receives its cargo the captain must
correct the compass, neutralizing the influence of the iron
cargo in the hold. And sympathy keeps the needle of justice
turned toward the star, corrects the aberrations of the
intellect.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3150)

* * * * *

Dr. Dunning, of the _Congregationalist_, tells of a very
near friend of his who visited Tiffany’s great jewelry store in
New York. He was shown a magnificent diamond with its gleaming
yellow light, and many other splendid stones. As he went along
he saw one jewel that was perfectly lusterless, and he said:
“That has no beauty about it at all.” But the friend with him
put it in the hollow of his hand and shut his hand, and then in
a few moments opened it, and he said: “What a surprize! There
was not a place on it the size of a pinhead that did not gleam
with the splendor of the rainbow.” And then he said: “What have
you been doing with it?” His friend answered: “This is an opal.
It is what we call the sympathetic jewel. It only needs contact
with the human hand to bring out its wonderful beauty.”

Doctor Dunning adds: “All childhood needs is that the human hand should touch it, and it will gleam with all the opalescent splendor that can shine from heavenly minds.”

(3151)

* * * * *

There are songs enough for the heroes,
Who dwell on the heights of fame;
I sing of the disappointed,
Of one who has missed his aim.

I sing with a tearful cadence,
Of one who stands in the dark,
And knows that his last, last arrow
Has bounded back from the mark.

For the hearts that break in silence,
With a sorrow all unknown;
For those who need companions,
Yet must walk their way alone.

(3152)

See ACTING, ACTOR AFFECTED BY; KINSHIP; RAPPORT.

SYMPATHY BY PLEASURE-GOERS

London to-night (May 6, 1910), with King Edward lying dead, is
a despairing city. While the sun shone a dash more brilliantly
than it has yet done on any day this year, the people seemed to
extract the utmost particle of hope which the medical bulletins
could be made to convey. But evening came cold, dismal, with
rain drizzling from heavy skies, and the crowds lost heart. Long
before the final news came--soon, indeed, after the issue of
the later reports announcing that the King’s condition was most
grave and that the hoped-for improvement had not set in, the
streets were practically empty.

It was curious to see how outside one theater where a popular
success is running the queue which had formed alongside the pit
and gallery doors melted away before the doors were opened. It
was evident that these people, to whom a visit to a theater is
such a treat that they stand for hours waiting to secure a seat,
had no heart for musical comedy while their King lay at death’s
door.--The New York _Times_.

(3153)

=Sympathy, Impelling=--See EXAMPLE, POWER OF.

SYMPATHY IN TEACHING

In music you learn more in a week from a sympathetic teacher,
or at least from some one who is so to you, than from another,
however excellent, in a month. You will make no progress if he
can give you no impulse.

What a mystery lies in that word “teaching!” One will constrain
you irresistibly, and another shall not be able to persuade
you. One will kindle you with an ambition that aspires to what
the day before seemed inaccessible heights, while another
will labor in vain to stir your sluggish mood to cope with
the smallest obstacle. The reciprocal relation is too often
forgotten.--R. H. HAWEIS.

(3154)

SYMPATHY, LACK OF

Nothing is so likely to cause a man to lose his head as the
conscious lack of sympathetic encompassment. Sometimes a single
man will upset a sermon.

I remember such a one who for many months was the plague of my
life. He had taken offense at some public utterance of mine, and
thereafter in his eyes I was _persona non grata_, a fact
which he took a sort of savage satisfaction in making manifest
in season and out of season, especially the latter.

He would seem to be deeply interested in the opening exercises,
but the moment when I rose to preach he would double up as if
in pain, or avert his face and look wistfully toward the window
as if murmuring to himself. “Oh, that I had wings like a dove,
for then would I fly away and be at rest.” And then instead
of “afflatus” I would be taken with a bad spell of “flat us.”
It does not take many such hearers to kill a man.--P. S.
HENSON, _Christian Endeavor World_.

(3155)

SYMPATHY, PRACTICAL

A little boy was riding in a street car, and, observing a kindly
looking woman, he snuggled closely up to her, and unconsciously
rubbed his dusty feet against her dress, when she leaned over to
a woman on the other side of the little boy and said shortly,
“Madam, will you kindly make your little boy take his feet off
my dress?” The other woman said, “My boy? He isn’t my boy.” The
little fellow squirmed uneasily, seemed to be greatly distrest,
and looked disappointedly into the face of the woman who had
disowned relationship to him. The woman whose attention had
thus been called to the little boy presently observed that
the child’s eyes were fastened upon her with a peculiarly
wistful expression, and she said to him, “Are you going about
alone?” “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, “I always go alone; father
and mother are dead, and I live with Aunt Clara, and when she
gets tired of me she sends me to Aunt Sarah, to stay as long
as she will keep me; but they both tire of me so soon, I keep
changing from one to the other; they don’t either of them care
for little boys like me.” The woman’s heart was drawn to the
motherless boy, and she said, “You are a very little boy to be
traveling alone like this.” “Oh, I don’t mind,” said he, “only
I get lonesome sometimes on these long trips, and when I see
some one that I think I would like to belong to, I snuggle up
close to her so that I can make believe I really do belong to
her. This morning I was playing that I belonged to that other
lady, and I forgot about my dirty shoes. But she would not let
me belong to her. Do you like little boys?” The pitifulness of
that appeal overcame all restraint of the woman’s feelings, and
regardless of a car full of spectators, she put her arms around
the tiny chap, hugged him close, and kissing him, said, “Yes,
and I only wish you wanted to belong to me.” The boy looked at
her with rapturous content, and replied, “I do.” And she said,
“You shall,” and she adopted him.--JAMES T. WHITE,
“Character Lessons.”

(3156)

SYMPATHY, ROYAL

King Victor Emmanuel returned to the ruins of Reggio to-day
(January 1, 1909), and he has been indefatigable in succoring
the afflicted. He traversed the ruins from one end to the other,
comforting the sufferers and cheering the rescuers. At one
point he came upon a man buried up to his waist in débris. He
encouraged the unfortunate while the soldiers were digging him
out. In the midst of the efforts at rescue the man cried:

“Sire, I can wait for deliverance, but for God’s sake give me
food and drink.”

Meeting a group of photographers engaged in taking pictures, the
King chided them for their occupation.

“You had much better turn your efforts to succoring the
afflicted,” said his Majesty.

(3157)

=Sympathy Wasted=--See FANCY, DECEPTIVE.

SYMPATHY WITH ONE’S OWN CREATIONS

A writer in _The Critic_ says:

I once saw it recorded of George Eliot, as a thing marvelous,
incredible, and unique, that she actually wept over her own
creations. This fact, so stated, made me wonder at the ignorance
of the writer. Does anybody suppose that a moving situation was
ever yet depicted, the writing of which did not cost the author
anguish and tears? How could he move his readers if he were not
first moved himself? It is an elementary maxim; you may find it
in Horace. But it is a sign that one possesses imagination if
one can laugh over the fortunes of one’s own puppets.

(3158)

SYNCHRONISM

There is a divine standard by which every man in the world can accurately regulate his life as these clocks are regulated.

The ease with which any number of electric clocks may be
operated in synchronism is an advantage of no small moment. In
factories, mills, and large manufacturing plants, where it is
essential to have the exact time in all the rooms, the electric
clock will prove of peculiar value. By removing the pendulums
from all but one clock, with the others connected in circuit,
the exact time can be kept with all the clocks in the plant.
Furthermore, the regulation of timepieces by electric power from
some central station is thus greatly simplified. With a wire
running to the main clock of the plant, an exact regulation of
all in the series could be instantly obtained. (Text.)--_The
Electrical Age._

(3159)

=Synchrony=--See CHURCH, GUIDANCE FOR THE.

=Syntax, Absurd=--See ENGLISH, ERRORS IN.

SYSTEM IN LABOR

A full week’s work may be well divided according to a plan.

The father of Theodore Roosevelt was a wealthy business man and
a Christian. A remarkable thing about him was that he worked
five days a week attending strictly to business; one day he
spent improving his own mind and heart, and one day doing good,
visiting the poor and otherwise helping others. (Text.)

(3160)

=System versus Men=--See UNNATURAL EDUCATION.

T

TABOOED TOPICS IN THE EAST

The greatest danger of falling into verbal sin, perhaps, is that
missionaries talk upon topics which are tabooed. For instance,
you meet a friend whose shop is next to a house that has burned
down, and you congratulate him upon it. It is an awful mistake,
a most ill-omened remark. When Dr. Nassau, of Gabun, met
some children and tried to cultivate the friendship of their
mothers, he began to count them, which was unfortunate to the
last degree. One can not talk about death in many countries
without giving great offense. There are many other topics
that are tabooed, but they can be learned about from native
teachers.--H. P. BEACH, “Student Volunteer Movement,”
1906.

(3161)

TACT

In 1747 Mr. John Brown was invited to become the pastor of a
church at Hingham. There was but one opponent to his settlement,
a man whom Mr. Brown won over by a stroke of good humor. He
asked for the grounds of his opposition. “I like your person
and your manner,” was the reply, “but your preaching, sir, I
disapprove.” “Then,” said Mr. Brown, “we are agreed. I do not
like my preaching very well myself, but how great a folly it is
for you and me to set up our opinion against that of the whole
parish.” The force of this reasoning appealed to the man, and he
at once withdrew his objections.--_The Argonaut._

(3162)

* * * * *

The impression that most people have regarding the life of kings and queens is that of everything in a costly and magnificent style. One of the admirable things about the life of King Edward VII at Sandringham Palace was its simplicity.

Court formality was laid aside and the king’s guests enjoyed
themselves without restraint. As host and hostess King Edward
and Queen Alexandra were notably hospitable, and the person
who failed to enjoy himself at the royal table was indeed an
unfortunate being. Many were the tales told about the king’s
tact, as displayed toward his guests, not the least of which
was one concerning the famous English sculptor, Alfred Gilbert.
Gilbert received an invitation to Sandringham, and his servant,
in the excitement of packing, omitted to put a pair of black
shoes into his bag. When the sculptor arrived at the king’s
residence he discovered, much to his dismay, that he must appear
in tan shoes if he wished to attend dinner. His embarrassment
was all the more keen because he was aware that the king
disliked tan footgear. However, there was nothing for him to do
but make the best of matters, and on the shoes went. In some
mysterious manner word of Gilbert’s predicament reached the
king’s ears, and when Edward appeared to greet his guest the
latter was surprized to note that his host also wore tan shoes.

(3163)

* * * * *

At Bannockburn Lord Randolph Murray was being sorely prest by a
large body of cavalry. Sir James Douglas got leave from Bruce
to go to his aid, but just as he came up he found the English
in disorder, and many horses galloping away with empty saddles.
“Halt!” he cried to his men; “These brave men have already
repulsed the enemy; let us not diminish their glory by seeking
to share it.”--WILLIAM MOODIE.

(3164)

* * * * *

Colonel Nicholas Smith, in “Grant the Man of Mystery,” says:

Grant is often called “The Silent Man.” While he wrote with
fluency and with great rapidity, it was difficult for him to
express himself extemporaneously until after his Presidential
career, and many interesting stories are told of his attempts to
talk. A large body of ministers once called upon him and made
a long address, to which he was compelled to reply. After a
sentence or two, Mr. Fish noticed that his voice faltered, and
fearing that he might be at a loss what to say, the secretary,
standing next to him, caused a diversion by beginning to cough
violently. The President afterward said to Mr. Fish, “How
fortunate it was for me that you had that cough, as I had felt
my knees begin to shake. I do not think that I could have spoken
another word.”

(3165)

* * * * *

We may please and help and comfort the very same persons whom
we may by different treatment irritate, bringing out the worst
where we might with tact bring out the best that is in them.
You take a piece of ribbon-grass and rub it from end to end and
admire its velvet smoothness; but as you then rub it the other
way you find it is pricking you as if malignantly. And one of
the mysteries of electricity is that the same magnet with which
you can attract by presenting one pole will repel if you present
the other. (Text.)

(3166)

TACT, LACK OF

The natural effect of a lack of tact is seen in the man described below, who used the means to offend the very person who was to decide his fate.

Under no circumstances can a missionary, worthy of the
name, be ever induced to say anything that would wound the
susceptibilities or grieve the heart of one of his heathen or
Mohammedan auditors. That is not necessary. They tell the story
of a judge in Aleppo. He had but one eye. A person was condemned
to prison, as he thought, unjustly. He rose before the judge
and said: “Oh, one-eyed judge, I am imprisoned here on a false
accusation; and I tell you, oh, one-eyed judge, that this man
who has testified against me has received a bribe; and oh,
one-eyed judge, if I do not get justice, I will report this case
to the pasha; and if the pasha do not do justice, oh, one-eyed
judge, I will report it to the sultan himself.” The judge rose
from his seat in a rage and said: “Take the man back to prison.
I won’t hear him plead before me and call me forever a one-eyed
judge.”--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(3167)

* * * * *

It is a good story which Chauncey M. Depew tells of a dinner
that the late King Edward as Prince of Wales once gave in
honor of James G. Blaine, on one of his visits to England
before he had even been a candidate for the Presidency. The
one disagreeable man at the dinner was a duke of the royal
house, who had a reputation for lack of tact. During a lull in
conversation he blurted out: “The greatest outrage in history
was the revolt of your people against King George III. There
was no justification for it then, and there is no excuse for
it now.” The prince, according to Dr. Depew, was plainly
embarrassed. The one man who had the tactfulness to carry off
the situation was Mr. Blaine who, in a carefully-modulated voice
replied: “Perhaps if George III had possest as much diplomacy as
his great-grandson, America might still be English.” The Prince
of Wales, after the subject was passed, gript Blaine’s hands
with a twinkle of admiration.--Boston _Transcript_.

(3168)

=Taint=--See IMPURE THOUGHTS.

=Talent Neglected=--See NEGLECT OF DUTY.

=Talent, Using the Best=--See ADVANTAGE, WORKING TO THE BEST.

TALENTS

Rev. G. Campbell Morgan tells this story:

Some years ago a woman came to me at the close of the Sunday
morning service and said, “Oh, I would give anything to be in
this work actively and actually. I would give anything to have
some living part in the work that is going on here next week in
winning men and women to Christ, but I do not know what to do.”

I said, “My sister, are you prepared to give the Master the
five loaves and two fishes you possess?” She said, “I do not
know that I have five loaves and two fishes.” I said, “Have
you anything that you have used in any way specially?” “No,”
she did not think she had. “Well,” I said, “can you sing?” Her
reply was, “Yes, I sing at home, and I have sung before now in
an entertainment.” “Well, now,” I said, “let us put our hand on
that. Will you give the Lord your voice for the next ten days?”
Said she, “I will.”

I shall never forget that Sunday evening. I asked her to sing,
and she sang. She sang the gospel message with the voice she
had, feeling that it was a poor, worthless thing, and that night
there came out of the meeting into the inquiry room one man.
That man said to me afterward that it was the gospel that was
sung which reached his heart; and from that day to this--that
is now eleven or twelve years ago--that man has been one of
the mightiest workers for God in that city and country I have
ever known. How was it done? A woman gave the Master what she
had.--_The Church Advocate._

(3169)

TALENTS, BURIED

Half a billion dollars is the value of the buried talent
(hoarded money) of the United States, according to
investigations made by the Federal Government, the conclusions
of which recently were made public by Postmaster-General Meyer
in _The Woman’s World_.

Even at the rate proposed for postal depository savings, 2 per
cent, the idleness of the $500,000,000 costs its possessors
$10,000,000, a sum equal to the entire public debt of the United
States in 1839, and almost as much as the Government spends
annually in maintenance of Indians.

However, money is accounted worth in business not less than 4
per cent, and very few securities, particularly in the West,
earn less than 4 per cent. The basis of computation of the
$20,000,000 annual loss caused by the safety-deposit sort of
security was that rate. In the industrial world money--and the
very money that is now “hoarded”--is worth more than 4 per cent.
The money panic of 1907 never would have happened if the buried
talent of $500,000,000 had been in circulation, according to
financial authorities.

As the buried talent is loss financially, so it is in every domain of possibility. In the moral and spiritual life it is even worse; the disinclination to use becomes in time inability to use. (Text.)

(3170)

TALENTS DIFFER

Ralph Waldo Emerson teaches the lesson that everything is needed in its own place, in this quaint bit of verse:

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel;
And the former called the latter, “Little prig.”
Bun replied,
“You are doubtless very big,
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together,
To make up a year
And a sphere;
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I’m not so large as you,
You are not so small as I.
Talents differ; all is well and wisely put;
If I can not carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut.” (Text.)

(3171)

=Tales That Won Fame=--See GENIUS CAN NOT BE HIDDEN.

=Talk=--See CLUB WISDOM.

TALKING AND SICKNESS

The Emmanuel movement in San Francisco, so far at least as
it has to do with St. Luke’s Hospital, is a confest failure.
The local experiment has lasted a year, and every effort, it
is claimed, has been made to give the prescribed treatment
a thorough test. The hospital’s psychopathic ward has been
discontinued, and the clerical superintendent of the mental
healing part of the institution, the Rev. A. P. Shields, D.D.,
has sent in his resignation. “It was found,” says Bishop
Nichols, “impossible to secure beneficial results by placing
patients in a psychopathic ward associated with a hospital. All
the depressing influences of the hospital bore down upon them.
The constant atmosphere of suffering made a cure impossible,
and, finally, we were forced to the conclusion that we had
failed.” This same reasoning condemns the cause of those people
outside of hospitals who are always talking of disease and
fatalities (unless it be distinctly for curative purposes in
the case of disease), so helping to make the more depressive
the depression of mental and nervous sufferers. There are well
people who always, by their lugubrious manner or talk, carry
about with them the atmosphere of the sick-room--who are simply
walking hospitals.--_The Observer._

(3172)

=Taming Animals=--See KINDNESS TO ANIMALS.

=Tampering with Peril=--See TEMPTATION.

TASKS, THE REAL

When I was a boy I was set by my father to the task of dipping
all the water out of a spring-hole in the hay-field. I performed
the task faithfully, thinking that the object was to empty the
hole. But the next day I was obliged to tell my father that the
task had gone for nothing, as the hole was as full as ever. I
had merely removed certain accumulated impurities, which was the
real object of the work.

So we often toil with definite objects in view when all the while Providence is at work through us at a very different and always a more important task. We may be disappointed that we have not emptied the hole, or we may more wisely rejoice that we have freshened the spring.

(3173)

=Taste and Propriety Violated=--See MISSIONARIES’ MISTAKES.

=Teacher, A Young=--See CHILD RELIGION.

TEACHER, THE COMPETENT

I am reminded of a remark made to me recently by a gentleman in
middle life, a very excellent carpenter, whom I saw watching my
boys, twenty-four of them, at work making their first weld in
the forging shop. He seemed intensely interested as he watched
one of the young men at his work. I said: “You seem to like
to see the boys work. Do you understand what they are doing?”
“Yes,” said he, “I worked a year once in a blacksmith shop.”
“Well,” said I, “then I suppose this operation of welding is a
very simple matter to you.” “Not at all,” said he; “I never made
a weld in my life. I never got a chance. I kindled the fire and
blew the bellows, and I did some striking for other men; but
they never let me try to make a weld.” Then he added, with a
good deal of feeling, “These boys learn more in one week about
the really essential art of forging than I learned in half a
year.” And the secret of it is they have a thoroughly skilled
workman who is competent both to teach and to demonstrate every
principle involved.--CALVIN M. WOODWARD, “Journal of
the National Education Association,” 1905.

(3174)

TEACHER, THE IDEAL

Dr. Ernest Fox Nichols, the new president of Dartmouth College, gives this bit of classic advice to teachers:

In twenty years of teaching and observation, I have become
convinced of some things connected with teaching as a
profession. No teacher can hope to inspire and lead young men to
a level of aspiration above that on which he himself lives and
does his work. Young men may reach higher levels, but not by his
aid. The man in whose mind truth has become formal and passive
ought not to teach. What youth needs to see is knowledge in
action, moving forward toward some worthy end. In nobody’s mind
should it be possible to confuse intellectual with ineffectual.
Let it not be said:

We teach and teach
Until like drumming pedagogs we lose
The thought that what we teach has higher ends
Than being taught and learned.

It ought to be impossible, even in satire, to say, “Those who
can, do; those who can’t, teach.”

(3175)

TEACHER, THE IDEAL, AT WORK

In the photographic studio it is not enough to have a favorable
light, expensive lenses, and the latest arrangement of shutters
and slides. It is not enough to have fair women and brave men
before the camera. It is not enough to have a perfect plate,
ready to respond to the faintest ray of light; there must also
be a skilled operator, who shall moderate the glare, arrange the
shadows, measure the distance, adjust the instrument, calculate
the exposure, pose the sitters, engage the attention, and at the
psychologico-photographic moment spring the shutter.

In like fashion the artist-teacher deals with his carefully
sensitized pupil as he prepares to take a picture worth
developing. Deftly he arranges each detail and improves every
condition; then he unveils before him some image of truth and
beauty wrought by skilful hands and eagerly awaits the results.
If he succeeds, he knows it without troublesome delay. He
glances swiftly about his class, detecting here and there a
pupil who responds, “his rapt soul sitting in his eyes”; and the
instructor glows with the consciousness that his labors have not
been in vain.--D. O. S. LOWELL, “Proceedings of the
Religious Education Association,” 1905.

(3176)

TEACHERS, ALERTNESS OF

It is an interesting commentary on the earnestness and
professional zeal of the teachers as a class, that they are
in such large numbers willing to spend no inconsiderable
portion of their summer vacation, and no small part of their
scant earnings, in paying board, tuition, and incidentals at
some summer watering-place to pursue their studies, brushing
up neglected places in their education, and fitting themselves
for higher and better work in their profession. Especially is
this noticeable when we find them spending several weeks in
close attendance upon the teaching and lectures of the most
famous experts the country has produced, getting hints, and more
than hints--principles--of the best methods of teaching the
common-school studies.--_Journal of Education._

(3177)

TEACHER’S FUNCTION, THE

You look into the face of a mirror, and an image is before
you--more truthful, if less flattering, than that which the
photographer produces. You pass on, and another comes and looks
into the same mirror; but it tells no tales of you, revives no
recollection. A thousand persons pass before the glass, and when
the day is done, it is just as brilliant and just as vacant as
when it made its first reflection. Do we desire a likeness that
shall endure? Science must come to our aid with its camera and
its chemicals; the image must be caught upon a sensitized plate
or film and then fixt so it shall not fade.

In like manner the teacher may hold up a truth before an
untrained pupil. It may be beautiful and inspiring, as reflected
in the mirror of the pupil’s mind. He may understand it, assent
to it, even enjoy it; but he may also forget it as he looks
upon the next picture. To prevent such loss, it becomes the
teacher’s function to see that his pupil’s mind is not a mere
mirror from whose polished surface glide these bright images in
swift succession, but a sensitized plate on which truths may
be photographed and fixt. (Text.)--D. O. S. LOWELL,
“Proceedings of the Religious Education Association,” 1905.

(3178)

=Teacher’s Kindness=--See EFFACEMENT OF SINS.

=Teaching=--See NEGATIVE TEACHING.

=Teaching Sympathetically=--See SYMPATHY IN TEACHING.

TEACHING VERSUS PRACTISE

A Chinese legend tells of an old sage who sat at a fountain. The
three founders of the principal religions of the land met him
there looking for an apostle to carry his message to men. Said
he in explanation of the reason why he did not go himself and
carry his own message: “I can not go because only the upper part
of me is flesh and blood--the lower part is stone. I can talk
but can not walk. I can teach virtue, but I can not follow its
teaching.”

The legend seems to be a parabolic way of pointing out the well-known fact that it is far easier to preach than to practise.

(3179)

TEARS AND FEELING

The higher the pitch of refinement, the less the fall of tears.
This is true of both sexes, but especially of men, and in men
in proportion to the fulness of their manhood. Children, of
whichever sex, cry at their own cross will, but the schoolboy
will hardly shed tears when he is flogged; the young man is
ashamed to weep when he is hurt by a fall, except into love;
while the full-bearded adult has completely triumphed over
feeling. All these statements are true with a difference among
nations, due to climatic, historic, or other influences. One of
the mysteries of tears is that tho, as the ministers of emotion,
they start to assuage sorrow, yet when a mighty grief strikes
us they withhold their relief. Petty troubles not only express
themselves, but are garrulous; the great are silent from sore
amazement. Friends, brothers, sisters and children can weep over
the pallid face, but the wife or mother looks on her dead with
wild, unmoistened eyes. Niobe is turned into stone; and, most
dreadful of all, she is conscious that she has been petrified
to her inmost soul.--J. T. L. PRESTON, _Atlantic
Monthly_.

(3180)

TEARS, POWER OF

Boast not of the roaring river,
Of the rocks its surges shiver,
Nor of torrents over precipices hurled,
For a simple little tear-drop,
That you can not even hear drop,
Is the greatest water-power in all the world.

--Chicago _Tribune_.

(3181)

=Technical Education, The Effect of=--See EDUCATION, HIGHER.

TECHNICALITIES

Lord Clarendon, in describing the fire in the Temple, London, in
1666, says: “The Lord Mayor, tho a very honest man, was much
blamed for want of sagacity in the first night of the fire,
before the wind gave it much advancement. When men who were
less terrified with the object prest him very earnestly that
he would give orders for the present pulling down those houses
which were nearest, and by which the fire climbed to go further,
the doing whereof at that time might probably have prevented
much of the mischief that succeeded, he thought it not safe, and
made no other answer than that he durst not do it without the
consent of the owners. His want of skill was the less wondered
at when it was known afterward that some gentlemen of the Inner
Temple would not endeavor to preserve the goods which were in
the lodgings of absent persons, because they said it was against
the law to break up any man’s chamber.”--CROAKE JAMES,
“Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(3182)

=Teeth, The Value of Good=--See ASSIMILATION.

=Teleology=--See WORK DIVINELY INTENDED.

=Telephone Possibilities Discredited=--See OPPORTUNITY LOST.

=Temperament=--See ENVIRONMENT.

TEMPERANCE

That chronic alcoholism among the Russians may explain, in part, at least, some of the results of the war in Manchuria, is the editorial opinion of _American Medicine_. Says this paper:

On the Japanese side the reports are all of one tenor, and
depict an almost universal abstinence. What drinking is done
is in extreme moderation. Upon the Russian side we hear of
immense stores of vodka, champagne by carload lots, and orgies
innumerable. The Russian officer is notorious, by general
report, of course, for the large quantities of alcohol he daily
consumes, and it is impossible for any brain to submit to such
insults without undergoing the changes long known to take
place in heavy drinkers. It is not remarkable then that the
older officers, who are managing the campaign, are constantly
outwitted by the healthy-minded Japanese. (Text.)

(3183)

* * * * *

In April, 1838, William Martin knocked at Father Mathew’s door
in obedience to a summons. The friar met him at the threshold,
his handsome face radiant with kindness and good-nature.

“Welcome, Mr. Martin, welcome! I have sent for you to assist me
in forming a temperance society in this neighborhood.”

“I knew it,” said the Quaker; “something seemed to tell me that
thou would’st do it at last.”

“For long I could not see my way clearly to take up the
question. I have been asked by several good men to take up the
cause, and I feel I can no longer refuse. How are we to begin?”