Chapter C: G. D. Roberts tells of the capture of a great eagle at the (4)

A young man who had worked up to the position of confidential
clerk, became jealous of a new clerk, to whom his employer had
just given a raise in salary exceeding his own. He went to his
employer and said: “Are you not satisfied with my work and my
faithfulness?” “Oh, yes,” was the reply. “Why, then, do you
give this new man more salary than to me?” Instead of replying
to the question, the merchant, who was a grain dealer, said:
“Do you see that load of grain going by? Run out, and see to
whom it is going.” The confidential man returned, and said it
was going to Wilson’s place. “Run out and find out what they
got for the grain.” He returned and said eighty-five cents per
bushel. “Run and find out if Wilson wants any more.” He returned
and said: “Yes, he wants another carload.” At this moment the
new clerk came in, and the grain merchant repeated to him his
first instruction: “Run out and see where that load of grain is
going.” In a few minutes the new clerk returned and said: “The
grain is going to Wilson’s; they are paying eighty-five cents
per bushel, and want another carload.” The merchant, turning
to the confidential man, said: “You have your answer. It took
you three trips to find out what this man learned in one.” The
new clerk had wit enough to know that the merchant did not care
about where the grain was going, but if there was a probability
of supplying some of the demand, and upon what terms.--JAMES
T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”

(3358)

USEFULNESS VERSUS DISPLAY

One of these little flitting society girls, compared to a
substantial Christian girl, reminds me of a butterfly compared
to a honey-bee. The butterfly flits here and there with its
beautiful color, and nobody ever knows what it’s for or where
it goes. The honey-bee flies from flower to flower, lighting
with a velvet tread upon each blossom, extracting its sweetness
without marring its beauty, and lays up honey to bless the
world.--“Famous Stories of Sam P. Jones.”

(3359)

USELESS LABOR

If all the efforts wasted on such tasks as that described below were put into useful and constructive work, the world’s wealth would be far more rapidly increased.

Mr. William L. Stuart, a young man engaged in business in New
York City, has performed the seemingly impossible feat of
engraving the entire Lord’s Prayer on the head of an ordinary
pin, to which he has added his name and the year, making
altogether two hundred and seventy-six letters and figures.

Mr. Stuart did the work at odd times during his regular
employment and with very ordinary tools, which seemingly are
not adapted to such fine engraving. The pin was set in a block
of wood, and a common engraver’s tool was used. A simple
microscope, costing only about twenty-five cents, and known as
a “linen tester,” furnished the necessary magnifying.

(3360)

USELESS STRUCTURES

Science speaks of useless physiological structures, as when we read in “The Descent of Man”:

Man, as well as every other animal, presents structures which,
as far as we can judge with our little knowledge, are not now of
any service to him, nor have been so during any former period
of his existence, either in relation to his general condition
of life, or of one sex to the other. Such structures can not
be accounted for by any form of selection, or by the inherited
effects of the use and disuse of parts.

Useless structures are not discerned alone by science. History and experience, in the large field of life, have seen them many times. The efforts of man have often reclaimed “useless structures.”

(3361)

USURY IN OLD DAYS

Our Pilgrims were few and poor. The whole outfit of this
historic voyage, including £1,700 of trading stock, was only
£2,400, and how little was required for their succor appears
in the experience of the soldier, Captain Miles Standish,
who, being sent to England for assistance--not military, but
financial--(God save the mark!)--succeeded in borrowing--how
much do you suppose?--£150 sterling. Something in the way of
help; and the historian adds, “tho at fifty per cent interest.”
So much for a valiant soldier on a financial expedition. A later
agent, Allerton, was able to borrow for the colony £200 at a
reduced interest of thirty per cent. Plainly, the money-sharks
of our day may trace an undoubted pedigree to these London
merchants.--CHARLES SUMNER.

(3362)

UTILITY

Many men decide values as Russell Sage did in this incident from _The Saturday Evening Post_, which illustrates the thrift which has always been present in all transactions made by Russell Sage:

A prominent New York financier says that recently, while on a
tour of inspection over the Missouri Pacific system, President
Gould took great pride in pointing out to Russell Sage the late
improvements in equipment, and various new and ingenious devices
and attachments. Among the latter Mr. Gould was especially
pleased to show to Mr. Sage a certain device by which there
is registered the speed of a train. The device in question
resembled a steam-gage, and was connected with an axle, so that
the pointer registered the number of revolutions every minute.

Mr. Sage examined the device with great interest. Then, after a
moment’s pause, he looked up at Mr. Gould, and asked with great
solemnity, “Does it earn anything?” “No, I think not,” answered
the president. “Does it save anything?” “No.” “Then,” concluded
Mr. Sage decidedly, “I would not have it on my car!”

(3363)

See CURRENTS, UTILIZING.

UTILITY AS THEISTIC EVIDENCE

Man reasons from himself to the great cause of things. That which is true of man may be true of God.

A prospect-glass or a forceps is an instrument; they have each
a final cause; that is, they were each made and adjusted for a
certain use. The use of the prospect-glass is to assist the eye;
the use of the forceps is to assist the hand. The prospect-glass
was made the better to see; the forceps, the better to grasp.
The use did not make these instruments; they were each made for
the use--which use was foreseen and premeditated in the mind of
the maker of them. We say of each of them without a shadow of
hesitation: If this had not first been a thought, it could never
have been a thing.

(3364)

UTILITY, DIVINE

Preaching, like every other thing that God permits or ordains, can not be limited by human regulations. Rev. W. H. Fitchett says of John Wesley:

John Wesley heard at Bristol that his helper, Maxfield, had
crossed the mystic border-line which separates an exhortation
from a sermon, and the story has already been told of how Wesley
rode post-haste to London to trample out the first sparks of
what might prove to be a conflagration. His mother’s calm eyes
and quiet speech arrested him. She made the one appeal which, to
Wesley’s reason and conscience alike, was irresistible. This
new and alarming phenomenon must, after all, be judged by the
question: “Does God use it?”--“Wesley and His Century.”

(3365)

UTILIZATION

Darwin made the great experiments which have changed the whole
aspect of natural history, with the common glasses of his house,
and the common flower-pots in his garden.

There is a legend of an artist who sought long for a piece of
sandalwood out of which to carve a Madonna. He was about to
give up the search when in a dream he was bidden to shape the
figure from a block of oak-wood which was destined for the fire.
Obeying the command, he produced from the log of common firewood
a masterpiece.--HUGH MACMILLAN.

(3366)

* * * * *

Not so long ago there arrived at a Pacific port a ship from
Belfast, Ireland, after a voyage that was in one respect
remarkable. It appears that this vessel’s ballast consisted of
about 2,000 tons of Irish soil. This, when leveled off, made a
pretty good-sized garden patch, and the members of the crew,
with commendable thrift, took it into their heads to improve it.

They planted a good stock of garden truck--cabbages, leeks,
turnips, radishes, peas, beans, lettuce and other things. These
came up in due course, and flourished admirably, especially
while the ship was in the tropics, and the men had fresh “garden
sass” to their hearts’ content.

As they rounded Cape Horn they replanted the garden, and by the
time they reached the equator everything was again green and the
table well supplied.

The two drawbacks were the weeds, which grew apace, and the
inroads of the ship’s drove of pigs, which were kept in the
“farm-yard attachment,” and which, on several occasions, when
the ship was rolling heavily, broke out of bounds and, of
course, did their best to obtain their share of the garden truck.

The last pig was killed and served with green vegetables just
before the vessel entered the port on the Pacific. On the
arrival of the ship the sod was taken to its destination,
ready to be used again for terrestrial gardening.--_Harper’s
Weekly._

(3367)

* * * * *

A public sentiment that fluctuates irregularly can be as little depended upon in making progress as the sun’s energy noted in the following:

The energy falling upon an ordinary city lot should run
continuously a hundred-horse-power plant. If all the coal
deposits in Pennsylvania were burned in one second, they
would not produce as much power as the sun furnishes us in
the same time. The difficulty in the practical utilization
of the solar energy lies in its extreme variability. In the
morning and afternoon, when the sun is low in the heavens,
but a small amount of energy reaches the surface, and even at
noon a passing cloud will absorb the greater part of the solar
radiation.--CHARLES LANE POOR, “The Solar System.”

(3368)

UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES

A writer on the coal areas of the nation says:

A good geologist, Baron von Richthofen, has reported that he
has found a coal-field in the province of Hunau covering an
area of 21,700 square miles, which is nearly double the British
coal area of 12,000 square miles. In the province of Shansi,
the baron discovered nearly 30,000 square miles of coal, with
unrivaled facilities for mining. But all these vast coal-fields,
capable of supplying the whole world for some thousands of years
to come, are lying unworked.

If “the course of manufacturing supremacy of wealth and of
power” were directed by coal, then China, which possesses 33.3
times more of this directive force than Great Britain, and had
so early a start in life, should be the supreme summit of the
industrial world. If this solid hydrocarbon “raises up one
people and casts down another,” the Chinaman should be raised
thirty-three times and three-tenths higher than the Englishman;
if it “makes railways on land and paths on the sea,” the Chinese
railways should be 33.3 times longer than ours, and the tonnage
of their mercantile marine 33.3 times greater.

China is thus shown to be, potentially, the wealthiest coal-bearing country in the world. Actually, she is one of the poorest. The difference lies in her lack of utilization of that which is hers. So many a man fails of the best results. He possesses untold wealth, but he is morally and spiritually poverty-stricken because he fails to work the moral and spiritual deposit.

(3369)

UTILIZING SEAWEED

Owing to the formation of the coast, seaweed is present in great
quantities along the shores of Prince Edward Island, in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The high tide leaves a long stretch of
territory between high and low water mark, where it grows. As a
fodder it is eaten by oxen, sheep, and deer in winter, and when
boiled with a small quantity of meal added it makes a desirable
food for hogs.

From seaweed, when reduced to ashes, are gained some of the most
beneficent preparations in use to-day. Some of these are iodin,
bromin, hydriodic acid, iodides of sodium, mercury, potassium,
magnesium, and calcium. From it are extracted coloring matters,
volatile oil, and its ingredients are used in photography. It
is further employed as coverings for flasks, in the packing of
glass, china, and other brittle wares, for packing furniture,
stuffing pillows and mattresses, and in upholstering. The claim
is made that furniture stuffed with seaweed is kept free of
moths and other insects, owing to its salty flavor.

This weed is one of the best non-conductors of heat and finds
use in thermotics, especially in the insulation of refrigerators
and in refrigerating plants. It is also used between walls and
floors to prevent the transmission of sound.

As the demand for this article is getting more active, large
quantities are being gathered by farmers and fishermen along the
shores of Prince Edward Island, dried, and prepared for shipment
to the United States. (Text.)--_Harper’s Weekly._

(3370)

UTILIZING SEED

“There isn’t one man in ten thousand who has the remotest
idea of the vast number of uses to which the once despised
cotton-seed is now being put,” said Captain B. J. Holmes, of New
Orleans.

“From the clean seed are obtained linters and meats and
hulls, the hulls making the best and most fattening feed for
cattle that has yet been found. From the linters are gathered
material for mattresses, felt wads, papers, rope, and a grade
of underwear, and likewise cellulose, out of which gun-cotton
is made. The meats furnish oil and meal, the oil after refining
being now in almost universal use in the kitchens of this and
other countries. Before refinement to the edible stage, the
oil is known under many names, such as salad-oil, stearine,
winter-oil and white-oil, oleomargarine being the product of
stearine. The white-oil is the chief ingredient in compound
lards. The original oil, also known as soap stock, has fatty
acids used in the manufacture of soaps, roofing-tar, paints and
glycerine, and from this comes the explosive nitroglycerine.
I might also add that the meal, aside from its use as cattle
provender, is transformed into bread, cake, crackers and even
candy. Last of all come the doctors, who are saying that this
wonderful seed is a boon to the sick, since from its oils an
emulsion is prepared that has been known to be of value in
tuberculosis and other ailments.”--Baltimore _American_.

(3371)

=Utilizing Soap-suds=--See SAGACITY SUPPLEMENTING SCIENCE.

=Utilizing Spider Threads=--See NATURE AIDING SCIENCE.

=Utilizing the Best We Have=--See CONSERVATION OF REMAINDERS.

UTTERANCE

Criminals, even those hardened beings who, ordinarily, laugh
at everything, and show but little trace of what we call
conscience, rarely keep their secret. It seems to burn them.
They chalk it on the walls, and they betray it in their dreams.
Their security depends upon their silence, and this silence they
can not keep. At every moment their speech skirts the terrible
mystery, and takes on a hollow sound which recalls that of steps
upon tunneled earth. One guesses a gulf even when he does not
see it. Revelation is more than a need; it is a necessity. It
takes place sometimes in spite of ourselves and against our
will. (Text.)--CHARLES WAGNER, “The Gospel of Life.”

(3372)

V

=Vacation Philosophy=--See ROUTINE.

=Vacuity=--See ORATORY; SOCIAL VANITY.

=Valuation, Extravagant=--See MYSTERY, VALUE OF.

VALUE IN RUBBISH

The rubbish of New York City is worth about $200,000 a year.
The city gathers and carries its rubbish to the scows at the
river-front. Then a contractor trims the scows and disposes of
the litter. This operation costs him about $3,000 a week, or
$500 each working day. For the privilege of handling the stuff,
and winnowing it for goodly finds, the contractor, Celesto Di
Maico, pays $1,750 a week, or $90,000 a year, to the city. This
is $25,000 more than the previous contracts.--_Collier’s
Weekly._

(3373)

VALUE OF ONE MAN

Of Thomas A. Edison, the inventor, _The Episcopal Recorder_ says:

In these days, when every millionaire comes in for his share of
just or unjust criticism, it is refreshing to read the kindly
comments made on Thomas A. Edison and his work. Mr. Edison is
an enormously wealthy man, but strange to say, we seldom think
of Edison and millions in the same moment. The enormous force
generated by this brilliant man is seen in the fact that his
inventions and those which he has materially assisted have given
existence to industries capitalized at more than $7,000,000,000,
and earning annually more than $1,000,000,000, while they find
employment for half a million people. Even these stupendous
figures do not cover the facts, for no figures can begin to
indicate the value of the service Mr. Edison’s inventions have
rendered to mankind. If we could take out of every-day life
those things that owe their existence to his genius, there would
be quite a conspicuous gap, and Mr. Edison has not finished yet.
The impress of this quiet man of sixty-three is possibly one of
the greatest ever made by any one. Certainly his conquests of
peace far surpass all the conquests of war.

(3374)

=Value Recognized=--See GENIUS CAN NOT BE HIDDEN.

VALUE THROUGH CHRIST

A class of medical students were being taken through the wards
of a hospital. Their professor was showing them some strange
case--a man who was a mere wreck, lying upon his bed hopeless
and helpless, a broken fragment of humanity, a man who had
spoiled his chances, sold his soul and body. The professor said
in Latin, _Fiat experimentum in corpore vili_, “Let the
experiment be made upon a worthless body.” But the man was an
old university man, and before the days of his crash, he, too,
knew Latin. He arose in his bed and answered back, _Pro hoc
corpore vili Jesus Christus mortuus est_, “For this worthless
body Jesus Christ has died.” And from every broken bit of the
wreckage of humanity, and from every bit of your own soul’s life
that is wrecked and broken, comes the same response to-day.
God knows that for this worthless body Jesus Christ is on His
cross still waiting to see of the travail of His soul.--JOHN
KELMAN.

(3375)

VALUES

Charles Wagner, in “The Gospel of Life,” points a conclusion worth considering:

In finance, a figure is a figure. Two equal numbers have the
same value, and a hundred dollars are twice fifty and twenty
times as much as five dollars. But when intentions are involved,
it is another matter; then the value of the figures depends no
longer upon their size. This is what Jesus causes us to observe.
Beware of neglecting the little pennies; there are pennies that
are poems, there are pennies that have a soul.

(3376)

VALUES IN QUESTION

Money talks just as loudly in the realm of music as anywhere
else. The despised violin, which merely is an incumbrance when
it is thought to be worth not more than $10, becomes the chief
ornament of the household when an expert says it is worth not
less than $1,000. In Chicago there is a business man who owns
a violin. He inherited it from his father, who was a musician.
The business man does not play. One of his friends is a lover
of violin music. That friend often had told the business man
the violin was a good one, and that he ought to treasure it.
The business man regarded the advice as that of an enthusiast.
One day the argument became so warm the friend insisted that
the question be settled at once by carrying the instrument to a
professor of music, who is admittedly an authority on violins.

“Why, I wouldn’t carry that violin through the street for
anything,” the business man said. “My friends would think I had
gone music mad in my old age.”

“I’ll carry it,” his friend said quickly. “I’m not ashamed to
carry a violin anywhere. Come along.”

They went. The professor was at home. The back and the belly,
the neck and the bridge, the tail-piece and the sounding-post,
all passed beneath his critical eye. “It looks all right,” the
professor said. From the case he drew the bow and ran the hair
several times across the cake of rosin. Then, striking A on a
near-by piano, he proceeded to tune the instrument which for so
many years had been held in so light esteem by its owner. After
the violin was in tune he tested it, string by string, chord by
chord, and harmonic by harmonic, in all positions. Then he began
to play. The fulness, the richness and sweetness of the tone
appealed even to the matter-of-fact business man.

“It is a genuine old Italian instrument, and I’ll give you
$1,000 for it,” the professor said. The business man gasped.

“I’ll tell you frankly, it is worth more than that, but that is
all I can afford to pay,” the professor continued.

“I can’t think of selling it,” the business man replied, with a
halt in his speech. “You see, it came to me from my father. It
is an heirloom. I thank you, however, for the test you have made
and the good opinion you have exprest.”

The two men started away from the home of the professor, the
business man carrying the violin.

“Let me take it,” his musical friend said. “You might meet some
one you know.”

“I’ll carry it,” the business man retorted. “I don’t care how
many friends I meet. And, besides, you might drop it.”--Chicago
_Inter-Ocean_.

(3377)

=Values Rated=--See DISCRIMINATION, UNFAIR.

=Values, Spiritual=--See SPIRITUAL VALUES.

VALUES, STANDARD OF

When Tucker, Dean of Gloucester, asserted in the presence of Sir
Joshua Reynolds that a pin-maker was more valuable to society
than a Raphael, that ardent lover of his profession replied with
some asperity: “That is an observation of a very narrow mind, a
mind that is confined to the mere object of commerce. Commerce
is the means, not the end of happiness. The end is a rational
enjoyment by means of art and sciences. It is, therefore, the
highest degree of folly to set the means in a higher rank
of esteem than the end. It is as much as to say that the
brick-maker is superior to the architect.”

(3378)

VANDALISM

In Egypt, travelers tell us about the destruction of palaces by
vandals and Huns. The greatest architects and artists the world
has ever known toiled upon the palace, and made it as perfect
as a red rose; then came along these vandals--they ripped out
carvings of angels and seraphs, that held a beauty that would
pierce an artist’s heart, and with these carvings boiled their
kettles. They pulled down the statues of Phidias and burned them
into lime. They took the very stones of a palace and built them
into hundreds of mean and squalid hovels. Soon where had been a
structure for the gods, there stood hovels unfit for beasts.

In the same way many men treat the precious things of life and religion.

(3379)

VANITY

The fate of the soap-bubble is a lesson put into rime by Katherine Pyle:

“I am little,” the soap-bubble said, “just now;
Oh, yes, I am small, I know”;
(This is what it said to the penny pipe);
“But watch and see me grow.

“Now, look! and reflected in me you’ll see
The windows, the chairs and door.
I’m a whole little world; did you ever know
Such a wonderful thing before?

“And only look at my colors bright,
Crimson and green and blue,
You could hardly hope such a lovely thing
Would ever stay here with you.

“And I feel so light!” the bubble cried;
“I’m going now; good-by!
I shall float and float away from here,
Out under the shining sky.

“I shall float--” But puff! the bubble broke.
The pipe near the nursery floor
Never looked nor spoke, but went on with its work,
And blew a great many more.

(3380)

See MARKS, COVERING.

VANITY, BLASPHEMOUS

Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, was once listening in
church to the Rev. Jedediah Dewey, the ancester of Admiral Dewey
of Manila fame, who was offering prayer in which he was giving
God thanks for the victory of the American arms at the battle of
Bennington, when Ethan Allen chafed under the devout preacher’s
neglect of his part in the conflict and success. Rising in his
pew in the midst of the prayer, he said, “Parson Dewey, Parson
Dewey!” The parson stopt and opened his eyes to see the source
of the interruption, when Ethan Allen added, “Please mention to
the Lord about my being there.” “Sit down, thou blasphemer,”
thundered Mr. Dewey, “and listen to the praises of the God of
battles.”

(3381)

VANITY IN DEATH

According to a recent magazine writer, Ann Oldfield, who once took “London by storm,” “being much caressed in the houses of great people and received in friendly terms at court,” is now chiefly recalled as an actress who, when dying, was concerned most with the “becomingness of the burial robe” in which she lay in state indeed in the Jerusalem chamber of Westminster Abbey, in the vaults of which she was entombed.

“Odious in woollen ’twould a saint provoke,
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.)
No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face.
One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead,
And, Betty, give this cheek a little red!”
(Text.)

(3382)

=Variation=--See FREEDOM THROUGH DRILL.

VERBIAGE

Certainly lawyers can not rail at theologians for adhesion to traditional forms.

An author who inveighed against the practise of lawyers drawing
long deeds and settlements, thus satirized it: “If a man were
to give to another an orange he would merely say, ‘I give you
this orange’; but when the transaction is entrusted to the
hands of a lawyer to put it in writing, he adopts this form, ‘I
hereby give, grant and convey to you all and singular my estate
and interest, right, title, claim and advantage of and in the
said orange, together with all its rind, skin, juice, pulp,
and pips, and all right and advantage therein, with full power
to bite, cut, suck, and otherwise eat the same, or give the
same away as fully and effectually as I, the said A B, am now
entitled to bite, cut, suck, or otherwise eat the same orange,
or give the same away, with or without its rind, skin, juice,
pulp, and pips, anything hereinbefore or hereinafter, or in any
other deed or deeds, instrument or instruments, of what nature
or kind soever to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.’”
(Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(3383)

VERSATILITY

The following anecdote is told of Cyrus Hamlin, a lifelong missionary in Turkey and the chief founder of Robert College in Constantinople:

One day at Bowdoin, Professor Smith delivered a lecture on the
steam-engine to Hamlin’s class, not one of whom, perhaps, had
ever seen a steam-engine. Those were the days of the stage-coach
and the ox-team. After the lecture he said to Professor Smith,
“I believe I could make an engine.” The professor replied,
“I think you can make anything you undertake, Hamlin, and I
wish you would try.” He did try, and succeeded. By working
twelve and sometimes fifteen hours each day, he built a
steam-engine sufficiently large to be of real service as a part
of the philosophical apparatus of the college.--_Youth’s
Companion._

(3384)

=Versatility Required=--See DETAILS, PERIL OF.

VERSION, HIS MOTHER’S

A Bible-class teacher was telling of the various translations of
the Bible and their different excellences. The class was much
interested, and one of the young men that evening was talking to
a friend about it.

“I think I prefer the King James version for my part,” he said,
“tho, of course, the Revised is more scholarly.”

His friend smiled. “I prefer my mother’s translation of the
Bible myself to any other version,” he said.

“Your mother’s?” cried the first young man, thinking his
companion had suddenly gone crazy. “What do you mean, Fred?”

“I mean that my mother has translated the Bible into the
language of daily life for me ever since I was old enough to
understand it. She translates it straight, too, and gives its
full meaning. There has never been any obscurity about her
version. Whatever printed version of the Bible I may study, my
mother’s is always the one that clears up my difficulties.”

(3385)

=Vessels=--See CONDEMNED, THE.

VIBRATION

The jar and discord of life may often be modified by balancing one discord against another or by changing the rate of effort. Sometimes to go faster in one direction or slower in another brings harmony and peace.

It is rather interesting to call attention to the recent
improvement in the running conditions of the steamship
_Mauretania_, which, it will be remembered, is driven by
four steam turbines, and which recently damaged one of her
propellers. While repairing the latter, advantage was taken of
the opportunity to change the propeller-blades a little, and it
is said the change reduced very appreciably the vibration of the
vessel. It seems that there was more or less resonance between
the vibration caused by the propeller-blades and the speed at
which they were driven; so by throwing the two out of harmony,
the effect is damped out. Doubtless similar conditions exist
elsewhere and frequently are the cause of the entire trouble due
to vibration, and by some slight change, throwing the apparatus
or its support out of tune, the effect is removed.--_The
Electrical Review._

(3386)

See COMMUNICATION, PSYCHICAL.

VICARIOUS SACRIFICE

Dr. Turner, in his book on the Samoan Islands, tells the following incident:

The people were cannibals, the King, Mahetoa, leading in the
horrible practise. His young son, Polu, hated the heathenish and
brutal custom, and one day, when he saw a poor boy waiting to
be killed and served as a tender morsel for the King’s dinner,
he was touched with pity and said, “Don’t cry; I will try and
save you.” So he drest himself in coconut leaves and had himself
served just as tho he had been killed and roasted whole. The
King came to the table, and looked down at the cannibal dish,
saw two bright eyes looking up at him. He recognized his son,
and the thought flashed through his heathen mind, “What if it
were, indeed, my dear son, whose body had been cooked for my
meal!” He was touched, too, by the magnanimity of his boy,
taking the other lad’s place, and he abolished cannibalism by
law from his kingdom from that day. (Text.)

(3387)

VICARIOUS SALVATION IMPOSSIBLE

There was a man who dreamed that he died and, seeking admission
to paradise, was refused. He attempted to excuse his lack of
religious faith and fidelity by the old pretext that, while he
looked after worldly affairs, his wife went to church for both.
“Well,” said the gatekeeper, “she has gone in for both!”

(3388)

=Vicarious Sight=--See FRATERNITY.

VICARIOUSNESS

There are men who reap consequences without having the
advantages of the causes that brought them about. For instance,
it takes the gout a good long time to grow in a family, but it
does grow, and it often grows from a good cellar of port in the
possession of an ancestor. Now, what I think hard is that a man
should have the port without having the gout; and what I think
more tragic still, is that another man should have the gout
without having had the port. But still that is one of the great
laws of life. We can not avoid it, and we dare not impugn its
wisdom. Did we, we should be like the great civic functionary
who determined to have a south wall built all around his
garden.--GEORGE DAWSON.

(3389)

Charles Wagner, in “The Gospel of Life,” gives this interesting incident:

Something happened last winter, in Paris, that I shall place
side by side with the mite of the gospel. You will remark the
profound analogy, the close spiritual kinship of these two cases.

In the north wind of December a shelter was raised where warm
soup was given to the unfortunate. A very old woman, who had
long waited her turn, at length sat down and was served. Before
she touched her portion, she noticed that a young, robust
working man beside her had already consumed his with an avidity
that betrayed that he was famished. At once she pushed her plate
toward the workman and said to him: “I am not hungry, will you
eat this?” The workman accepted. But some one had noticed all
that had passed. As they went out, he took the old woman aside
and said to her: “You were not hungry then?” “Oh, yes,” she
answered, blushing, “but I am old and can bear it, and that poor
young man was more in need of it than I.”

(3390)

VICE DEN DISPLACED BY MISSION

Persons passing No. 293 Bowery, formerly the Germania Assembly
Rooms, were invited to come in and be “rescued.”

“This is Hadley Rescue Hall,” said the man at the door. “Please
come in and be rescued while there is time. All are welcome.”

“What!” exclaimed an astonished man; “the old Germania a
mission! Why, this place was one of the biggest gambling dens
the city ever had, and next door was McGuirk’s ‘Suicide Hall.’
If I had the money that I blew in there I wouldn’t be walking
the Bowery to-day in search of a nickel for a cup of coffee.”

(3391)

VICTORIES, DISASTROUS

Milman has told us how Pope John XXI, bursting into exultant
laughter as he entered for the first time that noble chamber
which he had built for himself at Viterbo, is crusht by its
avenging roof, which that instant comes down on his head.
And thus it is true, in a deeper sense, that many a triumph
crushes and extinguishes all that is noblest in him who has
won it. Doubtless, failure and defeat are bitter, but hardest
of all to bear are not our losses but our victories.--Bishop
POTTER, _Scribner’s Magazine_.

(3392)

VICTORY

Baldwin, an Englishman, who went to Africa only with the
intention of shooting, one day put this problem to himself,
after having been very nearly felled by a lion: “Why does man
risk his life without having any interest in doing so?” The
answer he gave to himself was: “It is a question which I will
not try to solve. All I can say is that in victory one finds an
inward satisfaction for which it is worth while to run a risk,
even if there is nobody to applaud.”

(3393)

* * * * *

In 61 B.C., Pompey returned to Rome from the wars, having conquered the known world. He led a triumphal procession along the _Via Sacra_, occupying two days. In front were borne brazen tablets on which were recorded a list of the nations conquered and the trophies won in Africa, in Europe, and in Asia, representing nine hundred cities and one thousand fortresses. (Text.)

(3394)

See WINNING.

VICTORY IN DEFEAT

Billy Boy was in a very serious frame of mind; in fact, he was
quite gloomy and dejected. To be sure, his side hadn’t won the
cricket match, but that was scarcely enough to account for his
present state of feeling. He had lost before, and usually with
pretty good grace. But to-day no sympathy appealed to him, no
cheerful encouragement won so much as a shadow of a smile. The
hopeful, merry, happy Billy Boy had entirely disappeared.

Mother, whose experience with little boys had
warned her of occasions when it was a case of
“do-better-or-do-nothing-at-all,” as Hans says in the Grimm
story, waited for the situation to develop, and at last the
silence was broken. Slowly, seriously, solemnly, Billy Boy said
it:

“Mother, God was on the side of the bad boys, and they won. You
see, we fellows thought we would try awfully hard and not get
mad or cheat or say bad words. And not one fellow did. And the
other fellows did--like fury. I guess they swore. And they won
and we were licked. God was on their side all right, and it’s
not fair.”

Ordinary comfort and explanation availed nothing. The fact
remained. The faithful little band that had tried to do right
had been beaten by the rough little crowd that didn’t care
anything at all about it. God was on the side of might--not
right. This was self-evident and did not admit of explanation;
and who wants comfort for injustice? Not Billy Boy. After a
while father came in, and before Billy Boy saw him, mother had
presented the case.

He thought carefully a moment. Then his cheerful voice was heard.

“Well, my boy, I hear you won out to-day.”

“Well, then,” in a voice of awful solemnity, “you heard wrong,
’cause we didn’t; we were licked.”

“Oh, but I heard that there were two contests; which did you
win?”

“Why, I don’t know what you mean, father.”

“Mother told me about it. She told me you lost the match, but
you won the big, important thing; you didn’t beat the other
fellows, but you beat yourselves, and conquered all the anger
and unfairness and bad language. Congratulations, old fellow!
You won out and I’m proud of you.”

Billy Boy’s face was slowly undergoing a change. It was growing
once more interested, happy, hopeful. “Why, that’s so, dad,” he
said joyously, after a minute; “I didn’t see that. And God was
on our side after all, wasn’t He?”

“Greater is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a
city,” said the father, with a smile.

That night when Billy Boy said his prayers, this is the
way he ended his petition: “And please, God, excuse me
for the way I thought about you this afternoon. I didn’t
understand.”--_Congregationalist._

(3395)

VICTORY, ULTIMATE

The victory that comes beyond all life’s failures is the subject of these lines from _Success_:

There is no failure. Life itself’s a song
Of victory o’er death, and ages long
Have told the story old of triumphs wrought
Unending, from the things once held for naught.
The battle’s over; tho defeated now,
In coming time the waiting world shall bow
Before the throne of Truth that’s builded high
Above the dust of those whose ashes lie
All heedless of the glorious fight they won
When death obscured the light of vict’ry’s sun.

(3396)

VICTORY WITH GOD

But yesterday I opened an English history. The scholar was
recounting the events of the hour when Parliament prohibited
slavery, in the English colonies. At that time, the author says,
applause in those sacred precincts was unknown, but suddenly
at the name of Wilberforce, all the members arose, cheered
wildly, waved hands and caps, and in a tumult of enthusiasm,
clustered about Wilberforce. But the one man who sat silent and
overcome, perhaps was thinking of the hour when in Parliament
he made his first plea. Then his seemed a hopeless task. The
rich men of England drew their income from slavery and the sugar
plantations. The whole moneyed system of England was involved.
After Wilberforce’s first attack on slavery, he was left alone.
Men turned their backs on him as if he were a leper. He ate his
bread in solitude. When he wandered through the corridors of
the House of Commons, he was alone, like an outcast. All great
houses were closed to the reformer. Then Wilberforce wrote a
little book on religion and conscience, and the moral state of
England. But the bitter fight was transferred to a cathedral,
whose canon thundered against the reformer, and defended the
institution of slavery. But Wilberforce held on his way. He knew
his God. He saw afar off Him who was invisible. And lo, the
sword flashed, and he beheld the Prince of Peace marching to
victory. Once there was Wilberforce, and in the shadow behind
him one like unto the Son of God. Then, there was Wilberforce,
and all England behind him, and the Eternal God over all,
leading on, in whose name Wilberforce wrought exploits.--N.
D. HILLIS.

(3397)

VIEW, THE NEAR AND FAR

How often would it happen that men who see evil in other men, and hold one another in distrust and contempt, would gain a different impression merely by drawing nearer together. _Tit-Bits_ gives this humorous instance:

They met on a bridge. Each held out his hand, and they shook,
and instantly realized that they were utter strangers. Had not
one of them been a genuine Hibernian the situation might have
been embarrassing.

“Begorra, that’s quare,” said Pat. “When we wor so far off that
we couldn’t see eich other I thought it was you an’ you thought
it was me, and now we’re here together it’s nayther of us.”
(Text.)

(3398)

VIEW-POINT

In a poem, “The Mountain,” Edwin Markham shows how differently a mountain affects different minds:

Each builds his world forever, dark or bright,
And sits within his separate universe.
The shepherd sees in this green mountain top
Place where his sheep may wander and grow fat.
What to the drover is this lilied pool?
A hollow for his swine to wallow in.
Gold-hunters find upon this rocky peak
Nothing but ledges for their ringing picks.
But to the poet all this soaring height
Smokes with the footsteps of the passing God!

(3399)

See LIFE WHAT WE MAKE IT; MOODS DETERMINING DESIRES.

=Viewpoint Changed=--See VALUES IN QUESTION.

=Views, Contracted=--See SELF-LIMITATION.

VIGILANCE

Richard III went out at twilight to reconnoiter; he found a
sentinel fast asleep at the outposts. The King promptly stabbed
him to the heart and left upon his breast a paper with the stern
inscription, “I found him asleep and I leave him so.”

Sooner or later death, or something equally to be feared, overtakes every man who forsakes his duty and falls asleep at his post. (Text.)

(3400)

=Vigilance in Nature=--See NATURE’S AGGRESSIVENESS.

VINCIBLENESS

Men are like timber. Oak will bear a stress that pine won’t,
but there never was a stick of timber on the earth that could
not be broken at some pressure. There never was a man born
on the earth that could not be broken at some pressure--not
always the same nor put in the same place. There is many a
man who can not be broken by money pressure, but who can be
by pressure of flattery. There is many a man impervious to
flattery who is warped and biased by his social inclinations.
There is many a man whom you can not tempt with red gold, but
you can with dinners and convivialities. One way or the other,
every man is vincible. There is a great deal of meaning in
that simple portion of the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into
temptation.”--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

(3401)

VIRTUE IN POOR GUISES

I believe that virtue shows quite as well in rags and patches
as she does in purple and fine linen. I believe that she and
every beautiful object in external nature claims some sympathy
in the breast of the poorest man who breaks his scanty loaf of
daily bread. I believe that she goes barefoot as well as shod.
I believe that she dwells rather oftener in alleys and by-ways
than she does in courts and palaces, and that it is good, and
pleasant, and profitable to track her out, and follow her. I
believe that to lay one’s hand upon some of those rejected
ones whom the world has too long forgotten, and too often
misused, and to say to the proudest and most thoughtless, “These
creatures have the same elements and capacities of goodness as
yourselves; they are molded in the same form, and made of the
same clay; and tho ten times worse than you, may, in having
retained anything of their original nature amid the trials and
distresses of their condition, be really ten times better.” I
believe that to do this is to pursue a worthy and not useless
vocation.--CHARLES DICKENS.

(3402)

VIRTUE NOT TO BE COERCED

The most temperate crowd of men I know is in Sing Sing. There
isn’t a single thief in the Raymond Street Jail. But pull
down the walls of Sing Sing, and then you will discover the
difference between a man whose virtue depends upon a wall
and the man whose goodness depends upon a will.--N. D.
HILLIS.

(3403)

VIRTUE, TIRING OF

We have come to a time when multitudes are tired of law, and
duty, honor, justice, and the old solid and substantial virtues
of the fathers. Now and then this rebellious mood voices itself
in the lips of some restless youth who exclaims boldly, “I
hate the very word duty.” Men are become like the cattle in
the clover-field, that once the appetite is satisfied, tire of
walking around knee-deep in rich, luscious grasses, and stick
their heads through the fence, to strain toward the dog’s kennel
in the dusty lane. It is a singular fact that a colt in the
field, up to its ears in clover, as soon as it has eaten and
is full, envies the poor old forsaken horse, out in the lane,
a mere bag of bones, deserted by its owner and left to die,
and eating dirt in its hungry desire for a single mouthful of
grass-roots.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3404)

VIRTUES, TRANSPLANTED

A rare plant from the King’s Gardens at Kew, England, has
floated down the stream to a little village in Surrey. Its
flowers may now be seen, to the great surprize of botanists,
growing on the banks of this village stream in fine profusion.
So the flowers of humility, love, and faith, transplanted in us
from higher lives may grow in the humblest lives, surprizing all
around by their sweet fragrance.

(3405)

=Vision=--See ELEVATION AND VISION; INSPIRATION.

=Vision, Distorted=--See BLINDNESS CURED.

VISION OF JESUS

It was the vision of the Savior which transformed the whole being of Paul. And the apprehension of the person of the risen and ascended Son of God must forever change the one who has beheld Him.

Sir David Brewster says, in his life of Sir Isaac Newton, that
the great astronomer on a certain occasion gazed steadfastly
with his naked eyes on the sun shining in his meridian splendor.
As a consequence, the impression in the retina was so deep that
for days he could not see anything with distinctness--turn which
way he would, he constantly beheld the image of the sun. He shut
himself up for days in a dark room, but even there he could
clearly discern the golden halo of the light. (Text.)

(3406)

VISION RESTORED

A young French girl, daughter of a famous painter, had lost her
eyesight in infancy. She was supposed to be incurably blind. But
years later a noted Paris oculist was consulted and performed
a delicate operation which completely restored her vision.
Frequently afterward she would run into her father’s arms and
exclaim: “To think that I had such a father for so many years
and never knew him!”

So many souls are blind and are ignorant of their Heavenly Father! (Text.)

(3407)

=Vision, The Larger=--See SELF-LIMITATIONS.

=Visiting, Vain=--See ACQUAINTANCES.

VITAL FAITHS

An institution has life in it. Cut any of the faiths of your
fathers and they bleed. At the heart of a grain of wheat is a
golden spot that holds the life, and a coming sheaf. You may
strip off the outer hull, but touch that living heart at your
peril. You may change the forms of your government, but, oh,
guard the liberty of your fathers. You may change the wording of
your fathers’ creed, but at your peril touch the providence of
God, His Fatherhood and love, the way of life through Christ,
the hope of immortality. You may change the method of worship
on Sunday, but at your peril do not destroy it, until in one
wild orgy of drunken pleasure, your children become mere insect
“skippers,” dancing for a day on the surface of a poisoned pool,
then to disappear forever.--N. D. HILLIS.

(3408)

VITALITY, LOW

Just as the body when at a low vitality is susceptible to colds, so it may as truly be said of the soul, when impoverished it falls a prey to temptation and sin.

The common theory that all colds are the result of exposure is a
great mistake, inasmuch as exposure is not the direct cause of
the trouble. Colds are caused by hostile microbes, or bacteria,
which gain a foothold at a time when our vitality has been
lowered by exposure. But there are many quarters of the globe
where one finds it impossible to catch cold, simply by reason of
the fact that there is no cold to catch.

Peary and his men during the months they spent in the arctic
regions were immune from cold, tho they were constantly enduring
exposure of every kind. They passed day after day in clothes
so saturated with perspiration that by day they froze into a
solid mass, so to speak, and the clothes cut into their flesh.
And at night, in their sleeping-bags, the first hour was spent
in thawing out. They returned to civilization none the worse in
health, but soon contracted severe colds upon reaching there.
People were much amused by the press accounts of how Commander
Peary had taken cold while proceeding to dine with a friend
in a suburb of Washington, the taxicab which was conveying
him and his wife having broken down during a snow flurry in
December.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(3409)

=Vocabulary and Missionaries=--See SPEECH AND MISSIONARIES.

=Vocal Practise and Health=--See SINGING CONDUCIVE TO HEALTH.

VOCIFERATION

The Persians in their battles with the Scythians brought with
them from Europe in their train a great number of asses, as
beasts of burden, to transport the tents and the baggage of
the army. These asses were accustomed in times of excitement
and danger to set up a very terrific braying. It was, in fact,
all that they could do. And it was effective, for the Scythian
horses in their troops of cavalry, who would have faced spears
and javelins and the loudest shouts and vociferations of human
adversaries without fear, were appalled and put to flight at
hearing the unearthly noises which issued from the Persian camp
whenever they approached it. The battle was won by the braying
of asses.

Any political campaign might stand as a testimony of the power of vociferation. But the really important issues of the world are never decided by the braying of asses.

(3410)

=Voice=--See AUDIENCE, INSPIRATION FROM.

VOICE, A SWEET

The sweet voice of Philip Phillips once charmed the Senate
chamber at Washington and won a rare tribute from President
Lincoln. It was toward the close of the Civil War. The United
States Christian Commission was in session. Statesmen, generals
and other leading friends of the Union were there. On being
invited to sing, Mr. Phillips rendered Mrs. Gates’ “Your
Mission,” beginning,

“If you can not on the ocean
Sail among the swiftest fleet.”

As he proceeded every one sat spellbound. But when he reached
the lines,

“If you can not in the conflict
Prove yourself a soldier true;
If where fire and smoke are thickest
There’s no work for you to do;
When the battle-field is silent
You can go with careful tread;
You can bear away the wounded,
You can cover up the dead,”

the Senate chamber rang with a tempest of applause, and a note
was passed to the chairman, Secretary Seward, from the pen of
Mr. Lincoln for the singer: “Near the close let us have ‘Your
Mission’ repeated.”

(3411)

=Voice, Knowledge of=--See TESTIMONY, A SHEEP’S.

VOICE OF GOD

There is an old legend of a nun. She had gone into the thick
solitudes to listen to the forest voices. Seated in the shade
of a tree she heard a song till then new to her ears. It was
the song of the mystic bird. In that song she heard in music
all that man thinks and feels, all that he seeks and that he
fails to find. On strong wings that song lifted her soul to the
heights where it looks upon reality. There, with hands clasped,
the nun listened and listened, forgetting earth, sky, time and
even self-listened for long centuries, never tiring, but ever
finding in that voice a sweetness forever new.

Just such music, only infinitely sweeter, does the soul find that listens amid its solitudes to the voice of God. (Text.)

(3412)

VOICE, THE HUMAN

The author of the “Descent of Man” thinks even the human voice is prophetic of the ascent of man. Speaking of the “wonderful power, range, flexibility, and sweetness of the musical sounds producible by the human larynx,” he says:

The habits of savages give no indication of how this faculty
could have been developed. The singing of savages is a more or
less monotonous howling, and the females seldom sing at all.
It seems as if the organ had been prepared in anticipation of
the future progress of man, since it contains latent capacities
which are useless to him in his earlier condition.

(3413)

=Voice, The Mother’s=--See FATHER’S VOICE.

=Voting=--See BALLOT A DUTY.

=Vows=--See GRATITUDE.

=Voyage of Life=--See LIFE A VOYAGE.

VULGARITY IN THE RICH

“Edward Everett Hale,” said a lawyer, “was one of the guests at
a millionaire’s dinner. The millionaire was a free spender, but
he wanted full credit for every dollar put out. As the dinner
progressed, he told his guests what the more expensive dishes
had cost.

“‘This terrapin,’ he would say, ‘was shipped direct from
Baltimore. A Baltimore cook came on to prepare it. The dish
actually cost one dollar a teaspoonful.’