Chapter C: G. D. Roberts tells of the capture of a great eagle at the (5)

“So he talked of the fresh peas, the hothouse asparagus,
the Covent Garden peaches, and the other courses. He dwelt
especially on the expense of the large and beautiful grapes,
each bunch a foot long, each grape bigger than a plum. He told
down to a penny what he had figured it out that the grapes had
cost him apiece.

“The guests looked annoyed. They ate the expensive grapes
charily. But Dr. Hale, smiling, extended his plate and said:

“‘Would you mind cutting me off about $1.87 worth more,
please?’” (Text.)--Rochester _Herald_.

(3414)

W

=Wager, A Rash=--See WOMANLY WIT.

WAIT AND SEE

Be not swift to be afraid;
Many a ghostly thing is laid
In the light from out the shade,
Wait and see.

Do not live your sorrows twice;
Fear is like a touch of ice;
Faith can kill it in a trice,
Wait and see.

Why expect the worst to come?
Pondered cares are troublesome,
Joy makes up a goodly sum,
Wait and see.

Better than your wildest dreams
Is God’s light that for you gleams.
When the morning cloudy seems,
Wait and see.

--MARIANNE FARNINGHAM.

(3415)

WAITING

We often accomplish more by patient waiting than by direct effort.

There was a very balky horse in town which nobody could drive.
A kind gentleman undertook to drive him through the White
Mountains. His owner laughed, and said: “You can not drive out
of town, much less through the mountains.” He said quietly, “I
think I will manage him,” and he did, in this way. He filled the
carriage-box with books, and when the horse balked he quietly
flung the reins on the hook, took out a book and began to read,
and waited patiently until the horse saw fit to start. This he
did two or three times, and the horse was cured.

(3416)

See STATIC PROGRESS.

=Waiting for Enlightenment=--See DRINK.

=Walking=--See FOLLOWING INEXACTLY; GAIT AND CHARACTER.

WALKING FOR INSPIRATION

Much bending over the folio does not make the better part of
poetry or of prose. It inheres as much in the physiological
condition that results from the swinging of the legs, which
movement quickens heart action and stimulates the brain by
supplying it with blood charged with the life-giving principle
of the open air.

In spite of his club-foot, Byron, one of the most fecund, if
not the most moral, of poets, managed to walk about in the open
to an extent that should shame the verse-writer of to-day,
clinging to his strap in the trolley-car. Wordsworth walked
all over the Cumberland district and the neighboring country.
Wherever he happened to be he poked into every secret corner.
Shelley, we are told, rambled everywhere. Despite all unseemly
cavil as to Tennyson’s drinking habits, I should say that he
drew more inspiration from his walks than from his wine. Goethe,
who during his lifetime required fifty thousand bottles of the
vintner’s best to sweeten his imagination, found his extensive
walks about Weimar a source of great inspirational profit.
(Text.)--BAILEY MILLARD, _The Critic_.

(3417)

WALKING WITH GOD

When a boy I remember distinctly seeing my father at a long
distance off (almost as far as the eye could reach) on a road on
which we were all accustomed to travel, as it was the highway
to a big city. The one thing that enabled me to distinguish my
father from other fellow travelers on that road was his manly
walk. There was the graceful swing of the arm and directness of
step, with his toes pointing in the right direction that quickly
identified him from other men.

In the moral and spiritual world we are known by how we step,
whether we are stepping with God or away from Him.--R. S.

(3418)

* * * * *

Jeanette McMillan writes in this poem of a life’s journey with God:

My plans were made, I thought my path all bright and clear,
My heart with songs o’erflowed, the world seemed full of cheer,
My Lord I wished to serve, to take Him for my Guide,
To keep so close that I could feel Him by my side;
And so I traveled on.

But suddenly, in skies so clear and full of light,
The clouds came thick and fast, the day seemed changed to night.
Instead of paths so clear and full of things so sweet,
Rough things, and thorns, and stones seemed all about my feet,
I scarce could travel on.

I bowed my head and wondered why this change should come,
And murmured, “Lord, is this because of aught I’ve done?
Has not the past been full enough of pain and care?
Why should my path again be changed to dark from fair?”
But still I traveled on.

I listened--quiet and still, there came a voice:
“This path is mine, not thine; I made the choice.
Dear child, this service will be best for thee and me
If thou wilt simply trust and leave the end with me.”
And so we travel on.

(3419)

WANDERER’S RETURN

A widowed lady of mature life mourned a runaway son who was lost
to her for years. Her sorrow had silenced her song, for she was
a cultured woman and an accomplished vocalist. But during a
visit at a distant friend’s home she was induced to sing at a
church service, choosing for her solo, “Where is my wandering
boy to-night?” and, of course, sang it with much feeling; and
after rendering the second stanza:

“Once he was pure as the morning dew,
As he knelt at his mother’s knee,
No face was so bright, no heart more true,
And none were so sweet as he,”

the congregation joined in the refrain:

“O where is my boy to-night?
O where is my boy to-night?
My heart o’erflows, for I love him he knows,
O where is my boy to-night?”

“Mother, I’m here,” responded a young man away back, making his
way sobbing up the aisle. Among the converts that night was this
returning wanderer. The Rev. Robert Lowry is the author of the
hymn and tune.

(3420)

WANT BRINGS PROGRESS

How paltry, worthless, small and scant
A world in which man knew not want,
Where no ungratified desire
Allured or drove him to aspire!
Then welcome world of toil and hope
Where every energy has scope!
Brothers, in God’s great world rejoice,
And harken to His cheering voice
That calls man to the larger task
And gives him more than he could ask.
Let us in the assurance rest
That what God does is always best.

--CHARLES WILLIAM PEARSON, “A Threefold Cord.”

(3421)

=War=--See ARMIES OF THE WORLD; MILITARISM; NAVIES OF THE WORLD;
STRATEGY; TENSION, MORAL.

WAR, AFTER EFFECTS OF

The Civil War lasted four years. The number of those enlisted
in the Union army was 2,113,000. The number killed in action
was 67,000; died of wounds received in action, 43,000; while
the total number of deaths from all causes was 359,000. I have
no statistics of the Confederate army, but certainly they would
largely increase the total casualties of the war. On the other
hand, the Spanish War lasted but a few months. The total number
of men mustered in was 223,000. The number killed in action
was only 218--not as many as have been killed in many a single
mining catastrophe; the number of those that died from wounds
received in action was 81; the number dying from disease,
3,848. The total casualties during that war were less than the
number killed in railroad accidents in this country during a
single year. According to the report of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, the number killed on our railways during the year
ending June 30, 1908, was 3,764; the number injured, 68,989.
Other years show a greater fatality. In the Civil War were some
of the greatest battles of history and a terrible loss of life
on either side. In the Spanish War, outside of two brilliant
naval engagements, there were only a few skirmishes. The two
wars taken as a whole compare about like a twelve-inch rifled
gun with a small pistol; and yet, as we have seen, after the
Civil War there was no cry for an increase in armament, no
call for a navy to challenge the fleets of the world, a steady
payment of the national indebtedness, a devotion to the pursuits
of peace, and a magnificent enlargement of our industries and
business, while after the Spanish War we increased our army,
and we have been steadily building ironclad after ironclad,
until now our navy stands second among the navies of the
world.--DAVID J. BREWER.

(3422)

See SACRIFICE, TOO COSTLY.

WAR AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

In a sermon on the scientific indictment of war, Dr. James H. Ecob says:

Soldiers must be young men; not only that, but young men of
the finest possible physical development. The question at once
presents itself, What effect must it have upon the physical
stamina of a people, if the very flower of its young men are led
out and fed to the cannon? What would we say of a farmer who
should lead out into the back lots the very flower of his stock
and shoot it down, leaving it there as food for crows and foxes?
At first we would cry, shameful waste? But a second thought,
more fundamental and portentous, is, what effect must such a
policy have upon the physical status or grade of the stock that
remains. If the best are thrown away and only the second best
are retained, progressive degeneration of the stock must result.

(3423)

WAR, COST OF

That we may better appreciate the present problem in its
relation to the United States, attention is called to the
appropriations made by the United States Government. For the
year ending June 30, 1910, the appropriations for the army,
fortifications and military academy amount to $111,897,515.67;
for the navy, $136,935,199.05; and for pensions, $160,908,000.
The total amount to be expended during the current fiscal
year on account of wars and preparations for war aggregates
$409,740,714.72. Compare these figures with the relatively
insignificant sum of $32,007,049, which is the total amount
appropriated for the use of the executive, legislative and
judicial departments of the Government during the same period.

The total expenditures of the Government of the United States
from its beginning in 1789 to 1909 has been as follows: For
war, $6,699,583,209; for navy, $2,441,572,934; for pensions,
$4,155,267,356. This aggregates the vast sum of $13,296,423,549
expended for war purposes, as against $4,466,068,760 expended
for civil and miscellaneous purposes.

The average annual cost of the army and navy of the United
States for the eight years preceding the Spanish War was
$51,500,000. The average annual cost of the army and navy for
the eight years since the Spanish War has been $185,400,000. The
average yearly increase in the latter period as compared with
the former has been $134,000,000, making a total increase in
eight years of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent. This increase
for eight years exceeds the national debt by $158,000,000.
The amount of all gifts to charities, libraries, educational
institutions and other public causes in 1909 in this country was
$185,000,000, or $400,000 less than the average annual cost for
the army and navy for the past eight years. What benefit has the
nation derived from all this expenditure?

(3424)

See ARMIES OF THE WORLD; NAVIES OF THE WORLD; MILITARISM.

WAR DISPLAY

Edmund Vance Cooke writes of the cruise of the American fleet around the globe in the following significant lines:

This is the song of the thousand men who are multiplied by twelve,
Sorted and sifted, tested and tried, and muscled to dig and delve.
They come from the hum of city and shop, they come from the farm
and the field.
And they plow the acres of ocean now, but tell me, what is their
yield?

This is the song of the sixteen ships to buffet the battle and
gale,
And in every one we have thrown away a Harvard or a Yale.
Behold here the powers of Pittsburg, the mills of Lowell and Lynn,
And the furnaces roar and the boilers seethe, but tell me, what do
they spin?

This is the song of the long, long miles from Hampton to the Horn,
From the Horn away to the western bay whence our guns are proudly
borne.
A flying fleet and a host of hands to carry these rounds of shot!
And behold they have girdled the globe by half, and what is the
gain they have brought?

This is the song of the wasters, ay, defenders, if you please,
Defenders against our fellows, with their wasters even as these,
For we stumble still at the lesson taught since ever the years were
young,
That the chief defense of a nation is to guard its own hand and
tongue.

This is the song of our sinning (for the fault is not theirs, but
ours),
That we chain these slaves to our galley-ships as the symbol of our
powers;
That we clap applause, that we cry hurrahs, that we vent our
unthinking breath,
For oh, we are proud that we flaunt this flesh in the markets of
dismal death.

--_Christian Work and Evangelist._

(3425)

WAR, RACIAL FERTILITY AND

1890–98: 51 Millions
Annual Cost of
the Army and
Navy of the
United States
1902–10: 185 Millions

COMPARISON OF THE ANNUAL COST OF THE ARMY AND NAVY OF THE
UNITED STATES--1890–98, 1902–10]

Overproduction of offspring--“race-suicide” by suffocation instead of by starvation--is responsible, we are now told, for the impulse that is driving the great nations toward war. Germany has outgrown her territory and must seize on some of Great Britain’s colonial overflow territory; Japan is similarly plethoric with population and must disgorge into our Philippines. This is the simple explanation of modern militarism offered by Henry M. Hyde, writing under the title that heads this article, in _The Technical World Magazine_. His theory has the advantage that most of the great world-movements in recorded history may be traced to this cause, from the Aryan migration to the daily influx of Poles and Hungarians on our own shores. After dwelling on the recent huge increase of armaments, the hasty building of dreadnoughts, the war-scares in England, the eager toasts on German battleships “to the Day”--meaning the day when the Kaiser shall turn loose his dogs of war on Britain--the writer goes on:

What is the matter with the world? What is the disease from
which civilization suffers? And where are the physicians who
shall prescribe the necessary remedies?

Pending an answer to these ancient and disputed questions, it is
desired to point out certain facts which may help to explain the
present situation and to ask whether, because of these facts,
the nations may not, almost in spite of themselves, be driven
into war?

In 1800 France had 4,000,000 more population than Germany. At
that time both nations occupied approximately the same amount
of territory, about 200,000 square miles each. The density of
population in France was 134 to the square mile; in Germany it
was 113.

United States 30 per sq. mile Germany 303 per sq. mile
Canada 2 per sq. mile Japan 315 per sq. mile Philippines
69 per sq. mile South America 7 per sq. mile]

In the last hundred years the fertility of the German nation has
been so great that, in spite of the fact that it has sent more
than 6,000,000 emigrants to the United States and millions more
to other foreign countries, it has increased its home population
to 64,000,000, nearly treble the number in 1800. During the same
period the population of France, which has sent practically
no immigrants abroad, has increased by less than 50 per cent.
And, it should be remembered, in spite of Alsace and Lorraine,
the territory of the two nations has remained practically the
same--approximately 200,000 square miles each.

1907 - Germany None England (four) 1910 - Germany (seven)
England (seven)]

At present the density of population in the German Empire is
303 to the square mile. What that means may be grasped by
considering that if the United States was as thickly populated
as Germany is at the present time we should have 900,000,000
people--ten times our present population. In other words the
present density of population in the United States is only 30 to
the square mile.

If there were ten men to the present one on every acre in the
United States some of us would certainly think of moving.
Indeed, there is already complaint that the country is getting
overcrowded. This year alone nearly 100,000 farmers from the
Western States moved across the line into Canada, where land is
still plenty and unsettled. If every man, woman and child in the
United States was shut up within the limits of Texas, the Lone
Star State would be little more crowded than is Germany at the
present time. Put the strongest navy in the world across the
Gulf from Texas and line the boundaries of the State with camps
of armed men and one may get a fairly good idea of the German
situation.

But--granted that Germany now holds all the people it can
support--where may the loyal German go and remain under the
German flag? The German colonies are small, scattering and not
well fitted for the homes of white men. There are hundreds of
thousands of Germans in various parts of South America, where
the country is still undeveloped. But the United States holds
all this continent under the protection of the Monroe Doctrine
and forbids the hoisting of a foreign flag. Almost all the rest
of the undeveloped world which is counted a white man’s country
is part of the Empire of Great Britain.

Where and how shall the immensely virile and fertile Germanic
race find a new home and a new empire over seas? Or will it,
with the greatest army in the world at its command and a
tremendous war fleet in the making, sit tight within its narrow
boundaries at home until famine and pestilence sap its vitality
and reduce its numbers? It may do that, it may allow millions of
its sons to renounce their allegiance to the fatherland, or it
may--the last terrible alternative is the one of which the world
stands in dread.

(3426)

See ARMIES OF THE WORLD; MILITARISM; NAVIES OF THE WORLD.

WAR, THE HORRORS OF

After his splendid victory of Austerlitz was won and the iron
crown of empire securely fixt on his brow, Napoleon, standing
on the high ground, saw a portion of the defeated Russian army
making a slow, painful retreat over a frozen lake. They were
at his mercy. He rode up to a battery and said, “Men, you are
losing time! fire on those masses; they must be swallowed
up! fire on that ice!” Shells were thrown, the bridge of ice
was broken, and amid awful shrieks hundreds upon hundreds of
miserable wretches were buried in the frozen waters.

The crime of war is its wanton waste of human life. And so are the social wrongs that decimate our world. And so is evil in every form. (Text.)

(3427)

WARFARE, ANTIQUATED

The ordinary spear was eighteen feet long, or three times the
height of the man, and from one inch to an inch and a half in
thickness. The iron jaws of the head were two feet and a half in
length.

With such spears the Massachusetts militia was trained for more
than forty years, or until the outbreak of Philip’s war. I do
not know how long they may have been used in Virginia. Poking
Indians armed with muskets out of a swamp with a spear might do
for imaginary warfare--but when it came to real fighting it was
very ugly business. The desperate character of the conflicts
with Philip and the necessity for the exclusive use of gunpowder
became apparent, and the edict went forth that the militia, who
were trained to the use of the spear, should take up the musket.
With this edict the spear disappeared in this country forever.
It went out in England about the same time. Thus do we learn the
progress of the human mind in arts of destruction.--EDWARD
EGGLESTON.

(3428)

WARMTH, LOST

A story is told of a certain pastor who mourned over a
backslider in his congregation, once a regular attendant at
the prayer service, but who had drifted away, and who for many
months had not been seen in the “upper room.” Finally, unable
to stand it longer, at the close of one of the meetings, in
which the voice formerly accustomed to lead in prayer was
sorely missed, the minister went straight to the man’s home and
found him sitting before the open fire. The absentee, somewhat
startled by the intrusion, hastily placed another chair for his
visitor and then waited for the expected words of rebuke. Had
the rebuke been spoken, no one knows what the reply might have
been or what mistaken yet lasting anger might have been kindled.
But not a word did the minister say. Taking his seat before
the fire, he silently took the tongs and lifting a glowing
coal from the midst of its fellows, laid it by itself upon the
hearthstone. Remaining painfully silent, he watched the blaze
die out and the last warm flush of life fade away. Then it was
the truant who opened his lips to say: “You need not say a
single word, sir; I’ll be there next Wednesday night.” (Text.)

(3429)

=Warmth of Christian Love=--See DOUBTS, DISSOLVING.

WARNING

A wasteful loss of fish life occurs by the sacrifice of millions
of little fishes that are left to gasp out their lives on the
meadows and grain-fields all over the great State of Montana
owing to the irrigation ditches. To prevent this waste a
paddle-wheel is installed at the head of a ditch to frighten
back and prevent the fish from entering the intake. A law
requiring this to be done is now in force in that State.

How many silly souls are warned away from danger-points in life by wise devices both divine and human!

(3430)

Julius Cæsar was at one time the idol of the Roman army. The
ancient eternal city was at his feet. His foot was on the neck
of his enemies and his word was sufficient to hurry his rival,
Pompey, to an ignominious grave. The treasures of the world,
power, dominion and wealth were at his command. Yet he had not
the time as he went forward to the senate chamber on the Ides of
March to read the letter handed him that warned him of the plot
against his life.

Men are mercifully given time to live. But they are too busy to
get ready to live, and too busy to heed the warnings that, if
heeded, would save and prolong their lives.

(3431)

* * * * *

On an island off the Connecticut coast there stands, says
_Harper’s Weekly_, a huge revolving platform whereon are
placed eight large megaphones, each measuring some seventeen
feet and having a mouth seven feet in diameter.

These horns are intended to cry warning to vessels at
every point of the compass, the power being furnished by a
steam-whistle. Their cry has been heard a distance of twenty
miles, and when the wind is favorable it will carry nearly twice
as far.

The instruments utter their warnings every fifteen seconds, each
megaphone giving out its cry in turn, so that the warning notes
make their way out over the water in every direction. There is
a combination of short and long blasts for each point of the
compass, so that mariners may know exactly whence the sound
proceeds.

At Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras, that graveyard of the
Atlantic, where, by reason of the shifty character of the
soil, it has been found impracticable to erect a lighthouse,
the Federal Government has installed a contrivance held down
by “mushroom” anchors. This instrument consists of two big
megaphones, with a diaphragm vibrated by electricity. The
machine is operated by clockwork, and, once wound up, shouts for
many months without the necessity of any attention on the part
of attendants. In calm weather the shout of this instrument is
audible for a distance of twenty-five miles.

To be useful these warning voices must be heeded. So is it with moral warnings, of which the world is full.

(3432)

WARNING, AUTOMATIC

The spirit of God is a signal of warning to the soul when floods of evil are imminent.

Spain is subject to more frequent sudden inundations, perhaps,
than any other country in Europe, and the necessity for some
device to give warning may be appreciated. Such an alarm, ready
night and day to notify the population along a river-bank of
the approach of a dangerous flood, has been invented by Ramon
Martinez di Campos, an engineer of Murcia. It is described as
follows:

“The device uses the electric current; when an abnormal
stage of the river is reached the water closes a circuit and
thus starts an alarm signal at a great distance down-stream.
In the present arrangement the automatic circuit-closer
consists of a galvanized iron float which at high water makes
contact with a fixt sheet of metal on a pole or a masonry
support.”--_Cosmos._

(3433)

WARNING MESSAGES

Once when the Persians and the Scythians confronted each other
for battle, there appeared at the Persian camp a messenger
from the Scythians, who said that he had some presents from
the Scythian chief for Darius. The gifts proved to be a bird,
a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. No explanation being given
as to what the message meant, much curiosity on that point
was manifested and many guesses were made. At length it was
suggested that it meant threats and defiance. “It may mean,”
said one, “that unless you can fly like a bird, into the air, or
hide like a mouse in the ground, or bury yourselves like a frog
in morasses and fens, you can not escape our arrows.”

The gospel message to us is not so ambiguous as this, but it is equally ominous if it be slighted.

(3434)

WASHINGTON, GEORGE

Perhaps one of the wittiest toasts on record is that of
Franklin. After the victories of Washington had made his name
well known throughout Europe, Franklin chanced to dine with the
French and English ambassadors, when these toasts were drunk.
The son of Britain rose and proudly remarked: “England--the sun
whose beams enlighten and fructify the remotest corners of the
earth.”

The Frenchman, glowing with national pride, drunk: “France--the
moon whose mild, steady, cheering rays are the delight of all
nations; consoling them in darkness and making their dreariness
beautiful.”

This furnished Franklin with a fine opening, and his quaint
humor bubbled over in his retort: “George Washington--the
Joshua, who commanded the sun and the moon to stand still and
they obeyed him.”

(3435)

See LIFE, THE SIMPLE.

WASHINGTON’S GENIUS

Brilliant I will not call him, if the brightness of the rippling
river exceed the solemn glory of old ocean. Brilliant I will
not call him, if darkness must be visible in order to display
the light; for he had none of that rocket-like brilliancy which
flames in instant coruscation across the black brow of night,
and then is not. But if a steady, unflickering flame, slow
rising to its lofty sphere, dispensing far and wide its rays,
revealing all things on which it shines in due proportions and
large relations, making right, duty, and destiny so plain that
in the vision we are scarce conscious of the light--if this be
brilliancy, then the genius of Washington was as full-orbed
and luminous as the god of day in his zenith.--JOHN W.
DANIEL.

(3436)

=Washington’s Humility=--See LIFE, THE SIMPLE.

WASTE

Water washes everything, touches everything, impregnates
everything. Nothing escapes it. Incessantly, everywhere,
whatever it meets, is dissolved and finally deposited in the
immense common receptacle of the oceanic basins.

This constant washing continually modifies the chemical
composition of the earth’s surface, and it evidently does so
to the detriment of the soil’s fertility, since the substances
that make a soil fertile are just those that are soluble in
water. This general sterilization is masked by local advantages.
A valley like that of the Nile, for instance, benefits by the
substances brought down from regions nearer its source, but in
the long run rivers are always carrying to the sea an enormous
quantity of fertilizing material that is lost beyond recall.
(Text.)--PAUL COMBES, _Cosmos_ (Paris).

(3437)

* * * * *

Petroleum and natural gas, which are supplements to coal, are
subjected to wanton waste. Natural gas is now being wasted at
the rate of a billion cubic feet a day, by being blown into
the air. In Louisiana great spouting wells of gas are burning
in the open atmosphere, doing no good whatever to anybody. It
is estimated that there are thus consumed in that State alone
seventy million cubic feet per day, more than enough to supply
Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee,
and Pittsburg.

If the present rate of increase of exploitation of highgrade
iron-ore continues, the supply will not last more than fifty
years. In the not distant future it is certain that we shall be
obliged to turn to the lower grade ores, of which the quantity
is vastly greater, but the smelting of these ores will make a
much heavier draft upon our coal supply.

Like coal and iron, the output of copper and zinc has more
than doubled during recent decades, and the product of the
past ten years is greater than the entire previous history of
exploitation of these metals in this country.

Each year, not considering loss by fire, we are consuming three
and one-half times as much wood as is grown. It is estimated
that we allow twenty million acres of forest to be burned over
annually. Of the timber we take, from one-fourth to one-half
is lost by our wasteful methods of cutting and manufacture.
Already within a little more than a century of the life of this
nation approximately one-half of our forest products are gone.
Our system of taxation of forests encourages rapid cutting
rather than conservation. We must reform our tax laws concerning
forest products; we must eliminate forest fires; we must use
economically the wood cut; we must reduce the total amount
used per capita until the growth of one year is equal to the
consumption of that year.

Our water resources, including water for domestic purposes, for
irrigation, for navigation, for power, are enormous. As yet they
have been only very partially utilized. Fortunately, the water
continues in undiminished quantities, being ever withdrawn from
the ocean through the power of the sun, and ever falling upon
the land. It is a perpetual resource.--_Collier’s Weekly._

(3438)

WASTE BY DRINK

A man, who had destroyed three happy homes through his drinking
habits, was converted, and set to work to lead his friends
to Christ. Some time after his conversion one of his mates,
seeing how clean and happy he was looking, asked him jocularly
if he had any houses to let. He knew the questioner was a
heavy drinker, so he decided to give him a practical lesson.
“Here, mate,” he said, “just take a look down my throat, will
you?” “There’s nothing there,” said the other, after a careful
inspection of his throat. “Well, that’s queer, for I’ve put
three good homes and a grocer’s shop down that throat, drowning
them in drink.” (Text.)

(3439)

See DRINK, EFFECTS OF.

WASTE OF LIVES

Of all wastes, the greatest waste that you can commit is the
waste of labor. If you went down in the morning into your dairy,
and found that your youngest child had got down before you,
and that he and the cat were at play together, and that he had
poured out all the cream on the floor for the cat to lap up, you
would scold the child, and be sorry the cream was wasted. But
if, instead of wooden bowls with milk in them, there are golden
bowls with human life in them, and instead of the cat to play
with--the devil to play with; and you yourself the player; and
instead of leaving that golden bowl to be broken by God at the
fountain, you break it in the dust yourself, and pour the human
life out on the ground for the fiend to lick up--is that not
waste?--JOHN RUSKIN.

(3440)

WASTE, STOPPING

The Agricultural Department has inaugurated a war on rats, not
as a preventive of the plague or on account of health, but
because of the great loss produced in the country by rats, and
especially to farmers and producers. The department claims that
a rat eats sixty cents’ worth of grain a year, and that the
actual destruction caused by them amounts to over one hundred
millions of dollars a year. The extermination of rats will be
a great undertaking. Yet it could be accomplished by national
effort were it not for the new supplies brought by ships. It
is believed that by proper regulations even this supply might
be cut off, or the rats killed before spreading. It would cost
only a small part of the one hundred millions of dollars to
exterminate the rat. The expenditure of ten millions under
national authority would be economy.

There are moral wastes comparatively more destructive than the plague of rats, that all men should join in exterminating--the saloon, for example.

(3441)

WASTE, THE PROBLEM OF

Professor Marshall, the English economist, estimates that
the British working classes spend every year not less than
$500,000,000 for things that do nothing to make them either
happier or nobler. The president of the British Association,
in an address before the economic section, confirmed these
estimates, and avowed his belief that the sum named above was
wasted in food alone. Professor Matthews adds that so large a
proportion of our housekeepers are brought up in town life and
factory life that they do not know how to buy economically,
while the cooking art has necessarily gone into decadence. He
estimates the waste in the United States from bad cooking alone
to be at least $1,000,000 every year.--_Independent._

(3442)

WASTES, MORAL

One day in a public restaurant a gentleman, who owns a large fruit-orchard in one of the Northwestern States, was talking about what wonderful fruit was produced by his trees.

“Why,” said he, “I see in market here in Pittsburg apples
selling at a good price that we wouldn’t even use out our way.
We’d never think of selling them. Such apples are thrown aside
as culls.”

There are a great many human culls, men and boys, who, because
of some injurious habit, have lost their full market value.
There is the cigaret cull, the boy who is blighting his future
and depreciating his value as a member of society because of his
nauseous habit. And there is the whisky and beer cull, the man
who can not keep out of a saloon; good enough man, many ways,
but nobody wants to employ him in any responsible position. Then
we have the obscene cull, the individual who has some rancid
story to tell to raise a haw-haw among companions as coarse
and vulgar as himself. He may be a good workman, but morally
he is a cull. Another man I know is the Sabbath cull. This is
the man who goes about watering his garden on the Sabbath, or
driving out in his automobile for the pleasure of the thing;
who is sometimes seen on the train Sabbath morning with his
golf-sticks going out to some country club grounds. They may
have their thousands and live in the best houses on the avenue,
but they are moral culls. These things are blemishes which show
the character. (Text.)

(3443)

=Watchfulness=--See ASLEEP; DISGUISED DANGER.

WATCHFULNESS AGAINST ENEMIES

The conscience and will ought to guard character against its destructive enemies as the Brazilians guard their houses, according to the following account:

Rats have multiplied to such a degree in Brazil that the
inhabitants rear a certain kind of snake for destroying them.
The Brazilian domestic serpent is the _giboia_, a small
species of boa about twelve feet in length and of the diameter
of a man’s arm. This snake, which is entirely harmless and
sluggish in its movements, passes the entire day asleep at the
foot of the staircase of the house, scarcely deigning to raise
its head at the approach of a visitor, or when a strange noise
is heard in the vestibule. At nightfall the _giboia_ begins
to hunt, crawling along here and there, and even penetrating
the space above the ceiling and beneath the flooring. Springing
swiftly forward, it seizes the rat by the nape and crushes
its cervical vertebrae. As serpents rarely eat, even when at
liberty, the _giboia_ kills only for the pleasure of
killing. It becomes so accustomed to its master’s house that if
carried to a distance it escapes and finds its way back home.
Every house in the warmest provinces where rats abound owns its
_giboia_, a fixture by destination, and the owner of which
praises its qualities when he wishes to sell or let his house.
(Text.)--_Scientific American._

(3444)

WATCHING THE KETTLE

There is a bit of proverbial philosophy afloat to the effect
that “a watched kettle never boils.” False philosophy this,
whether taken literally or figuratively. In the one case it
is an idiotic superstition; in the other, a stupid mistake;
in either, a humbug and a cheat. Cease to watch your business
kettle, and what comes of leaving it to take care of itself?
It either becomes stone-cold or blows up. You don’t want your
enterprise over-done, and you don’t want it under-done. Your
object is to strike the golden mean between lukewarmness and
the explosive point, represented, we will say, by 212 of
Fahrenheit. How are you to stimulate the contents of your kettle
up to the right mark--to make them ebullient without turning
them into a dangerous element--unless you regulate the upward
tendency judiciously? It is only the neglected business kettle
that never boils to a good purpose. Suppose Lord Worcester,
Marquis of Somerset, had not watched his kettle, and so had
not observed the phenomenon of the flapping lid, forced into
motion by the pressure of the escaping steam? If the marquis
had not received that hint from his watched kettle as to the
latent force of steam, who can tell what deprivation of motive
power mankind would have undergone? Your moral kettle must be
looked after, too, or it is more likely to freeze than boil.
Morality without the warmth of feeling necessary to make it
active, is not of much use. In fact, all the figurative kettles,
individual and social, included within the range of human
hopes and duties, require to be closely watched. The world is
paved, as one may say, with the wrecks of kettles which would
have been of incalculable utility if they had been properly
managed--reformatory kettles, for example, which only require
the fire of zeal to keep them going, and the guardianship of
practical common sense to regulate them, in order to become
valuable utensils in the kitchen of progress. To watch your
kettle till it boils, and all the time that it is boiling,
is the only sure way to provide against accidents.--New York
_Ledger_.

(3445)

=Water and Natives=--See MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF.

WATER OF LIFE

The briny waters of Great Salt Lake have been tried by the
Southern Pacific Railway for a novel purpose and with remarkable
success. Stored in tanks the fluid has been hauled over the
line by water-trains and sprinkled upon the right of way. Under
this treatment the weeds, the bane of the section-hands, have
withered and died. After an experiment of sixteen months the
scheme has now been permanently adopted. This briny water is a
water which brings death to those things it touches.

There is a water we are told which brings life, higher than any material life, the water of life. It was made known to the world through the divine teacher. At Jacob’s well in the center of Palestine He declared Himself to be the water of life. Those who drink from natural fountains of water will thirst again, and the strength they gain, the refreshing they receive, will only be temporary. Those who come to drink of the true water of life will receive spiritual refreshing. This life-giving water takes away all foulness from the soil of the soul, by purifying it, by sweetening it, by enriching it. The weeds of sin in the soul are best destroyed not by the infusion of something more noxious, but by the infilling of the sweet graces of life.

(3446)

* * * * *

One of the most interesting creatures of California’s great
desert is the tortoise. Frequently a school of them, that we
usually think of only in connection with water, are discovered
afar out in the desert where water is scarce and difficult to
obtain. Dissection shows that in a convenient place upon their
body is located a pair of large water-sacks. These the owner
fills with water as needed and in this way it is kept supplied.

The man who has acquired character and experience so that he has moral and spiritual reservoirs within is equipped for every emergency. (Text.)

(3447)

* * * * *

At Huntsville, Ala., is a spring that supplies the whole town
with an abundance of pure, fresh water. But the wonder of it all
is that the flow of it is made to operate a wheel that pumps the
water into the homes of the people.

The supply of water is the power of the water supply. God, who is the water of life, also sends all we need for the operation of all activities. (Text.)

(3448)

* * * * *

The sources of the soul’s water of life is in the hill-springs, but one may have to go down into the depths to find it, as these divers bring up fresh water out of the ocean:

The hottest region on earth is on the south western coast of
Persia, where Persia borders the gulf of the same name. For
forty consecutive days in the months of July and August the
thermometer has been known not to fall lower than 100 degrees,
night or day, and to often run up as high as 128 degrees in
the afternoon. At Bahrin, in the center of the torrid part of
the torrid belt, as tho it were nature’s intention to make the
region as unbearable as possible, no water can be obtained from
digging wells one hundred to two hundred or even five hundred
feet deep, yet a comparatively numerous population contrive to
live there, thanks to copious springs which break forth from
the bottom of the gulf, more than a mile from shore. The water
from these springs is obtained by divers, who dive to the bottom
and fill goat-skins with the cooling liquid and sell it for a
living. The source of these submarine fountains is thought to
be in the green hills of Osman, some five or six hundred miles
away.--_Public Opinion._

(3449)

See SURFACE LIVES; SPRINGS OF LIFE.

=Waters, Lake=--See RENEWAL.

=Waters, Tempestuous=--See ADVERSITY.

WAY, DIRECTION OF

Years ago a young man in Providence, R. I., took up a loose
leaf of a Bible to use for a wrapping. “Don’t use that,” said a
friend, “it contains the words of life.” The young man put the
leaf in his pocket. Later, taking it out again, he said, “I will
see what kind of life it is that that leaf tells about.” The
words in Daniel 12:13 caught his eye, and he read, “But go thou
thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy
lot at the end of the days.” “I wonder what my way is and where
it will end?” he asked himself, and the reflection at length led
him to a new life.

(3450)

=Way, Knowing The=--See FAMILIARITY.

WAY OF GOD

Could I but know each step that I
Must tread unto the end;
Were I to have life’s devious chart,
Complete, placed in my hand,
With every burden there portrayed,
And every task well planned,
The joys to know, the griefs to bear,
The causes to defend,
How automatic life would be!

Thy way is best, hold thou the chart,
Permit me but to know
Each day, the duties to perform,
Each hour, the way to go;
And I, thy will, shall strive to do,
As faith e’er stronger grows,
And knowledge into wisdom blends,
As stream to river flows,
Until at last I meet with thee.

--FRANK L. CONNOR, _The Progress Magazine_.

(3451)

WAY, THE RIGHT

Wakutemani, a Sioux warrior, was an acknowledged leader among
the young Indians of his tribe. He heard a woman missionary
tell the gospel story, but tho he felt strangely drawn to
Christianity, he threw himself more ardently into the heathen
dances and practises. One day he said to the missionary, “I will
try your way without leaving the old way for a year, and at the
end of that time I will follow the way that has satisfied me.”
She taught him to pray and gave him directions for living a
clean, straight life. At the end of the year Wakutemani appeared
painted and be-feathered to lead the young braves in the old
war-dance. The dance was wild and calculated to awaken all the
savage instincts; but during a pause in drum-beating, Wakutemani
stept into the center of the circle and motioned for silence. “I
said I would try both ways. This way does not satisfy me. If any
others feel as I do, let them follow me.” Two young warriors,
Many Bulls and White Sitting Buffalo, rose silently and followed
him out of the ring. They went to the mission house and said
to the missionary, “We wish to follow your way. Ours does not
satisfy.” All three have now many years of consistent Christian
life to their credit, and one has passed to his reward. (Text.)

(3452)

=Way We Look at Things, The=--See MOODS DETERMINING DESIRES.

=Wayfarer, The=--See PILGRIMS, THE.

=Wayside Ministry=--See CONTROL, DIVINE.

WAYWARD, SEEKING THE

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman tells this story:

On one of the last Sundays that I spent in Philadelphia an
Englishman gave an address to our Sunday-school. He told how a
young girl had gone away to live a life of sin. He said, “Her
mother came to my minister and asked him to find her daughter.
The minister said, ‘Bring me every picture that you have of
yourself!’ She brought him every picture and the minister dipt
his pen in the red ink and wrote underneath the sweet face
these words: ‘Come back.’ These pictures were placed in mission
stations and halls. One night the girl, on entering one of these
halls, found herself face to face with the picture. As she saw
that sweet face that had looked down into hers with love, her
eyes were blinded with tears, and when she brushed the tears
away she read the two words, ‘Come back.’ She made her way out
to the edge of the city, waited till night had fallen and, going
up to her old home she put her hand upon the latch of the door
and, behold, it yielded! She had no sooner crossed the threshold
than she was in her mother’s arms. The first greeting she had
from her mother was this: ‘My dear, this door has never been
fastened since you went away.’” (Text.)

(3453)

=Weak Will and Whisky=--See LAST RESORT.

WEAKNESS AND STRENGTH

Storms may rend the giant oak
Yet may pass the floweret by;
Feeble lives may long be spared,
Strongest men may soonest die.

--PASTOR CLARK.

(3454)

WEAKNESS, CONSIDERATION FOR

The dialog below indicates a good way of practising the Pauline injunction in Phil. 2:4:

“Here, boy, let me have a paper.” “Can’t.” “Why not? I heard you
crying them loud enough to be heard at the city hall.” “Yes,
but that was down t’other block, ye know, where I hollered.”
“What does that matter? Come, now, no fooling; I’m in a hurry.”
“Couldn’t sell you a paper on this here block, mister, ’cause it
b’longs to Limpy. He’s just up at the furdest end now. You’ll
meet him.” “And who is Limpy? And why does he have this block?”
“Cos us other kids agreed to let him have it. Ye see, it’s a
good run, ’count of the offices all along, and the poor chap is
that lame he can’t git around lively like the rest of us, so we
agreed that the first one caught sellin’ on his beat should be
thrashed. See?” “Yes, I see. You have a sort of brotherhood
among yourselves?” “Well, we’re goin’ to look out for a little
cove what’s lame, anyhow.” “There comes Limpy now. He’s a
fortunate boy to have such friends.” The gentleman bought two
papers of him, and went on his way down town, wondering how many
men in business would refuse to sell their wares in order to
give a weak, halting brother a chance in the field. (Text.)

(3455)

WEAKNESS, HIDDEN

A tiny worm may pierce the heart of a young tree, and the bark
may hide the secret gash. But as the days go on the rain will
cut one fiber and the heat another, and when years have passed,
some time when a soft zephyr goes sighing through the forest,
the great tree will come crashing down. For at last nature will
hunt out every hidden weakness.--NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS.

(3456)

WEALTH

Harold S. Symmes, in _Pearson’s Magazine_, writes:

Give of thyself. Man’s wealth depends,
Not on the pence he holds and hoards,
Not on the gift he well affords,
But on the spirit-gold he spends.

(3457)

* * * * *

The danger of wealth lies in its tendency to smother sympathy and exalt selfishness.

Dr. W. B. Wright says that Henry Heine, the Jew, one of the
most sparkling talkers in Europe, sat silent at a banquet
until his Christian hostess asked, with some anxiety, “Why are
you so dumb?” He answered, “I am studying a problem which I
can not solve. I have been looking at these gold dishes, this
fine linen, these splendid waiters, your great diamonds, and
wondering what you Christians are going to do with the camel
question.” (Text.)

(3458)

WEALTH AND WORK

The following account, indicating great motherly wisdom, is from a despatch from Chicago to the daily papers:

If Leonard Loeffler, six years old, has fallen heir to a fortune
of $1,000,000 his mother will be sorry. It has been reported
among the relatives of the late William Loeffler that his will,
which will be probated this week, bequeaths his entire fortune,
amounting to $1,000,000, to his grandson, Leonard, who is the
son of Mr and Mrs. Frank Loeffler, and this intimation moved
Mrs. Loeffler to express the hope that her son might not inherit
riches.

“I do not want any son of mine to inherit a million dollars,”
declared Mrs. Loeffler.

“Why?” she was asked.

“Because I do not think it does a child any good to have riches
which he has not earned. If Leonard can get a fortune by working
for it the way his grandfather had to do I shall be the proudest
mother in the world, but there is no reason why he should have
wealth unless he does earn it. I want my boy to earn what he
gets. I don’t want him to get $1,000,000 for nothing. That is
how much I think of money. It spoils children and removes the
incentive for work, and it is work that shapes a career.”

(3459)

WEALTH, COMPARATIVE

A man who gets a million wants another million. If he gets ten
millions then he wants to be as rich as Rockefeller. And then
he wants the whole world fenced in and fixt up for him. What
if a man is as rich as Rockefeller? What is that compared with
the State of New York? And suppose a man owned the whole State
of New York, what is that compared with the balance of America?
And suppose one man owned the whole United States, what is that
compared with the balance of the world? And suppose a man owned
this whole world? Why, you could put two such worlds in your
pocket, and go out to the dog star and stay all night, and you
wouldn’t have enough to pay your hotel bill. This whole thing is
comparative.--“Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones.”

(3460)

=Wealth Diminishing the Smiles=--See POVERTY.

WEALTH, RIGHT USE OF