DUST. 251 



to stand on tlie pay-rolls for the one quarter of wages they might 

 have earned themselves. It was formerly supposed a wise saying 

 that " the hand of the diligent maketh rich/' but the proverb has 

 been strangely modified in these days. 



We are now told that the proverb was only three quarters 

 true, and instead we must say, the man who works all of working 

 time makes his neighbors poor, and will spend his last days in 

 the work-house of the parish or on the highway as a tramp. 

 Time lost is money lost to the one to whom the time belonged, 

 whether he be rich or poor. The rich can lose some without 

 feeling it, but the poor, alas! have none to spare. When this 

 truth is fully appreciated by the destitute, a long stride will have 

 been made toward the extinction of poverty. 



DUST. 



Br J. G. McPHEESON. 



SOME of the most enchanting phenomena in nature are de- 

 pendent for their very existence upon singularly unimpor- 

 tant things ; and some phenomena that in one form or another 

 daily attract our attention are produced by startlingly overlooked 

 material. What is the agent that magically transforms the leaden 

 heavens into the gorgeous afterglow of autumn, when the varied 

 and evanescent colors chase each other in fantastic brilliancy ? 

 What is the source of the beautiful, brilliant, and varied coloring 

 of the waters of the Mediterranean, or of the most extraordinary 

 brilliant blue of the crystal waters of the tarns in the Cordilleras ? 

 What produces the awe-inspiring deep blue of the zenith in a 

 clear summer evening, when the eye tries to reach the absolute ? 

 Whence come the gentle refreshing rain, the biting sleet, the 

 stupefying fog, the chilling mist, the virgin snow, the glimmer- 

 ing haze, or the pelting hail ? What raises water to the state of 

 ebullition in the process of heat application for boiling ? What is 

 the source of much of the wound putrefaction, and the generation 

 and spread of sickness and disease ? What, in fact, is one of the 

 most marvelous agents in producing beauty for the eye's gratifi- 

 cation, refreshment to the arid soil, sickness and death to the 

 frame of man and beast ? That agent is dust 



And yet no significance is given to dust unless it appears in 

 large and troublesome quantities. It requires the persistent an- 

 noyance of dust-clouds to excite any attention. Dust, however, 

 demands to be noticed, even when not in that collected, irritating 

 motion known in Scotland as siour. The dust-particles floating 

 in the atmosphere or suspended in the water have a most impor- 



