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WINTER TRAVELING AMONG- THE IXsTIDI A.ISTS IIST THE PAR NORTH. 
MA8SH 22 
Social ®0|)iCS. 
WHAT THE SHEPHERD’S CROOK FOUND. 
BY H. ,T. PRICHARD. 
All facts slip back into tradition. Thus the 
mariner's compass, without which no vessel in 
the present time leaves harbor, has gotten itself 
into Greek tradition, after the following man¬ 
ner:—A certain shepherd, watching hla flocks 
on Mount Ida, forgot his duty one night and 
fell asleep. His shepherd's crook, the head of 
which was formed of Iron, fell from his tired 
hands and touched a rock. When the poor fel¬ 
low awoke and started to look for hla flock, he 
atooped for hla crook, and lo! it was held fast! 
The rook on which it had fallen was of mag¬ 
netic iron. 
Then came the dark ages, when the magnet 
waft used for sore eyes, and quacks made It 
seem a thing of wonderful power, as It surely 
was and Is. Pi.lvy says It was called magnet 
from Magnesia, a city of Asia Minor, where it 
was found in abundant quantity, while the old 
tradition, already given, has the sleepy shep¬ 
herd's name recorded aft Magnus. 
The load-stone Is a black mineral, found In 
Sweden, In Bomo parts of the East, In America, 
and sometimes in the Iron beds of England. 
The Chinese were the drat to make the load¬ 
stone of practical service, 2,013 years before 
CimiST. His vn-Yuan was Emperor of the 
Col cat Inis, and a certain Prince of the Empire, 
having become too powerful, he made war 
upon him. The Prince -Yotti-Ykon raised a 
great, and thick fog, causing darkness, in order 
to confuse the Emperor’s warriors; but IIinan- 
Ypan outwitted his naughty subject by build¬ 
ing chariots by which ho could ride straight 
through fog and darkness toward the South. 
Tho compass chariots conquered the fog and 
the Prince, for lie was made prisoner and put 
to death. 
Magnetic chariots were used in religious cere¬ 
monies, to guide armies, and to cross the im¬ 
mense grass plains of China, as precisely as the 
same power is made to guide ships in unknown 
ways to-day. 
--- 
THE LE880N OF LIFE. 
Or all the lessons that humanity has to learn, 
the hardest is to learn to wait. Not to wait 
with folded hands that claim life’s prizes with¬ 
out previous effort, but having struggled and 
crowded the slow years with trial, sec no result 
as effort seems to warrant nay, perhaps, disas¬ 
ter instead. To stand lirm at such a crisis of 
existence, to preserve one's mlf-poisa and self- 
respect* not to lose hold or relax effort, this Is 
greatness, whether achieved by man or woman 
—whether the eye of the world notes it, or it is 
recorded in the hook which the light of eternity 
shall alono make dear to the vision. Those 
who stand on the high places of the earth un¬ 
derstand not what necessity, wlmt suffering 
means. They know not what It Is to a noble 
mind to be obliged, liko tho worms, to crawl 
upon tho earth for nourishment, because it has 
not the strength to endure famine. Life moves 
around them wlrh «<> much grace, splendor, and 
beauty: they drink life's sweetest, wine, and 
dance In a charming intoxication. They And 
nothing within them which can enable them to 
understand the real sufferings of tho poor; they 
love only themselves, ami look at mankind only 
in t heir own narrow circle. 
■ -- 
NOBILITY OF LABOR. 
If a holy anything is more contemptible than 
the conceit which rosft upon social position ; 
the conceit of those who imagine that they are 
thus divorced from (ho clay of common men; 
of those who shrink with horror from the idea 
of work, ns something that degrades by its con¬ 
tact, ami yet who. very likely,owe their present 
position to some not very remote ancestor who, 
recognizing his call to work, lived more honest¬ 
ly in the world than they do, and was not 
ashamed of soiled thumbs. It is one of tho 
meanest things for people to bo ashamed of the 
work which glorified their ancestors more, with 
their soiled aprons and black gowns, than they 
with their Hue ribbons and flashing:Jewelry, ll 
might be a line thing to be like the lilies, more 
gloriously clothed than Solomon, and doing 
nothing as If we were lilies. Advantageous po¬ 
sition Is only a more emphatic call for work; 
and while Minse who hold the adv intag*' may 
not be compelled to manual drudgery, they 
should recognize the fact that manual drudgory 
may be performed int.be same spirit as that 
which characterizes their own work, and there¬ 
fore it is equally honorable. 
-- 
EVERY MAN IN HIS PLACE. 
Wk commend the following to men who 
are restive in the position which they may 
happen to occupy and who nre chronic oom- 
plainora that, they are not appreciated. We And 
it in a recent magazine and it is sound doctrine: 
" Wit hin a certain limit it may be said that, 
wo make circumstances; but there arc circum¬ 
stances which no man can make or unmake. 
There are some tilings that fall upon ns liko a 
leaden pall, which wo cannot, uplift. Wo may 
try to scare them, but they do not scare; wo 
may try to drive, but they will not drive; we 
may try to coax, hut they will not. coax. What 
shall lie dona? There Is but one way—you must 
submit to inevitable destiny. You have a place 
which it la your duty and privilege to occupy, 
and which no person lias any right to occupy, 
a place which you may demand In the name of 
God and humanity. In eouaequence of your 
pride and ambition, you may not have found 
that place; you may have ascended one atop 
too high ; and must begin, with shame, to take 
a lower seat; or It may be that, you are too low, 
and nrust summon your courage, shako off your 
lethargy, and go up higher." «— 
SOMETHING ABOUT INDIA RUBBER. 
Tire belt of land around the globe, five hun¬ 
dred miles north and live hundred*miles south 
of the Equator, abounds in t rees producing the 
gum of India rubber. They can bo tapped, It Is 
stated, for twenty successive seasons without 
Injury. The trees stand bo close that one man 
can gather tho sap of eight in a day, each tree 
yielding on nn average three tablespoonfuls a 
day. forty-three thousand of those trees have 
j been counted In a tract of country a, mile long 
by eight, wide. There are In America and Ed- 
i rope more than one hundred and fifty manufac- 
1 torlos of India rubber articles, employing some 
live hundred operatives each, and consuming 
more than ton million pounds of gum per year, 
and the business Is considered to be still in Its 
I infancy. Hut to whatever extent it may in¬ 
crease, there will be plenty of robber to supply 
the demand. 
- *-*■•* - 
THINK BEFORE YOU ACT. 
“TiirNK before you act; but when the time 
for action cornea, stop thinking." That is the 
true doctrine. Many aiftn fail In life, and go 
down to the grayo with hopes blasted and pros¬ 
pects of happiness unrealized, becnusc t hey did 
not adopt and act upon this motto. Nothing 
so prepares a man for action ns thought; noth¬ 
ing so unfits a man for action as the want of It. 
ltd ter by far adopt somo course energet ically, 
even though ft may pot. be the best, than to 
keep cont inually thinking without acting. “ Go 
ahead ” ought to ho printed in every young 
man’s hat, and rend until it becomes a part of 
his nature, until he can act upon his own judg¬ 
ment, and not bo turned from his course by 
every wind of Interested advice. In conclusion, 
wo would say, “ think before you act; but when 
the Mine for action comes, stop thinking." 
-- 
TRAVELING IN THE FAR NORTH. 
Omt Illustration tells its own story. One of 
our friends who spent two years in tho Red 
Kher country, penetrating North within the 
Arctic circle, and who traveled In the manner 
Illustrated, has told us stories of the delicious 
Character of a diet, of tallow candles and raw 
whiskey, and of t he wonderful comforts of t hat 
chilly region. He went t hither In behalf of sci¬ 
ence, and came back laden with Natural History 
I t rophies, whereof he wrote for t he Smithsonian 
and went t» Ids rest Anally in the Arctic regions. 
Hut of him we are not going to write, though 
this picture reminds us so vividly of tho evening 
stories lie told us after his return and of him. 
THE FORTRESS OF GIBRALTAR. 
Until you set foot, on Gibraltar, you can form 
no idea of Its impregnability. Very properly its 
real strength can not be seen from a ship in the 
bay; only when you laud (lo you And that the 
sea-wall bristles with heavy' guns, and groans 
beneath piles of ball; only as you traverse Its 
flank do you see how formidable brooch-loaders 
peep from every avallablo chink, and powerful 
mortars lurk behind every convenient, embank¬ 
ment. And not until you penetrate the body of 
the rook do you got any Just notion of t he mar¬ 
velous piece of military engineering exhibited 
in its "galleries." There are tunnels excavated 
from t he solid rock, parallel to its outer side, 
but some thirty foot tliorofmm, and large 
enough to drive a carriage through. They aro 
In two tiers, and comprise a total length of 
nearly threo miles. At. every thirty foot or so 
along them spacious embrasures are out-t brown, 
that terminal e in commanding portholes, which 
look to a spectator outside tlm rock like swal¬ 
low’s nest-holes in a sand cliff. 
—-♦♦♦ 
RESULTS OF IDLENESS. 
With most of us, idleness Is tho parent, not 
merely of uneasiness, but, withal, of fretful- 
nass, malevolence, and tho wholo h' lt of evil 
passions. The phrase "aching void "may bo 
ridiculous to those who criticise grammatical¬ 
ly, but it is tme to those who fool humanly. To 
supply this void Is an object, and moreovor a 
certain effect, of a regular, and sustained, and 
Judicious met hod of self-inst ruct ion. Tho used 
key is bright. If tho stool bo wrought up and 
reflned ton high temper, tho cloudiness of tho 
vapor will perish from it. almost, at the instant, 
that it. is breathed upon. 
— » ■ - - - ■ — 
A QUAKER ANSWER. 
“Martha, docs thee love mo?" asked aqua- 
ker youth of onoAt whoso shrine his heart's 
holiest fooling had been offered up. 
"Why, Sotb," answorod she, " we aro com¬ 
manded to love one another, aro wo not? " 
"Ay, Martha; but does time regard me with 
that fooling the world cal la love?" 
"I hardly l^iow what, to tell thee, Both. I 
have greatly feared that my heart was unerring 
one I have tried to bestow my love on all; but 
I may have sometimes thought, perhaps, that 
t hee was getting rather more than thy share." 
- 
SENSE AND SENTIMENT. 
Good nature Is Hint benevolent, and amiable 
temper of mind which disposes us to foel t.lio 
misfortunes and enjoy the happiness of others. 
Tinrer.-FotmTns of the difficulties and miser¬ 
ies of men come from the fact that most want 
wealth without earning II, famewilhout deserv¬ 
ing It, popularity without temperance, respect 
without virtue, and happiness without holiness. 
A just man does justice to every man and to 
everything; and then, if ho bo also wise, ho 
knows t here Is a debt, of mercy and compassion 
duo to the, infirmities of man’s nature, that la to 
he paid ; and ho that is cruel and ungentle to a 
sinning person, and does the worst, to him, dies 
in his debt and is unjust. 
