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THE WORKING MAN 
of careful training were in that respect more 
needed. Men live in haste, write in haste—I 
was going to say think in haste, only that 
perhaps the word thinking is hardly applica¬ 
ble to that largo number who, for the most 
part, purchase their daily allowance of 
thought ready made. 
Then would they realize that distance, the 
great barrier to social intercourse, was over¬ 
come; that the home circle was enlarged; 
that with the aid of photographs and a little 
imagination a very satisfactory conversation 
might be held with sympathetic friends miles 
away. 
Then, in case of sickness or casualty, how 
speedily the physician could be called, the 
minister summoned, or friends apprised. Let 
us utilize the telegraph, domesticating it in 
every family that cares to fraternize with 
others in thi i heavy laden life. 8. n. 
entire had no part in ordaining the day 
which bears his name, thousands with poetic 
tendencies and loving desires will feel tlmnk- 
ful that once he lived, and that his memory 
dies not. 
0WCS 
The noblest men I know on earth 
Are men ivhosu Inuidti are brown with toll 
Who, biiekod by no ancestral grove*, 
Hew down the wood and till the soil; 
And win thereby a prouder name 
Than follow* king or warrior's fume. 
The working men, whate’or tho task, 
Who curve tluj stone or hear the hod. 
They hear upon their honest brows 
Tho royal stamp and seal of God! 
And worthier are their drop* of swoat 
Than diamond* In a coronet. 
God bless the noble working men. 
Who rear the cities of the plain, 
Who dig the mines, who build tho ships. 
And drive the commerce of the main. 
God bless them ! for the.lr tolling hands 
Have wrought the glory of all lands. 
VALENTINE’S DAY. 
TELEGRAPHS FOR SOCIALIZING, 
The 14th of February is a good thing lor 
stationery dealers and mail routes. Valen¬ 
tines have long been a leading article of trade 
with the former, in season; and they add 
largely to the gross receipts of the latter,— 
more largely, in fact, than any one at first 
thought conceives. The extra amount of 
mail matter that passes through post-officials’ 
hands about this time is truly astonishing. 
It swells the delivery in large cities by hun¬ 
dreds of thousands; and provokes strong 
comment from postmasters in ali the little 
villages of Christendom. Not to get a val¬ 
entine is considered by numberless youth to 
be almost as bad a stroke of fate as could be 
conceived of; and the eagerness with which 
one is looked for is happily depicted in the 
accompanying illustration, wherein Rural 
readers will see manifest a type of well-nigh 
universal feeling. 
Just how the day alluded to obtained its 
peculiar significance it is hardly possible to 
state. Curious people, who question con¬ 
cerning it, will find it difficult to fully satisfy 
their curiosity. That it has peculiar signifi¬ 
cance is certain; that _ 
it was in olden times |j||||||| Ml |l 
significance arose the II j jjjl ll 
ever: in by-gone cen- 1 I | |j| 
turies a deeper mean- 111 l| gjffp| 
Valentine’s Day than j I III 
in the prints and poc- I! I III 
young folksgcncrally j ! III I I |j ||I|||| 
engagements of mar- ]| ill III I |»H 
riage between each 
other, The engaging 
process was on iho |il j |jl|| WmjM 
names of an equal j I jlll 
number of both sexes , 11 If ||fH 
being placed in some (I, | | 
person drawing out I I III j 
his or her valentine. j I I [' j ||l|lj 
One necessity of these I I 
remained bound for a : |j| |, 
whole year to the ser- ' j , j I! 
vice of his valentine ; I 1!| 11 jtifK 
an<l a bona fide eu- 
riage often resulted. jjjj||li|l| Hr 
we cannot determine. M 11 
:,,,,,,• i.uinoiigolli- I i . 
names of young wo- 
men into a box, from 
drawn by the men as 
chance directed ; and 
it lias been suggested 
that the clergy, finding it impossible to ex¬ 
tirpate this pagan practice, gave it a certain 
religions aspect by substituting the names 
of particular saints for those of the women. 
And we believe it is a practice more or less 
widely extended in the Romish Church, to 
select, either on St. Valentine’s or some 
other day, a patron saint for the year, who is 
termed a valentine. 
A recognition of nature, as manifest in the 
season of which the latter part of February 
forms a part, probably had somewhat to do 
with originating the peculiar significance of 
Valentine’s Day. As birds choose their 
mates about this time of the year, the Idea of 
choosing lovers or especial friends may have 
been suggested thereby, and thence in ils 
practical outworking have conic to be what 
Valentine’s Day now is. But whatever their 
origin, valentines have afforded a deal of 
amusement, much heart-fluttering, and un¬ 
told, eager expectancies. That their old- 
time meaning has become largely perverted 
is not to he wondered at; yet they will al¬ 
ways keep some portion of their tender sent¬ 
iment unsullied, and though good St, Yal- 
A Sad Acknowledgment.— The follow¬ 
ing is a funeral speech which a Paris paper 
assures us was actually pronounced at Mont- 
matro, the other day, by a father at the 
grave of his son;—“ Gentlemen,” said the 
father, in a voice full of emotion, “ the body 
before me was that of my son. lie was a 
young man in the prime of life, with a sound 
constitution which ought to have insured 
him a hundred years. But misconduct, 
drunkenness and debauchery, of the most 
disgracethl kind, brought him, in the flower 
of his age, to the ditch which you see before 
you. Let this be an example to you and to 
your children. Let us go lienee.” 
One cause of aversion to farm life mani¬ 
fested by the young or socially inclined is the 
comparatively isolated condition in which 
most American farmers live. Dwelling upon 
the lands they own and cultivate, they are, 
for the moat part, unfavorably located for 
social intercourse with any outside of their 
family circle. The farmer himself is accus¬ 
tomed to, and may not mind, this; In fact, 
liis errands to the village or corners give 
him many opportunities to indulge in achat, 
but with his wife and children the case is 
very different With them the longing for 
social intercourse is olten intense and but 
rarely gratified. 
Of all the modes of communication between 
friends, a conversation vis a vis is most satis¬ 
factory. As that is a pleasure attainable only 
at long intervals by the farm wife and her 
household, l would suggest that the electric 
telegraph he called in as the best available 
substitute. Fancy what a relief it would he 
to the occupants of a lone farm - house in 
WHAT WILL YOU TAKE? 
“ Wn\T will you take to drink?” asked a 
waiter of a young lad who for the first time 
accompanied his father to a public dinner. 
Uncertain what to say, and feeling sure that 
lie could not be wrong if ho followed his 
father's example, he replied, “ I’ll take what 
father takes.” 
The answer reached his father’s car, and 
instantly the full responsibility of his posi¬ 
tion flashed upon him. If ho said, “ I’ll 
take ale,” as he had always said before, his 
son would take it also, and then ? And the 
father shuddered as the history of several 
young men, once as promising as his own 
bright lad, and ruined by drink, started up 
in solemn warning before him. Should his 
orirs for 
NOKA FLEET’S SPIEIT 
BT JANE NEY, 
The Truest Beauty. —There is no such 
lasting and impressive beauty as that which 
adorns a nature rich in magnanimous senti¬ 
ments and pure affections. The 1 nil h, which 
satisfies aud inspires the saintly life, modu¬ 
lates the tone, beams in the eye, trembles on 
the lip, and suffuses the face with the sheen 
of its unmistakable sincerity and grace. 
CHAPTER i. 
One November night two girls sat in an 
upper chamber of an Eastern homestead, 
and looked at each other. The room was 
small and scanty. One window set a square 
of moonlight against the flicker of a tallow 
candle, aud each of these so buttled the 
other, that it was 
: TT-:—n 
hard to tell which 
lighted tip tho girls’ 
! faces. 
I ..U.- . ' \ ■■ . \ ~ 
One young woman 
had dropped into tho 
011 *^ v,s *^ e chair, 
.Jpl position into which 
A 1 >»*g her animated di«* 
cmirse. She had the 
f n n, Y 
l — Nora’s vehemence 
had set flowing like 
a m 'H* race over her 
conservative little 
'»--x “ I tell you, Mercy 
ig sa},; F l e e t,” throbbed 
'■he low.excit ed voice, 
“I am going to run 
away from this house 
not mean it 1” 
“And you are going 
to run away from this house to-night 1” she 
continued. 
“ O Nora, you truly don’t mean it I” 
“ 1 will never bear another taunt from that 
woman’s lips. O Mercy, I hale this life, it 
chokes me up! I want to go off into tho 
world where I can live /” 
The end was too stupendous for Mercy ; 
she closed her little lips in solemn despair, 
and ruminated on a simpler, more practical 
subject. 
“ The Barclays have been very kind to 
us, Nora.” 
“ Particularly madam," retorted Nora, 
j bitterly. 
“1 think,” opined Mercy, mildly, “ that 
Mr. Barclay has been a little the pleasanter. 
But they have both sheltered us for six years, 
Nora. ‘ Think of that.” 
“ ‘Sheltered us,’ yes, for our labor, just as 
they shelter their cattle. ‘Think of it!’ I 
have thought of it until I can’t stand it 
another minute. 1 will not he hampered by 
anybody. That woman will never shrew at 
and taunt me again 1” 
The Beginning. — On looking at tue 
world, it is always difficult to imagine a 
beginning to fiiattcr. But it is equally diftl- 
cult, yea, more so, to imagine a beginning to 
mind. Of the two, it is easier to conceive a 
beginning to matter. It. is a necessity of 
reason to suppose an underlying immortality 
amid all this transition, as it is necessary 
that all created things have a Creator. 
Find fault only when you must, and then 
in private, if possible, and some time after 
the offense. The blamed are less inclined 
to resist when they are chided without wit¬ 
nesses; and the accused may bo impressed 
with the forbearance of the accuser, who, 
although noticing the fault, waited for a 
proper time to mention it. 
WHAT A MAN KNOWS 
Lord Stanley truly says:—What a man 
can write out clearly, correctly, and briefly, 
without book or reference of any kind, that 
he undoubtedly knows, whatever etse lie may 
be ignorant of. For knowledge that falls 
short of that—knowledge that is vague, hazy 
indistinct, uncertain—1 for one profess no re¬ 
spect at all. And I believe that there never 
■was a time or country where the influences 
Mortality. ■— What is our life at ils 
longest ? What are the schemes upon which 
we most set, our heart? Wo grow old while 
we yet feel young. Our hark that glided 
sweetly along tho shores of life, quickly gets 
out into the rapids, beyond which are the 
roar and the foam of the great Niagara. 
