ENCOURAGING TESTIMONY, 
A lady having written in the Liberal 
Christian questioning the power of female 
influence to break the habit of confirmed to¬ 
bacco users, a gentleman came out with this 
testimony : 
“ For nearly four years I used tobacco to 
excess, both chewing and smoking. A 
paper of tobacco purchased in the morning 
would be empty before night, and I thought 
11 could not possibly get along without a 
smoke after each rncal, and again at night 
just before retiring. I actually thought it 
was impossible for me to abandon the habit. 
“ Two years ago ' woman's influence’ con¬ 
vinced me that I was mistaken. 1 was en¬ 
gaged to a young woman who urged the 
usual objections against the use of the 
‘ weed.’ She reasoned with me until she 
convinced me that she was right. Then alio 
plainly informed me that unless I at once 
left o(T using tobacco she would not marry 
me. I promised to try, and did try hard, 
but failed. 1 went to her and pleaded and 
coaxed, lint she was firm. 4 1 love you, 
John, but T cannot marry you if you love 
tobacco bettor than you love me,’ was her 
reply. T concluded to do without for three 
months, or die in the attempt, as 1 then said. 
I did do without for three months, and at the 
expiration of that time I was actually alive 
and doing well. 
“The day before the time was up I prom¬ 
ised to abstain three months more. T lived 
through this period quite easily, and was 
then perfectly willing to promise abstinence 
for ninety-nine years. ! have not touched 
tobacco since, and have no desire to do so. 
I am confident that numerous instances can 
be found where 1 woman’s influence’ has 
gained a lasting victory over the*Indian 
weed’ and also over ‘ King Alcohol.’ Young 
women, try the experiment and judge for 
yourselves. With a little firmness, you will 
he sure to come olf victorious, if you have a 
man to deal with." 
A COUNTRY PICTURE 
Gor.nEX-DKKASTED oriole, snble-cresteU oriole 
When you’vo rested, oriole, on my uinple tree. 
Will you sing a song for me, one that's merry, wild 
and free. 
Filled with gladness, riel) with glee? Oriolalee, 
If I’ll give my thanks to then? O-ri-ola Loo-lee. 
BY WII.UAM MOBIUS. 
If Faith enme not to hold our hand 
Ilow weary wc should he, 
Wandering ulong the lonesome strand 
That bounds the “ narrow soa,” 
While one by one our best beloved 
Pans o'er, dear Lord, to Thee! 
Then down Into the vale he gazed. 
And held his breath ns if amazed 
By all its wondrous loveliness: 
For as the sun its depth did tiloss. 
It lighted up from side to side, 
A close shut valley, nothing wide, 
But ever full of all things fair. 
A little way the hill was hare, 
Then clung to it a doap green wood 
That guarded many a fertile rood 
Of terracod vine and slopes of wheat; 
A white way wound about its foot, 
Beset with heavy fruited trees 
And cleaving orchards through; midst those 
Each hemmed round with Us flowery close, 
The cottages and homesteads rose; 
But the hillside sprang suddenly 
From level meadows that did lie 
On either side a noble stream 
O’er which the morning linze did steam 
Made golden uowthen rose again 
The further hillsides, bright with grain, 
And fair with orchard and close wood, 
From whence at last the scarped cliffs stood. 
And clear now, golden In the morn. 
Against the western sky upbore. 
Seemed like a guarded wall, lest euro 
Or unrest yet should creep in there. 
You with plumage strange and bright, borne with 
pinions dark as night, 
And ;i heart that seems so light, on my maple tree, 
Sing for me your sweetest song, gaily, gushing, full 
and strong. 
Warble clearly, loud and long, Oriolalee, 
Dearest of the singing throng, O-ri-o-la Loo-leo. 
She walks with ils and holds our hand, 
Her eyes are angel’s eyoa; 
She walks with us across the sand, 
Sweot Faith, from out the skies! 
Wearing $ rose upon her breast 
That smells of Fnradlso. 
Mow I hoar the joyous note, issuing from your tiny 
throat, 
On the air it seems to float, liko foam upon thosea; 
Sing away, you need not fear, nothing now will harm 
you here. 
Let It. echo loud and clear, Oriolalee, 
Till all the birds shall stop to hear, O-ri-o-la Loo-lee. 
BATTLE-FIELDS 
There are other battle-fields than those 
where armies meet to contend for victory. 
There arc spiritual conflicts in every human 
heart where good and evil strive for the 
mastery. Temptations assail men to lead 
them from the peaceful paths of rectitude 
and temperance, and enslave them to vice, 
or else to the minor sins of envy, malice, and 
unjust judgements, and till others that dis¬ 
figure human nature. 
The majority of mankind repel the enemy 
more resolutely when it. takes the grosser 
forms of crime, but who is there that will 
not plead guilty to the lesser social sins? 
Women fall peculiarly under the bondage of 
those petty vices of vanity and evil speaking. 
Intemperance which leads so many men to 
ruin is not a temptation that affects them 
generally ; buL they can share theguiltof the 
transgressor with him on the lessor sins. 
Happy is lie or she who has the faith and 
constancy to repel the enemy from whatever 
quarter his attacks come, and whose soul is 
no longer a battle-field but a home where 
the spirit of peace may dwell forever ! 
El Ichor n, Walworth Co., Wis. B. C. D. 
“ From n. Southern land we've come, long and weary 
did wo roam. 
Till >yo found a happy home, in your maple tree, 
On this bough I’ve often tsurig, on that branch our 
nest is hung. 
In the nest my mate is swung, Oriolalee. 
Bearing patiently our young, O-ri-o-la Loo-lco. 
When cornea round the autumn time wo shall seek 
a warmer dime, 
Thera again 1*11 singmy rhyme on some orange tree, 
There again my mato shall swing, with our brood, 
which we will bring, 
All the day the grove shall ring, Oriolalee, 
Living in perpetual spring, O-ri-o-la Loo-lee.” 
BUSINESS ETIQUETTE, 
Happy little bird of Are, conltl I have iny heart’s de¬ 
sire, 
l. likewise, would never tire, ringing from a tree: 
Life in peace should glide along, void of strife and 
free from wrong, 
Night and morning, all day long, Oi'iolaloe, 
Singing an unending song, O-ri-o-la J.oo-loo. 
ITALIAN WOMEN. 
That 44 fair Italy ” is the home of fair 
women, lias long been the common belief. 
In rhyme and romance, Italia’s daughters 
are pictured as the very embodiment of 
grace and beauty. Foolish girls, in coun¬ 
tries less sung about, envy them their land 
and their lot, their pleasures and their 
charms. In the face of all this, what are the 
facts ? Travelers who see through the 
glamour of a romantic atmosphere, report 
much beside sunshine in the “sunny land," 
— much in the lives of women there that, is 
fully as hard and wearing as anything 
womanhood here experiences. 
It is a comfort, sometimes, when wc arc 
tired of inevitable work and worry, to know 
that other lives which wc have long fancied 
easy and luxurious, tiro not more so than our 
own. This may be a poor consolation, per¬ 
haps, but there is something consoling in it, 
nevertheless. We judge all tilings, whether 
good or bad, by companion, and if what we 
have and are is comparatively good, or easy, 
or desirable, we are the more content. On 
this account we print the following extracts 
from a letter in the Pittsburgh Commercial, 
to which we invite our readers’ attention : 
I said that the Italian women worked. So 
they do, diligently and continuously, with 
few exceptions. In addition to their house¬ 
hold duties, the poorer class go to the field, 
hearing the burden equally with the stronger 
and the lazier portion of the inhabitants, the 
men. What do they do ? Why in early 
spring, from January to March, they clear 
off the grain fields, preparing them for the 
summer crop. Here they call them corn 
fields in accordance with the English cus¬ 
tom of denominating all kinds of grain corn. 
They dig up the ground with a spade or 
broad-1 flailed mat took, say about six inches 
broad, and for this they receive from ten to 
twenty-five cents per day. During the same 
time they trim up the grape vines. From 
March until September the women are em¬ 
ployed principally in the cultivation of cot¬ 
ton. They sow the seed, cultivate the plant 
with the hoe, and gat her the cotton from the 
ripe bolls with their fingers. The cotton gin 
has not found its way to Italy. The men do 
not pretend to pick the cotton, as one of the 
best informed men in the district informed 
me gravely that the work was too hard for 
men. The xvork that demands the lnVhest 
TRIMMING AND COMPROMISING. 
Very true and suggestive are the follow¬ 
ing statements by Mr. Spurgeon ; and very 
worthy of an earnest echo is the added 
prayer: 
O how irresolute a man often is concern¬ 
ing a sin which he knows to be a sin, hut 
which enchants him with its sweetness. Ah ! 
how often a man will say,“l must, give it 
up, hut I cannot!” Sin dies hard; it makes 
a hundred excuses for itself, and pleads “ Is 
it not a little one? Is It not a sweet one?" 
O Lord, then give me strength of resolution, 
and when I know that a thing is wrong, help 
me to have done with it; and when I 
perceive an action to be right, help me to 
make haste and delay not to keep they com¬ 
mandments. O my Lord, may I never try 
to patch up a peace between my conscience 
and myself by trimming and compromising. 
If I know a thing to be Thy will, may I 
never parley nor question, for this is to re¬ 
bel. The spirit that parleys is the essence of 
high treason. 
OUR PLAIN PEOPLE. 
Rev. Du. Osoood, in the Evening Post, 
thus compares the middle classes of this 
country and Europe: 
“Our upper class does not differ much 
from the upper class of European society, so 
far as manners and refinement nrc concerned, 
hut there is no such middle class in Europe 
as our plain people, no class so well taught 
and well bred, so dignified and gentle, so in¬ 
dependent and respectful. Our plain people 
are not rude, and with us t he terms gentle¬ 
man and lady clo not have their usual Euro¬ 
pean meaning. With us these words refer 
to character, and not mainly, as in Europe, 
to birth or position. With us a gentleman 
Is a man of gentle spirit, who subdues bis 
selfish impulses into social courtesy, and 
bears a thoughtful and genial humanity in 
Ills speech and habit. Such persons are 
found among us in all stations. It seemed 
to me that the English middle class showed 
a kind of sycophancy to the aristocrat ic class, 
which they sometimes tried to disguise by a 
tone of indifference or dislike, while few of 
them have the dignity and modesty of our 
plain people. I was not. sorry, in this as well 
as in other important respects, to come back 
with fresh satisfaction to our own country 
and its people.” 
ON LOVE LETTERS 
“Serves him right,” said Mrs. Punch, 
impatiently throwing down the paper con¬ 
taining the report of a breach of promise 
case, damage £500; “ I don’t care about a 
woman who brings an action of the sort, but 
a man ought to be punished for writing such 
idiotic love letters.” 
“Logical as ever, my adored,” said Mr. 
Punch; 44 but it i3 the fitness of things that a 
love letter should be idiotic. Love is a brief 
(veiy brief) madness. Would you have Han- 
well edit Euclid ?” 
“But a man needn't writo ‘Now,my dear 
Jane,’ sixty times in one letter, and cover it 
with stars that mean kisses.” 
“ Would you have him send French epi¬ 
grams, or an analysis of the result of the 
deep-sea soundings for mollusks?” 
“ I’d have him rational.” 
“ Then, my worshipped, he had better post¬ 
pone love-letter writing till after marriage.” 
“ Well,” said Mrs. Punch, smiling, “ per¬ 
haps that would be the best way. But then 
they would never be written.” 
“And whose fault would that be?” said 
Mr. Punch, escaping from the room.” 
THE ALL-SEEING EYE, 
One day the astronomer Mitchell was en¬ 
gaged in making some observations on the 
sun, and as it descended toward the horizon, 
just as it was setting, there came into the 
range of the great telescope the top of a hill 
about, seven miles away. On the top of that 
bill was a large number of apple trees, and 
in one of them were two boys stealing apples. 
One was getting the apples, and the other 
was watching to make certain that nobody 
saw them, feeling that they were undiscover¬ 
ed. But there sat Professor Mitchell, seven 
miles away, with the great eye of his tele¬ 
scope directed fully upon them, seeing every 
movement they made as plainly as if he had 
been under the tree with them. So it is often 
with men. Because they do not sec the eye 
which watches with a sleepless vigilance, 
they think they are not seen. But the great 
open eye of God is upon them, and not an 
action can be concealed. There is not a deed, 
there is not a word, there is not a thought 
which is not known to God. 
AN IMPERIAL MORMON 
The Emperor of China is fifteen years 
old, and is to be married this year, with im¬ 
mense pomp, to his first and chief wife, his 
Empress. He will be simultaneously pro¬ 
vided with second and third wives; and 
from all parts of the Empire victims are be¬ 
ing collected to swell the list of his harem. 
Every Tartar family, we believe, is obliged 
to furnish its quota. Local selections are 
first made, and the holocaust is sent to 
Pekin, where a fresh selection takes place, 
aud a “ chosen” number are condemned to 
a life-long seclusion. They are not allowed 
to see their relations; may never see their 
lord and master, and in the event of his 
death they are still condemned to perpetual 
isolation and celibacy. 
OUR SPICE BOX. 
At what season did Adam leave Paradise? 
In the fall. 
American belles now give a new tone to 
Parisian society. 
What letter has never been used but 
twice in America ? A. 
Gossips are said to possess wonderful mu¬ 
sical instruments—organs without stops. 
Modesty in a woman is like color on her 
cheek—decidedly becoming if not put on. 
A bachelor— a man who neglects his op¬ 
portunity to make some woman miserable. 
Wyoming nurses calm the rising genera¬ 
tion by singing— 
“ Nice little baby, don't get in a fury, 
’Gaums mamma’s gone to sit on a jury.” 
An urchin being rebuked for wearing out 
his stockings at the toes, replied that it 
couldn’t he helped—“ toes wiggled and heels 
didn’t.” 
The most beautiful may he the most ad¬ 
mired and caressed, but they are not always 
the most esteemed and loved. And thus, in 
art and in life, we learn that great lesson of 
practical wisdom, while we look upward to 
the stars, not to trample on the flowers that 
lie at our feet. 
Settling Differences. — A gentleman 
having been told by a complaining brother 
that lie had something against him, warmly 
invited him to come in, saying, 44 We will 
both pray in the first place, and ask the bles¬ 
sing of God on our interview.” 
When they arose from their knees, he said, 
“Now I will thank you, my brother, to tell 
me what it is you have against me.” 
“ Oh,” was the reply, 44 1 really don’t know 
what it is; it isall gone; and I believe I was 
in the wrong.” 
A Word to Parents.— Remember that 
the time must come in every family when it 
is the children's right to begin to think and 
act for themselves, and the parents’ duty to 
allow them to do it; when it is wisest gradu¬ 
ally to slacken authority, to sink “I com¬ 
mand” into “I wish,” to grant large free¬ 
dom of opinion, and, above all, in the ex¬ 
pression of it. Likewise (and this is a most 
important element in family union) to give 
license—nay, actual sympathy—to wander¬ 
ing affections, friendships, or lives which for 
the time being, seem to find the home circle 
too narrow and too dull .—Mm Mulock. 
The question is not, wlmt ought I do? 
but what am I doing? If you are praying 
for your enemy, there is good reason to hope 
that your heart is right; if you restrain 
prayer for him, there is good reason to be¬ 
lieve that your heart is not right. A right 
heart towards a foe is never found coupled 
with forgetfulness of him at the throne of 
grace. 
Mastery over the minds of others is never 
obtained by those who do not know their 
own mind. But when a fixed end is kept 
distinctly in view, and steadily and firmly 
sought, this always gives confidence to weak¬ 
er natures, and supplies direction to subordi¬ 
nate help. 
The chief secret of comfort lies in not 
suffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently 
cultivating un undergrowth of small pleas¬ 
ures, since very few great ones are let on 
long leases. 
