762 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NOV 16 
boy a Christmas present of it, and get it in 
the family. 
LETTERS TO A COUSIN. 
IV. 
M Y DEAR COUSTN:—And so you 
have read “Looking Backward,” 
and you think the idea altogether chimeri¬ 
cal. Furthermore, you have no patience 
with a man who would fall asleep on the 
eve of his wedding day and sleep 112 years, 
and then wake up and fall in love with his 
sweetheart’s grand-daughter (as witty as 
ever); lastly, you are not particularly in¬ 
terested in social reforms. Very well, my 
dear cousin, but you shall not be left in ig¬ 
norance by the wayside. The demand for 
Edward Bellamy’s book has been phenom¬ 
ena], the sales averaging 1,100 copies per 
day. The clever plausibility of his schemes 
has captivated many readers. “Yes” (I 
hear you say) “people like to be hum¬ 
bugged.” Of course that is all true, but do 
let us be humbugged in a new way just for 
a change. We are rather tired of the old. 
Two new clubs, the Nationalists and the 
Christian Socialists, that were organized in 
Boston, and now have members all over 
the Union, have adopted many of Bellamy’s 
ideas. The Christian Socialists urge the 
members of their club to live up to their 
own creed of treating all mankind as 
brothers. Their organ, “ Davon,” has on 
its list of contributors the names of many 
prominent writers, among others being 
those of Rev. Dr. E. E. Hale, Col. T. W. 
Higgiuson, Mrs. Helen Campbell (who 
wrote “Prisoners of Poverty”) Rev. Dr. 
Heber Newton, Rabbi Schindler and Ed¬ 
ward Bellamy. Now, will you still elevate 
your head and say with withering scorn 
and a fine show of incredulity that the 
book is all “ bosh ” when some of our most 
earnest thinkers pronounce it good? 
The Nationalists also have an organ, the 
Nationalist, which has a very wide circula¬ 
tion. They, as their name indicates, put 
their hope in the nationalization of all in¬ 
dustry, and claim that combination and not 
competition is the life of trade. So much 
for that subject. I will not go into details, 
for I am pretty certain they would bore 
you, and sometimes I do have a little con¬ 
sideration for the person to whom I am 
writing. 
The Library Association of S-are 
giving a course of lectures this season that 
promise to be very interesting. The Rev. 
Frank W. Gunsanlus, of Chicago, lectured 
on Savonarola, the Italian priest and re¬ 
former, on the opening night. He gave a 
brief sketch of the agitator’s boyhood, then 
dwelt at some length on his life and work 
among the Florentines (George Eliot vivid¬ 
ly describes this part of the man’s life in 
Romola), and finally, in a striking word 
picture portrayed the tragic end. Mr. 
Gunsanlus is a very enthusiastic, speaker, 
and carries his audience right along with 
him. A friend told me that last year, at 
Chautauqua, some one asked for a defini¬ 
tion of eloquence, and a gentleman arose 
and answered “Frank W. Gunsanlus, 
we considered him the personification of 
eloquence.” Perhaps you remember him 
when he was pastor of Eastwood Chapel in 
C-and afterwards filled the la rge opera- 
house Sunday afternoons with wide-awake 
people. That was eight or nine years ago, 
and he was said to be only twenty-three 
then. We all thought him wonderful, but 
people predicted that he would not last long, 
and thought he was killing himself by hard 
study. Socially, he was very much beloved. 
At a picnic he seemed in his element and 
would crack jokes all the way home, riding 
in the tail-end of a big wagon with his long 
legs swinging almost to the ground. A 
pretty young girl who taught in his Sun¬ 
day-school was worrying over her gradua¬ 
tion essay and he kin ily offered to help 
her. Of course, she got along swimmingly 
then. I’ve forgotten what her subject was, 
but it was something big and when she 
handed it in, the Principal of the school 
read it over and then looked up with his 
keen, black eyes and said quietly : “ Who 
helped you with this?” “Mr. Gunsanlus.” 
“Very well, suppose you go home and 
write one yourself now.” Mr. G.’s family 
consists of his ,vife, two or three little 
boys and a sister. At home he was just a 
big boy romping with the little boys. His 
sister took one or two special studies at the 
school I attended, and was considered very 
intellectual; indeed, her talented brother 
used to say that she was the fiower of the 
family. I haven't, heard of her for a long 
time. I believe she married. Mr. Gunsan 
lus always managed to have the best nm- 
sjcjil tnliint in tlie city nt his church, He 
used to say he could not preach at all if 
there was no music, but after a grand solo 
he always felt inspired. 
Speaking of music, I went to hear Emma 
Abbott a few weeks ago in the opera, “ Ro¬ 
meo and Juliet.” Her costumes were gor¬ 
geous ; but Emma herself is not as pretty 
as she once was. nor is her voice anything 
wonderful. Moreover, the character, “Ju¬ 
liet,” is not at all suited to her style. But 
something occurred that made the evening 
exceedingly interesting, and I wonder if I 
can make it appear so to you. To begin 
with, there were three in our party and I 
occupied the third seat from the end of the 
row. Just in front of us, occupying the 
first and second seats, was a large, light- 
complexioned man and a slender, nice- 
looking young lady. He was the most 
voluble talker I ever heard, and you per¬ 
ceive that when he turned to talk to the 
young lady he also came very near facing 
me—so near, in fact, that it was quite im¬ 
possible to avoid listening to the talk 
that flowed on incessantly. It was also im¬ 
possible not to be amused. He had deep, 
glittering blue eyes and a long, light beard, 
and I quite forgot to say at first that he 
was a German and talked in his native 
tongue and was evidently well educated. 
He talked of music, the drama and a 
hundred other things, to which I, of course, 
gave little heed. But suddenly my attention 
was arrested by these words: “Will you have 
me for your husband ?” (literally translat¬ 
ed) Imagine ! Could I have heard aright ? 
Yes, there was no mistaking the look with 
which he was regarding his companion. 
“ Heavens! ” I whispered to F. “ That man 
has just proposed to the girl ! ” She evi¬ 
dently gave him a negative answer for he 
looked furious and exclaimed. “Very 
well, I will take you home and we will 
break this right off to-night.” Oh me! I 
asure you that the stage “ Romeo ” only 
had half of our attention after that. The 
curtain rose on the last act, the poison 
scene, and the irrate Teuton would cast 
swift glaces from the stage to his compan¬ 
ion and utter a word or two under his taw¬ 
ny beard, which seemed to mean that he 
would do something equally desperate. 
The young lady had grown quite white and 
kept her opera glasses up to her eyes to 
avoid his gaze. I, too, had to fasten my at¬ 
tention on the stage, for he seemed to com¬ 
prehend that I had understood and told, 
and consequently stared at me in a most 
annihilating manner. Nevertheless, I have 
lived to tell the tale. We watched them 
leave the theater and walk three or four 
squares, he on one side of the pavement, 
she on the other. Well, dearest, so much 
for having bestowed a little of my precious 
time on the study of German. “A little 
learning is a dangerous thing.” It has 
certainly made me one enemy. We all 
agreed that the girl did perfectly right to 
refuse him, but if her answer had been dif¬ 
ferent our amusement would have been 
greater, for I beleive he would have made 
himself quite ridiculous. Criticize me if 
you will, but do it with loving skill. 
Affectionately, doc IA DYKENS. 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
T ALMAGE says it is a good thing to 
graduate at the Royal College of 
Trouble. These graduates are in all the 
higher and nobler walks of life ; in all the 
more illustrious ranks of the redeemed. 
Have you not observed that many of our 
greatest and most effective writers and re¬ 
formers have been fitted for their special 
work by the baptism of tears? When men 
receive the honor of knighthood, they are 
touched with the fiat side of the sword. 
When men are set apart for the honors and 
dignities of the Kingdom of God, they are 
pierced by the sharp point and cut by the 
sharp edge. Suffering is the road to per¬ 
fection alike with individuals, nations and 
the world itself. All is necessary. Paul 
suffered much, but Pa” 1 could not afford 
to dispense with one shackle, one scourg¬ 
ing, one pang. It was training. It was the 
royal school of trouble. It was the road to 
perfection. 
The Christian idea of repentance, says 
Dr. Eaton, involves two chief elements— 
the changing of one’s mind and the refor¬ 
mation of one’s habits of life. It is not 
enough for a man to say before the altar 
that he is sorry lor his sins and then go out 
into the world and commit the same sins 
again. It is not enough for a drunkard to 
repent of drunkenness and then continue 
in drunkenness. The sinner who has real¬ 
ly repented will no longer sin ; the drunk¬ 
ard who has repented will no longer drink ; 
the map of business who has repqptej} wil! 
no longer use false weights and measures: 
the politician who has repented will no 
longer tamper with the consciences of vot¬ 
ers, or seek to buy his way into public 
office, and the minister who has repented of 
indifference and coldness will no longer try 
to bring his hearers to Christ by half¬ 
hearted services. 
Dr. Collyer reminds us that we never 
speak of Washington as an old man. He 
was struck with immortal youth. Wash¬ 
ington did not ask if life was worth living, 
but he proposed to himself to make life 
worth living. His great watchword was 
“ duty”—not pleasure, not the pursuit of 
money as the end of life and living, but 
“duty.” In the wilderness, on the battle¬ 
field, in the market, in the camp, in the 
council he was a man of amplest influence. 
Everywhere they found him asking: “Is 
this my duty as a Christian?” A whole 
man, and therefore a holy man, his great 
example stands colossal seen of every land. 
“ The path of duty was the way to glory.” 
Beecher says that, every man is for 
truth, or he is for error. Every man is for 
right, or he is for wrong. Every man is 
for benevolence, or he is for selfishness. 
Every man is for the spiritual, or he is for 
the animal. 
In what other painful event of life has a 
good man so little sympathy as when over¬ 
come with sleep in meeting time ? In his 
lawful bed a man cannot sleep, and in his 
pew he cannot keep awake!. 
In reply to an inquiry, Lyman Abbott de¬ 
fines Mr. Beecher’s position on the subject 
of Christian Evolution : 
“Evolution” signifies the derivation of 
all the various forms of life from a common 
origin, by progressive change, according to 
certain laws, and by means of resident 
forces. It is best typified by the course of 
embryonic development. “ Christiau evol¬ 
ution” is a phrase which represents the 
belief that the efficient forces of such a 
process are the energy of God in Nature. 
Mr. Beecher so believed. See his book. 
Christ’s saving work, as he taught, includes 
all that Jesus did and said and suffei’ed. 
The death of Christ, in Mr. Beecher’s view, 
was no less a part of his saving work than 
his life. 
Domestic 0conomtj 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
“ The tissues of the life to he 
We weave with colors all our own, 
And in the field of destiny 
We reap as we have sown." 
—Whittier. 
EXTRACTS FROM SUNDAY EVEN¬ 
ING TALKS AT THE‘RURAL 
GROUNDS. 
‘ * [70R unto whomsoever much is given, 
of him shall much be required: and 
to whom men have committed much, of 
him they will ask the more.” 
“ We must make some allowance for him, 
because he does not know any better !” 
“There is no possible excuse for him, be¬ 
cause he ought to know better 1” 
We have all heard these expressions; we 
have doubtless all thought them when con¬ 
sidering the shortcomings of others. It 
seems to be natural for us to look at things 
in that way. It seems to be a part of the 
natural justice that lies at the base of all 
our thoughts and feelings to believe that 
education and study carry with them a cer¬ 
tain responsibility, while the lack of them, 
to a certain extent, absolves one from re¬ 
sponsibility. Whether right or wrong, this 
idea holds. We are always shocked at wit¬ 
nessing an act of rudeness on the part of 
oue who has had every advantage of polite 
society. The rough fellow, who never had 
any “ bringing up,” may disgust us by his 
ill-manners, but we are far more ready to 
find excuses for him than for the man who 
“ ought, to know better ” because of his edu¬ 
cation and associations. And so it is with 
other qualities. The just critic always 
considers this matter of education before 
forming a decided judgment. A little re¬ 
flection will convince all of you that this 
is true. With this fact in mind, two things 
occur to me that I think are worth consid¬ 
ering. 
First. Education of any kind involves a 
Responsibility that cannot be dodged. 
(Second, No man or woman who wants tp 
be self-respecting can afford to go through 
life taking advantage of the leniency granted 
those who fail to assume this responsibility. 
I believe in a doctrine of strict account¬ 
ability. The country contains so much 
wealth. One man by earnest application 
and hardest toil accumulates millions. Will 
he not be held responsible for the spending 
of his money ? Will there be for him only 
praise for the energy and perseverance dis¬ 
played in gathering it together? How 
much good have you done with your wealth ? 
How have you invested it so that heavy 
hearts have been made lighter, so that light 
has chased away shadow, so that the world 
has grown better and happier ? It seems 
fair enough, to me, that such questions 
will be asked of the man who is rich in this 
world’s goods, and that a rich reward may 
be due the one who, by means of honest and 
manly effort, accumulates a fortune and 
spends it so that the world is made better. 
There need be nothing necessarily wicked 
about the accumulation of a fortune. Too 
many who accumulate money forget about 
the responsibility that goes with it. 
It is much the same way with an educa¬ 
tion—and by education I mean the informa¬ 
tion we may acquire concerning any sub¬ 
ject—it makes no difference what it may 
be. We should remember that the moment 
we learn the difference between the right 
and the wrong of any matter we assume a 
new responsibility. We are not as we were 
before. When held to a strict and fair ac¬ 
count, we cannot plead ignorance as an ex¬ 
cuse for any dodging of duty on the lines 
included in the scope of our study or obser¬ 
vation. The accumulation of mental 
wealth, reading, thinking, observing, en¬ 
tails a responsibility as certain as that fol¬ 
lowing the gathering of money. Why should 
we not be held to a strict account for the 
information we acquire ? How have you 
used your learning ? In how far has it 
taught you charity, patience, strength of 
character, ability to withstand disappoint¬ 
ments and losses, ability to advise and com¬ 
fort others ? And how far have you made 
use of this ability in your intercourse with 
those about you ? Why are not these ques¬ 
tions as fair and just as those that may be 
asked of the rich man ? It is safe to assume 
that when the final summing up of our 
lives takes place, such questions as these 
will be considered. 
It is the duty of the even-minded human 
being to do his best to cultivate and im¬ 
prove his mind. The mind is the richest, 
most delicate gift that God has given us. 
It is the index of life revealing our 
thoughts, our lives, our mental struggles 
and investigations clearly and honestly. 
The training of this mind is the life-work 
assigned to every human creature, and it 
is fair that we should be judged by the 
showing we make at the end. Live a 
blank, vacant, purposeless life, filled with 
thoughts only of present and future pleas¬ 
ures, stale commonplaces in the way of 
thoughts and a course of reading that 
brings nothing but amusement, and what 
sort of a mind do you turn out? 
No, God meant, when He placed within 
your reach the great privileges of thought 
and study, that you should be held respon¬ 
sible for the use or abuse of that privilege. 
The world has been filled with opportuni¬ 
ties for drawing in strong, beautiful and 
helpful thoughts. Good and true men and 
women have left the records of pure and 
beautiful lives for us to ponder over. Great 
minds have left strong thoughts for us to 
study and apply to our own needs and our 
own circumstances. Nature is filled with 
the most wonderful examples of the cer¬ 
tain results that follow a true observance 
of the laws of life. 
Do you not believe then that the human 
being who, in the midst of all this wealth 
ot information and wisdom, fails to grasp 
what he can, fails to draw into his own 
life and soul a portion, at least, of the 
sweet examples of patience, fortitude and 
strength, that other lives have left us, that 
dumb lives are acting before us every day, 
fails to live up to his possibilities and fails 
to carry out the work God gave him to do? 
Who is worse, the one that knows the dif¬ 
ference between right and wrong and then 
i.$rrUancou 0 Advertising. 
When Baby was sick, we gave her Castoria, 
When she was a Child, she cried for Castoria, 
When she became Miss, she clung to Castoria, 
When she had Children, ^ho gave t hem Castoria 
