NORTH SHORE BREEZE. 
13 
VALUE OF FRAGMENTS. 
Subject of Rev. L. H. Ruge's Sermon at Con- 
gregational Church. 
At the Congregational church, Man- 
chester, Sunday morning Rev. L. H. 
Ruge spoke on ‘‘ The Value of Frag- 
ments.’’ His text wastaken from John 
6: 12—‘‘ Gather up the fragments that 
remain that nothing be lost.’’ He said 
in part: 
** New Englanders are noted for econ- 
omy. ‘The men who haveattained unto 
a splendid trait of character have first be- 
come masters of desires and of indul- 
gences, and yet there is always danger of 
being drawn into the drift, and so New 
Englanders may be drawn into the drift 
of luxurious living. The subject of 
economy has become more broad. 
The miracle of the loaves and fishes 
is recorded by all gospel writers. It 
must have been a wonderful thing to 
have seen, but as a truth to contemplate, 
it is a more wonderfulthing. Few read 
this as anactualfact. They accept truth 
only so far as they can compass it by 
their intellect, but they think about it as 
a demonstration so great that the real 
phenomena sinks into _ insignificance. 
You may recognize a slight glimpse of a 
reserve force in nature as yet unrevealed, 
‘but upon which the world may be_ bor- 
dering. I see a power in aman here, a 
power superior to the evolutionary proc- 
esses of nature, bringing to pass the power 
of creation. I simply see a demonstra- 
tion of mind over matter. And why 
not? Which is essentially the greater? 
Do you ever stop to think about it? If 
you do, a little miracle like this will not 
startle you. It was a tremendous thing 
tosee and grasp. It is today. Evolu- 
tionary cycles must come and go, but 
man is fitted for the realization of such 
power as this. Jesus is the great prophet 
of economy. When the entire mind of 
man can place as much emphasis upon 
the gathering up of fragments as to the 
creation of worlds, he is fitted to sit in 
the councils of universal law. 
*“'The economy of the first miracle is 
the thought for our contemplation. The 
divine edict is gathering up fragments. 
Nature is a model house-keeper in God’s 
kingdom. Rocks turn to rich fertilizer 
for the fields; Men and _ economics 
know nothing in comparison with this. 
The destruction of a storm, the ravages 
of a river, these things are simply nature 
gathering up the fragments. Industry 
gathers up the fragments. With the 
very things our fore-fathers wasted, men 
are making millions today, though our 
fore-fathers were economical and thrifty. 
A junk man in New York recently died 
leaving an estate of $4,000,000. He 
had simply been gathering up the frag- 
ments. It is essentially better to gather 
up the fragments than to waste them. 
** The ancient schemes of irrigation 
along the Nile are feeble compared with 
the present great schemes of irrigation in 
this country. The government is rush- 
ing the work of placing streams and chan- 
nels in desert lands. All eyes are cen- 
tered on Panama. Here, oceans are to 
be linked together. We are living in a 
day that values its waste and obeys the 
words, ‘Gather up the fragments that 
remain, that nothing be lost.’ 
Fortunes do not accumulate in a 
lump, but by fragments carefully saved 
up. How insignificant the crumbs of 
life appear to you and me. ‘Save the 
pennies and the dollars will take care of 
themselves.’ Save the moments and the 
days will take care of themselves. 
““A thought is acrumb. Knowledge 
is that which fits the soul. Exact science 
is the result of gathering up the frag- 
ments. No man becomes depraved but 
by fragments, and no man becomes a 
saint instantaneously. We fail to gather 
and value the fragments, but the value of 
a full life is not attained except on the 
basis of economy. The value of gath- 
ering up the fragments is shown by the 
fruits. They gather up fragments and 
at last come to a blossom and then har- 
vest. This life is the treasure of heaven 
that we gather up by fragments on the 
earth.”’ 
Newspaper Advertising. 
If a member of your family died, 
would you print the resolutions on a bill- 
board? 
If you were going to enlarge your busi- 
ness, would you advertise it in a hotel 
register? 
If you were going to have a wedding 
in your family, would you get out a hand- 
bill? 
You would send such items toa news- 
paper, wouldn't you? 
Then why don’t you put your adver- 
tisement in a newspaper? 
Every man who uses the billboard is 
adding to nature faking. 
The newspapers build your town; 
why not help build up the newspapers? 
There is no better advertisement in the 
world than a good newspaper. A news- 
paper is the barometer of the town’s in- 
dustry. Show us a good newspaper, full 
of advertising, and we will show you a 
good town, full of live merchants. 
Newspapers are town builders, town 
advertisers, fortune makers, prosperity 
forecasters-—they are a necessity, not a 
luxury; they must be maintained. With- 
out them we would retrograde to the 
medieval days. 
Don’t patronize them from a charita- 
ble standpoint—patronize them because 
they deliver the goods—that is, if they 
are the right kind. 
Cut out the foolishness and work for 
the upbuilding of your town and state by 
upbuilding your newspapers. — Exchange. _ 
THE ORIGIN OF GOLF. 
This Favorite Sport is Now Indulged in Dur- 
ing all the Seasons. Started in Holland. 
Now thatthe changed conditions of 
our climate have made golf, which was 
formerly practically confined to the three 
other seasons, almost as much a winter 
game, it is rather curious to remember 
that in Holland, where many people 
think golf came from, it was only played 
in winter. 
All the literary and pictorial records of 
Dutch golf represent it as a winter 
pastime and played on the ice, and there 
is literally no evidence that the Dutch 
ever played it on dry land. ‘There is a 
miniature in a Book of Hours in the 
British museum which shows some chil- 
dren playing golf at a hole in the ground, 
but it is Finnish and not Dutch. The 
Dutch game indeed has little resemblance 
to our golf except that the weapons are 
similar. The Dutchmen played at an 
upright mark, a post or stone or door, 
instead of a hole. 
Golf as we knowit is more akin to 
the ancient French game of jeu de mail, 
which is still played in the south of 
France in the neighborhood of Montpel- 
lier, and it seems probable, if golf is not 
a purely Scottish creation, that it is a 
modification of the old French game. 
There was much intercourse between 
France and Scotland all through the Stu- 
art period, and the French influence on 
Scottish manners and customs, and even 
on the language, was very great. On 
the other hand, although Holland had 
much trade with Scotland at the same 
period, there is practically no trace of 
Dutch influence on anything Scottish. 
It is possible, however, that the Scot- 
tish form of golf club was taken from the 
Dutch. So far as can be judged from 
the old pictures, the Dutch clubs were 
identical in form and construction with 
the old makes of Scottish clubs. Of 
course it is equally possible that the 
Dutch copied the clubs from the Scotch, 
and as a matter of fact, there is an old 
Dutch poem in which a “‘Kolfer’’ is 
described as using a ‘‘ Scottse cleik,’’ or 
Scottish club. But however that may 
be, the old Dutch clubs would pass the 
rules of golf committee today as “ legiti- 
mate’’ weapons, whereas it is to be feared 
that the weapons used in the French 
** jeu de mail’’ would be condemned as 
croquet mallets. 
Whether the Dutch or the French are 
our golfing ancestors is perhaps doubtful, 
but it is certain that at the present day 
they are our golfing children, forthe golf 
now played in Holland and France is the 
true Scottish variety directly imported. In 
Holland the game appears to languish, 
but in France its progress is nothing less 
than astonishing. 
A gift of gab has been the undoing of 
many a man. 
