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THE CHEAPNESS OF HUMAN LIFE.

In a recently published article upon the state of so ciety in the South-particular reference being had to the moral and educational status of the colored people there occurred an allusion to the increase in the number of homicide cases, especially in the State of Kentucky. I was about to make a note of the figures, with a view to furnishing them to a foreign correspondent much interested in penal reform and cognate matters, but, upon further consideration, deemed it best to refrain, having a fear lest the statement, if not indeed greatly exaggerated, might by many be taken to be so. Since then, however, I have seen it stated upon the authority of a leading journal which has given special attention to the subject, that there was undoubtedly a large increase in the number of murders for 1884 as compared with the year preceding-the total for all the United States being three thousand three hundred and seventy-seven.

He who makes a study of political economy, will, in considering its historic development, have occasion to note with satisfaction the gradual substitution of law and of other amicable methods in the place of brute force for the settlement of differences, whether such differences be private, inter-tribal and provincial, or international. Within a few years, however, observing how many rencontres terminating in bloodshed and death have arisen (especially in the South) out of family feuds, the members of one family embittered against another, and ever on the lookout to pay up old scores, even to the taking of life, I have been inclined to query whether there were not evidences of a retrograde tendency-a going back in the direction of duel-practice,clan-fighting,aud the judicial combat, or wager of battle. Likewise, the prominence given in many Northern dailies to the doings of prizefighters, suggest the old pagan days when the blood of martyred Christians was shed upon the arena.

A similar view to that above expressed has come to my notice since the foregoing was penned, and it is to be found in certain remarks made by the French pastor and publicist, Edmond de Pressensé, now a member of the National Assembly of France. Adverting to the recent circumstance of deliberate shooting by a notorious French woman, of a man whom she suspected of slandering her, of her glorying in her guilt, and, uron her release, of being carried home in triumph by her friends whilst bouquets were showered upon her by applauding spectators, he says, that this incident, with many others of a not dissimilar sort which he might mention, "argue a return to a state of barbarism. It is the old savage warfare re-appearing in the midst of modern civilization, and facilitated by the more deadly appliances of the present day. The powers of evil have indefinitely multiplied their weapons of late, even apart from dynamite, the favorite tool of the anarchist everywhere." The foremost cause is declared to be the elimination of God from the moral world, and denying the authority-aye, even the very existence of a moral sense, or conscience.

Now, of the three thousand three hundred and seventy-seven murders said to have happened in this country last year, only one hundred and eleven (111) were followed by executions, whilst the wretched sub

jects of lynch-law administration numbered two hundred and nineteen (219), or about twice as many as the number of those who were judicially executed. There is thus evident, on the one hand, an aversion to the inflicting of the capital penalty; on the other, a passionate determination to summarily administer the law (?) without judge or jury-both conditions being out of harmony with this age of civilization and of professing Christianity.

It may therefore be pertinently asked, in view of the fact that several of the States of this Republic and several of the cantons of Switzerland wherein capital punishment had been abolished by law have recently restored, or are moving to restore, the extreme penalty, whether any real benefit is likely to follow the re-enactment. Those evil customs or social conditions which so often eventuate in murders are, chiefly rum-drinking, religious skepticism, pernicious reading and play-going, the carrying of deadly weapons, and the disregard of the first day of the week. All these are on the increase in this country as well as in Switzerland. In the latter country a late inquiry relative to the prevalence of the rumdrinking habit, revealed a sorrowful state of affairs. As to our own land, recent statistics show that in the last four years the increase in the consumption of liquors has been twice as great as the increase in the population. What avails it, then, in seeking to stay the murder-passion, that we retaliate upon the baleful reresult, if with much more vigor, we attack not the evil root; in other words, why re-enact the penalty of death by hanging, by the guillotine, or by any other summary process, when men can freely obtain that which maddens them, fires their brains, and renders them insane and ready for murder, at shops licensed by law to deal out the poison.

The following suggestive, but truly saddening statement concerning the new enslavement of the negro population of the South is given in last month's National Temperance Advocate. It rests upon the authority of President De Forest, of Talledega College, Alabama, and is submitted, in conclusion, without comment:

"Rum, of course is the ruin of our black people, who find liberty in license, and drink vastly more than when slaves. . In unevangelized places, and that means much the larger part, the saloons are full of black tipplers, and the street corners are thronged with black idlers, whereas slavery had a law and a lash for both of these offenders. Formerly the whites had a monopoly in drinking and loafing; now the negro has become an active partner, and selling liquor to colored men has passed from zero to a vast and lucrative business. A very intelligent colored man said to me recently that they spent a thousand dollars for liquor now to one before the war. The result of this is misery, degradation, and woe unutterable.-Josiah W. Leeds, in The Student.

WHOEVER fights, whoever falls,
Justice conquers evermore,
Justice after as before,-
And he who battles on her side,
God, though he were ten times slain,
Crowns him victor glorified,–
Victor over death and pain,
Forever.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson:

FRIENDS' BOOK ASSOCIATION.

The Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Friends' Book Association, of Philadelphia, was held in Race Street Meeting-house, 5th month 11th, at 8 o'clock. In the absence of the President, Amos Hillborn was called to the Chair. S. Raymond Roberts served as Secretary. The following report was presented, and after some discussion accepted and referred to the incoming Board:

The Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Directors
of Friends' Book Association, of Philadelphia.
To the Stockholders :

Your Board of Directors has held regular Quarterly Meetings, and through its Executive Committee, monthly reports of the financial condition of the business of the store (furnished by the Superintendent, John Conly), have been carefully examined.

The summary of these reports shows a small loss in the business of the year, mainly caused by a robbery which occurred at the store, 1020 Arch street, in Tenth month last. The amount of merchandise on hand, Third month 31st, 1885, was $11,737.56. Since last report we have published Essays on the Views of Friends," by J. J. Cornell; stereotyped and printed 6,000 copies, most of which have been sold. We have also stereotyped and printed: 1,500 copies George Fox's Dissertation on Christian Testimonies," by S. M. Janney; 1,500 copies "George Fox's Christian Discipline," by S. M. Janney; 1,500 copies George Fox's Ministry," by S. M. Janney.

We have printed from the stereotype plates in our possession the following:

500 Janney's "Life of George Fox." 1,000 "Young Friends' Manual," by Benjamin Hallowell.

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Statesman Series). From the Press of Houghton, Samuel Adams. By Prof. James K. Hosmer. (Am. Mifflin & Co., Boston.-Bancroft has characterized this early States'nan of America as the helmsman of the Revolution at its origin, the truest representative of the home rule of Massachusetts in its town meetings and General Court. We doubt not this is, or will be as welcome to the reading public, as have been the twelve preceding volumes of the "Am. Statesman Series." The object has not been, in this series, to give, merely, a number of unconnected narratives of men conspicuous in political life in America, but to produce books, which shall, when taken_together, indicate the lines of political thought and development in American history.

At the close of the last chapter of his interesting biographical sketch of Samuel Adams, Prof. Hosmer says:

and

"The town-meeting has been called 'the primordial cell of our body politic.' Is its condition at present such as to satisfy as there that it can be said to be well maintained. At the us? As we have seen, even in New England, it is only here South, Anglo-Saxon freedom, like the enchanted prince of the Arabian Nights,' whose body below the waist the evil witch had fixed in black maible, had been fixed in African slavery. they are weak and wasted from the hideous trammel. The The spell is destroyed; the prince has his limbs again, but traces of the folk-mote in the South are sadly few. Nor elsewhere is the prospect encouraging. The influx of alien tides to whom our precious heirlooms are as nothing, the growth of cities and the inextricable inequalities and perplexities of their government, the vast inequality of condition between man and man-what room is there for the little primary council of freemen, homogeneous in stock, holding the same faith, on the same level as to wealth and station, not too few in numbers for the kindling of interest, nor so many as to become unmanageable; what room is there for it, or how can it it. Freeman remarks that in some of the American colonies, be revivified or recreated? It is, perhaps, hopeless to think of 'representation has supplanted the primitive Teutonic democracy, which had sprung into life in the institution of the first settlers.' Over vast areas of our country to-day, representation has supplanted democracy. It is an admirable, an indispensable expedient, of course. Yet that a representative system may be thoroughly well managed, we need below it the frequent and accessible,' discussing affairs and deciding for theinselves. De Tocqueville seems to have thought that AngloSaxon America owes its existence to the town-meeting. It not a main source of our freedom. Certainly it is well to hold would be hard, at any rate, to show that the town-meeting was itin memory; to give it new life, if possible, wherever it exists; to reproduce some semblance of it, however faint, in regions half-forgotten figure who, of all men, is its best type and repreto which it is unknown; it is well to brush the dust off the S. R.

We have made the plates and printed an edition of 500 copies of 'The Life of Banneker, the AfricAmerican Astronomer," by Martha E. Tyson, for Anne L. Kirk; an edition of "William Canby and his Descendants," Extracts of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Swarthmore College Catalogue, Report of Board of Managers and Minutes, Report of the Home for Destitute Colored Children, Report of Friends' Home for Children, besides various school Reports, Cata-primary assemblies of the individual citizens, 'regular, fixed, logues, etc.

We believe this branch of our business might be greatly increased, and the principles and testimonies of our religious Society more effectively disseminated, if the fund for publishing literature for gratuitous distribution was enlarged to meet the growing demand for such information.

Signed on behalf of the Board,

LOUISA J. ROBERTS,
Secretary.

Fifth month 11th, 1885.

HENRY BENTLEY,
President.

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sentative.”

Appleton's Chart Primer. By Rebecca D. Rickoff. Appleton & Co., New York.—This is a charming little book of language and color lessons for beginners. It is to be used during the first school days-days apt to be wearisome to the children and taxing to the teacher. The Chart Primer comes with beautiful pictures to the child. Conversations and color lessons are to be attract the eye, and to suggest descriptive words to mingled with easy reading lessons, so as to give the little one easy command of sufficient words for the first steps in learning. The Primer Supplements the well without them. Charts, now so universally in use, but will do very

The colored illustrations are really artistic, as well they may be, being the designs of such artists as Ida Waugh and Kate Greenaway.

laboring to-day to render the work of the training of We give thanks and praise to all those who are children for life ever easier and easier to both learner and teacher. The way is long, the path not too easy at the very best, and the "pathway of the gods" must may make the approaches to this pathway as pleasing forever continue to be " steep and craggy," but we and as flowery as the skill and taste of our wisest and best can devise

AMONG the commendable efforts of the present day, The artlessness of the narration seems to Dr. Furis that which aims to procure for childhood reading ness to be strong evidence of its truth and sincerity, which is wholesome, pleasing, and to some extent in- and he holds that the Resurrection of Christ was an structive. Our attention is attracted to a little book actual fact, while not pronouncing it a miracle or a published by Roberts Bros., Boston, entitled Daddy wonder. He says, justly, that we cannot pretend to Darwin's Dovecot. It is only a pleasant little harm- know all the ways of nature, and have no authority less picture of Yorkshire, (England), country life, in for pronouncing it a miracle in the sense of a violawhich faithfulness to duty, innocence, and gratitude tion of these ways. Might it not be reasonable to are all charmingly and naturally set forth, with their believe it took place in perfect consistency with the results. divine way, and in obedience to some law of nature The illustrations have so much spirit that they add-the law of the supremacy of spirit over matter? very much to the merits of the little book.

Says the author:

harmony with the Divine will and order, through a faith, "Living, dying and rising from the dead in profoundest

nite One dwelling in him, and in all things animate and inanimate, Christ is our fullest revelation of God and of the Divine life in the soul of man.

identified with his inmost personal consciousness, in the Infi

wrought. To change those poor men who first put faith in "His resurrection was justified by the power with which it him into saints and martyrs, through whom the world was to be revolutionized, it was worth while for the greatest of the

sons of men to awake from the deep slumber of death, and show himself to them and inspire them with a faith in things

FROM D. Appleton & Co., N. Y., comes a little volume on the human body, and how to take care of it, which bears the name How We Live. It is an elementary course in Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene, by James Johonnot & Eugene Bouton, Ph.D. This is one of the numerous works on Physiology and Hygiene, in the interests of temperance reform, by which it is hoped the study will be effectively introduced into the public schools. We find the effects of alcohol and of narcotics clearly and simply stated, without exaggeration; and every point which relates to the proper care of the physical system, is treated as fully, as so brief a work can do it. The evils of pres-unseen such as was never felt before. sure upon the waist, of the use of shoes that are instruments of torture, and of the irritation of the from the world into an unsubstantial dream of the Past, cast"Had he not done so, his memory would have faded away delicate organs of sensation, are set forth sufficiently-ing no light of sanctity upon the Present, nor of hope upon the with the earnest confirmation of the skillful and ing no light of sanctity upon the Present, nor of hope upon the confirmation of the skillful and Future. His disciples would have gone mourning back to their faithful teacher, to impress the minds of children so fully, that they will retain the impression to after life. The subject of temperance instruction in public that he who had been all in all to them, for whom they had “But, as it was, assured beyond the shadow of a misgiving schools now greatly interests our best and wisest forsaken all else, was still living, with a courage that princes citizens. The act of Fourth month 2, 1885, (Pennsyl- and all the powers of Church and State could not daunt, those vania) authorizes Physiology and Hygiene to be in-humble men went forth and published their faith in the Risen cluded in the branches now required by law to be Christ, sealing that faith with their blood. This was the one taught in the common schools of this State. Fact, upon the truth of which they staked life and all that makes life dear—that Christ had risen from the dead, and was

This act takes effect immediately, though teachers are not perhaps as yet fully qualified to take up the subject scientifically, and are not required to pass an examination in the branches desired till next year. In such circumstances it is well to have so simple a little manual as this, in which every teacher can get a familiarity with the first elementary steps-and lead the children along with them without much or any previous study.

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We hope no time be lost in taking this step with energy and faith. While too many of our present voters favor the interests of distillers, brewers and saloons," rather than the cause of righteousness, temperance and judgment, it may be of some avail to try to train up more enlightened citizens for the coming time, toward which we are ever looking with hope. It is something that the literature is all ready.

The Story of the Resurrection of Christ. By Wm. H. Furness, D.D.-This interesting work is from the press of J. B. Lippincott & Co. It will be read with interest by students of the New Testament, since it treats of the event deemed so important by all schools of theology, and concerning which such varying opinions are held.

Says Dr. Furness:

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boats and nets on the Sea of Galilee.

still living."

CURRENT EVENTS.

S. R.

Domestic.-General Grant is now driving and walking out again, and the daily health bulletins have ceased. He sleeps and eats comparatively well, and is in fairly good spirits. But the fact remains that he is growing thinner daily, losing, the papers say, about two pounds a week. The disease in the throat appears to be arrested at present, but only the most sanguine can believe that he is on the road to recovery.

A RELIEF fund for the fever-stricken people of Plymouth, Pa., has been started and contributions have been made in Philadelphia and elsewhere. This has enabled systematic help to be extended to the sufferers who have been rendered helpless by the pestilence. The disease is pronounced to be typhoid fever of a malignant type, probably caused by the failing of the water supply.

THE sixth annual examination at the Indian Training School at Carlisle was held on the sixth instant in the presence of a large and intelligent audience. The exercises, which were highly interesting, displayed remarkable progress on the part of the pupils, in all the branches in which instruction has been given. About 480 pupils are now on the rolls of the school, some 80 of whom are learning practically the art of civilized life in various families in the Eastern

States.

Foreign.-Riel's rebellion in Northwestern Canada, is not easily suppressed, and it is feared that the Dominion forces have suffered a severe reverse near Battleford, N. W. F. The most serious danger now is that there may be a general Indian rising. It has been evident from the first that the loyalty of many

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MORE trouble is reported in Egypt, Osman Digna having again gathered an army about him; but it is thought the present scarcity of food in the desert, will prevent this army from concentrating so as to become so formidable as to require a British expedition for the suppression of El Mahdi's champion.

THE Mediterranean Sea has encroached upon the land in the Nile Delta to a point at present beyond Rosetta. Cattle are perishing from the effects of salt water drank by them in desperate thirst, and the human inhabitants of the invaded region are suffering terribly from want of fresh water, which has to be sent them from large distances by railway.

THE revised edition of the Old Testament will be given to the public in London on the 19th instant, and will be published in New York on the 21st.

THE French Chamber of Deputies was formally reopened on Fifth month 4th. It is believed that the Brisson Ministry will endeavor at the first opportunity to rid themselves of the Tonquin burden. The climate is unfit for Europeans. The Suez Canal Commission have decided to exempt Egypt and Turkey from the interdiction of acts of hostility in the Suez Canal, or the landing of troops on its banks for the defense of Egypt.

It is represented that the general feeling in France is against the costly aggressive policy of the late ministry, especially in regard to the war in Madegascar which has been dragging along without advancement for some time. It is hoped that the peace policy may now prevail in the French republic.

LONDON advices of the 9th instant are to the effect that the Anglo-Russian situation is still uncertain. It is feared that arbitration may fail. Preparations for war are being carried on with vigor on both sides.

ITEMS.

AT the instance of the State Board of Health a sanitary inspection will be made of all the railway stations and grounds, hotels, camp grounds and other places of public resort in New Hampshire.

THE Liverpool Post says landlords and tenants will be interested in learning that in the Queen's Bench Division a jury has awarded a tenant £45 damages for illness caused through the drains of a house not being maintained in proper order.

on "Types of American Women," which was largely attended and attentively listened to.

strip of land at the west end of Coney Island, near SEVERAL citizens of New York have purchased a the Sea View hotel, for sanitarian purposes. It has a frontage of 300 feet on the ocean and extends back to Gravesend Bay without diminishing in width. The land covers an area of 30 acres. Nothing will be done with the property this summer, but it is proposed to erect in the fall a building that can be used as a sanitarium next summer. This will be for the benefit of the children of the poor and the inmates of the Catholic Orphan Asylumis.

A NEW effort to establish a line of railroad in China has been partially successful. Li Hung Chang, the viceroy, has been anxious for a long time to bring the coal from the Kaiping mines, in Pekin, a distance of 105 miles; but the people would not allow the English building a canal. The canal, however, could not be engineers to complete the work, and insisted upon brought to the mouth of the mine, so that the engineers were allowed to make a railroad 7 miles long. At first, the authorities insisted upon the use of mules instead of locomotives; but their prejudices have at last yielded, and three locomotives are now employed. These coal mines are said to be worked very scientifically, the only difficulty being that the glass of the patent lamps designed to protect against explosion is continually broken by the Chinese in order to light their pipes. Slowly but surely China is yielding to Western ideas.

WILL it be believed that the working population of this city, who follow their respective avocations by night, is not far from 60,000, that is to say, about double the entire population of New York at the close of the Revolution? Add to these the tramps and outcasts and we have 20,000 more. The churches are beginning half of this vast army of after-dark toilers and human to think it is about time something was done on bebeings without homes, and before long I am imformed an important movement designed for their benefit will be undertaken, and in a way, too, that will be likely to command the united support of all denominations. With reference to the matter the Churchman pertinently remarks: "Whoever is abroad occasionally at midnight, or in the early morning, must feel deeply impressed by the whole subject, and realize the danger incurred by the failure to deal with a field of such immense proportions. We send missionaries to China, Africa and Japan, which is right. We pray for the natives of Madagascar, Melanesia and Ceylon, but what about the heathen wandering every night past our very doors?"-N. Y. Tribune.

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NOTICES.

MONTHLY MEETINGS IN PHILADELPHIA.

mo. 20th, at Race Street, 3 P. M.

21st, at Spruce Street, 10} A. M.
21st, at Green Street, 3 P. M.

Friends' Temperance Committees, Yearly and QuarThere will be a Conference under the auspices of terly, at Fallsington, Bucks co., on the 24th inst., at 2.30 o'clock, P. M.

THE Sea Side Laboratory, at Annisquam, Mass., which has been in operation for four summers, will be open again the coming season. Its purpose is to Henry T. Child expects to attend Penn Hill Meetafford special opportunity for the study of the developing, at Little Britain, Lancaster co., Pa., on First-day ment, anatomy, and habits of common types of marine morning, the 17th inst., and a Temperance Meeting in the afternoon, at the same place.

animals.

FOR the benefit of the Steglitz Working Women's Home, under the protection of the Crown Princess of Germany, Mrs. Clara Neymann, of New York, delivered a lecture recently at the Hotel de Rome, Berlin,

Friends desiring accommodations during the approaching New York Yearly Meeting, are requested to forward their names to Benj. Smith, Friends' Seminary, East Sixteenth street, New York city.

The Floral World.

A Superb, Illustrated $1.00 Monthly, WILL BE SENT ON TRIAL

FREE ONE YEAR! To all who will enclose this ad. to us NOW, with 12 2c. stamps to prepay postage. The Indiana Farmer Eays: "Contents interesting, and to flower lovers well worth the price, $1.00 per year."

Mrs. R. A. Houk, Bingen, Ind., says: "It is the best floral paper I ever saw. Mrs. J. W. Fay, Big Beaver, Mich: "It is magnificent!" Mrs. R. G. Stambach, Perth Amboy, N. J.: "Have never seen anything half so good.' Mrs. J. L. Shankin, Seneca City, S. C.: "It is just splendid. Address, at once, THE FLORAL WORLD, Highland Park, Ill.

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SUPERIOR TEXT BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY:

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D. APPLETON & CO.,

NEW YORK.

INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING ADMIRABLE BOOKS:

APPLETON'S READERS AND READING CHARTS, have no equal.

APPLETON'S CHART PRIMER, A perfect gem.

NATURAL HISTORY READERS, for Supplementary reading.

1. Cats and Dogs and other friends.

2. Friends in Feathers and Fur.

3. Neighbors with Wings and Fins.

4. Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs. 5. Animate World.

HOW WE LIVE; or The Human Body and How to Take Care of It. Giving special attention to the laws of Hygiene (including the effects of Alcohol and Narcotics in the Human System).

HARKNESS' LATIN SERIES.

SONG WAVE.

Catalogues, Circulars and Educational Notes sent free to any address. Correspondence solicited.

Address for Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Southern New Jersey and District of Columbia.

JOHN A. M. PASSMORE,

Pottsville, Pa.

BOARDING.

A few Summer boarders can find first-class accommodations; hot and cold water in each room on second floor; plenty of shade, large airy porches, easy of access, etc. All that is needed to recommend the place is to call and see the rooms. Address, CHARLES H. PENNYPACKER, West Chester, Chester Co., Pa.

LEWIS' 98 per ct. LYE.

POWDERED AND PERFUMED.
(PATENTED.)

The STRONGEST and PUREST Lye made
Will make 12 lbs. of the BEST Perfumed
Hard Soap in 20 minutes, WITHOUT BOIL-
ING. It is the best for Disinfecting sinks,
closets, drains, etc. Photographers' and
machinists' uses. Foundrymen, bolt and
nut makers. For engineers as a boiler
cleaner and anti-incrustator. For brewers
and bottlers, for washing barrels, bottles,
etc. For painters to remove old paints.
For washing trees, etc., etc.
PENNA, SALT MANUF'G CO.,
Gen. Agts., Phila,, Pa.

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No. 242 South Eleventh Street, ISAAC G. TYSON

PHILADELPHIA.

Staple Trimmings, Zephys, Crewels, and Yarns of the best quality. Wool and Cotton Waddings of vest makes. Embroidery and Knitting Silks, Fine Knit Goods on hand and made to order. Ladies' and Children's Underclothing. Also, Friends' Caps and Plain Dresses made to order. Cutting. Fitting, etc.

Photographic Art Studio,

NO. 818 ARCH STREET

PHILADELPHIA.

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