His presence made a sunshine all around, He needed not to worship at a shrine Yet love and justice were at one with him; And on the base oppressor's brow the stain And brand were laid, not in derision grim, But sad and fateful as the mark of Cain. Thus, true as needle to the polar star, the wrong; And flashed, chivalric 'gainst a nation's bar Of precedent, though fixed and sanctioned long. Poet and Sage! Thy lofty muse demands An insight deeper than the times attain. Across the stagnant pools and drifting sands Of thought I see thee like a sacred fane Rise sunlit in the broad expanse of time; And young and old shall greet from far thy light, NEW POSTAL REGULATION. One of the little bills rushed through Congress during the last hours of the session and signed by the President, makes some important changes in postal matters. The postal money order system is so modified as to authorize postmasters of money order offices under authority of the Postmaster-General to issue postal notes in denomination of $5 and under. This is an important bill, and will greatly facilitate the transmission of small sums through the mails. It authorizes the issue of money orders without corresponding advices of $5 and less, to be on engraved paper, and known as postal notes, payable to bearer, such notes to be invalid after three months; but the holder can, after that time, get the par value of the note by applying to the Post-Office Department at Washington. For issuing a postal note a fee of threecents shall be charged. This bill authorizes. the issue of money orders in denominations of $100 or less, but none for more than $100› can be issued. The following fees are fixed to be charged for money orders: From $10. to $15, 10 cents; $15 to $30, 15 cents; $30 to $40, 20 cents; $40 to $50, 25 cents; $50 to $60, 30 cents; $60 to $70, 35 cents; $70 to $80, 40 cents; $80 to $100, 45 cents. Selected. CARELESS SPEECH. Conversation as a fine art has fallen much into neglect. We seem to be relapsing into a belief that speech is merely a medium of exchange, and that, so long as the meaning is clear, it matters little if the vehicle be crude... But it is a mistake to think that we can use language with slap-dash incoherence and convey our thoughts unimpaired. The relaclose that one cannot be independent of the tion between thought and expression is soother; and this connection is so vital that,. when an idea becomes extinct in a language, the word that expressed it withers and falls away, unless the word happen to find employment in expressing a new idea. Clear thinking is, of course, the first step toward clear speaking; but inaccuracy in the use of language arises less from vagueAnd pilgrims turn from many an old-worldness of thought than from a carelessness of clime To hail thy star-like dome of stainless white. The wise will know thee, and the good will love. The age to come will feel thy impress given, Itself, and stamps it with the seal of Heaven. CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH. In all that lifts the race a step above EVERY man's task is his life-preserver. The conviction that his work is dear to God and cannot be spared, defends him.—Emerson. speech, content to hit somewhere in the neighborhood, but never piercing the bull'seye of the thought. A crusade against the stupidity of thought that lies at the root of much stupidity of expression is too hopelessly Quixotic to attempt. There is a fitness about poor or infirm thought going badly clothed;: but there are plenty of people who do think, and yet who express themselves in a manner so stumbling as to distort completely their meaning. Not realizing the beauty and rich ness of the language that is open to us, we yet insist on limiting ourselves to a certain class of rough Saxon words, making them do yeoman service, and forcing upon them a mass of work for which they are entirely unfitted, until under this burden they lose even their primitive strength. An extreme development of the evil of careless speech is the indiscriminate use of extravagant adjectives, so common among school-girls, who, with smiling prodigality, expend the resources of the language upon mental trifles. The injustice to the listener from this inaccuracy of speech is obvious. However, this is slight beside the greater injustice done to the language itself, in which we have only a life interest, and which we must pass on to the generations following us. We have no right to abuse the language we have inherited, for the traces of our rough handling will surely endure.--The Century. THRASHING-FLOORS. It was in the north of China that we first saw the thrashing-floor of the East and of the Bible. When we were traveling to some outstations in Mantchuria, the road bounded on both sides by endless fields of gigantic millet, there would come a farmer's house and farm yard, or a small hamlet, and on the skirt of it the trodden spot of ground hard and smooth as stone. But it was not till some weeks later, as we were journeying slowly up to Pekin, and the harvest was now gathered, that we saw it in use. The grain was laid on the floor, and a pair of oxen were driven leisurely over the ears, treading out the corn. Another form of thrashing was the stone roller, which was drawn over the ears by oxen or mules; and there was another still, where a flat board, furnished with some projections, was drawn in the same way, the driver or children perhaps sitting on the board to lend it additional weight. Sometimes the grain was piled up in a large heap in the centre of this floor, unsifted; and then men with the winnowing shovel (the Bible fan) would toss the grain into the air or else into a flat basket, from which the man who held it flung up the corn, and the wind carrying the chaff away filled the air with dust. One Bible phrase after another was recalled to us. It was easy to see how the Philistines could rob the thrashing-floors at Keilah, those open spaces in the field on which the absence of any dread of rain induced the farmers to pile up their wealth of grain; or how the open floor, open to the sky and smooth, became the natural place to test the dew upon Gideon's fleece while all the rest of the ground was dry; or how, when the two kings, Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah, summoned the prophet, the place to set the royal thrones was on the smooth and empty thrashing-floor just before the gate of Samaria; or how no better place than this could be found on which to build the altar that David raised when he had purchased the site of the temple from Araunah the Jebusite, and found in the thrashing instruments-the wooden fans and boards and oxen poles-the wood for the sacrifice. It would be easy for the oxen to stop in the midst of the abundance they were treading out and eat, and the merciful. Jewish law provided that they should eat if they would; there should be no muzzling of them. "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn."-Good Words. NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES. Birds on the Farm.-Professor W. A. Stearns, in the Christian Register, gives a valuable and interesting sketch of the birds that are the friends of the farmer, which will, perhaps, be a most useful study at this time. "The robin is an insect-eating bird. It prefers insects in the larval, pupal, and adult stage to any other food. Few persons have any idea of the enormous, the incalculable number of insects that robins eat every year. A young robiu in the nest requires a daily supply of food equivalent to considerably more than its own weight. To supply the millions of young birds hatched each year, this requires an enormous number of insects. The service of these birds, during the time they are engaged in rearing their young alone, would entitle them to protection, were the parents themselves to feed exclusively upon garden fruits during the whole period. But at this time the diet of the old birds is very largely of an animal nature; nor is this the only season during which the destruction of insects goes on. does no harm to put scarecrows in your trees and gardens to drive off the robins, but it hardly pays to kill them. It Swallows may generally be found where. there are grain fields. The summer range of these birds includes nearly all the central portion and the great grain-growing sections of the West. They are more or less migratory, and spend their winters in the South. As pestiferous as the eave and barn swallows are with their chatterings, and the annoyance they give the farmer in various other ways, they are the natural enemies of the midges and similar small insects that prey on grain, and pursue them with unremitting vigilance. It has been estimated that the nesting of a single pair of swallows will in twenty-one days consume five hun dred thousand insects. Their benefit is simply incalculable. Blue-birds have largely superseded swallows near houses, and protect fruit trees lows near houses, and protect fruit trees from insects much better than the swallows do. The martin is too lazy to do much good, and has been largely driven away from New England. The king-bird or bee martin, has been voted a terror to bee-keepers, but it has been found that the immense numbers of insects it destroyed more than balanced this evil. Again, the king-bird drives away other birds from fruit trees, and is useful for this reason. If suitably baited with scraps of cotton, strings, and other loose material to complete a nest, the king-bird will soon accustom itself to building in and about the orchards, gardens, and even the houses of our farmers, and thus protect thousands of dollars' worth of vegetables and fruits. It is strictly an insectivorous bird, and will not destroy, on the whole, that which conduces to the inter ests of the farmers. Altogether, the kingbird is one of the most valuable species for agriculturists. The legislation in regard to this bird should be of the strictest kind. Another species doing an immense amount of good in its own quiet way is the yellowbilled, as also its ally, the black-billed cuckoo. These birds build in apple and fruit trees. They are strictly insect-eating, while they make terrible raids upon the caterpillar. They should be encouraged in every possible ORIGIN OF SOME USEFUL PLANTS. Few of the useful plants cultivated in Europe are really known to botanists in a natural or wild state; and from this number subtraction may be made of such as have been detected only once or twice, and which may merely have run wild. The common tobaccoplant of the New World and the bean of the there are several which botanists confidently Old, are in this category. On the other hand trace to indigenous originals, from which the cultivated plant has undergone considerable alteration. Of such are the olive, the vine of the Old World, flax, and the garden poppy; and, in America, the potato, the sunflower, artichoke, and the tomato. But we know not, and we probably shall never discover, the particular source or origin of the cereal grains of the Old World, and of maize in the New ; of sorghum and the sugar-cane; of the pea, lentil, chick-pea, and peanut, and of the common white bean; of sweet potato and yams; and nearly the same may be said of the peach, oranges, and lemons, and of all squashes and pumpkins. Our common bean ranks as one of the three esculent plants, the home of which, Linné credited it to India, as he did our Lima even as to continent, is completely unknown. bean also; but he took no pains to investigate such questions. This has been so generally followed in the books that even the Flora of British India in 1879 admits the species, adding that it is not anywhere clearly The blue jay does much benefit, but so his former work, had discarded this view, on known as a wild plant. But De Candolle, in much direct damage that it is almost absurd the ground that it had no Sanskrit name, and to class him as a friend to the farmers. The that there was no evidence of its early cultiBaltimore oriole is very destructive to pea-vation in India or farther East. Adhering, vines early in the season, but he eats a class of insects not touched by other birds, the leaf beetles and the larvæ of many species of insects inhabiting the tops of elm, oak, and apple trees. At the end of the season, a balance will be found in the oriole's favor. The nut-hatch is eminently an insect-eating bird, living largely upon grubs which hide under the bark of oak, chestnut, elm, maple, and other rough-barked trees. The black titmouse, or chicadee, is of direct benefit to forests by the great number of insect larvæ consumed during the year. It eats insects too small for the nut-hatch. The wood-pecker hooks out larger insects than either of the two preceding kinds, but can hardly be said to be an especially valuable aid to the farmer. The wrens are strongly beneficial to gardens and plants about the house, because of the number of caterpillars they eat. The flycatchers are beneficial, and so are the thrushes, warblers, and vircos. way. however, to the idea that our plant was the Dolichos and the Phaseolus or Phaselos of the Greeks and of the Romans in the time of the Empire, he conjectured that its probable home was in some part of Northwestern Asia. But recently, as "no one would have dreamed of looking for its origin in the New World," he was greatly surprised when its fruits and seeds were found to abound in the tombs of the old Peruvians at Ancon, accompanied by many other grains of vegetable products, every one of them exclusively American. In his present very careful article he admits that we cannot be sure that it was known in Eu rope before the discovery of America, and that directly afterward many varieties of it appeared all at once in the gardens, and the authors of the time began to speak of them; that most of the related species of the genus belong to South America, where, moreover, many sorts of beans were in cultivation before the coming of the Spaniards; and the idea. that it might have been native to both hemSPEECH is the gift of all, but thought of few. ispheres is discarded as altogether improba ble. Upon this showing it would appear that the plant should have been set down as of American rather than of wholly unknown origin. Indeed, when all the evidence is brought out, the discovery of these beans in the Ancon tombs need excite no more surprise than that of the maize which accompanied them. For maize, beans, and pumpkins were cultivated together, immemorially, all the way from the Isthmus to Canada.- Review of De Candolle's Origin des Plantes vées," by Asa Gray, in Science. THE American Postal Telegraph Company was incorporated, on the 28th ult., in Albany. It is to operate within the State of New York, and its capital is $5,000,000. A TELEGRAM from Victoria, British Columbia, reports a continued influx of white immibelieved the public lands in British Columbia grants, offering a superior class of labor. It is will be thrown open to settlement very soon. TO ILLUSTRATE the follies of "scientific" warfare, Professor Child, of Harvard College, Culti-instances the fact that to build and equip a AN EARNEST WORD FOR YOUNG SMOKERS. In the "monthly letter" of the English AntiTobacco Society and Anti-Narcotic League for the First month of 1883, the following letter from Charles Garrett, President of the Conference, is given: "I am deeply grieved to see so many young people enslaving themselves to tobacco. Smoking is not only a waste of time and money, but it injures the health, the temper, and the influence of the smoker. It evidently promotes indolence and selfishness; almost every idler is a smoker, while the conduct of smokers in railway carriages is a miserable illustration of their selfishness; one smoker, rather than exercise self-denial, will make a whole carriage full of people uncomfortable. The aged man and the feeble woman are alike sacrificed to his personal gratification. The bondage of the smoker is more despotic than that of the drunkard. I have been as sured scores of times that the giving up of tobacco was more difficult than the giving up of drink; every thing has to bow to this appetite when once formed. The company of the fair and the wise and the holy is gladly left for a pipe. I have seen Christian men miserable in the most attractive and interesting company, and stealing away to the most unattractive room to secure a smoke. It is a sad thing to see a young man, and especially a Christian young man, fastening these fetters upon himself. I trust you will never begin, but for the sake of your health, your purse, and your soul, you will resolve with me never to touch a pipe or cigar, but to retain and enjoy the freedom from this injurious habit with which our Maker has endowed us." ITEMS. TIMOTHY O. HOWE, Postmaster-General of the United States, died on the 25th ult., in Kenosha, Wisconsin. THE receipts of the Post-Office Department for the fourth quarter of 1882 were $943,040 more than during the preceding quarter of the same year. modern iron-clad costs about as much as it would to establish such a college as Harvard. MINNEAPOLIS has erected the tallest electric mast in the country. It is surmounted by lights the most dangerous parts of the city, eight lights, each of 4,000-candle power. It and anywhere within a radius of one mile diffuses light enough to enable one to tell the time at night by his watch. THREE earthquake shocks accompanied by rumblings have been felt at Biancavilla, a town on the declivity of Mount Etna. There is a great panic among the people of that place. They are building huts in the open country, fearing that the town will be destroyed. The prisoners in the jail have been removed to a place of safety. de Lesseps has arrived in that place. He says ADVICES from Tozer, Tunis, say that Count his explorations make it plain that the inland sea in the desert of Sahara, which he has been advocating, is practicable, and that it can be accomplished by using one hundred excavating machines, equal in their aggregate capacity to the labor of a hundred thousand men. AT 7.45 o'clock on the morning of the 30th ult. a slight earthquake was felt in San Francisco. Farther south in California heavier shocks were felt. At Watsonville, in Santa Cruz county, nine shocks were felt; crockery was smashed, and plaster fell from the walls. At Hollister, San Benito county, plate-glass windows were broken and the walls of brick buildings cracked. THE report of the commerce passing through the Suez Canal in 1881 has been issued, which fully confirms the fact of increased intercourse between nations because of its facilities. Last year two thousand seven hundred and twentyseven vessels passed through it, gauging well nigh six millions of tons; the year previous the report was two thousand and twenty-eight. And thus it has grown from year to year. The number of ships increases by hundreds, and the tonnage by thousands. FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. "TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO; KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE. VOL. XL. PHILADELPHIA, FOURTH MONTH 14, 1883. No. 9. EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY AN ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS. COMMUNICATIONS MUST BE ADDRESSED AND PAYMENTS MADE TO JOHN COMLY, AGENT, AT PUBLICATION OFFICE, No. 1020 ARCH STREET. TERMS:-TO BE PAID IN ADVANCE. The Paper is issued every week. The FORTIETH Volume commenced on the 17th of Second month, 1883, at Two Dollars and Fifty Cents to subscribers receiving it through mail, postage prepaid. SINGLE NUMBERS SIX CENTS. It is desirable that all subscriptions should commence at the beginning of the volume. REMITTANCES by mail should be in CHECKS, DRAFTS, or P. O. MONEY-ORDERS; the latter preferred. MONEY sent by mail will be at the risk of the person so sending. AGENTS:-Edwin Blackburn, Baltimore, Md. Benj. Strattan, Richmond, Ind. Entered at the Post-Office at Philadelphia, Penna. as second-class matter For Friends' Intelligencer. SAMUEL BOWNAS. (Continued from page 114.) Near the close of his apprenticeship Samuel Bownas felt for the first time a desire to visit a neighboring meeting. Communicating his concern to Isaac Alexander, his "dear friend," he agreed to bear him company. They started for Yelland Meeting on a Seventh day evening, stopping at the home of James Wilson, who was then under convincement. Here he was so favored to declare the truth as held by Friends, concerning the new birth, that the mother of James was thoroughly convinced and continued thereafter a constant attender of Friends' meetings while her health permitted. There had been " some considerable working "in Samuel's mind to make a religious visit into Scotland, and when his term of service to Samuel Parat was up, and the latter had expressed a wish to have him continue in his employ, he opened his mind very freely to his master, who at once put him in the way of accomplishing his desire according to the custom of the Society. Certificates were prepared for him and his young friend, Isaac Alexander, and they set out on their journey, travelling on foot. They were gone four weeks. Of this service Samuel Bownas writes: "The poverty of my spirit was so exceeding great and bitter that I could scarcely bear it, but cried aloud, and it was so surprising to my companion that he feared it would be too hard for me, for I complained that I was deceived and mistaken, because while I was in my Master's work I rarely, by night or by day, was without some degree of divine virtue in my mind, but now I could feel nothing but the bitterness of death and darkness, all comfort was hid from me for a time and I was baptized into death, indeed. "As we travelled along, alone and on foot, I said to Isaac, with a vehemency of spirit, 'O that I was in my Master's work again, and favored with my former enjoyments of divine life, how acceptable it would be!" They attended many meetings and visited parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, and at their journey's end came to their journey's end came to "one Miles Birket's, who received them with great kindness, Samuel still lamenting his poverty of spirit." The narrative is not quite clear as to whether they got so far as Scotland at this time. We are left rather to infer that they did not, and Samuel goes on to relate how loath he was to undertake the journey, but keeping his mind "to himself," he continues, "We set forward on foot again, visiting parts of Cumberland on the way. It is well for us to pause just here and consider the state of the Society, as represented by the work for the Church, that these young disciples were engaged in. Bearing in mind |