CHILDREN'S HOME FOR INCURABLES. A friend who is personally interested in the faithful work of those who have the management of this institution, requests us to copy the following notice of it, which appeared in the Public Ledger: , "Let me call attention to a new and much needed charity-the "Home for Hopelessly Crippled Children," northeast corner Fortyfifth street and Osage avenue, West Philadelphia. Not three months have passed since the establishment of this "Home." The impossibility of finding an institution in the city of Philadelphia, outside of the Almshouse, where a crippled boy who had been on our hands for more than two years could be cared for, led to the taking of a house for such sufferers. This boy was the first occupant. The next, Willie could no longer be retained in the Homoeopathic Hos-pital, being incurable. He had neither father nor mother, and his grandparents replied, when informed that he must be returned to them, "He may die on the doorstep, but he can't come in here." He is happy in our care. Another, likewise dismissed from the same Hospital, had so won the love of the Matron that she gave up her position to maintain this interesting boy, and keep him out of the Almshouse. Unable to accomplish her purpose, it seemed there was help for Robbie. But just then this "Home for Crippled Children " opened its doors, and he is one of its happiest inmates. Others, all touchingly interesting in their condition and history, have followed, and the public are cordially invited to visit this true "Home," where a class of children are cared for who have hitherto been overlooked. no "It will be apparent to the visitor and to all who consider the subject, that an ordinary house, such as is now its locality, is not perfectly adapted to the requirements. It is the purpose of the founder, when the Lord sends the means, to build one or more cottages, constructed to meet the peculiar need. Not one of these children can walk. They must be carried up and down stairs, which exhausting service could be obviated by an elevator, and there are various appliances suggested, as the ministry goes on, which it is hoped will be supplied as the work progresses. Children of all creeds are admitted, the requirement being simply poverty and malformation. It has the fostering care of one who supplies the mother love as nearly as can be. A FRIEND. NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES. Mischievous Plants.-That water-cress which I gathered with such delight from the sparkling brook at Kawau has proved anything but a boon to the Southern provinces, where what was originally so carefully planted in the streams has spread in such dense masses as literally to obstruct the course of rivers and choke their mouths. In Otago and Canterbury Provinces, destructive floods, which have resulted in loss of life and property, are attributed solely to the increase of this simple plant; and thousands of pounds are annually expended in the effort to check its too-luxuriant growth. The innocent daisy, round which weary, toil-worn men assembled in almost tearful homage, does not seem to have done any damage; but the tall purple thistle, which was brought to New Zealand by a toozealous Scot, now runs riot over the land. I saw it growing in thickets on the waste lands near Auckland; and, though some enthusiasts maintained that it was doing good work in preparing the soil for more remunerative crops, I think the farmers would certainly have preferred its absence. Certainly, those of Australia do not attempt to conceal their dismay at its extraordinary increase. It is barely a quarter of a century since the very first thistle was imported to Australia and landed safely at Port Philip. Every Scotchman in Victoria made pilgrimage to the capital to have a look at the old familiar emblem and dream of home. A great public dinner was given in its honor, and the precious plant -occupied the post of honor on the table. Many were the speeches made and toasts drunk on the occasion, and the enthusiasm knew no bounds. Afterward, this thistle was carefully planted in its new kingdom, and right royal has been its rule. Never was conquered country held with a firmer grip. The stately thistle proved so prolific in the congenial soil and kindly climate that now thousands of acres of the farmers' best land are completely cropped with thistles, and no efforts can by any possibility eradicate this pest. Thousands and tens of thousands of pounds have been expended in carrying out various schemes for its extermination; but the hardy invader laughs at them all, and blooms as fresh and fair as ever it did on its native soil. Indeed, it is a much stronger and handsomer plant than were its Scottish ancestors. Another plant, which in all these isles has taken a too-vigorous hold of the soil, is the common sweet-briar. Introduced for the sake of its fragrant perfume, it now, especially in Tasmania, has become so strong and so tenacious that it is impossible to keep it within bounds. Its thick roots penetrate the soil to a great depth; and it forms a dense scrub, to the total destruction of what were formerly pleasant pasture-lands. Just in the same way, both in Ceylon and Tahiti, I have seen the lantana, introduced a few years ago as an ornamental garden shrub, now overrunning thousands of acres, to the despair of the cultivators; and in Tahiti and Hawaii, 1 have ridden through miles of guava scrub, all descended from a few guava bushes introduced in fruit gardens.-Gentleman's Magazine. The subject of tree planting is now being pressed upon the settlers of Western Minnesota and Dakota. Belts of timber have been substituted for pine fences as wind-breaks along the exposed portions of the line of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, and it is said that the Northern Pacific Road is also about to test the efficiency of live fences to protect its tracks on the prairie from snow drifts. A pine fence, such as the Western railroads have been using, costs about $800 a mile. The fence, to serve its purpose, must be at least eight feet high, and even such a one, stoutly built and with oak posts, is not a sufficient barrier against the drifts in a winter so severe as the present. Moreover the boards are frequently stolen, and the strongest posts are liable to snap like twigs under the force of a prairie wind storm. Mr. Leonard Hodges, who superintended the tree-planting along the St. Paul and Manitoba road, and is also to have charge of the same work on the Northern Pacific, advises the planting of two parallel belts of young timber on the northern side of the tracks and one belt on the southern side. The white willow he has found to be the cheapest and hardiest tree for the purpose. A fence of this willow will grow to an average height of twelve feet in four years from the time of planting the cuttings. The soil, however, has to be prepared for planting by harrowing, and sometimes the prairie soil is so bad that two fering, and is the only effectual means of removing the disease. But says the man long accustomed to the use of stimulants, “I know I should die!" Dr. Richardson says: "The gaols of this country, which have been the schools of so rich a store of sanitary knowledge, have been also the experimental grounds of that which we wanted to institute, for the fact we were fain to know. The fourth stage of this disease is the sad dest and most repulsive of all. "It is a stage "Into these gaols are carried men and of complete muscular failure, both in direc-women in all degrees of alcoholic existence. tion and power, with entire mental insensibility." "The representatives of this stage are completely palsied from drink, they are the permanent representatives of those who, temporarily palsied after the debauch, were, in a past day, left under the table helpless and miserable. They are the helpless specimens of general paralysis of our asylums, stricken down from the steady and gradual action of alcohol on nervous matter. They are derived from the drinkers of the less fiery fluids; but their downfall is as certain, if not as sudden. They are not killed, but they live for a season practically dead, and slowly die." Dr. Richardson. I have said that alcohol has a strong affinity for the brain and nervous system, and for this reason it is less fatal in its effects. The brain becomes paralyzed before the heart does, and the poor besotted being loses all power to take further draughts of the poison, lying dead-drunk in an unconscious state with all the voluntary muscles paralyzed, the heart continues to beat, and the poison which has brought the system so nearly to a fatal termination, begins to be eliminated, and the poor victim slowly returns to a partial consciousness, and to a feeble condition of life in which the strong desire for stimulants calls again for a repetition of the poisonous draught, until at length death closes the scene. We come now to the important question of the treatment of this disease. It would seem that there could be no question about the propriety of total abstinence as the first indication in the cure of a disease which is produced by the use of alcohol. Yet until very recently the best medical practitioners, influenced by the popular idea of the danger of cutting off suddenly the supply of stimulants, were blinded to the fact that such a course was only adding fuel to the fires which were already burning up the system. The practice of "tapering off," as it is called, has always failed. Immediate total abstinence is the only safe remedy for any stage of this disease. It is not to be expected that such a change can take place without suffering; but it is a well-established fact that this course produces the least amount of suf "Within the walls of these institutions alcohol finds no place. Once there, whole populations of drunkards and moderate drinkers are deprived of strong drink without hesitation, without mercy, yes! without mercy. Do they who are thus treated fall, as a result of the forced abstinence, into the diseases so dreadful and so dreaded? They are not allowed very sturdy food of other kinds to replace alcohol in their great emergency. Do they collapse? Do they fall into consumption, or insanity, or palsy? If they did there would soon be a ferment in the country that would level the gaols, and put a brandy flask to the mouth of every sufferer, prisoner though he were. But the solemn fact is that these enforced abstainers become, under abstinence as a leading cause of the fact, the healthiest of the community; while no one has been able to spot a single definable, serious disease as due to the deprivation of alcohol." So long as any alcohol remains in the system it will call for more, and at least two years are required to overcome the fearful craving for drink. There are tonics, without alcohol in them, which may be used, and it is proper that we should assist these sufferers through the trying ordeal which they are obliged to pass. One of the most efficient means of assisting those who desire to escape from the slavery of this most potent evil, is personal influence; make the poor victim feel that you love him, that you have kindness and sympathy for him, ask him to confide to you all his feelings, be with him often and by using firmness and kindness, try to win his confidence; his mind is weakened and he needs all the encouragement and strength you can give him. Endeavor to throw the consolations of religion around him that he may be enabled to overcome the 'strong temptations that beset him, and stand up in the true dig. nity of his manhood, redeemed from the curse of this sad and loathsome disease, this direful evil. Then shall we have a practical realization "that joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance.' Let us then buckle on the whole armor of ONE evening last week Professor Swift, of Rochester, and Professor Brooks, of Phelps, N. Y., each discovered, independently, a comet in the constellation Pegasus. It has a tail half a degree in length, and its motion is toward the east. MR. FABBIE, the Italian Consul of New York, has founded several schools for poor Italian children. In these schools they are taught English studies, music, machine-sewing, and other things. The average daily attendance is seven hundred children. LABORERS are at work excavating for the foundations of a new bridge at Niagara Falls, about 400 feet above the old suspension bridge. The plans have been completed and drawings made, the superstructure being an iron truss bridge, wide enough for two railroad tracks. ACCORDING to the latest reports, the Electric Exhibition at Vienna, which was postponed from last year on account of the similar undertaking at Munich, Germany, is to be held from August 1 to October 31 of this year, in the building erected for the Universal Ex hibition of 1873. A GREAT bridge is now under construction for the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad across the Missouri river, twenty miles north of Council Bluffs, Ia. The piers are of iron, filled with concrete masonry, and the superstructure is also of iron, The bridge will be 1,000 feet in length, and cost nearly $1,000,000. THE Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company is making active preparation for the construction of its Baltimore and Philadelphia extension. A bridge, 100 feet high and 500 feet long, is to be built across the Brandywine, at Wilmington, Delaware. The road through the State of Delaware will be built under the charter of the Delaware Western Company, which is owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Company. In Maryland it will be built under the Baltimore and Ohio charter, and in Pennsylvania | a corporation will be formed under the railroad law of the State. It is expected that the line will be completed before the close of 1883. THE trade in India rubber has grown enormously in the United States during the past forty years. The article is now used in almost every conceivable way, entering into the widest variety of manufacture. There is about $76,000,000 invested in the manufacture of rubber goods in the United States. It is related of Gustave Doré that many years ago, while on a tour in Switzerland, he lost his passport. Arriving at Lucerne, he asked to be allowed to speak to the Mayor, to whom he gave his name. "You say that you are M. Gustave Doré," replied the Mayor, "and I believe you; but," he added, producing a pencil and a piece of paper, "you can easily prove it." Doré looked around him and perceived some women selling potatoes in the street. With a few touches he cleverly reproduced the homely scene, and, appending his name to the sketch, presented it to the Mayor. "Your passport is perfectly in order," remarked the official, "but you must allow me to keep it as a souvenir, and to offer you in return one in the ordinary form." THE tenant system has been tried in Georgia with satisfactory results, especially where the land owners have given their tenants the benefit of their skill and knowledge. There are very many lazy and thriftless negroes, but taking all the circumstances into consideration, it is surprising that there are not more. great bulk of the race that live in the farming regions are reasonably thrifty and industrious many of them are acquiring property, and large numbers have homes and land of their own. The In short, in this as in other matters, Georgia is the Empire State of the South.Atlanta, Ga., Constitution. WIRE rope ladders, in addition to fixed fireescapes and stairways, are to be provided for a New York hotel. These ladders are made of wire cable, with rounds of quarter-inch gas pipe, and are flexible. In the rooms of the hotel they occupy about a cubic foot of space. They weigh about three-quarters of a pound to the foot, and their breaking strain is estimated at two tons, thus allowing several people to get on them at a time. Several hotels are reported to have already provided knotted ropes to be put in each sleeping apartment. The flexible ladder is superior to the rope, but more costly, and, it should be said, seemingly too heavy for quick, handy use.-Public Ledger FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER, "TAKE FAST HOLD OF INSTRUCTION; LET HER NOT GO KEEP HER; FOR SHE IS THY LIFE.” VOL. XL. PHILADELPHIA, THIRD MONTH 10, 1883. No. 4. 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 Secouc 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. She was the daughter of James and Margaret Hamilton, and was born in the Fourth month, 1819. Her father dying when she was very young, her home was broken up. Mary was placed away from her mother and thus deprived of the guardian care of parental influence. When about nineteen years of age, she was married to Benjamin Kerbaugh, and in the year 1848, she and her husband removed within the limits of Plymouth Meeting, which they mostly attended. Becoming convinced of the truth as held by Friends, and feeling a desire to be religiously associated with 63 64 Deaths... Swarthmore Subscriptions...... Spectroscope and the Weather. Poetry Reflected Lights-Under His Shadow. Our Evening Sky... Mexico......... Natural History Studies.. A Plea for the Little Folks. Items..... Notices..... them, they made application and were received into membership by Gwynedd Monthly Meeting. In 1856, they permanently settled in Horsham Township, and became members of our Monthly meeting. Mary was at that time in the thirty-seventh year of her age; domestic duties pressed heavily upon her, and she often suffered much from bodily weakness, yet she received into her family four aged relatives, who needed homes, and for several years ministered to their wants with patient cheerfulness, thus manifesting that kindness and unselfishness which were marked traits in her character. For several years she was in the station of overseer, performing the duties of that responsible position to the satisfaction of her friends. Her life was one of self-denial, her countenance bespoke the sincerity and earnestness of her feelings, and her conversation gave evidence of a redeemed spirit. In the year 1877, she passed through deep baptisms. As she expressed it, "For three years she had been groping her way in darkness, the burden of sin for disobedience rested heavily upon her, and the cloud was so dark the sun never appeared to her to shine." But being alone on one occasion, and engaged about her daily duties, under great depression of spirit, she prostrated herself upon the floor and prayed for "light," and He whose ear is |