The Little Gleaner Part 55

LOW RENTAL FOR LAND.--Eight hundred acres of arable land in the Isle of Sheppey, well known for its productive nature, have just been let to a new tenant at the unprecedentedly low price of 1s. 2d. an acre. The t.i.the on the land is 12s. an acre.

ON June 1st, 1883, a toad was placed in a cavity hollowed in a large stone, and the opening was sealed up with cement. On the 1st of June, this year, the stone was broken open, and the toad was found alive, and strangely enough, it had grown considerably.

MR. JOHN WHITE, of Nuneaton, Warwicks.h.i.+re, erected a highly horrible scarecrow in a field. Three weeks afterwards he went to inquire after its health, and found that a robin had built her nest in one of the pockets, and a tomt.i.t had utilized a sleeve for the same purpose.

A MAIDEN SESSION.--There were no prisoners for trial at Cambridges.h.i.+re Quarter Sessions, July 13th, 1888. Mr. Sperling, the chairman, who was presented with a pair of white gloves, said that, during an experience of over thirty years, he did not remember a previous maiden session.

THE Dundee sealing steamer _Esquimaux_ arrived the other week at St.

John's, Newfoundland, from seal fis.h.i.+ng, with a catch of 23,000 seals.

The _Aurora_, another Dundee vessel, followed, with a cargo of 25,000 seals. The seal fis.h.i.+ng off the Newfoundland coast has this season been a great success.

ARTIFICIAL IVORY.--A substance resembling ivory of creamy whiteness and great hardness is made from good potatoes washed in diluted sulphuric acid, then boiled in the same solution until they become solid and dense. They are then washed free from the acid and slowly dried. This ivory can be dyed, and turned, and made useful in many ways.

DR. GORDON STABLES, the well-known author, spends the summer in going about the country in a caravan. His handsome home on wheels is called "The Wanderer." It is drawn by two capital carriage horses, and is fitted in most luxurious fas.h.i.+on. He takes a man-servant with him, and has a tricycle attached to the vehicle. He stops at night by the roadside.

NEW GOLD FIELD.--A rich gold field has been discovered between the two rivers, Lava and Papanahoni, in Surinam. It is an open question whether this district of 20,000 to 25,000 square kilometres belongs to France or Holland. M. Condreau, the French traveller, who has been closely investigating the district, considers that it will be as productive as the gold-fields of Australia and California.

MR. GEORGE LE FeVRE, of the Huguenot Church at Canterbury Cathedral, writes thus--"A large and valuable oil painting of a scene in the history of the Huguenots has been presented to the French Church. The subject is exceedingly appropriate this year, being the tercentenary celebration of the defeat of the Spanish invasion of England. The picture has been hung up in that part of the Crypt known as the Chantry of the Black Prince, and has been much admired by tourists, who are now visiting in considerable numbers."

BY the steams.h.i.+p _Oonah_, which is the latest addition to the fleet of the Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, there arrived at Melbourne on Sat.u.r.day, April 28th, from Tasmania, the largest s.h.i.+pment of fruit for the London market which has left the Australian colonies--about 13,000 bushels of choice apples. The fruit will be trans.h.i.+pped into the cool chamber of the P. and O. mail boat _Oceana_, leaving on the 4th of May, and will be followed by another s.h.i.+pment by the _Britannia_, leaving on the 18th of May. This, we understand, closes the operations of the s.h.i.+ppers for this season. Should the outcome of these s.h.i.+pments be as encouraging as the telegraphic news already received seems to indicate, there is every prospect of a very large export trade in this industry being established. We are informed that the parcel now arrived could have been very much increased had there been more room in the cool chamber of the _Oceana_. No doubt next season all the boats of the P.

and O. and Orient Companies will make arrangements to take fruit, so that s.h.i.+pments can be forwarded every week.--_Launceston (Tasmania) Examiner, May 2nd._

FURTHER particulars of the floods in Mexico show them to have been of a most serious character. It is stated that, in the town of Silao, where the river overflowed its banks on the 18th of June, 1,500 persons perished. At Leon, over 2,200 houses were destroyed. In some districts it is declared that bodies were floating about on the waters as thickly as driftwood.

DREAD OF COMETS.--A story is related showing the dread with which comets were regarded in the early part of the last century. A renowned astronomer predicted that a comet would appear on Wednesday, October 14th, 1712, and that the world would be destroyed by fire on the Friday following. The astronomer was correct, so far as the comet was concerned. A number of persons got into the boats and barges on the Thames, thinking the water the safest place. A captain of a Dutch s.h.i.+p threw all his powder into the river, that his s.h.i.+p might not be endangered. A number of clergymen, it is said, were ferried over to Lambeth, to request that proper prayers might be prepared, there being none suitable in the Church service. Sir Gilbert Heathcote, at that time head director of the Bank, issued orders to all the fire offices in London, requiring them to keep a good look-out, and to have a particular eye on the Bank of England.

A MILLIONAIRE INVENTOR.--We have more than once pointed out how simple inventions (observes a writer in _Invention_) often realize large sums for the fortunate inventor. Here is another ill.u.s.tration. The discovery of the perforated substance used for bottoming chairs and for other purposes has made its inventor a millionaire. George Yeaton, the inventor in question, was a poor Yankee cane-seater in Vermont. He first distinguished himself by inventing a machine for weaving cane, but he made no money out of it, as some one stole his idea, and had the process patented. After a number of years experimenting, Yeaton at last hit upon this invention, which consists of a number of thin layers of boards of different degrees of hardness glued together to give pliability. Yeaton went through a number of bitterly contested law-suits before he got his invention patented. He was wise in not paying others to manufacture his device. He formed a company, and to-day he has a plant valued at half a million dollars, and is in the receipt of a princely annual revenue derived from this invention.

THE FASTEST TRAIN IN THE WORLD.--The fastest train in the world is without doubt the "Flying Dutchman," which for many years has succeeded in knocking off the seventy-eight miles between London and Swindon in an hour and twenty-seven minutes. This is at the rate of fifty-three miles an hour. Exeter is 194 miles from Paddington, and is reached in four and a quarter hours, or an average pace throughout, including stoppages, of forty-five miles and a half per hour. The Prince of Wales has made some remarkably quick journeys on the Great Western. Not very long ago the North Western took him from Manchester to London in three hours and fifty-five minutes, but the Great Western had previously beaten this by conveying him from London to Swansea (216 miles) in three hours and fifty-three minutes, the average speed throughout that remarkable journey being almost fifty-six miles an hour. English trains are much quicker than those of the Continent. The speed of the American expresses is from thirty-five to forty miles an hour. The Chemin de fer du Nord runs its expresses at an average of thirty-seven, and the Paris and Mediterranean at thirty-four miles an hour. Some of the German expresses cover thirty-six miles an hour.

A TERRIBLE SITUATION.--Mr. Ballou, in his recent wanderings under the Southern Cross, has found one more unpleasant item for reptile literature. In Sydney he heard the following snake story, the facts of which occurred not long before, near the town of Parramatta. In the family of a settler, who resided some half a league from the town, there was an invalid daughter, she being of an extremely nervous temperament.

She was sleeping, one summer afternoon, in a hammock swung between two supporting standards in the shade of the piazza, when she was suddenly awakened by feeling something cold and moist clinging about her throat.

She put her hand to the spot, and clasped the body of a snake just at the back of its head, and, with a horrified cry, wrenched with all her strength to pull it away. This was the first instinctive action of the moment, but so great was her terror that she speedily lost all consciousness of the situation. Her hand, however, still grasped the snake where she had first seized upon it, and with such a convulsive force that the creature was rendered powerless. The cry of the terrified girl brought the father from within the house, who instantly came to her relief; but in the fit which her fright had induced, her hand slowly contracted about the creature's throat with a force which she could not possibly have exerted when awake, and before her fingers were unclasped, by the aid of a bit of hammock cord, the reptile was completely strangled. Fortunately, the creature had not bitten the girl before she seized it, and after that it was unable to do so. It is said to have been four feet long, and of a poisonous species.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I GAVE MYSELF UP TO READING THE BIBLE." (_See page 194._)]

LETTER BY A DYING SOLDIER.

My dear wife,--Before these lines reach you, grim death will have swept me off the stage of time. No more shalt thou repose in these arms; no more shall these eyes behold thy lovely person, or gaze with delight on thee or my dear infants.

Yesterday we had a b.l.o.o.d.y and obstinate fight, in which we had great numbers killed and wounded. I received one ball in my leg, another in my breast. I am now so weak with the loss of blood that I can hardly write these few lines as the last tribute of my unchanging love to thee. The surgeons inform me that three hours will be the utmost I can survive.

Alas! too true was the dire presage in my mind that we should never meet again on this side eternity.

On our pa.s.sage here, I gave myself up to reading the Bible, it being the only Book I was possessed of. The Almighty was pleased to draw my heart to Him by the sweet attractions of His grace, and at the same time to enlighten my mind.

There is in the regiment a corporal who is a Christian. I had no knowledge of him till one night when I had been earnest in prayer to G.o.d to guide me in the way of peace. During my sleep I dreamed of this same man, and was directed to him by name, Samuel Pierce. The dream made so strong an impression on my mind that the next morning I inquired if there was such a person in the regiment, and was greatly astonished to find him. I told him my dream, with which he was much pleased. We soon contracted a strong friends.h.i.+p, and he was pleased to explain to me the amazing love of G.o.d in giving His Son Jesus Christ to bleed and die for sinners. He unfolded to me the mysteries of salvation, the nature of the new birth, and the great necessity of holiness of heart and life. In short, he became my spiritual father, and to him, under G.o.d, I owe much that I am now acquainted with.

Soon after we landed, G.o.d was pleased to speak peace to my soul. Oh, the bliss, the unutterable joy, that I then felt, through the blood of the Lamb! How I longed to tell the whole world what Jesus had done for me!

But how did I long for thee, my love, to taste and know the love of G.o.d in Christ Jesus! I would have given the world to have been with thee, to have told thee of "the pearl of great price." And as we shall never meet more in this vale of tears, this is my dying wish and advice--read the Bible and good books, frequent the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord will guide thee in His way. And oh, endeavour to bring up the dear little ones in the fear of G.o.d. Oh, never fix thine heart upon the vain and unsubstantial things of this world! Heaven and the love of G.o.d are the only things that demand our hearts, or are worthy of engrossing them. I have been a worthless husband to thee, and a vile rebel against my G.o.d. "G.o.d be merciful to me a sinner!" I die in peace. I die in a full a.s.surance of eternal glory. A few moments and my soul shall be ranged in the "general a.s.sembly of the Church of the First-born who are written in heaven."

And now, my dear infants, the G.o.d who blessed Jacob and Joseph will bless you. Seek Him, and He will be found of you. Call upon Him, and He will hear and bless you. Learn, then, my dear children, when you grow up, to seek for permanent happiness in G.o.d through a crucified Redeemer.

"The world recedes, it disappears; Heaven opens on my eyes, my ears With sounds seraphic ring.

Lend, lend your wings; I mount, I fly!

'O grave, where is thy victory?

O death, where is thy sting?'"

Dear wife, more would I say, but life ebbs out apace. Bright angels stand around the gory turf on which I lie, ready to escort me to the arms of Jesus. Bending saints reveal my s.h.i.+ning crown, and beckon me away. Yea, methinks my Jesus bids me come. Adieu, adieu!

JOHN RANDON.

A HOPEFUL CASE.

Being called to preach the Word in a parish where there is no resident minister, it frequently falls to my lot to visit those who are afflicted.

A singular instance, both of ignorance and mercy, appeared in the character of a person almost unknown to me till the following circ.u.mstance took place.

A poor woman, about the middle of August last, was taken very ill with pleurisy, and was much alarmed. This being the Sabbath evening, she sent for one of the people who usually attend my preaching to come and read with her. He accordingly went, and she was much pleased with what he read. Before he left her, she solicited him to ask me to come and see her. Being out preaching, upon my return home I met this person, who told me the request of the poor woman. I immediately went, and found her in a helpless, miserable state, both as to body and soul. Her husband being gone to harvest, she was left without money to procure any of the comforts of life. The marks of poverty appeared in every part of the habitation, and the poor creature laid stretched out upon a bed of sorrow, being in a languis.h.i.+ng state through the violence of the fever.

After condoling with her for a few minutes upon her external situation, I began to converse with her pretty freely upon the more important affairs belonging to her never-dying soul. The first topic of conversation was upon man as a sinful creature, and the enmity of the heart in the unconverted. I endeavoured to show that, although some might be a little more refined as to gross acts of immorality, yet by nature we "are all the children of wrath even as others." I next spoke of salvation by Jesus Christ, that it was all of grace.

The woman listened to every word I uttered. The tears began to trickle down her cheeks, and at last she said, "I know nothing of the Man of whom you have been speaking," immediately adding, "I was never brought up in the way of religion--never taught to know a letter of a book, nor yet attend any place of wors.h.i.+p." After I had engaged in prayer with her, I left her.

The next day I made her another visit, and found the fever increased, the cough very troublesome, and the pain in her side very acute. I began to discourse upon the suitableness, the ability, and willingness of Jesus to save peris.h.i.+ng sinners, and then she put this question--"And do you think, sir, He will save such a wretch as I am?" I observed, "The promise runs thus, 'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out,'" &c.

Her knowledge of divine things rapidly increased, and her earnest devotions seemed now to be the perpetual breathings of her soul.