Chapter 96

A widowed lady of mature life mourned a runaway son who was lost to her for years. Her sorrow had silenced her song, for she was a cultured woman and an accomplished vocalist. But during a visit at a distant friend’s home she was induced to sing at a church service, choosing for her solo, “Where is my wandering boy to-night?” and, of course, sang it with much feeling; and after rendering the second stanza:

“Once he was pure as the morning dew,As he knelt at his mother’s knee,No face was so bright, no heart more true,And none were so sweet as he,”

“Once he was pure as the morning dew,

As he knelt at his mother’s knee,

No face was so bright, no heart more true,

And none were so sweet as he,”

the congregation joined in the refrain:

“O where is my boy to-night?O where is my boy to-night?My heart o’erflows, for I love him he knows,O where is my boy to-night?”

“O where is my boy to-night?

O where is my boy to-night?

My heart o’erflows, for I love him he knows,

O where is my boy to-night?”

“Mother, I’m here,” responded a young man away back, making his way sobbing up the aisle. Among the converts that night was this returning wanderer. The Rev. Robert Lowry is the author of the hymn and tune.

(3420)

WANT BRINGS PROGRESS

How paltry, worthless, small and scantA world in which man knew not want,Where no ungratified desireAllured or drove him to aspire!Then welcome world of toil and hopeWhere every energy has scope!Brothers, in God’s great world rejoice,And harken to His cheering voiceThat calls man to the larger taskAnd gives him more than he could ask.Let us in the assurance restThat what God does is always best.—Charles William Pearson, “A Threefold Cord.”

How paltry, worthless, small and scant

A world in which man knew not want,

Where no ungratified desire

Allured or drove him to aspire!

Then welcome world of toil and hope

Where every energy has scope!

Brothers, in God’s great world rejoice,

And harken to His cheering voice

That calls man to the larger task

And gives him more than he could ask.

Let us in the assurance rest

That what God does is always best.

—Charles William Pearson, “A Threefold Cord.”

(3421)

War—SeeArmies of the World;Militarism;Navies of the World;Strategy;Tension, Moral.

WAR, AFTER EFFECTS OF

The Civil War lasted four years. The number of those enlisted in the Union army was 2,113,000. The number killed in actionwas 67,000; died of wounds received in action, 43,000; while the total number of deaths from all causes was 359,000. I have no statistics of the Confederate army, but certainly they would largely increase the total casualties of the war. On the other hand, the Spanish War lasted but a few months. The total number of men mustered in was 223,000. The number killed in action was only 218—not as many as have been killed in many a single mining catastrophe; the number of those that died from wounds received in action was 81; the number dying from disease, 3,848. The total casualties during that war were less than the number killed in railroad accidents in this country during a single year. According to the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the number killed on our railways during the year ending June 30, 1908, was 3,764; the number injured, 68,989. Other years show a greater fatality. In the Civil War were some of the greatest battles of history and a terrible loss of life on either side. In the Spanish War, outside of two brilliant naval engagements, there were only a few skirmishes. The two wars taken as a whole compare about like a twelve-inch rifled gun with a small pistol; and yet, as we have seen, after the Civil War there was no cry for an increase in armament, no call for a navy to challenge the fleets of the world, a steady payment of the national indebtedness, a devotion to the pursuits of peace, and a magnificent enlargement of our industries and business, while after the Spanish War we increased our army, and we have been steadily building ironclad after ironclad, until now our navy stands second among the navies of the world.—David J. Brewer.

(3422)

SeeSacrifice, Too Costly.

WAR AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

In a sermon on the scientific indictment of war, Dr. James H. Ecob says:

Soldiers must be young men; not only that, but young men of the finest possible physical development. The question at once presents itself, What effect must it have upon the physical stamina of a people, if the very flower of its young men are led out and fed to the cannon? What would we say of a farmer who should lead out into the back lots the very flower of his stock and shoot it down, leaving it there as food for crows and foxes? At first we would cry, shameful waste? But a second thought, more fundamental and portentous, is, what effect must such a policy have upon the physical status or grade of the stock that remains. If the best are thrown away and only the second best are retained, progressive degeneration of the stock must result.

(3423)

WAR, COST OF

That we may better appreciate the present problem in its relation to the United States, attention is called to the appropriations made by the United States Government. For the year ending June 30, 1910, the appropriations for the army, fortifications and military academy amount to $111,897,515.67; for the navy, $136,935,199.05; and for pensions, $160,908,000. The total amount to be expended during the current fiscal year on account of wars and preparations for war aggregates $409,740,714.72. Compare these figures with the relatively insignificant sum of $32,007,049, which is the total amount appropriated for the use of the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the Government during the same period.The total expenditures of the Government of the United States from its beginning in 1789 to 1909 has been as follows: For war, $6,699,583,209; for navy, $2,441,572,934; for pensions, $4,155,267,356. This aggregates the vast sum of $13,296,423,549 expended for war purposes, as against $4,466,068,760 expended for civil and miscellaneous purposes.The average annual cost of the army and navy of the United States for the eight years preceding the Spanish War was $51,500,000. The average annual cost of the army and navy for the eight years since the Spanish War has been $185,400,000. The average yearly increase in the latter period as compared with the former has been $134,000,000, making a total increase in eight years of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent. This increase for eight years exceeds the national debt by $158,000,000. The amount of all gifts to charities, libraries, educational institutions and other public causes in 1909 in this country was $185,000,000, or $400,000 less than the average annual cost for the army and navy for the past eight years. What benefit has the nation derived from all this expenditure?

The total expenditures of the Government of the United States from its beginning in 1789 to 1909 has been as follows: For war, $6,699,583,209; for navy, $2,441,572,934; for pensions, $4,155,267,356. This aggregates the vast sum of $13,296,423,549 expended for war purposes, as against $4,466,068,760 expended for civil and miscellaneous purposes.

The average annual cost of the army and navy of the United States for the eight years preceding the Spanish War was $51,500,000. The average annual cost of the army and navy for the eight years since the Spanish War has been $185,400,000. The average yearly increase in the latter period as compared with the former has been $134,000,000, making a total increase in eight years of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent. This increase for eight years exceeds the national debt by $158,000,000. The amount of all gifts to charities, libraries, educational institutions and other public causes in 1909 in this country was $185,000,000, or $400,000 less than the average annual cost for the army and navy for the past eight years. What benefit has the nation derived from all this expenditure?

(3424)

SeeArmies of the World;Navies of the World;Militarism.

WAR DISPLAY

Edmund Vance Cooke writes of the cruise of the American fleet around theglobe in the following significant lines:

This is the song of the thousand men who are multiplied by twelve,Sorted and sifted, tested and tried, and muscled to dig and delve.They come from the hum of city and shop, they come from the farm and the field.And they plow the acres of ocean now, but tell me, what is their yield?This is the song of the sixteen ships to buffet the battle and gale,And in every one we have thrown away a Harvard or a Yale.Behold here the powers of Pittsburg, the mills of Lowell and Lynn,And the furnaces roar and the boilers seethe, but tell me, what do they spin?This is the song of the long, long miles from Hampton to the Horn,From the Horn away to the western bay whence our guns are proudly borne.A flying fleet and a host of hands to carry these rounds of shot!And behold they have girdled the globe by half, and what is the gain they have brought?This is the song of the wasters, ay, defenders, if you please,Defenders against our fellows, with their wasters even as these,For we stumble still at the lesson taught since ever the years were young,That the chief defense of a nation is to guard its own hand and tongue.This is the song of our sinning (for the fault is not theirs, but ours),That we chain these slaves to our galley-ships as the symbol of our powers;That we clap applause, that we cry hurrahs, that we vent our unthinking breath,For oh, we are proud that we flaunt this flesh in the markets of dismal death.—Christian Work and Evangelist.

This is the song of the thousand men who are multiplied by twelve,

Sorted and sifted, tested and tried, and muscled to dig and delve.

They come from the hum of city and shop, they come from the farm and the field.

And they plow the acres of ocean now, but tell me, what is their yield?

This is the song of the sixteen ships to buffet the battle and gale,And in every one we have thrown away a Harvard or a Yale.Behold here the powers of Pittsburg, the mills of Lowell and Lynn,And the furnaces roar and the boilers seethe, but tell me, what do they spin?

This is the song of the sixteen ships to buffet the battle and gale,

And in every one we have thrown away a Harvard or a Yale.

Behold here the powers of Pittsburg, the mills of Lowell and Lynn,

And the furnaces roar and the boilers seethe, but tell me, what do they spin?

This is the song of the long, long miles from Hampton to the Horn,From the Horn away to the western bay whence our guns are proudly borne.A flying fleet and a host of hands to carry these rounds of shot!And behold they have girdled the globe by half, and what is the gain they have brought?

This is the song of the long, long miles from Hampton to the Horn,

From the Horn away to the western bay whence our guns are proudly borne.

A flying fleet and a host of hands to carry these rounds of shot!

And behold they have girdled the globe by half, and what is the gain they have brought?

This is the song of the wasters, ay, defenders, if you please,Defenders against our fellows, with their wasters even as these,For we stumble still at the lesson taught since ever the years were young,That the chief defense of a nation is to guard its own hand and tongue.

This is the song of the wasters, ay, defenders, if you please,

Defenders against our fellows, with their wasters even as these,

For we stumble still at the lesson taught since ever the years were young,

That the chief defense of a nation is to guard its own hand and tongue.

This is the song of our sinning (for the fault is not theirs, but ours),That we chain these slaves to our galley-ships as the symbol of our powers;That we clap applause, that we cry hurrahs, that we vent our unthinking breath,For oh, we are proud that we flaunt this flesh in the markets of dismal death.—Christian Work and Evangelist.

This is the song of our sinning (for the fault is not theirs, but ours),

That we chain these slaves to our galley-ships as the symbol of our powers;

That we clap applause, that we cry hurrahs, that we vent our unthinking breath,

For oh, we are proud that we flaunt this flesh in the markets of dismal death.

—Christian Work and Evangelist.

(3425)

WAR, RACIAL FERTILITY AND

Comparison of the Annual Cost of the Army and Navy of the United States—1890–98, 1902–10

Overproduction of offspring—“race-suicide” by suffocation instead of by starvation—is responsible, we are now told, for the impulse that is driving the great nations toward war. Germany has outgrown her territory and must seize on some of Great Britain’s colonial overflow territory; Japan is similarly plethoric with population and must disgorge into our Philippines. This is the simple explanation of modern militarism offered by Henry M. Hyde, writing under the title that heads this article, inThe Technical World Magazine. His theory has the advantage that most of the great world-movements in recorded history may be traced to this cause, from the Aryan migration to the daily influx of Poles and Hungarians on our own shores. After dwelling on the recent huge increase of armaments, the hasty building of dreadnoughts, the war-scares in England, the eager toasts on German battleships “to the Day”—meaning the day when the Kaiser shall turn loose his dogs of war on Britain—the writer goes on:

What is the matter with the world? What is the disease from which civilization suffers? And where are the physicians who shall prescribe the necessary remedies?Pending an answer to these ancient and disputed questions, it is desired to point out certain facts which may help to explain the present situation and to ask whether, becauseof these facts, the nations may not, almost in spite of themselves, be driven into war?In 1800 France had 4,000,000 more population than Germany. At that time both nations occupied approximately the same amount of territory, about 200,000 square miles each. The density of population in France was 134 to the square mile; in Germany it was 113.

What is the matter with the world? What is the disease from which civilization suffers? And where are the physicians who shall prescribe the necessary remedies?

Pending an answer to these ancient and disputed questions, it is desired to point out certain facts which may help to explain the present situation and to ask whether, becauseof these facts, the nations may not, almost in spite of themselves, be driven into war?

In 1800 France had 4,000,000 more population than Germany. At that time both nations occupied approximately the same amount of territory, about 200,000 square miles each. The density of population in France was 134 to the square mile; in Germany it was 113.

Comparative Density of Population

In the last hundred years the fertility of the German nation has been so great that, in spite of the fact that it has sent more than 6,000,000 emigrants to the United States and millions more to other foreign countries, it has increased its home population to 64,000,000, nearly treble the number in 1800. During the same period the population of France, which has sent practically no immigrants abroad, has increased by less than 50 per cent. And, it should be remembered, in spite of Alsace and Lorraine, the territory of the two nations has remained practically the same—approximately 200,000 square miles each.

Comparative Naval Strength of England and Germany in Terms of Dreadnoughts

At the End of Three YearsComparative naval strength of the nations, in dreadnoughts, in 1913; the United States has six dreadnoughts, built and building. Germany England Austria Russia Japan France Italy

At present the density of population in the German Empire is 303 to the square mile. What that means may be grasped by considering that if the United States was as thickly populated as Germany is at the present time we should have 900,000,000 people—ten times our present population. In other words the present density of population in the United States is only 30 to the square mile.If there were ten men to the present one on every acre in the United States some of us would certainly think of moving. Indeed, there is already complaint that the country is getting overcrowded. This year alone nearly 100,000 farmers from the Western States moved across the line into Canada, where land is still plenty and unsettled. If every man, woman and child in the United States was shut up within the limits of Texas, the Lone Star State would be little more crowded than is Germany at the present time. Put the strongest navy in the world across the Gulf from Texas and line the boundaries of the State with camps of armed men and one may get a fairly good idea of the German situation.But—granted that Germany now holds all the people it can support—where may the loyal German go and remain under the German flag? The German colonies are small, scattering and not well fitted for the homes of white men. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans in various parts of South America, where the country is still undeveloped. But the United States holdsall this continent under the protection of the Monroe Doctrine and forbids the hoisting of a foreign flag. Almost all the rest of the undeveloped world which is counted a white man’s country is part of the Empire of Great Britain.Where and how shall the immensely virile and fertile Germanic race find a new home and a new empire over seas? Or will it, with the greatest army in the world at its command and a tremendous war fleet in the making, sit tight within its narrow boundaries at home until famine and pestilence sap its vitality and reduce its numbers? It may do that, it may allow millions of its sons to renounce their allegiance to the fatherland, or it may—the last terrible alternative is the one of which the world stands in dread.

If there were ten men to the present one on every acre in the United States some of us would certainly think of moving. Indeed, there is already complaint that the country is getting overcrowded. This year alone nearly 100,000 farmers from the Western States moved across the line into Canada, where land is still plenty and unsettled. If every man, woman and child in the United States was shut up within the limits of Texas, the Lone Star State would be little more crowded than is Germany at the present time. Put the strongest navy in the world across the Gulf from Texas and line the boundaries of the State with camps of armed men and one may get a fairly good idea of the German situation.

But—granted that Germany now holds all the people it can support—where may the loyal German go and remain under the German flag? The German colonies are small, scattering and not well fitted for the homes of white men. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans in various parts of South America, where the country is still undeveloped. But the United States holdsall this continent under the protection of the Monroe Doctrine and forbids the hoisting of a foreign flag. Almost all the rest of the undeveloped world which is counted a white man’s country is part of the Empire of Great Britain.

Where and how shall the immensely virile and fertile Germanic race find a new home and a new empire over seas? Or will it, with the greatest army in the world at its command and a tremendous war fleet in the making, sit tight within its narrow boundaries at home until famine and pestilence sap its vitality and reduce its numbers? It may do that, it may allow millions of its sons to renounce their allegiance to the fatherland, or it may—the last terrible alternative is the one of which the world stands in dread.

(3426)

SeeArmies of the World;Militarism;Navies of the World.

WAR, THE HORRORS OF

After his splendid victory of Austerlitz was won and the iron crown of empire securely fixt on his brow, Napoleon, standing on the high ground, saw a portion of the defeated Russian army making a slow, painful retreat over a frozen lake. They were at his mercy. He rode up to a battery and said, “Men, you are losing time! fire on those masses; they must be swallowed up! fire on that ice!” Shells were thrown, the bridge of ice was broken, and amid awful shrieks hundreds upon hundreds of miserable wretches were buried in the frozen waters.

The crime of war is its wanton waste of human life. And so are the social wrongs that decimate our world. And so is evil in every form. (Text.)

(3427)

WARFARE, ANTIQUATED

The ordinary spear was eighteen feet long, or three times the height of the man, and from one inch to an inch and a half in thickness. The iron jaws of the head were two feet and a half in length.With such spears the Massachusetts militia was trained for more than forty years, or until the outbreak of Philip’s war. I do not know how long they may have been used in Virginia. Poking Indians armed with muskets out of a swamp with a spear might do for imaginary warfare—but when it came to real fighting it was very ugly business. The desperate character of the conflicts with Philip and the necessity for the exclusive use of gunpowder became apparent, and the edict went forth that the militia, who were trained to the use of the spear, should take up the musket. With this edict the spear disappeared in this country forever. It went out in England about the same time. Thus do we learn the progress of the human mind in arts of destruction.—Edward Eggleston.

The ordinary spear was eighteen feet long, or three times the height of the man, and from one inch to an inch and a half in thickness. The iron jaws of the head were two feet and a half in length.

With such spears the Massachusetts militia was trained for more than forty years, or until the outbreak of Philip’s war. I do not know how long they may have been used in Virginia. Poking Indians armed with muskets out of a swamp with a spear might do for imaginary warfare—but when it came to real fighting it was very ugly business. The desperate character of the conflicts with Philip and the necessity for the exclusive use of gunpowder became apparent, and the edict went forth that the militia, who were trained to the use of the spear, should take up the musket. With this edict the spear disappeared in this country forever. It went out in England about the same time. Thus do we learn the progress of the human mind in arts of destruction.—Edward Eggleston.

(3428)

WARMTH, LOST

A story is told of a certain pastor who mourned over a backslider in his congregation, once a regular attendant at the prayer service, but who had drifted away, and who for many months had not been seen in the “upper room.” Finally, unable to stand it longer, at the close of one of the meetings, in which the voice formerly accustomed to lead in prayer was sorely missed, the minister went straight to the man’s home and found him sitting before the open fire. The absentee, somewhat startled by the intrusion, hastily placed another chair for his visitor and then waited for the expected words of rebuke. Had the rebuke been spoken, no one knows what the reply might have been or what mistaken yet lasting anger might have been kindled. But not a word did the minister say. Taking his seat before the fire, he silently took the tongs and lifting a glowing coal from the midst of its fellows, laid it by itself upon the hearthstone. Remaining painfully silent, he watched the blaze die out and the last warm flush of life fade away. Then it was the truant who opened his lips to say: “You need not say a single word, sir; I’ll be there next Wednesday night.” (Text.)

(3429)

Warmth of Christian Love—SeeDoubts, Dissolving.

WARNING

A wasteful loss of fish life occurs by the sacrifice of millions of little fishes that are left to gasp out their lives on the meadows and grain-fields all over the great State of Montana owing to the irrigation ditches. To prevent this waste a paddle-wheel is installed at the head of a ditch to frighten back and prevent the fish from entering the intake. A law requiring this to be done is now in force in that State.

How many silly souls are warned away from danger-points in life by wise devices both divine and human!

(3430)

Julius Cæsar was at one time the idol of the Roman army. The ancient eternal city was at his feet. His foot was on the neck of his enemies and his word was sufficient to hurry his rival, Pompey, to an ignominious grave. The treasures of the world, power, dominion and wealth were at his command. Yet he had not the time as he went forward to the senate chamber on the Ides of March to read the letter handed him that warned him of the plot against his life.Men are mercifully given time to live. But they are too busy to get ready to live, and too busy to heed the warnings that, if heeded, would save and prolong their lives.

Men are mercifully given time to live. But they are too busy to get ready to live, and too busy to heed the warnings that, if heeded, would save and prolong their lives.

(3431)

On an island off the Connecticut coast there stands, saysHarper’s Weekly, a huge revolving platform whereon are placed eight large megaphones, each measuring some seventeen feet and having a mouth seven feet in diameter.These horns are intended to cry warning to vessels at every point of the compass, the power being furnished by a steam-whistle. Their cry has been heard a distance of twenty miles, and when the wind is favorable it will carry nearly twice as far.The instruments utter their warnings every fifteen seconds, each megaphone giving out its cry in turn, so that the warning notes make their way out over the water in every direction. There is a combination of short and long blasts for each point of the compass, so that mariners may know exactly whence the sound proceeds.At Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras, that graveyard of the Atlantic, where, by reason of the shifty character of the soil, it has been found impracticable to erect a lighthouse, the Federal Government has installed a contrivance held down by “mushroom” anchors. This instrument consists of two big megaphones, with a diaphragm vibrated by electricity. The machine is operated by clockwork, and, once wound up, shouts for many months without the necessity of any attention on the part of attendants. In calm weather the shout of this instrument is audible for a distance of twenty-five miles.

These horns are intended to cry warning to vessels at every point of the compass, the power being furnished by a steam-whistle. Their cry has been heard a distance of twenty miles, and when the wind is favorable it will carry nearly twice as far.

The instruments utter their warnings every fifteen seconds, each megaphone giving out its cry in turn, so that the warning notes make their way out over the water in every direction. There is a combination of short and long blasts for each point of the compass, so that mariners may know exactly whence the sound proceeds.

At Diamond Shoals, off Cape Hatteras, that graveyard of the Atlantic, where, by reason of the shifty character of the soil, it has been found impracticable to erect a lighthouse, the Federal Government has installed a contrivance held down by “mushroom” anchors. This instrument consists of two big megaphones, with a diaphragm vibrated by electricity. The machine is operated by clockwork, and, once wound up, shouts for many months without the necessity of any attention on the part of attendants. In calm weather the shout of this instrument is audible for a distance of twenty-five miles.

To be useful these warning voices must be heeded. So is it with moral warnings, of which the world is full.

(3432)

WARNING, AUTOMATIC

The spirit of God is a signal of warning to the soul when floods of evil are imminent.

Spain is subject to more frequent sudden inundations, perhaps, than any other country in Europe, and the necessity for some device to give warning may be appreciated. Such an alarm, ready night and day to notify the population along a river-bank of the approach of a dangerous flood, has been invented by Ramon Martinez di Campos, an engineer of Murcia. It is described as follows:“The device uses the electric current; when an abnormal stage of the river is reached the water closes a circuit and thus starts an alarm signal at a great distance down-stream. In the present arrangement the automatic circuit-closer consists of a galvanized iron float which at high water makes contact with a fixt sheet of metal on a pole or a masonry support.”—Cosmos.

“The device uses the electric current; when an abnormal stage of the river is reached the water closes a circuit and thus starts an alarm signal at a great distance down-stream. In the present arrangement the automatic circuit-closer consists of a galvanized iron float which at high water makes contact with a fixt sheet of metal on a pole or a masonry support.”—Cosmos.

(3433)

WARNING MESSAGES

Once when the Persians and the Scythians confronted each other for battle, there appeared at the Persian camp a messenger from the Scythians, who said that he had some presents from the Scythian chief for Darius. The gifts proved to be a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. No explanation being given as to what the message meant, much curiosity on that point was manifested and many guesses were made. At length it was suggested that it meant threats and defiance. “It may mean,” said one, “that unless you can fly like a bird, into the air, or hide like a mouse in the ground, or bury yourselves like a frog in morasses and fens, you can not escape our arrows.”

The gospel message to us is not so ambiguous as this, but it is equally ominous if it be slighted.

(3434)

WASHINGTON, GEORGE

Perhaps one of the wittiest toasts on record is that of Franklin. After the victories of Washington had made his name well known throughout Europe, Franklin chanced to dine with the French and English ambassadors, when these toasts were drunk. The son of Britain rose and proudly remarked: “England—the sun whose beamsenlighten and fructify the remotest corners of the earth.”The Frenchman, glowing with national pride, drunk: “France—the moon whose mild, steady, cheering rays are the delight of all nations; consoling them in darkness and making their dreariness beautiful.”This furnished Franklin with a fine opening, and his quaint humor bubbled over in his retort: “George Washington—the Joshua, who commanded the sun and the moon to stand still and they obeyed him.”

The Frenchman, glowing with national pride, drunk: “France—the moon whose mild, steady, cheering rays are the delight of all nations; consoling them in darkness and making their dreariness beautiful.”

This furnished Franklin with a fine opening, and his quaint humor bubbled over in his retort: “George Washington—the Joshua, who commanded the sun and the moon to stand still and they obeyed him.”

(3435)

SeeLife, The Simple.

WASHINGTON’S GENIUS

Brilliant I will not call him, if the brightness of the rippling river exceed the solemn glory of old ocean. Brilliant I will not call him, if darkness must be visible in order to display the light; for he had none of that rocket-like brilliancy which flames in instant coruscation across the black brow of night, and then is not. But if a steady, unflickering flame, slow rising to its lofty sphere, dispensing far and wide its rays, revealing all things on which it shines in due proportions and large relations, making right, duty, and destiny so plain that in the vision we are scarce conscious of the light—if this be brilliancy, then the genius of Washington was as full-orbed and luminous as the god of day in his zenith.—John W. Daniel.

(3436)

Washington’s Humility—SeeLife, The Simple.

WASTE

Water washes everything, touches everything, impregnates everything. Nothing escapes it. Incessantly, everywhere, whatever it meets, is dissolved and finally deposited in the immense common receptacle of the oceanic basins.This constant washing continually modifies the chemical composition of the earth’s surface, and it evidently does so to the detriment of the soil’s fertility, since the substances that make a soil fertile are just those that are soluble in water. This general sterilization is masked by local advantages. A valley like that of the Nile, for instance, benefits by the substances brought down from regions nearer its source, but in the long run rivers are always carrying to the sea an enormous quantity of fertilizing material that is lost beyond recall. (Text.)—Paul Combes,Cosmos(Paris).

This constant washing continually modifies the chemical composition of the earth’s surface, and it evidently does so to the detriment of the soil’s fertility, since the substances that make a soil fertile are just those that are soluble in water. This general sterilization is masked by local advantages. A valley like that of the Nile, for instance, benefits by the substances brought down from regions nearer its source, but in the long run rivers are always carrying to the sea an enormous quantity of fertilizing material that is lost beyond recall. (Text.)—Paul Combes,Cosmos(Paris).

(3437)

Petroleum and natural gas, which are supplements to coal, are subjected to wanton waste. Natural gas is now being wasted at the rate of a billion cubic feet a day, by being blown into the air. In Louisiana great spouting wells of gas are burning in the open atmosphere, doing no good whatever to anybody. It is estimated that there are thus consumed in that State alone seventy million cubic feet per day, more than enough to supply Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Pittsburg.If the present rate of increase of exploitation of highgrade iron-ore continues, the supply will not last more than fifty years. In the not distant future it is certain that we shall be obliged to turn to the lower grade ores, of which the quantity is vastly greater, but the smelting of these ores will make a much heavier draft upon our coal supply.Like coal and iron, the output of copper and zinc has more than doubled during recent decades, and the product of the past ten years is greater than the entire previous history of exploitation of these metals in this country.Each year, not considering loss by fire, we are consuming three and one-half times as much wood as is grown. It is estimated that we allow twenty million acres of forest to be burned over annually. Of the timber we take, from one-fourth to one-half is lost by our wasteful methods of cutting and manufacture. Already within a little more than a century of the life of this nation approximately one-half of our forest products are gone. Our system of taxation of forests encourages rapid cutting rather than conservation. We must reform our tax laws concerning forest products; we must eliminate forest fires; we must use economically the wood cut; we must reduce the total amount used per capita until the growth of one year is equal to the consumption of that year.Our water resources, including water for domestic purposes, for irrigation, for navigation, for power, are enormous. As yet they have been only very partially utilized. Fortunately, the water continues in undiminished quantities, being ever withdrawn from the ocean through the power of the sun, and ever falling upon the land. It is a perpetual resource.—Collier’s Weekly.

If the present rate of increase of exploitation of highgrade iron-ore continues, the supply will not last more than fifty years. In the not distant future it is certain that we shall be obliged to turn to the lower grade ores, of which the quantity is vastly greater, but the smelting of these ores will make a much heavier draft upon our coal supply.

Like coal and iron, the output of copper and zinc has more than doubled during recent decades, and the product of the past ten years is greater than the entire previous history of exploitation of these metals in this country.

Each year, not considering loss by fire, we are consuming three and one-half times as much wood as is grown. It is estimated that we allow twenty million acres of forest to be burned over annually. Of the timber we take, from one-fourth to one-half is lost by our wasteful methods of cutting and manufacture. Already within a little more than a century of the life of this nation approximately one-half of our forest products are gone. Our system of taxation of forests encourages rapid cutting rather than conservation. We must reform our tax laws concerning forest products; we must eliminate forest fires; we must use economically the wood cut; we must reduce the total amount used per capita until the growth of one year is equal to the consumption of that year.

Our water resources, including water for domestic purposes, for irrigation, for navigation, for power, are enormous. As yet they have been only very partially utilized. Fortunately, the water continues in undiminished quantities, being ever withdrawn from the ocean through the power of the sun, and ever falling upon the land. It is a perpetual resource.—Collier’s Weekly.

(3438)

WASTE BY DRINK

A man, who had destroyed three happy homes through his drinking habits, was converted, and set to work to lead his friends toChrist. Some time after his conversion one of his mates, seeing how clean and happy he was looking, asked him jocularly if he had any houses to let. He knew the questioner was a heavy drinker, so he decided to give him a practical lesson. “Here, mate,” he said, “just take a look down my throat, will you?” “There’s nothing there,” said the other, after a careful inspection of his throat. “Well, that’s queer, for I’ve put three good homes and a grocer’s shop down that throat, drowning them in drink.” (Text.)

(3439)

SeeDrink, Effects of.

WASTE OF LIVES

Of all wastes, the greatest waste that you can commit is the waste of labor. If you went down in the morning into your dairy, and found that your youngest child had got down before you, and that he and the cat were at play together, and that he had poured out all the cream on the floor for the cat to lap up, you would scold the child, and be sorry the cream was wasted. But if, instead of wooden bowls with milk in them, there are golden bowls with human life in them, and instead of the cat to play with—the devil to play with; and you yourself the player; and instead of leaving that golden bowl to be broken by God at the fountain, you break it in the dust yourself, and pour the human life out on the ground for the fiend to lick up—is that not waste?—John Ruskin.

(3440)

WASTE, STOPPING

The Agricultural Department has inaugurated a war on rats, not as a preventive of the plague or on account of health, but because of the great loss produced in the country by rats, and especially to farmers and producers. The department claims that a rat eats sixty cents’ worth of grain a year, and that the actual destruction caused by them amounts to over one hundred millions of dollars a year. The extermination of rats will be a great undertaking. Yet it could be accomplished by national effort were it not for the new supplies brought by ships. It is believed that by proper regulations even this supply might be cut off, or the rats killed before spreading. It would cost only a small part of the one hundred millions of dollars to exterminate the rat. The expenditure of ten millions under national authority would be economy.

There are moral wastes comparatively more destructive than the plague of rats, that all men should join in exterminating—the saloon, for example.

(3441)

WASTE, THE PROBLEM OF

Professor Marshall, the English economist, estimates that the British working classes spend every year not less than $500,000,000 for things that do nothing to make them either happier or nobler. The president of the British Association, in an address before the economic section, confirmed these estimates, and avowed his belief that the sum named above was wasted in food alone. Professor Matthews adds that so large a proportion of our housekeepers are brought up in town life and factory life that they do not know how to buy economically, while the cooking art has necessarily gone into decadence. He estimates the waste in the United States from bad cooking alone to be at least $1,000,000 every year.—Independent.

(3442)

WASTES, MORAL

One day in a public restaurant a gentleman, who owns a large fruit-orchard in one of the Northwestern States, was talking about what wonderful fruit was produced by his trees.

“Why,” said he, “I see in market here in Pittsburg apples selling at a good price that we wouldn’t even use out our way. We’d never think of selling them. Such apples are thrown aside as culls.”There are a great many human culls, men and boys, who, because of some injurious habit, have lost their full market value. There is the cigaret cull, the boy who is blighting his future and depreciating his value as a member of society because of his nauseous habit. And there is the whisky and beer cull, the man who can not keep out of a saloon; good enough man, many ways, but nobody wants to employ him in any responsible position. Then we have the obscene cull, the individual who has some rancid story to tell to raise a haw-haw among companions as coarse and vulgar as himself. He may be a good workman, but morally he is a cull. Another man I know is the Sabbath cull. This is the man who goes about watering his garden on the Sabbath, or driving out in his automobile for the pleasure of the thing; who is sometimes seen on the train Sabbath morning with hisgolf-sticks going out to some country club grounds. They may have their thousands and live in the best houses on the avenue, but they are moral culls. These things are blemishes which show the character. (Text.)

There are a great many human culls, men and boys, who, because of some injurious habit, have lost their full market value. There is the cigaret cull, the boy who is blighting his future and depreciating his value as a member of society because of his nauseous habit. And there is the whisky and beer cull, the man who can not keep out of a saloon; good enough man, many ways, but nobody wants to employ him in any responsible position. Then we have the obscene cull, the individual who has some rancid story to tell to raise a haw-haw among companions as coarse and vulgar as himself. He may be a good workman, but morally he is a cull. Another man I know is the Sabbath cull. This is the man who goes about watering his garden on the Sabbath, or driving out in his automobile for the pleasure of the thing; who is sometimes seen on the train Sabbath morning with hisgolf-sticks going out to some country club grounds. They may have their thousands and live in the best houses on the avenue, but they are moral culls. These things are blemishes which show the character. (Text.)

(3443)

Watchfulness—SeeAsleep;Disguised Danger.

WATCHFULNESS AGAINST ENEMIES

The conscience and will ought to guard character against its destructive enemies as the Brazilians guard their houses, according to the following account:

Rats have multiplied to such a degree in Brazil that the inhabitants rear a certain kind of snake for destroying them. The Brazilian domestic serpent is thegiboia, a small species of boa about twelve feet in length and of the diameter of a man’s arm. This snake, which is entirely harmless and sluggish in its movements, passes the entire day asleep at the foot of the staircase of the house, scarcely deigning to raise its head at the approach of a visitor, or when a strange noise is heard in the vestibule. At nightfall thegiboiabegins to hunt, crawling along here and there, and even penetrating the space above the ceiling and beneath the flooring. Springing swiftly forward, it seizes the rat by the nape and crushes its cervical vertebrae. As serpents rarely eat, even when at liberty, thegiboiakills only for the pleasure of killing. It becomes so accustomed to its master’s house that if carried to a distance it escapes and finds its way back home. Every house in the warmest provinces where rats abound owns itsgiboia, a fixture by destination, and the owner of which praises its qualities when he wishes to sell or let his house. (Text.)—Scientific American.

(3444)

WATCHING THE KETTLE

There is a bit of proverbial philosophy afloat to the effect that “a watched kettle never boils.” False philosophy this, whether taken literally or figuratively. In the one case it is an idiotic superstition; in the other, a stupid mistake; in either, a humbug and a cheat. Cease to watch your business kettle, and what comes of leaving it to take care of itself? It either becomes stone-cold or blows up. You don’t want your enterprise over-done, and you don’t want it under-done. Your object is to strike the golden mean between lukewarmness and the explosive point, represented, we will say, by 212 of Fahrenheit. How are you to stimulate the contents of your kettle up to the right mark—to make them ebullient without turning them into a dangerous element—unless you regulate the upward tendency judiciously? It is only the neglected business kettle that never boils to a good purpose. Suppose Lord Worcester, Marquis of Somerset, had not watched his kettle, and so had not observed the phenomenon of the flapping lid, forced into motion by the pressure of the escaping steam? If the marquis had not received that hint from his watched kettle as to the latent force of steam, who can tell what deprivation of motive power mankind would have undergone? Your moral kettle must be looked after, too, or it is more likely to freeze than boil. Morality without the warmth of feeling necessary to make it active, is not of much use. In fact, all the figurative kettles, individual and social, included within the range of human hopes and duties, require to be closely watched. The world is paved, as one may say, with the wrecks of kettles which would have been of incalculable utility if they had been properly managed—reformatory kettles, for example, which only require the fire of zeal to keep them going, and the guardianship of practical common sense to regulate them, in order to become valuable utensils in the kitchen of progress. To watch your kettle till it boils, and all the time that it is boiling, is the only sure way to provide against accidents.—New YorkLedger.

(3445)

Water and Natives—SeeMiracles, Evidential Value of.

WATER OF LIFE

The briny waters of Great Salt Lake have been tried by the Southern Pacific Railway for a novel purpose and with remarkable success. Stored in tanks the fluid has been hauled over the line by water-trains and sprinkled upon the right of way. Under this treatment the weeds, the bane of the section-hands, have withered and died. After an experiment of sixteen months the scheme has now been permanently adopted. This briny water is a water which brings death to those things it touches.

There is a water we are told which brings life, higher than any material life, the water of life. It wasmade known to the world through the divine teacher. At Jacob’s well in the center of Palestine He declared Himself to be the water of life. Those who drink from natural fountains of water will thirst again, and the strength they gain, the refreshing they receive, will only be temporary. Those who come to drink of the true water of life will receive spiritual refreshing. This life-giving water takes away all foulness from the soil of the soul, by purifying it, by sweetening it, by enriching it. The weeds of sin in the soul are best destroyed not by the infusion of something more noxious, but by the infilling of the sweet graces of life.

(3446)

One of the most interesting creatures of California’s great desert is the tortoise. Frequently a school of them, that we usually think of only in connection with water, are discovered afar out in the desert where water is scarce and difficult to obtain. Dissection shows that in a convenient place upon their body is located a pair of large water-sacks. These the owner fills with water as needed and in this way it is kept supplied.

The man who has acquired character and experience so that he has moral and spiritual reservoirs within is equipped for every emergency. (Text.)

(3447)

At Huntsville, Ala., is a spring that supplies the whole town with an abundance of pure, fresh water. But the wonder of it all is that the flow of it is made to operate a wheel that pumps the water into the homes of the people.

The supply of water is the power of the water supply. God, who is the water of life, also sends all we need for the operation of all activities. (Text.)

(3448)

The sources of the soul’s water of life is in the hill-springs, but one may have to go down into the depths to find it, as these divers bring up fresh water out of the ocean:

The hottest region on earth is on the south western coast of Persia, where Persia borders the gulf of the same name. For forty consecutive days in the months of July and August the thermometer has been known not to fall lower than 100 degrees, night or day, and to often run up as high as 128 degrees in the afternoon. At Bahrin, in the center of the torrid part of the torrid belt, as tho it were nature’s intention to make the region as unbearable as possible, no water can be obtained from digging wells one hundred to two hundred or even five hundred feet deep, yet a comparatively numerous population contrive to live there, thanks to copious springs which break forth from the bottom of the gulf, more than a mile from shore. The water from these springs is obtained by divers, who dive to the bottom and fill goat-skins with the cooling liquid and sell it for a living. The source of these submarine fountains is thought to be in the green hills of Osman, some five or six hundred miles away.—Public Opinion.

(3449)

SeeSurface Lives;Springs of Life.

Waters, Lake—SeeRenewal.

Waters, Tempestuous—SeeAdversity.

WAY, DIRECTION OF

Back to Index Next