Christian Nation Vol. 18 1893 - Rparchives.org

Jan. 18,1893.A FAMILY PAPER.LOVE IT, I LOVE IT.AND WHO WILL DARETO CHIDE ME FORLOVINGTHE OLD ARIVI GHAIR" GOOD-BY, OLD YEAR, GOOD-BY !"Margaret E. Sangster, in Harper's Young People." Good-by, old year, good-by."We've had good times together;You gave us many a bright blue sky.And sometimes stormy weather.Eut we've had lots of fun—We've skated, flshed,and boated;And uow, just as the year is done.In school we've been promoted,Good-by, old year—good-by,Old EigUteen-uinety-two!Though Ninety-three is looming nigh.You take our love with you.Old year, be brave and proud;With banners floating o'er you.You join the shadowing crowdOf years th^t went before you,Good-by, old year, good-by;With " finis"to your story.The stars shine out on highTo light your way with glory.THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES.At Central Park in New York city may bethan anyone else what was best for her, and soseen a happy family, the like of which, possibly,she was often in trouble. Oue day her fathercannot be met anywhere else in the world. Itsaid he would take her to the creek to fish,andconsists of a number of frisky yonng hares andKitty said Lady Maud must go too.the slowest and most aucieiit-looking of tortoises.The tortoises, however, are nob as oldNow, Lady Maud was a beautiful wax doll,V'ith lovely yellow curls, and she was dressed inas they appear; when grown to th«ir full sizepink silk, Kttty thought a great deal of her,they will weigh hundreds of pounds apiece, andI for she was a birthday present from au unclebe quite able to carry meu upon their backs.I ahe loved dearly,The tortoises are part of a number broughtj " I think you would better uot take the doll,from the Galapagos Islands, several years, ago,Kitty," said her father ; " young ladies dou'ttothe Natural History Museum at Washington.go fishing dressed in pink silk."These islands forming a small archipelago inBut Kitty would not consent to leave the dollthe Pacific Ocean, are very remarkable in manyat home, Wheu she reached the creek she putrespects, bnt in none more so, perhaps, than inthe doll down on a stone uuder a tree near thehaving been the home of races of giant tortoisesof which the (specimens at Centralbank, and she waa sure Lady Maud was safe.Parkare a remnant. Commodore Porter, who visitedthe Galapagos Islands about eighty yearsago, saw such droves of thesR tortoises that heBays a man might havo walked a considerabledistance on their backs without descending tothe grouuJ. He saw specimens five feet long,four and a half feet wide, and measuring threefeet through the oody. He was impretsf d notonly with their size, but with their strangeshape. They had long necks and flat,serpentlikeheads, and long legs (for turtles) uponwhich they stood with the body a full foot fromthe ground. Thongh keen of sight, ttiese tortoisesaro quite deaf, the loudest noise failingto stdrtle them; but in their wild state they areBO timid that the sight of a man makes themscuttle tff in ponderous haste. Sometimes,however, as Mr. Darwin says, the instant theyperceive any one, they draw in their legs a idhead, and uttering a deep hiss fail to theground with a heavy thud, as if struck dead."I frequently," he says, "got upon theirbacks, and upon giving a few raps upon thehinder part of the shell, they would rise upand walk away; but I found it very difficult tokeep my balance." ' Tbe Galapagos tortoise isa thirsty creature; the one object of its lifeseems to be to get enough to drink. In thesmaller islands, where there are no springs, thetortoises are obliged to content themselveswitii the succulent Peruvian cactus and otherjuicy plants; but in the larger on^s they travellong distances to the springs which occur inthe more elevated central parts. From everypart of the sea-coast broad, well-beaten paths,originally made by tortoises, converge to theinterior and lead to the v atering-places. Travelerswho visited the islands when these pathswere used by the tortoises tell us how carious itwas to see the huge creatures, one set eagerlytraveling toward the springs with outstretchednecks, and another set returning, having"drunk their lill." When a tortoise arrived ata spring, quite regardless of the spectator, itburied its head in water above the eyes andgreedily swallowed great mouthfuls at the rateof about ten a minute.Although rather clumsy pets, the creaturesare entirely harmless. The little saucy haresthat share quarters with them at Central Parkplay arouud, about, and all over them, as ifthey were so many great boulders, which indeedthey somewhat resemble.Unfor unately for these Galapagos tortoises,the delicious flavorof their meit has long beenknown; and so it happens that through thegreed and carelessness of mankind they arerapidly disappearing from the face of theearth—J. Carter Beard, in.January St. Nicholas.LADY MAUD.BY FLOKENCE B. HALLOWELL.Kitty was a little girl who liked to have herown way, .and always thought she knew betterit was a lesson fer her. She learned, throughthe loss of her doll, that her fathei? was wiserthan she aft^r all,—Sunday School Visitor.If there is any of the hog in a man the bristles willsoon begin to grow when he travels,God IS disappointed whenever a man dies withoutleaving the world better than he found it.Whenever the preacher takes a square aim at sinevery hypocrite in the ohuroh^begins to dodge.The devil wouldn't get so many people if he couldn'tmake a foundation of sand look like solid rook.HELPFUL CORNER.[Address all oomm.unicaiions for this departmentto Rev. W'm. Littlejohn, editor, Mediapolis, Iowa.]I. Study oi Words.For the sake of variety we will not confineourselves to one particular plan in our study ofwords. This week we will arrange our studyin the following order: 1, What is the differencein the use of the verba fo commence andto begin? 2. Is agriculturalist or agriculturistproper? 3, Write correctly the sentence, " Oftwo evils choose the least.'" 4. Is " Sales atAuction," ftcorrect expression'? 5, How shouldthe common expression " I have got a cold"be expressed? 6. VVhat would the intendedcompliment, "She has got a fine head of hair"imply?II. The Study of the Peinciples,The period, generally known as the SecondReformation, is a brief, but crowded and lucidchapter in history. It is a period that shouldbe well understood by every English or AmericanChristian. Its designaiior. Second Reformation,is to distinguish it from that periodof a longer duration about a hundred yearsearlier, known as the First Reformation. TheFirst was a reformation from Popery, the Secondfrom Prelacy, aud was distinguished notonly by retrieving what was lost, but by agreat accession of important attainments.Questions,16. What is the date of the Second Reformation?17. What led to this movement?18 Has the church ever enjoyed a very longperiod of prosperity?19. What followed this period of reformation?20. When and where was Charles IIcrowned?21. Where was he at the lime he was proclaimedking?III. Miscellaneous." The Universal Language,'' writes C. R.Haines, in Macmillan's Magazine " will be theEnglish." He says, " English is fast gainingground in many ways. The continent is overrunwith English and American tiavelers, andBut a little later she heard a loud grunt, andlooking around saw a wild hog rooting near the there is scarcely a hotel, or a firstrate shop, instone on which the doll sat. Kitty jumped up which English is not spoken. In Germany,with a loud cry, and the hog rushed away ; but again, English has taken the place of Frenchiu passing the stone it knocked the doll down as the most important foreign language to bethe bank, and Kitty saw tue water close over learned. Iu Bussia it is the same. It is becomingmore fashionable to speak Englishher darling.The creek was deep at this spot, and Kitty's than Frenoh; and Dr. Lansdell, writing infather had to fish a long time for Lady Maud, 1883, tolls us the Eussians prefer English toWheu he drew her from tlie water at last her their language for use iu telegrams. Anotherwig was soaked off,andthethepaintpinkwassilkalldreeswashedwas sign of the times was afforded by the conferencerespecting Samoa, in 1889 The deliber­from her face,ruined,Kitty cried until she was almost sick ; butations were conducted in English, the Germanrepresentatives being all able to epeak io ourtongue. And in the same article he says, "Notonly is English practically certain to becomethe language of the world, a result whichmight have been due to accidental circumstances,but it is also by general consent admittedto be the fittestto survive ia the struggle-"u . . 1Such a language surely claims our best study.It is a language that is spoken by nearly twiceas many prople as any other European tongueIt has been said, "You can be politer in it andmder than in almost any language.