Chapter D: L. Moody told this story of missionary self-sacrifice (4)

The call to prayer heard from minarets five times daily in all
Moslem lands is as follows: The muezzin cries it in a loud voice
and always in the Arabic language: “God is most great! God is
most great! God is most great! God is most great! I testify that
there is no god but God! I testify that there is no god but God!
I testify that Mohammed is the apostle of God! I testify that
Mohammed is the apostle of God! Come to prayer! Come to prayer!
Come to prosperity! Come to prosperity! God is most great! God
is most great! There is no god but God!” In the call to early
morning prayer the words “prayer is better than sleep” are added
twice after the call to prosperity. (Text.)--SAMUEL M.
ZWEMER, “The Moslem World.”

(2454)

PRAYER, VIEWS OF

The Christian conception of prayer is “enter into thine inner chamber and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father, who is in secret, and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.”

With the Moslems the first requirement of correct prayer is
that it be in the right direction; that is, toward the Kaaba at
Mecca. Because of this, private houses, as well as mosques,
all over the Mohammedan world, are built accordingly, and not
on meridian lines. It is often pathetic to hear a wayfarer
or a Moslem who travels on an ocean steamer ask which is the
proper direction to turn at the hour of prayer. To pray with
one’s back to Mecca would be unpardonable. Many Moslems carry a
pocket-compass on their journeys to avoid all possible errors of
this character. (Text.)--SAMUEL M. ZWEMER, “The Moslem
World.”

(2455)

PRAYERS

Mr. Keppel in his book “Christmas in Art,” tells this story:

I remember a touching little incident which occurred in New
York. My dear old mother, who was a Methodist, had died, and our
kindly Irish cook prayed twice daily for the repose of the old
woman’s soul. A Catholic friend of the cook’s told her that it
was wrong to pray for a deceased heretic, and the cook carried
the question to her father-confessor. The good priest’s decision
was in this wise: “My daughter, I can not tell you whether such
prayers can do good to the soul of a deceased heretic--but your
prayers will certainly do good to your own soul.”

(2456)

=Prayers Unanswered=--See FAITH, STEADFAST.

PREACHING

Whitefield was just twenty-one when he received deacon’s orders,
and he at once leapt into fame as a preacher. “I intended to
make 150 sermons,” he says, “and thought I would set up with
a good stock-in-trade.” As a matter of fact, this greatest of
English preachers only possest a single sermon when he began his
preaching career. In his humility he put his first and solitary
discourse into the hands of a friendly clergyman, to show how
unprepared for the work of the pulpit he was. The clergyman
used one-half of the sermon at his morning service, and the
other half at his evening service, and returned it to its
astonished author with a guinea by way of payment.--W. H.
FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(2457)

See CONSECRATION; EDUCATION TO BE PRIZED; SPEECH, COMMON.

=Preaching, Call To=--See INFLUENCE, INDIVIDUAL.

PREACHING CHRIST

Some man went to hear Spurgeon preach one day, and when he came
back to his friend’s house, his friend asked him: “What do you
think of Spurgeon?” He replied: “Nothing at all.” The friend in
amazement repeated his question, and again the answer was: “I
do not think anything of him at all,” and then he brushed away
some moisture in his eyes and added: “But I never can forget his
Savior.”--CORTLAND MYERS.

(2458)

=Preaching, Fearless=--See FITNESS.

PREACHING FROM MANUSCRIPT

One year I invited the pastor of a great church in Cincinnati,
and he came, and he spoke on Sunday morning. He pulled out a
forty-page manuscript and stood there and read the gospel for
a whole hour, and those good country people never saw it done
before, and when they adjourned for dinner they got under the
trees and talked about the proceedings. They said, “What do you
think of that letter from Cincinnati?” And I never see a fellow
pull his manuscript now that I don’t wonder where that letter is
from.--“Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones.”

(2459)

PREACHING, GOSPEL

I have seen an advertisement reading thus: “If the druggist
says, ‘We haven’t Brown’s soap, but here is something just
as good,’ don’t take it! Go somewhere else.” The Church is
in business, and Church attendance is controlled by business
principles. The man who drops in wants the gospel, nothing else
will answer, and he can not be expected to continue dropping in
unless he gets it.--DAVID JAMES BURRELL.

(2460)

=Preaching Occasions=--See OPPORTUNITIES IMPROVED.

PREACHING, RESPONSIBILITY IN

Those who have inadequate views of their responsibility in
preparing to preach the gospel ought to be impressively reminded
of their failure in this respect, as was a moderate minister,
who was a keen fisher, when he said to Dr. Andrew Thompson: “I
wonder you spend so much time on your sermons, with your ability
and ready speech. Many’s the time I’ve written a sermon and
killed a salmon before breakfast.” To which saying Dr. Thompson
replied, “Well, sir, I’d rather have eaten your salmon than
listened to your sermon.”

(2461)

=Preaching, Roosevelt’s=--See SPEAKING TO DO GOOD.

=Preaching Spoiled=--See SYMPATHY, LACK OF.

PREACHING THE WORD

When Dr. Cuyler, of Brooklyn, died, the Sunday-school
remembered that he used to come in every now and then during
the years of his history, and repeat just a single verse from
the superintendent’s desk; and the next Lord’s Day after the
funeral, they marched up in front of it in a long line, and each
scholar quoted any of the texts that he could recollect. The
grown people wept as they saw how much there was of the Bible in
the hearts of their children, which this one pastor had planted.
Yet he was a very timid and old-fashioned man; he said he had no
gift at talking to children; he could only repeat God’s Word. If
preachers and teachers would follow such a simple example, what
a power there would be in their ministrations. (Text.)

(2462)

PRECAUTION

A California vine-grower, in a region where once in a
great while the temperature fell a few degrees below the
freezing-point, thus endangering his crop, rigged up an
electric-alarm system which signalled to him when the
temperature out in the fields had fallen low enough to require
the lighting of fires to prevent frost. A neighbor, more fond of
his ease, immediately improved on this apparatus. He fixt his
brushwood ready for firing, and then arranged his electrical
apparatus so that when the temperature fell to thirty-two
degrees a current should be sent through a platinum wire in some
fine combustibles and light the fires, instead of signaling him
to do the work himself. The apparatus is cheap and more reliable
than hired men, so that it is likely to be adopted in the parts
of the state exposed to inopportune frosts.--Philadelphia
_Ledger_.

(2463)

* * * * *

Justice Willes about 1780 sentenced a boy at Lancaster to be
hanged, with the hope of reforming him by frightening him, and
he ordered him for execution next morning. The judge awoke in
the middle of the night, and was so affected by the notion that
he might himself die in the course of the night, and the boy
be hanged, tho he did mean that he should suffer, that he got
out of his bed and went to the lodgings of the high sheriff,
and left a reprieve for the boy, or what was to be considered
equivalent to it, and then, returning to his bed, spent the
rest of the night comfortably. (Text.)--CROAKE JAMES,
“Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(2464)

PRECAUTIONS

The day when an engineer could drive his train ahead at full
speed, at his own discretion, and make up as much lost time
as the recklessness of his daring permitted, has passed with
the romantic age of railroading. No longer does he gamble thus
with death to win back minutes. A cool-nerved human machine
sits in an office miles away and tells him exactly how fast he
may go. Mute signals stretch out their arms to him by day or
glow red-eyed at night along the track and halt him if he rides
too fast or if there is danger ahead. At intervals of from a
thousand feet to five miles there are towers with men in them
who note the minute and second of his passing, and telegraph it
forward and back over the line. Nowadays the engineer is rarely
out of touch with possible orders for more than a few minutes
at a time. In place of the daring and the old speed madness
that used to characterize the making up of time, the man who
lasts the longest now in the cab is the one who possesses the
calculating skill developed by long experience. He accomplishes
much more simply by taking advantage of every trifle in winning
back his time second by second.--THADDEUS S. DAYTON,
_Harper’s Weekly_.

(2465)

* * * * *

It is said to be scarcely possible to induce working men engaged in dangerous employments to take the most rudimentary precautions against disease and accident. The knife-grinder neglects his mask, the collier his lamp; they are ingenious in evading the regulations framed for their safety.

Similarly in our recklessness and presumption we ignore the
things which are designed to secure the safety of our character,
the peace of our soul. Let us be sure that we prize those
manifold and gracious arrangements by which God seeks to save
us from the power of evil, that we profit by them to the
utmost.--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”

(2466)

Probably the greatest menace to the safety of navigation
at sea is the fog. Modern steamships are seldom endangered
by the severest storms, but when the impenetrable envelop
of mist encloses a vessel, she is exposed to the most
terrible of perils--a collision at sea. A single ship may be
comparatively safe even in a fog, but when there are a fleet
of vessels the danger is greatly multiplied. In addition to
the customary fog-horns and sirens a fleet of war-ships often
will keep informed of their relative positions by the firing
of signal-guns from the flagship. Another excellent method
generally employed is the use of the fog-buoy.

Each vessel in a warship fleet carries a fog-buoy, a large cask
painted a bright red. This is cast overboard at the first sign
of any fog and floats from the stern of the vessel attached by
a rope of grass fiber which does not sink beneath the surface
of the water. Sufficient rope is paid out by each vessel, so
that its fog-buoy floats at the bow of the ship next astern--two
cable’s-length (four hundred yards) when in close order and
double that distance in open order. By this means the exact
stations of the individual ships of a fleet are maintained
even tho proceeding at a moderate rate of speed.--_Harper’s
Weekly._

(2467)

PRECAUTIONS, SCIENTIFIC

The teller of a bank standing behind his window in these days of
electricity can touch a push-button close to his hand and close
the door of every safe in the place before a thief could have
time to operate, and by the same signal he can call the police
or give the alarm to all the bank officials.

(2468)

PRECEPT AND PRACTISE

One of the great railroad companies has begun a campaign
against the use of tobacco by its employees, and, while
none are to be discharged because they indulge in it, they
are requested to break the habit if possible. This may be a
good thing, but example speaks louder than precept; if the
officers want the employees to abandon smoking and chewing,
the reform ought to begin in the president’s office and go
down all along the line until it reaches the trackmen and
laborers. A well-known railroad executive, now deceased, said
it was of no use to preach temperance to railroad employees
if officers’ special cars ran over the road with wines and
liquors on board to be consumed _en route_. He set an
example by keeping intoxicants out of his car even when he had
guests.--_Manufacturers’ Record._

(2469)

* * * * *

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice,
My life’s unkind, but I can vote for kindness.
I, the unloving, say life should be lovely;
I, that am blind, cry out against my blindness.

Man is a curious brute--he pets his fancies--
Fighting mankind to win sweet luxury.
So he will be, tho law be clear as crystal,
Tho all men plan to live in harmony.

Come, let us vote against our human nature,
Crying to God in all the polling-places
To heal our everlasting sinfulness,
And make us sages with transfigured faces.

--NICHOLAS V. LINDSAY, _Unity_.

(2470)

=Preciseness Overdone=--See SCRUPLES, MINUTE.

=Precision=--See _Ahead of Circumstances_.

PRECOCITY

Precocity is not always a cerebral disease, certainly, tho where
it is pronounced the presumption is not in its favor. Slower
growths are the surer and attain the greater heights. Usually
precocity wants a depth which is not supplied to the subject
in more mature years. With the comparatively few exceptions
that can be noted, it lacks staying power. The most remarkable
case of collapsed precocity that occurs to us is that of the
Englishman Betty, the “young Roscius.” He went on the stage at
the age of twelve years in 1803, played _Hamlet_ and other
prominent characters, and in four years amassed a fortune of
over $150,000, at a time when money was worth twice its present
face value. For twenty-eight nights in Drury Lane he earned
over $3,000 a night. He left the stage to go to school, and
on his return, three years later, made an utter failure and
never amounted to anything as an actor thereafter.--New York
_World_.

(2471)

* * * * *

It is said of Jonathan Edwards that he commenced the study of
Latin at six years of age; at eight he was keenly interested
in spiritual matters. At ten he wrote, like a philosopher, a
quaint and humorous essay on the immortality of the soul, and
at twelve years of age wrote an original paper on the habits of
the flying-spider.

(2472)

* * * * *

Of Mrs. Wesley’s father it is gravely recorded that “when about
five or six years old he began a practise, which he afterward
continued, of reading twenty chapters every day in the Bible.”
The phenomenon of a child not six years old who solemnly forms,
in the cells of his infantile brain, the plan of reading twenty
chapters of the Bible every day--and sticks to it through a
long life--would in these modern days be reckoned nothing
less than astonishing. Of Hetty Wesley, the sister of John,
it is on record that at eight years of age she could read the
Greek Testament. Do any such wonderful children exist in these
days?--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(2473)

See PRODIGY, A.

PREDICTION, FALSE

Mr. James A. Briggs cites a paragraph from the Boston _Courier_ of June 27, 1827, then edited by Joseph T. Buckingham, one of the ablest and most liberal of New England editors. It was but sixty-two years ago that he thus spoke of the projected railroad from Boston to Albany:

Alcibiades, or some other great man of antiquity, it is said,
cut off his dog’s tail that quidnuncs might not become extinct
from want of excitement. Some such motive, we doubt not,
moves one or two of our natural and experimental philosophers
to get up a project for a railroad from Boston to Albany--a
project which every one knows, who knows the simplest rule in
arithmetic, to be impracticable and at an expense little less
than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts;
and which, if practicable, every person of common sense knows
would be as useless as a railroad from Boston to the moon.

The road was built, and there is no more prosperous road in the country.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2474)

=Preferences=--See SELECTION.

PREFERRED CREDITOR

An Israelite without guile, doing business down in Chatham
Street, New York, called his creditors together, and offered
them in settlement his note for ten per cent on their claims,
payable in four months. His brother, one of the largest
creditors, rather “kicked”; but the debtor took him aside
and said, “Do not make any objections, and I will make you
a preferred creditor.” So the proposal was accepted by all.
Presently, the preferred brother said, “Well, I should like what
is coming to me.” “Oh,” was the reply, “you won’t get anything;
they won’t any of them get anything.” “But I thought I was a
preferred creditor.” “So you are. These notes will not be paid
when they come due; but it will take them four months to find
out that they are not going to get anything. But you know it
now; you see you are preferred.”--HEMAN L. WAYLAND.

(2475)

PREHISTORIC WOMAN

In the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons lies a famous
skull. Discovered at Gibraltar many years ago, it has been
agreed to be that of a human being of prehistoric times.
Professor A. Keith, curator of the museum, has compared the
skull minutely with those of the people of all nations to-day,
and has set it side by side with all other available prehistoric
relics. “The skull, I have little doubt, is that of a woman,”
he said. “From the size of her brain she must have been
shrewd--probably a woman, too, of considerable spirit. One can
reckon pretty accurately also the time at which she lived. It
must have been at least 600,000 years ago. From the jaws and
the fact that the muscles of mastication were remarkably strong
it is possible to deduce what this prehistoric woman ate. Nuts
and roots probably entered very largely into her diet. She was
in the habit of eating things which required a great amount of
mastication before much nourishment could be derived from them,
hence the unusual development of the jaw muscles.”

(2476)

PREJUDGMENT

It is not uncommon for men to judge a cause before they have heard the facts:

Lord Eldon said, “I remember Mr. Justice Gould trying a case
at York, and when he had proceeded for about two hours, he
observed, ‘Here are only eleven jurymen; where is the twelfth?’
‘Please you, my lord,’ said one of the eleven, ‘he is gone
away about some business, but he has left his verdict with
me.’”--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”

(2477)

PREJUDICE

Take equal parts of malice, ignorance and hate, mix well and
serve hot, and you have prejudice.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2478)

PREJUDICE DISARMED

There is a certain famous preacher, perhaps the leading man in
his denomination, against whom I have had a prejudice which has
been slowly increasing for the last twenty-five years. When he
used his influence a few years ago to prevent the recognition in
a great ecclesiastical council of two of the noblest spiritual
leaders of this generation, because of their adherence to the
old-fashioned faith and methods, my bump of prejudice against
that man reached full-sized proportions.

It was my lot very recently to be a member of a house of
mourning where this same minister was the officiating clergyman,
and I had to meet him personally. But when he had finished his
prayer, my prejudice had all melted away like dew before the
rising sun, and I felt like rushing up to him, putting an arm
in his, and saying, “You didn’t do it, did you? I’m sure I’ve
misunderstood; please set me right about yourself.”--GEORGE
W. COLEMAN, “Searchlights.”

(2479)

PREJUDICE, RELIGIOUS

An old woman at Jhansi, in North India, a Brahman of strictest
sect, and mother of a princess who was very ill, called in
Dr. Blanche Monro, of the Woman’s Union Missionary Society.
She dismissed the lady doctor each time with smiles, thanks,
and rich rewards, then grimly ordered her servants to wash
everything the foreign lady had touched--the floor, table,
chairs, her own clothes, and finally herself. After she has
taken a bath, she feels pure once more.

(2480)

PREPARATION

Many disappointments and failures are simply the results of superficial expectations of easy success without patient preparation of the needed preliminary conditions.

A famous English gardener once heard a nobleman say
complainingly, “I can not have a rose garden, tho I often have
tried, because the soil around my castle is too poor for roses.”
“That is no reason at all,” replied the gardener. “You must go
to work and make it better. Any ground can be made fit for roses
if pains are taken to prepare it. The poorest soil can be made
rich.” It was a wise saying, and it is true in other cases than
rose gardens. Some young people say, “I can’t be cheerful,” or,
“I can’t be sweet-tempered,” or “I can’t be forgiving,” as if
they were not responsible for the growths in their soul-garden
because the soil is poor. But “any ground can be made fit for
roses,” and any heart can be made fit for the loveliest blossoms
of character. (Text.)

(2481)

=Preparation a Safeguard Against Loss=--See CONTROL OF
CIRCUMSTANCES.

=Preparation, Aimless=--See AIMLESSNESS.

=Preparation by Training=--See TOUGHNESS.

PREPARATION CONTINUOUS

Michelangelo, when an old man, said: “I carry my satchel still!”
indicating that his life was a perpetual study and preparation.

(2482)

PREPARATION, COSTLY

Alonzo Cano, a Spanish sculptor, being employed by a lawyer
of Grenada to make a statue of St. Antonio de Padua, and
having mentioned how much it would cost, the lawyer began
to reckon how many pistoles per day the artist had earned.
“You have,” said he, “been five-and-twenty days carving this
statue, and your exorbitant demand makes you charge the rate
of four pistoles per day, while I, who am your superior in
a profession, do not make half your profits by my talents.”
“Wretch!” exclaimed the artist; “do you talk to me of your
talents? I have been five-and-twenty years learning to make this
statue in five-and-twenty days.” So saying, he dashed it on
the pavement.--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and
Lawyers.”

(2483)

PREPARATION, PROPHETIC

Shortly before the death of Mozart, the musician, a stranger
brought him an anonymous letter in which a request for a requiem
was made. To its composition he gave the full strength of his
powers. The conviction seized him that he was composing a
requiem for his own obsequies. While engaged in this work and
under this strange inspiration, he gathered all his strength to
complete his work. And when the task was finished, a strange
fire lighted his eye, as the melody, even to his exquisite
sensibility, was perfect. It bore an unearthly sweetness that
was to him, too truly, a warning of his future and fast-coming
doom.

All our life work is, in a way, a preparation for death.

(2484)

PREPARATION SUCCEEDS

A life sketch of Richard Mansfield, the great actor, contains the following account of his first success on the stage:

A noted actor had been offered the part but shrank from it,
and finally absolutely refused to take it. Mansfield saw its
possibilities and was in a fever of eagerness to get it. In the
distress and pressure of the situation the manager reluctantly
gave it to him. Then the young man began to prepare for the
part. He studied everything which would throw light on the
character. He interviewed people, visited the haunts of such men
as the character represented, and he rehearsed and rehearsed
until his eyes gleamed and his whole being was on fire. When he
came on the stage for his first act the people were indifferent,
not even paying attention to the play, but talking and laughing.
Soon a hush fell upon them. They were spellbound. When the
curtain fell there was a roar of applause which shook the
building, and at the close of the play the audience went out
dazed. Richard Mansfield was never to go hungry again. At a
bound he had leapt from the dust to the top of the ladder. It
makes one’s heart leap just to read about it.

(2485)

=Preparation, Thorough=--See THOROUGHNESS IN PREPARATION.

PRESENCE OF GOD

One day a poor leper came to Dr. Pauline Root’s dispensary, in
Madura, India, with a small, dirty cloth about his waist. He
begged a new garment. It was given and was the cause of great
delight. Two weeks later he appeared again, making the same
request. Dr. Root asked him, “Where is the cloth I gave you?” “I
have it,” the old man replied, “but I am old, and will not live
long, and some morning it is probable that the people in passing
by my little mud hut to the river will look in and see me lying
there dead. When I go into God’s presence I want to be nice. All
day long I go about for my food and I am very dirty and very
tired, but when I go home I wash myself and I have kept that
beautiful long piece of cloth to wrap myself in when I lie down.
I commit myself to God thinking that perhaps the next morning I
shall have gone into His presence.” (Text.)

(2486)

* * * * *

Beneath the shadow of the Great Protection,
The soul sits, hushed and calm.
Bathed in the peace of that divine affection,
No fever-heats of life or dull dejection
Can work the spirit harm.
Diviner heavens above
Look down on it in love.
And, as the varying winds move where they will,
In whispers soft, through trackless fields of air,
So comes the Spirit’s breath, serene and still,
Its tender messages of love to bear,
From men of every race and speech and zone,
Making the whole world one,
Till every sword shall to a sickle bend,
And the long, weary strifes of earth shall end.

--JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.

(2487)

* * * * *

This metrical prayer is from the New York _Christian Advocate_:

Stay with me, Lord; the evening sun declineth,
And I am weary of this rugged way.
To find repose my fainting spirit pineth--
O Lord, be Thou my comfort and my stay!
Tremble my steps with age, my hair is gray,
And earth-born hopes allure me now no more.
But Thou, my Savior, cast me not away.
O lead me gently till, my journey o’er,
I reach my Father’s house, safe sheltered evermore.

Stay with me, Lord; even now to the dark valley
My step descendeth, and the chilling gloom
Is gathering o’er my pathway deep and dreary--
Dread shadows of the ay mysterious tomb.
Now may Thy lamp this fearful vale illume;
Its light alone these terrors can dispel.
Where Thou, my Lord, art guide, no ill can come.
Thou mighty Conqueror of death and hell,
To Thee I trust my soul and know that all is well.

(2488)

What may be round the next headland we know not; but this we
know, that the same sunshine will make a broadening path across
the waters right to where we rock on the unknown sea, and the
same unmoving mighty star will burn for our guidance. So we
may let the waves and currents roll as they list, or rather as
He wills, and be little concerned about the incidents or the
companions of our voyage, since He is with us.--ALEXANDER
MCLAREN.

(2489)

See PERSEVERANCE.

PRESENCE OF MIND

On New-year’s eve at one of the largest restaurants in New York,
a woman’s dress caught fire, and, altho surrounded by other
diners, the flame was not extinguished until she had received
burns from which she subsequently died.

It seems incredible, yet it is a fact. And while the woman
blazed, and shrieked in her agony, the men sought to extinguish
the flame with napkins and their hands!

As I journey through life in town or in the wilderness, the
quality I find most lacking in the human animal is presence of
mind; and that is one of the good reasons why I am so persistent
and outspoken an advocate of games for boys, especially games
where the action is quick and where the boy must needs think,
and quickly, under stress of combat, so to say.

Had there been any football players within reach of that poor
woman, one of them would probably have had the sense to take
off his coat and smother the flame.--CASPAR WHITNEY,
_Collier’s Weekly_.

(2490)

PRESENCES, UNRECOGNIZED

In a German art gallery is a famous canvas entitled “Cloudland.”
To a casual glance it looks like a daub of confused color
without form or beauty. But upon close examination it reveals a
mass of exquisite little cherub faces--an innumerable multitude
of angels. So Milton:

“Millions of spiritual creatures walk this earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.” (Text.)

(2491)

=Present Alone is Ours=--See TO-MORROW, UNCERTAINTY OF.

=Present, The=--See NIGHT, GOD’S PRESENCE IN THE; NOW, DO IT.

PRESERVATION

It was one of the coldest days of winter. Benny came home from
school, intending to brave the cold and go coasting till dark;
but, when he found mama had a sick headache, he said nothing
about coasting, but volunteered to amuse four-year-old Lulu
while mama lay down for a nap. That’s the kind of a boy Benny
was!

“Let’s blow soap-bubbles,” he said, taking Lulu into the
kitchen, where he made a cup of beautiful soap-suds. Each had a
pipe, and they blew bubbles for a long time. The sun shone in at
the window, making them all the colors of the rainbow.

“Oh, I wish I could keep ’em!” sighed Lulu. “They are so pretty!”

An idea came into Benny’s wise young head. He took a piece of
an old, soft, woolen blanket, and carrying it out into the
shed, spread it very smoothly on the floor in an out-of-the-way
corner. Then, going back into the kitchen, he said:

“Now, Lulu, I’m going out into the shed to work a few minutes.
It’s too cold for you out there, but, if my plans work well,
I’ll wrap you up warm and take you out to see what I have done.
You keep on blowing bubbles here.”

“All right,” said Lulu cheerfully.

Benny carried out part of the soap-suds, and as rapidly as
possible blew about a dozen bubbles, floating them on to the
soft blanket. The cold was so intense that they froze instantly
before they could burst; and there they stood, looking like so
many delicate glass balls.

When the blanket was well filled, Benny went in and, putting
on Lulu’s warm wraps, took her out to see the bubbles. How
surprized she was!

“Can’t I roll ’em round?” she asked.

“No indeed!” said Benny. “The least touch would break them all
to smash!”

When mama got up with her headache relieved, she had to go out
and see the bubbles, and so did papa when he came home.

The night was so cold, and the shed door and windows being
closed, so that there was no draught of air, the bubbles were
as good as ever in the morning. But before noon they began to
crack open and dry away, and, when Benny came home at night, the
weather was milder and each bright bubble had vanished, leaving
only a bit of soap-suds in its place.

This is a true story, and some sharp day this winter
you bright boys and girls can try the experiment for
yourselves.--MATTIE A. BAKER, _Youth’s Companion_.

(2492)

See RESUSCITATION.

PRESERVATION, A PROCESS OF

It is not hard to believe that the passage through death will be the occasion for a new blossoming of the flowers of character, after the analogy of the frozen flowers about which this account from _Harper’s Weekly_ is given:

The latest and most approved method of preserving flowers during
transportation is that of freezing them. When this process
is employed the flowers are picked while in the bud and will
keep perfectly for several weeks in refrigerator boxes. No
deterioration in their beauty results from this treatment, and
after they have been unpacked and placed in water they slowly
revive and the blossoms develop fully. During the period of
refrigeration all growth is suspended, and so slowly do the
flowers return to their natural state that such blossoms will
last much longer in a room than would be the case had they been
brought directly from the greenhouse or the garden.

The facility with which horticultural specimens have been
transported by this new method has led to experiments in South
Africa, with a view to determining whether many of their
wonderful flowers may not be safely exported in bulk to supply
the trade in Europe and America.

(2493)

=Preservatives=--See EVIL, PROTECTION FROM.

PRESS, OMNISCIENCE OF THE

I have been somewhat of a reader of the newspapers for forty
years; I could read very well when I was eight years of age.
It has given me forty years of observation of the press; and
there is one peculiarity that I have observed from reading
it, and that is, in all of the walks of life outside of the
press, people have entirely mistaken their profession, their
occupation. I never knew the mayor of a city, or even a
councilman in any city, any public officer, any government
official--I never knew a member of Congress, a Senator or a
President of the United States, who could not be enlightened in
his duties by the youngest member of the profession. I never
knew a general of the army to command a brigade, a division, a
corps of the army, who could begin to do it as well as men far
away in their sanctums.--U. S. GRANT.

(2494)

PRESS, PROSTITUTION OF THE

The Salt Lake _Herald_ abstracts from “The Press of the World”
some of the “rules of conduct” which Benjamin Franklin followed
in his first journalistic venture. “They are so perfectly
applicable to present-day newspapers,” it says, “that they
are worth preserving and emphasizing.” He had just begun the
publication of his _Pennsylvania Gazette_ when an article was
submitted to him that did not meet his views of propriety. With
his customary deliberation he did not at once reject it, but
told the writer he would sleep over it and give his decision the
next day. This is how he applied his rules to the subject:

“I have perused your piece,” he wrote, “and find it to be
scurrilous and defamatory. To determine whether I should publish
it or not, I went home in the evening, purchased a two-penny
loaf at the baker’s, and, with water from the pump, made my
supper; I then wrapt myself up in my great coat, and laid down
on the floor and slept till morning, when, on another loaf and
a mug of water, I made my breakfast. From this regimen I feel
no inconvenience whatever. Finding I can live in this manner, I
have formed the determination never to prostitute my press to
corruption and abuse of this kind for the sake of gaining a more
comfortable subsistence.”

(2495)

=Press, Using the=--See NEWSPAPERS AND MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

PRETENSE

About the time when it was fashionable in France to cut off
men’s heads, as we lop away superfluous sprouts from our
apple-trees, the public attention was excited by a certain
monkey that had been taught to act the part of a patriot to
great perfection. If you pointed at him, says the historian,
and called him an aristocrat or a monarchist, he would fly at
you with great rage and violence; but, if you would do him
the justice to call him a good patriot, he manifested every
mark and joy of satisfaction. But, tho the whole French nation
gazed at this animal as a miracle, he was, after all, no very
strange sight. There are, in all countries, a great many monkeys
who wish to be thought patriots, and a great many others
who believe them such. But, because we are often deceived by
appearances, let us not believe that the reality does not
exist.--DANIEL WEBSTER.

(2496)

* * * * *

At a recent horse-race one of the horses attracted a great deal
of attention before the start by his remarkable appearance, and
many spectators thought he would surely win. He was so full of
life, and so eager to begin the race, that he broke through the
barrier and ran several hundred feet before the jockey could
stop him. The animal was full of confidence and life, but he
finished fifteenth in a race of sixteen.

This horse furnished a pretty good illustration of the human
bluffer, the man who struts and brags, who makes great
pretensions, lots of noise, but never gets anywhere. The silent,
unpretentious man, who keeps pegging away, distances him in the
great life race.--_Success Magazine._

(2497)

See ENVY GRATIFIED.

PRETENSE OF VIRTUE

It is a cynical saying that “every man has his price,” but it is difficult at times to judge what any man might do under stress of unusual circumstances. An illustration of this point is the following:

A Scots business representative called upon a firm whose
principal desired to make him a Christmas present. The honest
fellow was scandalized. He could not dream of accepting
presents. If such a thing were in the minds of the firm, let
them transfer their favor in the shape of discount to the house
which he represented. They did not mean anything of the sort,
they told him; this was a little matter personal to himself.
He threw back his shoulders; he was not to be bribed. “Oh, but
this is no bribe,” he was answered; “all we propose to do is to
offer you a nice box of cigars, for which you shall give us,
say, sixpence.” The choler of the virtuous one died away. He put
his hand into his pocket and drew forth a coin. “I’m to take a
box and give you sixpence? Well, I havena’ a sixpence. Here’s a
shillin’; I’ll tak’ twa boxes!”

(2498)

PRETENSE, SELFISH

An English writer thus speaks of an indiscreet adventure of a costermonger and an electric eel:

Before this gymnotus was publicly exhibited it was deposited
at a French hotel in the neighborhood of Leicester Square. A
burly fishmonger’s man, named Wren, brought in the daily supply
of fish to the establishment, when some of the servants told
him they had an eel so large that he would be afraid to pick it
up. He laughed at the idea of being afraid of an eel, and when
taken to the tub boldly plunged in both hands to seize the fish.
A hideous roar followed this attempt. Wren had experienced a
demonstration of the “psychic force” of the electrical eel, and
his terror so largely exaggerated the actual violence of the
shock, that he believed for the remainder of his life that he
was permanently injured by it. He had periodical spasms across
the chest, which could only be removed by taking a half-quarter
of gin. As he was continually narrating his adventure to
public-house audiences, and always had a spasm on concluding,
which his hearers usually contributed to relieve, the poor
fellow’s life was actually shortened by the shock from the
gymnotus.

The man’s recurring pains usually made their appearance at places and times when thirst could be quenched. Many bodily ills are simulated or imaginary.

(2499)

PREVENTION

John S. Wise records this conversation with Grover Cleveland:

“I ought to have a monument over me when I die.” “I am sure
of that, Mr. Cleveland,” I answered; “but for what particular
service?” “Oh, not for anything I have ever done,” said he,
“but for the foolishness I have put a stop to! If you knew the
absurd things proposed to me at various times while I have
been in public life--things which I sat down on, and sat down
hard on--you would say so, too!”--“Personal Reminiscences of
Cleveland,” _The Saturday Evening Post_.

(2500)

* * * * *

In morals, quite as truly as in physics, the profitable time to deal with any evil is in its incipient stage:

The diseases that occupy the physician most are maladies that
have reached an advanced stage, when it is not easy to combat
them. On the other hand, the study of diseases at their
outset, when they yield best to treatment, is almost neglected.
It is certain that if every physician were also a trained
physiologist, watching to relieve the slightest functional
troubles, he would often be able to recognize small changes
that are the common preludes to grave maladies.--_Revue
Scientifique._

(2501)

See FEAR AS A MOTIVE; WARNING.

PREVISION

Otto Meyer and his wife, Mary, solved the difficulties attending
the high cost of living as far as they are concerned. They
have lived for years on a thirty-acre farm near the village
of Riverside, Cook County. By a deed filed in the Recorder’s
office, Meyer, for a consideration of $6,000 in cash, conveyed
to his son, Fritz H. Meyer, the farm. But in return for this,
the elder Meyer is to be furnished with all the necessities of
life, including a house, regardless of the market price, as long
as he or his wife lives.

A part of this unique deed reads as follows:

“The grantee is to provide a sufficient supply of fruit, a
sufficient supply of vegetables of all kinds, to be delivered
on demand; one drest hog of 200 pounds weight, one fore-quarter
of fresh beef, to be delivered on December 15 in each year;
one-half dozen fat ducks, one-half dozen fat roosters, drest, to
be delivered November 1 of each year, and three barrels of best
quality of wheat flour, to be delivered, one barrel each time on
January 1, May 1, and September 1 of each year; twenty bushels
of good eatable potatoes, to be delivered on demand; two pounds
of fresh butter each week, one dozen fresh eggs each week, one
quart of fresh milk each day, except Saturday; one half-gallon
of fresh milk and $40 in cash, $20 on March 1 and $20 on July 1
in each year.”

(2502)

=Price as a Test=--See GOLD, TAINT OF.

PRICES AND WAGES

The welfare of wage-earners is intimately affected by the
relation between the rate of wages and the prices of necessary
commodities that wage-earners have to buy. The diagram below
from _The Literary Digest_, gives the comparison of wages
and prices for a term of recent years.

(2503)

=Prices, Extravagant=--See EXTRAVAGANCE, MODERN.

PRIDE

E. H. Harriman, the railroad magnate, has a big country place
in Virginia--a hunting-box, he calls it, but it is more like a
hunting Waldorf-Astoria. One morning Mr. Harriman arose early
and was sitting on one of the porches.

A milkman drove up and got out to bring in some milk. The
milkman started in the front door.

“Here, you,” snapped Harriman. “Take that milk around the back
way. What do you mean by bringing it in this way?”

“Mean?” said the milkman. “I mean that I am a Virginia
gentleman, and I am not accustomed to be talked to in this
manner, suh. I shall deliver this milk where I please, suh. If
you do not like it you have a means of obtaining satisfaction,
suh. No No’therner like you can talk to me like that, suh.”

Harriman retired. Next morning, when the same milkman arrived,
Harriman greeted him with a low bow. “You are right,” he said.
“Take the milk in the front way and leave it on the piano.”
(Text.)

(2504)

* * * * *

Recently I read the experience of a yachting party on the
Mediterranean. A sudden storm had come up and threatened to
overwhelm the boat. One of the two women on board lost her head
completely and seemed crazed by fear. Suddenly she cried out to
the other woman sitting calmly beside her: “You know you are as
frightened as I am. Why don’t you show it, too?” “Oh, yes, I am
frightened,” replied the other woman, “for I know the danger we
are in. But, if we are going to die, do let us at least die like
ladies.” And that appeal to pride wrought a complete change in
the frightened woman, she became calm and even spoke words of
encouragement to the others.--M. O. SIMMONS.

(2505)

* * * * *

There was once a proud little Icicle who stood all alone out
in the cold. She wore a dress that sparkled like diamonds, but
for all that, no one cared to go near her. The snowflakes were
having a game of tag in the sky. Nearer and nearer the earth
they played until some of them espied Miss Icicle.

“Do come and play with us!” they cried.

But the proud Icicle shook her head. “No,” she said, “you are
entirely too common to play with me; I am a princess.”

“I’ll show the world what you are, you silly thing,” called
Grandfather Sun from his cloud chariot. So he sent some of his
children, the Sunbeams, to breathe on Miss Icicle’s head. This
made her feel so sick that she wept great tears. The more she
wept the thinner she grew, till at last a tiny pool of water was
all that was left. (Text.)

(2506)

* * * * *

A gourd wound itself around a lofty palm, and in a few weeks
climbed to its very top. “How old mayest thou be?” asked the
gourd. “About a hundred years,” was the reply. “A hundred years
and no taller! Only look, I have grown as tall as you in less
than a hundred days,” said the puffed-up gourd. The stately
palm calmly replied: “I know that well. Every summer of my life
a gourd has climbed up my body and spread over my branches, as
proud as thou art, and as short-lived as thou shalt be.”

(2507)

See VANITY.

PRIDE IN ONE’S TASK

The following is told of John F. Stevens, who was appointed by President Roosevelt to take charge of the Panama Canal:

Sometime in the seventies, and somewhere in Arizona, both the
time and place where the Apaches were very seriously on the
warpath, it became necessary to send a message across a hundred
or two miles of desert. There was offered a reward of five
hundred dollars to the man who would carry it. The peril was
undeniable and nobody seemed to consider the reward worth the
probable cost of it. But presently John Stevens undertook to
deliver the message. He eluded the Apaches and made the journey
successfully on foot, but declined the five hundred dollars. The
thing had been there to do; he preferred to do it for its own
sake. (Text.)--_American Magazine._

(2508)

=Primitive Organisms=--See CHOICE IN PRIMITIVE ORGANISMS.

PRINCIPLE

One Sunday morning in Genoa a woman whom British people love
stood by the dying bed of a man whose memory the world reveres.
Josephine Butler stood by the bedside of Garibaldi, the old
hero’s gaunt figure still clothed with the scarlet tunic which
recalled the day when ten thousand “Garibaldis” swept on to
victory and liberty with his name upon their lips. And the dying
man said to the living woman:

“Never forget that tho we pass away and the leaders of a
cause fall one by one, principles never pass away. They are
world-wide, unchangeable and eternal.”--CHARLES F. AKED.

(2509)

* * * * *

The Rev. W. F. Crafts tells this story of a clerk who stood by his principles:

Stephen Girard, the infidel millionaire of Philadelphia, one
Saturday bade his clerks come the following day and unload a
vessel which had just arrived. One of the clerks, who had strong
convictions and the power to act upon them, refused to comply
with the demand. “Well, sir,” said Mr. Girard, “if you can
not do as I wish, we can separate.” “I know that, sir,” said
the hero; “I also know that I have a widowed mother to care
for, but I can not work on Sunday.” “Very well, sir,” said the
proprietor, “go to the cashier’s desk, and he will settle with
you.” For three weeks the young man tramped the streets of
Philadelphia, looking for work. One day a bank president asked
Mr. Girard to name a suitable person for cashier for a new bank
about to be started. After reflection, Mr. Girard named this
young man. “But I thought you discharged him?” “I did,” was the
answer, “because he would not work on Sunday, and the man who
will lose his situation from principle is the man to whom you
can intrust your money.” (Text.)

(2510)

See FEELING AND PRINCIPLE.

PRINCIPLES, MASTERING

Learning must be transformed into life. One would not expect to
find the yeast if he made a cross-section of a loaf of bread.
A cow eats grass all day, but we do not expect the cow to give
grass. She is expected to give milk. A boy may study arithmetic
and learn to do a few examples correctly. He can tell if each
shoe is to have five nails, how many it will take to shoe a
horse. But suppose the horse’s shoes needed six nails? He is
baffled because he has found a case which was not met by his
example; but when he masters the principle of which his sum is
but an illustration, he can address himself to the problems of
life as they come.--EVERETT D. BURR, “Proceedings of
the Religious Education Association,” 1905.

(2511)

PRISON LIFE, EASY

French prisons, it is said, are such pleasant places of
confinement that at the approach of every winter they are
besieged by requests from vagrants for shelter.

Fresnes is notorious for its “hospitality,” and so agreeable is
a sojourn there that many criminals, at the approach of winter,
regularly arrange to get locked up until it is time to come out
into the balmy air of springtime and the genial sunshine.

A short time since, the story goes, a new prison in France was
opened to receive its first prisoner, sentenced to six months’
detention. The new establishment had cost nearly $20,000 to
build and equip, but unfortunately the prison budget made no
allowance for the warders and their “guests.”

The governor finally solved the dilemma by deciding that a
policeman, who was married, should take up his quarters in
the prison and serve the prisoner with his meals. But after
a few days the policeman got tired of this. The profit made
on the arrangement was very small, and in a confidential tone
he confided to the prisoner that, if he cared to take “French
leave,” he would see that every facility was given him to do so.
But his charge quickly reassured him on the point.

“I’m all right here,” he said. “Your wife is an excellent cook.
You are all very kind to me. This is a nice, new prison. I
haven’t been so well off for a long time. You don’t catch me
running away. What’s more, if you discharge me, I’ll jolly soon
be back.”

Then the chief warder tried to persuade the prisoner that he
would be well advised to make himself scarce. But he might as
well have saved himself the trouble, for he met with no more
success than the policeman. All the doors and windows of the
prison were left wide open. He was given permission, he was even
asked to go for a walk, in the hope that he would disappear
for good. He thanked his jailers, and several times went for a
stroll around the neighborhood.

But he always returned again in time for his meals. One night
recently, however, he met an old friend when he was out, and
after a glass or two of wine they found so many things to
talk about that it was three o’clock in the morning when the
“prisoner” returned to his lodgings. But altho he hung on to the
bell and rung for all he was worth, no one came to the prison
gate. At last the policeman opened a window and shouted angrily:

“If you don’t begone, I’ll fire on you.”

The lodger took the hint, but at six o’clock he was back
again, and his guardian had to comply with his request to be
admitted to his cell. How the affair will end no one knows,
but it is said that the Sous-Préfet is seriously thinking of
offering the “prisoner” a louis to go elsewhere for his food and
lodging.--Baltimore _Sun_.

(2512)

PRISON LITERATURE

Dumas is of all authors the favorite at Sing Sing, and 1,413
volumes of his work were read by convicts in the course of
the year. This shows good literary taste. Other authors, as
represented by the number of their books read, ranked as
follows: Charles Reade, 720; Collins, 649; Corelli, 596; Doyle,
584; Dickens, 567; Haggard, 481; Crawford, 415, and Henty, 402.

After fiction came biography, of which 1,227 volumes were read;
history followed with 953 volumes; religion with 792, and poetry
with 205. Of books in foreign languages, German led with 1,686
volumes, Hebrew was next with 1,259; Italian third, with 1,067,
and French last, with 545.