The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1881-01-26
For THR RECORD.
THE OLD SQUARE ALMANAC.

was not the type of greatness which our age
cares to encourage.
The first is Simon StyIites, the chief and
leader of the band of "Pillar Saints" curl
Gus designation, that needs to be explained.
Simon otherwise called Simeon) conceived
the strange idea of escaping the adulation
and annoyances of admiring crowds, when
his saintli ness-that is, his asceticism-had
made him famous, by rising a6oOe the throng-
ing populace, in literal and mechanical
sense 1t was not enough that he retired to
the desert, or climbed the mountain /; for the
greater the wilderness, the greater the attrac-
ton to the saint-admirers of those days. In
A. D. 423 he fixed his residence Upon the top
of pillar, nine feet high, and increased its
height, by degrees, until IL reached an eleva-
ton of sixty feet from the gronnd Upon its
top, one yard in diameter, and surrounded by
railing. he continued to live more than
thirty years, until his death, A. d. 459.
Scanty and coarse was his food, which he
drew up by cord his clothing was of the
Unframed skins of beasts nnweariedly he
preached from his lofty pulpit to the multi
tudes whom the fame of his sanctity drew to
his pillar; and on it he performed his extra
ordinary genufexions.
We may smile at his oddly, and doubt the
wisdom of his course but his earnestness
and sincerity we cannot doubt. Those who
are disposed to survey the pillar saint through
eye glasses of modern thought, may read the
poem of Tennyson-satirical and sly, yet sad
that makes Simeon tell his own story in
soiloquy and Confession" Although | be
the basest of mankind" &c.
Aud the other man of this day Is Edoard
the Confossor, the last of the Anglo Saxon
Kings, who died January s, 1865, few days
after he had completed the building of West
minister Abbey. Few monuments in the Alb
hey touch SO deep chord of reverential feel
ing as the Confessor's Tomb and his " massy
iron bound oaken coffin" The coronation
insignia, which he bequeathed to the Abbey
Treasury, have been used at the coronation of
nearly all the sovereigns of England for more
than eight centuries We think his piety of
a healthier type than the other's-more prac-
tical, at least, and more enduring in its
results.
This month can supply MS with an unusual
number of Confessors Il o., men and women
who performed great deeds, or endured great
sufferings, short of actual death martyrdom,
for religion and the Church,. 1t counts, Also
several celebrated martyrs, the most noted of
whom are st. Chrysostom, st. Agnes, ST.
Polycarp, and, above all, St. Paul, whose
/" wonderful conversion " has always been
had in remembrance, especially in England
and the West, he being the great Apostle to
the Genties, January % is his commemora-
tion day.
But we will glance at men and deeds CON-
-paratively sInaslarn.-..a.-.--.-----.-
Ianno.y q, 1908, was born our American
Philosopher and Statesman, Benjamin Frank
lin of whose practical wisdom time will be
taken here to notice only ono particular--his
temperance, in the midst OF strong solicita-
tions to the contrary. He gives the following
anecdote of his practice when working in
water the other workmen, near fifty in num-
Der, were great drinkers of beer. On one oc-
cason carried up and down stairs a large
form of types in each hand, when others car
ried but one In both hands. They wondered
to see that the Water american, as they call
ed me, was stronger than themselves, who
drank strong beer. We had an ale house boy,
who always attended in the house to supply
the workmen. My companion at the press
drank every day pint before breakfast, a
pint at breakfast, with his bread aud cheese,
pint between breakfast and dinner, pint
at dinner, pint in the afternoon about six
o'clock, and another when he had done with
his days work. / thought it detestable
custom but it was necessary, he supposed,
to drink strong beer that he might be strong
to labor. endeavored to convince him that
the bodily strength afforded by beer could
only be In proportion to the grain or flour of
the barley dissolved in the water of which it
was made that there was more -four in
penny worth of bread; and therefore, if he
could eat that with pint of water, 1t would
give him more strength than quart of beer.
He drank on, however, and had four or five
shillings to pay out of his wages every Satur-
day night for that vile liquor, an expense |
was free from. And thus these poor devils
kept themselves always under"
January 10, 1s40 the Penny Postage idea
of Sir Rowland Hill first went into effect.
Previous to that date letter paid twenty. five
cents from London to Edinburgh for each
and every piece of paper that it contained
We we'll remember when the rates were near
ly the same in our own country. Our readers
have at hand ample materials to make com
parson between that day aud this, in the
matter of postage and still, each year, the
facilities for worldwide intercourse are in
creasing, and the ends of the earth we'll nigh
touch
January 16 introduces us to Edmund Spen-
ser and Edward Gibbon; 90, to Lord Bacon
and Lord Byron 2S, to those far-away old
monarchs Charlemagne and Henry VIII,
and that rare Russian Yankee, Peter the
Great. Think of him, q willing exile from
q -. a.