National Republican., 1883-09-04
THE REMOVAL OF THE SIGNS.
Dream OF nm Avenue Merchant, and Cer-
tain Apt biblical Quotations.

Dream OF nm Avenue Merchant, and Cer-
tain Apt Biblical Quotations.
"Don't YOU know" said an old well known
merchant on Pennsylvania avenue yesterday,
81 had the most peculiar dream last night
was out to q camp meeting yesterday, and
being little dyspeptic when l returned
home swallowed three or four very stiff cock :
tails before going to bed, and no sooner had
my head touched the pillow than began to
dream of Biblical readings and OF business
troubles, and of the Inconvenience to which
we merchants have been subjected during
the last several years by the continual
changes in local rulers. My dream
went back to the beginning of a
period about a year ago, when the
board of district commissioners was
completely changed. / thought that l
was living in that past, and that the future
was revealed to me as set forth in chapter ix,
verse b. Revelations viz; And beheld and
heard an angel flying through the midst of
Heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe,
woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason
of the other voices of the trumpets of the
three angels which are yet to sound Ac-
cordng to my construction, the inhabiters
of tho earth meant the business men OF the
district, and the trumpets of the three an
gels meant the voices of the three recon-
structod commissioners. Then | saw another
angel who said to me as set forth in Revela-
tions xvii, II: And the merchants of the
earth shall weep and mourn over her;
for no man buyeth their merchandise
any more. This struck me as very singular,
Tor it seemed to have direct bearing on the
recently inauguratcd movement on the part
of the commissioners to haul down our signs
and remove our sign boards erected around
gas lamps and tree boxes at quite consider
able expense. These signs are simply pla-
cards of the progress of trade. They are
put forward as evidence of our business
thrift SCertainly theyho not mar the symme-
try or the beauty of the streets, and do no
harm to the lamp posts or trees Why don't
you know Mr.. Reporter that the scriptures
advocate the showing of signs? Why, tho
sixteenth chapter of ST. Mathew VIII show
you in its description of the parable of the
loaves and fishes that the pharisees and the
saducees invoked the Saviour to show them
q sign. His answer to them is set forth as
follows in verses two and three, Mathew six
teenth:
"'He answered and said to them, When it is
evening, yo say it will he fair weather. for
tho sky is red and in the morning, it will
be foul weather to-day for the sky is red and
lowering. Oh, yo hypocrites, ye can discern
the face of the sky, but can ye not discern
the signs Of the times?
"Now, that is just what the merchants will
say if this new order of the commissioners is
to be enforced
"The Bible further teaches us that genera
ton after generation seeketh after a sign.
Luke Xxi verse %, also adds:
"'And there shall be signs in the sun and in
the moon, and in the stars Now, don't you
think the new order is arbitrary ?'
The reporter spaketh not in reply. He
musod among his own individual self as to
who was the best master to serve. The COM
mssioners were severe in some things, he
knew, and he also knew that the merchants
did not alway fulfill what their signs prom
ised so he thumped his memory and recalled
the following Biblical quotation, Luke xxi,
verse 46, as apropos to the occasion: Beware
of the scribes, which desire to walk in long
robes, and love greetings in the markets, and
the highest seats in the synagogue, and the
chief rooms at feasts."