The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-25

natural to the one was ineXplicable to the
other. The SchoolmistresS was inclined
question the truth of the foregoing incidents
when I told them to her as we walked down
from the church. She had always been an
attendant of handshaking church and she
thought that all other churches were also of
the same category.
Both are substantially true and 1 stand
ready to produce all of the interested par
ties in any court of common decency that
may be convened to investigate this matter
| do not know whether Rev. DIR. Merrill In
| the course of his ministry has run across
men like the one whom 1 knew. or whether
he made his statement on the broad plat
| form of theory simply; but if he wants any
] examples Of most anl-Christian like church
work for elaboration at future conferences
can furnish him with several. | have in
| mind a church where such things are of-not
| daily perhaps, but of weekly occurrence
OF course do not presume to take upon
myself the task Of rsgalLattiaRg tthhs-eendaetef
the chuTo hes. nor of the church members
except in small way now and then, but it
| does seem to me that the theory upon
| which which the Salvation Army
| goes to work is more in accordance with the
bend of civilization than that employed by
the churches. AS l understand it the
churches get up nice meeting place. They
secure the services Of sweet singers. They
| engage the most attractive speakers that the
state of their funds will allow. They open
their doors and ring their bells, and wait for
| people to come. The Salvation Army on the
| other hand starts out with flourish of
trumpets to go to the people and to attract
them to its meeting. Mahomet may not have
been such profound reasoner as he is some
times credited with being but he said one
thing that contained vigorous germ of
thought, solid 'chunk Of wisdom" as it
were. 1t was "If the mountain will not
come to me then will go to the mountain"
The substance of this paragraph of course
was brought out in conversation with the
Schoolm stress and cannot all be claimed as
original with me but as the Schoolmistress
will not probably give it to the public take
the liberty of doing it.
| saw the other day well dressed man
standing on certain street corner engaged
in the laudable occupation of breaking up
| the ice on the sidewalk with his foot, but ap-
parently doug 1t as pastime merely. Soon
| the man for whom he was waiting came
| along and the two went down the street to-
| gether. This second man was a letter-car-
| rier and as the two walked along l saw him
| go IN at about every other house and leave
letter or paper while his companion guard
ed another bundle at the foot of the steps. 1t
stypek. me that's trom the discomfort6f
having to be responsible to the government
for the sacks of letters and papers which the
carrier entrusted to his care, the necessarily
fragmentary nature of the conversation to be
enjoyed while actually en- route between stop
ping places. would take away all enjoyment
from the journey. should think that as
much might be learned from the carrier as
can be seen of the oil cups or the ss-head
bolts on an engine as they flash back and
forth when the engine is in motion.
AS the sleighing which seemed to be
doomed few days ago seems to have taken
new lease of life it may not be out of order
to give to the public a letter which re-
ceiyed the other day:
Dear Mr.. Silvester:-Can you not in your
capacity of regulator of the public, do some
thing about suppressing nuisance that be-
gins as soon as the teams get on runners in
the winter and lasts until they go back to
wheels again in the spring? mean this
senseless and dangerous habit that the chill
jren have of knocking" rides on teams.
say senseless because it seems to me that
they 90 not seem to care whether man
they go and If the driver who
knows about what his horses can stand, or
ders them off. they go off when they 60 at
all thinking what mean man he is, when
perhaps he had just as leave let them ride as
not II he was not loaded. l say children,
because 1t is not only boys who do this In
TACT the girls are more unreasonable and
less ready to get off when they are told to
than the boys ara. They seem to think that
because they are girls they should be hauled
all over town by men who have only little
time to do their work, and are heavily load
ed into the bargain. Transfer
My friend. the Schoolmistress, was speak
ing of this very thing at the table on the day
| when the letter came. She said that when
her school was dismissed at night the chill
dren all made bee line for the first team
that came along, and sometimes ten or more
would pile on at the same time. Sometimes
the driver seemed to be glad to have them
come. but generally, she said, he didn't.
confess, personally. to have been guilty of
this offence In my younger days, and can
therefore speak as one having authority,
when say that it is not only source of an
noyance to Transfers on the score Of over
loading the teams, but 1t is source OF wor-
riment to many Of them on account of the
risks that the children run, and for which,
In the event of an accident, the driver would
have to settle, even though the children
were not on by request, and even against his
wish, in fact. The Major tells me that
| teamster was recently fined for making mo-
lions at boy with his whip to frighten him
Off after he had asked him to get off several
times without any result.
am well aware that some men are grouti-
er by nature than others. and that such men
might, Tor the mere love of it order children
10 get Gil their teams after they had run
long distance to catch them. But the gener-
al run Oh teamsters are jolly men, who are
rather willing than not TO give a child lift
they can without Mountaineering them
selves or delaying business, and when. there
fore, driver asks a child or grown person
to get off his team, the person so asked
should make haste to comply, because the
chances are that the driver knows more of
what he says than the would-be passenger
| does.
attended lecture the other night where
the seats were all free; that is, the audience
| after passing the ticket-takers at the doors,
was free to sit wherever it chose. The
| choices of some of them. and the way they
chose, afforded food for reflection. l noticed
that it generally took a couple, composed of
man and his wife, much longer to reach
satisfactory sitting place than it did for two
women or two men to find their seats. 1t
was not that they openly disagreed before
the assembled multitude, but they had
way oil stopping before a seat and cycling
each other, and changing from one foot to
'ne other' That was exasperating. This was
especially tantalizing when the hesitatlng
people stood directly by my seat. and
thought eyed the four empty seats bevond
me with enVious eyes. 1t NAV he a desira-
bic trait of mind for a Judge to have tbis
habit of carefully surveying the whole field
before rendering a decision; but it is. IL
seems to me, undesirable for the AVERAGE