The Brookhaven leader., 1891-02-19

pare the way for the honey bee. He
teaches the ant to bite each grain of
corn that she puts in the ground for
winter food in order that it may tho
take root and so ruin the little granary
He teaches the raven in dry weather to
throw pebbles into hollow tree that
the water far down and out of reach
may come up within the reach of the
bids beak.
In March, 1883, the snow stopped
America. It said to Brooklyn: "Stay
home" to New York: "Stay homer
to Philadelphia: "Stay homer to Wash
ington: 'Stay home!' to Richmond:
"Stay homer 1t put into a white
-sepulchre most of this Nation. Com
merce, whose wheels never stopped be-
fore, stopped then. What was the mat
ter? Power of accumulated snow
flakes; on the top of the Apennines one
flake falls, and others fall, and they
pile up, and they make a mountain Of
fleece on the top of a mountain of rock,
until one day gust of wind, or even
the voice of a mountaineer, sets the
frozen vapors into action and by
awful descent they sweep every
thing in their course-trecs, rocks,
villages-as when, in 1927, the town
of Briel, in Valois, was buried, and in
1924, in Switzerland, three hundred sol
diers were entombed. These avalanches
were made up of single snowflakes.
What tragedies of the snow have been
witnessed by the monks of st. Bernard,
who for ages have with the dogs been
busy in extricating bewildered and over
whelmed travellers in Alpine storms,
the dogs with blanket fastened to their
backs and TASKS of spirits fastened to
their neck, to resuscitate the helpless
travellers. One of these dogs was deco
rated with medal for having saved the
lives of twenty-five persons, and the
brave beast was himself slain of the
snow on that day, when accompanying
a Piedmontese courier on the way to
his anxious household down the
mountain, the wife and children of
the Pledmontese courier coming up the
mountain in search of him, an ava
lanch covered all under pyramids high
er than those under which the Egyp-
tian monarchs sleep their sleep of the
ages. What an illustration of the
tragedies of the snow is found in that
scene between Glencoe and Glencreran
one February, in Scotland, where Ron
aid Cameron comes forth to bring to
his fathers house his cousin Flora Mac
Donald, for the celebration of birth
day, and the calm day turns into hur-
ricane of white fury that leaves Ronald
and Flora as dead, to be resuscitated by
the shepherds. What an exciting strug-
gle had Bayard Taylor among the win
terry Apprentices.
In the winter of 1912, by similar
force, the destiny of Europe was de-
cided. The French army marched up
to ward Moscow five hundred thousand
men. What can resist them? Not bay
onets, but the dumb elements over
whelm that host Napoleon retreats
from Muscow with about two hundred
thousand men, a mighty nucleus for an
other campaign after he gets back to
Paris. The morning of October 10,
when they start for home, is bright
and beautiful. The air is tonic, and,
although this Russian campaign has
been failure, Napoleon will try again
in some other direction with his host of
brave surviving Frenchmcn. But cloud
comes on the sky, and the air gets chill,
and one of the soldiers feels on his
cheek a snowflake, and then there
is multiplication of these wintry
messages, and soon the plumes of
the officers are decked with another
style of plume, and then all the skies
let loose upon the warriors hurricane
of snow and the march becomes diff
cult and the horses find it hard to pull
the supply train, and the men begin to
fall under the fatigue. and many not
able to take another step lie down in
the drifts never to rise, and the cavalry
horses stumple and fall, and one thou
sand of the army fall, and ten thousand
perish, and twenty thousand go down,
and fifty thousand, and hundred thou
sand, and hundred and twenty thou
sand and a hundred and thirty-two
thousand die, and the victor of jena
and bridge of Lodi, and Eylau, and
Austerlitz where three great armies.
commanded by three Emperors,
surrendered to him, now himself
surrenders to the snOwfiakes. Histo-
rians do not seem to recognize that the
tide in that mans life turned from De-
cember 16, 1909, when he banished by
hideous divorce his wife Josephine from
the palace, and so challenged the AL
mighty, and the Lord charged upon
him from the fortresses of the sky with
ammunition of crystal. Showed un-
der! Billions. trillions, quadrillions,
uuintillions of flakes did the work.
And what suggestion of accumulative
mower. and what a rebuke to all of us
who get discouraged because we can
not do much, and therefore do nothing!
.sOh." SAYS some one, 81 would like
to stop the forces of sin and crime that
are marching for the conquest OF the
nations, but / am hobody-I have
neither wealth nor eloquence nor social
power. What can do?" My brother,
how much do you weigh? As much as
a snowfiakeP "Oh, yes" Then do your
share, 1t is an aggregation OF small IN
fiuences that will yet put this lost world
hack into the bosom of pardon1ng
God. Alas! that there are so many men
and women who will not use the
one talent because they have not
ten. and will not give a penny
because they can not give dollar,
and will not speak as well as they
can because they.are not eloquent, and