Milford chronicle., 1891-02-13

3 NOlu Iuc leulpeALsl Out beuot4 the
fowlsP' and it applauds a cup Of cold
water and the widows two mites, and says
the hairs Of your head are all numbered.
Do not fear, therefore, that you are going
to be lost in the crowd. Do not think that
because you estimate yourself as only one
snowflake among a three days January
snow storm that you Will be forgotten.
The birth and death Of a drop Of chilled
vapor is as certainly regarded by the Lord
as the creation and demolition of a planet.
Nothing Is big to God and nothing is
small
What makes the honey industries Of
South Carolina such a source Of live
, lihood and wealth. It Is because God
teaches the ladybug to make an opening
in the rind Of The apricot for the bee, who
cannot otherwise get at the juices Of the
fruit. So God sends the ladybug ahead to
prepare the way for the honey bee. He
teaches the ant to bite each grain Of corn
I that she puts in the ground for winter
food in order that it may not take root
and so ruin the little granary. He teaches
the raven in dry weather to throw pebbles
into a hollow tree, that the water far down
and out of reach may come up within the
reach Of the birds beak. What a comfort
that he is a God in littlesi The emperor Of
all the Russias in olden time was looking
at a map that spread before him his vast
dominions, and he could not find Great
1 Britain on the map, and he called in his
secretary and said, ''Where is Great Britain,
4 that hear 80 much about2' 1T is under
your thumb, said the secretary; and the
/ emperor raised his hand from the map and
saw the country he was looking for.
THE INFINITE REALM OF GOD.
And it is high time that we find this
/ mighty realm of God close by and under
our own little finger. To drop you out Of
I his memory would be to resign his Omnis-
cience. To refuse you his protection would
/ be to abdicate his omnipOtenee. When
/ you tell me that he is the God Of Jupiter,
and the God of Mercury, and the God Of
/ Saturn, you tell me something so vast that
/ cannot comprehend it. But if you tell
/ me he is the God of the snowflake, you tell
] me something can hold and measure and
/ realize Thus the smallest snowflake con-
tains a Jewel case Of comfort. Here is an
opal. an amethyst, a diamond. Here is
/ one of the treasures of the snow Take it
/ for your present and everlasting comfort.
Behold, also, in the snow the treasure Of
: accumulated power. During a snow storm
I let an apOthecary, accustomed to weigh
most delicate quantities, hold his weighing
scales out of the window and let one flake
fall on the surface of the scales, and it will
not even make it tremble. When you
want to express extreme triviality Of
weight you say, Light as a feather" but
a snowflake is much lighter. 1t is just
twenty-four times lighter than water. And
vet the accumulation Of these flakes broke
down, a few days ago, in sight Of my house,
six telegraph poles, made helpless police
and ha1faH pnfI trains
with two laundering locomotives.
We have already learned so much OF the
power Of electricity that we have become
I careful how we touch the electric wire,
and in many a case touch has been death.
But few days ago the snow put its hand
( on most of these wires, and tore them down
( as though they were cObwebs. The snow
said; "You seem afraid of the thunderbolt;
/ I will catch it and hurl it to the ground.
/ Your boasted electric lights adjoining your
( cities with bubbles of fire, l will put out as
easily as your ancestors snuffed out tai
! low candle" The snow put its finger on
/ the lip Of our cities that were talking with
each other and they went into silence, ut
1 terinR not a word. The snow mightier
than the lightning
In March, 1888, the snow stopped Amer
/ lea. It said to Brooklyn, Stay homeW to
/ New York, "Stay homer to Philadelphia,
''Stay homer to Washington, Stay
homer to Richmond. "Stay homer It
/ put into a white sepulcher most Of this
nation. Commerce, whose wheels never
( stopped before, stopped then. What was
the matter? 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 beece
on the top of a mountain of rock, until
one day a gust of wind. or even the voice
Of a mountaineer, sets the frozen vapors
/ into action, and by awful descent they
sweep everything in their course-trees,
rocks. villages-as when in 1897 the town
of Briel, in Valais, was buried, and in 1924,
in Switzerland, three hundred soldiers
were entombed. These avalanches were
made up Of single snowfakes.
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 overwhelmed
travellers in Alpine storms, the dogs with
( blankets fastened to their backs and TASKS
Of spirits fastened to their necks to resus-
citate helpless travellers, one of these dogs
decorated with a medal for having saved
the lives Of twenty-five persons, the brave
( beast himself slain Of the snow on that day
when accompanying Piedmontese courier
on the way to his anxious household down
I the mountain, the wife and children Of the
/ Piedmontese courier coming up the mount
ain in search of him, an avalanche covered
all under pyramids higher than those I'M
der which the Egyptian mOnarchs sleep
their sleep Of the ages!
What an illustration Of the tragedies Of
the snow Is found in that scene between
I T1-na~ So
Scotland, where Ronald Cameron comes
forth to bring to his fathers house his
cousin Flora Macdonald for the celebra-
ton of a birthday, and the calm day turns
| into hurricane Of white fury that leaves
Ronald and Flora as dead, to be resusci-
tated by the shepherdsl What an exciting
struggle had Bayard Taylor among the
wintry Apenninesl
/ RUSSIAN SHOWS AVENGED JOSEPHINE.
In the winter of 1879, by a similar force,
the destiny Of Europe was decided. The
French army marched up toward Moscow
five hundred thousand men. What can
resist them? Not bayonets, but the dumb
elements overwhelm chat host. Napoleon
retreats from Moscow with about two hun
dred thousand men, a mighty nucleus for
another campaign after he gets back to
Paris. The morning Of Oct. 10, when they
start for home, is bright and beautiful
The air is tonic. and although this Russian
campaign has been a failure Napoleon VIII
try again in some other direction with bis
host Of brave surviving Frenchmen.
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
a 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 war
riors hurricane Of SNOW, and the march
becomes difficult, 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 stumble and fall, and one thousand
of the army fall, and ten thousand perish,
and twenty thousand 60 down, and fifty
thousand, and hundred thousand, and
hundred and twenty thousand and a hun
dred and thirty-two thousand die, and the
victor Of jena and bridge Of Lodi and
Eylau and Austerlitz, where three great