Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-10-05


gardens. Before they had reached the bot
tom they had gNfiarids about their brow.
In more eluborste and adorned place than
we could have afforded them they were
put away for the last slumber.
Hear II, mothers aud fathers Of sailor
boys whose ship went down in our last
August hurricanel There are no Green
woods or Laurel Hills or Mount Auburns
30 beautiful on the land rs there are
banked and terraeed and scooped and hung
in the depths Of the sea The bodies Of our
foundered and sunken friends are girdled
and canopied and housed with such glories
as attend no other Metropolis.
They were swamped in lifeboats, or they
struck ON Goodwin sands or Deal beach or
the Skerries, and were never heard of, or dis
appeared with the City of Boston, or the
Vile de Haxre, or the Cymbria, or were run
down in a fishing smack that pIt out from
Newfoundland. But dismiss your previ-
GUS gloom about the horrors of ocean en-
tombment
When Sevastopol was besieged in the
Anglo French war, Prince Mentchikof
commanding the Russian navy, saw that
the only way to keep the English out Of
the harbor was to sink all of the Russian
ships of war in the roadstead, and SO 100
vessels sank. When, after the war was
over. our American engineer, Gowan, de-
scended to the depths in diving bell, 1t
was an impressive spectacle.
SUBLIME BURIAL.
One hundred buried shipsl But it is that
way nearly all across the Atlantic ocean.
Ships sunk not by command of admirals,
but by the command of cyclones. But they
all had sublime burial, and the surround
ings amid which they sleep the last sleep
are more imposing than the Tai Mahal,
the mausoleum with walls incrusted with
precious stones and built by the great mo-
gul of India over his empress. Your de-
parted ones were buried in the gardens OF
the sea, fenced off by hedges of coralline.
The greatest obsequies ever known on
the land were those of Moses. where no one
but God was present The sublime report
of that entombment is in the book of Deu-
teronomy, which says that the Lord buried
him, and Of those who have gone down to
slumber in the deep the same may be
said-''The Lord buried them" As Christ
was buried in garden, SO your shipwreck-
ed friends and those who could not survive
till they reached port were put down amid
iridescence-''In the midst of the garden
there was sepulcher"
It has always been q mystery what was
the particular mode by which George G.
| Cookman, the pulpit orator of the Metho
| dist church and the chaplain of the Ameri
can congress, left this life after embarkine
for England on the steamship President
| March II, 1871. That ship never arrived il
| port. No one ever signaled her, and OIL
! both sides of the ocean it has for so year,
! been questioned what became of her. Bu
| this know about Cookman-that whether
| it was iceberg or confagration midsea o.
| collision he had more garlands on his oceaI
tomb than if, expiring on land, each of hi
| million friends had put bouquet on hi
| casket. In the midst of the garden was hi
sepulcher.
JoNAH's MISTAKES.
| But that brings me to notice the misno
mer in this Jonahitic expression of tn
| text. The prophet not only made mis-
| take by trying to go to Tarshish when Got
| told him to go to Nineveh, but he made
mistake when he styled as weeds thes
growths that enwrapped him on the da
he sank. A weed is something that is use
less. It is something you throw out fror
the garden 1t is something that chokes tn
wheat. 1t is something to be grubbed ou
from among the cotton. 1t is somethin
unsightly TO the eye. 1t is an invader {
the vegetable or floral world. But thi
growth which sprang up from the depth {
the Mediterranean or foated on its SUI
. face was among the most beautiful thing
that God ever makes,
1t was water plant known as the re
colored alga and no weed at all. 1t come
from the loom of infinite beauty. 1t
planted by heavenly love. 1t is the star of
sunken armament. 1t is lamp which til
Lord kindled. 1t is a cord by which to bin
whole sheaves of practical suggestion.
is a poem all whose cantos are rung b
divine goodness. Yet we all make the mi
take that Jonah made in regard to it an
call it weed. 1.-THE weeds were wrappe
about my head" Ahl that is the troub
on the land as on the sea. We call thos
weeds that are flowers.
Picked up on the beach of society al
children without home, without oppo
tunity for anything but sin, seemingl
without God. They are washed up hell
less They are called ragamuffins. The
are spoken of as the rakings of the worlt
They are waits, They are street arab
They are fotsam and jetsam of the soci
sea. They are something to be left alon
or something to be trod on, or something
, give up to decay. Nothing but weed
They are up the rickety stairs of that ga
ret. They are down in the cellar of th'
tenement house. They swelter in summe
when they see not one blade of green gras
and shiver in winters that allow them M
one warm coat or shawl or shoe.
Such the city missionary found in one
our city rookeries, and when the poor won
an was asked if she sent her children
! school she replied: mo, sir, never d
! send 'em to school. know it, they ougl
to learn, but I couldn't. / try to shan
, him sometimes Gt is my husband, sir), b.
! he drinks and then beats me--look at tn
, bruise on my face-and l tell him to 8
what is comm to his children. There
Peggy, goes sellin fruit every night intho
a cellars in Water street, and they're hell
! sir. She's learnin all sorts of bad wor
a there and don't get back till 10 o'clock
j night. If it wasn't for her earnin shill
q or two in them places, / should starve 0
i wish they was out of the city. Yes, it
: the truth. l would rather have all n
children dead than on the street, but
can't help it."
! SAVED BY DEATH.
: Another one of those poor women, foul
by reformatory association, recited b
!, story of want and woe and looked up a
said, II felt SO hard to lose the childr
= when they died, but now I'm glad they
!; gone.n Ask any one of a Thousand su
children on the streets, where do y
: liver, and they will answer. II don't Ii
nowhere" They will sleep tonight in a
barrels, or under outdoor stairs, or on t
!. wharf, kicked and bruised and hung
! Who cares for them2 Once in awhile
! city missionary or tract distributor OF
. teacher of ragged schools will rescue one
! them, but for most people they are OF
: weeds.
III Yet Jonah did not more completely m