A NOTABLE BIOGRAPHY. Christ a revelation of God as merciful and compassionate; in fact, just such a God as I need!' This was the vision of God that came to her at the time of her conversion. It was the confusing and perturbing influence of her father's Calvinistic theology that had dimmed that gracious vision. Out of the prison-house of Giant Despair she had been delivered by the teachings of her sister Catherine and her brother Edward. "But again in the same letter we have a passage that shows that her feet are still meshed in the net of Calvinistic theology. She writes: 'My mind is often perplexed and such thoughts arise. in it that I cannot pray, and I become bewildered. The wonder to me is, how all ministers and all Christians can feel themselves so inexcusably sinful, when it seems to me that we all come into the world in such a way that it would be miraculous if we did not sin! Mr Hawes always says in his prayers, "We have nothing to offer in extenuation of any of our sins," and I always think when he says it that we have everything. to offer in extenuation. "The case seems to me exactly as if I had been brought into the world with such a thirst for ardent spirits that there was just a possibility, but no hope that I should resist, and then my eternal happiness made to depend on my being temperate. Sometimes when I try to confess my sins I feel that I am more to be pitied than blamed, for I have never known the time when I have not had a temptation within me strong that it was certain that I should not overcome it. This thought shocks me, but it comes with such force and so appealingly, to all my consciousness, that it stifles all sense of sin.' "It was such reflections and arguments as these that had aroused Doctor Beecher to despair over his daughter Catherine's spiritual condition. The fact was, he belonged to one age and his children to another. Yet the brave old man lived to sympathize with them. "Harriet at last learned to give up her introspection and morbid sensitive 27 once advised me, give up the pernicious habit of meditation to the first Methodist minister who would take it, and try to mix in society somewhat as other persons would. "“Horas non numero non nisi serenas." Uncle Sam, who sits by me, has just been reading the above motto, the inscription on a sun-dial in Venice. It strikes me as having a distant relationship to what I was going to say. I have come to a firm resolution to count no hours but unclouded ones, and let all others slip out of my memory and reckoning as quickly as possible. "I am trying to cultivate a spirit of general kindliness towards everybody. Instead of shrinking into a corner to notice how other people behave, I am holding out my hand to the right and to the left, and forming casual and incidental acquaintances with all who will be acquainted with me. In this way I find society full of interest and pleasure, -a pleasure that pleaseth me more because it is not old and worn out. From these friendships I expect little, and therefore generally receive more than I expect. From past friendships I have expected everything, and must of necessity have been disappointed. The kind words and looks that I call forth by looking and smiling are not much in themselves; but they form a very pretty flower-border to the way of life. They embellish the day or the hour as it passes, and when they fade they only do just as I expected they would. This kind of pleasure in acquaintance is new. to me. I never tried it before. When I used to meet persons the first inquiry was, "Have they such and such a character, or have they anything that might be of use or harm to me?"" "In this new life she was able to write to her brother Edward, 'I have never been so happy as this summer. I began it in more suffering than I ever before have felt, but there is one whom I daily thank for all that suffering, since I hope that it has brought me at last to rest entirely in Him.' So she learned to suffer and to love. To suffer and to love and at last to rest. After five years of struggling she returns to where she started when converted as a child of thirteen. Love became her gospel, the Alpha and Omega of her existence, love for her God, for her friends, and finally for humanity. The three words, 'God is love,' summed up her theology. Her love of humanity was not the vague charitable emotion which the phrase usually denotes. It was as real, as vital, and as impelling as the love for her friend which she thus expressed in closing this letter,— "Oh, my dear G, it is scarcely well to love friends thus. those that I love; and oh, how much that word means. I feel sadly about them. They may change; they must die; they are separated from me, and I ask myself why should I wish to love with all the pains and penalties of such conditions? I check myself when expressing feelings like this, so much has been said of it by the sentimental, who talk what they could not have felt. But it is so deeply, sincerely so in me, that sometimes it will overflow. Well, there is a heaven-a heaven,-a world of love, and love after all is the life blood, the existence, the all in all of mind."" Forest Apple-Trees. IN some parts of Pennsylvania are to be found wild apple forests, having been seeded by parent-growths the same. as regular forest trees. Without pruning, cultivation, or any care whatever, they start out on their little careers, make their way, live their lives, bear bushels of fruit that is never gathered except by hunters or wild animals, and die when their time comes, the same as their taller and statelier neighbors. No The apples they bear are of different sizes, colors, and flavors; a bright red being one of the favorite hues. doubt there are new and sturdy varieties gradually developed in these selfcultivated nurseries of nature; and fruitfanciers might find in them something worth grafting into their orchards. These wild apples are, figuratively speaking, "nuts" to the squirrels, which live upon them when storing their coldweather, food, and are even said to be learning which are the winter apples, and to save them among their eatable treasures-though not as yet in bar rels. Up and Down Savings-Banks That Won't Break. CAN a postal savings-bank system be established in this country?" has been asked again and again-and is just now a subject of peculiar interest. to thoughtful men and women. It is a good time to examine its workings in other countries, and see if it would be a good plan for us to adopt the same system. England, France, Italy, Holland, Canada, and many smaller states have made this institution a permanent department of their governments, and each has demonstrated its inestimable benefit to the masses of the people. It is the common experience of these countries, that only about one-eighth of the sum of the many thousands of deposits, in the course of a year, is left for permanent investment-the remainder of it being withdrawn for current uses. This indicates that many persons of small incomes take this method of laying up money for their rent, fuel, or clothing, rather than trust to the uncertainties of the future. And, it is a far-reaching and unanswerable demonstration of the fact that if one saves the pennies the dollars will soon come into evidence. It is the daily experience of foreign postal banks to have depositors withdraw their savings of years for the purchase of a little home, or for the establishment of a modest business. Almost invariably these depositors begin again. the pleasant task of accumulating their savings: for when the thrifty habit is once acquired it is abandoned only in the rarest instances. And those who are in position to know, testify that no other institution or custom has done so much the World. to improve the condition of the people, as that of the postal savings-bank. Holland organized the system in 1881. There every postoffice is a place of deposit; and the postmasters, together with a large number of special agents, are authorized receivers. Any person makes application on a printed form, and gives it to the nearest postmaster, who in return presents him with a passbook, free of cost. The postmaster, both as an inducement and compensation, receives five cents on each new account, and one and one-half cents for each entry. Persons living more than twenty miles from an agency, may use the mails free for the purpose of making deposits. No sums less than about forty cents, in our money, are taken. Sheets of paper with twenty blank spaces, each intended for a five-cent stamp, are distributed free, and filled gradually by the very poor people. When full, the sheet is taken on deposit. Children get these forms, with a hundred spaces for stamps. Twentyseven thousand florins, or over $10,000 a year, were deposited in this manner. Every fifty days the receivers deposit. directly with the Ministry of Postal Affairs. The interest paid is two and threefourths per cent.; and the money is invested in national and municipal shares, and railway bonds guaranteed by Gov ernment. If a depositor wishes to withdraw his money, he can do so at the office where he placed it, provided the amount be less than twentyfive florins (about ten dollars); but for larger sums it is necessary to make application to the Director --who will issue to the appropriate office an order to pay the amount in full or in such installments as the bank's balance will permit; but it has never yet been necessary to resort to the installment plan. Since the installation of the method. in Holland (1881) the cost of administration has grown steadily less, and the rate of interest has likewise increased. In twelve years it saved $7,200,000 for its people, and chiefly for a class that, left alone, would have been practically penniless. In fact, its success has been such as to amply justify the statement. of one who thoroughly believes in the idea, when he said: "A bank that will reach out its hands to the mechanic in his shop, the child at school, or the farmer at his work; that will collect their money in small or in large amounts, make it productive within two weeks, and pay two and three-fourths per cent. (when the prevailing rate is three per cent.), with the government guarantee for principal and interest, is not only profitable to the people: it is a blessing to the country." "It is the greatest and most important work ever undertaken by the government for the benefit of the nation", said Gladstone; and the experience of England with this method, has demonstrated the wisdom of his statement. After paying two and one-half per rent. on its deposits, the English system has earned nearly $7,750,000, which the Government has from time to time divided among the depositors. The money is invested in government securities only. The United Kingdom, with half the population of this country, has accumulated nearly $600,000,000 since 1862; but opportunities for investment here. far exceed those in the British Isles. Nearly ten thousand postoffices are open for deposits, from nine to six, and Saturdays to nine. One shilling is the smallest sum credited, but there is a stamp system, like that of Holland, where even a penny may be put away. a year, nor have to his credit more than one hundred and fifty pounds, exclusive of interest. Money may be deposited or withdrawn from any postoffice. In the space of ten years, depositors increased from one to over three millions, and deposits from twentythree to nearly fortyfive millions. The universal experience in England. is that men, women and children are gradually induced to become depositors, and form habits of saving and thrift, who before were spendthrifts. The Italian postoffice savings-system was founded in 1876, and even the farthest and most remote offices are open for deposits. The interest rate is three and one-half per cent. Canada has accumulated about $40,000,000 in thirty years, and is devoting the money to public improvements, making a permanent debt due to its depositors, and paying three and one-half per cent. interest thereon. Now, why do we not have this system in United States? It has been recommended by some of our best financial authorities: what is keeping it back? Postmaster Creswell suggested it in 1887. Hon. Thomas L. James said: "It is my conviction that a system of this description would inure more than almost any other measure of public importance, to the benefit of the working people of United States." Many other authorities might be quoted. The question to be decided is: Would such a system furnish better security for deposits and greater encouragement to thrift, than existing institutions? Could the Government, without interfering with the present business status, and without loss to itself, carry on the savings-bank business? Would the benefits justify the necessary extension of the functions of government and the increase of public servants? Answer: Mutual Benefit companies, Co-operative Building-Loan associations, etc., are all successful; and the Postoffice Savings-Bank would have great advantage over these. UP AND DOWN THE WORLD. been estimated at three-fourths of one per cent. The Government could easily invest the funds at two and three-fourths per cent. and that would leave two per cent. for the interest rate-a conservative estimate. Lessons from Marconi. "SUCCESS", though it is an abstract thing, something that cannot be seen with the physical eye, nor felt with the hand, is that ever-alluring goal toward which humanity is pressing its way, at greater or less speed. Some have been tired out by the fast pace necessary to keep up with their neighbors in the procession, and are idling along the highways of life in more or less of a don't-care attitude, but if you will stop to talk with these men and women, you will find very few who have given up all hope of gaining their little goals. Some have become distrustful of, or disgusted with, their own ability to get on, and are slyly waiting to hitch their wagons to somebody else's easy-running equipage, and, possibly, there are a few apathetic enough not to use even this attempt to make headway in the world; but the large majority keep up a pretty constant effort to "get there." Everybody is looking for advice on "how to succeed", and if it is true that "all the world loves a lover", it must be from this very fact that he is successful, in one thing at least, that he has "won out." Two or three lessons, then, from the career of Signor Marconi, a world-wide "Success", will not be uninteresting, and may not prove unprofitable. At the age of eight years the young Italian had shown marked inventive ability; when he was twelve years old. his tutor thought enough of one of the young man's devices to attempt to steal it; and at sixteen he was deep in chemical, mathematical and electrical problems, and worrying his parents about a seemingly crazy scheme to send a message "through a solid hill." And in this 31 illustration of youthful precocity there lies a lesson for all-especially parents. Every boy does not show the genius of a Marconi at eight or twelve years, but almost every one does evince some particular trend in his nature at that age, and it is the duty of parents to foster and cultivate it, instead of despising and ridiculing it. Marconi's parents were doubtless surprised when their young hopeful told them he was going to telegraph "through a hill", but they were too considerate and wise to ridicule the boy at the very beginning of his life of imagination and aspiration. To be sure, numerous young men succeed in spite of ridicule, but never because of it, as is sometimes falsely asserted; and there is a vast difference between indiscriminate and foolish praise and judicious encouragement. It takes a cool head and a trained judgment to "bring out" all that there is "in a boy", but parents will be rewarded if they give some time and thought to this side of their children's education. We all know men who couldn't "stand prosperity." Paradoxical as it may seem, and loudly as young men may scout the idea of its possible application to them, men ruined by success are all about us. Just what it is has never been accurately defined, but there is, in the bauble of worldly success, a glamor, or something or other, that always and forever throws back, into the consciousness of him who for the first time, holds it in his hands, the image of himself. By it he is auto-intoxicated, self-hypnotized, and wholly unfitted for harmonious relations with his fellow-men. Not so with Marconi! Although kings, emperors and princes are numbered among his intimate friends, and although, by reason of fortune and favor already attained by his own efforts, he might live in ease and good repute, his favorite resort is in some of his stations on the coast of England, far from the haunts of men, where he can dream his large dreams and work out his great plans, free from interruption. And when the King of an earth |