nati had decided a patent-right claim in his favor, awarding him $93,000 and interest upon it for several years. His invention, a machine for making paper wrappers, was patented while he was in a sanatorium by his financial backer, who refused an accounting when the inventor was discharged from the sanatorium. The suit followed, with the verdict of a fortune which came too late. Biedinger was so reduced in circumstances that he was recently employed as a dish-washer in a restaurant. (Text.)
(727)
Delaying Religious Instruction—See Religious Instruction.
Delaying the Gospel—See Father, Our.
Deliberation—See Painstaking.
Deliverance—See Transformation.
DEMAGOGY
"Yes," said the candidate, "I'm going out
among the farmers to-day—to a pumpkin
show, or jackass show, or something of that
sort. Not that I care for pumpkins or jackasses,
but I want to show the people that I
am one of them."
(728)
DEMONOLOGY
St. Thomas Aquinas used to hold that
angels and devils made the atmosphere their
battle-ground—the angels that live in the
calm upper spheres, the devils that fill the
immensity of space; and thus he accounted
for the injurious changes of weather to be
experienced in certain countries. For the
mortification and the rout of these demons
bells were consecrated and hung in the
church-spires, usually inscribed, "Vivos voco, mortuos plango, fulgura frango" (I summon
the living, I mourn the dead, I scatter
the thunder-storm); and their ringing
was thenceforth considered to be one
of the potent means of dispelling evil influences
and of abating tempests. These
evil powers, according to medieval legend
and belief, were able to produce hail, thunder,
and storms at their will, and those
among them called witches took aerial voyages
exactly as the witches of much later
days were held to do, altho more particular
detail is given of their operations, as it is
known that they smeared their broomsticks
with witch-salve, after which mounting
them, they could sail where they would
through so much of this atmosphere as was
within their jurisdiction. "The air," says
Rydberg, speaking of those days of the
Dark Ages, "was saturated with demoniacal
vapors," and specters, ghosts, and vampires
multitudinous added their horrors to the
fertile imaginations of the people.—Harper's Bazar.
(729)
In the Kongo district insane people are treated by the native doctors in the following manner: The patient's hands are secured by stout cords, and he is led to the doctor with a fowl and a lighted firebrand balanced on his head. The doctor takes five twigs from five different trees and strikes the patient with each in turn, bidding the evil spirit depart from him. The lighted stick is then plunged into some water, and as the fire is quenched the evil spirit is supposed to leave the man's body. He may reenter it, however, so the fowl is killed and placed on a stick at a cross-roads for an offering to the deposited spirit. Then the man's bands are loosened and he is free to go as he chooses; but if he shows signs of the demon appearing in him again, any one may kill him if his relatives do not object.
(730)
DEMONSTRATION
John W. Gates, the "Wire King," is described
as "an extreme type of the American
'hustler.'" The Texas cattlemen had
never seen barbed wire before, and they
ridiculed it.
"That stuff wouldn't hold a Texas steer a holy minute," said they.
Gates was put on his mettle. "I'll show you whether it will or not," said he.
This was in the picturesque town of San Antonio, which is dotted liberally with small open spaces, or plazas. Gates hired the nearest plaza, and got together a drove of twenty-five of the wildest Texas steers that could be found. Then he fenced his plaza with barbed wire, put the steers inside, and gave the cattlemen a free show. The steers charged the wire, and were pricked by the barbs. They shook their heads and charged again, with the same result. After two or three of these defeats they huddled together on the inside and tried to think it over. Gates sold hundreds of miles of his wire that day at eighteen cents a pound.—Munsey's.
(731)
Men are sometimes condemned on hearsay, who would be approved if their critics gave them an actual and fair hearing.
When Chief Justice Holt was on the
