him that his ignorance of the ways of the country was responsible for the failure, and offered to engineer the deal for a part interest in the company. The first step was to purchase, for several thousand rubles, the sympathy and support of a certain danseuse of the capital. Everything went smoothly and Witte, the Czar's Prime Minister, finally wrote a report recommending the scheme, and the Czar endorsed on the document: "I approve this in every particular." Thereupon an American rival attempted to blackmail the successful franchise-holder. When the man refused to be held up the rival set various influences at work. A few days later Plehve handed the Emperor a report condemning the traction scheme and favoring its annulment, across which Nicholas wrote: "I approve this report in every particular." Horse-cars still operate in St. Petersburg. (Text.)
(1606)
INFLUENCE, ENDURING
Whitefield's influence resembles the gale
sweeping over the surface of the sea. The
effect is instant, and visible to every sense.
But of Wesley's work the true symbol is the
coral reef, built up slowly, and cell by cell,
in the sea depths, over which the soil forms,
and on which great cities will rise and unborn
nations will live. The one stirred the
surface; the other built up from the depths,
built deeply, and built for all time.—W. H.
Fitchett, "Wesley and His Century."
(1607)
See Greatness Appreciated.
INFLUENCE OF SONG
It was sunset, and a number of girls, some
of whom were Sunday-school teachers, were
singing at their work in a certain factory
Bishop Doane's verses beginning,
"Softly now the light of day,"
to the tune of "Holley," when a Christian woman who was visiting the factory was shown the singing girls through an opened door. On being told that the singing was now a regular custom with the girls, she asked, "Has it made a difference?" Said the superintendent who was escorting her around, "There is seldom any quarreling or coarse joking among them now."
(1608)
INFLUENCE, PERSONAL
Embury was one of a group of Irish-German
emigrants to the United States in
1764. He settled in New York, but lacked
courage to begin religious work there, and
by a natural and inevitable reaction his own
religious life began to die. Another party
of these German-Irish emigrants, from the
same neighborhood, landed in New York the
next year. Among them was Barbara Heck,
a peasant woman of courageous character
and an earnest Methodist. Her zeal kindled
in womanly vehemence when she found the
first party of emigrants had practically forgotten
their Methodism. A familiar but
doubtful story relates how she went into a
room one day where Embury and his companions
were playing cards. She seized the
pack, threw it into the fire, and cried to
Embury: "You must preach to us or we
shall all go to hell together; and God will
require our blood at your hands." "I can
not preach," stammered the rebuked man,
"for I have neither chapel nor congregation."
"Preach in your own house," answered
Barbara Heck, "and to our own company."
And so the first Methodist sermon in America
was preached under a private roof and
to a congregation of five persons.—W. H.
Fitchett, "Wesley and His Century."
(1609)
INFLUENCE, PERVERTING
The Carnegie Institute has built and fitted
out the auxiliary steamer Carnegie to investigate
the magnetic phenomena of the
earth. The ship was specially designed so
as to contain less than six hundred pounds
of steel or iron, which would tend to deflect
her compasses and interfere with the
accuracy of her magnetic instruments. What
is not built of wood is made of Victor
vanadium bronze.
It would aid men in the guidance of
their lives if, in a similar way, they
could eliminate from the mind and
character all those elements that pervert
the will and affections toward evil.
(1610)
INFLUENCE, POSTHUMOUS
The good or ill of a man's life has the habit of following after him, even tho his efforts have ceased in death. The power of influence which visibly abides is illustrated by a writer who describes the tracks of ships at sea being visible by the smooth wakes of oil they leave behind them, long after they have disappeared:
I have frequently seen such tracks as
Franklin observed out at sea, and have
climbed to the masthead in order to sight
