- jectedly on uncertain hinges against the walls
of the house. Such a thing as a glass window was unknown to this house. There was no floor, or, rather, there was a floor, but it was nothing more than the naked earth. There was only one room, which served as kitchen, parlor and bedroom for a family of five, which consisted of my mother, my elder brother, my sister, myself and the cat. In this cabin we all ate and slept, my mother being the cook on the place. My own bed was a heap of rags on the floor in the corner of the room next to the fireplace. It was not until after the emancipation that I enjoyed for the first time in my life the luxury of sleeping in a bed. It was at times, I suppose, somewhat crowded in those narrow quarters, tho I do not now remember having suffered on that account, especially as the cabin was always pretty thoroughly ventilated, particularly in winter, through the wide openings between the logs in the walls.
Probably there is no single object that so accurately represents and typifies the mental and moral condition of the larger proportion of the members of my race fifty years ago as this same little slave cabin. For the same reason it may be said that the best evidence of the progress which the race has made since emancipation is the character and quality of the homes which they are building for themselves to-day.
(2189)
NERVE
Altho almost completely paralyzed, Fred
J. Daniels, an engineer on the Lehigh Valley
Railroad, managed to save passenger train
No. 2, which he was running, from colliding
with the rear end of a freight train. The
train was near Maxwell, Pa., when, leaning
out of his cab window, Daniels saw the rear
lights of a freight.
At the same time a bolt dropping from the locomotive struck the driving-rod and was hurled at him. It hit his forehead and drove him backward. His neck struck with great force against the brake lever, and he fell to the floor helpless. Despite the blow, however, he reached for the lever as he fell and in some manner threw it into a notch which set the safety-brakes, and the train stopt a few yards from the rear end of the freight.
When the fireman reached Daniels he was helpless, unable to move, and is now but little better.—Baltimore American.
(2190)
Nerve Essential in Christian Work—See Missionary Adaptation.
NERVOUSNESS
Of the physical limitations under which
Herbert Spencer worked many interesting
glimpses are given. When writing his last
book, "Facts and Comments," published a
short time before his death and the result
of two years' work, he was able to produce
only ten lines a day. Even when a young
man he was afflicted with a nervousness from
which he sought relief in playing quoits and
rackets. Each of these games he would play
in some court attached to a house or pavilion,
and after playing about twenty minutes would
retire to cover and resume his writing until
the nervousness returned, when he would
play again. (Text.)
(2191)
NEW AND OLD
A professor of mathematics from America
was visiting a college in North China. To a
native professor there he said, "There is a
new method in mathematics being taught in
America. It is called the 'short cut,' and
is a method of casting out the nines."
Imagine his surprize when the Chinese
scholar replied, "The Chinese have been practising
that method farther back than recorded
history goes." And he called a pupil
up to prove it. Sure enough, it was the
"short cut," the casting out of the nines.
New things are not so new, and old
things are coming to light. (Text.)
(2192)
See Safety Valves.
NEW, APPETENCY FOR THE
Botanists tell us that when the tree ceases
to make new wood it begins to die. Indeed,
the only real live part of our northern trees
is the part just under the bark. It may be
even rotten and hollow on the inside, so
long as the sap courses vigorously on the
exterior the tree lives, grows and is young.
So the mind begins to die when it loses its
appetite for things new, when the heavenly
hunger for variety ceases. (Text.)—Vyrnwy
Morgan, "The Cambro-American Pulpit."
(2193)
NEW BIRTH
Perhaps you have seen the earth dry and
dusty, with her fields brown and her streams
low. That night a storm-cloud walked
across the face of the sky, and in torrents
broke over all the land. The next morning
when you went forth there were the same
fields and streams, but it was not the same
