- sistent withholding of a mirror convinces the
patient that he must be too horrible for contemplation, and he promptly decides that the best thing for him to do is to give up the ghost and get out of the way.
"That is one of the mistakes hospitals were apt to make up to a few years ago. When I was a young fellow, getting my first practise after graduation, I served on the staff of several hospitals, and in all, especially in the free wards, those aids to vanity were
strictly forbidden."—Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
(2939)
Sick-room, Atmosphere of the—See Talking and Sickness. SIDE, CHOOSING THE RIGHT Not many years ago I was asked to go to a Georgia county and speak, and when I got there some saloon-keepers came in and stood up by the wall on one side of me, their object being to intimidate me. I said, "Neighbors, you have sent for me to come and speak to you on the whisky issue. I am no orator; I am no Brutus. I am not going to tell you which side of this question I am on, but you just step up to God and ask which side He is on; go to Christ and put me down on His side. Go out there to the graveyard, and take up that mother who has buried her husband and sons in drunkards' graves, and ask her which side she is on—and then put me down on her side. Put me down on the side of God and Christ, and the women and children of this land." The leading saloon man in the crowd wiped the tears from his eyes. He had just buried a sweet wife and child, and he walked out and said, "Boys, I'm done; I throw up the sponge." The next election in that county the prohibition element carried the day by five hundred majority.—Sam P. Jones.
(2940)
SIGHT, IMPERFECT A rich man, of very miserly character, was found to be suffering from cataract in both eyes. Blindness ensued, and he was at last compelled to consult a famous oculist. He was appalled by the costly fee which was required for an operation, but reluctantly assented to an operation on one eye. This restored his sight in one eye, and the oculist advised a similar operation on the other. "Oh, no," said the miser; "it's far too expensive. I will manage with the sight of one eye." Most people would not hesitate to call such a man a fool, yet are not many men and women contented with semi-*blindness? One eye may enable us to see material things, but not spiritual things.
(2941)
Sight, Sacrificed—See Science, Devotion to. Sign of Distinction—See Embellishment of Preaching. Signs—See Superstition. SIGNALS We should be as alert to hear God's voice in the soul as these ship-masters are to hear the signals: Experiments in the conductivity of sound through liquids were begun many years ago by Prof. Elisha Gray, and in 1901 a system of signals based thereon, designed by A. J. Mundy, was successfully tested in Boston Harbor. Steamships plying between Boston and New York have been equipped with the apparatus, and are said to use it very frequently in signaling. Our representative, while on the Herman Winter, observed the perfect operation of the apparatus when approaching, passing, and leaving the Pollock Rip lightship. It had been prearranged that the signal should be the number 73, the number of the lightship. This locality was reached shortly before day-*light, yet when the ship was seven miles from the lightship, tossed by tempestuous seas, the signal, seven strokes, then three, was faintly but distinctly heard. Within two miles it was quite loud, and the peculiar A musical note of the bell was plainly noticeable. It is feasible to signal words with a special code, and no doubt such a system of communication will soon be perfected. (Text.)—The Scientific American.
(2942)
See Listening for Signals.
SIGNALS UNHEEDED
The engineer of the Philadelphia and
Reading flyer, which on the night of January
27, 1903, plowed its death-dealing way
without warning into the splintered cars of
the Eastern express on the New Jersey Central
Railroad, near Westfield, N. J., was extricated
from the wreck suffering terribly
from wounds from which he afterward died.
When first carried to the hospital and questioned
concerning the cause of the wreck,
