HE DOETH HIS ALMS TO BE SEEN OF MEN. A poor little girl in a tattered gown Wandering alone through the crowded town, Bedimmed with tears were her eyes of brown, The night was approaching, the winter's chill blast Now hurriedly passing along the street, But slowly and sadly resumes her seat, He saw the wind tempest resistlessly hurl He went to a charity meeting that night And held up his check for a thousand at sight, He handed the check to the treasurer, when The paper next morning had much to say So much for the poor man's cause. He smiled as he read his own praise that day TTT* Near by, the same paper went on to repeat With only the snow for a winding sheet,- Ah! who can declare that when God shall unfold Him guilty of murder, who seeks with his gold, The praises of men, while out in the cold He leaves a poor child to die. NATIONS AND HUMANITY.-GEO. W. CURTIS. It was not his olive valleys and orange groves which made the Greece of the Greek, it was not for his apple orchards or potato fields that the farmer of New England and New York left his plough in the furrow and marched to Bunker Hill, to Bennington, to Saratoga. A man's country is not a certain area of land, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. The secret sanctification of the soil and symbol of a country is the idea which they represent; and this idea the patriot worships through the name and the symbol. So with passionate heroism, of which tradition is never weary of tenderly telling, Arnold von Winkelried gathers into his bosom the sheaf of foreign spears. So, Nathan Hale, disdaining no service that duty demands, perishes untimely with no other friend than God and the satisfied sense of duty. So, through all history from the beginning, a noble army of martyrs has fought fiercely, and fallen bravely, for that unseen mistress, their country. So, through all history to the end, that army must still march, and fight, and fall. But countries and families are but nurseries and influences. A man is a father, a brother, a German, a Roman, an American; but beneath all these relations, he is a man. The end of his human destiny is not to be the best German, or the best Roman, or the best father; but the best man he can be, History shows us that the association of men in various nations is made subservient to the gradual advance of the whole human race; and that all nations work together towards one grand result. So, to the philosophic eye, the race is but a vast caravan forever moving, but seeming often to encamp for centuries at some green oasis of case, where luxury lures away heroism, as soft Capua enervated the hosts of Hannibal. But still the march proceeds,-slowly, slowly over mountains, through valleys, along plains, marking its course with monumental splendors, with wars, plagues, crime,—advancing still, decorated with all the pomp of nature, lit by the constellations, cheered by the future, warned by the past. In that vast march, the van forgets the rear; the individual is lost; and yet the multitude is but many individuals. He faints, and falls, and dies; man is forgotten; but still mankind moves on, still worlds revolve, and the will of God is done in earth and heaven. We of America, with our soil sanctified and our symbol glorified by the great ideas of liberty and religion,—love of freedom and love of God,--are in the foremost vanguard of this great caravan of humanity. To us rulers look, and learn justice, while they tremble; to us the nations look, and learn to hope, while they rejoice. Our heritage is all the love and heroism of liberty in the past; and all the great of the "Old World" are our teachers. Our faith is in God and the right; and God himself is, we believe, our Guide and Leader. Though darkness sometimes shadows our national sky, though confusion comes from error, and success breeds corruption, yet will the storm pass in God's good time, and in clearer sky and purer atmosphere our national life grow stronger and nobler, sanctified more and more, consecrated to God and liberty by the martyrs who fall in the strife for the just and true. And so with our individual hearts, strong in love for our principles, strong in faith in our God, shall the nation leave to coming generations a heritage of freedom, and law, and religion, and truth, more glorious than the world has known before; and our American banner be planted first and highest on heights as yet unwon in the great march of humanity. THE MODERN BELLE. The daughter sits in the parlor, And though she talks but little, It's vastly more than she thinks. Her father goes clad in russet- His coat is out at the elbows, And he wears a shocking bad hat. While she on her whims and fancies She lies in bed of a morning Until the hour of noon, Then comes down, snapping and snarling Because she's called too soon. Her hair is still in papers, Her cheeks still bedaubed with paint Remains of last night's blushes Before she attempted to faint. Her feet are so very little, Her jewels so very heavy, And her head so very light; Her color is made of cosmeticsThough this she'll never own; Her body is mostly cotton, And her heart is wholly stone. She falls in love with a fellow Who swells with a foreign air; He marries her for her money, She marries him for his hairOne of the very best matches; Both are well mated in life; She's got a fool for a husband, And he's got a fool for a wife. CONDUCTOR BRADLEY.-JOHN G. WHITTIER. Conductor Bradley (always may his name Be said with reverence!) as the swift doom came, Sank with the brake he grasped just where he stood And die, if needful, as a true man should. Men stooped above him; women dropped their tears years. What heard they? Lo! the ghastly lips of pain, Dead to all thought save duty's, moved again: Put out the signals for the other train!" No nobler utterance since the world began Ah, me! how poor and noteless seem to this Oh, grand, supreme endeavor! Not in vain Nay, the lost life was saved. He is not dead We bow as in the dust, with all our pride THE GUARD'S STORY. We were on picket, sir, he and I, In the wilderness, where the night bird's song |