Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/124



looked all the more peculiar under these circumstances, and there was some tittering among the audience. Just as he began, the candles fell out of his desk—more laughter. He went on playing; the first string broke—more laughter. He played the rest of the concerto through on three strings, but the laughter now changed to vociferous applause at this feat. The beggarly elements seemed of little consequence to this magician. One or more strings, it was all the same to him; indeed, it is recorded that he seldom paused to mend his strings when they broke, which they not infrequently did.

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CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKING ADVANTAGE OF

A well-known lawyer related a good story about himself and his efforts to correct the manners of his office boy:

One morning not long ago, the young autocrat blew into the office, and, tossing his cap at a hook, exclaimed:

"Say, Mr. Blank, there's a ball-game down at the park to-day and I am going down."

Now, the attorney is not a hard-hearted man, and was willing the boy should go, but thought he would teach him a little lesson in good manners.

"Jimmie," he said, "that isn't the way to ask a favor. Now, you come over here and sit down, and I'll show you how to do it."

The boy took the office chair, and his employer picked up his cap and stept outside. He then opened the door softly, and holding the cap in his hand, said, quietly, to the small boy in the big chair:

"Please, sir, there is a ball-game at the park to-day; if you can spare me I would like to get away for the afternoon."

In a flash the boy responded:

"Why, certainly, Jimmie; and here is fifty cents to pay your way in." (Text.)

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CITIZENSHIP IN THE KINGDOM

In writing of the Polish women, one author tells how they perform a man's labor of sowing, tilling and reaping in the field. Their work is preferred to that of men because it is better and cheaper. They work for German land-owners and receive free transportation by the government. Altho they are said to frequently marry Germans, they do not lose their identity, nationality or character.

Every church-member should be a citizen of the kingdom of Heaven. He should make its interests his interests and identify himself so closely with Christ, and show forth His life so that all would know that his nationality was of heaven; and his character Christ-like. (Text.)

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CITY, A HOLY

It would not be expected anywhere that New York would be called a holy city, and yet that is what it was recently called by a convert in one of its mission halls. A correspondent of the New York Tribune gives an account of a meeting he attended on a recent Sunday evening in a gospel mission hall at No. 330 Eighth Avenue. A man with a pronounced foreign accent told the story of his life at this meeting. At the age of eighteen, he said, shortly after his arrival at a German university, because of some fancied slight he was challenged to fight a duel with one of his fellow students. In self-defense he killed the man, and from that day had borne the sorrows of a homicide. Drink had the mastery over him and he was far gone in dissipation when he was shipped to Canada, where he still continued a life of dissipation. To improve his business chances he came to New York and took up residence in the Young Men's Christian Association Building in Twenty-third Street. Said the speaker: "A good many talk about the wickedness of New York. I call it a holy city, because in that little room, No. 653, in the Young Men's Christian Association Building, I lost the weight of sin which had been pressing my life out for years and entered a new life in which the past was blotted out." Several months have passed and the speaker has been led into new evidences of divine favor and usefulness. This case illustrates the familiar fact that one can find what he is looking for almost anywhere, especially in a large city. If he is looking for a saloon or any form of evil he will have little trouble in finding it, but if he wants to find a church or some form of good, it will be found near at hand. A holy man is holy anywhere, and to him even New York is a holy city.—Presbyterian Banner.

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City Children—See.

CITY, GROWTH OF A GREAT

The growth of population in the area now covered by Greater New York is shown thus in The Tribune:

1910     4,766,883 1900      3,437,202