Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/381

 INDIVIDUALITY OF GERMS

Change is stamped upon life, but according to science, the opposite also is true. Life, in its minutest subdivisions, is true to itself. It knows no variation nor shadow of turning. Dr. Stirling remarks concerning protoplasm:

Here are several thousand pieces of protoplasm; analysis can detect no difference in them. They are to us, let us say, as they are to Mr. Huxley, identical in power, in form, and in substance; and yet on all these several thousand little bits of apparently indistinguishable matter an element of difference so pervading and so persistent has been imprest, that of them all, not one is interchangeable with another! Each seed feeds its own kind. The protoplasm of the gnat will no more grow into the fly than it will grow into an elephant. Protoplasm is protoplasm; yes, but man's protoplasm is man's protoplasm, and the mushroom's the mushroom's.

(1591)

INDIVIDUALS, GOD'S CARE OVER

Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was in Washington and brought a case of need before a distinguished Senator, who excused himself, writing that he was so taken up with matters of wide public interest that he could not look after individual cases. Mrs. Howe wrote in her note-book that "at last accounts the Lord God Almighty had not attained to that eminence." (Text.)—, "Sermons in Illustration."

(1592)

Indolence Forerunner of Dishonesty—See. INDORSEMENT  Old Gorgon, apropos of letters of introduction, hands out a whole string of neat conclusions. "Giving a note of introduction is simply lending your name with a man as collateral, and if he's no good you can't have the satisfaction of redeeming your indorsement even; and you're discredited I reckon that the devil invented the habit of indorsing notes and giving letters to catch the fellows he couldn't reach with whisky and gambling."—, "Old Gorgon Graham." (1593)   Industrial Church Training—See. INDUSTRIAL TRAINING  The boy utterly unable, even if he were studious, to keep up in book knowledge and percentage with the brighter boys, becomes discouraged, dull, and moody. Let him go to the work-room for an hour and find that he can make a box or plane a rough piece of board as well as the brighter scholar, nay, very likely better than his brighter neighbor, and you have given him an impulse of self-respect that is of untold benefit to him when he goes back to his studies. He will be a brighter and better boy for finding out something that he can do well.—American Magazine.

(1594)

INDUSTRY AND LONGEVITY

Capt. Robert McCulloch, who was elected president of the United Railways Company at the age of sixty-seven, was asked recently why he does not retire and live comfortably on his income. As general manager of the $90,000,000 corporation, Captain McCulloch is frequently at his office at 5 and remains until late in the evening.

"I had a friend once," said Captain McCulloch, answering the inquiry, "who started in life in a very modest way. He sold railway supplies, and to help him along I bought some of his goods. Eventually he branched out, became the general manager of a railway-supply house, and in time got rich.

"I met him two weeks before his fiftieth birthday. He told me he had acquired a competency, having several hundred thousand dollars invested in gilt-edged securities, besides his magnificent home in Chicago, and that on his fiftieth birthday he was going to retire and enjoy life.

"Just a year later I received his funeral notice. If he had kept on working like I have, he would be living yet. Work is necessary to enjoyment, good health, and length of days. That's why I don't quit. I prefer to live a while longer, and know I would die if I quit."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

(1595)

INDUSTRY OF BEES

It is estimated that, to collect one pound of honey, 62,000 heads of clover must be deprived of their nectar, necessitating 3,750,000 visits from bees. It would seem from this that the reputation of the wonderful little insect for industry has not been over-*rated. Wax is a substance secreted by the