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 MERCY, LIMITATION OF

Says the old hymn:

While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return.

An old Saxon king had some serious trouble with his subjects: they murmured against him and at last rose up in rebellion. The king set out to subdue them, and soon the well-disciplined troops won a decided victory over the tatterdemalion horde opposing them. Having conquered, the king determined to show mercy. He adopted the novel expedient of placing a candle in the window of his castle and proclaiming that all should be pardoned who returned "while the candle burns." (Text.)

(2016)

Merit—See. MERIT COUNTS  An instance of a work published  because of its merit, but "from a cold and calculating publisher's point of view of very doubtful sale," is McMaster's "History of the United States." The manuscript of the first volume was sent to the house by the author without introduction or comment of any kind. The author was a young tutor in mathematics at Princeton, had published nothing on any historical subject, and as far as any one knew at Princeton, had made no special historical study. It appeared that one very prominent New York house had declined to risk the publication of the work, and the historical expert of the house could not bring himself to recommend it as a reasonable publishing venture. Finally, the senior member of the firm read the manuscript himself, and decided to undertake the venture, believing in its probable success. The author was written to, he presented himself for the first time, being personally unknown in the office, and arrangements for the publication of this most popular and successful work were concluded within ten minutes.—Appleton's Magazine.

(2017)

Merit Recognized—See

MERIT WINS

Dr. S. Parkes Cadman tells this story of the late Dudley Buck, the well-known musical composer:

He was offered a thousand dollars by the managers of the Cincinnati Festival for a score which should embody solos, choruses and the accompanying orchestration. He promptly refused the offer, because it was not an open one to all competitors. Thereupon the managers threw it open, and the result was that Mr. Buck sent in "Marmion" and his setting of "The Golden Legend" under a nom de plume, and, of course, its merits won the prize.

(2018)

Merriment Misplaced—See.

MESSAGE, A TIMELY

In the "Life of Lord Tennyson," by his son, a story is told of a New England clergyman who once wrote to Tennyson telling him how, one Sabbath, he was strangely imprest to drop his sermon, and recite "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The congregation were shocked and later dismissed the pastor. Subsequently, a stranger called upon this clergyman, and told him how on that particular Sunday he had wandered into his church and heard him recite the famous poem; that he was in that charge; had fought at Gettysburg; and felt he had done something, and ought to be a man. Said the New England clergyman to the old England poet: "I lost my pulpit, but I saved a soul."

(2019)

MESSAGE, A WELCOME

It is related that one day, when the arctic explorer Nansen was battling with the ice-*floes in the Polar seas, a carrier-pigeon tapped at the window of Mrs. Nansen's home at Christiania. Instantly the casement was opened, and the wife of the famous arctic explorer in another moment covered the little messenger with kisses and caresses. The carrier-pigeon had been away from the cottage thirty long months, but it had not forgotten the way home. It brought a note from Nansen stating that all was going well with him and his expedition in the Polar regions. He had fastened the message to the frail courier, and turned it loose into the frigid air. It flew like an arrow over a thousand miles of frozen waste, and then sped forward over another thousand miles of ocean and plain and forests, and one morning entered the window of the waiting mistress, and delivered the message for which she had been waiting so anxiously. (Text.)

(2020)

Messengers, Business—See.

Meteorites—See.

Meteorological Changes and Crime—See .