Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/508



Name, A Good—See.

Nameless Pioneers—See.

NAMES

Many of the names we bear, as well as names of many of the places we know and frequent, are derived from something done or some particular thing connected with the place. For example, there is a town about thirty-five miles from Paris by the name of Fontainebleu. It is said that when this town was originally founded, near the tenth century, that there was a beautiful fountain there, and from this it took the name of Fontainebleu, contracted from Fontaine Belle Eau (Fountain of beautiful water).

(2150)

NAMES, ENDURING

The Pharos of Alexandria was built by Sostratus, a Greek architect, in the reign of Ptolmey Philadelphus. Ptolemy ordered that a marble tablet be built into the wall with his name conspicuously inscribed upon it as the builder of the famous edifice. Instead, Sostratus cut in Greek characters his own name deep upon the face of the tablet, then covered the whole with an artificial composition, made of lime, to imitate the natural surface of the stone, and cut a new inscription in which he inserted the name of the king. In due time the lime moldered away, name and all, leaving his own name to come out to view and to remain as long as the lighthouse stood.

There are names that wear away, while others are made to endure. (Text.)

(2151)

Names Handed Down—See.

Nations, Destiny of—See.

NATIVE CONVERTS

Bishop Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, used to tell the story of a wealthy Parsee in India whom he had persuaded to read the New Testament. Deeply imprest, the man declared that if he could find Christians who matched that Book he would join them. He sought among the white people for the life of the Book, but reported to Bishop Taylor that he had failed to find it to his satisfaction. The latter then sent him among the native converts, receiving his pledge that he would make as diligent search there as he had made among the Europeans. In a short time he returned with enthusiasm, to say that he had discovered men and women whose lives corresponded with the Book. He himself became a Christian and suffered the loss of wealth and friends for the sake of the Name, and when he died of violence in Bombay his last words were, "It is sweet to die for Jesus." The story points to the tremendous truth that it is not in our conventialized Christendom that the New Testament experiences are being reproduced most closely, but in the communities of disciples who are freshly out of raw heathendom.—, "Men and Missions."

(2152)

NATURALIZATION

Citizenship in heaven is not nearly so difficult as that of getting out naturalization papers in America.

The National Liberal Immigration League has petitioned the Department of Commerce and Labor to establish a calendar in the naturalization bureaus, so that applicants for second, or final, papers may be notified and attended to in regular order, instead of by the present first-come-first-served method with its resultant confusion and delays. Such a calendar would simplify matters wonderfully for the coming citizen. A man getting his final papers is obliged to bring with him two citizens as witnesses, who will swear that they have known him to be a resident of the United States for at least five years, the last year a resident of the State in which he receives his papers, and that he is a person of good moral character, and qualified in every way to become a citizen. Imagine the degree of good-nature essential in the instances of these witnesses, who must get up long before daylight, night after night, to accompany the potential citizen and see him