Page:Cyclopedia of illustrations for public speakers, containing facts, incidents, stories, experiences, anecdotes, selections, etc., for illustrative purposes, with cross-references; (IA cyclopediaofillu00scotrich).pdf/518



of the house. Such a thing as a glass window was unknown to this house. There was no floor, or, rather, there was a floor, but it was nothing more than the naked earth. There was only one room, which served as kitchen, parlor and bedroom for a family of five, which consisted of my mother, my elder brother, my sister, myself and the cat. In this cabin we all ate and slept, my mother being the cook on the place. My own bed was a heap of rags on the floor in the corner of the room next to the fireplace. It was not until after the emancipation that I enjoyed for the first time in my life the luxury of sleeping in a bed. It was at times, I suppose, somewhat crowded in those narrow quarters, tho I do not now remember having suffered on that account, especially as the cabin was always pretty thoroughly ventilated, particularly in winter, through the wide openings between the logs in the walls.
 * jectedly on uncertain hinges against the walls

Probably there is no single object that so accurately represents and typifies the mental and moral condition of the larger proportion of the members of my race fifty years ago as this same little slave cabin. For the same reason it may be said that the best evidence of the progress which the race has made since emancipation is the character and quality of the homes which they are building for themselves to-day.

(2189)

NERVE

Altho almost completely paralyzed, Fred J. Daniels, an engineer on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, managed to save passenger train No. 2, which he was running, from colliding with the rear end of a freight train. The train was near Maxwell, Pa., when, leaning out of his cab window, Daniels saw the rear lights of a freight.

At the same time a bolt dropping from the locomotive struck the driving-rod and was hurled at him. It hit his forehead and drove him backward. His neck struck with great force against the brake lever, and he fell to the floor helpless. Despite the blow, however, he reached for the lever as he fell and in some manner threw it into a notch which set the safety-brakes, and the train stopt a few yards from the rear end of the freight.

When the fireman reached Daniels he was helpless, unable to move, and is now but little better.—Baltimore American.

(2190)

Nerve Essential in Christian Work—See .

NERVOUSNESS

Of the physical limitations under which Herbert Spencer worked many interesting glimpses are given. When writing his last book, "Facts and Comments," published a short time before his death and the result of two years' work, he was able to produce only ten lines a day. Even when a young man he was afflicted with a nervousness from which he sought relief in playing quoits and rackets. Each of these games he would play in some court attached to a house or pavilion, and after playing about twenty minutes would retire to cover and resume his writing until the nervousness returned, when he would play again. (Text.)

(2191)

NEW AND OLD

A professor of mathematics from America was visiting a college in North China. To a native professor there he said, "There is a new method in mathematics being taught in America. It is called the 'short cut,' and is a method of casting out the nines." Imagine his surprize when the Chinese scholar replied, "The Chinese have been practising that method farther back than recorded history goes." And he called a pupil up to prove it. Sure enough, it was the "short cut," the casting out of the nines.

New things are not so new, and old things are coming to light. (Text.)

(2192)

See.

NEW, APPETENCY FOR THE

Botanists tell us that when the tree ceases to make new wood it begins to die. Indeed, the only real live part of our northern trees is the part just under the bark. It may be even rotten and hollow on the inside, so long as the sap courses vigorously on the exterior the tree lives, grows and is young. So the mind begins to die when it loses its appetite for things new, when the heavenly hunger for variety ceases. (Text.)—, "The Cambro-American Pulpit."

(2193)

NEW BIRTH

Perhaps you have seen the earth dry and dusty, with her fields brown and her streams low. That night a storm-cloud walked across the face of the sky, and in torrents broke over all the land. The next morning when you went forth there were the same fields and streams, but it was not the same