McKnight

“ Is anybody killed?"
His eyes filled with hot tears as he saw Bill McKnight rush aft and help pick up the mate and deck-hands who lay sprawled in the [Pg 84] scuppers. The mate was huddled in a heap where he had been flung, and the rescuers dragged him clear and carried him forward between them, his legs and arms swaying limp.
"He looks dead," moaned Dan. "And it leaves Uncle Jim single-handed. He can't run home before this sea with a hole in his after deck like that. She'd swamp in no time. He'll have to buck into it and try to fetch Miami. And we can't get any help to him." ”

“ If the legal propositions involved could be decided in favor of McKnight, that could not overcome the fact that the issuance of the final receipt to the Brick Company on October 23, 1905, was an adjudication not only that the Brick company was entitled to a patent, but that McKnight then had no adverse claim to the land. ”

“ I put it under my pillow—which was my reason for refusing to have the linen slips changed, to Mrs. Klopton’s dismay. And sometimes during the morning, while I lay under a virgin field of white, ornamented with strange flowers, my cigarettes hidden beyond discovery, and Science and Health on a table by my elbow, as if by the merest accident, I slid my hand under my pillow and touched it reverently.
McKnight came in about eleven. I heard his car at the curb, followed almost immediately by his slam at the front door, and his usual clamor on the stairs. ”

“ Jno. B. Grayson, Com. of Subs., to await the final settlement of said Grayson's accounts.' This reservation of the $9,000 was made by order of the Second Comptroller and the Secretary of the Treasury. McKnight & Richardson sued in the Court of Claims to recover this sum. The United States thereupon set up a counter-claim, and insisted upon their right to recover back the $21,675.68 which had been paid already to the petitioners.
The Court of Claims adjudged against both parties, and both appealed to this court.
The claim of the United States cannot be sustained. ”

“ Then Zoraydo's matchless voice sweeps the soul along
Till we know that perfect music can be breathed in earthly song!
Hear, O hear the melting music pouring from each heaving breast;
How it wakes the heart to rapture! How it soothes the soul to rest! ”

“ AN INITIAL ACROSTIC. Hear, O hear the melting music pouring from inspired hearts!
In the race of life they stumbled, victims of temptation's darts.
Ruin's billows them engulfing, all their hopes and joys to blight;
And the scorpion lash of conscience scourges them by day and night!
Man has doomed them to a prison where shame's torrents hourly roll
Pouring every known affliction on the crushed and bleeding soul! ”

“ But if your angered brother slay a single man,
Him you brand a "Murderer," worthy of your ban;
And with zeal unbounded you wage relentless war
Until he falls, a victim to rage-created law.
As if a useless murderer, sanctioned by the state,
Was less the fruitage of revenge than one new-born of hate;
Perchance in some fair aiden, some far distant sphere
Your poor hapless victim these just words may hear:
"Thou art now forgiven, poor misguided son!
"Tho' tranced with dire passion thou hast slain but one. ”

“ And felt the sting of th' master's lash, as o'er our task we stood.
As the dark and gloomy cloud, that hovered o'er our past,
Has been wafted off by humane hands—'tis swept away at last.
We now emerge from darkness into a welcome light,
And live in brighter future hopes—a day made out of night.
We hail you, noble, honest men, whose hearts beat five as one,
Thus far in your prison work your duty you have done;
Eternal God will always right the brutal wrongs of man,
And therefore He did send you here to do the best you can. ”

“ The dulcet tones of her dear voice
Bids my aching heart rejoice;
She folds me 'neath her dazzling wings,
While all the heart within me sings!
Oh, list those melting tones of love,
More soft than note of cooing dove!
Oh, hear the words her dear lips speak:
"Death, dear one, is the boon to seek!
"False are the glittering gems of earth,
Eternity's gold is the gold of worth;
One moment in heaven is worth a life
Spent on earth 'mid care and strife!
"Death is but the dawn of day,
Destroying naught save worthless clay!
The soul lives on in rapturous bliss
More perfect than a virgin kiss! ”

“ Shut away from the dear ones, the loved ones on earth,
I suffer the tortures that no man can tell
Till he's taken away from fireside and hearth
And sees the sad visions of a dungeon cell—
Then he feels that vile man can create a real hell. ”

“ To this grim cell for guilty ones designed.
Yet I'm no convict—I have never known
The deep remorse by guilty wretches shown!
I am a martyr—doomed by adverse fate
To brave the billows of malicious hate!
Yet I am free, for Nature's august plan
Makes MIND not matter constitute the MAN.
Tho' men may curse me and cast out my name,
Like some vile bauble on the sea of shame;
Brand me as murderer or catiff thief,
Or atheistic infidel—steepid in unbelief;
Foe to all that's pure and good—wretch unfit to live;
Outlaw whom no honest man can even pity give! ”

“ Since first Jehovah, bending low to earth,
Breathed in man's nostrils an eternal birth,
The rain drop falling, from the heavy cloud,
In waiting dust, finds ready shroud,
And there commingling fills each separate cell,
Yet still remains as pure as when it fell:
To man appearing but a dampened clod,
'Tis chambered favor of a gracious God;
And serves his purpose till He calls above
This liquid semblance of Immortal Love,
There not to perish, but return again
To deck the forest and adorn the plain;
All nature feels its fructifying power
In laughing streamlets and in nodding flower ”

“ Live in a world to you unknown, where only poet soul
Can bask in beauty undefiled by cankering control!
In vain is all your hate and scorn—vain your prison blight;
God loves me, and I feel assured that all will yet be right!
I know one law—a perfect law, by Nature's self designed—
'Tis Heaven's dearest gift to man—The Freedom of the Mind!
If minds and hearts were easy read as faces we can see,
Society would lose its dread and many a prisoner free!
But what, alas! do people care what's in another's brain?
They only seek to hide their share of misery and pain. ”

“ Religion to his soul is love, and love no wrong entails!
Ye who love eternal right and wish your fellows well
Refuse him not the meed of praise—'tis his our aches to quell!
Each heart within these prison walls that tests his wondrous skill
Unites to sing his praises and bless his generous will.
By kindly words he cheers the soul of those whom dread disease
Envelops in her mystic folds and gives each patient ease.
Naught caring for their praise or blame, he steers his course aright,
Proving duty, well performed, is matchless in its might. ”

“ It has been remarked, with much truth, that all of us lead double lives, a life of our fancy, in a world of things as they should be, or as we should like them to be, and a life in a world of things as they really are. ”

“ One wishes to be understood, another well attired,
This hushed by useless longings or fashion's changing art,
That sweetest of all poems, the music of the heart.
But he who solves life's mystery is never quite alone,
All ages is his playground and solitude his throne ”

“ To teach the soul its wondrous powers?
And best they love to lead us back
O'er scenes to memory doubly dear,
For those we, waking, love the most
In dreams will seem most near.
While reason sleeps the soul, awake,
Lives o'er each precious hour,
And woos us with a gentle strain
Of pathos and of power.
Dreams index to our waking thought
Plans on which the heart is set,
And he who heeds their warning voice
Has in life least to regret.
In waking hours we sow the seed,
In dreams we reap the grain:
Sometimes the harvest all is joy,
Sometimes, alas! 'tis pain. ”

“ His cultured mind and noble soul
Truth and virtue both control.
Tell the world his perfect skill
Can conquer every human ill
That lends to science or to art,
From shattered limb to dormant heart.
Each pill and potion that he makes
Relieves your pain and health awakes:
And should he use the surgeon's knife,
He never will sacrifice a life.
His skilfull fingers place a band
As gently as a woman's hand;
And not one patient needs to feel
That he the truth will not reveal. ”

“ I am here and am not going farther. I am the only son of Getro. Glory and praise to Nicholas whose grace brought me back here.
Then that citizen shall run to Getro and say:
Be glad, Getro. Weep no more. Outside stands thy son. Praise be to Nicholas whose grace restored him.
“When Euphrosina hears this message, she shall run, and after kissing and embracing her son many times, shall say”:
To our God be glory and praise. ”

“ There follows a scene between the Christians and Saracens, which is imbued with all the ardor and spirit of the crusading times. The Christians show divinely inspired bravery and are visited by an angel which encourages them in the fight. They are defeated in battle, but the angel announces that they have won a place in Paradise. The Saracens find on the battlefield only one Christian alive, and he is kneeling before an image of St. Nicholas. ”

“ Nicholas’ day throughout the whole country is a day of joy, especially for the young. Even the German Christmas tree, which has been gradually finding its way into Belgium, is introduced not on Christmas day, but on December 6th, the day devoted to the honor of the popular saint. ”

“ A fine instance of the mingling of elements, old and new, in Christian architecture, is to be seen at Syracuse in Sicily, where the older classical temple of Minerva has been transformed into a renaissance cathedral. ”

“ Thou that hast lost mind and wit, wherefore hast thou consented to the death of innocents? Go forth anon and do thy part to deliver them, or else thy body shall rot, and be eaten with worms, and thy meiny shall be destroyed. And he asked him: Who art thou that so menacest me? And he answered: Know thou that I am Nicholas, the bishop of the city of Mirea. Then that one awoke that other, and each told to other their dreams, and anon sent for them that were in prison, to whom the emperor said: What art magic or sorcery can ye, that ye have this night by illusion caused us to have such dreams? ”

“ Good boy, tell us, what is thy land, what thy race; what is the faith of the people of thy country; are they gentile or Christian?
The boy:
My father, Getro by name, is prince of the people of Excoranda; he worships God, who rules the seas, who made us and thee and all things.
The king:
[Pg 101]
My god, Apollo, is the god that made me. He is true and good. He rules the land, he reigns in the air; him alone we ought to believe in.
The boy:
Thy god is false and evil; he is stupid, blind, deaf, and mute. Thou shouldst not worship such a god, who cannot rule even himself. ”

“ All men were to be equal, rich and poor, slave and free. There was chosen a mock king who could impose forfeits. The Roman New Year’s feast had a similar character. As at the Saturnalia, masters drank and gambled with slaves. [55] In the words of the Greek sophist, Libanius: “From the minds of young people it (the New Year’s feast) removes [Pg 69] two kinds of dread: the dread of the schoolmaster and the dread of the stern pedagogue.”
Alinari
A. Lorenzetti. The Boy Nicholas Indicated as the Divine Choice for Bishop.
The attitude of the Christian church toward pagan custom is well known. ”

“ None so lost to virtue, none so devoid of art,
As he who fails to capture the empire of a heart;
He who knows not sympathy feels no fellow's woe,
Will never feel the rapture of happiness below;
God planted seeds of pity in every human breast,
And he who loses most of woe secures most of rest:
Love is man's all, his conqueror, his cordial and wine,
The measure of his inner life that stamps him as divine. ”

“ Nicholas the fact has been kept constantly prominent that St. Nicholas is more famed for deeds than for doctrine. His rôle was not in general that of the apostle extending the boundaries of Christendom nor that of the expounder of creed. His fame rests on his kindly acts. But it was inevitable that the authority of so beloved and so influential a personage should be invoked in support of orthodoxy. In the Golden Legend mere mention is made of the presence of St. Nicholas at that meeting of critical importance, the Council of Nice. ”

“ It is quite apparent that the journeys of Santa Claus by night over the housetops, and his various chimney escapades, are beneath the dignity of the reverend Bishop of Myra, formally canonized by the medieval church as St. Nicholas. In appearance, too, Santa Claus is more like an elf, or one of the other beings of Teutonic mythology, than like the Christian bishop whom early artists were fond of representing in full episcopal vestments, with miter, pallium, and pastoral staff. ”

“ Nicholas fairs are no longer held in the streets, at any rate, not in the large towns of Holland, but exchange of presents is as universal as ever, and the shops are as festive in appearance as American shops at Christmas time. [14] New attractions for children are offered each year. Life-sized figures of St. Nicholas are frequent in front of shop windows, and some establishments have a man dressed like the good saint, who goes about the streets mounted on a white steed, while behind him follows a cart laden with presents to be delivered. ”