An important discussion has been going on for a few weeks in the New York papers, concerning the advisability of closing the dry goods stores on Saturday afternoons. Clerks have no day for recreation or for improvement except Sabbath. The same is true of nearly all classes of laboring people. The result is that the Sabbath, instead of being a day of religious rest, is turned into one of pleasure, and often of extra work. A half holiday would enable busy workers to prepare for Sabbath. It is a reform in the arrangement of time that is worthy the attention of Christian people particularly.
There is a capital hint in the following story, told by a lady prominent in mission school work in one of our large cities: “We had some of our Chinese pupils at a church sociable a few nights ago, and we had at supper some candies which are rolled up in paper with printed couplets inclosed—some of them extremely silly. The Chinese boys read them and looked surprised, but were too polite to say anything. Soon afterward they gave an entertainment, and the same sort of candies were provided; but when we unrolled the papers we found they had taken out the foolish verses and had substituted texts of Scripture printed on little slips of paper.”
Here are a few of M. Bartholdi’s interesting figures about his great Statue of Liberty: “The forefinger is 96½ inches in length, and 56½ inches in circumference at the second joint. The nail measures 17¾ inches by 10½ inches. The head 13¾ feet in height. The eye is 25½ inches in width. The nose is 44 inches in length. About forty persons were accommodated in the head at the Universal Exposition of 1878. It is possible to ascend into the torch above the hand. It will easily hold twelve persons.” Compared with other colossi it far outstrips them all, being about three times the height of both the statue of Bavaria and of the Virgin of Puy, and about 58 feet higher than the Arminius in Westphalia.
The French Republic would not allow the remains of Victor Hugo to be placed in the Pantheon until that celebrated structure was again secularized. The priests were allowed just forty-eight hours to vacate the sacred precincts which, as a church, they had held uninterruptedly since 1877. This action plainly shows the position of the Republic toward the Church. “French skeptics,” says The Nation, “are not content, like English or German skeptics, with ceasing to go to church.… They insist on proclaiming in every possible way their hostility to the clergy.” The fact that the Pantheon is again restored to its primitive design as “a last resting place for distinguished public men” can but be pleasing to all.