Truth Withheld—See [Discretion].
TRUTHFULNESS REWARDED
I remember once hearing of a boy who was very, very poor. He lived in a foreign country, and his mother said to him one day that he must go into the great city and start in business, and she took his coat and cut it open and sewed between the lining and the coat forty golden dinars, which she had saved up for many years to start him in life. She told him to take care of robbers as he went across the desert; and as he was going out of the door she said: “My boy, I have only two words for you, ‘Fear God, and never tell a lie.’” The boy started off, and toward evening he saw glittering in the distance the minarets of the great city, but between the city and himself he saw a cloud of dust; it came nearer; presently he saw that it was a band of robbers. One of the robbers left the rest and rode toward him, and said: “Boy, what have you got?” And the boy looked him in the face and said: “I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat.” And the robber laughed and wheeled round his horse and went away back. He would not believe the boy. Presently another robber came, and he said: “Boy, what have you got?” “Forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat.” The robber said: “The boy is a fool,” and wheeled his horse and rode away back. By and by the robber captain came, and he said: “Boy, what have you got?” “I have forty golden dinars sewed up in my coat.” And the robber dismounted and put his hand over the boy’s breast, felt something round, counted one, two, three, four, five, till he counted out the forty golden coins. He looked the boy in the face and said: “Why did you tell me that?” The boy said: “Because of God and my mother.” And the robber leaned on his spear and thought, and said: “Wait a moment.” He mounted his horse, rode back to the rest of the robbers, and came back in about five minutes with his dress changed. This time he looked not like a robber, but like a merchant. He took the boy up on his horse and said: “My boy, I have long wanted to do something for my God and for my mother, and I have this moment renounced my robber’s life. I am also a merchant. I have a large business house in the city. I want you to come and live with me, to teach me about your God; and you will be rich, and your mother some day will come and live with us.” And it all happened. (Text.)—Henry Drummond.
(3313)
TUBERCLE BACILLI MAGNIFIED SEVERAL THOUSAND TIMES
TUBERCULOSIS
For the following facts and suggestions we are indebted to “The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis,” New York:
Consumption, or tuberculosis, is a disease of the lungs which is taken from others, and is not simply due to catching cold. It is generally caused by germs, known as tubercle bacilli, which enter the body with the air breathed. The matter which consumptives cough or spit up usually contains these germs in great numbers, and if those who have the disease spit upon the floor, walls or elsewhere, the matter will dry, become powdered, and any draught or wind will distribute the germs in it with the dust in the air. Any person may catch the disease by taking in with the air he breathes the germs spread about in this manner. He may also contract the disease by taking into his system the germs contained in the small drops of saliva expelled by a consumptive when coughing or sneezing. It should be known that it is not dangerous to live with a consumptive if the matter coughed up by him is properly disposed of.
Consumption may be cured at home in many instances if it is recognized early and proper means are taken for its treatment. When a member of a family is found to have consumption and can not be sent to a sanatorium, arrangements for taking the cure at home should be made as soon as the disease is discovered.