Part 10

A comma is used to set off interposed words, phrases and subordinate clauses not restrictive; as, Good deeds are never lost, though sometimes forgotten.

A comma is used to set off transposed phrases and clauses, as, "When the wicked entice thee, consent thou not."

A comma is used to set off interposed words, phrases and clauses; as, Let us, if we can, make others happy.

A comma is used between similar or repeated words or phrases; as, The sky, the water, the trees, were illumined with sunlight.

A comma is used to mark an ellipsis, or the omission of a verb or other important word.

A comma is used to set off a short quotation informally introduced; as, Who said, "The good die young"?

A comma is used whenever necessary to prevent ambiguity.

The marks of parenthesis ( ) are used to inclose an interpolation where such interpolation is by the writer or speaker of the sentence in which it occurs. Interpolations by an editor or by anyone other than the author of the sentence should be inclosed in brackets--[ ].

Dashes (--) may be used to set off a parenthetical expression, also to denote an interruption or a sudden change of thought or a significant pause.

THE USE OF CAPITALS.

1. Every entire sentence should begin with a capital.

2. Proper names, and adjectives derived from these, should begin with a capital.

3. All appellations of the Deity should begin with a capital.

4. Official and honorary titles begin with a capital.

5. Every line of poetry should begin with a capital.

6. Titles of books and the heads of their chapters and divisions are printed in capitals.

7. The pronoun I, and the exclamation O, are always capitals.

8. The days of the week, and the months of the year, begin with capitals.

9. Every quotation should begin with a capital letter.

10. Names of religious denominations begin with capitals.

11. In preparing accounts, each item should begin with a capital.

12. Any word of special importance may begin with a capital.

THE NAME OF GOD IN FIFTY LANGUAGES.

Hebrew, Eleah, Jehovah; Chaldaic, Eiliah; Assyrian, Eleah; Syrian and Turkish, Alah; Malay, Alla; Arabic, Allah; Languages of the Magi, Orsi; Old Egyptian, Teut; Modern Egyptian, Teun; Armenian, Teuti; Greek, Theos; Cretan, Thios; Aedian and Dorian, Ilos; Latin, Deus; Low Latin, Diex; Celtic Gaelic, Diu; French, Dieu; Spanish, Dios; Portuguese, Deos; Old German, Diet; Provencal, Diou; Low Breton, Done; Italian, Dio; Irish, Dia; Olotu, Deu; German and Swiss, Gott; Flemish, God; Dutch, God; English, God; Teutonic, Goth; Danish and Swedish, Gud; Norwegian, Gud; Slav, Buch; Polish, Bog; Polacca, Bung; Lapp, Jubinal; Finnish, Jumala; Runic, As; Zembilian, As; Pannanlian, Istu; Tartar, Magatai; Coromandel, Brama; Persian, Sire; Chinese, Prussa; Japanese, Goezer; Madagascar, Zannar; Peruvian, Puchecammae.

FACTS ABOUT SPONGES. By Albert Hart.

Sponges belong to the animal kingdom, and the principal varieties used commercially are obtained off the coasts of Florida and the West Indies; the higher grades are from the Mediterranean Sea, and are numerous in variety.

A sponge in its natural state is a different-looking object from what we see in commerce, resembling somewhat the appearance of the jelly fish, or a mass of liver, the entire surface being covered with a thin, slimy skin, usually of a dark color, and perforated to correspond with the apertures of the canals commonly called "holes of the sponge." The sponge of commerce is, in reality, only the skeleton of a sponge. The composition of this skeleton varies in the different kinds of sponges, but in the commercial grades it consists of interwoven horny fibers, among and supporting which are epiculae of silicious matter in greater or less numbers, and having a variety of forms. The fibers consist of a network of fibriles, whose softness and elasticity determine the commercial quality of a given sponge. The horny framework is perforated externally by very minute pores, and by a less number of larger openings. These are parts of an interesting double canal system, an external and an internal, or a centripetal and a centrifugal. At the smaller openings on the sponge's surface channels begin, which lead into dilated spaces. In these, in turn, channels arise, which eventually terminate in the large openings. Through these channels or canals definite currents are constantly maintained, which are essential to the life of the sponge. The currents enter through the small apertures and emerge through the large ones.

The active part of the sponge, that is, the part concerned in nutrition and growth, is a soft, fleshy mass, partly filling the meshes and lining the canals. It consists largely of cells having different functions; some utilized in the formation of the framework, some in digestion and others in reproduction. Lining the dilated spaces into which different canals lead are cells surmounted by whip-like processes. The motion of these processes produces and maintains the water currents, which carry the minute food products to the digestive cells in the same cavities. Sponges multiply by the union of sexual product. Certain cells of the fleshy pulp assume the character of ova, and others that of spermatozoa. Fertilization takes place within the sponge. The fertilized eggs, which are called larvae, pass out into the currents of the water, and, in the course of twenty-four to forty-eight hours, they settle and become attached to rocks and other hard substances, and in time develop into mature sponges. The depth of the water in which sponges grow varies from 10 to 50 feet in Florida, but considerably more in the Mediterranean Sea, the finer grades being found in the deepest water, having a temperature of 50 to 57 degrees.

DON'T BE BURIED ALIVE.

From time to time we are horrified by learning that some person has been buried alive, after assurances have been given of death. Under these circumstances the opinion of a rising French physician upon the subject becomes of world-wide interest, for since the tests which have been in use for years have been found unreliable no means should be left untried to prove beyond a doubt that life is actually extinct before conveying our loved ones to the grave.

Dr. Martinot, as reported in the New York Journal, asserts that an unfailing test may be made by producing a blister on the hand or foot of the body by holding the flame of a candle to the same for a few seconds, or until the blister is formed which will always occur. If the blister contains any fluid it is evidence of life, and the blister only that produced by an ordinary burn. If, on the contrary, the blister contains only steam, it may be asserted that life is extinct. The explanation is as follows:

A corpse, says Dr. Martinot, is nothing more than inert matter, under the immediate control of physical laws which cause all liquid heated to a certain temperature to become steam; the epidermis is raised, the blister produced; it breaks with a little noise, and the steam escapes. But if, in spite of all appearances, there is any remnant of life, the organic mechanism continues to be governed by physiological laws, and the blister will contain serous matter, as in the case of any ordinary burns.

The test is as simple as the proof is conclusive. Dry blister: death. Liquid blister: life. Any one may try it; there is no error possible.

HOW TO SERVE WINE.

A fine dinner may be spoiled by not serving the proper wine at the proper time and at the proper temperature.

A white wine (Sauterne, Riesling, Moselle, etc.) should be used from the beginning of the meal to the time the roast or game comes on. With the roast serve red wine, either claret or Burgundy.

Use sparkling wines after the roast.

With dessert, serve apricot cordial.

Never serve red wine with soup or fish, and never a white wine with game.

Storage, Temperature, Etc.

Store your wines in the cellar at 50 to 60 degrees.

All bottles should lie flat so that the cork is continually moist.

This rule should be specially observed with sparkling wines. Sparkling wine should be served ice cold.

Put the wine on the ice--not ice in the wine.

Serve red wine at only about 5 degrees cooler than the dining-room.

White wine should be about 15 degrees cooler than the temperature of the room.

THE STEPS IN THE GROWTH OF AMERICAN LIBERTY.

MAGNA CHARTA.

About seven hundred years ago there was organized a movement which resulted in the great charter of English liberty--a movement which foreshadowed the battle of our American forefathers for political independence. On the 25th of August, 1213, the prelates and Barons, tiring of the tyranny and vacillation of King John, formed a council and passed measures to secure their rights. After two years of contest, with many vicissitudes, the Barons entered London and the King fled into Hampshire. By agreement both parties met at Runnymede on the 9th of June, 1215, and after several days' debate, on June 15, Magna Charta (the Great Charter), the glory of England, was signed and sealed by the sovereign. The Magna Charta is a comprehensive bill of rights, and, though crude in form, and with many clauses of merely local value, its spirit still lives and will live. Clear and prominent we find the motto, "No tax without representation." The original document is in Latin and contains sixty-one articles, of which the 39th and 40th, embodying the very marrow of our own State constitutions, are here given as translated in the English statutes:

"39. No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his freehold, or liberties or free customs, or be otherwise destroped [damaged], nor will be press upon him nor seize upon him [condemn him] but by lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

"40. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man, either right or justice."

The Great Charter recognizes a popular tribunal as a check on the official judges and may be looked upon as the foundation of the writ of Habeas Corpus. It provides that no one is to be condemned on rumor or suspicion, but only on the evidence of witnesses. It affords protection against excessive emercements, illegal distresses and various processes for debts and service due to the crown. Fines are in all cases to be proportionate to the magnitude of the offense, and even the villein or rustic is not to be deprived of his necessary chattels. There are provisions regarding the forfeiture of land for felony. The testamentary power of the subject is recognized over part of his personal estate, and the rest to be divided between his widow and children. The independence of the church is also provided for. These are the most important features of the Great Charter, which, exacted by men with arms in their hands from a resisting king, occupies so conspicuous a place in history, which establishes the supremacy of the law of England over the will of the monarch, and which still forms the basis of English liberties.

THE MECKLENBURG DECLARATION

More than a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence a document was drawn up that was almost a model in phraseology and sentiment of the great charter of American freedom. There are various accounts of this matter, but the most trustworthy is this:

At a public meeting of the residents of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, held at Charlotte on the 20th of May, 1775, it was

"Resolved, That whenever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form or manner countenanced, the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to our country--to America--and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man.

"Resolved, That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg County, do hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, contract or association with that nation, which has wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington.

"Resolved, That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are and of right ought to be a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government of the Congress. To the maintenance of which independence we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual cooperation, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

There are two other resolutions, concerning the militia and the administration of the law, but these, having no present value, are here omitted.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. In Congress, July 4, 1776.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature--a right inestimable to them, formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large, for their exercise, the state remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising conditions of new appropriation of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers, to harass our people, and to eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. For imposing taxes on us without our consent.

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.

For transporting us beyond the seas to be tried for pretended offenses.

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies.

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments.

For suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connection and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

The foregoing declaration was, by order of the Congress, engrossed, and signed by the following members:

JOHN HANCOCK

New Hampshire--Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.

Massachusetts Bay--Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry.

Rhode Island--Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.

Connecticut--Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York--William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris.

New Jersey--Richard Stockton. John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark.

Pennsylvania--Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.

Delaware--Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean.

Maryland--Samuel Chase, William Paco, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

Virginia--George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

North Carolina--William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina--Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton.

Georgia--Button Gwinett, Lyman Hall, George Walton.

The following clause formed part of the original Declaration of Independence as signed, but was finally left out of the printed copies "out of respect to South Carolina":

"He [King George III.] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither."

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I.

SECTION I.

1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

SECTION II.

1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature.

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and have been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.