business to mind; and just as the Primrose shrivelled and died, the Violet was loosed from earth, and, with a cheer that escaped him in spite of his resolution, he broke away from his old home without so much as an adieu, and made directly towards the sun setting, as he had intended. "Ah!" he said to himself, "I'll soon be famous-men will learn to speak of me with respect and admiration; for I'll find out the secret of the sun, and come back and tell all about it, notwithstanding that I once lived in that mean hole east there;" and he quickened his pace again as he thought of it. So he wandered all day, till the sun-setting, when he sat down to see if he was making any progress. He could not convince himself that he had made much; but then he thought, "It is a great work, and doubtless demands much time;" and in sheer weariness he lay down on the bank to rest. He had not lain very long, when he was rudely shaken, and, looking up, he saw his friend the Fairy and a great number of others, some of them with heads like men, and others with the strangest appearance; but almost all of them giggling, and laughing, and dancing about in the oddest manner. "Rise, and join us!" said the Fairy. "I need rest," said the Violet, rubbing his eyes and looking round in amaze ment. "We are your friends," said the Fairy, "and friendship is better than sleep." "I don't know that," the Violet ventured to say, a little shortly, for he was almost unable to keep his eyes open. "We'll prove it to you," said a pair of Compasses and a Triangle, that trotted up together, and peered into the Violet's face, in a way that would have been disrespectful if it hadn't been so evidently serious. "We are masters of the ceremonies," said they, "and look to the rules; so get up; it is our pleasure so! When the rest dance, we work; but for all that, we're the masters here!" "It's all right," said the Fairy, who had all this time been listening; "take this, and that will do for sleep, and better too;" and he gave the Violet a little | white powder and sprinkled some liquid over his face." "Put the powder on your tongue,” said a Fairy Leaf that came up at the moment, "and that'll make you right;" and he turned and pirouetted away again. The Violet did as he was bid, and in a moment - O, delightful sensation!—all weariness had vanished; and, like the others, he felt impelled to dance and sing. It was as though all the dull bliss of growing was pressed or concentrated into a single instant of time. So he mixed with the rest, and gave himself up to the spirit of the party, and poured forth his thoughts to any one that would listen, in language so sweet and convincing that he wondered at himself. A Drumhead was very attentive and proved a remarkably good listener, gaining the Violet's respect immensely by his quietness, and his easy way of saying "Ha, ha!" "Yes, yes!" "So!" "Quite so!" "Re-ally!" "Do you say so!" "Hum!" "Well, I never!" and so forth. The awkward thing was, that they were followed by a Trombone, whose weakness was not to listen, but to make himself heard, as he went alongside blowing every now and then, on which the Drumhead once or twice whispered to the Violet, "He's a good fellow, and very useful to me, but he's cracked, quite cracked with vanity,"-here touching his forehead significantly-"and one must just humor him." When the first faint light of morning came, all the Fairies vanished, and the Violet felt solitary and worn out. But whenever he thought of his great object, he resolved to go on. So he wandered for awhile, till the sun became strong, and, reaching the border of a field, he thought to himself that he had better lie down and rest. But the buzzing of bees, and the chirping of crickets, and the singing of birds, and the very sound of the branches as they waved in the breeze that languidly stirred now and then, distressed him, and wouldn't let him sleep; and while he listened, as he really could not help doing, he began to fancy he heard words distinctly. At first it was just a vague hum, such as A VIOLET'S ADVENTURES. you, my reader, may sometimes have heard on suddenly coming close to a village school; but by-and-by he could more and more clearly make out words: "The Violet is full; the Violet is full!" He felt flattered at this notice; but turned round desiring sleep. He could not banish the words, however. They kept ringing in his ears, till his brain was quite in a fever, and he rose and walked on through the wood. The sun had sunk, and he had some difficulty in finding his way, as he had nothing to guide him aright now. He was sorry that he had not asked some advice on the point from the Compasses and the Triangle, who seemed to be so grave and so knowing; but he had not mentioned his secret to them, as he had not any opportunity of asking the Fairy if it would be right for him to do so. The windings of the wood and the confused state of his mind at length made him loose all reckoning. He tried and tried to discover his exact whereabouts, but could not manage it, and went round and round in a maze as it seemed to him. To his horror, as he sat on a bank looking about, he beheld a great red bull feeding quite close to him, and at sight of it he rose and ran, for he was afraid of being eaten up and dying the most terrible of deaths. He was sure it was following him, and held on wildly, till his breath was almost spent in his breast. He fell prone into a field, over a tree root, from beneath which, as it chanced, a Mole was just then looking out. "Ah!" said the Mole, "you're in haste, and hasty folks are seldom well served. You look faint-can I do anything for you?" "I want water sorely," said the Violet. "You'll have plenty of it soon enough,' said the Mole. "If it hadn't been for that, you wouldn't have found me here just at this moment." And as he spoke thunder pealed through the wood, lightning darted through the trees, and struck some of them, rending their strong trunks in pieces. "Come into my house!" said the Mole, roughly pulling the Violet, "till I close the door against the rain. It was for 245 that I came up, and I may be too late, and we may both be ruined." And he at once set to throwing up earth in all directions. The atmosphere was so close, and the place so dark, that the Violet thought he would have died; but the Mole pulled him along passage after passage-up and down, and down and up-till they came to a round hall, and there they sat down. "I wonder to see you out at such a time," said the Mole. "I was seeking for my home-I'd lost my way," answered the Violet; for he remembered what the Fairy had said about keeping his great search a secret; but his chief reason was that he thought the Mole would laugh if he was told that a Violet had been trying to find where the sun went to when it set and sank out of sight. And then he began to describe the hill at the foot of which he had lived for so long. "Oh, that must be Snow-cap," said the Mole; "you're very nearly lost in your own castle, for it's just at the border of the wood. If you keep round to the left five minutes, or even less, will bring you to it. But you can stay here quietly for the night, and then leave in the morning." To this the Violet, faint to exhaustion, at length agreed, and lay down. But there was little rest for him. The Mole was busy most part of the night. Now and again, the Violet heard the rain patter-pattering on the earth above, and a thunder-peal would rise over all else, and then he would tremble, so that the Mole would stop working, and look at him, and laugh to himself quietly, as he poked his sharp nose and hand-like paws in the wet earth. "He's a tender fellow," thought the Mole; "but Violets are a good sort, and not given to travel. He looks as if he'd had trouble, and so I'm glad I befriended him. His folk may serve me some day, who knows?" At length the morning came, clear and calm; the air and the sky, with their freshness and odor, seeming as though Nature strove through them to atone for her angry passion of the night. The Mole pointed out the way to the Violet, and after warm expressions of gratitude, When he awoke, he found changes among his neighbors, though his absence had been so short. Some had gone away, others had come. The WoodSorrels and the Starworts were in the lodgings the Cousins Primrose and Cowslip had had, and the Ferns had added to their family, and were all the prouder and more overbearing looking that they had got a little red-headed. The Violet took in these facts as he opened his eyes in a half-dreamy way, and he felt that he was being scanned and criticized by all and sundry around, and that the Ferns were speaking about him to the others in a very disparaging manner. At first the Violet could not make out the words, but he shut his eyes and listened intently, and was sure he caught, amongst the gabble of flower dialects, "The Violet is full! the Violet is full!" and he was seized with terrible chagrin and self-contempt in thinking of the airs he had given himself towards his neighbors before he had set out to find the secret of the sun. "And here I am again," he thought, "and perhaps they will contrive to make the place too hot for me. If they do, I'll take staff in hand once more and ascend the hill; they can't follow me there!" The days passed slowly and heavily, and the Violet did not feel any more at peace; his neighbors treated him coldly, and seemed to combine against him, and kept up a constant chatter in which he was sure he heard himself named. So one fine morning he started, saying to himself "It may be all for the best. Why should I remain to disturb their peace or destroy my own self-respect by staying. among people who despise me? I've heard say it's cold up there, but I deserve no better, and perhaps even there I may grow a little!" So with a sore and humbled heart he set forth on his road. He journeyed for three days, only resting as long as to enable him to take refreshment. On the evening of the third day he found himself resting on a jutting spur of the mountain. The sun was sinking, and as he looked he suddenly exclaimed— "I have found the secret, when I no more hoped to gain it, but only peace and quietness. Instead of traveling the plains, one must clamber higher and higher up towards the cold snow-peaks to see the sun the longer. Perhaps if I struggle to the top of this mountain it may be made all clear to me." So, nerved with a new hope, he pushed on day by day, higher and higher, till he reached near to the summit, where patches of snow lingered in the shaded hollows even until summer time. There was a murmur of water and a cold air stirring, but he said to himself "I like it; this is the place for me." And planting himself in a crevice where some grass grew sweet and green on a little ridge, he settled himself and waited for the sunset. It was so glorious that it completely overwhelmed him; for long after the sun was lost to all below he could see it, and see it growing more brilliant and beautiful every moment. "It's worth the trouble and the sacrifice," said the Violet; "here will I abide and do my duty, and strive to grow in the added light of the sun; and though men may call me the Mountain Violet, and tell of my past foolish ambitions, that will not matter, since they will once more speak of me with respect, if not with honor, and since in spite of the coldness of my dwelling, I shall be longer than any of my old friends in the blessed light of the sun." H. A. Page. MORMON AND JEW—A MODERN PARALLEL. 247 MORMON AND JEW-A MODERN PARALLEL. DURING the last few months the people of this mighty nation have been placing themselves in a somewhat absurd position, for whilst they have been gushing over the barbarities practiced upon the Jews in Russia, they have at the same time been working themselves into a state of almost unexampled excitement with regard to the imaginary iniquities of a few of their own citizens whose chief sin, according to popular clamor, lies in the practice of a principle especially regulated and commanded by the greatest of all Jewish lawgivers, Moses, the prophet of the Lord, a practice further sanctioned and sustained by the greatest minds that have made the Jew ish race illustrious. The absurdity of the position of the unthinking masses of the people of the United States becomes all the more lamentable when we recollect that whilst in Russia the ignorant populace have been murdering Jews, ravishing their women, destroying their property and driving them from their homes, the same barbarous treatment has been applaudingly advocated by prominent Americans as the proper mode of treatment to be used in the solution of the Mormon problem. That it has not been used is simply the result of providential circumstances. Were the Mormons scattered throughout the United States as the Jews are scattered in Russia they would be used just as ruthlessly; but being gathered together in one place, remote from the centres of hostile population, mob violence is not adopted, in fact, is not possible. That this is not overstrained is shown by the gross barbarities practiced upon the Latter-day Saints in Missouri and Illinois, at times when the excitement was less intense and less general than it has been of late. Want of opportunity, not want of will, must be acknowledged as the reason why we have not to deplore outrages as violent and bloodthirsty in this land as has disgraced, and is now disgracing the people of Russia. There is a marked similarity also in the action of the governments in both countries. It is openly charged that in Russia the government officials are at the bottom of these troubles, that where they do not secretly egg the populace on, they at any rate fail to protect the Jews or adequately punish their barbarous persecutors. In this country it is well understood that the destruction of the Mormon Church is recognized in political circles as an "administration measure," and all the power of the party lash has been applied to those Republicans who ventured to express their disapprobation of the violent measures sought to be used against the members of that church. Members of Congress have been bulldozed, threatened, cajoled, misrepresented, and abused until, for peace sake, they have quietly submitted to what they realized in their inmost souls was a most flagrant departure from both the letter and spirit of the grand old Constitution, and from the true genius of re. publican institutions. It may be well to draw attention to the causes that have led to these simultanious assaults on the two representative branches of the house of Israel-Judah and Ephraim. For though the pretexts for the onslaught are widely different, the originating and secondary causes are much the same. The hypocritical railers at polygamy, which is made the war-cry against the Latter-day Saints, have less true cause for their vindictive hatred than have even the ignorant masses of Muscovy in their fanatical outbursts against the Israelites. The charge of taking usury made against the latter may sometimes be true. But even if it be the Christian nations are themselves greatly responsible for the evil by preventing, through unwise and oppressive legislation, the Jews from engaging in many legitimate trades, businesses and professions open to other citizens. But in both cases the popular war-cry is only a subterfuge, and in that of the "Mormons" one of the most remarkable instances in the world's history of "Satan rebuking sin," even if plural marriage be a sin, which we deny. What will future generations think of a nation of adulterers persecuting, proscribing and punishing a people for getting married. Consistency whither hast thou fled! The originating cause of this present crusade against Israel is unperceived by men. It lies in the hidden mysteries of the history of this world. The times of the Gentiles are nearly fulfilled, and the hour is close at hand when He whose right it is to reign shall reign and rule and triumph. Satan perceives his time is short and is stirring up the hearts of those whom he controls to war upon those who are the heirs to the promises; promises made by Jehovah, the fulfilment of which cannot be prevented. From this originating cause proceeds another, which indeed is closely allied to its original. But it is perceived by men who cannot fathom the mysteries of the just, which, first revelation alone can explain. It is the echo of that pitiful wail of the Pharisees of old, that their place and nation would be taken from them. Strange though it may appear a dread has come over the nations with regard to the rapid growth of these two branches of Jacob's favored race. Regarding the Saints in these valleys, the readers of the CONTRIBUTOR are aware that while years ago it was the fashion to belittle us and our efforts, the policy of time-servers has now changed and the works and doings of the "Mormon" are everywhere exaggerated. It is claimed that we are holding a political power that controls all this region, that that power is growing so rapidly that before many years we shall hold the balance of political power in the whole nation. This is a calamity, according to the ideas of some, to be so greatly dreaded that no measures are too outrageous to prevent it; but why we should not have the same political rights as others is a question that they have never been able to rightly answer. The Constitution of the United States makes no provision for the dividing of the citizens into two political parties and only two, and that all others who decline to be numbered with either one of those parties should be ostracized, disfranchised and expatriated. The Constitution was never intended for such vile purposes, but some partizans seem to act as though the supreme law of the land made it treason for any man not to affiliate with one or other of the dominant factions that are to-day destroying the liberties of this Republic. But enough with regard to ourselves. Let us turn to the Jews. The same dread with regard to them is taking possession of the masses in Europe, as is felt in America with regard to the people of Utah. Like us they are increasing more rapidly than the surrounding populations. It is but a decade or so ago that their disabilities in the leading nations of the old world were partially or wholely removed, but already they are pushing into prominence as the men who politi cally and financially hold the destinies of nations in their hands. The time to favor Israel has come! Let us examine whether this apprehension regarding the more rapid increase of the Jews than of their Christian fellow citizens is warranted by facts. A late statesman states that "the Jews in Europe have generally fewer children than the Catholics and the Protestants, but they do not lose so many of their children. They marry younger, and relatively the proportion of illegitimate births is half of that of the Christians in France, and two thirds of that in Russia and Prussia. As to their numerical increase, it is as three to two with the Protestants, and three to one with the Catholics." It is this last clause that shows where the apprehensions of the Christian populations find their origin; still if it were not for the facts that this development proves that a new vitality had been infused into the old stock, we, with others, would be led to suggest that "These figures do not explain much, and we are somewhat astonished at the statisticians who are frightened, and say, what will become of the Christian countries covered by the rising tide of Judaism? Early Christianity has overcome a much. more terrible flood of paganism, and it |