As he determined to proceed, the thorns turned out phantoms, the wild beasts powerless ghosts, and the river only a shadow.
When we march on obstacles disappear.

Many distinguished foreign and American statesmen were present at a fashionable dinner party where wine was freely poured, but Schuyler Colfax, then Vice-President of the United States, declined to drink from a proffered cup.

"Colfax does not drink," sneered a Senator who had already taken too much.

"You are right," said the Vice-President, "I dare not." A Western party recently invited the surviving Union and Confederate officers to give an account of the bravest act observed by each during the Civil War.

Colonel Thomas W.Higginson said that at a dinner at Beaufort, S.C., where wine flowed freely and ribald jests were bandied, Dr.Miner, a slight, boyish fellow who did not drink, was told that he could not go until he had drunk a toast, told a story, or sung a song.
He replied: "I cannot sing, but I will give a toast, although I must drink it in water.