The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-02-21
Aeleese.LWhs Was Neps.,e.

fond Of him that he had him for hi
breakfast the morning he was born
Most fathers would havesslt very bad
at the early demise Of their child. Sat
urn did, but it was only because of in
digestion. He did not take the matter
at hear at all, but rather to the place
whore the whale took Jonah. As We
have said, Saturn was q good deal hurt
L,s>he siisl ingrstitude Of Neptune N
fusing te-digest, and, at hast he forcibly
elected him from his premises.
Saturn made u digest of the laws
passed, by the legislature, besides Q
number of tough and ridiculous things
and he. had not Anticipated any difficult
ty in throwing away = trifing deity oil
two.
When Neptune was released he joinst
with his brothers in their rebellion
against their stern parent, and was th'
object of particular hatred on the par
Of Saturn. The indignant old gentle
man struck at him q large number o
times, but his musical faculty wa
poorly developed, and never could
strike a trne of any kind-Nep, o.
otherwise.
Saturn was time itself, and, at the
end Of fourteen days, he, Of course, be
came too weak TO make any resistance
and had to succumb.s So
When the wal was over, he became
saturine and refused any comfort, or
in fact, bed clothes of any kind, but n
was not left ont in the cold by a grea'
deal.
Jupiter confined him in TartarIs
where he iaRguished in hopeless impris
onment.
The universe was divided by . sort o.
rule of three between the brothers
Neptune took a notionto the ocean, ant
proceeded to seize the a He pro
claimed himself monarch of all no sur
Iyeyed. How many acres that vas Il
not stated, but il is likely he surveyed
enough for his immediate existence, Al
it would have been almost impossible te
have measured the whole ocean. Nep'
tune built himself splendid palace be
meath the wave. All the wood work
was made of sea-der, and painted in nj
ira marine. 1t had nearly all the mod
ern convenienees; although there wa;
no gas, he had water all over the house
Mother-of Pearl vas engaged for his
housekeeper. Neptune helped to do the
heaviest part of-the building himself
for, although not by any means a pow.
erful god, he had a good deal of muscle
Neptune was rather a good-lookins
deity. He is represented on ancient
gems as scudding over the sea in a hall
shell, under bare poles, with a mere
trife as to garments upon his person.
He carried a three-pronged hay-fork ii
his hand, while dolphins and mermen
gamboled around him. From the fact
that Pharaoh was lost in the Red Sea, 1t
Is not unlikely that they may have
found him. and made him their game.
This is only surmise, however.
Neptune was married to two or three
He was quite fearless of the
perils of matrimony. Being in the
ocean all the time, he Knew that there
was no danger of getting into hot water
on account of il.
His ~favorite spouse was Amphitrite.
She had two children; Triton was the
He was his fathers trumpeter.
He was by no means q violent god, but
he frequently came to blows, although
it is not stated what he did when he got
them. He performed with some caste
the couch shell, and was the patron
deity Of canal boatmen. Some one has
stated that his favorite air vas .'Shells
of the Ocean" bat this is very likely a
poor gag, as Triton lived under water
and had no air Of any kind, and the
song was,wr;tten by Socrates long after
ward.
Triton had \ sister named Rhoda, who
was woed by the Sun God, and won, il
form Of n waterspout. Not the tin kind
however, that adorn the outside dwell
ling houses
Another Of N~eptuns's wives wa.
Iphemedia. She had two sons mar
ried, Olus and Ephialtes, who were 81
ants in those days, and probably wonlt
have been in these if they had lived.
These precious and fistine urchins
when they were nine years old, at
tempted to scale heaven by piling tn,
T~essalian mountains on each other
Their father wisely ordered them TO de
sis., so they contented themselves b,
scaling the finny creatures who sportet
in the back yard-
The Cyclope Polyphemus was the son o
Neptune and Thoosa. This interesting
young man was chiefly remarkable fol
having only one eye, which detrscted
somewhat from the beauty of his gen,
ersl appearance, but it was on the Who'll,
rather economical, rs he had to pay only
half price for spectacles, and he could
not by the remotest possibility become
croS-eyed.
He studied blacksmithing for q pro.
f~ession, and taking lessons in blowing
from Triton, he eventually became
quite proficient at the bellows. The
same qualifications would have fitted
him for a politician, but he wished to be
an honest and respectable god, so he re-
fused to entertain the idea.
Neptune did some good things in his
time. Ii is said that he and Minerva
contended for the right to name the city
of Athens, and the gods declared in IA
vor of the one who should produce the
article most useful TO man.