The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-11-01


nying that. With an existence Of 96O
and nine years before him, man could
do muoh. He could be his own "oldest
lnhabitant" and ''never remember any
thing;" II Shakespeare, he could cele.
Drate his own tercentenary; he could
look back with pride upon at least 200
constitutional crises aud 900 successive
seasons which brought the green pea of
the spring und the fresh oyster of the
full. In those blissful ages, when time
was reckoned by the m ,nths instend of
by the hours, and men set their eight
year clocks by the sixty-three year CO.
mets, fellow could, if luziIy inclined,
lie In bed till September, or go on ten
years drunk. When he went out to
make friendly call. he could say to his
family: "So.long; I'm Just going to drop
into Methuselah' g for couple of years;
dcc'. :"s!t diHuer for me-" or, address
ing his toddling infant of eighty, he
might give him permission to go out
and play till 1895. but insist on his COM
ing home then, 80 as not to keep his
fond parent sitting up for him. Life
assurance would be cheap under suoh q
system, and the rate OF interest, when q
man gave notes at GOO years, renewable
for 800 years more, must necessarily
have been proportionately low.
The peculiarities of pre-. .Noachic ex.
istence would have been made most
strikingly manifest had three or four of
these old inners padded their own ca
noe thro lgh the food, survived, iu.
creased aud multiplied.
$50, would observe hale old man
OF 3Oo to his companion, jolly, middle
ageu septcontonsrisn, "they are Mt it
ngain. pratiDg of reforms and amend-
nents. aud cnnetitntione!ity, &c ns, who
remembered the Heptnrchy. Alfred
died the year was born, but re1nem.
Der William as we'll as if it was only yes-
terday. 1 was only child then. Wen,
well. Bill! was good fellow. Once"
eyes" mi ght interrupt here beard.
less youth OF $50, 'my uncle often told
Little boys" would interpose the
senior, IN tones Of dignifed robnke.
must be seen. not heard. If you can
not keep still while your elders are
speaking, Elem, my son. the nurse must
put you to bed. Well, as T was saw
ing"
"rrue. true" here would obser ve La
mech, land what snobbishness it is in
ioiKs TO Talk OF their long descent and
Norman or hnickorbocker ancestors.
We remember oil that, don't We? We'll.
we'll, everybody had ancestors then. only
they cant all trace theni.'
farvenns, imlnech, parvenue, nil of
them. Talk of your cid families to me.
whose grent- ramembers
Adam. We've seen d thing or two in our
century. Confonnd tho rheumutism.
caught cold sitting in draft about the
end of the fifteenth century. and evarv
hundre years or so I have twinue of
it."
''That was about the time Christie.
phcr Columbus sailed to discover Am.ri-
ca"
'Tho samo year. Poor Chris! I knew
him we'll. You knew Smith,"
"Kirby?"
mo; John, the fellow that Pocahon-
tas got struck with. But you were only
boy at that time" And 30 these oil,
fogies would prattle on. 1t is parhups
Just as we'll that Noah had no spare
state rooms in tho ark, as a surviving
antedliuvIan would have been as fly in
precious ointment. A man sitting at
yonr table whose memory went back to
,3UU odd-who commenced his anec.
dotes by moralizng: ut WAS inst 700
years ago today. when I'-who had
dhudlad the founder of one ariatocrntic
fnmily on his knee in 17l2, and distinct
" recalled the author Of another noble
line in the junk business such q
man at large, society would be unsafe,
The manners and customs of that acs
would peculiarly impress us. Fancy a
blushing and awkward girl of $50, in
pantiets. listening to the avowul of a
promising young lawyer of 400. or d
clever young sophomore OF 375, or nm
antediluyian ''od family" Into what
insignificance would shrink the purplel
centuries OF Nassau. Iapsbnrg, Guelph
or Boirbohl Aud as for an ante iluyian
Susan Is. Anthony, tho mind recoils mt
tho thought as Of something entirely be.
yond conception.
The revival of these happy days hae,
however. not yet come. It is the error.
not tho fault, of many truly great and
-oo'i nrn and women that they discount
the fntu,r, and are nbnsed for laboripg
under "a. appears to the vulgar and
nn"eI'lmental IL hallucination. 10 play
the nntedilnvian under n postdiInyj, n
dlspcDsation is nonsense. 1t would bu
we'll, for pew.holler aud preacher, read
er and writer. could nll remember that
there has been II llood. and tho dura.
.,E