Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-04-24
WHO HAVE LIVED aERE BEFORE
ES-A CURI0US LOT OF OLD FELs-
laws.

WHO HAVE LIVED HERE BAEOhE
US-A CUBIoUS LOT or OLD FEA.-
I.Ows.
The Troglodytes were a queer people,
who are supposed TO have been the pre-
decessors of the mOundbuildeTs. They
We're so called by some stupid fellow
whose head had been so crammed with
Greek terms in his youth that when q
man he couldn't say "cave-dwellers." ["
The Troglodytes were barbarous, so
brutal that when their caves have been
ound, suspicious antiquarians have
ever looked for imprints Of cailosities
and of caudal appendages upon the
floors Of Troglodytic parlors. The old
fellows were successful fishermen, and
vet are supposed TO constitute the miss
ing link, which Darwin has sought IN
successfully 10 discover outside Of a
hoard of aldermen, between men and
monkeys. These Troglodytes bur-
rowed in the ground and ate even
rbe bones and hides Of animals.
Their beverage was a mixture of blood
and milk. They were freelovers, as are
most savages, and were first historically
mentioned by Strabo. In caves con-
tanning their remains are found bones
of the mastoGOn,. an animal of which
they were contemporaries. No mastOdon
bones are found in the earthwOrks of
rnOund-builders, and, therefore, it is
concluded that the Troglodytes were the
predecessors on earth of those who rear
ed the curious mounds, encountered
everywhere in the valley of the Missis-
sippi. These mound-buiIders were, per-
laps, Of the race that built pyramids in
Egypt and Mexico, and temples every
where in Central America and
Mexico, and majestic buildings Of
massive stone in Arizona. Mounds
and pyramids subserved the same
unknown purpose. How incon-
,,si vabIy old these mounds may be
Deco mes apparent when the only metal
know n in the age of their creation was
eoppe.r, and the only implements Of war
or industry were Of flint or copper. In
dians. even in DeSotO's time, had no ira
dition that told the story Of the mound
builders, and ages before these had
upreared the strange repositories for the
dead. now ana then fortified and again
used as stations for signal fires, the
Troglodytes we're paving the way for the
coming moundpuilder, the precursor of
the red man, whooe fate was written
few days ago in Csnby's blood.
Thus We have a succession OF
races, each perhaps superior in every
element OF godlike intelligence to its
predecessor. Such is the commonly re-
ceived opinion, mast fiatteriug TO our
selfishness, which We can hardly accept.
But admitting the plain facts that the
fourth distinctive race now occupies this
continent, two having utterly perished,
and these two utterly forgotten, and the
third moribund, may we not conclude
that our rmerger into higher order Of in
teIligence is possible? Very certainly
A merica is the oldest of continents.
There is nothing in Egypt as old as the
civil lizstion that lifted up buildings Of
stone. now half buried on sandy plains
of the Nrest, and no subsisting works OF
human b ands on the banks of the Nile
are older than countless mounds that
dot the p-alries along the railwayto Lit
lie Rock. Noah was not born, and Eve
had never hid her bushes amid
Eden's roses when Troglodytes disap-
peared and n1Oundbuilders came and
Egyptians dreamed, as HerOditus tells,
of Atlantis, a continent west of Africa.
The oldest civilization Of our race flour
ished, rose and fell even here. SO old is
fhis civilization, so drearily old, and so
little is known, and 50 few traces are left
Of lives spent at periods so remote, that
imagination falters when it would lead
thought backward into such darkness.
But may not the time come when future
dweIIers even here viii examine feeble
traces we may leave Oh the shores OF
ahis majestic river and Oh those Of
lime with the same curious eager
ness that we indulge when pry-
ing into mysteries that invest the for
mer dwelling places Of TroglOdytes and
Of fmoundbuilders. Not only do the in
ferior disappear when in contact with
superior races, but the fate Of the su-
p,srior race seems as inevitable. Mounds
are monuments to the potency Of death,
poin ting backward TO creations dawn,
even as monuments which we uplift are
index fingers to a glorious Immortality.