Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1873-08-15
local.

QLVSszks
A CEHTJaY AND A HALF AGo-A QUEER OLD
BooK.-There is a very queer old English Geog-
raphy in this county, considerably over an hun
dred and fifty years old which has been laid on our
table for inspection, by Mr.. P. H Wheeler, liv-
ing near Centreville, who is great collector of
literary antiquities. 1t is printed in the old
style, and filled with rude maps, which are veri-
fed as being "from the latest observations
The author says it has been ascertained that the
world is round, fact, he says, ''now beyond
all dispute, and never, lat least very rarely, J
called in question, except it be only by Women
and Children" The work shows how to tell the
time on the globe by brass rod, by which the
student can 'know by the globe when the Great
Nogul of India, and Gear of Muscovia sit down
to dinner" and the student, by this method is in
formed that he "can find the Babylonick hour"
which is the 'thours of the day from the hour OF
the sun-rising,' or the "Italic hour" which is
"from sun-rising, at all times of the year, to
un-setting the next day." or the Judaical
hour" which is 'sof the ancient Jews, who d.
vided their artificial day into twelve hours and
nights into the same.'' The work, containing
45 amazing geographical paradoxes, of which
here are some samples Par. 8. There is a GER
tain island in the Aegean sea upon which if two
children were brought forth at the same instant
of time and, living together for several years,
both should expire on the same day, yea, at the
same hour and minute of that day, yetthe life OF
one would surpass the life of the other by divers
months, Par. Is There is remarkable place
in the Globe of the Earth, of very pure and
wholesome air, to breath in, yet, of such a
Strange and Detestable Quality, that it is abso-
lutely impossible for two of the Entirest Friends
that ever breathed to continue in the same IN
mutual Love and Friendship for the Space of two
Minutes of time. Par. 30. There are certain
people in South America who are properly furn-
ished with only one of the five senses, viz, that
Of Touching, and yet they can both hear and
see, taste and smell, and that as nicely as we
Europeans who have all five. Par. 81. There is
o certain country in South America, many OF
whose savage inhabitants are such unheard OF
cannibals that they not only feed upon human
Flesh, but also several of them actually eat them
selves, and yet they commonly survive that
strange repast Very little was known of Ameri-
ca, and there is very little about it, its "chief'
rivers, the Patomeck, Riviere de la Ware,
and the Sequebana being put down as in Terra
Canadensis, and of unknown length. Russia
was called Muscovia then, with Moscow as Its
capitol, and unhappy Poland was then King
dom, with Cracow as its capitol city. The
French people of that day are described as ''com-
plete masters of the Art of Discrimination, and
above all things Contentious" The Germans
are reported as "a very solid and honest sort OF
people. The trading part of them are. found to
be extremely fair in their dealings and ambitious
to keep up the SO much renowned sincerity OF
their forefathers. They are also said to have
''found out that most useful Art of Printing, but
the Hollanders do eagerly deny them the Honor
of that Invention" The work gives the
srarities" to be found in each country, and
as a sample we give that OF Holland : 1.-TWO
human skins, one of man and the other wo-
man, purely tanned and prepared like leather,
with pair of shoes made of such leather; an
other human skin dressed as parch ment the
Efigies of Peasant of Prussia, who swallowed
knife 10 inches long and is said to have lived
years after the same was cut out of his sto-
mach - shirt made of the entrails of man"
The Polanders are described as ia people who
expect great deal of respect, and, where that
is given, they never fail to make suitable re-
turn" The subjects of the Shah are described
az "Dissemblers, fatter and swearers," gov
erned by an Emperor commonly called "The
Great Sopby ofPersia''' Of Florida it says THE
people are gross idolaters, worshiping the whole
host of Heaven, especially the Sun. Several
missionaries were sent into this country in the
days of Charles ", but the savage Indians
quickly destroyed them" The close Of the
geography is devoted to Virginia, which it says
was discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1884
The whole soil, it says, is "Strangely intermi1-
ed with oystershells, and some places they are
three or four yards deep" Among the ''rarltles''
in Virginia, it says that there isfound "a certain
kind of squirrel who at his pleasure, can stretch
out the skin of his sides, thighs and legs inch
in breadth, (almost like the wings Of bat, by
the help of which he leaps further and alights
more surely than the ordinary Sort and is therefore
called the flying squirrel" AS for Universities
in Virginia, "there is considerable seminary of
Learning lately established at st. jamestown,
which already meritT the title of college, and
we hope it will in Process of Time deserve the
name of an University" 1t gives man reflection
to look over these queer old pages, and makes him
wonder what the people a century and half
from now will think of our Biographies, which
we think as perfect as the people of that day
thought the book we have been extracting from.