The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-08-11

"H" humole itIle Worlu, III gives you no
conception of what exists here.
l like to have forgotten to mention
that the enjoyment of life is not absolute
ly universal. There are dozen or so
very grave persons, who are said to be
very good people, but they are very un-
social, and hold themselves very much
aloof from the other inhabitants. / am
told that there is something the matter
with their digestion they are called "dys-
peptics' and 1 suppose they came here
to drink the sulphur water.
P. S. My dear FRIEND I7haye received
strange information since 1 wrote the
above, and 1 hasten to tell you what
have learned. ..s
am Informed that most of the people
here do not recognize the authority of
God Isn't that strange 1 learn that
the Devil spends much of his time on this
planet, and that most of the inhabitants
worship him and recognize him as their
master. This, I am told, has been going
on about six thousand years, and about
four thousand years ago the people be-
came so bad, that the earth was swept by
flood, in which nearly the entire popu-
lation persisted. After this they multi
piled again, and strangest of all, I am told,
they go on in exactly the same way, fra
ternlzing with the Devil as before was
astonished to learn that these people here
rarely live beyond seventy years, and that
millions of them are swept off every year.
l learn that the Earth is a scene of uni
versal confusion, and that the bulk of the
inhabitants are in the most wretched con-
dition. They have fevers here, and all
sorts of diseases, and it requires the ut
most care to rear one of them from in
fancy to adult years. I am told, more
over, that they have great wars, in which
they kill each other by the thousand, and
that when this is not going on, that indi-
vlduals shoot, and stab, and poison one
another; and that they steal each others
clothes and jewels; and that they tell
lies on one another; and commit adultery;
and that the children disobey their pa
rents; and that each one is always trying
to get what belongs to another. The
great majority of them do not worship
God at all. Many of them, I am told,
worship idols At the White Sulphur
they have great idol whom they call
MONEY, and they believe that he can
make them happy, and they pray to him
for Gold, which they use to buy clothes.
Many of the visitors here are sick and
dying people, who cling nevertheless to
the worship of this idol, whose influence
over them is perfectly incomprehensible,
as they admit that his power to help
them never or very rarely lasts beyond
four-score years.
Most of the people here, I find, are
very wretched, which must of course be
the case in such world, but yet they 90
on In the frivolous way have described.
Even when Death stares them in the face
they flock to the Great Ballroom when
the music strikes up, and whirl around
In the dance as if urged on by some ire
sistible impulse. The grave people I
told you of are the only exceptions, and
they are called Mystics because they will
not, as the others express it, have "a good
time" If any one dies, they bury him
quickly out of sight, and the carriages
which drove them to the funeral, set them
down on their return at the ballroom
door.
L learn, moreover, (the most astonish
ing part of all this strange business that
a Messenger from Heaven has informed
these strange people that if they 90 on in
this way, ignoring and forgetting God,
and quarrelling and wrangling among
themselves, they are all to be sent to He'll,
to suffer forever; but that they do not
pay the slightest attention to the warn
ing, and continue to fight AMI to curse,
and to frolic and carouse, exactly as if
they were to live here forever.
You will see an old city-man here
perfectly goddess, supporting his lettering
steps on stick, who will spend the morn
ing looking at horse, which is repre-
IL