Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-02-13
NO. z.

that wooden cloth is found in normal cir
! cumstances that fabric would disappear far
more rapidly than linen.
The bronze remains found in the RhOne
Valley prove that the art Of Woodworking,
once acquired, was carried by these early
races to great perfection. They were ac-
! quainted with the processes of casting, tenn
! pering stamping and engraving metal With
| this discovery of q new art came simultane-
| Gus improvement in the potter's craft the
rude cups of the Neolithic age disappear and
are succeeded by vessels of an endless yGrie-
! ty of form and ornamentation, some of which
are extremely beautiful. Some of the vases
are inlaid with tin, others are marked with
the same patterns employed to decorate the
| Etruscan vases of Italy while others, found
| in the pile-dwellings of the Lake of Bourget,
| have representations of men and animals.
The collections of bronze jewelry are also
| abundant and curious. They consist Of brace
lets, armlets, long hairpins with decorated
| heads, rings, earrings, girdles adorned with
! pendants, brooches, buttons, studs and
! torques for the neck War being in these
early days as common as it appears to be in
| more modern times, we find we'll stored armo-
res, comprising battle-axes, arrows and
| clubs, lances and short swords, also he'll
NETS and shields of thin plates of hammered
! bronze. Their graves resemble those Of their
! Neolthic predecessors, with one important
| difference-dead bodies were burned as a
rule instead of buried the ashes, inclosed in
urns, being placed in the tombs
In the lake-dwellings of eastern Switzer-
land the implements found are of bone and
stone but in those Of western Switzerland
there are rich accumulations of bronze i'm
| plements and utensils while in the upper
layers of debris iron begins to appear show
| ing how in its turn the bronze was supplant-
ed by metal still more universally useful,
and destined to be the type of grand era Of
enlightenment and progress. Almost as in
| teresting and instructive as the lake dwellings
| of Switzerland are the Danish kitchen mid
dens or shell-mounds, refuse heaps which
have accumulated round the tents or huts of
the primitive population. Many of these
| have been examined; and rude TASKS, sling
stones, axes flint fragments, and the bones of
various animals, have been obtained from
| them.
In primeval times, many animals were
| abundant in our own country and all over
Europe, which seem gradually to have disap-
peared. Some Of these enumerated by Sir
John Lubbock are the cave-bear, the cave
| hyena, the cave-lion, the mammoth, the WOOL
| ly-haired rhinoceros, the hippopotamus the
musk-ox the Irish elk, the wild horse the
| glutton, the reindeer, the auroch and the
| urus or wild-ox. Simultaneously with these
or some of these were human beings, who
| found in caverns mixed up with the bone8 Of
| these animals, and with stone or bronze i'm
| plements. About these cave-men there is
| necessarily much less information then there
is about those of the Neolthic period COM
| parnively few skulls have been found which
were in a state that admitted of restoration;
and among these few, there are great differ
ences.
With regard to the antiquity of man, Sir
hp T.,,h Of Mi ba
views of many eminent seologists, comes to
| the conclusion that man certainly existed in
| Western Europe during the period Of the
mammoth and the RhinOcerOS tichOrhinuS,
| and that the presumption is that he also ex-
| listed in Pliocene and even in Miocene times
but the proofs of that-the remains of the
earliest representatives of our race-are to be
| sought, be thinks, in warm, almost in tropical
| climates.
From the manners and customs of modern
savages much light may be thrown upon the
| early condition of prehistoric man. After
considering the condition and progress ofthe
| Hottentots, Veddahs, Australians South-Sea
Islanders, Esquimaux and others, Sir John
Lubbock remarks that, in reading any ac-
| count of the savage races at present existing
| in the world, 'it is impossible not TO admire
the skill with which they use their weapons
and implements, their ingenuity in hunting
| and fishing, and their close and accurate
| powers of observation" By all these quail
| ties we may suppose prehistoric man to have
been distinguished in at least an equal degree.
| The habits and customs of existing savages,
| however, while presenting many points in
common with each other, present also many
points of divergence, arising from independ-
ent development and such was no doubt al
so the case in most ancient times; the de-
| grees of civilization even in the stone age
would differ much.
1t is evident that man when he first spread
over the surface of the earth must have been
| in a condition represented by the lowest type
of savage. Then by slow degrees. by imita-
tion and by the teaching of experience, the
capacity of lodging and clothing himself, and
of improving his simple implements, would
develop and expand, until man, physically
one of the weakest and most unprotected Of
all animals, would, to quote from our author.
''by dint of that subtle force which we call
mind" make himself independent of all ma
ture, careless of the inclemency of the sea-
sons, skilful to force from the stubborn soil
the food which suited him, or the ores from
which to forge the weapons which gave him
power; till at last, monarch of all he sur
veyed, he could cope in his native eoverts
with the shaggy lion, and be more than a
match for the fierce wild bull, and oVertake
in the chase the feet stag or bounding ante
lope.
The Wild man, ike the Wild beast, Is al
ways suspicious, always on the watch and
the condition of the savage woman is still
more cruel ''She shares" says Sir John
Lubbock, all of the sufferings of her mate,
and has also to bear his ill-humor and ill
usage. Even the possession of beauty, far
from being an alienation, is only an Aggra-
vation of the evils of her lot, by securing for
her a hard thralldom TO many masters"
With growing civilization, on the other
hand, come security and confidence, and that
sense of justice and honor which is the best
protection of the weak and, with the in
creasing and ameliorating influences of sci
ence, q great improvement may still be look
ed for in the condition of our race. We
stand perchance upon the threshold of fu-
ture, brighter than even the brightest dreams
of our past on the verge of Utopia long
deemed impossible, when the moral nature,
unvitiated by an erring will, shall no longer
fetter the eager soul to base aims and unWOr-
thy aspirations, but shall leave it to its free
scope and native regality of birthright and
action. Then to the human race, still in its
vast masses SO ineffably degraded, a new and
more mighty civilization may unlock bound
less stores of knowledge and power, and un-
seal fresh fountains of pure and unfailing en-
joyment.
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The BRIGHT SIDE.-Look ON the bright