The Osceola times., 1883-03-17

VIII put up; Dut II he does sing, l
will try and catch the air and let you
have 1t for publication in the Times,
US I am told you have no 'hcir for
that Office. With a firm faith that ]
will yet live to see this turtle proph-
ecy solved, let me once more assure
you / have nothing to read, and hope
You will send me something-any-
thing, old back numbers, front num-
bers-anything; l am starving for
something to read-had as leave have
Major Jones' Courtship, or the Ara
bian Knights as the newly revised
portion Of the Bible. As it is feed
ing time and the animals in my men.
agery are creating quite rumpus,
l will have to close. Bring your
dug-out and breech,loader and we
will 90 ducking. ! get one every
time ! go out, My last one was in
deep water on that windy morning,
and have not got through with it
ret. Your Friend,
ScorcHxAS.
p. S. We were SO much exercised
over the turtle prediction last night,
that we secured a large one this
morning and resolved to investigate
the subject thoroughly. We first
subjected him to an investigation
psycologically which resulted in
proving clearly he had no soul for
music. We next applied all the
known rules Of phrenology to his
head, carefully examining every
bump on it, which showed him to be
entirely destitute Of the organ oftune.
Taking out our barlow knife we pro-
ceeded to examine him anatomically
as the last known scientific means by
which such a question might be
solved. His mouth was large enough
and his neck long enough for good
vocalist, but his chest was too mar
row; and then his lungs were locat,
ed entirely too low down in the abb
dominal region for him ever to sing.
1t is unquestionably physical i'm.
possibility for the turtle TO sing. BE.
sides, if he should sing, it would be
hideous, unearthly gutteral air al
together unworthy Of mention in a
book claiming such high authorship.
We confess cur faith in the valid
ity OF this portion of the ancient text
book was fast fading away under the
lights of science, when the thought
struck US that perhaps there was
something wrong with the rendering
or translation of this prediction,
Reading It over slowly, "Tbe VOICE
of the turtle SHALL BIZ HEARD in the
land" we began to trace these words
carefully back to their original roots
First taking the noun "voice" We
passed it back through the Latin
Greek and Hebrew languages to q
geological period before the days Of
Adam, where We found it lying, rus
ty, (having never been used,) primi
lively intended to mean "eggs." As.
tonished at such a discovery and en-.
couraged at seeing there was yet a
chance to reconcile this prediction
with the unerring teachings of sci
ence and literal occurrences as wit.
messed in everyday life, we next took
up the verb "shall be heard" Thi.
we likewise passed back through
time to period before the beginning
where, in q geological cycle, we
found its primitive meaning to be
shall be SEEN" instead Of "shall
be heard" We were not necked
like the great mathematician, nor did
we exclaim "Eureks!" but we were
\ indeed rejoiced over the discovery
that this sentence should read, "The
eggs of the turtle shall be seen in
the land," which so perfectly agrees
with the observations Of thousands
who would have long since rejoiced
too, had they only known it was the
fulfillment Of this ancient prophecy
Should Divines ask on what authori,
ty we claim this sentence should be
thus translated, we answer, the same
as used by yourselves not long since
in translating many much more i'm
portant passages in the same book
SIMPLY A STRETCH OF THE MAGMA.
TON.
Please do not publish this letter
like you did our other. You see
Uncle Sam might send for US, or the
biblical revisionists might anathema.
tie US, and we have no means Of es-
cape, as our dug-out Is split and
leaks badly. But, when we think
of our past disarpointments and then
reflect as to how many are perhaps
now standing on the banks Of rivers
and lakes watching and waiting to
hear the turtle sing, we do believe
you should publish this postscript for
their sake, though it should be some'
what at the risk of our safety. You
need not give our name as we have
no desire to become conspicuous,
Just state in little local you have
agreed not to tell that this discovery
was made by your friend,