Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-11-24
In 1910 the heat at Bologna was so great
that great number of people were stified.
Tharo ,ras not Gil fanin ont air for the hraa th

In 1910 the heat at Bologna was so great
that a great number of people were stit1ed.
There was not sufficient air for the breath,
and people had to take refuge under ground.
In July, 1893, the heat became intolerable.
Vegetables were burned up and fruit dried
on the trees. The furniture and wood work
in dwelling-houses cracked an1 split up !;
meat went bad in an hour. The rivers ran
dry in several provinces during 1911; expe-
dients had to be devised for the grinding of
corn. In 1922 protracted heat was accom-
panied by storms and earthquakes; during
the drought, legions of mice overran Lor-
raine and Alsace, committing incalculable
damage. In 1882 the heat brought about
cholera in France; 10000 persons fell vic
Tins to the visitation in Paris alone. In
1916 the thermometer marked 125 degrees
in the sun.
THE FIRST BRIDGE.
When was the first bridge constructed, |,
and what was it made of? am not able
to answer that question very definitely, but
I think | know what the first bridge was
made of. 1t was not of wood, nor of stone,
nor of brick, nor OF iron, nor of rope. 1t
was made entirely of monkeys-live mon
keys. A troop of these animals in South
American forest one day came to O stream
which was too wide for them to leap across.
They climbed high tree, where the first
monkey selected suitable branch, wound
his long powerful tail about it, and let him.
self hang head downward. The second
monkey, running down the body of the first
wound it's tail about its neck and shoulders,
and let himself hang head downward. A
cessiOn, and others after them, till the chain
reached the ground. Then the lowest monk
ey, striking his hands on the earth, set the
living pendulum in motion, and increased
this motion by swing again at each oscil-
lation, till it swung so far across the stream
that he was able to seize branch of tree
on the other side. The line Of monkeys
now constituted a bridge by which the re-
mainder of the troop quickly crossed over.
Then the monkey which (not aUhO, as most
people write IT'D had been the first volunteer
in this engineer corps, unWOund his tail
from the branch and let 60. What had be-
fore been the top of the pendulum was now
the bottom it swung across the stream, and
dissolved into its original elements, and the
whole troop went chattering on their way.
This took place before the appearance of
man upon the earth, and the long tailed
monkeys have been building such bridges
ever since.
Between that primitive bridge of monk
eys and the last and greatest of all bridges
ever undertaken-the suspension bridge
over East River, connecting New York and
Brooklyn-there is apparently wide dis
crepancy; yet the two are constructed on
the same principle.
The first bridge recorded in history was
over the Euphrates at Babylon, in the reign
of Queen Nitocris. The course of the river
was turned, and its bed laid dry, till the
foundations were built. The arches were of
immense hewn stones, clamped together
with iron, and the whole bridge was rooted
over. 1t was thirty feet wide, and over six
hundred feet long. No remnant Of this
great bridge has been discovered in modern
times.-Rossiter Johnson in the Vide AaOake.