Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-10-24
EARLIEST AMERICANS
They Were an Ehihentlv Civilized and
Religious People.

They Were an Ehlhentlv Civilized and
Religious People.
The knowledge that America was
inhabited by highly-cfvilized people
many centuries before its occupancy
by the race of red men which the earli-
est European settlers found here, is not
new. Yet it was not until lately that
actual records of information concern
ing this people were found, and for
We have known of them was gathered
from a careful study of the relics OF
their greatness-ther ruins of their edi-
fees. which have been found scattered
over the Western hemisphere But
the earthen tablets found in Peru, Cen
trail America and Mexico, engraved on
plastic clay in perfect Phenician char
acters, and afterwards burned to render
them imperishable, extend back nearly
two thousand years before Christ. Ac-
cording to these records, these people,
the Toltecs, came from some remote
country and settled in South America.
They were an eminently civilized and
religious people, vesting the laws of
their government and their theology in
the same persons, and believing in one
God, the Greater and ruler of all, and
in a mediator (Tzuma) who was to
come to guide and teach them Alright
Two distinct classes existed among
them. the "Olptecs." or workers. and
the "Orptecs." or thinkers. the latter
including not only their priests and
rulers, but their architects, artisans,
engineers and nobility. The "Olp-
tees" were serfs with no voice at all in
the government Or public affairs.
These people rapidly increased. and
by the year 400 B. G. had settled near
ly the entire South American conti-
nent and spread over Mexico, where
they found an aboriginal race dwell
ing on the banks of the streams and
living upon the natural produce of the
soil and upon fish and game. For
over thousand years the Toltecs oc-
cupied the land, until, in the last cent
ury before Christ, the Aztec invaders
sailed up the Amazon, claiming to
have come from an Oriental country
which they called "Aztlan." The Az
tees soon overruled the Toltec Govern
m ent, and in the course of two or three
centuries the Aztecs were the
dominant people. Their suprem-
acy lasted for seven centuries,
and then. through luxurious
abundance, their commerce and
industries became less active and ex-
tensive, and their power commenced
to wane. In 800 A. d. a savage horde
from the North and West came down
upon the Aztecs and wiped out the
primeval civilization in savage war
of determination, lasting for years.
The remnants of the stricken people
fed to the mountains. where they be-
came cliff and cave jewellers, and 9TH
ers became amalgamated with the de-
stroying race, the Chicimecs. This is
but sketch of the wonderful history
these long-hidden records relate. 1t
was reserved for the progressive and
enduring Indo-European branch of the
Aryan race to open the pages and read
for us the instructive history of those
thirty forgotten centuries during which
America was peopled in turn by the
Hamitic branch of the Semitic race,
then by the Semites proper, and these
finally exterminated by the fierce
Turaneans from Chinese Tartary. until
to-day nearly every vestige of their
existence is being crushed out OF the
worlds history by the rapid PAGES of
advancing civilization. - Demorest's
Monthly.