The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-08-20


other men have come, as witness the SUI
perstition, and the accurate account of
the phenomenon given even by my
guides
''I brought down my derrick, set it up
again, and placed with it numerous cy-
clcpean blocks, resembling those of the
central cairn, leaving a winding, irregu-
lar path among them. When this was
done, / thought the whole too formal,
and spent much time in giving it more
random effect look with longing, en-
vious eyes on all the tongues of fame and
strong steam jets going to waste here;
were quite free from cOnstraint, how !
would make these natural forces work
for me"'
These passages of the journal-against
the bare chance of their being found by
any third party-were but fragmentary
and half disguised under the form of a
fairy tale, and he made mention of no
definite locality. The journal was in
tended in good measure for the eye Of
Amy, but it would have been hard to
say just when any particular portion Of
it came into her hands, and whether it
was early Or very much later that she
saw even those here quoted. There were
many important circumstances the writer
could not set down in his account for her
out Of common prudence, and others that
he would not out of native mOdesty
Thus his journal contained but little, for
instance, concerning his own painful
labors. which were often really hercu-
lean.
His various tackles were wofully in
adequate compared with the tasks he
imposed upon them. He quite dismissed
the ordinary standard of human achieve
ment and performed prodigies Of strength
and Archimedes like miracles Of inven-
ton. His muscles, always powerful re-
sponded grandly to the tax upon them,
and he developed new powers unsus-
pected in himself. Yet, driven on by his
fervid zeal, he was always dangerously
near some Of those violent strains or
shocks that would have put an end to all
and crippled him for life. He was con-
stantly, by turns, cold, wet, hungry,
scorched by excessive heat, or weighed
down by almost uncomfortable fatigue.
"The earlier CrGsus, he said, "offered
a prize for the discovery of a new pleas
ure; l, the later CrUsUs, might also offer
one for exemption from a new pain"
Nevertheless he by no means com
planned, but, on the contrary, even re.
joiced in his hardships. They seemed to
give him a more valid title to the treas
ure. They were a mere nothing com
pared to the life long drudgery to which
most men are condemned, not only to
amass wealth, but even to obtain bare
subsistence. The slightness of his real
claim was one Of the causes of his ner-
vous dread lest all should be snatched
from him even at the last moment.
ut is the destiny of man to win his
bread by the sweat of his brow" he
often exclaimed, "and woe to him who
tries to escape it! am reaping good
fortune far beyond what is granted to
the ordinary lot Of mortals, and ought
to be glad of any small semblance of
earning it,"
Paths were traced over the cinder
heaps and purple black emery sand by
hisrSs'equent goings and comings. They
grew as familiar to him as the streets of
Cuernavaca, and he could follow them
as we'll by night as by day. It seemed
to him he had been there very long
time; former periods Of existence became
visionary, the world of men grew small
in contrast with this world of a1amonta1