The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-01-22
BILL ARP's CHAT.
The Old nIan Bias the Grip, and HIs'Better
Half Not at Eome.
Atlanta Constitution.

| The Old Man Bias the Grip, and HIsBetter
Half Not at Home.
atlanta Constitution.
It is bad manners to afIiict the public
with your troubles, but nevertheless am
sick, sure enough sick-been in bed two
days, off and on-up and down-grunt-
ing around with my mouth open, for I
can't breathe any other way. Got the
big head. and my eyes and nose are
weeping, and there is neuralgia in my
face, and my teeth that have been cat for
teu years are aching. Got wet the other
day and dident change my clothes be.
cause Mrs. Arp wasent here to mako nae.
She has been gone for nearly two weeks
nursing some of the sick children at
Rome, and we are running the machine.
used to could get wet and then dry my
self by the fire, but can't now. I've
caught cold all over. There's pain in
my breast or my diagram or diaphram or
epigram, or whatever they call it, aud
these children have got my aged bosom
plastered all over with turpentine and
flannel. They found some capsules in
box and made me take them because it
was medicine and was in mammals draw
ar. I've no idea what it Vas, but I can't
be worsted. 1 rook them heroically and
said let 'em rip. got to thinking about
wills and codicils, and what would be.
come of the family, and who would wake
up the children in the morning and get
them off to school. Who would keep up
the supplies? Who wonld do this and
do that? And dropped off to sleep and
dreamed that I was dead, and that gentle
hands had hurried me into an elevator
that reached from earth to heaven, and it
WAS crowded with disembodied spirits
whom did not know. They had visible
forms and faces, but their material bodies
we're gone, and they passed through each
other without iupediment And these
are spirits of the dead I thought, and I
wondered if I too was spirit. | looked
at my hands and they seemed to be there;
I tried to clasp them and found them
only ahadows-pic of hands. l
touched my cheek and it was not there.
Timidly I touched the form Of one beside
me and there was nothing to touch. An
angel stood by the golden cord that 'eem-
ed to run the elevator and [ said:
"Where are we going?" ITO the city Of
jerusalem" said he, "the holy city This
elevator reaches to the lowest gate" ITO
heaven?" said I. eyes," he replied, 'to
the lowest heaven. Only the saints go
higher. There is another elevator for
them" Thank the good Lord for his
mercy, thought T, and I felt calm and
serene beyond all expression. BY the
time we were up among the stars and l
was about to inquire low much farther
we had to 60, Jessie leaned over me and
esked me if the turpentine burned me,
and never reached the golden gate at
all. 1 wonder where heaven isl won.
der where this universe euds7 When |
am sick my mind runs on these things,
and feel SO little, so contemplate, 60
much like an atom, q microbe, bacte-
ria, nothing compared with the bound
less universe-Hhen I get well and strong
can strut around and talk big and mag
nifty myself and feel almost as conze-
qnential 90 the Atlanta nabobs do when
strutting around in the Kimball House.
The idea Of a microbe struttiug and put
tug on sirs-just ponder it for q mo-
ment.
was talking to the children the other
night about astronomy and said, I am a
traveller, q great traveller; I have travel
ed forty thousand million of miles in my
lie. was borr travelling. can beat
railroads and telegrapha. When. I travel
make 6S, 600 miles an hour, and don't
exert myself bit. / can make over
100000 miles in q day and turn sum-
merset 5000 miles high in the bargain.
turn one every day when l am on the
road Ttraveleri nearly COG. 900 900 miles
last year.
And so I made the children figure itall
up so as to impress upon them the i'm
mensity of space and the mighty power
of God. / knew an old mana lawyer
who didn't believe In any of these
things. he said it was not according to
scripture. He didn't believe the earth
was round OF that it turned over. He
said the scriptures spoke of the ends of
the earth and the four corners OF the
earth, and that Joshua commanded the
sun to. stand still just like he did the
moon, and they both stood still. We
used to argue with him and tell him that
nsyigators had sailed all around the
earth, but it was no use, and ne gave him
up.
I know lots of sensible people who
don't believe that astronomers know any.
thing about these immense distances and
orbits and weights Of the planets. They
say it is all guess work, pretty much, and
that 1t is impossible to tell how far it is
from one place to another, or one planet
to another, without measuring it with 9
chain OF rod-pole or string or some
thing. And here is where a higher edu'
cation comes in and broadens the mind
and elevates it to . higher plane. There
is no science so exact and so fully estab-
lished as astronomy. The distance from
here to Atlanta is not SO accurately
known as the earth's orbit around tht
sun. A great astronomer like Hersche
or Newton or La Place can look through
the telescope at Jupiters moors wher
they are in an eclipse and then mix up
g. I,,,;th mo ond Hnyiona and narall