The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-01-22
ARP HAS THE GRIP.
The Children Give Him Medicine and He
Dreams Of Riding on an Elevator to
the Skies.
1Atlanta Constitution.


with your troubles, but nevertheless [
am sick, sure enough sick-been in bed
two days, off and on-,up and down.
grunting 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
out for ten years are aching. Got wet
the other day and dident change my
clothes because Mrs Arp wasent here
to make me. She has been gone for
nearly two weeks nursing some of the
sick children at Rome and we are
running the machine. I used to could
get wet and then dry myself 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, and these
children have got my aged bosom
plastered all over with turpentine and
flannel. They found some capsule in
box and made me take them because
it was medicine and was in mammals
drawer. I've no idea what it was, but
I can't be worsted. I took them heroi-
cally and said let 'em rip. / got to
thinking about wills and codicils and
what would become of the family and
who would wake up the children in
the morning and get them offto school.
Who would keep up the supplies? Who
would do this and do that, and I drop
ped 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 I did not know. They had visi-
BILE forms and faces, but their material
bodies were, gone, and they passed
through each other without impedi-
ment. And these are spirits of the dead
I thought, and I wondered if I too was
a spirit. I looked at my hands and
they seemed to be there; I tried to clasp
them and found them only shadows
pictures of hands. 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 seemed
to run the elevator and I said, "Where
are we going" ITO the city Of Jeru
salemn said he, "the holy city, The
elevator reaches to the lowest gate"
"To heaven" said I. "Yes," he replied,
"to the lowest heaven. Only the saints
go higher. There is sanother elevator
for them" Thank the good Lord for
his mercy thought I, and I felt calm
and serene beyond all expression. BY
the time we were up among the stars
and was about to inquire how much
farther we had to 60 Jessie leaned over
me and asked me if the turpentine
buried me and never reached the
golden gate at all. I wonder where
heaven isl wonder where this uni
verse ends. When am sick my mind
runs on these things and feel so little,
so contemplate, so much like an atom,
microbe, bacteria, a nothing COM
pared with the boundless universe
when I get we'll and strong I can strut
around and talk big and magnify my
self and feel almost as consequential as
the Atlanta nabobs do when strutting
around in the Kimball house. The idea
of microbe strutting and putting on
airs-just ponder it for moment.
Twas talking to the children the
other night about astronomy and I
said, I am traveller, great trayeler;
have travelled forty thousand million
of miles in my life. was born travel
ing, can beat railroads and telegraph.
When I travel, I make $4,000 miles an
hour and don't exert myself bit. I
can make over 100000 miles in day
and turn summerset 5000 miles high
in the bargain-I turn one every day
when am on the road. I travelled
nearly 100000 miles last year.
And so I made the children figure it
all up so as to impress upon them the
immensity of space and the mighty
power of God. knew an old man-a
lawyer-who didn't believe in any of
these things. He said it was not ac-
cording to scripture. He dident believe
the earth was round or 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 navigators had sailed
all around the earth, but it was no use,
and We gave him up.
I know lots Of sensible people who
don't believe that astronomers know
anything about these immense dis
tances and orbits and weights of the
planets. They say it is all guess work,
pretty much, and that it is impossible
to tell how far it is from one place to
another, or one planet to another,
without measuring it with chain or a
rod-pole or string or something. And
hereis where higher education comes
in and broadens the mind and elevates
it to a higher plane. There is no science
so exact and so fully established as
astronomy. The distance from here to
Atlanta is not so accurately known as
the earth's orbit around the sun. A
great astronomer like Herschel or New
ton or La Place can look through the