The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-18
OF THE FiREsioE.
Great Races That Have Sprung From the
Family Hearth

EVOLUTION OF THE FiRESiDE.
Great Races That Have Sprung From the
Family Hearth
Somebody foand out that the friction
of two sticks would produce a fame;
and 10, all the arts and sciences were
bornl This discovery must have been
made very. very long ago. for the earli-
est peoples of whom we have any
knowledge had forgotten about it, and
were turning it into myth and miracle.
Agni. the Fire, was worshippcd by the
Hindoos, as one of the great gods;
while, among the Greeks. the Titan
Prometheus was said to have stolen the
fire from Heaven and brought it down
to men, hidden in reed This he did
in pity for the suffering race of man;
while, for the pity and help. he, like
SO many other of mans helpers and re-
formers, was doomed to persecution
and torture. 1t is only within the
present century and since the discovery
of the old Sanscrit Scriptures. that we
have found out that Prometheus is
Pramantha, the Fire Drill; and out OF
the wonder Of the fire the worshipping
imaginations of the people have created
the wonder-story of the man-loving vic
tim of Zeus.
The fire early became symbol of the
sun; and SO, through thousand trans
formations, this primeval marvel of the
fire has become a part of the poetry,
the folklore, the religion of all the
world The Parsis were fire-worship-
ers. Baal. the fire-god. ruled many
Semitic tribe. The beautiful Perse-
phone is seized by the god Of the under
world and borne away TO his sunless
kingdom. Her mother, Ceres, mourns
her and searches everywhere over the
6esolate earth for her daughter. By
and by she is permitted to return and
spend six months in the upper world.
The flowers bloom, the corn grows, and
the birds sing at her approach. So
grows the fairy story of winter and
summer. But not only in Pagan lands
do these traces of sun and fire worship
appear. Our Lents and casters, our
altar candles, our Hallowe'ens, our
eastward positions In prayer-all these
are poetic relics Of the age-long wonder
of the fire. Let us now note three
things: In the first place, the sunshine
is the condition of all life on earth; and
the fire on the hearth is Only trans
formed sunshine This sunshine was
stored up ages ago in the beds of coal OF
in the growing trees, year by year. So,
as we sit about the FIRE. it is the sun
shine of other years or other ages that
dances in the flame or CLOVIS in the red
anthracite. And as it is the sun that
gives life, so it is this sunshine in the
fire that makes man the free inhabi-
tant of all the earth, whatever the
natural climate may be. Wherever he
is able to live at all. he creates for him
self artificial tropics, thus esta blishing
once more and permanently the essen
tial conditions of his primeval home.
Born in the tropics, he can live only in
the tropics; and, with the wonder wand
of fire, he creates for himself the tropics
anywhere.
In the next place, it is sometimes
said that the great races are the ones
who live in the north-iands. This may
be SO to-day, but, if we look back and
greatest arts and litera lures and re-
ligions of the world grew and bios
scmed and bore fruit in the lands Of
the sun. When we speak the names of
India, of Palestine. of Egypt. of Greece.
of Rome, we speak Of the homes of all
the beauty and truth and aspira-
tion of man that have eliminated In
our modern civilizatio All? Not
quite; for we must remem Der Germany
and France and England. But these
do not contradict our statement;
for the achievement of these was
not attained except az the fire ens bled
the people to make for themselves lands
of the sun about their 6resides, and in
these artificial sun-lands the great
works have been brought out And
then, in the third place. it is worth
while to note how few of the things.
besides the FIRE on the hearth. that 90
to make up a modern 6reside. could
ever have come into being except
through the agency Of the fire. Trace
the origin of the book you have been
reading in your cozy corner of the
hearth. Speech itself is partly growth
and partly an invention But, were we
not SO familiar with them, we should
bow our heads In awe in the presence
of these wondrous arbitrary characters
we call the letters of the alphabet,
BY means of which we represent
thought and speech. SO that ideas are
preserved age after age. We look at
these characters, and straightway in
our minds are reproduced the specula-
tons of Plato, the poetical imaginings
of Virgil scr the teachings of Jesus
Through picture-writing. hieroglyph,
such figures as children play with and
call the rebus: by steps like tbese-aDd
the steps were many centuries-the
race elm bed 20 the attainment CT e
phonetic alphabet Then many CEN
turtles still passed By, ntil at last. after
the benefcent fire had helped men
smelt and shape the stubborn iron. the
movable type was invented. and all the
thoughts of tire world are the common
property of any who viii learn TO read
Measure the distance from the hut OF
the barbarian to the dreside Of
modern home, and you measure the
total advance tina: man has made ia
civiIiza ton -Peterson's Magazine
Fond Mother fof delicate dudel-
81 think IL is time Clarence selected
profession What would ron adviser