The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-01-28

for its uses in Egyptian, in Etruscan, In
Roman art it has been honored. The
Greeks thought this stone preventive
Of drunkenness. The Hebrews thought
it a source of pleasant dreams.
For all lovers of gems it is subject
of admiration and suggestiveness. Yes,
the word amethyst means a prevention
of drunkenness. Long before the New
Testament made reference to the anne
thyst in the wall of heaven the Persians
thought that cups made out of amethyst
would hinder any kind of liquor con-
tanned therein from becoming intoxicat-
ing. But of all the amethystine cups
from which the ancients drank not one
had any such result Of prevention.
For thousands of years the world has
been looking in vain for such a prevent
i've amethystine cup. Staggering Noah
could not find it. Convivial Ahasuerus
driving Vashti from the gates could not
find it. Nabal breaking the heart of
beautiful Abigail could not find it. Bel
shazzar, the kingly reveler, on the night
that the Chaldeans took Babylon could
uOI uuu IL. NOG Ouo VI til0 iliilAouo VI
inebriates whose skulls pave the CONT
nents and pave the depths of the sea
could find it. There is no such cup.
Strong drink from followed amethyst
imbrutes the same as strong drink from
pewter mug. 1t is not the style OF cup
we drink out of, but that which the cup
contains, which decides the helpful or
damning result of the beverage.
All around the world last night and
today, out of cups costlier than anne
thyst, men and women have been drink
ing their own doom and the doom of
their children for this life and the next.
All, it is the amethystine cups that do
the widest and worst slaughterl The
smash of the filthy goblets of the rum
meries would long ago have taken place
by law, but the amethystine chalices
preventive chalices out of which leg
islatures and congresses drink before and
after they make the laws. Alnethys-
tine chalices have been the friends of in
toxication instead of it's foes. Over the
fiery lips of the amethystine chalices is
thrust the tongue of that which biteth
like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.
Drunkenness is combination of apo
plexy and dementia The 400,000,000
victims of opium come out to meet the
$50, 0G0, 900 victims Of alcohol, and the
two agents take the contract for tum-
bling the human race into perdition, but
whether they will succeed in fulfilling
the contract depends on the action of
the amethystine cups, the a1nethystine
Genijohns, the amethystine ale pitchers,
the amethyssine fagons, thea1nethystine
wine cellars. Oh, Persians! Oh, Assyr-
ians! Oh, Greeks! Oh, Egyptians! you
were wrong in thinking that a cup of
amethyst would prevent inebriation.
THE HEBREW SUPERSTITION.
But standing on the top of this anne
thystine layer of the foundation of the
wall of heaven l bethink myself of the
mistake that many of the ancient He
brews made when they thought that the
amethyst was producer of pleasant
dreams Just wear piece of amethyst
over your heart or put it under your
pillow, and you would have your dreams
filed with everything beautiful and en-
trancing. No, no. The style of pillow will
not decide the character of the dream.
The only recipe for pleasant dreams
is to do right and think right when
you are wide awake. Conditions of phys
ical disease may give good man night
mare, but a man physically well, if he
behave himself Alright, will not be trou-
bled with bad dreams.
Nebuchadnezzar, with eagles down
under his head and Tyrian purple over
it, struggled with bad dream that made
him shrek out for the soothsayers and
astrologers to come and interpret it.
Pharaoh, amid the marble palaces Of
Memphis, was COMPOUNDED by dream
in which lean cows ate UP the fat cows
and the small ears of corn devoured the
seven large ears, and awful famine was
prefgured. Pilates wife, amid clouds
of richest upholstery, had startling
dream, because of which she sent a mes
sage in hot haste to courtroom to keep
her husband from enacting a Judicial
outrage. But Jacob, at Bethel, with a
pl1OW VI 14OuabdlI lOCh, llctu D1lsool III
dream Of the ladder angel blossoming.
Bunyan, with his head on a hard
plank of Bedford Jail, saw the gates of
the celestial city. st. John, on the bar
renest island of the Egean sea, in his
dream heard trumpets and saw cavalry
men on white horses and a new heaven
and new earth. No amount Of rough
pillow can disturb the night vision of
saint, and no amount Of amethystine
charm can delectate the dream of mis-
creant.
But, some one will say, why have you
brought us to this amethyst, the top row
of the foundation of the heavenly wall,
if you are not able to accept the theory
of the ancient Greeks, who said that the
amethyst was charm against intoxica-
ton, or if you are not willing to accept
the theory of the ancient Hebrews that
the amethyst was producer of pleasant
dreams? My answer is, I have brought
you to the top row, the twelfth layer of
the foundation of the heavenly wall of
/, 800 miles Of circling amethyst, to put
1,o,, n ,,ocif;o,, 1r,l,o,.o xr<,,, oo,, n