Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1893-01-26


to do with the destiny OF Mexico. Five OF
them were presented by Cortez to his bride
one Of them cut into the shape of rose, an.
other into the shape of trumpet, another
into the shape of bell, with tongue of
pearl, and this presentation aroused the jsal-
ously of the throne and caused the conse-
quent fall Of Cortez. But the depths of the
sea were decorated with those emeralds, for
in a shipwreck they went down off the coast
of Barbary. Napoleon wore an emerald at
Austerlitz.
In the Kremin museum at Moscow there
are crowns and scepters and outspread mira
cles Of emerald. Ireland is called the
Emerald Isle not because OF its verdure. but
because it was presented to Henry III of
England with an emerald ring. Nero had a
magnifying glass of emerald through which
he looked at the gladiatorial contests at
Rome. But here are 1900 miles of emerald
sweeping around the heavenly city in one
layer.
But upward still and you put your foot on
stratum Of sardonyx, white and rel, a
seeming commingling OF snow and fire, the
snow cooling the fire, the fire melting the
snow.
Another climb and you reach the sardius,
named after the city of Sardius. Another
climb and you reach the chrysolite. A
specimen Of this. belonging to Epiphanus, in
the Fourth Century, was said to be SO
ceal 1t was shone through, and the emperor
OF China has specimen that is described as
having such penetrating radiance that it
makes the night as bright as the day.
A higher climb AMI you reach the
beryl. Two thousand years ago the Greeks
used this precious stone for engraving pur-
poses. 1t was accounted among the royal
treasures Of Tyre. The hilt Of Murats
sword was adorned with it, 1t CLOVIS in the
imperial crown OF Great Britain. Luther
thought the beryls of the heavenly wall was
turquoise. Kalisch thought it was chryso-
lite. Josephus thought it golden colored
jewel. The wheels oi Ezskieps vision famed
with beryl and were revolving fire.
The beryl appears in six sided prisms, and
Is set IL seals and intaglios in necklaces and
coronets. 1t was the joy or ancient jewelry
1t ornamented the afiiuent with eardro IS.
Charlemagne presented it to his favorite
Beautiful beryl Exquisitely shaped beryll
Divinely colored beryl 1t seems like con-
gealed color. 1t looks like frozen fire.
But stop not here. Climb higher and you
come to topaz bewilderment of beauty
and named after an island of the r I'd Sea.
Climb higher and you come to chrysop.
rasus, of greenish golden hus and hard as
flint.
Climb higher and you reach thu jacinth,
named after the flower hyacinth ana OF red
dish blue
Take one more step and you reach the
top, not OF the wall, but the top OF the
foundation OF the wall, aud st. John cries
out "The twelfth an amethyst This pre-
cious stone when found in Australia or In
dia or Europe stands in columns and pyra-
mids. For color it is violet bloomihg in
stone. For its play OF light, for its deep
mysteries of color, for its unseen Egyptians,
in Etruscan, in Roman art it has been hon
ored. The Greeks thought this stone pre-
rnrltf Of xx,t- III IL,
thought it a source of pleasant dreams.
For all lovers of gems it is subject of ad.
miration and suggestiveness. Yes, the
word amethyst meaus q prevention Of
drunkenness. Long before the New Tesla
ment made reference to the amethyst in the
wall Of heaven the Persians thought that
cups made out OF amethyst would hinder
any kind of liquor contained therein from
becoming intoxicating. But of all the anne
thystine cups from which the ancents
drank not one had any such result of pre-.
vention
For thousands of years the world has been
looking in vain for such a preventive ame-
thystine 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 fad it. Beshazzar, the kingly
reveler, on the night that tae Chaldeans
took Babylon could not find it. Not one of
the millions of inebriatss whose skulls pave
the continents and pave the depths OF the
sea could find it. There is no such cup.
Strong drink from followed amethyst i'm.
brutes the same as strong drink from pew
ter 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 to-
day, outof cups costlier than amethyst, men
and women have been drinking their own
doom and the doom of their children for this
life aud the next. Alb, it is the amethystine
cups that do the widest and worst slaugh-
ter The smash of the filthy goblets of thu
rummeries would long ago have taken place
by law, but the amethystine chaliccs pre-
vent--the chances out of which legislatures,
congresses drink before and after they make
the laws. Amethystine caalices havs been
the friends of intoxicatlon instead OF its
foes. Over the fiery lips OF the amethy slime
chalices is thrust the tongue of that which
biteth like serpent and stingeth like an
adder
Drunkenness is a combination Of apoplcxy
and demehtia. The 400, 900, coo victims Of
opium come out to meet the $50 900, 900 VIC
tins of alcohol, and the two agents take the
contract for tumbling the human race into
perdition. but whether they will succeed in
fulfilling the contract depends on the action
OF the amethystine cups, the anlethystine
demijohns the amethystine ale pitchers, the
amethystine fagons, the amethystina wine
cellars. Oh, Persiansl Oh. Assyrians! Oh,
Greeksl Oh, Egyptians you were wrong
in thinking that a cup of amethyst would
prevent inebriation.
But standing on the top OF this amethys.
tine layer of the foundation of the wall OF
heaven bethink myself of the mistake that
many of the ancient Hebrews made when
they thought that the amethyst was a pro-
Queer of pleasant dreams. just wear pieca
OF amethyst over your heart or put it under
your pillow, and you would have your dreams
Tiled with everything beautiful and entranc-
ing 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. Con.
ditions of physical disease may give good
man nightmare but a man physically well,
it he behave himself Alright, will not be-
troubled with bad dreams.
Nebuchadnezzar, with e ~le's down under
his head and Tyrian purple 6.ssat, struggled
with bad dream that made him shrek out
for the soothsayers and astrologers to come
and interpret it. Pharaoh, amid thu marble
palaces of Memphis was confou ndei by a
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 a startling dream,
because of which she sent message in hot
haste to courtroom to keep her husband
from enacting a judicial outrage. But