Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-03-02
EVOLUTION OF the r,REslpE.

-. AoS MISSOURI
EVOLUTION OF THE F,REslpE
Hfeas Races That Have sprun. rror, n.
Family Hearth.
omeoo dy found out that the friction
OF TWO sticks would produce a f3.ns.
ana 10. all the arts and sciences 80
born! This discovery must have been
maze very, very long ago, for the earl;.
est peoples Of whom we have an,
knowledge had forgotten about II. and
were turning 1t into myth and miracle
ARni' the Fire. was worshipped by the
'nnooos, as one of the great roda.
wnhe, among the Greeks, the Titan
rrometheus was said to have stolen the
nre from Heaven and brought it down
70 men, hidden in a reed. This he did
IN pity for the suffering race of man.
winnie, 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 discoverr
Oh the old Sanscrit Scriptures, that we
nave round out that Prometheus is
Pramantha, the Fire-Drill; and ont of
.ne wonder OF the fire the worshipping
imaglnations OF the people have created
the wonder-story of the man-lovinp vic
tim of Zeus.
The fire early became symbol of the
sun; and so, through a thousand trans
formations. this primeval marvel of the
nre has become part of the poetry.
the folklore. the religion of all the
world The Parsis were fre-worship-
ers- Baal. the fire-god, ruled MANY a
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
desolate earth for her daughter. Bv
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 or
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 establishing
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-lands. This may
be so to-day, but, if we look back and
study the past we see that all the
greatest arts and literatures and re-
ligions of the world grew and bios
somed 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-
ton of man that have eliminated in
our modern civilization. All? Not
quite; for we must remember Germany
and France and England. But these
do not contradict our statement;
for the achievement of these was
not attained except as the fire enabled
the people to make for themselves lands
of the sun about their firesides, 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 go
to make up a modern fireside, 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,
DIV means OI WuACH VIC ACPASSNAs
thought and speech, so that ideas are
age after age. We look at
these characters, and straightway in
our minds are reproduced the specula-
tions of Plato, the poetical imaginings
of Virgil, or the teachings of Jesus.
picture-writing, hieroglyph,
such figures as children play with and
call the rebus; by steps like these-and
the steps were many centuries-the
race climbed to the attainment Of a
phonetic alphabet Then many GEN.
turtles still passed by, until at last, after
the beneficent fire had helped men
smelt and shape the stubborn iron. the
movable type was invented. and all the
thoughts of the world are the common
of any who will learn to read.
Measure the distance from the hut OF
the barbarian. to the Preside OF
modern home, and you measure the
total advance that man has made in |
Magazine.
Before Going to Sleep.
Early in the evening your sleeping
should be well aired by |
dropping the window from the top and
raising it from the bottom Ten min