The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-03-03

~ thing BeSidoS foHuCS--T1o ID muCh INTEREST,"
ed In Scientific Discoveries.
Everybody Is thinking about the
nurth pole aud DR.. Manson now. 1t 10
glorious to have something TO distract
our attention from politics. And there
are the Cathode rays that have come
Just in time to help out. 1t is awful to
have to read politics day after day and
80 ponder over the ways OF parties and
partlsans. A quail a day for thirty
days Is nothing to be compared to 1T. |
Let US have any sort OF a recess now.
We wouldn't mind q big fire or o small
earthquakes quake that would shake
the windows in the big house ut Wash
ington and upset q few desks and
tables and roll the drunken member
from Alabama of the sofa. 1 wish |
some Guy Fawkes would come along
and scare th lem ell 30 bad that they
would go home and never 60 back any
more. The people are tired and dis
heartened, There are a few good public
servants there, but they are lost and
helpless. The majority would see the
country go TO the devil before they
would get out Of the line of their party.
The currency and the tariff are not
party questions, but the parties have
made them SO. This has been said
before, but 1t Ia worth saying again.
There 10 no moral principle that gov
erna d professional politician. Look
at Blackburn and Hunter-what an
expense to the State will the taxpay-
ers have to meet just to crafty the
greed or the selfish ambition Of two
men. Kentucky has hundreds OF men
just as able and we'll qualified as they
ire. Then why don't they withdraw
and stop all their wrangle. Why don't
the members make them withdraw.
The answer Is that this Is politics-im-
pure nj complex politics. Surely the
common people are fools or they would
send better men to Congress and to the
Legislature.
But l was thinking about DIR. Nansen
and the north pole. Can it be possible
the earth the very tip end Of the
spindle that the earth turns on, and
was there a Inch pin in it and was the
axle creased or was the journal hot
and did the sparks fly and SO forth. II
the doctor hasn't found anything but
an open polar sea and a few walruses
and seals and no big, awful suck-hule
pulled his vessel in them, he may go
back and try it again. The world
won't be satisfied with that and it
won't believe him. Why, John Cloves
Symmes found a theoretical hole up
there that was 1000 miles in diameter
and a vessel could sail in and around
just as easy as sailing on the ocean.
Symmes's hole was talked about when
I was a boy and it has had believers ever
since. Then Jules Verne came along and
made u journey up there and found the
Identical pole and put Gag on it, and
the n he raised is flying there yet.
And last, but not least, Mr.. Fairman
has found a manuscript left by one of
Sir John Frankliu's men in an Eskimo
hut and it tells the whole story, how
he n an Eskimo and six dogs wero
cut Off from the vessel and tool shell
ter Ia a cave of ice and lived on wal
rus and bear meat, and after some
days determined to explore the cave
and kept on and on and on, by the light
Of their blubber-lamp, until they had
travelled $50 miles, and at last came to
the opening on the other side, which
is to say the inside OF Symmes's hole,
and found a lar and u people and fine
cities and fruits and flowers, and lakes
and rivers, and the whole was lighted
up by h aurora borealis. Mr.. Fair
man calls it the third world anu makes
a very fascinating story OF it. If it
was true | would believe 1t, and | am
inclined to believe it anyhow. 1t has
Il charming love story mixed up with
1t, and [ am not yet too old to enjoy
them. I've always haG an idea that
thc STCbtOT pun IuS aurora UUTcdilS up
there for some other purpose besides
an occasional illumination of our
northern horizon. Maybe it is a big
electric arch light for those people in
the hole, who mover see the sun.
Verify, we are or the eve Of great
\ things, but we don't know what they
are. DIR. Nansen can't put us off with
ice and water-our own Elisha Kent
Kane done better than that and S" did
Greedy, for they saw hocks of acquatic
birds coming from that way. Neverthe-
less we will wait and sec. Maybe he
has found a hole-an open funnel-and
will go through and come out at the
other end.
And now we read that DR.. Plongeon,
who has been nine years in Yucatan,
has at last unraveled all the mysteries
of the hieroglyphics hat are ckiseled
on the ancient ruins In that country
and declares the ruins to be at least
ten thousand years old, nj these
temples were built long before the
food and the letters that make up the
alphabet are OF Egyptian origin. He
and his wife have been photographing
them and have written a volume that
will soon be published I'M Paris, q
volume that he says will enlighten the
scientific and religious world and re-
move all doubts about the origin of man
and his progress down the corridors OF
time. We read some Of his communi-
cations In The Review of Reviews last
summer and wOnderful-that Ia all we
can do nowadays--just wait and won
der. Not long ago had a nice letter
from Mr.. Oliver, the American consul
at Merida asking me to come over
there and examine these wonderful
ruins and write them up and Offering
his assistance, and l have q mind to go.
Merida Is o city Of $4,000 inhabitants,
and 1t is only ashort sail from Havana.
The only thing that makes me hest
tate Is what DIR. Plongeon writes about
the snakes and centipeds and other
noxious reptiles and insects that haunt
the ruins. After living seventy years
and escaping the dangers OF war and
pestilence, l don't want to be bitten by
q snake and die in q strange land. +
am like the old man of ninety years
who took the measles and said he
never was 30 ashamed OF anything in
his life, and 1t would disgrace the
family IL he died of the measles.
And 9Ow come the cathode rays that
are 70 throw light upon all hidden
things and reveal the anatomical mys-
teries Of the human body. The die
~tionary says they are the rays that go
TO shutdown when the electric current
is flowing from east to west, aud the
word means shutdown. Edison Is at
work on the diacnveru day and niubt