The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-05-08
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
WILLIAM AND HIS WIFE DISCUSS
sERPENTs PRO AND CON.
A Time When Everybody Was Demon
allied Except Noah and Ills
Family.

m wife's attention. The reptile came
slipping along through the grass to-
ward the house aud she screamed for
me, of course. IL came in the front
yard and ] killed IL by the stone step,
but my wife never believes snake is
dead as long as its tail wiggles. had
to keep on killing il to satisfy her, and
then hang IL up in a tree to make it
rain. It is awful dry up here, but
now / reckon II will just pour down
some time. This is the second snake
that has ever been seen here, but my
wife says she knows that the place is
just haunted with them. They always
60 In pairs, she says. "Moses mem
tons only one" said /, land dident
mention any until after Eve was Gre
ated. Probably Adam lived and
worked in that garden alone for many
years and he got as sick of il as did
Robinson Crusoe. Then Eve was
created for Adams express company,
and they got along very we'll until the
serpent beguiled her. F." eyes, aud the
poor woman has to bear all the blame
of our sin and misery" said my wife.
"Adam said The woman Thou gavest
me did give unto me and I did eat.
Why dident Eve say the man Thou
didst make me for did not protect me
from the wiles of that smooth-tongued
serpent. He let me eat first and take
all the risk Of the danger. The old
autocrat. No telling how long he had
been acquainted with the serpent for
he knew all the animals and had
mingled with them and had dominion
over them and had given them all
names long before Eve was created.
'No doubt of il, said I, ''for jose
plus says that the serpent lived in the
house with Adam and was very hand
some and very smart and could talk.
Perhaps they played marbles together
and went in a-waBhing."
"Yes," said Mrs. Arp, "and the
Lord gave the command to Adam
about the forbidden fruit long before
Eve was born"
"She wasent born" said I.
''Pity she was not, said she. "Then
she would have had a mother who
would have protected her from the
serpent and from Adam, too. The
poor woman never even had choice of
lovers nor courtship nor a we'd
ding"
''Nor trousseau nor her picture in
the papers," said ], "and she dressed
remarkably thin considering that the
climate there is about like ours.
reckon that Adams family expenses
we're very light about those times.
But later on he caught it, for Josephus
says he had twenty-three daughters,
and of course somebody put up a dry
goods store in the neighborhood and
sold fnery. Fig leaves played out
early"
II should like to know where they
got any dry goods and fnery or any
money to pay for it," said she. "The
Bible says the Lord made them gar
ments of skins"
eyes" said I, ''made them for
Adam and Eve, but two or three hun
dred years after that they had learned
to spin fax and goats hair and silk
and weave it into cloth, and they made
ornaments of gold and had precious
stones and made money, too, for Moses
says in the second chapter of Genesis
that one of the four rivers flowed
through land where the gold was
good and there, too, was bdellium and
the onyx stone. Oh, they caught or
to new fashions mighty fast, and cut
up scandalous, and Josephus says the
sons of God we're fallen angels and they
saw that the daughters of men were
fair to look upon and they mated with
them and raised crop of giants, ant
everybody got demoralized except
Noah and his family.
''Moses tells us how that wise
hearted women spun with their hand
and made beautiful ornaments for tn,
tabernacle Some of the necklace
taken from the mummies are as fine a
are ever seen at Tiffany's. The an
clients were not behind us in fine ia
brics and ornamental arts. We reaC
of an ancient Hindoo princess whc
came into court on state occasion an,
her father said: Go back m,
daughter--go back and dress your
self. And she replied Father
1 have on seven SUITS" but they wer
of muslin so delicately fine the kin
could see through them"
"Well, that will do now," said m,
wife. "The baby is waking up. Brin
her to me, please. The poor It'll
thing can't sleep long while she is cut
ting that other tooth. She is the bes
and sweetest child in the world.
wish she would cry and be cross a lii
tie sometimes. Somehow I'm afrai,
she is too precious to stay here long
Tum here to your dan-ma, darling
And little Caroline puts out her arm
orJ ev,fIog apJ o0oo and bar fIop -