Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1896-02-27

lowered over the lord of the counsel,
awaiting his every command. The other
gods and goddesses stood or sat around
the hall, and from all faces an anxious
suspense was reflected.
Could the world in ITS wickedness
have known of the sorrow and anguish
it caused the high potentates Of heaven,
would it have been better and re-
Trained from evil doing? Who can tell?
After a long silence Jupiter addressed
the assembled host. He told of all the
glory that had been upon the earth,
of all the wrong-doing and made known
his determination to destroy so UNI
worthy race, and to re-people the world
with more grateful beings.
When he had finished he raised his
hand to throw thunderbolt which
would fire the world and utterly destroy
it, but Mercury held his hand.
Sire, would you destroy heaven, too,
by so rash a deed?"
Jupiter then realized how so great
conflagration might set fire to the heav-
emily bodies, and changed his plan.
Mercury was dispatched to chain up
Aquilo, the North Wind, which drives
away the clouds, and to call forth
Notus, the South Wind, who soon COW
cred the land with a pitchy blackness.
Then the rain descended in torrents,
but Jupiter, still unsatisfed, called on
his brother Neptune to let loose his wa
tiers. Then, hurting thunderbolt, he
rent the world from end to end, and
thus drove up the waters from the sea
in solid walls, which rose hundreds of
feet in the air and fell with resounding
crashes, destroying plants, cattle,
houses, people.
And so the world was destroyed. The
highest tree-tops were covered by the
surging waters, no trace of human habi-
tation could be seen, and the whole
world was great sea, extending where
the top of Mount Parnassus rose as a
little island in its midst.
When Jupiter saw his object accom-
plished he commanded Notus to retire,
and Aquilo soon drove back the dark
veil of clouds, while Apollo smiled upon
the waste. Then Neptune commanded
Triton to sound upon his horn, and the
waters retreated. The land, rich with
moisture, soon put forth its strength,
and the world soon became a garden
of beauty again. So out of death is
there regeneration and new life.
Iris, the goddess of the rainbow and
the messenger of Juno, looked down
unnn tho rodiopt uordan and cav nm
the top of Parnassus two beings, who
were all that had been saved when the
devastating waters flooded the world.
Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, both
just and faithful and good, saw the god
dess smile, and hope filed their hearts.
With new vigor they sought the tenn
pie of the oracle, and with bowed heads
and silent prayers asked guidance how
they might repeople the world with a
race as good and pure as their ances-
tor Prometheus had done long ago.
AS they knelt in the temple. covered
as it was with slime and ooZe, q soft
rushing as of distant waters sounded
upon their ears. 1t soon became dis
tinct sound, which formed itself into
these words:
Depart into the woods, and with
flowing hair and Embossed garments,
cast behind you the bones of your
mother"
Pyrrha and Deucalion thought they
must have heard an avenging spirit
speak, for how could they be so wicked
as to desecrate the remains of the de-
ceased. But suddenly, as they wan
dered dejectedly along, a bright
thought came to Deucalion.
"Pyrrha, If / mistake not, the earth
is our mother, the great parent of all
The stones are her bones. Let us cast
them behind us, it can do no harm"
Pyrrha readily assented, and they did
as the oracle commanded.
And SO the new races rose to life.
The stones thrown upon the ground be-
came soft and took on the shape of rude
block forms which by and by appeared
as living images. The stony part be-
came the bones, the slime and moisture
the flesh and blood, and the veins re-
NAMED veins only with different func-
lions. All those thrown by the wom-
ans hand became women, and those
that Deucalion cast behind him became
men.
Under the guidance of Pyrrha the
women became noble and good and
worthy of the land they inhabited. The
men, following Deucalion, we're brave
and honest. truthful and law-abiding.
and so in those early days was laid the
foundation of the principles that must
ever be kept fresh and vigorous. that e
nation may live.
Then Jupiter looked down upon his
new creation, and he was pleased. And
the smile from his countenance caused