The Van Buren press., 1896-03-28
BILL ARP MORALIZES.
Thinks It Is Good to Discuss Some.
thing Besides Politics.
Dr.. hansen and the North Pole and the
New Method of Photographic Are
the Things Which Interest
Him at Present.

DOdy ls db0ub bnC
north pole and DIR. hansen now. 1t is
glorious to have something to distract
our attention from politics. And there
are the cathode rays which have just
come in time to help out. 1t is awful
to have to read politics day after day
and to ponder over the ways of parties
and partisans. quail day for 80
days is nothing 10 be compared 10 it.
Let us have any sort of a recess now.
We wouldn't mind a big fire or small
eafthq uake-a quake that would shake
the windows in the big house at Wash
ington and upset few desks and tables
and roll the drunken member from Ala
bama off the sofa. ] wish some Guy
awkes would come along and scare
them all so bad that they would go
home and never go back any more.
The people are tired and disheartened.
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 cur
rency and the tariff are now party
questions, but the parties have made
them so. This has been said before,
but it is worth saying again. There
is no moral principle that governs a
professional politician. Look at Black
burn and Hunter-what an expense to
the state will the taxpayers have to
meet just to crafty the greed or the
selfish ambition of two men. Kentucky
has hundreds of men just as able and
well qualified as they are. 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 polities-impure and com
plex politics. Surely the common peo-
pie are fools or they would send better
lnen to congress and to the legisla-
ture.
But was thinking about DR.. Nansen
and the north pole. Can it be possible
that he has found it-found the end of
the earth-the very tip end of the spin
die that the earth turns on, and was
there Inch pin in it and was the axle
creased or was the journal hot and did
the sparks fly and so forth. If the doe
tor hasn't found anything but an open
polar sea and a few walruses and seals
and no big, awful suckholes at the center
that had liked to have 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 Il
theoretical hole up there that was 2,
GOO miles in diameter and a vessel could
sail in and around just as easy as sail
ing on the ocean.
Symmes' hole was talked about when
] was a boy, and it has bad believers
ever since. Then Jules Verne came
along and made journey up there on
paper and found the identical pole and
put flag on it, and the one he raised
is flying there yet. And last, but not.
least, Mr.. Fairman has found a manu-
script left by one of Sir John Frank
Inns men in an Eskimo hut and it tells
the whole story, how he aud an Eskimo
and six dogs were cut off from the ves-
sci and took shelter in % cave of ice
and lived on walrus and bear meat.
and after some days determined to ex-
plore the cave and kept on and on, by
the light of their blubber-lamp, until
they had Travelled 100 miles, and at last
came to the opening on the other side,
which is to say the inside of Symmes'
hole, and found q land and people
and fine cities and fruits and flowers,
and lakes and rivers, and the whole was
lighted up by the aurora borealis. Mr..
Fairman calls it the third world and
makes a very fascinating story of it.
If it was true l would believe it, and |
am inclined to believe it anyhow, 1t
has a charming love story mixed up
with it, and | am not yet too old to en-
joy them, I've always had an idea thai
the Creator put the aurora borealis up
there for some other purpose besides
an occasional illumination of our north
ern horizon. May be it is big electric
arc light for those people in the hole,
who never see the sun.
Verify, we are on 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 so did
Greedy, for they saw foeks of aquatic
birds coming from that way. Never
theless, we will wait and see. May be
he has found 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 that are ehiseled
on the ancient ruins in that country,
and declares the ruins to be at least
10000 years old, and these temples were
built long before the flood, and the let
tiers that make up the alphabet are of
Egyptian origin. He and his wife have
been photographing them and have
written volume that will soon be pub
lished in Paris, a volume that he says
will enlighten the scientific and re-
ligious world and remove all doubts
"pouN VIC VI X III VI hldu anu MS llioS
ress down the corridors of time. We
read some of his communications in the
Review of Reviews last summer, and
wonderful-that is all we can do nova.
days-just wait and wonder. 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
have mind TO go. Merida is n CITY OF