The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-03-04
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
A-p Thinks 1t Is Good to Discuss Some.
thing Besides Politics.
atlanta Constitution.

atlanta Constitution.
Everybody is thinking about the
North pole and DR.. Nansen now. 1t
is glorious to have something to dis
tract 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 to ponder over the ways OF
parties and partisans. A quail a day
for thirty days is nothing to be com.
pared to it. Let us have any sort OF
a recess now We wouldent mind a
big fire or a small earthquake quake
that would shake tie windows in the
big house at Washington and upset a
few desks and tables and roll the
drunken member from Alabama off the
sofa. I wish some Guy Fawkes would
come along and scare them all SO bad
that they would 60 home and never 60
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 currency and the
tariff are not 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 Blackburn 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 with
draw and stop all their wrangle. Why
don't the members make them with
draw. The answer is that this is
politics-impure and complex politics.
Surely the common people are fools or
they would send better men to Con-
gress and to the Legislature.
But I was thinking about DR.. Nan
sen 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 spindle that the earth turns on,
and was there a Inch pin in it and
was the axle creased or was the jour
nal hot and did the sparks fly and so,
forth. If the doctor hasent found
anything but an open polar sea and a
few w~alruses and seals and no big,
awful suckhole at the center that had
liked to have pulled his vessel in,
then he may go back and try it again.
The world won't be satisfied with that
and it won't believe him. Why, John
Cleves Symmes found a theoretical
hole up there that was 1900 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 be-
levers ever since. Then Jules Verne
came along and made 6 journey up
there on paper and found the identical
Pole and put a flag 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 Franklin's men in an Eskimo
nut and it tells the whole story, how
he and an Eskimo and six dogs were
cut off from the vessel and took shell
ter in 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 land and a people
and fine cities and fruits and howers,
and lakes and rivers, and the whole
was lighted up by the aurora borealis.
| MI. Fairman calls it the third world
and makes a very fascinating story Of
it. If it was true I would believe it,
and I am inclined to believe it any
how. It has a charming love story
mixed up with it, and I am not yet
too old to enjoy them. I've always
had an idea that the Creator put the
aurora borealis up there for some other
purpose besides an occasional illumi-
nation Of our Northern horizon.
Maybe it is a 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. DR.. 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 hocks Of aquatic
birds coming from that way. Never
theless we will wait and see. 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 that are chiseled
On the ancient ruins in that country
and declares the ruins to be at least
ten thousand years old. and 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 be soon published in Paris, a
volume that he says will enlighten
the scientific and religious world and
remove all doubts about the origin of
man and his progress down. the corri-
doris of time. We read some of his
communications in the Review Of Re-
vievs last summer and wonderful
that is all we can do nowadays--just
wait and wonder. Not long ago I had
a nice letter from Mr.. Oliver, the
American consul at Merida asking me
to com over there and examine these
wonderful ruins and write them up
and offering his assistance, and | have
a mind to 60. Merida is a city. of co.
900 inhabitants, and it is only a short
sail from Havana. The only thing
that makes me hesitate is what DR..
Plongeon writes about the snakes and
centipeds and other noxious reptiles
and insects hal haunt the ruins.