San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-03-29
A LITTLE COPPER GOD.


the midst Of all the modern ap-
planes that 60 to make up the
literary tools Of busy contributor
to the current literature OF the day,
stands a hideous copper god, used
by my friend as paper weight.
This lilliputian deity is from far
away Peru, covered with the dust
and debris Of the uncounted ages
of that old Inca civilization. Hid
eous in its deformity, covered
with the green accumulations Of
time, representing nothing to the
intellectualism of the present, save
the superstition Of bygone day,
it seems strangely out Of place in
its new home, performing its
present duties, than which moth
ing could be more unlike the uses
to which it was originally con-
secrated. From being the adored
and feared deity of the Inca of
the past, to being the paper weight
of a modern American woman,
what could be gresrter transition.
Its very presence in that dainty
factory for magazine articles, sug-
gest almost anything and every
thing by way of contrast. What
ages of change and what processes
OF development stretch between
the days when that old verdigrised
idol was the home deity of some
ancient Of Peru, and this present
when it serves to hold in place the
fiuttering leaves Of a modern
magazine writer, to whom its an
cient uses are as unnatural as the
lpresent use is to the old worship
per. Could that old Inca step again
into the magic circle OF present
life and see his idol thus de-
throned, what horror OF supersti-
tious fear would harrow his soul,
lest the sacrilege be visited upon
himself in the anger of his out
ragged and disgraced deity? Or,
possibly, what outraged love would
resent the indignity thus heaped
upon what may have been a fav-
orite household divinity?
Or, it may be, that same old
Inca in the garnered ages since he
passed from the activities of life
and with his race became en-
blamed in the mustiness of past
that has no real voice in this liv-
ing present, has in his new en-
vironment passed beyond the
sphere of even our boasted Amer
lean development, and looks alike
at the old superstition which his
idol represented, and the present
labored effort to bring thought in
to being, as equally outlived in
his broader growth and smiles in
diligently at the crudeness of the
age of both. Who may know what
eyes look down through the ages
upon the old green copper deformi.
ty, and peering beyond it see re-
vealed In 1t all that marks the
range of civilization from the
hour 1t was fashioned until now?
Or, what eyes looking beyond
this present to that which their
clearer vision now beholds, Won
ders at the age which has not yet
mastered the art of thought
transmission without the clumsy
aid OF types and presses?
But it was not for speculations
such as these, no matter how in
teresting, that the old copper god
was taken as the text for, this
mornings discourse. 1t was the
rather that we might each see
ourselves in the vestments of that
old superstition, and by the green
light ofits hideousness understand
how like the ancient image wor-
shippers we all are. For verify,
though some of us are agnostic
to the core, and other some wor-
ship only the almighty dollar,
and other some serve only our
selves, and still others steal the
livery of the court OF heaven to
serve the devil in, and others
still reverently worship in TIA
temples of the spiritual, and
others in the great temple Of