The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-09
wONDROUs STORY OF THE rocks.
Question Put to the Members of
the school Board.

Question Put to the Members of
the school Board.
Editor of the Morning News: To this
writer, an humble student of nature. it
seems marvellous that so few persons, even
among the educated classes, have any
clear idea of this subject. and that whilst
the children of our public schools are
stuffed with Keezar and Kickeson and
comic sections, and algebra,c equations, and
geometric problems, no attention is given
TO the wondrous story of the form and
nature Of the world we live in. Why is
this so?
From the earliest times we find print
tive man seeking solution of the problem,
What and whence is this earth of ours?
The notions current at the dawn of our era
were very crude and mythical. but unfor-
tunately were adopted by the early Christ
ians, and made dogma of faith For
nearly 1,5O0 years, it was death by the law
to seek light or suggest change in this
story, and even to-day the fanatic and the
Pharisee are fighting against the facts;
and it is probably for these reasons so few
people of the present age are willing to take
up the subject in the light of science.
But truth is mighty and cannot be hidden
by ignorance and superstition, and so it
has come about that to-day all who will
may read by sight and with the under
standing the wondrous story of the rocks!
From the basic granite up through a reg
ular series of metamorphic, sedimentary
and stratified formations, all is clear and
plain as the leaves Of any book up to the
period when the dynamic and mechanical
agencies by which sediment and sand and
shells We're made into solid rock, and these
upheaved into great mountain ranges
Then when these ceased to act commenced
the tertiary era and the higher orders of
our Flora and Fauna appeared and last
OF all the browning work of the Great
Architect-man! II we consider that ali
that lives and moves and has being is sus-
tanned and nourished by the soil. the dirt
beneath our feet, is it not a matter of in
terest to know what this mother of all is
and whence 1t came? And yet how few
can give an intelligent account of III II is
literally true that all things are produced
from the dust of the earth, but how?
not by any sleight-of-hand hocus pocus
put by the operation of great, yet sim
pie laws of nature, which he who runs
may read, and he who will read the won
derful story cannot fail to gain a more
grand and beautiful conception of the
Father God than is taught by any of the
narrow sects of so-called orthodoxy"
From few simple elemental substances
comes all that makes our earth a thing
of beauty little of mineral a little of
animal and of vegetable matter is the
source of all that lives. Again and vet
again, the flora and fauna are born and
flourish and die, and yet again is their
resurrection from the dead. Nourished by
sun and gentle rain, the earth is fructi-
fed, and brings forth, and this grand and
beautiful work is going on right before
our eyes, and the details are accessible
to ALL How say you, gentlemen of the
school board; is not this a matter of more
real practical utility to the children of our
day than 'Keezar ~ Kickers, or Comic
sections? X. & K. are dead and have not
left the business TO any one. but if they
had, one who should to-day attempt to
run their schedule would probably end in |
lunatic asylum whereas the laws and
the work OF nature, the stratigraphy and |
topography of our earth are ever present |
to the eye, and not only does the health |
happiness and prosperity of every one de- |
pend on rightly understanding this won |
derful alchemy, but to him who will read |
the story, it must make more clear and |
broad the path that leads to God. r.