The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-07-27
A BAD JOB.

/
titled Bridging the Pacific" 1t is Prof
McGee's description of work which he
says will be completed at no distant day
The object of the work is to connect the
continents of Asia and America by fill
ing the space between them along the
southern boundary of the Behring sea
with detritus deposited there by the Yu
kon river, assisted. it may be, by the
folding NJ of the earth's crust at that
place | read the description with much
interest until discovered that the idea
contiicted with my religion Then | re-
jected the whole as an untruth In
Speaking of my religion, it may not be
| known that | ever had any. | do not
stand ON the corners of the street max
ing long prayers to be heard of men,
| Nevertheless | have a little and TO show
how it conflicts With the bridge l will
give an inkling of it and how l came by
| it
When | was IA small boy | asked my
mother how she knew there was God?
|
In a reproving manner she told ine not
to ask such questions but to read my
bible, to listen to what my Sunday school
teachers and the minister said and then
| would know had listened and they
all affirmed that God was, but gave no
proof Christ told his hearers they need
not believe Him because He said So but
to believe him for His works sake. So
| said if there is an Overriding Intelli
gence who made and fashioned this world
with all its beauty and perfection, if |
His foot prints So looked out upon a
pond of water where ducks We're swim
ming Their nature demanded food
| that was in and under the water. In
order that they might obtain that food
| they We're provided with feathers inn
pervious to water. They would dive I'M
went in They had legs but so awkward
| they could hardly walk they stood out
| like the oars of Il boat The webs to
their toes formed paddles SO they could
| dive and swim like fish and spoon-snap
ed bills with which they could gather
large quantities of mud, and with few
motions wash the food it contained clean
to swallow. And then | looked at the
hens whose nature required food that
was on the ground and found them
equally provided with means to ends,
with their strong legs how they could
run; they had found my garden, and
with their long toes and sharp nails had
scratched out all the small seed | had
sown which their keen eyes had seen
and with their pointed bills had picked
mp and eaten. A man told me Tipping
coppers was game of chance which he
had practiced his life long and had not
gained or lost dollar 1t had been
heads and tails even With the ducks
and chickens it had been heads every
time. Was that chance?
So from then till now, three score
Years and ten, wherever | have looked
in nature from the ducks and chickens
with means adopted to ends, to the
islands and continents of the earth all
made highest in the middle so as TO form
rivers to carry the surplus rain that fell
upon them back to the ocean from
whence it came, rendering them gardens
for vegetation and homes for man and
beast | have found beauty and perfec-
ton an adaptation of means to ends, IA
fitness of things which could no more be
the product OF laws OF matter acting by
blind chance than that the icebergs that
hoated over our country could have drop
ped the stones they contained into walls
the farms; or that the material of which
the city of Manitowoc IS composed could
have been placed in its present condition
by the natural laws of matter unaided
by the skill of the architect or the build
er, or as Cardinal Gibbons expresses it,
that one could cut all the letters in Poe's
SOllS VI Lie navel ocpdldut pltCtS
and cast them to the wind and have
them fall to the ground in the same or
der the poet placed them Therefore |
was constrained to reject as untruth the
idea that because all matter was eternal
and the laws of matter co-existent with
it, there was therefore no need of God,
and to embrace as true the first four
words of Princess Irenas Il know God is.
SO much for my religion but what has
all that to do with the bridge under con
sideration. If the folding up of the
crusts of the earth thereby forming con
tinents had been the effect of unguided
law of matter, then they might have ex
tended from east to west around the |
world thereby forming a separation be-
tween the oceans of the arctic and equi-
tn,.iol rooiopc Pint tba A1lu,ico II, Jic