The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-03-21

A lady writes TO me and asks wha
is really meat by the "needle's eye
in the parable of the rich man. I re
member reading somewhere that i
was the smallest gate that gave en-
trance to the walled city of Jerusalem
and that loaded camel had to b.
stripped Of its burden and bend its
knees to squeeze through. And 80 {
rich man had 10 give up his A'ches anc
come to his knees before he could en-
ter heaven. But do not find that in
any commentary. It was just one Of
the thousand proverbs that adorned
the moral teachings Of the Jews and
the eastern nations. The writings OF
Job and Solomon and Confucius and
Mahomet abound in them. In the
Koran is found this proverb: "The
impious man will find the gates of
heaven shut and he can no more enter
than q camel can pass through nee
dies eye." There is another in the
Koran which says: "You will never
see palm tree of gold nor an elephant
pass through needles eye." These
proverbs simply meant that it was i'm
possible. Strange TO say, the world
has long since quit making proverbs.
All proverbs have come down to us,
even such as "a rolling stone gathers
no MOSS" "Poor Richard" left US a
few, such as "a penny saved is two
pence gained"
young man eager for knowledge
writes to know why it is that when
you reverse number and subtract the
less from the greater the difference is
always nine or some multiple of nine,
and nine will divide it without re-
mainder. He wants to know the rea-
son why. This is rather complex, but
the reason is plain when you see it.
By reversing number you change the
numerical value Of every figure in it;
units become tens or hundreds or thou
sands, and vice versa; and hence, if
you subtract unit from a ten it leaves
nine. Take ten, for instance, and
reverse it, and it is .O1. 1t was ten
before and it is / now, and the differ
ence is obliged to be nine. Take 81
and reverse it and you change 9 tens
to 8 units, and l unit to ten; gain
ing 81 and losing nine, which makes
72, multiple of 8. Nov if gou add
instead Of subtract the sum will be IL
or some multiple Of IL, 10 and OF 11r
l3 and 81 make A.: 16 ahd 61 make ";
"a and AZ make 66; all multiples Of IL.
The complexities and results Of figures
are many and very wonderful. They
train the mind and strain the mind.
| know they did mine when I was
struggling through the ssigoncmetfy
and calculus. A boy can fudge and
smuggle along through Latin and
Greek with the help Of translations,
but he can't fool the professor on the
blackboard.
Another enquiring mind wishes to
know why it is that the first day Of
May and the following Christmas al
ways come on the same day Of the
week. Well, it can't help it, .hhats's
all, for there are thirty-four even
weeks from one to the other. But
Christmas day and the first day Of the
next May don't fit it. Februsfy
comes in and knocks the even into
ODD.
A Florida girl writes that her al.
manac is all wrong, for it gives Feb
ruary only twenty-eight days, not
withstandiDg this is o leap year. Yea,
Miss, this is leap year, but it don't
leap. The last year 10 every century
has to be skipped as leap year, for
old father time gains day in every
hundred years, and the clock has to be 1
set back twenty-four hours.
And here is humble, sensible let /,
ter from Louisiana negro who says
he has great respec. for the white peo-
pie, and loves to lean upon them, for
they know best and they have treated
him kindly all his life. He wants to
know whore the word negro comes
from. and what it means. He says:
Il read all your letters, and you G We
us some awful blows, but you can't t
blow the monkey out Of us." Well,
the word negro is Spanish aud Portu-
gee for. black. The French is nigrc.
The Latin is niger, aud the English
corrupted it into niger. The Century
dictionary ssys that the niger is moro
Eoglish than negro; and was used
without opprobrious intent; and can
~ -