The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-08-04
ARP'S EXAMINATIONS.
Friend Sends Bean Like That Jack
tie Giant-Killer Planted.
Sets Him TO Marveling at the MyS'
teries OF Nature-Arrival OF Pre-
serving Seasonal "Tri-
fling" Husband.

A veteran friend has sent me one of
the identical beans that little Jack
planted and that grew up to the SKY.
1t came in letter coiied up like lit
tie green snake and | thought at first
it was a snake. 1t is about the size OF
an average wax bean. and is 2SH inches
long. l measured it on my square and
am satisfied it was at least 80 inches
when it was taken from the vine, for 1t
has shrumk some in the mail. he
writes that he is lineal descendant OF
Jack and the bean stalk and this va
riety has been handed down through
II generations, more or less, and these
beans won't grow for anybody except
irish patriots or confederate veterans.
The writer belonged to Capt. Dawson
company in the Eighth Georgia regi-
ment and was with us that memorable
night when we crossed the Shenandoah
river by torchlight and the short boys
had to be eased over the deep places
by putting taller soldiers behind them'
and even then the water ran into
their mouths occasionally. My friend
was one of the shorts and says he got
straneled several times on tiptoe.
These bean vines and other vines
have often excited my wonder and con-
temptation. Solomon says: There
is a purpose for everything under
heaven" and Addison says: In rea-
sons voice all rejoice" And so l would
ike to know why all the bean vines
morning glories, madeira and cinna-
mon vines grow and wind toward the
sum-, starting on the south side OF the
pole and going east, while the hop vine
and some others reverse their course
Everything has its law and you can I
make anything change its nature "A
vine will die if you force it the wrong
way. And yet Raphael Semmes says
in his great book that south OF the
equator everything is reversed and the
bean vines that climb against the sun
I'D here climb with it down there. OF
course the motion of the earth on its
axis has something to do with II, put
why is it so? We don't know much
after all. Mrs. Hemans says: "And
flowers shall wither at the north
winds breath" but if she had lived
in South America she would have said
Sat the south winds breath" for that
is the cold wind below the equator.
| We are all inclined to view things
from our own standpoint. OF course
| it is very natural for us to do SO Tor
| we live in the same zone and latltuoe
that Adam and Eve lived in. WEST
ward the course of empire takes its
wav." That's all. No change in the
course of the sun or moon or stars
or climate or temperature. Paradise
was on a line with Gainesville, and
it is vet, and the Euphrates river is
the Etowah now and the gold OF that
land was good and so is the gold OF
| this.
But I was Illuminating about these
mysteries of nature that surround us
and are so common that we do not no.
tice them. Last night our grove was
illuminated by a thousand firefiies-
more numerous and more brilliant than
ever before. 1t was regular pyrotech-
MICS for an hour: They Tighten as they
rise from the grass and emit spark
of gold and green luster that is lovely.
Some naturalists say it is phosphorus
that they can illuminate at will by
breathing hydrogen or oxygen into it
and that it has no heat. Ever since
Tinneus lived this little innocent bug
has been under the fires of dissection
and discussion, and no solution of its
wonderful faculty has yet been agreed
upon. I had to catch bottle full for
the little girls. They played with them
until bedtime, and then turned them
out. and one of them was dead, with
the light still shining in its tail, 1t
had Illuminated its own death and kept
its lantern burning without a breath
] Of hydrogen or oxygen. Away down y