The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1901-08-28
Unknown Great Men.

VI the scnoontr Oea-CerpeDt, FOUND
himself sdrie: il small boat, with
five of his shipwrecked crew, and
without compass-at least, he
thought he was without. But after
five days of aimless drifting in fog
he found one in the bottom of q locker,
says London Answers, and man.
aged to steer into safety. The COM
pass saved their lives. for they were
on the verge Of starvation.
Capt. Slater was SO thankful for
that compass that he decided to get
up public subscription for monu-
ument to its inventor, aud over q
thousand pounds had actually been
subscribed before he discovered tina.
no one on earth knows who did in
vent the mariner compass. The mon
umcnt idea, Of course. fell through.
Every one is familiar with photo
graphs or copies Of that wonderful
piece Of sculpture, the Venus di Milo.
1t was found in the Island of Melos
and is now in the Louvre at Paris.
The arms, unfortunately, have been
broken off; but for perfect beauty of
face and figure no other piece Of sculp-
ture, ancient or modern, can com
pare with it. Yet no one has the
faintcst idea who executed the mar
velous piece Of work, and it is safe to
say that its origin never will be known.
Giuseppe Rabatini, the famous
Venetian collector of old paintings,
| possesses most exquisite picture,
over which every beholder raves.
Everybody's opinion of the painting
is expressed in three words-"It sim
ply talks! 1t represents the rescue
of marvelously beautiful woman,
with her child, from small wrecked
yacht. Mr.. Rabatini says he would
not sell it at any price. Indeed, so
recently as last May he refused an
offer of $1,000 for it and discouraged
further offers. It is fraction over
four feet square and is unsigned. 1t
was unearthed two years ago in an
old curiosity shop in Milan and all
! efforts to trace it's origin have proved
futile.
Your own NJ. p. probably derived
much Of his political wisdom from the
famous Letters of Junius' one of
tie cleverest political works ever pub
lished. The fact that, although writ
ten l3O years ago, they are standard
work to this very day, and were care
fully studied by Gladstone, Disracli,
and every politician of note, speaks
volumes for the remarkable cleverness
of the letters. But no one knows
who wrote them and it is too late now
to hope ever to find out.
The humble lucifer match is sup
posed to have been invented by Sir
Isaac Holden. Someone else, how
ever, put it on the market before he
did and claimed to be the first inven.
tor. Even Sir Isaac himself admit
ted that it Mas doubtful who was the
inventor, so that no one will ever be
able to say for certain.
Chess is q game which arouses in
terest all the world over. Other
games come and 60, but this one has
lived for ages and shows no signs of
decay. Where, when, or by whom it
was invented is q mystery. Stone
henge and the Pyramids of Egypt are
everlasting monuments to the extraor-
dinary building skill Of tho aucients,
but their origin is hopelessly lost.
One would think that the identity
of the architect Of such superbly-
designed building as Cologne Cathe-
dral could not possibly be lost to the
world. But it is, The Cathedral
took centuries to build, and many
architects have modelled parts of it
according to their own ideas. In the
main, however, the original grand
idea-an idea which simply astouuds
every modern architect, but the origin
of which is absolutely unknown-was
carried out, and the result was
the most beautiful cathedral in the
world.
Think how much the world owes to
the inventor of the common wheel.
Wheels form the principal portion OF
every kind of machinery. Familiari-
ty having bred contempt. we are apt
to regard the wheel as being very
simple thing, which di6 not need to
be invented by anybody. We sup
pose that it Simply growed.". In
point of fact, however, it is most in
genious contrivance, for which we
ought to be very thankful indeed to