Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-10-04
MYSTERY OF LIFE.
A CYNiC'S ESTIMATE OF THE HU-
MAN FORM DIVINE.

A Combination Of Salts, Juices and Gases, ldcn
ticaI, but in Different Proportions in Pig
Mule, Senator. Missionary. King. or Cyote-
The Alchemy Of Nature Performs Its WorI
WelI-Water. Air and Earth, with a Modicun
Of Combustion Does the Business-Awa,
with Earthly Pride-lt Cannot Stand tn
Blows Of the lconocIast's Hammer.
Philadelphia Grit.
OF all the mysteries that mystify
our imagination in this mysteriou:
world of wonders, the greatest myster,
Of all is this curious combination o
salts, juices, and gases that enter into
the harmonious alliance of natural ell
ements in the formation of animal
life. What is living, moving. think.
ing, scheming, caniving, hungry
greedy. aching, wind-sucking body
We see them all around us every day
we talk TO them, feel them, walk with
them, sleep with them, eat with them
love them, hate them some times
hornswoggle them, cheat them, swim.
die them, enslave them, oppress them,
rob them, kill them-and yet we do
not really know anything about them.
We don't even know anything about
the body we live in, except that it is
composed Of juices and salts and
gases, the same as the body OF pig,
or a mule, or Senator, or a mission
ary, or King, or coyote, as it were,
or more of it.
Certain combinations of salts and
gases and juices make trees changed
a little bit they make pumpkin or a
turnip or $40 bill; changed some
more and they make a potato, or a
rock, or a COW catcher on locomo.
tive; changed some more still and
they make whisky, or beer, or patent
medicine, or ink, or axle grease, ETC.,
etc. Even the rope that was made to
hang you has got some of the same
elements in its composition that 60 to
make your own body.
When you take something into your
body that does not belong to your fam
lily of elements, or combination OF
gases and salts, that. something is a
foreign element, and will make you
sick, or drunk, or crazy, or awfully
bilious. You daren't add any new ell
ement to the original combination,
nor add too much of any original ele-
ment already there. You do not
know how to mix them in the proper
way. Nature is the greatest of all
compounders of drugs. She is the
only known alchemist. She makes all
combinations from the same labora.
tory decomposes and disintegrates the
bodies and uses the elements TO make
something else. She is always tearing
down to build up. Her combinations
only last short time, just as though
the string that holds them together is
gnawed off by the mice, as it were.
The disintegration is as much of a
mystery to men as the original forma.
ton. We have been disputing and
warning over the matter for ages.
Some claim that there is an indestruc.
tible element in living bodies, and es.
pecially in the human body, that can
never be destroyed. They say it has
got another world to 60 to when the
body goes to smash down here. Other
men dispute this theory. and demand
the proof. In producing the proof the
two different ideas clash together and
generate heat and anger and political
intrigue and zeal and the ammuni.
tions of war, and men 60 to shooting
ideas and historical facts and lead
into each other, until one side or the
other throws up their hands and hol-
lers, Enough
But that doesn't settle the question
at all. War, you know. doesn't settle
anything but the few men who get hit
in the solar plexus during the ex.
change of blows. By and by the
same old discussion comes up, and
ends in the same old kind of argu.
ment, but human bodies wear out and
60 to pieces, and the mystery beyond
the act of disintegration is as deep
and blue as ever. Men may think it
all out some time, but they can never
settle it by war or bullets, or clubs.
The average man does not like to
sit down and confess to himself that
he is nothing more than q combina
ton OF salts and gases and extract
juices. and that the happy combina-
ton will only last for few brief years,
after which he must 60 to pieces
and leak into the ground, and up into
the air, and leave all his friends and
relatives in serious doubt as to the
place he has gone to, so to speak.
He has always considered himself
away above the toad and lizard and
pig and mule and brindle steer, and
the idea of being composed Of almost
the same identical salts and gases, is
very humiliating. Why, he has al.
ways worn a scissor-tail coat, and q
high collar, and gold watch chain
and patent leather shoes, and keg hat
aud carried hymn book to Sunday
school every Lords day, besides send.
ing money to tho heather, also spend.
ing it for whisky and beer; and now
to think that he is composed of the