The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-07-26
The Lost Continent Story.
From the st. Louis Globe-Democrat.


From the st. Louis Globe Democrat
The terrible disaster in the West Indies
has naturally revived "reminiscences of pre-
| vious occurrences of the same kind in othel
parts of the world, and all the horrors o.
similar character which have occurred fol
ages past have been retold and compared
with the latest and perhaps worst Of all
1t Is singular fact, however, that if there
be aught of truth in the early traditions Of
mankind there once occurred in the Wes!
Indian region, or in the Atlantic to the east
of the West Indies, the most fearful dis
aster in the history of the human race, a
catastrophe so terrible in its nature as to
impress indelibly its story into the mind Of
the human race and render forgetfulness OF
it an impossibility.
1t has been customary for ages to regard
the story of Atlantis, the lost island, as
merely a traditionary fable. Students are
now more cautious and hesitate ere pro-
nouncing judgment upon tradition which
comes down through the ages with the
stamp of undoubted antiquity upon it.
The fact that the Atlantis legend has for
over | 900 years been regarded as an idle
tale has no influence on the minds of schol-
ars who remember that for the same length
of time the stories of Herodotus were equal
ly discredited He is now known to have
been a conscientious narrator of what he
saw or knew to be true Many legends,
once discredited like that of Atlantis, are
now known to be founded upon fact so
students Of antiquity are slowly coming to
the conclusion that the Atlantis legend has
solid historical basis
The tradition was in ancient times most
clearly set forth by Plato, who, in ''Ti-
maus' gives full account of the storied
island. the narrative being impaired to
Solon, ancestor of Plato, by the priests Of
Egypt, who in their documents had pre-
served the history of Atlantis as it had been
handed down from still more remote an
tiquity. Briefly summarized, the account
given by Plato and others is this !:
To the west of the Pillars of Hercules
or Strait of Gibraltar, and at the distance
of several hundred miles there once lay a
great island Its dimensions were larger
than those of Asia Minor, and either by a
short voyage by land or chain of islands,
it communicated with the great continent
to the west of the ocean, or America
This island was of itself an empire Its
people attained high degree of civiliza-
ton They had populous cities, carrying
on vast trade both by sea and land; they
cultivated the earth, had orchards and
vineyards, and their soil produced tropical
fruits and flowers, delicacies of many kinds
and medicinal plants and herbs. They dug
great canals for purposes of irrigation and
transportation, they constructed excellent
highways, they had system Of laws and
highly organized Government. The
palace and royal city exceeded in splendor
anything known in Europe at that time,
the details being curiously suggestive of the
descriptions of the royal palace Of the
Peruvian Incas. They had extensive
colonies. One swarm of their population
settled Egypt, another the shores OF the
eastern Mediterranean, finally founding
great States in the valleys of the Euphrates
and Tigris.
The shores of the Mediterranean, the
coasts of western Europe and perhaps also
portions of western Africa were under their
control, and hints are given, both by Plato
and others, of colonies elsewhere. Their
country was the original seat of the world 8
civilization, and from it the knowledge of
the arts and sciences, and perhaps of let
ters and writing also, was carried in every
direction to the ends of the earth.
By tremendous convulsion of nature
the continent disappeared beneath the
waters of the ocean, its inhabitants perished,
its cities were overthrown The nature of
the catastrophe is not exactly stated either
by Plato or in the other legends, though
vaguely the destructive agent is declared
to be water in such immense quantities as
to constitute deluge which reached to the
tops of the highest mountains. "The
fountains of the great deep were broken
up, rains of unprecedented violence con-
tinued many days and the food covered all
the earth A few frightened inhabitants
escaped in ships and bore the news of this
awful calamity to the rest of the world.
In their attempts to explain an occurrence
which filed all nations with horror men at
tributed it to the vengeance of their gods
and found reason in the real or supposed
wickedness of the people of Atlantis which
provoked their deities to destroy them.
Such is the story, as derived from Plato
and one or two other ancient sources, of
the mysterious island. 1t is now practically
certain that long before the date commonly
fixed as that of the food there were power
full civilized States both in Egypt, Mesopo-
tamia and along the eastern Mediterranean.
They possessed in high degree the arts
of civilization. They could write; they
had libraries and public records. There
were banks and commercial houses; ac-
counts were kept and bills rendered. There
were poets and novelists, architects, paint
ers and sculptors. Their civilization, rather
than original, however, seems to have been
derived from an older source, and the sus-
picion that this was the case has led stu
dents of antiquity more than ever to the
belief that there may be much of truth in
the hypothesis which makes Atlantis the
original seat of all civilization, but the de-
of the great continent did not
hinder or delay the progress of man, for
the colonies sent forth were strong enough
to continue the work begun by the mother
country. Traditions of the deluge are not,
as commonly supposed, to be found in every
land. There is none among the African
tribes of the Dark Continent; there is none
among the Australian aborigines or South
Sea islanders. The traditions exist only
in those countries which are also tradition
ally associated with the lost continent, or
whose inhabitants are descended from its
colonists They are found in
Europe, in all parts of Asia, in Egypt, IN
North Central and South America, and
tradition asserts that all these countries
were either settled from Atlantis or had
been conquered by the powerful and war
like Atlantean Kings.
The total destruction of the mother coun-
try would so vividly impress the imagination
of all nations associated with the lost con-
tiueut that the deluge might easily be mag
n;6ed into the inundation of the whole
oartb and no traditions are to be found