The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-18

1
Marcn has no friends. 1t is a disa-
greeable, uncertain, clustering month
1t was named for Mars, the God of War.
who was the son of Jupiter and as al
ways hunting around for a light He
was believed to be the father of Romu-
lus. the founder Of the Roman Empire ana
hence was hello in great reverence by
| the Romans. March was named for him
Those old Greeks and Romans had no
/ Weeks-nor days of the Week no Sun
days or Mondays or any other day. but
they divided tine by Calends and Ides
! The Calends were the first days of the
| month and the Tdes We're the fifteenth
| All the intermediate days were desig-
! mated by these, as for instance. the third
i day after the Caends of May or the fifth
| day before the ldes of March The Ro-
| man senate always began its session on
! the Ides of the month"; except that after
| julius Caesar was murdered the ami
/ versary of that day, the Ides of March
was observed as sacred day. | want
| the young people to know and remember
| that we got our months from Roman
| mythology and the days of our weeks
| from Scandinavian mythology. Now
4 ",
| for it is classic and more fascinat-
| ing than the Arabian Nights. Two thous-
and years ago it was the faith and re-
/ ligion of millions of people. Jupiter was
/ the god of the Greeks and the Romans
and Wooden was the god of the Morse
men and each had a son who was ne
god of war There was the son of
Wooden. Wednesday was named for
no11
day. Thursday was named for Thor and
Friday fer his mother. Each of these
mythologies had hades or internal reg
ion for bad people and evil spirits
Pluto presided over the one and wo-
man named Hela over tho other. That
is where the word Hell came from. Tt
seems an awful thing to put hell in
charge of a woman. but they said that
no man was as bad as a bad woman
Her father was nan ed Loki and she had
Two brothers. One was serpent so big
and SC long that it wrapped around the
world. and then swallowed its own tail
The other was a wolf. so strong that he
broke the strongest chains just like they
were cobWebs Then Wooden got the
mountain spirits to make another chain
and they made it of six things: the
noise made by cat walking, the beard
of a woman, the roots of stones, the
breath of fishes, the smiles of bears and
the spttle Of birds. When the chain was
finished it was small and smooth ana
soft as silken string, but no power on
earth could break it. And so they chain
ed him and killed him But listen what
kind of home Miss Hela had. Hunger
was her dining table Starvation was
her knife. Delay was her man servant
Sloth her maid servant. a precpicc
was her door step. Care her bod aud
Anguish the curtains to her bed chamber.
No wonder she was cruel and always
wore a stern, unhappy and forbiddins
countenance.
This is Just sample of their mythol-
ogy 1t fills up several books. Now,
where in the world did that people get
all these wonderful stories. Away back
in the ages they must have had poets
more imaginative than Homer some OF
our most learned men say they got the
foundation of many of them from the
Bible For the story goes that away back
in the ages the people got so bad that
Jupiter got dreadful mad with them and
resolved to destroy them. SO he sum
moncd all the gods TO come to him. and
they came from all parts of the heavens.
travelling on the milky way. which is the
street of the gods aud after taking coun
sci together they determined to destroy
all mankind and start with d new pair. /
SO Jupiter was about to launch red I
hot thunderbolt at the earth and burn it
up but one of the gods told him that he
had better not for he might burn up
heaven too so he concluded to use
water instead Of fire. and then came the
food which drowned every human being
except Deucalon and his wife, who were
good people. They escaped to the top OF
mountain called ParnasSus and were
saved. That is very much like the Bible
story of the flood and of Noah and Mount
Ararat And just so they got Hercules
from Sampson and Vulcan and Apollo
from Jubal and Tubal Cain, and the
Dragon from the serpent that tempted i
Eve, and the giants who tried TO scale 4
The walls of heaven from NimrOd and his /
tower. Every great heather god had a I
favorte son just as Christian God +
has a Son There is something sublime +
and comforting in even believing or /
imagining that a great and good being i /
somewhere in the heavens overruling the I
earth and its people prospecting the good /
and furnishing the evil The fact that I
this all powerful being is invisible makes I
His existence the more impressive. F
Jupiter sat enthrOned on Mount olympus, I
Wooden had a beautiful palace of gold I
and silver at Nalhala and it could only I
be reached by walking on rainbow. I
And We pray to our God saying: "Oh. /
Thou who dWellest in the heavens" and +
not in the temples made with hands. /
History gives no account of any people F
who did not put their trust in some God, +
and this proves our confession Of weak I
ness and our need OF strength from some
supernatural divinity. The more cultured I
and enlightened we become the more
conscious we are of our weakness. Chill +
dren depend absolutely en- their parents /
until afar up in their teens. They do not /
need any other God, but by and by the
parents pass away fail to supply their I
increasing wants and then comes that
feeling Of hclplessneSs and the want Of
a protector Reflection comes with age