The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-18

Is that the Creator supplied Adam with
tools 10 dress the garden aud Abel with
knives to sacrifice the arstllngs OF his
flock. but there are Indian tribes IN
our day and negroes In Africa and Es-
qulmaux In the Arctic regions who
have no knowledge OF iron or rs uses.
A thousand years before Christ, Ho.
mer wrote that Jupiter only possessed
the element that we call FIRE and when
man was created man he refused 10
give him FIRE. But Prometheus stole
some from heaven and gave II to man
and II made Jupiter so mad that he
chained him 90 a rock and sent eagles
to eat his liver out, and as fast as they
eat II by day the liver grew again by
night, but finally be was unclaimed and
the eagles driven away. It seems that
Prometheus was a friend to mankind
and by the command Of Jupiter actu-
ally created man out Of the mud that
was left after the food-not Noah's
food but the food OF Deucallon, away
back in the ages. He was a god nearly
as powerful as Jupiter and was always
in a quarrel with him. He taught
mankind architecture, astronomy. fig
ures, medicine, navigation and all the
arts that adorn life. At Athens and
other ancient cities, temples were built
to his honor They believed that the
very fire that he brought down from
heaven was still preserved and was
always burning on an altar in the tenn
pie OF Vesta. 1t is called the sacred
fire-the Vestal fire-the fire of the
hearthstone, and must not be allowed
to go out. II 1t does go out from acct
dent, even the family who loses it
must go to the temple of Vesta and
get a new supply.
or course all these stories about the
gods are superstltious, but they are
very fascinating ones and old Homer
still stands as the greatest poet, and
ranks as the equal Of Shakespeare or
| Milton. That reverence for sacred fire
is not yet extinguished, and it is said
that the Roman Catholic priesthood
burn candles in their cathedrals day
and night because the custom was
handed down from the ancient
churches, and those churches probably
got it from Grecian and Roman myth
ology. Anyhow, we know that the
Jews had great reverence for fire, for
they had to use it in their sacrifices,
and God appeared to Moses in burn
ing bush and descended on Mt. Sinai
in fire and the Israelites were guided
through the wilderness by a pillar OF
fire by night, and fire came down from
heaven and destroyed Sodom and Co
morrah, and many other important
events were marked by fire. In our
young days when there were nc
matches it was no sure or certain thing
to find fire on the hearthstone every
cold morning that came. Sometimes
the live chunk that was buried in the
aches at bedtime went out or was
burned up, and then one Of the boys
had to go to neighbours and borrow
fire. 1t was always called borrowing
fire, for it was reasonably expected
that the neighbor would sometimes
find himself in the same condition. The
Cherokee Indians make fire by rubbing
two hard dry sticks together witt
great rapldity. l have seen little In
dian boys do it very quickly, and
tried to initiate them but failed.
But if the good pure vestal fire came
from heaven l reckon old Satan go
some of 1t when he FELL and took i
down below. That's the kind that con
Germs us most. The old preacher wht
used to go around preaching about thu
Mountains of Hepsidam where tn,
lion roareth and the whangdoOdl
mourneth for it's first born, and h
played on a harp Of thousand string
-sperets of just men made pei
feet" also had few broken remark
about fire. my impertinent hearers
there are several kinds of fire. Their
are fox fire and camp fire and fire an
fall back, but the kind that consarn
you most are the fire that is no
squenched and is called hell fire TO
short Bill Arp, in Atlanta Constitu
ton.