, 1905-01-10

dll SOlllttlllHS VI oil aINiluaiio
with all my numerous charms, and l
resolved to ~eXcavate at this spot n
learn the hidden secrets of those peo-
pie who lived when our earth was
young.
| started to dig into the vast sarco-
phagus. The ground was very hard.
The more | worked the more | felt that
was desecrating the burial place OF a
mighty race of men, now powerless to
defend themselves against the vandal
hands that sought to mar their eternal
slumber.
resolved to continue my researches
according to the vicarious plan. / Sc
cured the services of a hardened, soul
less hireling, who did not wot OF the
solemn surroundings and who could dig
faster than | could. He proceeded with
the excavation business, while | sought
a shady dell where l could weep alone.
1t was a solemn thought, indeed. L
murmured softly to myself
The knights are dust
Their swords are rust,
Their souls are with
The saints, we trust.
Just then a wood-tick ran up n OF
my alabaster limbs about nine feet.
made a location and began to do some
work on it under the United States
mining laws.
| removed him by force and submit
ted him to the dry crushing process
between a piece of micaceous slate and
la fragment of deodorized. copper
stained manganese.
But we were speaking of the Aztecs,
not the woodticks.
Nothing on earth is old save by com
rarison. The air we breathe and which
we are pleased to call fresh air, Is only
so comparatively. 1t is the same old
air. AS a recent air 1t Is not SO fresh
as SILVER Threads Among the Gold.'
1t has been in one form and another
through the ever shifting ages all along
the steady march of tlreless time, but
it is the same old union of various
gaseous elements floating through
only remodeled for the spring
trade.
All we see or hear or feel, Is old.
Truth itself is old. Old and falling INTO
disuse, too. Outside of what l am
using in my business, perhaps. not
over two or three bales are now on the
market.
Here in the primeval solitude, undis-
turbed by the foot of man, l had found
the crumbling remnants of those who
once walked the earth in their might
and Wanted their strength among the
powers OF their world.
No doubt they had experienced the
first wild thrill of all-powerful love,
and thought that it was a new thing.
They had known, with mingled pain
and pleasure, when they struggled
feebly against the omnipotent sway Of
consuming passion, that they were
mashed. and they flattered themselves
that they were the first in all the Him.
ititable range of relentless years who
had been fortunate enough to get hold
of the genuine thing. All others had
been base limitations.
Here, perhaps. on this very spot, the
Aztec youth with a bright eyed maiden
on his arm had pledged lifelong fidel-
ity to her shrine. and n the midnight
silence had stolen away from her with
a pang of vigorous regret, followed by
the sobs of his souls idol and the de-
moralizing, leaden rain Of buskshot,
with the compliments and best wishes
of the old man.
While l was meditating upon these
things a glad shout from the scene OF
operations attracted my attention. l
rose and went to the scene Of excava-
ton, and found. to my ~unspeakable as
tcnishment and pleasure. that the man
had unearthed a large Queen Anne tear
jug, with Etruscan work upon the ex-
1t was simply n Of the old
fashion single barreled tear jugs, made
for a one-eyed man to cry into. The
vessel was about eighteen inches in
by I'VE or iii inches in dia-
The graceful yet perhaps severe pot
tery Of the Axtecs convinces me that