Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-09
GARDEN OF EDEN

HN HREE states are III DrlSh conlpe-
tition for the honor of having
- within their boundaries the site
of the original Garden of Eden. There
could have been only one Garden of
Eden. Christian, Hebrew and Moham-
medan traditions agree on this point.
But when it comes to determining the
geographical longitude and latitude of
the original orchard the Hebrews favor
a site in Armenia, while the Moham-
medans are certain that the garden
! was on the island of Ceylon. The Gin
galese exhibit gigantic Footprint
which they say was made by Adam.
The trouble about it is it's lonesome
ness. If there were more Adamic foot
prints we might be inclined to say the
Cingalese had the best case. But un-
less we are to believe that Adam stood
on one foot all his life we must reject
the Ceylon theory.
We must also eliminate the Hebraic
tradition that the garden was in Ar
menia. Not many years ago an ex-
plorer averred that he had found the
skeleton of ADAM in stone coffin,
but when called upon to produce the
coffin he said he had not been able to
carry it away. Even his statement that
he had deciphered a cuneiform inscrip-
ton on the lid did not produce an at
mosphere of veracity. The alleged in
scription was II AM ADAM" 1t was
suggested that this was incomplete,
that it lacked the concluding and con-
elusive word LIAR
Careful consideration and review and
the logical process of the selection and
survival of the fittest, soon narrow
the number of Edenic contestants. 1t
is probable that the garden was in
the so-called New World, which is
really much older than the Old World.
Solomon said there was nothing new
under the sun, and he was man who
was not given to handling the truth
carelessly or making statements that
could not be supported by evidence.
The New World is far from being new.
Much of it suggests that it contained
a large and active population in the
paleolithographic period. (The art of
photography is much older than the art
of printing In the stone age even
the daily papers were lithographed.)
The three states which are disputing
for the dignity of having been access
sorry to the fall of man are Georgia,
Florida and Texas. No one acquaint-
ed with leading characteristics of these
great states can for moment doubt
that they could have supplied ideal
scenery and surroundings for the fall.
Beyond the insistent manner in which
thew are advanced, however, their
claims lack that circumstantiality
which one would expect in matter
of such moment. The Houston, Tex,
Post advances the most plausible plea,
but even that is far short OF being
convincing. The Post says that there
are many red headed, dimpled widows
in Houston, and that therefore Eve
was red headed and dimpled. The
logic is faulty. Between assertion ana
conclusion there is an unbridgable
chasm. We do not doubt that there
are red headed and dimpled widows IN
Houston. But what has that phenom-
enon II do with Eve? What proof
have we that she was widow? And
if she was a widow, which we do not
grant for an instant, why are we to
accept the preposterous conclusion that
she w red headed and dimpled?
We have not much more to say on
the subject. excepting this, that we
are hopelessly convinced that the site
OF the Garden of Eden was somewhere
in Southern California, which is the
garden spot of the world. We do not
care to give the modern name of the
famous garden. We prefer to leave
that to the happy inhabitants, and II
any loyal citizen should care to ad-
yocate the claims of his particular
dwelling place, let him address a let
ter to the editor Of Los Angeles Herald
and therein set forth his evidence,
which will be duly considered and pub
lished. The question has been in sus-
pense long enough. The Garden of
Eden was certainly somewhere in
Southern California, and If old Eve
resembled her daughters who are to