The Oskaloosa herald., 1912-06-06

ftne eartn StanuS at an angle OF, 70 "
degrees from the plane of the ecliptic
is a simple fact when known. and yet
1t gives us spring, summer, autumn
and winter.
The astronomers with their teles-
,copes watch the ice-caps as they
come and go at the snowy poles of
Mars, and see that the same condi
tons prevail in our neighboring
planet.
Any great discovery of the intellect
has always been the cause of rejoic-
ing. When Pythagoras discovered
that the square of the hypothenuse
of right angled triangle was equal
to the square of the other two sides,
he was so elated that he sacrificed
a hundred oxen to the gods to COM
memorate the event. But the first
right angled triangle ever drawn
had that property before lythagoras
found it out. ..g
The pupils of the graduating class
felt that they had accomplished an in
,tellectual feat when they mastered
that proposition in geometry.
Nothing more clearly denotes hu.
man progress than the abandonment
of superstition. When the Roman
Empire had her hundred millions of
inhabitants the consuls went to war
and carried their chicken-coops along
and the commanding general would
rise at the third watch of the night
to take the auspices.
The silly chickens were fed and if
they ate voraciously the army was
led out to battle. If the chickens re-
fused TO eat the legions remained in
camp. And even the first crusade
followed the lead of goose and goat.
In later era We had the supersti-
ton of witchcraft, and Tycho Brahe,
the great astronomer, when engaged
in his most strenuous study was
compelled to lay his telescope and his
books aside and go home to defend
his venerable mother upon a charge
of witchcraft.
Now nature is studied with zeal
unequaled in the history OF mankind.
When the great Comstock Lode, of
Nevada grew barren and ceased to
produce the miners stuck to the tran
of the vein and followed II with pick
and shovel through all its curves and
turni1gs; no short cuts were taken;
the vein narrowed down to a mere
trace, but the miners never lost sight
of it in their explorations and, final
ly it widened out into a bonanza of
silver ore such as the mining world
had never seen. 3D.. .-
The scientific man of today follows
this same method in his exploration.
He must look for things invisible as
well as visible. .... ....
When little girl in New England
was recently asked If there were any
mo, but there are plenty of edible
fungi" These are the days in which
mankind searches for facts; theor
les will no longer be accepted. Her
bert Spencer says that the saddest
of all tragedies is a theory killed by
a fact.
| No generation of youth ever yet
realized how much OF love and in
terest has been expended upon them
by their parents. The annual gather
ings OF the public schools fill the
hearts of fathers and mothers with
an emotion that they alone can apf
preciate and understand.
! Your mother gave you the key to
the great wealth of knowledge when
she taught you the English language.
Only between three and four million
people spoke our language in the days
of Shakespeare. Now 200,000,000
speak it as their mother tongue. 1t
has supplanted French as the Ian
guage of diplomacy, and the prophecy
OF. Sir Richard Steele bids fair to be
fulfilled: English shall be the Ian
guage of mankind"
| Some years ago, on Lake Zurich, |
visited the studio of the artist Koch.
He spoke no English and expressed
his regret that there was not some
common language that all could un-
derstand. pointed to one of his fine
paintings standing upon his easel and
Sdlu 10 Hilll,. lou nave SOlNeu the
problem. All nations and tongues
can understand that picture; it is the
language of nature"
There are tongues in the trees,
Books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in
everything"
You are the heirs of all the knowl-
edge OF the past, as we'll as the eX-
plorers of the future. Didaeus Stella
said long ago that a dwarf standing
on the shoulders of giant could see
! further than the giant himself.
! You honor yourselves in being faith
I'll students of the past. AS the even
! ings of the lives of our fathers have
approached their shadows have grown
longer, but everything worth while
only comes as a reward of toll. There
is only one direction that one can
travel without effort. and that is
down hill. .....-.'..
"A small coin in a large jar will
make great Noise" is an old pro-
verb. The older you grow the less
heed you win give to mere present
clamor. Today's newspaper will
kindle tomorrow's fires. In literature
that which has survived the ordeal of