The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1913-09-26


that the very name OF tn
brute is avoided by all but the brav,
To say that you have seen the Sc
serpent Is to put with your own tongu
a blot on your own character. ski
pers who have beheld the monste
have made no entry of the fact 1
their log book lest they be deride
when their vessels are snug in port
Naturalists have hemmed and have
in their writings regarding 1t. Poet
have been reticent upon the theme
all except John Milton, whose remark
upon .Leviathan in Paradise Lost
have been construed by modern au
thority to mean Sea Serpent pure an,
simple. For a century the scienti1,
world has looked at sea serpent
askance.
And yet there is one professional
field in life whose members have sun
piled more data concerning sea ser
penis and given more profuse informa
ton in regard to them than all thu
shippers and travellers who have evel
circled the globe. From the earliest
times 1t has remained for the ministry
to supply us with our greatest number
of facts" regarding the marine de
scendant of Adams happiness. Dea
cons, priests and bishops have seer
sea serpents galore, and there are OIL
hle the names Of at least a dozen cler
ical men who are involved in the coils
OF sea serpent stories, from CLAUS
Magnus, the archbishop of Upsala
down to Rev. p. w. Demboldt, arch.
deacon of Mode; Rev. William jerks,
Rev. Alden Bradford. Rev. Mr.. Cum.
mings of Sullivan, and Rev. Alexan.
der Maclean, all good names and hon
est, some of them from puritanical
New England.
The bishop of Pontoplddan, another
worthy divine, believed implicitly in
sea serpents, and even altered the de-
scriptions and drawings of other men
to crafty his own enthusiasm In re-
gard to them. The bishop of Ponto-
pidden, who lived in the middle of the
eighteenth century, advanced the the
ory that the mermaids of medieval
lore were nothing more nor less than
sea cows that browse upon salt water
greens with their front flippers and
open their mouths sideways. But in
regard to sea serpents the bishop was
not SO skeptical. He described them
nm haoreav 10 nup,arouo lapgtb,y onJ
terrible, often 100 feet in length, pos
sibly 600, with eyes as large as pew
ter plates, lilac or blue in color, and
sometimes fiery red with anger.
The good divine even made jour
ney down the Scandinavian coast to
investigate a tale that a tablecloth
had been made by fisherman's fam
lily from the skin of a sea serpent
which the reptile had sloughed off in
the pleasant waters of the harbor of
The bishop was honest
enough to state that he had been
gulled in this respect, but did not alter
his opinion regarding sea serpents in
general. The illustration In his book
showing sea serpent reared on his
tall, squirting profuse gallons of wa
ter out of his snout, was drawn and
exaggerated by the bishop Of Pontopid-
dan from the sketch made by Bling,
who had forever immortalized a sea
serpent beheld by Hans Egede. 1t is
notable that Hans Egede was himself
IN evangelist, whose work as a mis-
sionary was taking him to the wilds
IF Greenland when the sea serpent ap-
Deared before him.
CLAUS Magnus, the archbishop OF Up
'ala, writes at length of a sea serpent, |
to 1t length of 200 feet and |
/ girth of 20, and stating the beliefs
If the sailors of his time regarding 1t |
how 1t was fond of calves and sheep |
ind swine, and used to snap the sea.
men from the decks of their own ves-
Iels.
Rev. Mr.. Cummings of Sullivan de-
icribes whopping sea serpent that
lie saw not far from Long Island in
July of 1908 Thirty-seven years
alter another divine, Rev. p. w. Dem
,oldt, made the startling statement
hat not only had he seen the sea SER
,ent in the water near his home on
he Norwegian coast, but that he had
hot at it with a musket and evidently
it quite badly, from the rue
ion that took place in the water after
ward.
Rev. Alexander Maclean, who -four
shed at about the same time as Rev.
dr Cummings, observed off the island
4 Coll what he first called, in his
lerical manner. an object" 1t APP
eared like a small rock, he said, but
fter looking at 1t for some time he
aw it elevated above the surface Of
he sea and move in his direction with
measured and dignified motion. In
intense alarm the minister steered for
hore, with the sea serpent apparent
Y pursuing him. 1t drew so near that
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