The Washington times., 1919-02-19
ThingsW SEEING Azores
A Small Lost World In a Universe of Water


you to read few words of description and reflection
based on these little lost islands?
As you cross the Atlantic by the southern route the
sighting of the Azores is incident OF your voyage
Just before daybreak the ship shaken and the passengers
reused by the deep tones of the big steam whistle
One by one shivering forms struggle up from below,
like reluctant spirits answering premature last call Bare
feet in slippers and shverng forms with oVercoats over
nightgowns gradually line the rails.
On the left there appears, apparently, heavy dark
bank Of Clouds
''The Azores shouts down from the bridge your yel
low whiskered captain looking cheerful and warm as
though it noon
You watch shiver and blink the light grows stronger
behind the pinsh clouds in the east The dark cloud
settles into solid land You it clearly Sharply outlined
against the sky stands, forty miles long, mammoth saw
with huge teeth irregular but sharp The power Of old
time volcanoes made all of that land and those sharp
teeth pointing toward the sky the desroyer Of long
ago. cold and dead now but telling omnousy OF the power
that lies hidden below
Between you and the frightening sunrise suspended in
the crows nest half way up the mast stands the sailor
who watches the for you through the night He calls
out and ahead to the left you small boat filed with
human beings that scarcely big your finger
Your ship could plow through miles of such small boats
but out there the ocean, just well inside the biggest
court house, Law rules and the big ship must turn out
for the small fishing boat
You realize the power and beauty of law as our gov
and sustainer You that laws of little reach
out two thousand miles into the You think of the laws
Of the universe that stretch the mmeasureabe dis
ances of time and space protecting ALL and nsuring u
mate fulfllment of the deStnieS of all the worlds
AS those fishermen of the Azores work safely under
full protection in their little lost Of the great ocean,
so We little world little insignificant of
space work tiny problems safely under the splendid
protection of Divine Law and wisdom sent to from
far of point of which we know nothing.
The light of the rising brings from shore many
other small boats each with its load of who their
arms the steamship and cheer against the sound of the
and wind To them that ship is like the fast express
that passes the country railroad station the comet that
whirs round and off again.
Those fishermen feel that THEY are the REAL world
the steamship and outside creation only half imagined
interesting phenomena You look down from the deck and
the fishermen unreal little of your Euro
pean excursion And the two sets of human beings go
ther wayto each nothing is important that which
each is doing
There are great planets that roll past us across
this Cosmc of ether Our pathetic little round earth
looks to them that fishing Of Azores looks to YOU
And WE think of those great nterstear travellers the
fisherman in his little boat thinks of the ner-the
great to merely interesting feature of OUR
sky And actually wonder whether there any thought
that big distant sum- any intelligence the vast ship
that plows the ocean of eternal limtess space.
The high ridge of volcanic peaks and the others near
It made fertile and green by soil gradually developed
through the centuries by seeds brought the by
winds and birds
black water fill of the quiet craters Only here and
there the rising sulphur smoke from rocky ssures tells
Of heat and power smoldering
The last great eruption of the volcanoes occurred
little than two hundred years ago-so the inhabitants
laugh you speak of danger They forget that two hun
dred years in the earhs life minutes in the life of
a man-and that what did minutes since he NAV
DO again
Fences are built across the fields of thin soil that cover
he lava. Each inch of that land thrown up by fire 'e
ongs to White houses stand the edges of
eep lava canyons running from the mountain tops to the
seas edge-canyon made by pouring lava by the split
ting of the mountains under fearful pressure.
Children play about the blocks Of lava-and all their
lives matter where they may 60 those children will
think Of that far of island as the only real home And Of
From your passing boat you not those children
tContnged n IastC Column.)