The Monroe journal., 1922-04-25

ef than the twentieth century, A. D."
! The chances were tina when Jonah
Went to hire a camel he would find
all the camels gone from the livery
stable and have to ride small tan
eolored donkey; but nan with the
ghost what amt habit does not look
OIL the hopeful side Of things.
"Pshaw!" Jonah doubtless said; 81
would never get to Nneveh anyway.
Just look how a camel rolls and tosses
its passengers. I'd be seasick be-
fore | went a mile. And even if | got
to Nineveh | bet the first man | spoke
to would hit me on the head with a
beer bottle"
In that way Jonah let his ghosts
what amt loom bigger and bigger
until he was afraid to tackle the job,
and he side-stepped to Joppa and got
on a ship that was going TO Tarsh!sh
which was a miserable place to go
to, any way you look at it-and, as
understand it, reading between the
lines, Jonah was soon the seasickest
man that ever turned pea-green
around the gills. He was so seasick
that he went down into the innermost
part of the ship and entered a coma
tose condition and remained dead to
the world until the sailors came down
and poked him up. He was so sick
he did not care what happened, and
when the sailors suggested that he
was a foreigner and a hoodoo and
the cause of the storm he said:
"All right; take me up and throw
me overheard"
A man as seasick as Jonah would
say that. So they took him up on
deck and swung him three times and
sang out "Heave ho!" and chucked
him overheard, and a whale swal-
lowed him.
Jonah was in the steerage of that
whale three days and three nights,
and according to an accounts the E.
deck of a whale is miserable place
to be. There are almost no accom-
modations whatever - no electric
lights, no hot or cold water, no bath
cubs. not even a boy selling salted
peanuts and magazines.
Very few of us have ever been in
side of live whale, even for a few
minutes, and when it was moored at
the dock, but | am inclined to believe
| II is like being wrapped in a large
piece of tripa on a dark midsummer
night in steam laundry. When at
sea II is worse. The whale, while
less eccentric than the flying fish and
the porpoise, is rough navigator,
occasionally making three-mile nose
dives and wallowing like a pig in a
creek. For three days and three nights
Jonah stood all this, with nothing
to read and no one to talk to, and
no meals served in his room or out
Of it. He could not even sit with his
Zee. on the window sill and watch
he people go by. All he could do
was to lie there and hope the whale
did not get thirsty enough to drink
ght barrels of ocean and drown him,
and wonder when the gastric juices
we're going to begin to dissolve him.
And then what happened? After
hree days and nights of it the whale
'vomited Jonah out upon the dry
and" | think being vomited by
fish is about as near the lowest limit
Of ignominy as man can get; it is
worse than being bit by a ribbit.
And the end of it was that Jonah
arose, and went up to Nineveh, ac-
cording to the word Of Jehovah" Just
as he had been told to 20 in the first
place. Because Jonah allowed a ghost
what amt to scare him he wasted
three days and nights, was seasick,
chucked overheard, whaled and vom-
ed, lost the fare from Joppa to
Tarshish, and could not even sell the
motion picture rights of the episode
or collect damages from. the whale.
wish, when you have finish read
ing the books you feel you simply
must read if you are going to be able
to talk your share at the Fireside
Club, you would take time some day
q read the Book of Jonah 1t is
one of the shortest books in the Bible,
and full of nature study about whales
and gourd vines and worms. 1t has
adventure by sea and by land, and
a wicked city and king in Sack
cloth, and a whole lot Of things. But
the moral in it is that Jonah side
stepped a job because he let a ghost
what amt scare him; and then, when
he did do the job, it was too late,
and Jehovah went back on Jonah and
even created worm to bite Jonah's
goprd vine on the ankle and kill it.
The world is full of Jonahs. No
man has a hoodoo thrust upon him
or is hoodoo by nature; but plenty
of us create ghosts what amt for
ourselves and let them scare us out
of happiness and success.