October.
18
THE WEST SHORE.
than Mrs. Pike, her neighbor, who
tends her husband to sell streaked rolls
ornamented with a few hairs and packed
in a tin bucket covered with a dirty
nhirt to keep the dust out. Mrs. I .
isn't as welt skilled in the fine arts
at least.
Under the broad rule that I have
enunciated, the farmer, the horticul
turist, the inventor, and every other
man and woman working in any and
every sphere where human skill has
been fabricating things, or improving
things for the benefit of mankind, all
meet on a common platform with equal
rights and similar purposes. This isn't
a fanner's Fair, its most orators and
visitors seem to think. It is every
body's Fair. The agriculturists arc
probably largely in the majority, but
they claim no rights they do not accord
to others. There is no intelligent
firmer who wants a professional man
who happens to address the crowd to
soap him all over as the lord of creation,
and the only honest man living, for he
knows it is not true, lie has had deal
ings enough with brother farmers to
know that they arc just like other men,
A naturally mean man will violate a
contract, and accidentally(?) touch the
half-bushel with the toe ot a very heavy
boot every time he fills it when buying
wheat, if he is it farmer, but he never
Accidentally stumbles against it when
he is selling wheat H he is a farmer,
Wc have come uti here as a common
brotherhood, working to one grand end,
and to gather knowledge, strength
and encouragement to labor to n better
purpose in the future, lhc intrinsic
value of property displayed is of no
consequence whatever, compared to the
moral effect this grand exhibition will
have on the people. The intelligent
man, who wanders around caretully
taking in the character and quality of
articles on exhibition, is absorhed only
iu a train of thought suggested by the
meaning ot what he sees, that mean
ing is the capability of human intellect
and the advancement of the race. The
capabilities of the human intellect
what a meaning has that sentence!
Wc are often told that il our domestic
animals knew their power, the horse
would break awav from his owner, the
ox refuse to bow bis head to the yoke,
anil all would evade pursuit 111 the
gloom of the foret. It is well for us
and well for them that they either do
not know it or do not choose to exercise
it, while they haven't intelligence
enough to know how to use it, even to
nutting up hay for the winter, Hut
there is a two-legged animal that
doesn't know its capabilities and pwcr
cither. 1 he world will wade onward
and upward through darkness and
gloom, and ru He ring through ignorance
Mr several hundred, and perhaps thous
ands of years yet, before this biped w ill
find out what mighty resources tiod
Almighty has hidden up in him. It
will be perfectly safe for him to find
out bis power when he has sense
enough to know how to me it. Then
Kingcraft ami Priestcraft will be at
discount; the swarms of hiy, fat
drones that have hmi eating up the
honey will ho either made to go to
work or starved or stunt; to death,
do into that circus-tent stretched here
upon the ground, and what a lesson is
l-miicd ot human capability! Hv pa
tient, persistent and long continued
tllort, what incredible teals are at
I -ngth accomplished! "Strive to enter
in at the dithcult gate," is a motto that
hits guided every man w ho has attained
U remarkable greatness in anv single
calling. The tireek reads "Agonize
t;i enter in," that is throw your whole
soul into it.
There seems to be a period iu man's
aomnig io leap over a chasm and at
t un a laudable end when an unseen
power intervenes, and lifts him over;
he iH'ing almost uucoiucious ot ehVrt.
When Micro, King of Sicily, olfered
large reward to him w ho would dis
cover, without cutting it, whether a
inspected jeweler had filled up the in
side of a gold crown with a baser
meUl, Archimedes ml to work to
solve (he problem. Tor davs and
weeks he threw hi whole soul into
finding solution of it. Sleepless nights
wore spent iu mental agony over the
iiuaale, till finally, while halancimr his
body iu the water of a bath, the idea of
the law ii specihe gravity flashed upon
I'll mind already wrought up to a
trim ay, and wild' with the joy of his
ducovcry he leaped from his bath and
in naked through the city, crving
" Kurvkn! Kurvka! I h.i'c found it!
I have found it!" Demosthenes, of
awkward mien and with a stammering
tongue, aspired to be an .orator. For
months and years he agonized to per
fect himseli, training his voice amm mc
roar of waters on the sca-shorc, and
curbing his tongue with pebbles till at
last the gods, as a reward tor nis ion,
lifted him over the chasm, and set him
down in an Athenian ampUhcatre,
where he astonished and clectrihcd the
assembled thousands, as no orator had
ever done before. Long years ago
there was in England a little, dark-
skinned man, with a harsh voice, who
made up his mind that he would do
what no actor had ever done play in ;
Drury Lane Theatre the character of
Sir Giles Overreach, in Massingcr's
Drama, giving it all the terrible effect
its author intended, in representing a
character of the most effective villainy
and untamable passion ever portrayed
in English dramatic literature, lliis
little dark-skinned man was Edmund
Kean, He spent years in preparing,
before he could he persuaded to go
upon the stage, lie studied the lan
guage with intensity. He flung him
self with a kind of rage into the spirit
of the piece, and his wife said he spent
whole nights before the mirror, en
deavoring to realize by gesture, voice
and action, the point at which he had
arrived. This man's great soul was on
fire with an inspirational determination,
and he agonized to pass through a diffi
cult opening to public favor, that no
man hail ever yet gone through for
the want of sufficient cflbrt.
The result of all this patient training
and hard discipline was witnessed in
Drury Lane on that memorable night,
after Kean announced himself ns ready.
It was observed that when he first
walked upon the stage there was that
in his burning eye which betokened
greater determination than usual, and
Lord Ilyron, who was in a stage-box,
whispered to the poet, Moore, that
"something dreadful wan written upon
the great actor's countenancesome
thing more suggestive of power even
than he had ever noticed before."
And neVcr till then in the history of the
stage was there witnessed such an exhi
bition of forceful endeavor. Through
out the whole play Kean bore himself
like a lury; but it was reserved lor the
last scene to stamp an impression which
existed during the lifetime of all ve'i
were present. The great actor h
self shook like a strong oak in 1
whirlwind of his- passionate vengeance
as displayed in the closing sentences of
the play; and when he was removed
from the stage, his face turned to the
spectators was so awful that Hyron was
seized with a convulsive tit, and fell
forward pale as death itself. The
solemn stillness of the house was broken
by screams of terror from boxes and
gallery. Mrs. Glover, an actress of
long experience nnd great talent, fainted
outright on the stage. Mrs, Horn,
who was also playing iu tho piece,
staggered to a chair and wept aloud
at the appalling sight of Kean s agony
and rage. Munden, a veteran on the
board, w ho played the pail of Marat
stood so transfixed with astonishment
am) terror that he had to lie carried oft
by main force from the scene, his eve
riveted on Kean s convulsed and awful
countenance.
With a strong faith in the final
result, and the exercise of such untiring,
agonizing effort, to what height of
greatness and distinction, in agriculture,
in invention, iu art, in science, in ora
tory, and in statesmanship, may many
young men w ithin the sound "of my
vojee yet attain? These capacities you
have if you only know your power.
Possibilities of distinction and em
inence arc within the reach of thous
ands who die in obscurity, if they would
only "agonize to enter in."" as did
Archimedes, Demosthenes. Kean. Cv.
rus V. Field, ami a host of men and
women whose names stud the calaw
of earth's illustrious ones to shine for
ever in the heavens. What kind of
Fairs do you suppose we should havn i
a few year hence, if all of us should
a-solvc to take a new departure, and
develop all our latent power, as did
such as I have mentioned? It is less'
than thirty years ago thai we wcrc
wearing buckskin breeches, rating
tin plates plowing with oxen hitched
to a Miuouri olow with a wooden
mouldlward, and riding to church on '
white-eyed and sore-nosed Cavuse '
ponies. We raied siuashes a little'
larger than your double-list, cabbage-'
heads little larger than the squashes
and potatoes as large as walnuts, if. it
happened to be a good year for roots.
It is not many years since the highest
speed a trotting horse was thought to be
able to attain, was a mile in four min
utes. Now, a horse that cannot do bet
ter than that, isn't considered worthy to
be put in training for a race. A few years
ago we looked upon a fast horse as
rather an irreligious animal. Fiddles
and fast horses were supposed to be
possessed of more devils than were
pumpkin stems and Cayuse ponies.
The fiddle has in most places been
freed from demons hv the laying on ot
clerical hands, and then taken into the
churches. Since such preachers as
Murray of Boston, and Henry Ward
Bcechcr, have begun to love to ride
after fast horses, the evil spirits are
rapidly leaving them. The State Ag
ricultural Society of Oregon is doing
its share toward expelling them; and
your present efficient President, though
a pretty strict Methodist, seems to be
impressed with the idea that there
never was any more devil in a good
horse than in on " ornary Cayuse.
and that all noble animals can, under
proper regulations, be exhibited as to
qualities for draught or speed, without
detriment to good morals and without
anv iniurv to the Society's treasury. I
attribute many of his liberal ideas to
the influence of the drippings of the
sanctuary when 1 used to preach.
We are apt to flatter ourselves that
all the artistic skill of antiquity is
known in our age. This is a mistake.
The ancients knew some things that
we do not know, About 200 years
ago there were published in f ranee
letters from Catholic priests, saying
that they had seen in China a trans
parent and colorless glass, into which
was poured a liquid, colorless, like
water. Then, on looking through this
glass, it appeared to be tilled with
fishes. The Chinese admitted they
did not make them, but stole them,
among other plunder of a foreign con
quest. The Romans, who got their
chemistry from the Arabians, claimed
in their books written 800 years ago,
that they were able to make malleable
glass. It is said that, in the ngc of
liberals and time of St, Paul, a Roman
who had been banished, returned,
bringing a glass cup, which he dashed
upon the marble pavement without
breaking it. It was dented some, but
with a hammer he soon brought it
back to its original shape. There is a
vase in the Genoa cathedral which was
long considered a solid emerald. The
Roman Catholic legend is, that it was
a present to Solomon from the Queen
of Sheba, and that it was the cup out
of which the Sa iour drank at the Last
Supper. Scholars say of it, "it is not a
stone; we hardly know what it is,"
There are cabinets of gems in Italy, on
which there are engravings made more
than two thousand years ago. The en
graving is so tine that it can hardly be
seen with the naked eye; but by the aid
of powerful glasses, the perfect forms
of men and women can be seen, and
the figure of the god Hercules stands
out so boldly that you can sec the in
terlacing muscles and count every hair
on his eyebrows No man now is able
to mix a color that, upon exposure to
the weather, will retain its hrilli.inrv n
alue all the lost inventions that could
be thrown into the scale. In those
days, what knowledge there was, was
confined to the few. It was hid up in
the breasts of kings and priests, and
down in the underground laboratories
of chemists, alchemists, and cunning
artisans. It only gave the rulers power
to crush the ignorant masses still lower.
Now, knowledge is power in the hands
of the people. All inventions, though
patented, are made public. Your news
papers, tell you every week all that is
going on in the world worth knowing.
A knowledge of chemistry, and pjiar
macy,is now within the reach of every
school-boy. Scientific men are always
willing and anxious to give the world
the benefit of their discoveries. We
have no secrets now, excepting in com
pounding nostrums, by quacks, and in
putting up patent medicines and these
are only secret to those who are credu
lous enough to use them.
To trace the history of the race, by
its way marks of handicraft, scattered
through the unknown ages, from the
origin of man to the time he was seen
in apocalyptic vision, entering upon the
enjoyment of the acme of all art, by
entering through pearly gates, within
jasper-flashing walls, to a city whose
streets are paved with gold, whose
gardens arc watered with crystal rivers,
and whose trees have been so perfected
by the great Artist that they bear each
twelve kinds of fruit every season
would indeed be an interesting study.
But we have enough to do, and more
than the wisdom of the world has yet
been able to do, in reading the book of
Nature, and tracing back the history of
our race, by the light of the records we
have. Four years ago last March,
Mons. Emile Reviere, acting under in
structions from the French Minister of
Public Instruction, found, in digging
into a cavern at Mentone, in Italy, a
paleolithic human skeleton, supposed to
belong to a prehistoric age. This
skeleton of a man, fully six feet high,
was found in a cavern in the rift of a
mountain, and buried twenty-one and a
half feet under earth. The skull was
ornamented with a wreath made of a
number of perforated shells, and by
twenty-two canine teeth of a stag, also .
perforated, r orty-onc perforated shells
also ornamented the left leg. Stone
arms and instruments, rudely cut from
flint, were found in the cave by
thousands. Around this skeleton man
lay the bones of nineteen different
species of animals, and six varieties of
shell-fish. Four of these animals are
assigned to extinct prehistoric species.
Out often thousand long bones found,
all but five had been split lengthwise,
to extract the marrow, of which this
fellow, like ourselves, seems to have
been fond. How he managed, with
rude stone instruments, to split these '
bones their entire length, so as to ex
pose the whole line of marrow, we do
not know. Phillips can set that down
as another of "the lost arts," for no
man living now could do it. Was this
man of Mentone one of our ancestors,
having had his start as a grub in a
primordial cell, and having been gradu
ally developed under Darwin's laws of
evolution and natural selection, until
haying cast oft' the shell of a snail, shed
the skin of a snake, and put off the form
hundred years et vou im to ih 1 ; u ;..., 11.. ; ,1
buried city of Pompei, nnd clear awav I legs, and learned to be n lapidary? Of
the ashes from its nuns, and you will course wc know but little about these
...u ine nan purple with which the laws, and haven't any clear conception
, . n mi IHllllUUI Ul .IgUH U1I.Y WUUIll If
years ago, Hashing out as bright and quire to develop man, starting ns a
beau tilul a, though it had been used a grub, until he assumed the 'aldcrmanic
month ago. No modern steel can stand proportions, and had the musical voice
the atmosphere ol India without soon of n ,,.!,.. i,..t ,!,. I...... h.v.
iuuul'. ouruical instruments not
gilded, soon spoil. Yet the Damascus
blades ol" the Crusades were not gilded,
and they never rust. The point of one
of these blades can be made to touch
the hilt, and the sw ord can be thrust
into a scabbard, shaped like a cork
screw, it having, according to Phillips,
an elasticity equal to that of an Amen
can politician. These are some of what
Wendell Phillips calls "the lost arts."
1 hey show that the world possessed
some skill that wc haven't got, thous.
amis ot years ago; but as to their utility
to the human race.thev fade into insig.
niheance compared with the teleuranh
sti.nn rmu-.i. 4... I .1 . .1 '
. ,,. Q pniUn
1 he discovery of the use of aiuesthe.
tics in surgery, made hv Dr. Warren
of Boston, in October, is.fi, i, worth
infinitely more to the world than would
be the revival of all the arts that were
ever lost. One laliowavlng machine
on exhibition here, would outweigh in
been giving him a start long before.
according to La 1 lace, there was an ag
gregation of worlds froir a vast mass
of rapidly rotating nebulous matter.
Darwin, 1 think, has overlooked two
of the strongest arguments in favor of
his theory. One is, that it is recorded
in history that a jackass once had the
gift of speech, and spoke just like
man. Another is, that we hear so
many men now-a-days talking just like
jackasses, that w e might naturally infer
that wc sprang from them.
The first time in the history of the
world wc find anv mention of the two
grand divisions of agriculture, is that of
the tilling of the soil by Cain, and the
raising of stock by Abel. What was
the character of the stock, and the
nature and quality of the grain raised,
we know nothing. We infer that the
cattle were not much superior to our
stock which came from Missouri in
Concluded oh fagt 1J.