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lONSTERS OF LONG AGO
Jso LEFT THBiIR BON£S IN THE
1 PHOSPHATE BEDS.
1 Their Many-centuried Epoch They
Ijunted Prey and Fought Through
out the Warm, Moist Land and
Waters, or Browsed on Giant Palms.
To-day the Solid Rock, Cnee Clay,
Reveals Their Giant Bones to the
Wondering Gaze of Modern Men.
From the Keu> York Sun.
The lack of really popular works upon
;eo!ogy. and, indeed, all subjects whose
Ijoies end in ology, is greatly to be deplored.
work upon paleonthology which in some
nesure supplies this need for popular in
ormation is the “Extinct Monsters,” writ
go by H. N. Hutchinson, aa English scien
jjt of some note, the author of several
ueritorious popular works on geology. Mr.
jutchinson has done his almost pioneer
rork well, as those who read his interesting
isges will find. Its pictures show extinct
coasters— huge, unsightly creatures—such
is one might think would rather populate
he dreams of a victim of delirium tremens
han any such earth as ours. We have got
oto an atmosphere incredibly ancient and
trange. We are no longer on the earth
iver which man has dominion. We are
lack in those dim eras when man was not.
Ye are not breathing the pure, clear air
vhich stirs under the blue of our sky, but
in air warm, moist and heavy with carbon,
inveloping a strange landscape. There are
;reut and violent earthquakes and volcanic
ruptions, there are vaster mountains, there
!re deeper valleys, mightier rivers, oceans
if enormous extent. The vegetation is
■ank and huge. The seas are alive, not
vith whales and with such sea oreatures,
great and small, as to-day reward the eu
erprise of the fishermen, but with mon
itrosities, some small, others of large size,
iftmg their long, shiny necks high above
;he waves, darting along the surface with
;reat swiftness and leaving behind them a
sake as of an ocean vessel. On the land
strange forms bask in the fiery sunshine or
lurk in awful contentment under the leaves
jf gigantio ferns and creepers.
These myriad forms of life died, became
Utterly extinct, even in species, gave way to
other types, and finally to the types we
have to-day. But many of them, when thev
died, were not wholly destroyed. Their
lodies sank in the ooze or were covered with
the mold of the falling leaves. The flesh
fell away from the bones end was disin
tegrated. But the bones remained; and
gradually the ooze or mold hardened iuto
rock. It took centuries, almost aeons, of
time to do this, but nature di es not regard
time; and now the scientists tearing open
the rocks have brought the bones to the
surface, have put them together again, and
have, in description, reclad them with flesh
and hove made them walk and fly, andruD,
and eat, and fight fiercely for existence, and
have set them upon the earth at the time
and with the surroundings they originally
bad.
I.
When life first arose upon the seas, still
hot and the land still quaking and baking
over the internal fires then so near the
surface, it w as no doubt in small and crude
forms. Gradually the animal and vege
table kingdoms divided. In the animal
kingdom there were invertebrates of which,
except in the shell fish, we can have no
tracts to-day. In nature’s museums there
must be bones or nothing at all. After this,
through the 1 ng eras, the fishes developed
and the reptiles. When these had divided
into countless species, there appeared among
them, fostered by w hat forces we know not,
huge creatures, partly fish aud partly
reptile. From the vast numbers of skele
tons and fragments of skeletons of these
monsters, the seas must have swarmed with
• u em.
The first of these for our menagerie is the
fish lizard, known pretty well as the iettavo
saurus. This monster is regarded by natur
alists as one of the most monstrous ever dis
covered. It possessed the snout of a dol
phin, the teeth of a crocodile, and the head
of a lizard, the paddles of a whale, and the
vertebras of a fish. It was a powerful
creature tha grew to be anywhere from
ten to forty feat in length. Its tail was its
chief means of propulsion, but that, in
process of time, was greatly aided by two
pairs of paddles Its skin was sm oth or
slightly wrinkLd, an lit had no scales. The
ietbyosaurus breathed with lungs and
not with gills, but, as it was cold
blooded and siuall-braiiied, it could keep
under water a very long time. But
its eyes were the most interesting feature.
They were of great size, and by au arrange
ment of bony plates could be so focussed
that the iothyosaurus could make itself near
or far sighted, as it chose. It could also see
where there was almost no light as in ocean
depths, or at the surface. It must have
be9n able to protect its long narrow b idy
through the waters very swiftly in pursuit
of the smaller fish of those remote days.
But the fish lizards themselves also had
enemies, and. after a few tens of thousands
of years, they disappeared or merged into
other types better adapted to the changed
conditions.
Existing at the same time with the fish
lizards or icthyosaurs were the sea lizards
or plesiosaurs. Of this strange creature
Cuvier said that it was the most monstrous
th ng that ever lived, so far as man had
discovered. It had the head of a lizard and
the teeth of a crocodile. Then came a
neck of enormous length, like a huge
serpent. The trunk and tail were similar
to and of the bulk of some enormous quad
ruped. But instead of legs it had paddles
—the paddles of a whale. This reptile
probably swam upon or near the surface,
arching baek its long neck like a swan, oc
casionally darting it down at a fish which
happened to float within its reach. It may
perhaps have lurked in shoal water along
the coast, oouoeuled among the seaweed,
aud raising its nostrils to a level with the
surface from a considerable depth, may
have found a secure retreat from the as
saults of enemies. These creatures, in the
full glory of their raoe, were seldom less
than twenty feet long and often thirty or
forty feet long.
Next we come to the groups of sea ser
pents, some of them closely related to tne
sea lizards, others quite distinct. In the
erder of time it is thought that all these be
long to a much later per.od than fish lizards
or sea lizards, but tbis is still an open ques
tion. Furthermore, in the opinion of some
geulogists it is barely possibly that one of
these groups may have survived to the
present day and that the sea serpeutso often
seen and as often dispute iis a solitary de
scendant or one of a solitary family de
scended from these monsters of the seas In
the fur cretaceous period.
Of these ancient sea serpents some fami
lies were only about tvrenty-five feet long,
others had fifty feet as their greates; length,
WDile still others stretcheu their giest
Bodies, as bulky as an elephant’s in the
thickest part, to a length if seventy-five
feet and more. Like the snake birds of
Florida, this reptile probably often swam
many feet below the surface, raising the
head to the distant air for breath, then with
drawing it, and exploring the depths forty
feet below without altering the position of
its body. From the localities in which the
bones have peeu found in Kansas it oiu-t
have wandered far from land, and that
many kinds of fl-hes formed its food is shown
by the teeth and scale; fouud in the position
of its stum cb.
Among the fossils of tbis mesoz uo or rep
tilian era have been lound the remaius of
thousands upon thousands of the various
species and genus of flying lizards or
1 terodactyls. These flying li.aias had
w >ngg, not true wings, but such excellent
substitutes ns those possessed by the bat.
“ me had teeth aud others had not. Some
couid fly or walk or swim, as they chose,
while others could only fly and hop. t ome
ate fish,others inseots and fruits. Some
were no larger than sparrows, while others
had wings that expauded to an extreme
width of twenty-five feet or more. Some
had very respectable looking heads. Others
were hideously ugly, as revolting as a
gigantic bat, with the added horror of an
unsightly bill of great length and bulge. It
must he noted also that the most of these
creatures bad the power of walking on all
fours with the wings folded alongside. Cer
tainly nothing could be more uncanny
than the sight of a lot of creatures, eaoh
about the size of a huge dog, walking along
the earth and all at once risiDg on their
hind legs, spreading a great expanse of sail
on either side and making off through the
air.
11.
But the most amazing types of this re
mote period called the mesozoio age and the
age of reptiles were the dinosaurs. The
vigorous fancy of primitive man conjured
seme frightful shapes of dragon and beast.
But nature far outran imagination when
she contrived the mighty members of tnis
strange family. As the dinosaurs were rep
tiles they no doubt had all the revolting
characteristics, the small intelligence, the
cunning, the nndulating motions and the
ferocious malignity. These things make
the snakes and crocodiles and alligators of
to-day the most generally dreaded and
shunned of created things, the horror of
man and beast alike. While there were,
as has been shown, reptiles in this mesozoio
age Shat cast into insignificance all known
reptiles, these in turn were preyed upon by
the great dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs belonged in almost every
part of the world. Their skeletons are found
wherever rocks of the mesozoaio age have
been turned up, and they, like all created
things, were adapted to the peculiar condi
tions by which they were surrounded.
While some were closely allied to the sea
serpents, sea lizards and fisti lizards, others
resembled various mammals, and still others
were so nearly akin to such birds as the os
trich and the emu that many scientists hold
that these birds are the descendants of dino
saurs. Mr. Hutchinson classes them under
three divisions, the lizard-footed dinosaurs,
the beast-footed dinosaurs and tho bird
footed dinosaurs. The division is based
upon the appearance of tbe tracks left in
the soft soil of that day, which hardened
into stone and thus preserved the impres
sions to us. The first of the lizard-footed
dinosaurs, which Mr. Hutchinson considers
is the brontosaurus, a vegetable-feeding
lizard that was, on the average, sixty feet
long and must have weighed at least twenty
tons.
The small size of its brain cavity shows
that it was a stupid, slow-moving creature.
It bad no covering of scale* or spines, aud
no offensive abilities, apparently. In tbe
opinion of Prof. Marsh it was more or less
amphibious aud fed upon aquatic plants.
He notes that, its remains are generally
found where it had in all probability be
oorae mired. Many of its tracks are pre
served, some of these footprints being a
square yard in extent. For its defense
against enemies it is possible that its great
tail could be swung with force, and it is
probable that those mighty thigh bones,
which often were six feet long and more,
had muscles of great power bound to them,
by means of which a terrific kick or blow
could be delivered. While sixty feet was
its average length, there have been found
skeletons of this kind of dinosaur that must
have been over eighty feet long. From tbe
peculiar structure of the head and fore
quarters, it is assumed that they sometimes
sat upright upon their haunches. In such
a position a dinosaur eighty feet long would
have been thirty feet high, or as high as a
modern 3-story house.
Tbe secand group of dinosaurs, the beast
footed, were net so large as the first group,
and were entirely different in their habits.
They were the lions and tigers of their age,
fierce, ravenous beasts of prey. Their skele
tons show most plainly that they were con
structed for pouncing upon other animals
and tearing them to pieces. These dinosaurs
walked on their hind legs most of the time,
holding their short forelegs in the air,
somewhat after the fashion of the kangaroo.
Their bones were hollow and the forefoot of
the body was trivial compared to the
haunches. Their average length was about
25 feet, and the distance between their
tracks, which would mean the length of
their step, was about 4 or 5 feet. Each track
was about 20 inches long.
The third group of dinosaurs, tbe bird
footed, is the most interesting, and is the
last discovered by science. Of these the
first to come to light was the iguanadon, a
mighty smooth-skinned creature, 30 feet
long or more. It levied upon the leaves of
trees and walked upon its hind feet, this
despite the fact that its body was far larger
than the body of the iargest elephant.
Another of this tame general family was
the ecelidosaurus, noted for the immense
power of its hind legs. In size it was, in all
probability, about the same as the iguana
don. It had spil.es and plates of armor
u on its baok, which kept off the foe if the
hind legs were not available. A swish from
Us tail was like a cut from a lash of nettles.
The polacanthus, a near relation probably
of the scelidosaurus, was still better pro
tected, for it had its loins and haunches
guarded by a continuous shield of bone
which rose at regular intervals into sharp
spikes.
But the most curiously armored creature
that has ever been discovered was the slego
saurus, whioh was a native of the western
part of this country in the mesozoio a.e.
Projecting from tho back were bony plutes
from two to three feet In diameter, and its
spines, the most powerful animal spines
ever found, were sometimes over two feet
long. This creature had two brains, one in
its small head and tbe other in tbe
haunohes. The second brain no doubt had
the Dusiness of directing the movements of
the great hind-quarters, and when neces -
sary, the swinging of that mighty tail with
its four pairs of stiong, sharp spines. Tbis
kind of creature was, it is believed, thirty
feet loug and upward. Us weight must
have I een very great, and its bight was
certainly that of an ordinary elephant.
At the close of his last chapter on dino
saurs Mr. Hutchinson introduces a sketch
of a great bird that lived in this age of rep
tiles, and that was in all probability related
to the dinosaurs. This bird is called the
gigaDtio diver, its length being 0 feet. It
is most interesting to us, because it was as
suredly a bird. It also had teeth, a rare
thing among birds of this strange mesozoic
age. Not one toothed bird has survived.
There were many points of resemblance be
tween birds aud " reptiles as they were
known in this mesozoic period, however
little there may be nowadays.
111.
From tbe monsters of tee age of reptiles
to the monsters that made terrible the land
scapes in the ago of mammals is a long
step, and not a satisfactory one fr< m the
view point of tho geologist. For geology
has no explanation of the transition. It
knows that in all parts of the world thus
far explored the record of the doings of
nature between tbe two ago# are destroyed,
but how they were destroyed it cannot tell.
In tho rocks of tho mammalian age the huge
skeleton of monstrous forma of reptile life
are no longor fouud. A few great reptiles
remain in this age, but they m> re nearly
resemble the reptiles as we knew them
than those mighty creatures whose foot
prints sank indelibly into tbe soil of the
mesozoic age.
Iu the reptilian age mammals were repre
sented by a few weak little crea ures, which
since have hid in terror even from most of
the bird-like reptiies. to which they would
have fall© i easy prey. But in the new age
tho mammal is lbs lord of creation,
mighty creotuies of mammalian types, en
dowed with intelligence which no reptile
ever had, stalked through the forests, swam
the rivers and lakes, aud dotted the plains
with forms. America and India have of
fered the richest rewards for the geologists
investigating the life of tbs period. Mr.
Hutcnimon presents two groat American
moueters. . „ „
“American geologists tell us. says Mr
Hutchinson, “that a long time ago there
was a great tropical lake in the Wyoming
territory, on tho borders of which roamed
amid luxuriant vegetation a large number
erf strange aud primitive quadrupeds, ihe
moat wonderful grout) of animals that
haunted the shores of this lake was tbe dino
cei ata. The name implies that they were
THE MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 1893-SIXTEEN PAGES.
terrible horned monsters.” The most for
midable of these wasjthe tinoceras ingens.
It was about twelve feet long without
tbe tail and weighed between two and
three tons. It resembled both the rhino
ceros and the elephant. Its legs were ele
phantine and its feet may have been cov
ered with soft pais. But its body seems
like the body both of the rhinoceros and
the hippopotamus. It bad six bony knots on
its skull, which served as horns. It was
one of these types which geologists call gen
eralized, presenting characteristics of mauy
groups of our quadrupeds. Mr. Hutohlnson
also devotes a considerable space to the
“Bad Lands,” that strange western region
which has delighted so many geologists.
In these and several other like regions in
various parts of tne world will no doubt be
found mauy a missing link in tbe chain of
life, many an offspring of nature as strange
and as terrible as those already revealed.
After the diuooerata lived another large
family of American mammals, to which tbe
name of broutops has been given. They
w ere near ancestors of the rhinoceros. They
were larger than any of the diuocerata, 12
feet long and about 8 feet high. “Tbe
limbs,” says Mr. Hutchinson, “are shorter
than those of the elephant, which it nearly
equaled in size. As in the tapir there were
four toes to the front limbs and three to the
hind limbs. It was probably provided
with an elongated flexible nose like that of
the tapir.”
In India there is a region which, like the
‘ ‘Bad Lands,” is rich in the remains of ex
tinct monsters. From this region, the “Liv
alia nills,” (many skeletons and parts of
skeletons of tne mammalian age have been
brought to England, classified and reno
vated From among these Mr. Hutchinson
has selected two, the sivatherlum and the
colossochelys. The sivatheriuin is unlike
anything now living. Althougn at first
glanoe it resembles some form of deer, so
many things immediately present them
selves in contradiction of this that tbe ani
mal is soon given up as a mystery. It had
two pairs of horns, like one kind of ante
lope, teeth like a giraffe, and a nose like a
tapir.
In both the “Bad Lands” and the Livalik
hills, aside from the unusual forms, there
the remains of thousands and thousands of
animals and reptiles nearly akin to the ani
mals and repties of to day. In fact, nearly
every one of the species we have to-day
was then represented by four or five times
as many genera as have survived. The
earth is poor to-day iu all the lower forms
of life as compared to what it was 100,000
years ago.
South America has not contributed many
peculiar forms of ancient ilia. The two
most noted are also most curious—the giant
sloth and tbe giant armadillo that onoe
lived in the famous Pampas region. One
specimen of tbe megatherium, or giant
sloth, shows‘‘an animal eighteen feet in
length, with bones more massive than those
of tbe elephant. For instance, the thigh
bone is nearly thrice tho thiokness of the
same bone in the largest of existing ele
phants, the circumference being equal to
the entire length.
* "In the fore part of the body the skeleton
is comparatively slender, but the bind
quarters show enormous strength and
weight combined. The tail also is very
powerful and massive. Prof. Owen has
proved that tbis cumbrous creature. Instead
of climbing up trees as modern sloths do,
actually pulled down the tree bodily or
broke it short off above the ground, sitting
upon its hugo haunches and tail as upon a
tripod while It grasped the trunk in its
loug, poweriul arms.”
The glyptodon, or giant armadillo,
divided dominion with tbe giant sloth in
South America in the mammalian age.
This great armored creature, which reaohed
a length of eight feet even more, had not
oily a great shield upon its back, but an
other upon its bead and another upon its
tail. It survives to the present day, as
does the sloth, in representatives of much
smaller size and of pitiful comparative
strength.
IV.
In tbis last group of monsters we come
still more nearly to the types of mammals
as they exist to-day. All these are on a
much larger scale than our types of the
same families, tut there is no character
istic that is in any especial sense monstrous
or unnatural, except of bulk. Indeed, all
these last monsters either lived close up to
the age of man or were known and bunted
by primitive man.
Tbe first of these, the mammoth, is the
best known of all extinct monsters, be
cause of its interesting livmg type-relative,
the elephant. The beast was from 12 to 25
feet in bight, with tusks from 9 to 12 feet
long, and his body was o >vered with long,
coarse hair, overlying a soft, thick, brown
wool. Ho lived in almost every part of the
globe but was particularly at home in the
temperate and Arctic regions. He seems to
have been drawn gradually northward, aud
to have become extinct on the northern
shores of Siberia. Allied to the mammoth
and also to the elephant was the mastodon,
whioh almost as mighty as the mammoth.
The mastodon flourished long before mam
moth, and in all probability lasted long
after the last mammoth had perished, Tbe
American Indians have many traditions as
to an animal that resembled the mastodon,
and as there seems to be no other way of ex
plaining it, the scientists are inclined to be
iieve that the mastodons were roaming the
American continent at least far into tbe age
of men.
The wooly rhinoceros was a contempo
rary of the mammoth, and, like the mam
moth, was so protected that it could go into
the outer regi ns. Its remains have been
found iu the far northern Siberian soil, and
even parts of its body, fairly well preserved
by the ice. It was about half as large
again as even the huge 2-horned rhinoceros
of tho present day. The great Irish deer,
so called because the first specimen was
fouud iu Ireland, was a fine figure iu the
age of mammals, with his great antlers,
measuring 8 feet from tip to tip, just twice
the average distanoo between the tips of the
antlers of the moose. He stood 10 feet or
thereabouts from the ground to the top
of his antlers. Then there were the Moa
birds, 10 and 12 feet high, that ran in
Australasia, especially in New Zealand,
almost to the time of living men; the great
sea oow, 19 feet long and more, which has
vanished within the oentury, and many
other great creatures of tbe same general
appearance as types that now exist.
NOT AFRAID OF PIaTOLB.
A Locomotive Engineer's Daring Ex
ploit at Scranton.
Special to the Baltimore American.
Scranton, Pa., March 5. —A daring en
gineer on tbe Delaware aud Hudson rail
road, named Gardner, at 4 o’clock this
afternoon, in the presence of over 1,000
people, braved the revolvers of twenty-five
policemen at the Lackawanna avenue
bridge. There is a quarrel of two years’
standing between tbe city authorities and
the Delaware and Hudson Ci.nal Company,
owing to tbe refusal of the mayor to per
mit the company to eater upon certaiu
land for depot purposes. The city is now
repairing a span of the Lackawanna ave
nue bridge, be.,eath which pass the double
tracks of the company. To repair this
spun it became necessary to erect two
wo iden pillars letween the tracks. This
wp.e done early this morning.
W hen the ora pany learned of it, a wreck
ing crow was seat to the bridge to remove
the pillars. Ihiee of tbe men were ar
rested, and the wrecking orew retired for
reinforcements. W hen they returned they
bod with them an engine and freight cur,
which they placed on the track and chained
together.
Twenty-five policemen with drawn re
volvers guarded the bridge, and warned the
engineer that he would be shot if he tried to
break down tho pillars. Nevertheless he put
on a full heal - t steam and backed the lo
comotive tender against the bridge, which
tram‘led, aud 200 people on it sent up a
shriek of terr.-r. Tho engineer, fireman
md six trackmen were arrested. The mayor
nos called out a posse, and tbe police are
ow iu undisturbed possession of the lo
cality.
THE EX-PRESIDENTS.
HOW THEY HAVE LIVED AFTER
THEIR TERMS HAD I.XPI9ED.
Gen. Harrison’s Plana—Ha Will
Lecture or Engage In Literary
Pursuits at Present—How Hla Prede
cessors Have Occupied Their Tims.
From the Waehinaton Star.
President Harrison returned to his home
in Indianapolis as soon as Mr. Cleveland is
sworn in to succeed him, and will soon
he will resume hla old law practice. In
this be will follow in the footsteps
of three of his illustrious predecessors in the
executive office who did the same thing—
Monroe, Arthur and Cleveland —all of
whom were likewise lawyers before they
were Presidents. It was also Lincoln's
design to go back to the law at Springfield,
111. bad he lived to complete his second
term.
Monroe, on turning over tho govern
ment to John Quincy Adams, wus harassed
by financial embarrassments, and fouud it
incumbent upon himself to strike out anew
to provide means cf support for his family.
Instead, therefore, of remaining long on his
farm at Oakwood Hill, iu Loudoun county,
Virginia w here he had been made a jutice
of the peace, he betook hirnaelf to New York
city to enter a larger Held and sought dis
tinction aud success among the celebrities
of tbe legal profession there. His practice
at the bar in New York, unfortunately,
was not lucrative, aud he died a poor mau
six years after banging out his shinglo,
Gen. Arthur was in the primoof life when
ho vacated tho presidential chair eight
years ago, and to all outward appearances
had a long aud agreeable career in prospect.
He associated himself with a proenmeut
law firm in New York and was perteoting
some elaborate business projects in addition,
when, unkuown to his friends, bis health
gave way and the country was shocked one
me ruing to learn that he bad been found
dead in bed, just twenty mouths after his re
tirement. He was worth about $200,000
when he died. Mr. Cleveland’s connection
with u leading law firm iu New York as
special advisory counsel is still fresh in the
public mind, but be did not devote all of bis
time by any means to his practioe m this
auxiliary capaolty. He is now reputed to
be worth at least half a million, the result
a careful husbanding and judicious invest
ments for years back.
A STEP TO BE REGRETTED.
Somehow the return of a President to act
ive business in tbe walks of professional
life strikes the average oitzen as a step to be
regretted and avoided. The popular idea
seems to be that in this republic of ours a
President, after having enjoyed the highest
honors in tbe gift of the nation, should
round out his career in some ideal sort of
retirement, surrounded by hosts of friends
and cheered with the mellow companion
ship of books. That is all very well, but
it is neither praticable nor desirable in
every case. Generally, to a man not yet
suffering from the infirmities of age and of
an active temperament habituated to con
tinous industry from early life, such a con
dition of repose becomes intolerably irk
some, and some congenial kind of intelli
genct occupation is a necessity.
Those are the considerations whioh have
largely determined the programme Presi
dent Harrison has mapped out tor himself.
In contemplating his future be looks for
ward to a decade or so of moderate ac
tivity more as a relief from care and sor
row thau as a means of pecuniary gain.
He is well off already, as tbe world goes,
and is not in need of employment on that
score. After a brief season of rest and re
cuperation from his late exhausting ex
periences he means to plunge again into
the engrossing fascinations of his profession,
and hopes therein to find a degree of content
that would be lacking otherwise if he had
nothing to engage his mind,
His house in Indianapolis, though not
pretentious, is a model of pomfort and con
venience, and it is only natural that ho
should prefer Its accustomed repose to the
novelty of anew residence eslewhero, al
though of course every familiar object in
it cannot fail to remind bim of tho tender
helpmeet wfio left it with him four years
ago nevermore to return. His daughter,
Mrs. McKee, and her ohildren will take up
their residence with him there.
WILL NOT LECTURE OR DO LITERARY WORK
Itumor has it that President Harrison
will devote a considerable part of his time
to lecturing aid literary work for certain
magazines and reviews, but he has stated
to a few intimate friends that, although he
has received no end of offers from innumer
able publishers and bureaus, he will not
touch a peu for hire or mount a platform
until the fall at least, and possibly not then.
He has also beon pressed to accept the law
chair as a non-resident professor and mem
ber of the faculty of Stanford University,
at Palo Alto, Cal., but this project he is
also holding iu abeyaure, and bo may not
make up his mind about it for some months.
His closest friends here and elsewhere
entertain the idea privately that it is
among the possibilities, even probabilities,
that Mr. Harrison three years hence will bo
called to lead his party again as a presi
dential candidate for a second term.
Doubtless tbe prevalent sentimental no
tion that a retired President should spend
his latter dayH in elegant leisure is due to
the examples set by -ome of tho earlier
Presidents, like Washington, Adams and
Jefferson. Yet a glance at thatr post
presidential careers shows that even those
venerated worthies still continued to a
certain extent in the public arena after
they had laid aside tbe official cares of
state.
Washington was the only ex-J’resident who
ever refused a renoniiuation at the close of
his administration. Hayes aud Cleveland
declared or intimated before their election
that they would not expect a
second nomination. Grant yearnel for a
third term, aud all the others who
survived their terms may truthfully be
pictured as having cast many a “longing,
lingering look behind” on leaving “the
precinots of the cheerful day.” But only
five of all of Washington’s twenty-two suc
cessors strove openly to get back into tbe
white house after their departing from it.
These five were Van Buren,, Tyler. Fill
more, Grant and Cleveland, but all of them
failed in the endeavor save Cleveland.
He is the only ex-Prosident who over be
came a PresMant-elect; and in this regard
he bos broken the record of our entire his
tory and furnished an astonishing ex
ception to the time.honored rule that
"water never turns back over the same
wheel.”
SIX PRESIDENTS BECAME PLANTERS.
Six of our Presidents, Washington, Jeffer
son, Madison, Jackson, Johnson aud Hayes,
became planters or farmers after their re
tirement, as some of them had been before
their elevation to the chief magistracy.
Washiugton spent the last two years of his
life, as everybody knows, in tbe sylvan
shades of hla superb estate at Mount
Vernon down the Potomac, looking after his
agricultural Interest- there, entertaining his
friends and distinguished guesU royally,
and keenly enjoying the freedom aud re
laxation from the responsibilities of gov
ernment which be had so richly earned.
He was a remnkably shrewd manager, and
extracted the large-t possible returns from
every depnrunent of bis farm—his grain,
his tobacco and his blooded stock. He died
in the mit mouth of the past century, only
two y-ars aud nine months after the in
auguration of his successor, leaviug prop
erty valued inthat day at <590,000.
Jefferson passed seventeen peaceful years
on his plantation at Mouticeflo after leav
ing t e national capital. He was not a
glittering suceesi as a farmer, however,and
tho profuse hospitulity he dispensed under
Ins roof increased tbe debts that incum
bered him when he left Washingtno. Con
gress purchased his library for $28,000, and
this transaction helped to tide him over.
Beside* tupervisiog the conduct of his plan
tation, he busi-.-d himself with literary mat
ters and carried on an extensive corre
spondence with the leading men of his time
at home and abroad, and iu addition found
time to establish tha University of Virginia
and served It as its first provost He took
a lively interest in politios up to the day of
his death, wblcn by patnotlo coincidence,
occurred with Adams’ on July 4, 1828.
Madison lived nineteen years on his Vir
ginia property in Orange county after bid
ding farewell to the white houie Although
quite rich, be looked to the soil, like Wash
ington and Jefferson, as the primal source of
prosperity. He was to a greater exteut, per
haps, than any other of the ex-PreSidents, a
recluse, secluding himself in bis study and
delegating tbe care of his affairs to members
of his family. In 1829, however, seven years
before his death, he emerged from his soli
tude long enough to take a leading part in
formulating anew state constitution.
Jaokson’s plantation, the Hermitage,
near Nashville, Tenn., where the idolized
leader of the demooraoy spent the last eight
years of his life, was a great resort of poli
ticians and military notables to the end.
At the close of his exciting career O.d Hick
ory grew intensely religious, and fre
quently declared than he had forgiven all
enemies as be himself hoped to be forgiven.
Johnson, tbe fifth post-presidential farmer,
spent the six years intervening between his
retirement from the presidency and his
qualification as Uni ed States senator, in
Knoxville aud Greenville, Tenn,, where he
bad a farm, a mill, a country store and
other small interests. He lived a simple,
easy-going, comfortable life, mingling
freely witn his old friends aud political ad
herents. In 1873, in the spring he was
candidate before the Tennesee legislature
for a seat in the United Btales Senate as a
democrat, and intbe fall he was an independ
ent candidate tor oongress; but not until
1875 was he successful in his asuirations to
re-enter Washington offioial life. He died
within a year afterward, possessed of a
considerable estate.
Hayes' rural retreat at Splcgal Grove, near
Fremont, O, is of current memory, made all
the moro familiar to newspaper readers by
the recent death of its proprietor. There
Gen. Hayes superintended the operations of
his farm, looked after his investments,
interested himself in charitable ami bene
volent objects, and contrived to gain both
pleasure and profit from his quiet mode of
life.
FIVE BECAME EXTENSIVE TRAVELERS.
Five others of our ex-Presidents—Van
Buren, Polk. Fillmore, Pierce and Grant—
became extensive travelers. Van Buren,
Fillmore, Pierce and Grant recruited their
exhausted nerve force iu rambles abroad,
while Polk found refreshment from his
political toils in obange of scene in our own
country. Van Buren was tbe first of all
our ex Presidents to seek renewal of spirit
and respite from private grief In foreign
dime'!. He was rich-would have been
deemed a millionaire at this day—and
could gratify his desire for sightseeing with
out stint. On his return to America after
a prolonged sojourn abroad he again con
centrated his energies upon tbe subtle arts
of politics of which he was so accomplished
a master. He was n candidate for the
democratic presidential nomination in 1844.
and secured tbe Free Soil party nomination
in 1848, but his candidacy defeated Pass,
the regular democratic nominee, and this
act ended his political career. He lived
until 1862.
Polk, Fillmore and Fierce were also
wealthy. Polk made a tour of the south at
the close of his term and was returning
from New- Orleans to Nashville when he
was strioken down with the cholera. Fill
more also made a tour through the southern
Btates after Pierce's inauguration and
subsequently went abroad, returning in
time to accept the presidential nomination
of the Know-nothing or American party.
After his overwhelming defeat In that
exuvass be withdrew permanently to his
home in Buffsdo, N. Y., aud there passed In
green old age the pleasantest years of bis
life, whioh terminated in 1874. Pieros in
turn went across the sea at the end of his
administration, and two years later settled
down quietly at his home in Concord, N, H.,
as a veritable hermit. H* died in 1869. He
and Fillmore and buohanan all suffered in
their retirement from the reproach of being
"northern men with southern hearts.”
Grant’s promenade around tbe world of
course traneoended the foreign pilgrimages
of all our Presidents, and was, in truth,
the most extarordlnary triumphal progress
ever made by a retired ruler of any uatiou.
Although not exactly rich, be was “com
fortably fixed,” when he completed his
second term, aud it was only his lamentable
investments in connection with unscrupu
lous financiers that reduced him to the
necessity of writing his memoirs heroically
w hile ill in order to insure bis family
against want.
FOUR MIGHT BE CALLED RECLUSES.
Four of our ex-Presidents —Adams, Pierce,
Buohanan and Hayes—might be called rec
luses, so close was their retirement in the
main. Adams found solace for his wounded
vanity and lacerated feelings in books
and in seeing his beloved son seated lu the
presidential chair. Pierce was not so fond
of books, but he enjoyed long chats with
friends who came to see him and talk over
pleasant reminiscences. Buchanan, Penn
sylvania’s only President, after eight years
of obscurity died In 1868 au a zed, saddened
and unhappy mau at Wheatlaud, his
his country seat near Lancaster.
John Qulnoy Adams put a glorious finish
ing touch to his post-presidential career by
nineteen yoars of honored service as the
iearder of his party iu the lower house of
congress where be dropned at his post at
the ripe age of 81. Ihe spot where he
was overcome is now marked by a brass
star on the tiled floor of statuary hall, then
tbe House chamber. He and Johnson
were the only ex-Presidents who oocupled
seat# in tile Federal congress after relin
quishing tho executive chair. Tyler, on
the other hand, who strongly favored tbe
maintenance of tbe union and presided
over a peace congress held iu Washington
early in 1861, worn with the stute when
Y irginia seceded and entered the confeder
ate congress. Unhapply for tbs elder Har
ri-on, Taylor, Lincoln and Gar'leld, their
live* were prematurely cut off in mui-ca
roer, and speculation is idle as to what they
might have dona on surviving to the com
pletion of their terms.
Anent President Harrison’s farewell,
it is worth mentioning that John
Adams was so deeply chagrined at bis de
feat that he left W ashingtou in a great buff,
taking the swiftest “oannon-ball” stage
that could be bad to Quincy, Mass. He
could not stay in Washington even long
enough to go through the formality of wel
coming his hated antagonist and successor,
Jefferson. Hayo# left Wo#biugton within
half an hour after Garfield was sworn in,
but from feelings and emotions of a dif
ferent character.
THE KISS CEREMONIAL.
Tha Political and Religious Kiss—Kiss
ing the Pope’s toe.
From the [yondon Standard.
This paper professes to deal with one form
of osoulation only, the kiss ceremonial. All
other sorts and conditions of kissing it
firmly aud conscientiously ignores, particu
larly the kind by poets styled “The Balm
of Love,” Cupid’s Seals,” “The Neotar
of Venua,” “Pledges of Bliss” and
the like extravagant and frivol
ous conceits. Of that remnant of pagan
ism—kissing under tbe mistletoe—no
thing will be said; a discreet silence will
also be preserved concerning certain repre
hensible dances and games, such as old En
glish "brawl,” which began by tbe leader
saluting every lady in turn and bis partner
every gentleman. and “the army,” a pretty
parlor pastime in vogue among certain
circles at the present day.
By way of saluta lou all notions have
practiced kissing more or loss. Buotonlu#
informs us that all those who came to Cal
igula’s court touched bis hand with their
lips; in similar fashion soldier# took leave of
their general when he retired from office,
and the Roman emperor# did not consider it
beneath their dignity to embrace their
principal officers. The Romans bad three
different words for a kiss, distinguishing
the various grades by orculum, a kiss be
tween two friends; basium, a kl#s of polite
ness; aud suavium, a kiss of love. The rah
bis, ignoring tbe third description alto
gether, still permitted and enjoined three
kinds—viz., tha kiss of revoreuoe, the kiss
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FOYE & MORRISON.
of reception and the kiss of dismissal. That
great light of tbe church. St. Augustine,
wrote a treatise in which he gives an ao
oount of four kinds—the kiss of reconcilia
tion, the kiss of peace, theki-sof love, and
the holy kiss. “Salute one an ilhcr with an
holy kiss.”
The early Christians exchanged the kiss
of peace after celebrating the mystorl as of
tbe Eucharist. It was called sij/nueufum
oratinnis or the soul of prayer and was
considered as a solemn aot of religion. In
holy writ we come across as many as eight
generic forms of osculation, viz., solution,
valediction, reconciliation, subjection, ap
probation, adoration, treachery (the Judas
kiss) aud affection. It wng customary to
kiss the hand or the feet of the parson it
wna desired to honor, or even the
hern of his garment to express the deepest
humility. Kissing tbe foot is a com
mon i riental form of resprot. In Charles
Reade's well-known “The Cloister and the
Hearth,' we are made acquainted with
a variety of curious kissing customs,
through the medium of Fra Co
lonna, who lootures Brother Jerome
upon the ever fruitful subject of the pagan
origin of many modem ecclesiastical
customs. Says Frn Colonuu, "The kissing
of linages and the pope's toe is eastern
paganism. The Egyptians had it of the
Assyrians, the Greeks of the Egyptians
aud we of tbo Romans, whose pontifex
maximus had his toe kissed under the
empire. Tbe Druids kissed their high
priest’s toe 1,000 years U. C. The Mussul
mans kiss the stone of Caaba—a pagan
practice. The priests of Raul kissed tboir
idols. Tully tells us of a fair image of
Hercules at Agrigeutum whose chin was
worn by kissing. The lower part of the
statues wo call Fetor are Jupiter. The too
is sore worn, but not all by Christian
mouths. The heathen vulgar laid their lips
there first for many a year, and ours fol
lowed them as moulceys their masters.”
When the pope has his toe kissed, bo
wears a slipir with a cross upon it: it Is
tbe cross that receives the lip homage. Be
fore the eighth century, we are told by Mat
thew of Farm, popes gave their hand to he
saluted; but it happened that a certain mis
guided woman not only kissed a holy
father’s band, but also squeezed it, which so
scandalized him mat be immediately cut it
off. After that ho was forced
to prew-nt hts foot Instead, a prac
tice which continued for all time. The
kissing of the sultan’s toe at Constantinople
is a grand ceremony; and only officials of
the most exalted rank, suoh as the vi/.lr,
the ministers and a few select pashas, are
allowed that supreme honor. Others
may but touch the fringe of ha
scarf with their lips, wmlo the low
est of all must content themselves with
a simple obesiaDce. All though the cer
emony the sultan sits Immovable, like a
statue that heari and sees nothing, the while
his subjects defile before him with every
mark of the most servile rospeot. In the
middle agee we come across the kiss of in
vestiture. The vassal put bis clasped bands
between those of his suzerain or liege lord,
promising him loyal and true service; the
lord aeoepted his homage by giving him a
kits. At the coronation of George IV., one
of the grandest ceremonies the ancient
abbey of Westminister has ever witnessed,
bis majesty, after the benediction, kissed
the archbishops and bishops kneeling before
him. The enthroning then followed, after
which the lords, spiritual and temporal, and
the princes of the blood royal passed before
the newly crowned monarch in all the
glory of gorgeous robes aul glittering
orders, and, taking the oath of fealty,
touched the crown upon the king's bead,
kisied his left cheek, and so retired. The
royal princess were headed by tiis majesty's
brother, who, kneeling, pronounced the
ancient formula of hom"go; the same
words, so simple yet so sufficient, as tho-o
by which many generations of noble En
glishmen have sworn faith to their sover
eign: “I, Frederick, Duke of York and
Albany, do become your Jiego-man of life
and limb, and in earthly worship, and firm
and true I will bear live and
die against all manner of folks. Bo help
me God."
She was hurrying along toward (he rail
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••what did you ever wear that tiling fort”
She resounded cheerfully; “I’m ull right. I
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before roy train did ."-Detroit Free lrex.
Walter—How did you And your s oik 1
siri Gus t—Blamed if I know how 1 did iir.d
it, it was so small .—Detroit Free -Press.
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