Chapter V (2)

"Let me alone for that," said I, smiling; "a reporter, like love, finds his way where wolves would fear to tread."

"Really, my dear sir," quickly responded the Doctor, "I have no time to chat this morning. Our special committee submitted its report yesterday, which is on file in that book-case; and if you will promise not to publish it until after it has been read in open session of the College, you may take it to your sanctum, run it over, and clip from it enough to satisfy the public for the present."

Saying this, he rose from his seat, opened the case, took from a pigeon-hole a voluminous written document tied up with red tape, and handed it to me, adding, "Be careful!" Seating himself without another word, he turned his back on me, and I sallied forth into the street.

Reaching the office, I scrutinized the writing on the envelope, and found it as follows: "Report of Special Committee--Boy Palmer--Vision--Laws of Light--Filed February 10, 1876--Stittmore, Sec." Opening the document, I saw at once that it was a full, accurate, and, up to the present time, complete account of the phenomenal case I was after, and regretted the promise made not to publish the entire report until read in open session of the College. Therefore, I shall be compelled to give the substance of the report in my own words, only giving _verbatim_ now and then a few scientific phrases which are not fully intelligible to me, or susceptible of circumlocution in common language.

The report is signed by Doctors Bryant, Gadbury and Golson, three of our ablest medical men, and approved by Professor Smyth, the oculist. So far, therefore, as authenticity and scientific accuracy are concerned, our readers may rely implicitly upon the absolute correctness of every fact stated and conclusion reached.

The first paragraph of the report gives the name of the child, "John Palmer, age, nine years, and place of residence, South San Francisco, Culp Hill, near Catholic Orphan Asylum;" and then plunges at once into _in medias res_.

It appears that the period through which the investigation ran was only fifteen days; but it seems to have been so thorough, by the use of the ophthalmoscope and other modern appliances and tests, that no regrets ought to be indulged as to the brevity of the time employed in experiments. Besides, we have superadded a short and minute account of our own, verifying some of the most curious facts reported, with several tests proposed by ourselves and not included in the statement of the scientific committee.

To begin, then, with the beginning of the inquiries by the committee. They were conducted into a small back room, darkened by old blankets hung up at the window, for the purpose of the total exclusion of daylight; an absurd remedy for blindness, recommended by a noted quack whose name adorns the extra fly-leaf of the San Francisco _Truth Teller_. The lad was reclining upon an old settee, ill-clad and almost idiotic in expression. As the committee soon ascertained, his mother only was at home, the father being absent at his customary occupation--that of switch-tender on the San Jose Railroad. She notified her son of the presence of strangers and he rose and walked with a firm step toward where the gentlemen stood, at the entrance of the room. He shook them all by the hand and bade them good morning. In reply to questions rapidly put and answered by his mother, the following account of the infancy of the boy and the accidental discovery of his extraordinary powers of vision was given:

He was born in the house where the committee found him, nine years ago the 15th of last January. Nothing of an unusual character occurred until his second year, when it was announced by a neighbor that the boy was completely blind, his parents never having been suspicious of the fact before that time, although the mother declared that for some months anterior to the discovery she had noticed some acts of the child that seemed to indicate mental imbecility rather than blindness. From this time forward until a few months ago nothing happened to vary the boy's existence except a new remedy now and then prescribed by neighbors for the supposed malady. He was mostly confined to a darkened chamber, and was never trusted alone out of doors. He grew familiar, by touch and sound, with the forms of most objects about him, and could form very accurate guesses of the color and texture of them all. His conversational powers did not seem greatly impaired, and he readily acquired much useful knowledge from listening attentively to everything that was said in his presence. He was quite a musician, and touched the harmonicon, banjo and accordeon with skill and feeling. He was unusually sensitive to the presence of light, though incapable of seeing any object with any degree of distinctness; and hence the attempt to exclude light as the greatest enemy to the recovery of vision. It was very strange that up to the time of the examination of the committee, no scientific examination of the boy's eye had been made by a competent oculist, the parents contenting themselves with the chance opinions of visitors or the cheap nostrums of quacks. It is perhaps fortunate for science that this was the case, as a cure for the eye might have been an extinction of its abnormal power.

On the evening of the 12th of December last (1875), the position of the child's bed was temporarily changed to make room for a visitor. The bed was placed against the wall of the room, fronting directly east, with the window opening at the side of the bed next to the head. The boy was sent to bed about seven o'clock, and the parents and their visitor were seated in the front room, spending the evening in social intercourse. The moon rose full and cloudless about half-past seven o'clock, and shone full in the face of the sleeping boy.

Something aroused him from slumber, and when he opened his eyes the first object they encountered was the round disk of her orb. By some oversight the curtain had been removed from the window, and probably for the first time in his life he beheld the lustrous queen of night swimming in resplendent radiance, and bathing hill and bay in effulgent glory. Uttering a cry, equally of terror and delight, he sprang up in bed and sat there like a statue, with eyes aglare, mouth open, finger pointed, and astonishment depicted on every feature. His sudden, sharp scream brought his mother to his side, who tried for some moments in vain to distract his gaze from the object before him. Failing even to attract notice, she called in her husband and friend, and together they besought the boy to lie down and go to sleep, but to no avail. Believing him to be ill and in convulsions, they soon seized him, and were on the point of immersing him in a hot bath, when, with a sudden spring, he escaped from their grasp and ran out the front door. Again he fixed his unwinking eyes upon the moon, and remained speechless for several seconds. At length, having seemingly satisfied his present curiosity, he turned on his mother, who stood wringing her hands in the doorway and moaning piteously, and exclaimed, "I can see the moon yonder, and it is so beautiful that I am going there to-morrow morning, as soon as I get up."

"How big does it look?" said his mother.

"So big," he replied, "that I cannot see it all at one glance--as big as all out of doors."

"How far off from you does it seem to be?"

"About half a car's distance," he quickly rejoined.

It may be here remarked that the boy's idea of distance had been measured all his life by the distance from his home to the street-car station at the foot of the hill. This was about two hundred yards, so that the reply indicated that the moon appeared to be only one hundred yards from the spectator. The boy then proceeded of his own accord to give a very minute description of the appearance of objects which he beheld, corresponding, of course, to his poverty of words with which to clothe his ideas.

His account of things beheld by him was so curious, wonderful and apparently accurate, that the little group about him passed rapidly from a conviction of his insanity to a belief no less absurd--that he had become, in the cant lingo of the day, a seeing, or "clairvoyant" medium. Such was the final conclusion to which his parents had arrived at the time of the visit of the scientific committee. He had been classed with that credulous school known to this century as spiritualists, and had been visited solely by persons of that ilk heretofore.

The committee having fully examined the boy, and a number of independent witnesses, as to the facts, soon set about a scientific investigation of the true causes of of the phenomenon. The first step, of course, was to examine the lad's eye with the modern ophthalmoscope, an invention of Professor Helmholtz, of Heidelberg, a few years ago, by means of which the depths of this organ can be explored, and the smallest variations from a healthy or normal condition instantaneously detected.

The mode of using the instrument is as follows: The room is made perfectly dark; a brilliant light is then placed near the head of the patient, and the rays are reflected by a series of small mirrors into his eye, as if they came from the eye of the observer; then, by looking through the central aperture of the instrument, the oculist can examine the illuminated interior of the eyeball, and perceive every detail of structure, healthy or morbid, as accurately and clearly as we can see any part of the exterior of the body. No discomfort arises to the organ examined, and all its hidden mysteries can be studied and understood as clearly as those of any other organ of the body.

This course was taken with John Palmer, and the true secret of his mysterious power of vision detected in an instant.

On applying the ophthalmoscope, the committee ascertained in a moment that the boy's eye was abnormally shaped. A natural, perfect eye is perfectly round. But the eye examined was exceedingly flat, very thin, with large iris, flat lens, immense petira, and wonderfully dilated pupil. The effect of the shape was at once apparent. It was utterly impossible to see any object with distinctness at any distance short of many thousands of miles. Had the eye been elongated inward, or shaped like an egg--to as great an extent, the boy would have been effectually blind, for no combination of lens power could have placed the image of the object beyond the coat of the retina. In other words, there are two common imperfections of the human organ of sight; one called _myopia_, or "near-sightedness;" the _presbyopia_, or "far-sightedness."

"The axis being too long," says the report, "in myopic eyes, parallel rays, such as proceed from distant objects, are brought to a focus at a point so far in front of the retina, that only confused images are formed upon it. Such a malformation, constituting an excess of refractive power, can only be neutralized by concave glasses, which give such a direction to rays entering the eye as will allow of their being brought to a focus at a proper point for distant perception."

"Presbyopia is the reverse of all this. The antero-posterior axis of such eyes being too short, owing to the flat plate-like shape of the ball, their refractive power is not sufficient to bring even parallel rays to a focus upon the retina, but is adapted for convergent rays only. Convex glasses, in a great measure, compensate for this quality by rendering parallel rays convergent; and such glasses, in ordinary cases, bring the rays to a focus at a convenient distance from the glass, corresponding to its degree of curvature." But in the case under examination, no glass or combination of glasses could be invented sufficiently concave to remedy the malformation. By a mathematical problem of easy solution, it was computed that the nearest distance from the unaided eye of the patient at which a distinct image could be formed upon the retina, was two hundred and forty thousand miles, a fraction short of the mean distance of the moon from the earth; and hence it became perfectly clear that the boy could see with minute distinctness whatever was transpiring on the surface of the moon.

Such being the undeniable truth as demonstrated by science, the declaration of the lad assumed a far higher value than the mere dicta of spiritualists, or the mad ravings of a monomaniac; and the committee at once set to work to glean all the astronomical knowledge they could by frequent and prolonged night interviews with the boy.

It was on the night of January 9, 1876, that the first satisfactory experiment was tried, testing beyond all cavil or doubt the powers of the subject's eye. It was full moon, and that luminary rose clear and dazzlingly bright. The committee were on hand at an early hour, and the boy was in fine condition and exuberant spirits. The interview was secret, and none but the members of the committee and the parents of the child were present. Of course the first proposition to be settled was that of the inhabitability of that sphere. This the boy had frequently declared was the case, and he had on several previous occasions described minutely the form, size and means of locomotion of the Lunarians. On this occasion he repeated in almost the same language, what he had before related to his parents and friends, but was more minute, owing to the greater transparency of the atmosphere and the experience in expression already acquired.

The Lunarians are not formed at all like ourselves. They are less in height, and altogether of a different appearance. When fully grown, they resemble somewhat a chariot wheel, with four spokes, converging at the center or axle. They have four eyes in the head, which is the axle, so to speak, and all the limbs branch out directly from the center, like some sea-forms known as "Radiates." They move by turning rapidly like a wheel, and travel as fast as a bird through the air. The children are undeveloped in form, and are perfectly round, like a pumpkin or orange. As they grow older, they seem to drop or absorb the rotundity of the whole body, and finally assume the appearance of a chariot wheel.

They are of different colors, or nationalities--bright red, orange and blue being the predominant hues. The reds are in a large majority. They do no work, but sleep every four or five hours. They have no houses, and need none. They have no clothing, and do not require it. There being no night on the side of the moon fronting the sun, and no day on the opposite side, all the inhabitants, apparently at a given signal of some kind, form into vast armies, and flock in myriads to the sleeping grounds on the shadow-side of the planet. They do not appear to go very far over the dark rim, for they reappear in immense platoons in a few hours, and soon spread themselves over the illuminated surface. They sleep and wake about six times in one ordinary day of twenty-four hours. Their occupations cannot be discerned; they must be totally different from anything upon the earth.

The surface of the moon is all hill and hollow. There are but few level spots, nor is there any water visible. The atmosphere is almost as refined and light as hydrogen gas. There is no fire visible, nor are there any volcanoes. Most of the time of the inhabitants seems to be spent in playing games of locomotion, spreading themselves into squares, circles, triangles, and other mathematical figures. They move always in vast crowds. No one or two are ever seen separated from the main bodies. The children also flock in herds, and seem to be all of one family. Individualism is unknown. They seem to spawn like herring or shad, or to be propagated like bees, from the queen, in myriads. Motion is their normal condition. The moment after a mathematical figure is formed, it is dissolved, and fresh combinations take place, like the atoms in a kaleidoscope. No other species of animal, bird, or being exist upon the illuminated face of the moon.

The shrubbery and vegetation of the moon is all metallic. Vegetable life nowhere exists; but the forms of some of the shrubs and trees are exceedingly beautiful. The highest trees do not exceed twenty-five feet, and they appear to have all acquired their full growth. The ground is strewn with flowers, but they are all formed of metals--gold, silver, copper, and tin predominating. But there is a new kind of metal seen everywhere on tree, shrub and flower, nowhere known on the earth. It is of a bright vermilion color, and is semi-transparent. The mountains are all of bare and burnt granite, and appear to have been melted with fire. The committee called the attention of the boy to the bright "sea of glass" lately observed near the northern rim of the moon, and inquired of what it is composed. He examined it carefully, and gave such a minute description of it that it became apparent at once to the committee that it was pure mercury or quicksilver. The reason why it has but very recently shown itself to astronomers is thus accounted for: it appears close up to the line of demarcation separating the light and shadow upon the moon's disk; and on closer inspection a distinct cataract of the fluid--in short, a metallic Niagara, was clearly seen falling from the night side to the day side of the luminary. It has already filled up a vast plain--one of the four that exist on the moon's surface--and appears to be still emptying itself with very great rapidity and volume. It covers an area of five by seven hundred miles in extent, and may possibly deluge one half the entire surface of the moon. It does not seem to occasion much apprehension to the inhabitants, as they were soon skating, so to speak, in platoons and battalions, over and across it. In fact, it presents the appearance of an immense park, to which the Lunarians flock, and disport themselves with great gusto upon its polished face. One of the most beautiful sights yet seen by the lad was the formation of a new figure, which he drew upon the sand with his finger.

The central heart was of crimson-colored natives; the one to the right of pale orange, and the left of bright blue. It was ten seconds in forming, and five seconds in dispersing. The number engaged in the evolution could not be less than half a million.

Thus has been solved one of the great astronomical questions of the century.

The next evening the committee assembled earlier, so as to get a view of the planet Venus before the moon rose. It was the first time that the lad's attention had been drawn to any of the planets, and he evinced the liveliest joy when he first beheld the cloudless disk of that resplendent world. It may here be stated that his power of vision, in looking at the fixed stars, was no greater or less than that of an ordinary eye. They appeared only as points of light, too far removed into the infinite beyond to afford any information concerning their properties. But the committee were doomed to a greater disappointment when they inquired of the boy what he beheld on the surface of Venus. He replied, "Nothing clearly; all is confused and watery; I see nothing with distinctness." The solution of the difficulty was easily apprehended, and at once surmised. The focus of the eye was fixed by nature at 240,000 miles, and the least distance of Venus from the earth being 24,293,000 miles, it was, of course, impossible to observe that planet's surface with distinctness. Still she appeared greatly enlarged, covering about one hundredth part of the heavens, and blazing with unimaginable splendor.

Experiments upon Jupiter and Mars were equally futile, and the committee half sorrowfully turned again to the inspection of the moon.

The report then proceeds at great length to give full descriptions of the most noted geographical peculiarities of the lunar surface, and corrects many errors fallen into by Herschel, Leverrier and Proctor. Professor Secchi informs us that the surface of the moon is much better known to astronomers than the surface of the earth is to geographers; for there are two zones on the globe within the Arctic and Antarctic circles, that we can never examine. But every nook and cranny of the illuminated face of the moon has been fully delineated, examined and named, so that no object greater than sixty feet square exists but has been seen and photographed by means of Lord Rosse's telescope and De la Ruis' camera and apparatus. As the entire report will be ordered published at the next weekly meeting of the College, we refrain from further extracts, but now proceed to narrate the results of our own interviews with the boy.

It was on the evening of the 17th of February, 1876, that we ventured with rather a misgiving heart to approach Culp Hill, and the humble residence of a child destined, before the year is out, to become the most celebrated of living beings. We armed ourselves with a pound of sugar candy for the boy, some _muslin-de-laine_ as a present to the mother, and a box of cigars for the father. We also took with us a very large-sized opera-glass, furnished for the purpose by M. Muller. At first we encountered a positive refusal; then, on exhibiting the cigars, a qualified negative; and finally, when the muslin and candy were drawn on the enemy, we were somewhat coldly invited in and proffered a seat. The boy was pale and restless, and his eyes without bandage or glasses. We soon ingratiated ourself into the good opinion of the whole party, and henceforth encountered no difficulty in pursuing our investigations. The moon being nearly full, we first of all verified the tests by the committee. These were all perfectly satisfactory and reliable. Requesting, then, to stay until after midnight, for the purpose of inspecting Mars with the opera-glass, we spent the interval in obtaining the history of the child, which we have given above.

The planet Mars being at this time almost in dead opposition to the sun, and with the earth in conjunction, is of course as near to the earth as he ever approaches, the distance being thirty-five millions of miles. He rises toward midnight, and is in the constellation Virgo, where he may be seen to the greatest possible advantage, being in perigee. Mars is most like the earth of all the planetary bodies. He revolves on his axis in a little over twenty-four hours, and his surface is pleasantly variegated with land and water, pretty much like our own world--the land, however, being in slight excess. He is, therefore, the most interesting of all the heavenly bodies to the inhabitants of the earth.

Having all things in readiness, we directed the glass to the planet. Alas, for all our calculations, the power was insufficient to clear away the obscurity resulting from imperfect vision and short focus.

Swallowing the bitter disappointment, we hastily made arrangements for another interview, with a telescope, and bade the family good night.

There is but one large telescope properly mounted in the city, and that is the property and pride of its accomplished owner, J. P. Manrow, Esq. We at once procured an interview with that gentleman, and it was agreed that on Saturday evening the boy should be conveyed to his residence, picturesquely situated on Russian Hill, commanding a magnificent view of the Golden Gate and the ocean beyond.

At the appointed hour the boy, his parents and myself presented ourselves at the door of that hospitable mansion. We were cordially welcomed, and conducted without further parley into the lofty observatory on the top of the house. In due time the magnificent tube was presented at the planet, but it was discovered that the power it was set for was too low. It was then gauged for 240,000 diameters, being the full strength of the telescope, and the eye of the boy observer placed at the eye-glass. One cry of joy, and unalloyed delight told the story! Mars, and its mountains and seas, its rivers, vales, and estuaries, its polar snow-caps and grassy plains--its inhabitants, palaces, ships, villages and cities, were all revealed, as distinctly, clearly and certainly, as the eye of Kit Carson, from the summits of the Sierra Nevada range, beheld the stupendous panorama of the Sacramento Valley, and the snow-clad summits of Mount Hood and Shasta Butte.

[Decoration]

[Decoration]

XII.

_THE EMERALD ISLE._

Chaos was ended. From its ruins rolled
The central Sun, poised on his throne of gold;
The changeful Moon, that floods the hollow dome
Of raven midnight with her silvery foam;
Vast constellations swarming all around,
In seas of azure, without line or bound,
And this green globe, rock-ribbed and mountain-crown'd.

The eye of God, before His hand had made
Man in His image, this wide realm surveyed;
O'er hill and valley, over stream and wood,
He glanced triumphant, and pronounced it "good."
But ere He formed old Adam and his bride,
He called a shining seraph to His side,
And pointing to our world, that gleamed afar,
And twinkled on creation's verge, a star,
Bade him float 'round this new and narrow span
And bring report if all were ripe for Man.
The angel spread his fluttering pinions fair,
And circled thrice the circumambient air;
Quick, then, as thought, he stood before the gate
Where cherubs burn, and minist'ring spirits wait.
Nor long he stood, for God beheld his plume,
Already tarnished by terrestrial gloom,
And beck'ning kindly to the flurried aid,
Said, "Speak your wish; if good, be it obeyed."
The seraph raised his gem-encircled hand,
Obeisance made, at heaven's august command,
And thus replied, in tones so bold and clear,
That angels turned and lent a listening ear:
"Lord of all systems, be they near or far,
Thrice have I circled 'round yon beauteous Star,
I've seen its mountains rise, its rivers roll,
Its oceans sweep majestic to each pole;
Its floors in mighty continents expand,
Or dwindle into specs of fairy-land;
Its prairies spread, its forests stretch in pride,
And all its valleys dazzle like a bride;
Hymns have I heard in all its winds and streams,
And beauty seen in all its rainbow gleams.
But whilst the LAND can boast of every gem
That sparkles in each seraph's diadem;
Whilst diamonds blaze 'neath dusk Golconda's skies,
And rubies bleed where Alps and Andes rise;
Whilst in Brazilian brooks the topaz shines,
And opals burn in California mines;
Whilst in the vales of Araby the Blest
The sapphire flames beside the amethyst:
The pauper Ocean sobs forever more,
Ungemm'd, unjeweled, on its wailing shore!"

"What wouldst thou do?" responded heaven's great King.
"Add music to the song the breakers sing!"
The strong-soul'd seraph cried, "I'd make yon sea
Rival in tone heaven's sweetest minstrelsy;
I'd plant within the ocean's bubbling tide
An island gem, of every sea the pride!
So bright in robes of ever-living green,
In breath so sweet, in features so serene,
Such crystal streams to course its valleys fair,
Such healthful gales to purify its air,
Such fertile soil, such ever-verdant trees,
Angels should name it 'EMERALD OF THE SEAS!'"

The seraph paused, and downward cast his eyes,
Whilst heav'nly hosts stood throbbing with surprise.
Again the Lord of all the realms above,
Supreme in might, but infinite in love,
With no harsh accent in His tones replied:
"Go, drop this Emerald in the envious tide!"

Quick as the lightning cleaves the concave blue,
The seraph seized the proffer'd gem, and flew
Until he reached the confines of the earth,
Still struggling in the throes of turbid birth;
And there, upon his self-sustaining wing,
Sat poised, and heard our globe her matins sing;
Beheld the sun traverse the arching sky,
The sister Moon walk forth in majesty;
Saw every constellation rise and roll
Athwart the heaven, or circle round the pole.
Nor did he move, until our spotted globe
Had donned for him her morn and evening robe;
Till on each land his critic eye was cast,
And every ocean rose, and heav'd, and pass'd;
Then, like some eagle pouncing on its prey,
He downward sail'd, through bellowing clouds and spray,
To where he saw the billows bounding free,
And dropped the gem within the stormy sea!

And would'st thou know, Chief of St. Patrick's band,
Where fell this jewel from the seraph's hand?
What ocean caught the world-enriching prize?
O! Child of Moina, homeward cast your eyes!
Lo! in the midst of wat'ry deserts wide,
Behold the EMERALD bursting through the tide,
And bearing on its ever vernal-sod
The monogram of seraph, and of God!

Its name, the sweetest human lips e'er sung,
First trembled on an angel's fervid tongue;
Then chimed Æolian on the evening air,
Lisped by an infant, in its mother prayer;
Next roared in war, with battle's flag unfurl'd;
Now, gemm'd with glory, gather'd through the world!
What name! Perfidious Albion, blush with shame:
It is thy sister's! ERIN IS THE NAME!

Once more the seraph stood before the throne
Of dread Omnipotence, pensive and alone.
"What hast thou done?" Heaven's Monarch sadly sigh'd.
"I dropped the jewel in the flashing tide,"
The seraph said; but saw with vision keen
A mightier angel stalk upon the scene,
Whose voice like grating thunder smote his ear
And taught his soul the mystery of fear.

"Because thy heart with impious pride did swell,
And dared make better what thy God made well;
Because thy hand did fling profanely down
On Earth a jewel wrenched from Heaven's bright crown,
The Isle which thine own fingers did create
Shall reap a blessing and a curse from fate!"

THE CURSE.

Far in the future, as the years roll on,
And all the pagan ages shall have flown;
When Christian virtues, flaming into light,
Shall save the world from superstition's night;
Erin, oppress'd, shall bite the tyrant's heel,
And for a thousand years enslaved shall kneel;
Her sons shall perish in the field and flood,
Her daughters starve in city, wold, and wood;
Her patriots, with their blood, the block shall stain,
Her matrons fly behind the Western main;
Harpies from Albion shall her strength consume,
And thorns and thistles in her gardens bloom.
But, curse of curses thine, O! fated land:
Traitors shall thrive where statesmen ought to stand!

THE BLESSING.

But past her heritage of woe and pain,
A far more blest millennium shall reign;
Seedlings of heroes shall her exiles be,
Where'er they find a home beyond the sea;
Bright paragons of beauty and of truth,
Her maidens all shall dazzle in their youth;
And when age comes, to dim the flashing eye,
Still gems of virtue shall they live, and die!
No braver race shall breathe beneath the sun
Than thine, O! Erin, ere the goal be won.

Wherever man shall battle for the right,
There shall thy sons fall thickest in the fight;
Wherever man shall perish to be free,
There shall thy martyrs foremost be!
And O! when thy redemption is at hand,
Soldiers shall swell thy ranks from every land!
Heroes shall flock in thousands to thy shore,
And swear thy soil is FREE FOREVERMORE!
Then shall thy harp be from the willow torn,
And in yon glitt'ring galaxy be borne!
Then shall the Emerald change its verdant crest,
And blaze a Star co-equal with the rest!

The sentence pass'd, the doomsman felt surprise,
For tears were streaming from the seraph's eyes.

"Weep not for Erin," once again he spoke,
"But for thyself, that did'st her doom provoke;
I bear a message, seraph, unto thee,
As unrelenting in its stern decree.
For endless years it is thy fate to stand,
The chosen guardian of the SHAMROCK land.
Three times, as ages wind their coils away,
Incarnate on yon Island shalt thou stray.

"First as a Saint, in majesty divine,
The world shall know thee by this potent sign:
From yonder soil, where pois'nous reptiles dwell,
Thy voice shall snake and slimy toad expel.
Next as a Martyr, pleading in her cause,
Thy blood shall flow to build up Albion's laws.
Last as a Prophet and a Bard combined,
Rebellion's fires shall mould thy patriot mind.
In that great day, when Briton's strength shall fail,
And all her glories shiver on the gale;
When winged chariots, rushing through the sky,
Shall drop their faggots, blazing as they fly,
Thy form shall tower, a hero 'midst the flames,
And add one more to Erin's deathless names!"

Exiles of Erin! gathered here in state,
Such is the story of your country's fate.
Six thousand years in strife have rolled away,
Since Erin sprang from billowy surf and spray;
In that drear lapse, her sons have never known
One ray of peace to gild her crimson zone.
Cast back your glance athwart the tide of years,
Behold each billow steeped with Erin's tears,
Inspect each drop that swells the mighty flood,
Its purple globules smoke with human blood!

Come with me now, and trace the seraph's path,
That has been trodden since his day of wrath.
Lo! in the year when Attila the Hun
Had half the world in terror overrun,
On Erin's shore there stood a noble youth,
The breath of honor and the torch of truth.
His was the tongue that taught the Celtic soul
Christ was its Saviour, Heaven was its goal!
His was the hand that drove subdued away,
The venom horde that lured but to betray;
His were the feet that sanctified the sod,
Erin redeemed, and gave her back to God!
The gray old Earth can boost no purer fame
Than that whose halos gild ST. PATRICK'S name!

Twelve times the centuries builded up their store
Of plots, rebellions, gibbets, tears and gore;
Twelve times centennial annivers'ries came,
To bless the seraph in St. Patrick's name.
In that long night of treach'ry and gloom,
How many myriads found a martyr's tomb!
Beside the waters of the dashing Rhone
In exile starved the bold and blind TYRONE.
Beneath the glamour of the tyrant's steel
Went out in gloom the soul of great O'NEILL.
What countless thousands, children of her loin,
Sank unanneal'd beneath the bitter Boyne!
What fathers fell, what mothers sued in vain,
In Tredah's walls, on Wexford's gory plain,
When Cromwell's shaven panders slaked their lust,
And Ireton's fiends despoiled the breathless dust!

Still came no seraph, incarnate in man,
To rescue Erin from the bandit clan.
Still sad and lone, she languished in her chains,
That clank'd in chorus o'er her martyrs' manes.

At length, when Freedom's struggle was begun
Across the seas, by conq'ring Washington,
When CURRAN thunder'd, and when GRATTAN spoke,
The guardian seraph from his slumber woke.
Then guilty Norbury from his vengeance fled,
FITZGERALD fought, and glorious WOLFE TONE bled.
Then EMMET rose, to start the battle-cry,
To strike, to plead, to threaten, and to die!
Immortal Emmet! happier in thy doom,
Though uninscrib'd remains thy seraph tomb,
Than the long line of Erin's scepter'd foes,
Whose bones in proud mausoleums repose;
More noble blood through Emmet's pulses rings
Than courses through ten thousand hearts of kings!

Thus has the seraph twice redeem'd his fate,
And roamed a mortal through this low estate;
Again obedient to divine command,
His final incarnation is at hand.

THE PROPHECY.

Scarce shall yon sun _five times_ renew the year,
Ere Erin's guardian Angel shall appear,
Not as a priest, in holy garb arrayed;
Not as a patriot, by his cause betray'd,
Shall he again assume a mortal guise,
And tread the earth, an exile from the skies.
But like the lightning from the welkin hurl'd,
His eye shall light, his step shall shake the world!

Ye sons of Erin! from your slumbers start!
Feel ye no vengeance burning in your heart?
Are ye but scions of degenerate slaves?
Shall tyrants spit upon your fathers' graves?
Is all the life-blood stagnant in your veins?
Love ye no music but the clank of chains?
Hear ye no voices ringing in the air,
That chant in chorus wild, _Prepare_, PREPARE!
Hark! on the winds there comes a prophet sound,--
The blood of Abel crying from the ground,--
Pealing in tones of thunder through the world,
"ARM! ARM! The Flag of Erin is unfurl'd!"

On some bold headland do I seem to stand,
And watch the billows breaking 'gainst the land;
Not in lone rollers do their waters poor,
But the vast ocean rushes to the shore.

So flock in millions sons of honest toil,
From ev'ry country, to their native soil;
Exiles of Erin, driven from her sod,
By foes of justice, mercy, man, and God!
Ærial chariots spread their snowy wings,
And drop torpedoes in the halls of kings.
On every breeze a thousand banners fly,
And Erin's seraph swells the battle-cry:--
"Strike! till the Unicorn shall lose the crown!
Strike! till the Eagle tears the Lion down!
Strike! till proud Albion bows her haughty head!
Strike! for the living and the martyr'd dead!
Strike! for the bones that fill your mothers' graves!
Strike! till your kindred are no longer slaves!
Strike! till fair Freedom on the world shall smile!
For God! for Truth! and FOR THE EMERALD ISLE!"

[Decoration]

[Decoration]

XIII.

_THE EARTH'S HOT CENTER._

The following extracts from the report of the Hon. John Flannagan, United States Consul at Bruges, in Belgium, to the Secretary of State, published in the Washington City _Telegraph_ of a late date, will fully explain what is meant by the "Great Scare in Belgium."

Our extracts are not taken continuously, as the entire document would be too voluminous for our pages. But where breaks appear we have indicated the hiatus in the usual manner by asterisks, or by brief explanations.

GEN. FLANNAGAN'S REPORT.

BRUGES, December 12, 1872.

To THE HON. HAMILTON FISH,
Secretary of State.

SIR: In pursuance of special instructions recently received from
Washington (containing inclosures from Prof. Henry of the
Smithsonian Institute, and Prof. Lovering of Harvard), I
proceeded on Wednesday last to the scene of operations at the
"International Exploring Works," and beg leave to submit the
following circumstantial report:

Before proceeding to detail the actual state of affairs at
Dudzeele, near the line of canal connecting Bruges with the North
Sea, it may not be out of place to furnish a succinct history of
the origin of the explorations out of which the present alarming
events have arisen. It will be remembered by the State Department
that during the short interregnum of the provisional government
of France, under Lamartine and Cavaignac, in 1848, a proposition
was submitted by France to the governments of the United States,
Great Britain and Russia, and which was subsequently extended to
King Leopold of Belgium, to create an "International Board for
Subterranean Exploration" in furtherance of science, and in
order, primarily, to test the truth of the theory of igneous
central fusion, first propounded by Leibnitz, and afterward
embraced by most of contemporary geologists; but also with the
further objects of ascertaining the magnetic condition of the
earth's crust, the variations of the needle at great depths, and
finally to set at rest the doubts of some of the English
mineralogists concerning the permanency of the coal measures,
about which considerable alarm had been felt in all the
manufacturing centers of Europe.

The protocol of a quintuple treaty was finally drawn by Prof.
Henry, of the Smithsonian Institute, and approved by Sir Roderick
Murchison, at that time President of the Royal Society of Great
Britain. To this project Arago lent the weight of his great name,
and Nesselrode affixed the approval of Russia, it being one of
the last official acts performed by that veteran statesman.

The programme called for annual appropriations by each of the
above-named powers of 100,000 francs (about $20,000 each), the
appointment of commissioners and a general superintendent, the
selection of a site for prosecuting the undertaking, and a board
of scientific visitors, consisting of one member from each
country.

It is unnecessary to detail the proceedings for the first few
months after the organization of the commission. Prof. Watson, of
Chicago, the author of a scientific treatise called "Prairie
Geology," was selected by President Fillmore, as the first
representative of the United States; Russia sent Olgokoff;
France, Ango Jeuno; England, Sir Edward Sabine, the present
President of the Royal Society; and Belgium, Dr. Secchi, since so
famous for his spectroscopic observations on the fixed stars.
These gentlemen, after organizing at Paris, spent almost an
entire year in traveling before a site for the scene of
operations was selected. Finally, on the 10th of April, 1849, the
first ground was broken for actual work at Dudzeele, in the
neighborhood of Bruges, in the Kingdom of Belgium.

The considerations which led to the choice of this locality were
the following: First, it was the most central, regarding the
capitals of the parties to the protocol; secondly, it was easy of
access and connected by rail with Brussels, Paris and St.
Petersburg, and by line of steamers with London, being situated
within a short distance of the mouth of the Hond or west Scheldt;
thirdly, and perhaps as the most important consideration of all,
it was the seat of the deepest shaft in the world, namely, the
old salt mine at Dudzeele, which had been worked from the time of
the Romans down to the commencement of the present century, at
which time it was abandoned, principally on account of the
intense heat at the bottom of the excavation, and which could not
be entirely overcome except by the most costly scientific
appliances.

There was still another reason, which, in the estimation of at
least one member of the commission, Prof. Watson, overrode them
all--the exceptional increase of heat with depth, which was its
main characteristic.

The scientific facts upon which this great work was projected,
may be stated as follows: It is the opinion of the principal
modern geologists, based primarily upon the hypothesis of Kant
(that the solar universe was originally an immense mass of
incandescent vapor gradually cooled and hardened after being
thrown off from the grand central body--afterward elaborated by
La Place into the present nebular hypothesis)--that "the globe
was once in a state of igneous fusion, and that as its heated
mass began to cool, an exterior crust was formed, first very
thin, and afterward gradually increasing until it attained its
present thickness, which has been variously estimated at from ten
to two hundred miles. During the process of gradual
refrigeration, some portions of the crust cooled more rapidly
than others, and the pressure on the interior igneous mass being
unequal, the heated matter or lava burst through the thinner
parts, and caused high-peaked mountains; the same cause also
producing all volcanic action." The arguments in favor of this
doctrine are almost innumerable; these are among the most
prominent:

_First._ The form of the earth is just that which an igneous
liquid mass would assume if thrown into an orbit with an axial
revolution similar to that of our earth. Not many years ago
Professor Faraday, assisted by Wheatstone, devised a most
ingenious apparatus by which, in the laboratory of the Royal
Society, he actually was enabled, by injecting a flame into a
vacuum, to exhibit visibly all the phenomena of the formation of
the solar universe, as contended for by La Place and by Humboldt
in his "Cosmos."

_Secondly._ It is perfectly well ascertained that heat increases
with depth, in all subterranean excavations. This is the
invariable rule in mining shafts, and preventive measures must
always be devised and used, by means generally of air apparatus,
to temper the heat as the depth is augmented, else deep mining
would have to be abandoned. The rate of increase has been
variously estimated by different scientists in widely distant
portions of the globe. A few of them may be mentioned at this
place, since it was upon a total miscalculation on this head that
led to the present most deplorable results.

The editor of the _Journal of Science_, in April, 1832,
calculated from results obtained in six of the deepest coal mines
in Durham and Northumberland, the mean rate of increase at one
degree of Fahrenheit for a descent of forty-four English feet.

In this instance it is noticeable that the bulb of the
thermometer was introduced into cavities purposely cut into the
solid rock, at depths varying from two hundred to nine hundred
feet. The Dolcoath mine in Cornwall, as examined by Mr. Fox, at
the depth of thirteen hundred and eighty feet, gave on average
result of four degrees for every seventy-five feet.

Kupffer compared results obtained from the silver mines in
Mexico, Peru and Freiburg, from the salt wells of Saxony, and
from the copper mines in the Caucasus, together with an
examination of the tin mines of Cornwall and the coal mines in
the north of England, and found the average to be at least one
degree of Fahrenheit for every thirty-seven English feet.
Cordier, on the contrary, considers this amount somewhat
overstated and reduces the general average to one degree
Centigrade for every twenty-five metres, or about one degree of
Fahrenheit for every forty-five feet English measure.

_Thirdly._ That the lavas taken from all parts of the world, when
subjected to chemical analysis, indicate that they all proceed
from a common source; and

_Fourthly._ On no other hypothesis can we account for the change
of climate indicated by fossils.

The rate of increase of heat in the Dudzeele shaft was no less
than one degree Fahrenheit for every thirty feet English measure.

At the time of recommencing sinking in the shaft on the 10th of
April, 1849, the perpendicular depth was twenty-three hundred and
seventy feet, the thermometer marking forty-eight degrees
Fahrenheit at the surface; this would give the enormous heat of
one hundred and twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit at the bottom of
the mine. Of course, without ventilation no human being could
long survive in such an atmosphere, and the first operations of
the commission were directed to remedy this inconvenience.

The report then proceeds to give the details of a very successful contrivance for forcing air into the shaft at the greatest depths, only a portion of which do we deem it important to quote, as follows:

The width of the Moer-Vater, or Lieve, at this point, was ten
hundred and eighty yards, and spanned by an old bridge, the stone
piers of which were very near together, having been built by the
emperor Hadrian in the early part of the second century. The rise
of the tide in the North Sea, close at hand, was from fifteen to
eighteen feet, thus producing a current almost as rapid as that
of the Mersey at Liverpool. The commissioners determined to
utilize this force, in preference to the erection of expensive
steam works at the mouth of the mine. A plan was submitted by
Cyrus W. Field, and at once adopted. Turbine wheels were built,
covering the space betwixt each arch, movable, and adapted to the
rise and fall of the tide. Gates were also constructed between
each arch, and a head of water, ranging from ten to fifteen feet
fall, provided for each turn of the tide--both in the ebb and the
flow, so that there should be a continuous motion to the
machinery. Near the mouth of the shaft two large boiler-iron
reservoirs were constructed, capable of holding from one hundred
and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand cubic feet of
compressed air, the average rate of condensation being about two
hundred atmospheres. These reservoirs were properly connected
with the pumping apparatus of the bridge by large cast-iron
mains, so that the supply was continuous, and at an almost
nominal cost. It was by the same power of compressed air that the
tunneling through Mount St. Gothard was effected for the Lyons
and Turin Railway, just completed.

The first operations were to enlarge the shaft so as to form an
opening forty by one hundred feet, English measure. This consumed
the greater part of the year 1849, so that the real work of
sinking was not fairly under way until early in 1850. But from
that period down to the memorable 5th of November, 1872, the
excavation steadily progressed. I neglected to state at the
outset that M. Jean Dusoloy, the state engineer of Belgium, was
appointed General Superintendent, and continued to fill that
important office until he lost his life, on the morning of the
6th of November, the melancholly details of which are hereinafter
fully narrated.

As the deepening progressed the heat of the bottom continued to
increase, but it was soon observed in a different ratio from the
calculations of the experts. After attaining the depth of fifteen
thousand six hundred and fifty feet,--about the height of Mt.
Blanc--which was reached early in 1864, it was noticed, for the
first time, that the laws of temperature and gravitation were
synchronous; that is, that the heat augmented in a ratio
proportioned to the square of the distance from the surface
downward. Hence the increase at great depths bore no relation at
all to the apparently gradual augmentation near the surface. As
early as June, 1868, it became apparent that the sinking, if
carried on at all, would have to be protected by some
atheromatous or adiathermic covering. Professor Tyndall was
applied to, and, at the request of Lord Palmerston, made a vast
number of experiments on non-conducting bodies. As the result of
his labors, he prepared a compound solution about the density of
common white lead, composed of selenite alum and sulphate of
copper, which was laid on three or four thicknesses, first upon
the bodies of the naked miners--for in all deep mines the
operatives work _in puris naturalibus_--and then upon an
oval-shaped cage made of papier mache, with a false bottom,
enclosed within which the miners were enabled to endure the
intense heat for a shift of two hours each day. The drilling was
all done by means of the diamond-pointed instrument, and the
blasting by nitro-glycerine from the outset; so that the
principal labor consisted in shoveling up the debris and keeping
the drill-point _in situ_.

Before proceeding further it may not be improper to enumerate a
few of the more important scientific facts which, up to the 1st
of November of the past year, had been satisfactorily
established. First in importance is the one alluded to above--the
rate of increase of temperature as we descend into the bowels of
the earth. This law, shown above to correspond exactly with the
law of attraction or gravitation, had been entirely overlooked by
all the scientists, living or dead. No one had for a moment
suspected that heat followed the universal law of physics as a
material body ought to do, simply because, from the time of De
Saussure, heat had been regarded only as a force or _vis viva_
and not as a ponderable quality.

But not only was heat found to be subject to the law of inverse
ratio of the square of the distance from the surface, but the
atmosphere itself followed the same invariable rule. Thus, while
we know that water boils at the level of the sea at two hundred
and twelve degrees Fahrenheit, it readily vaporizes at one
hundred and eighty-five degrees on the peak of Teneriffe, only
fifteen thousand feet above that level. This, we know, is owing
to the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere, there being a
heavier burden at the surface than at any height above it. The
rate of decrease above the surface is perfectly regular, being
one degree for every five hundred and ninety feet of ascent. But
the amazing fact was shown that the weight of the atmosphere
increased in a ratio proportioned to the square of the distance
downward.... The magnetic needle also evinced some curious
disturbance, the dip being invariably upward. Its action also was
exceedingly feeble, and the day before the operations ceased it
lost all polarity whatever, and the finest magnet would not
meander from the point of the compass it happened to be left at
for the time being. As Sir Edward Sabine finely said, "The hands
of the magnetic clock stopped." But the activity of the needle
gradually increased as the surface was approached.

All electrical action also ceased, which fully confirms the
theory, of Professor Faraday, that "electricity is a force
generated by the rapid axial revolution of the earth, and that
magnetic attraction in all cases points or operates at right
angles to its current." Hence electricity, from the nature of its
cause, must be superficial.