Havana Township

Havana Township

Havana is beautifully situated on the east bank of the Illinois river, and is the county seat of the county. The situation is somewhat elevated, perhaps an average of forty feet above the river. It contains many fine residences and pleasant homes, and more than ordinary taste is exhibited in the improvement and ornamentation of grounds.

The town contains, as near as we can estimate in the absence of precise figures, 3,000 inhabitants. During the past year has erected a fine school edifice on the bluff east of the court house, at an expense of nearly $30,000, an improvement of which our citizens are justly proud. In addition to this main central school house, there are smaller houses for the primary schools in both the north and south ends of the town.

The churches are as follows: The Methodist Episcopal church, corner of Main and Broadway, is a good, plain house, and the place of worship of one of the oldest societies in the city. Being centrally located, and of easy access, it is as well attended as any. The Reformed church is located on the second block south of the M. E. church; a neat, well finished house, of unpretentious appearance, erected at a cost of about $7,000.

The Lutheran church, on the bluff northeast of the court house, is still smaller, though the average attendance is larger than in the two preceding. It is as old, if not the oldest organization in the city, and its membership is the wealthiest of any. A neat parsonage is attached to their grounds, and their pastor has a pleasant home.

In the northern part of town is the Catholic church, a neat, commodious frame building, as are all the others, very tastefully finished. This society has a large membership, and some of the most substantial citizens of town and country are included in its numbers. All the foregoing churches have pastors in charge, and regular services, though .the minister of the Reformed church receives his salary from the Board of Domestic Missions of that church in the East.

The Baptist church is a neat frame building, near the southwest corner of the public square. The membership is few in number, and without a minister at this time.

Our Swedish citizens, of whom there are about fifty, are making efforts to hold religious services in their own language, and a minister of that nationality has recently visited them several times for that purpose. A word in reference to our Swedish population. Though not wealthy, they are in fair circumstances, and are rightly ranked among our most valuable citizens. Honest, industrious, temperate and reliable is the reference we must make to them, and a personal acquaintance with each enables us to know " whereof we affirm."

Mechanics

We have a large number of mechanics, in all the various trades usually pursued in inland towns. Carpenters, machinists, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, painters, jewelers, printers, tinners, etc., etc., that are equaled by few and excelled by none. Strangers have remarked to the writer, in regard to some of our mechanics, whose abilities they had tested, that they regard them as very superior, indeed. It is ever our pleasure to give honor to whom honor is due, and we hold it as a fundamental principle of a democratic government, that the masses, the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, either in common or skilled labor, is the bulwark and stay, the anchor and safety, of the institutions of our country. Hence the value of the free school system in our country, where the property is taxed for the education of the poor man's children. With few exceptions, the best minds in America have sprung from the laboring classes, and been educated in the common schools. More of this under another heading.

years later, or 1835, a town was laid out - O. M. Ross, proprietor. The second family was named Myers, and the third was the Krebaum family, some of the members of which have been identified with the public and business interests of this city and county down to the present day.

The details of the early settlement of Havana are so fully set forth in the biographies of Pulaski Scovil, A. W. Kemp, N. J. Rockwell, O. E. Foster, J. H. Neteler, and others, that a repetition here would be a work of superogation. In lieu there of, we will refer the reader to the biographies above named, to the extracts from early newspapers, and the railroad department.

Havana contains many substantial business houses, warehouses, steam elevators, and three hotels ; and her trade, though not as flourishing as many towns, has had a slow, healthful growth. In 1856 there was no brick building in Havana. In 1857 J. H. & D. P. Hole built the first brick store, and in the same year Wm. Walker built the first brick dwelling.

Havana's improvement in trade and the e-rection of new buildings, has been equally slow. A reason for this is readily seen in her manner of doing business. Manufactures of various kinds have been undertaken here and failed for the want of patronage, and from being driven out by competitive articles being brought in and sold at such rates that an honest workman could not compete with shoddy articles, and from a determination of the people to buy nothing at home that could be shipped here from abroad. This system of business has been felt here in every department of trade. We aim to state facts and facts only, and the preceding we would gladly have omitted had candor allowed it to have been done.

No city in our knowledge can claim more beautifully laid out or better improved streets than Havana. All are regular and crossing each other at right-angles, corresponding to the four cardinal points of the compass, and beautifully ornamented with trees. Our town viewed from some of the fine elevations within its limits, presents the appearance of a densely peopled forest, many of the buildings being entirely obscured by trees. Among the many fine improvements we can name, are the residences of Adolph Krebaum, R. R. Simmons, C. G. Krebaum, F. II. Cappel, L. Dearborn, S. C. Conwell, and others.

all were desirous that an enjoyable time should be the order of the day, with our guests who might favor us with their presenee on that occasion. To this end, many of the buildings were ornamented with shrubbery and flags ; wreathes and arches spanned the streets.

The skies brightened, and the faces of our people partook of the same blessing. Wagons and carriages brought their hundreds from the country, and the later trains brought other hundreds.

A band of music enlivened the scene. At the park, all was life and enjoyment. A tall liberty pole, with the national emblem, graced the summit of the mound in the park. The tables were being loaded with the abundant supply of food for the assembling mass.

To omit a reference to the decorations of the engines and the passenger coaches would be unjust. The employees of the P., P. & J. road took especial pains to make their display of evergreens, wreaths and bouquets tasteful, while hundreds of banners were attached to all trains. A passenger coach on the fast express, Mr. McSherry, conductor, was especially tasteful. The inside of the coach was a profusion of wreaths, bouquets, evergreens, flags, etc., etc., commendable alike to the taste and patriotism of this gentlemanly conductor, who spared no expense to make it attractive.

The proceedings at the speakers1 stand were opened by the president of the day, in a few introductory remarks, followed by a brief prayer by the chaplain. The reading of the Declaration of Independence, by Judge J. A. Mallory, was preceded by a few well timed remarks by the Judge that were as happily conceived as they were beautiful in their expression.

The reading was followed by an oration by Prof. Williams, of Wabash College, Indiana. For conception, delivery, matter, language, intonation, etc., we have heard few to excel it. Space forbids even a synopsis.

Atter the speaking, ample justice was done to the large supply of viands. All had plenty. The five thousand were fed, not with five loaves and two fishes, but with five hundred loaves, eight hun-

S6 History Of Mason County

The old squatter sovereignty doctrine was amply illustrated during the afternoon, to- wit: that every body should enjoy themselves as their taste and inclinations dictated, and most thoroughly and effectuallv was that done.

In the evening came the display of fire-works, but these were superceded and displaced by a most magnificent display of the pvrotechnics of the heavens, and the booming of the artillery of the skies. The vivid lightning blaze, and the reverbration of nature's heaviest ordnance continued most of the night, accompanied by the extraordinary rainfall of three and one-half inches of water.

We hazard the opinion that the 4th will be long remembered by those who partook in these centennial festivities, and as time rolls on into the second century of our National' existence, ushered in this dav, it will be with gratification and great satisfaction, that we can all look back on our participation in the celebration of July 4th, 1876.

Meteorological

I append an abstract of Meteorological observations, taken in Havana, on latitude forty, longitude ninety, above the sea level four hundred and seventy-five feet, by the author of this work, who is observer for the Signal Service of the United States Army:

The annexed table exhibits the annual aqueous precipitation at the several points named, from observations taken during the various lengths of time, ranging from one to eighteen years. By comparing the amount of actual rainfall, the latitude, the elevation, the proximity to lakes and rivers, or the per cent, of timber in the vicinity of the point of observation, we have been unable to fix any rule or cause for the variableness of amounts.

There may, however, be a slight observance of increased precipitation in the line of extended river bottoms covered with timber. From our own point of observation we have abundant reason for arriving at this conclusion. Havana is situated on a high, sandy bluff, on the east bank of the Illinois river, averaging about seventy feet above the river. The west bank of the river is low bottom lands, covered with timber, and about an average of four miles wide, and they are bounded on the west by the wooded bluffs of Fulton county.

About twenty miles south of this point the Illinois river receives the Sangamon river from the northeast, forming the southeastern boundary of Mason county. The bluffs and bottoms of the Sangamon are similar in structure and extent to those of the Illinois. After a residence of eighteen years at this point, and noting the rainfall carefully on my meteorological record, I am fully convinced that our summer rains, usually from the southwest, divide at the confluence of these rivers, and timber belts that fringe their shores, leaving the central portion of the county with much less rainfall than would be shown by observations taken in a central line of the timber belts:

Height above the sea of several localities in Illinois, taken by the writer at the solicitation of Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, for that institution :

The greatest amount of rainfall during any one month was June, 1872, when the enormous amount of 9.S3 inches fell, and nearly all of that excessive amount during the first six days of the month. The least amount was in October, 1872, and in August, 1873, when 0.S4 and 0.S9 of an inch respectively fell. The maximum temperature for August, 1S73, was 103 deg., and the maximum for October, 1872, was 86 deg. The mean temperature for August, 1S73, was 75^2 deg., and for October, 1S72, it was 50 deg. These temperatures, compared with the corresponding months of other years, show no excessive degrees of temperature over the same month, when the amount of rainfall was greater or of an average amount. [See table.]

My record shows, however, considerable cloudiness, and consequentl}^ an obstruction of sunlight, with the natural result, as a consequence, of a less generation of heat, as set forth and illustrated in a succeeding part of my subject. Thirty-eight and three-tenths inches is the average rainfall for a group of stations in this State, whose aggregate terms of observation amount to ninety-nine years. Every increase in the temperature of the atmosphere of 27 deg. doubles its capacity to hold moisture, consequently those localities most subject to frequent changes of temperature are liable to the most rainfall, more, also, in a southerly than in a northerly locality, because the high temperature makes the atmosphere capable of a larger amount of moisture, Temperatures are less changeable in the vicinities of the great lakes than farther inland, consequently the aqueous precipitation is more uniform in Northern than Central Illinois. I append, from reliable sources, some of the most remarkable temperatures of the earth, that the reader can compare his own locality with that of his more or less favored neighbor.

Thibet, in Central Asia, has valleys between her snow-capped mountains where they endure a heat of 150 deg. Fahrenheit; Senegal, in South Africa, and Gaudaloupe, in the West Indies, 130 deg.; the Desert of Sahara, 130 deg. during the day and extremely cool nights; Persia, 126 deg.; Calcutta and the Delta of the Gan- ges and Central America, 120 deg. is the limit. In the jungles of Afghanistan and the deserts of Egypt, no deg.; Cape Colony, in Africa, Greece in Europe, Utah in America, 105 deg. is the maximum; Arabia, 105 deg.; and Montreal and Quebec endure the same summer temperature. New York, Spain, Upper India, Canton in China, Island of Jamaica and the Southern United States, 100 deg.; Sierra Leone, in Africa, Guinea, in South America, and the Island of Ceylon, 93 deg.; France, St. Petersburg, Denmark, Belgium, Burmah, Shanghai, .Sandwich Islands, Buenos Ayres and Trinidad, 90 deg. ; Nova Scotia, S7 deg.; England, Ireland, Sicily, Siam and Peru, 85 deg.; Pekin, in China, and Portugal So deg.; Liberia, 77 deg.; Australia, Scotland, Italy, Venezuela, and Maderia, 74 deg.; Prussia and New Zealand, 70 deg. ; Switzerland and Hungary, 67 deg.; Bavaria, Sweden, Northern Liberia, Tasmania and Moscow, 65 deg. ; Norway, Greenland and New Foundland, 60 deg.; Central Scotland, Orkney Isles, Patagonia and Falkland Islands, 50 deg.; Iceland, 45 deg.; Nova Zembla, the last we shall note, whose extreme summer heat 'rarely comes above freezing point, or 34 deg. maximum. In all this range of territory, climate and temperature, wherever the foot of man hath trod, or eye could reach, from the scorching vales of Thibet to the inhospitable regions of Nova Zembla, in the deserts of Sahara, or the perpetual snows of Greenland and Labrador, the scenery is relieved and brightened by the growth of indigenous plants and flowers, cheering the wanderer in the desert, and the inhabitant of the snow hut, casting beauty and fragrance on the sand or on the snows, varying their form to suit their situation, from the fleshy prickly Cactii of Mexico, to the Algea tribe that redden the polar snows.

Light And Heat

In treating of this branch of the subject in connection with Meteorology, it will be our aim to give correct views of the nature of this all-prevailing and life-sustaining principle of light and heat, which leads, also, to the discovery of a wide and important set of truths, all tending to the conclusion that these great agencies, in connection with electricity and magnetism, " which uphold life and produce such collossal changes on our globe, are but expressions in different language of the One Great Power."

These various forms of energy are mutually convertible, and we can express the terms of each in the terms of any other. Dr. Tyndall, in considering the important influence exerted by solar radiation on the phenonema of life, says: "Each drop of rain or flake of snow, each mountain, streamlet or brimming river, owes its existence to the sun's rays. It is by the sun's rays that the waters of the ocean are lifted in the form of vapor in the air, and it is by the condensation of this atmospheric moisture that every drop of running water on the earth's surface is formed. The balmy breeze and the devastating tornado are alike the product of the changes of atmospheric temperature, while the gradual crumbling of the everlasting hills, and the consequent formation of stratified rocks are sublime illustrations of the might of the actions which, during geological ages, the sun has poured out on the earth. Nor is this influence confined to the inorganic world; no plant can grow, no animal exist, without the vivifying influence of the sun's rays. The animal derives his store of energy from the plant necessary for the maintenance of life, from the force locked up in the vegetable on which it feeds. The food of the animal undergoes combustion or oxydization in the bod)', and the heat thereby evolved is converted into mechanical energy, so that the same laws which regulate the labor of animals, regulate the work done by the steam engine supplied with fuel. The animal draws its stores of energy from the plant, and where does the plant obtain the supply necessary for its growth?" " The source of power in the plant is found in the sun's rays. It is the sun's rays that enables the plant to grow; for the growth of the plant consists, chemically, of a decomposition or splitting up of the carbonic acid gas which exists in the air, into its simplest constituents, the carbon assimilated for the building up of the vegetable tissues and the oxygen sent back into the air for the subsequent use of animals. To effect this separation of carbon and oxygen, a very large expenditure of force is necessary, and this energy is supplied by the sunlight."

How beautifully harmonious the discoveries of modern science with the profound depths of revealed truth, and how obtuse is man's apprehension of these truths, till forced upon a slow-to-beconvinced judgment by the practical deductions of science. "And God said, let there be light, and there was light; and God saw the light that it was good, and God called the light day, and the darkness (or absence of light) He called night." "And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit of its kind, whose seed is in itself." "And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night." "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." The atmosphere surrounding the globe had been called into existence - its constituent elements as they now exist. Light was created to generate heat that vegetation might clothe the-earth.

After vegetation, and next in order, there "went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." The laws of nature, as constituted, made any other order of creation impossible. Light must combine with the elements of the atmosphere before the vegetable creation could exist. The vegetable, in connection with air, light and heat (heat being a result of air and light), must exist before vegetable growth could occur or animals inhabit the earth; and the consequent rainfall recorded in our last quotation is the inevitable result of the action of heat on the aqueous element. There seems to exist more largely those elements of the atmosphere that combined with light to form heat in the lower stratas - more in the deep valleys than on higher tablelands, or on the hills, and not existing at all above the snow line; hence, snow does not melt in the full sunlight of meridian day even under a tropical sun. On the Andes the snow line varies from 14,000 to 17,000 feet. On the mountains of Colorado, snow begins at 12,000 and increases in quantity to the extreme height of the tallest peaks, or 14,250 feet, though in August the extreme heat of the deep valleys rises up, when the light of the sun is withdrawn, and the snow is melted to nearly or quite the extreme height.

In the ocean, water and salt are mixed together most intimately, yet the heat raises the water through the atmosphere and leaves the salt. Every increase of twenty-seven degrees of temperature doubles the capacity of the atmosphere for holding moisture; consequently, the large amount of rain at the points of greatest heat and evaporation, and the distribution and precipitation of rain from greatly heated localities to colder ones by the action of the winds, and by other causes, and precipitated by counter-currents of cold air.

Influence Of Vegetation

By respiration, putrefaction, etc., air is rendered unfit to support animal life, and, in extreme cases, will not support it. By the constant operation of the corrupting influences, the whole atmosphere would become impure, were there no restoring causes, and would come at length to be deprived of the necessary degree of purity. Some of the restoring causes have been discovered, and their efficacy ascertained by experiment. So far as these discoveries have proceeded, they open up to us a beautiful and wonderful economy. Vegetation proves to be the most efficient of these restoring influences. A branch of mint corked up in a small portion of foul air, and placed in the light, renders it soon capable of supporting life or flame.

Here, therefore, is a constant circulation of benefits between the two great provinces of organized nature. The plant purifies what the animal poisoned, and in return the poisoned or contaminated air is more than ordinarily nutritious to the plant; but it must be remembered that the renovating, purifying influence exerted by growing vegetation on the atmosphere, can only be done under the influence of light, and ceases altogether in the night, or if the light of the sun be withdrawn. This is a general characteristic of all plants; for, with all their manifold diversities of form and appearance, they are all constructed on the same general plan, " and are living witnesses and illustrations of one and the same plan of creative wisdom in the vegetable world." Plants work only under the influence of light. "There is conversion by the vegetable of foreign dead mineral matter into its own living substance, or inorganic matter, capable of becoming living substance." To do this is the peculiar office of the plant, "and it is done by the plant by the action of its green parts only, and by them only under the in- power which enables the living plant to originate these peculiar chemical combinations to organize matter into forms which alone are capable of being endued with life." The process is all the same, whether the plant is making a direct immediate growth or laying up material for future use. The principal ingredient laid up by plants is starch, in the form of minute grains in the cells of the plant. Some plants make these accumulations in the ro as the parsnip and the carrot; some in shoots or underground growths, for instance, the potato, while the onion and lily deposit in the embryo leaves, and the cactus family generally in their fleshy leaves and stems with green coverings, and only under the influence of light.

Origin Of Heat

Heat is generated in various ways, by friction, combustion, oxvdization, concussion, etc.; but a combination of light with one or more of the constituents of the atmosphere is the grand source from which this indispensable combination is derived. An able scientist in Europe says, "If our entire system were pure coal, the combustion of the whole of it would furnish but one three thousand five hundredth part of the amount needed,'' consequently we see the utter impossibility of receiving the amount of heat necessary from the sun, as well as the impossibility of the sun furnishing us the adequate supply. As stated in another part of this essay, the snow on high mountains, even in the tropics, docs not melt above a certain line. The deep valleys become extremely hot, though receiving less sunshine than the more elevated positions.

The valleys in Thibet, in Asia, endure a temperature of 1 ^o du-j;. E. in the shade during the day, and as the sunlight is withdrawn the warm air rises up, and the cold, dense atmosphere from the mountains covered with snow, settles in its stead, the inhabitants, who were during the day almost in the condition of the Hebrew children, now find it necessary to retire to rest under thick coverings.

Another proof that heat does not emanate from the sun is found in the experience of every green-house man and florist. The temperature is raised to a high degree under his glass, and there it seems to be imprisoned, being unable to return, although it apparently came in through that dense medium unobstructed. The facts of the case divest the subject of all mystery. These are, that the sunlight penetrates the glass, and the heat is formed beneath by a union of the light with some element or elements of the air, and instead of being a prisoner in confinement, it is simply an occupant of the place where it first had an existence in its present form. The eye in its complex and multifarious forms can only be the recipient of light, and cannot endure heat, hence it receives light only. The lenses of the telescope and the human eye bear a complete resemblance to each other in their figure, their position, and in their power over the rays of light, viz : in bringing each pencil of light to a point at the right distance from the lens, to-wit : in the eye at the exact place where the membrane is spread to receive it. Two things were wanted to the eye that were not to the telescope, at least to the same degree, and these were the adaptation of the organ to different degrees of light, and to the vast diversity of distance at which objects are viewed with the naked eye, as from a few inches to many miles. These difficulties are not presented to the maker of the telescope. He wants all the light obtainable, and never directs his instrument to objects near at hand. In the eye both cases are provided for, and for the purpose of providing for it a subtle and appropriate mechanism is introduced to exclude the excess of light when it is excessive; and to render objects visible under obscurer degrees of it, the hole or aperture of the eye is so formed as to contract or dilate for the purpose of admitting a greater or less number of rays at the same time. The chamber of the eye is a camera obscura which, when the light is small, can enlarge its opening, and when too strong can contract it without any other aid than its own machinery, which machinery is operated by the light itself and self-regulating.

Inasmuch as this organ has to operate under so many different circumstances, with strong and weak degrees of light upon their objects near and remote, and these differences demanded, according to the laws by which the transmission of light is regulated, a corresponding diversity of structure through which the light passes, that they be larger or less, the lenses rounder or flatter, or that their distances from the tablet on which the picture is delineated should be shortened or lengthened. This being the case, and the difficulty to which the eye was adapted, we find its several parts capable of the most sudden changes, and mechanical and artificial apparatus provided to produce these changes. These changes are made, this complex machinery is operated on by the action of light itself, which is another of its wonderful properties and adaptations of means to ends. When light enters the eye it falls on a dark background, and hence does not generate heat, as though reflected from a light surface in the air. The tropical sun shining on the dark colored races of the tropics is another illustration of the same thing. The negro will endure more heat than the light colored races, though physically less robust than the average inhabitant of the temperate zone. The eyes of birds possess the powers and properties described in the human eye to a more marked degree, as their necessities require it to be so.

The eyes of fishes compared with terrestrial animals exhibit distinctions of structure adapted to their state and element. The iris in the eyes of fishes do not admit of contraction or expansion. This is a great difference, and the reason is probably that the diminished light in the water is never too strong for the retina. Some interesting differences, also, in the eyes of the different varieties of fishes might be interesting, but enough has been said to illustrate this part of the subject.

Conclusion

One of the difficulties with which the popular scientist has to contend with, is, that presenting his subject in such a form as to come home to his readers in its true relations, not liable to be misunderstood, and to avoid painting one side of the picture too forciblv, and not losing the harmony of the whole. We would here remind the reader that much as science can do, it cannot explain everything; that although we may demonstrate that the body is built up by the solar rays, there are mysteries connected with life, animal and vegetable, towards the explanation of which science offers no clue whatever. It cannot explain the nature of that silent power that bids the mighty oak spring from an acorn, or builds from the simplest single cell the multiform differences of animal life. Could it do this it would give us truer views of nature's infinitude and man's littleness, expressed by Newton when he said : " To myself I seem to be as a child playing by the sea shore, while the great ocean of truth lies unexplored before me." On the agreement of science and revelation the asserted divinity of Christ itself is on trial. If the religion which he established falls short of universal acceptance ; if it encounters civilization superior to it; if pi-actical demonstrations of scientific facts that are incontrovertible, be against it, then the prententions of its author are brought to naught.

" We will not here inquire if there be anything inherent in the system, or in its past history, prophetic of universal dominion," but so digress as to inquire if there are disagreements between science and revelation. The system of truth revealed to us in the book of nature and the book of revelation, both emanating from the same Great Author, cannot conflict and both be true, hence disagreement is rendered an impossibility. Empires like China and Japan, embracing more than one-third of the population of the globe, resist alike the advancement of science and Christianity. Idolatry and stolid ignorance alike resist the march of truth. Millions of men are idolators, other millions followers of Mohammed, and still millions more the worshippers of Bramah and Budah; but a single christian nation outweighs them all. "Let there be light," was spoken by the Creator before the dawn of creation's morn, and science has continued to re-echo that grand acclaim to the teeming millions who people this vast globe. The lights of science are burning brightly on the broad domain of our own favored land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Alaska to Panama; in the isles' of the ocean, and in the darkest regions of Paganism, doors have been opened to our science, our commerce and our language. About the time the reformation dawned on the darkness of Europe, the polarity of the compass was discovered, and spread the light with the expanding commerce of the nations. Then came the printing press, "every pull of which casts rays of light athwart the gloom," and the world is learning the sciences that speak just what the bible speaks. No fact recorded by the sacred historians has been so favorite a subject of cavil as the Mosaic account of creation, before quoted. The objectors fail to remember that Moses described these things optically and not physically. Modern science proves that the phenomena of the heavenly bodies are not at all contradictory to the Mosaic history. Modern opposers of revelation have objected that Moses talks of light before there was a sun, and calls the moon a great light, when every one knows it to be an opaque body. But Moses seems to have known what modern science did not until very lately discover, and therefore does not call either sun or moon a great light, but luminaries or light-bearers. Will the objectors look into their Greek, Hebrew or Latin bibles, and their faith will be increased in reference to Moses' attainments in science. Though the moon is not a light itself, yet is that planet a light in its effects, as it reflects the light ot the sun to us.

But the sun and the moon are with propriety called great, not as being absolutely greater than all other stars or planets, but because they appear greater to us, and are of greater consequence and use in the world. And now, after all the philosophy and improvements in astronomy, we still speak of the light of the moon, and the rising and setting of the sun. The man who in a moral, theological or historical discourse should use any other language, would only render himself ridiculous. Hence we say that Moses' description of creation in Genesis is not in conflict with science in its best discoveries, but confirms it; that he speaks optically and not physically; and that we place implicit and impartially in detail, the utmost reliance on the Mosaic record as a proof of our position on the origin of light, the generation of heat, cause of evaporation and its effect, the philosophy of vegetable life and plant growth, and the consequent assimilation of force in the animal kingdom.

Anciently the sciences were locked up in the hands of the priesthood, and unknown to the masses, and hence not reduced to the practical wants of life.

To do so was spoken of as degrading science. Not so in modern times; the masses are educated, and in advance of the priesthood in all the literary, scientific and mechanical progress of the age. And I believe that to-day the heaviest drawbacks, the most ponderous dead weights that militate against the progress and advancement of the light that blazes in all its effulgence with more than meridian splendor from the midday sky of the nineteenth century, is to be found in the bigotry and lack of education and of general intelligence of the priesthood. We do not assert this in the spirit of faultfinding opposition, but with regret that such a state of affairs should exist in our country; and the world hopes and expects their speedy removal, by a wider diffusion of the truths of science and the bible.

To a resident of the slow moving, staid and close calculating Eastern States it is not easy to comprehend the springing into a healthful existence in the brief space of a few years, of an active, thriving, energetic business town of over two thousand inhabitants, with its tall church spires, its noble school building, its extensive and substantial business blocks, its banks, its printing offices, grain elevators and commodious warehouses, its long lines of railroads, the best in the State, in fact, all the elements and facilities of a first class business town, where but a few brief years ago the writer hereof has crossed those prairies on horseback, and frequently a house of the pioneer was not in sight, and when nearing the place where Mason City now stands, with her tall spires pointing high and glistening in the sunshine, we have ridden four to six miles without seeing a human habitation. Yet, such has been the history of this pleasant city. Its past is not only thus pleasant to retrospect, but it needs no prophet's ken, to truthfully say that "it doth not yet appear what it shall be," in even the near future.

About twenty-four years ago, what is now the site of Mason City, was government land, and was entered in 1849 by James Maloney, who afterwards conveyed it to George Straut. Mr. Straut conveyed portions of the tract to various parties, who subsequently re-conveyed to him, and in the autumn of 1857 rie employed E. Z. Hunt to survey the original plat of the