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REMINISCENCES 85

a good deal about the superior knowledge of the ancients ; about "Damascus blades," as sharp as a razor, that would cut the hardest substances without dulling; about malleable glass that would bend ; about magnifying glasses that gave them better knowledge of astronomy and the planets than we have ; about the pyramids, composed of immense stones trans- ported long distances and hoisted by machinery much more powerful than any which we now have ; about railroads found in abandoned mines; about mummies preserved for thousands of years by processes not now known to the human race, after "developing" for thousands of years. He did not claim that the masses were then as intelligent as they are now, for they were not educated, but that the educated people then had more and higher knowledge than the same class of people have now. He seemed to believe that our universities and scientists have only found out a little of what their ancestors knew.

In a long letter dated at Washington February 28, 1868, and printed in the State Journal at Eugene April 11, I de- scribed one of the most exciting periods in the history of the United States. A few lines are as follows :

"Sunday, the 23d of February, was a day of excitement in Washington. There has been nothing like it since the close of the war. * * * Monday came, and a vast crowd of people flocked to the capitol. A little after 8 o'clock every seat in the gallery of the house was taken, and by 10 o'clock, when the session opened, two hours earlier than usual, the vast building was alive with people. They swept through every corridor and passage from the first to the third story. The rotunda was full, the corridors around the galleries were blockaded, and the passage on the lower floor, extending the full length of the building, 750 feet, presented the appear- ance of a crowded thoroughfare." * * *

Then followed nearly two columns describing the debate in the House over the impeachment resolution, charging Presi- dent Andrew Johnson with high crimes and misdemeanors, which had been introduced into the 39th Congress by Ashley of Ohio. A great many five-minute speeches were delivered.