Pliny Durant & The Ten Commandments, 1865

Now visiting in North Carolina, where I've come across a set of cards originally given to one Pliny Durant in 1865. This one depicts a coded version of "[THE] FIFTH COMMANDMENT." The rest of the text reads: "honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

The text of the inscription: "Pliny Durant / Presented to him for the best recitation of the ten commandments in his class in long[?] S[?] School / F. N. Wind[?] / Sup't [Superintendent] / St. Charles [Illinois] / Jan. 1, 1865." 

Upon adulthood, Pliny Durant (1854-1928] -- most probably named after the Roman administrator and writer -- wrote or edited several books.

According to *this* site, St. Charles, Illinois (forty miles or so west of Chicago) was the first town in Illinois to build a public school (in 1854). The "S" above may refer to a "Subscription" school.

SIXTH COMMANDMENT: packed with symbolism, and the reminder -- "Thou shalt not kill." This card, part of the set given to Pliny Durant, was printed during the American Civil War, or War of the Rebellion as it was often called at the time. More than 600,000 people were killed in the course of it, or died of related disease. Even more were permanently maimed and traumatized from this American vs. American conflict. 

On this Nagasaki Remembrance Day, adieu. Some 74,000 people were killed in the first flash of an American atomic device code-named "Fat Man" on this date in 1945, in Nagasaki. Many times that number died in the aftermath, mostly Japanese, but also Koreans, Chinese, and people originally from other lands, too.    

Today's Rune: Journey.