New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-09-12
THE AyTHRopoLoGICAL SOCIETY.

This association held its congress last week
in Philadelphia, and adjourned to meet next
wear in some Western city. Delegates were
also amounted TO the International Congress
of ArchpOlogists to meet IN 1877, IN Germany
The Great Exhibition has proved not only d
breedlng-place of ideas but of schemes to give
to ideas local habitation and practical WORK; anu
this association may be reckoned as one Oh us
most promising outgrowths. There are many
Jealous and keen antiquarians scattered over the
country, and several active societies composer
of them, notably the Ohio association, but they
might never have united had it not been fcr
the great centralizing of American interests
this Summer in the Exhibition. The average
American, no doubt, thinks their exist
ence at all q matter OF small lmpor-
tance He hurTies past the duu-i0oKlh8
cases scattered through the buildings OF the
Exhibition and filed with ancient pottery,
copper gorgets, obsidian shuttlcs, and arrow
heads, to tho more attractive display OF iaces
and china made yesterday. The one word
"JpdIansn solves for him the problems OF the
mysterious mounds which dot the surface OF
the country by the tens of thousands, of their
builders, and their contents. He is apt too, TO
feel a little ashamed of the youth OF his own
country in the face of older nations; there is
an air of vulgar newness which he wouid IAN
be rid of in his magnificent machinery, his rich
but gaudy display. lie is, III fact, Ignorant
that beneath the surface of the country Is
slbstratum of relics which tell of civilization
older than that of Rome or Greece, OF an lntcih-
cent race vast in numbers who opened the cop
per mines and erected mighty structures which
dwarf both as to labor and time the pyramids
of Egypt--l people totally separate in temper
oment, character. and habit from the known
Indian tribes.
We say nothing Of the problem OF the
antiquity of the race suggested by the
Dreseuce of woven cloth below the relics
of the fossil elephant. or the skull of the man
of Calayeras; our friends the Anthropologists
will find the age of man and the Mosaic ac-
connt nuts hard enough TO crack in the soil
tude and hard study of their researches; they
certainly are not 10 be settled in the Drler no.
tice OF daily newspaper. But the most care
less observer must see the Importance OF de-
ciphering il possible the secret OF the history
of those races who built the great rock clues
in Colorado and Arizona, the fortified camps
ia this State, or erected the vast tnmull III
the Mississippi with q cost OF labor Whch
NAV have required millions of men for many
wears. These remains Of a long extinct peo-
pie are rapidly being destroyed through ig-
norauce of their meaning. The pioneer, rail-
road laborer, and farmer are necessarily tho
first TO unearth all relics, and the only means
to insure their safety from destruction is to
make public the fact that the crumbling pot
or skull is Of paramount importance to some
body. Such is the object of the present asso-
citation. It's meetings and tho statement OF
its work from time TO time will bring to the
knowledge of the people the value of their
own possessions in antiquarian treasures as
nothing else can do.