Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-11-08

fore, as the American public was led to
believe. Something did happen to the
Obelisk at the latter date, however,
viz, its removal from the Temple of
ANEW. at Heliopolis. to the temple of
C@sariem, at Alexandra, by order of
the conqueror Augustus Caesar, and in
the eighth year of his reign.
What long and wonderful story this
Obelisk could tell ! More than fifteen
centuries before the Lord. Jesus Christ
was born, there reigned in Egypt one of
its greatest kings, Thothmes. the second
of that title. He was such brave and
successful warrior that no nation of
either Africa or. Asia could stand against
him. He brought even the far off King
of Ninevah into subsection, and COM
PEELED him to pay heavy tribute. He
was also a noted hunter, and painting
shows him in the act of slaughtering
l20 elephants. So proud became
Thothmes through his unbroken career
of successes, that he had his name en-
graved in one of the temples as "The
living good god. lord of the upper and
lower world, the lord of diadems % At
his order hundreds of men were set to
hew two Obelisks out of the hard gran
ite rocks at Syene, IN Southern Egypt,
near where the Nile dashes through the
cataracts. He was determined that the
memory of his victories and of his great
ness should be preserved forever on
these pillars of stone. After the patient
labor of many months the huge Mono
liths lay finally separated from the bed
rock in the quarry. They were then
transported a distance of 500 miles to
Heliopolis, or On, the City of the Sun,
near the Delta of the Nile. So the
stone was moved across inclined plat
forms on raft, which had been brought
to the edge of the quarry, and then it
was foated down the Nile during an in
undation. On its arrival the granite
was carefully polished. Next the fig
ures and inscriptions were skillfully in
scribed. yet very slowly, on account of
,k, Ho,1-oo, III H., e =
Obelisk was then set within a groove in
the pedestal, and the entire monument
was raised to the perpendicular by
building up ridge of earth beneath it.
The Obelisk which now lies in the
hold of the Dessong awaiting the decis-
Ion of the Central Park Commissioner
as to the exact site on which it shall
stand, together with its mate, stood as
guardian deities, before the grand en-
trance of the Temple of the Sun at On.
They were symbols of the rays of the
rising sun, as the pyramids to the west
ward were of the slanting or setting
rays. In that idolatrous age. they were
even worshipped as divine images, and
oblations were offered to them. These
monuments may have been standing at
On, when Joseph became Vizier over
Egypt, and was welded to a daughter
of the priest of On. 1t is hardly to be
doubted, however, that they were in
their place when Moses was being
schooled sin all the learning of the
Egyptians, and that he may have often
looked upon their faces. While the He.
brews were sinking from free sheperd
life into bondage In Egypt. another
great and vain-glorious monarch arose.
This was Rameses H., pompous, crueI
king, as his own inscriptions show. He
was so boastful that he often engraved
praises of himself on the monuments oil
earlier kings, and thus it came that his
deeds are mentioned on the Obelisks
1t is this Rameses who compelled the
children of Israel to build him treasure
cities of brick as the Bible records
The plaques and the Exodus of Israe
took place under the reign of his weak
er son, Manephtha.
After the Romans had conquered
Egypt, centuries later, these two Obe
lisks were removed from On to the cit,
of Alexandria, on the coast. They wer
then set up before the new temple erect
ed for the worship of the Caesar of Rom
the then soveign of the world. Thi
was the reign of the Emperor Augustus
1900 years ago, and shortly after tn
{ death of Cleopatra, the last Queen o
Egypt. In after years the Egyptian
, gave currency to tradition that sh
had conveyed these monoliths to thei
new station, and so it chanced that the,
/ have been ever since known as Cleopa
; tra's Needles. In lapse of centuries on
3 of these Obelisks fell PROSTATE, and tina
| is the one which now adorns the Thame
Embankment, the other being the on
SO successfully brought to this countr
by Captain Gorringe. This Needle hs
: stood Greet throughout the entire perio
of the Christian era, though part {
r its base has gradually worn away. an
e the column has required to be kept i
Y position by inserting loose stones. Tt
: inscriptions on the east and south sid,
: have also been somewhat defaced, eitl
er by the action of the sea breeze, or tt
steady cutting by winds laden with sar