The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-28
A. international View of the ObeIisk.

An International View Of the Obelisk.
THE much-talked-of obelisk has ar
rived from Alexandria, and this country
will soon possess a relic, duly set up,
whose age and associations may really
cause curiosity to yield to awe and hu-
mility. How it was quarried, moved
and erected, this huge block of stone,
20 feet long and $50 tons in weight,
more than 5000 years ago, is marvel;
marvel like to that of the pyramids
and of many ruins. If one were to
study this really monumental stone for
an afternoon, and were then to hear
anew the famous lecture on 1.-THE Lost
Arts" he might feel for the time that
progress is not always an uninterrupted
forward movement and that the inven-
lions and discoveries of which we mod
ems boast ourselves are, perhaps, in part,
only recoveries of what this hoary old
world of ours had once, but let slip.
However, we have possession of the
stone and it will become one in the list
of permanent metropolitan "sights."
England also has her obelisk. The
contrast between the methods adopted
by representatives of the two nations in
getting home their treasure is notable
one, and curiously illustrates differ
ence in the national habits. The Eng
lish, thinking the stone could most read
ily be transported if it were squared
timber, proceeded to make it as nearly
that as possible by boxing it up; then it
was started, to float through the Medit-
erranean in tow of steamer. 1t was
a queer undertaking, not without bold
ness, of course, and when the cable in
formed US that the steamer had aband-
oned its burden in the Bay of Biscay
hardly anybody was surprised at so nat
ural failure; but the surprise came
when the abandoned stone, having re-
fused to be wrecked, was taken in tow
by another steamer and triumphantly
brought to London, giving rise to an
unprecedented case of claim for salvage.
The affair challenged admiration for
boldness, but the boldness was entirely
in the line of old methods. Now APP
pear the Americans on the scene, and
they become original as well as bold,
and apply to the novel problem a meth
cd equally novel. Working their stone
along a temporary way down to the
water until they had it on a
sort of pontoon on which it
was comparatively manageable, the
next step in its transportation
is to get it on the ship. This they do
by getting it in the ship. Raising the
ship by means of a dry-dock until the
deck where the column is to rest is at
the same level with the column as it
lies on the pontoon, they proceed to cut
hole in the steamers bow, then shove
the block on board by means of q tenn
porary railway, reducing friction by the
familiar device of using cannon balls.
The same balls are in the ship now with
the stone, and the latter will be again
landed by simply reversing the process;
once on shore, the transporting and ele-
waiting are matters of detail, and the
work is all done.
The suggestion of interest is that this
difference of procedure illustrates the
boldness of method in this country. In
our agriculture, factories of all sorts,
Government, finances, and every de-
partment of activity, Americans adopt
more accurately, devise-methods which
violate custom, but have the advantage
of being direct adaptations of means to
end. If the typical American makes
pins, he sees no reason why machinery
should not stick the pins on the paper
as well as do all the rest, and he forth
with produces machinery to do it; he is
not satisfied with driving nails with a
hammer, but invents " nail gun ~ to
set them into the wood at single stroke
His disregard for. existing methods is
utter, and yet it is not disrespect Gin the
positive sense) so much as it is the alb
sence of respect. He entirely fails to
perceive, and positively refuses to ad-
NIT that anything is entitled to consid-
Grafton merely because it exists; it must
exist for something. Heis half inclined,
however, to believe that whatever is, is
wrong, prima facie; but, at least, moth
ing that is counts in his estimation as
worth retaining if anything quicker,
more direct or more effectual as a link
between means and end can be found to
supplant it. The Englishman is dis
posed to give the old way at least the
benefit of doubt, and to cleave to it
until the better has been demonstrated ;
the American is rather inclined to try
the new any way, land he strikes out for
himself in new directions on all sides.
Hence he is the most migratory of all
mankind who pretend to have fixed habi-
tations. Cities spring up like Jonah S
gourd, and geography becomes a study
which has to be closely followed in order
to keep up with the times.-NeU York
Financial Chronicle.