The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1881-03-30
NO.
zAE A0E or THE oBEzlsK:

oid Thirty FIVE such periods 0f iitne have
elapsed since the greatest Of Egyptian kings,
the Alexan0or the Great e of. his are-S.,s i
great Oriental scholar terms Thutincs ILL.,
ordered cut from the old red granite quarry
at Syene near the present Assouan) the
ooeiisk how to be seen in Central Park, New
York.
II was brought to On, ssthes city of tho
sun, the very city where Joseph had ruled
as Governor only one century before, and.
with its companion. which now stands ON the
Thames embankment, London, guarded tho
entrance To the Temple of the Sun. They
stood within n few feet of each other for six
teen centuries; then were removed by The
order OF Augustus Csssr TO Asexauafm. Tie
new Egyptian capital Now, ha vlny watched
the rise aud fall ofall the greatest monarcbies
IN the world, one has, nineteen centuries later.
crossed the Mediterranean Sea and the Allan
tic 70 continue its yoiceless watch over the
newest aud grandest Republic of any which
mas existed since the Hebrews became a ma
ton. w
The chief interest of this obelisk to our peo-
pie Is in its history, not in that OF it's trAus-
portation. twill always be noted that GER
tain men of money aud skill removed it to
New York for a 9th Of the price required to
| transport similar one to Paris In 1881; but
that is not what will interest the children of
this or Of succeeding generations. They will
want to know who erected 1t, aud when and
why what is inscribed on 1t and by whom
and what great men Of the world have gazed
upon 1t before themp
The New York papers of last week, notably
the Ucruld, quite fully answered these ques-
tions. In few sentences the inquiries may
be- thus solved
|. Who erected I'll Thutmes III. The
obelisk distinctly says so. 1t repeats again
and again the name, "Thutmes, the Son of
the SUM-" He was the greatest of Egyptian
conquerors, who extended the borders Of his
empire from Central Africa to the Euphrates,
i III, Whens The greatest Psychologist, DR..
Bey, says "about 1900 b. G." Some have
placed It two centuries earlier. but without
any special proof
III. Why was ii ercctedp To commemor-
ate his victories. AS he puts 1t in the inscrip-
ton, those conquests ETC., made him:
lie creature OF the Gods,
Who has taken possession Of the Two
Worlds. s{
The Son of the suns
4 The Friend Of the City of the Sun h.
Never before was dore what he did tor the
City Of On
Nv. What is inscribed onit2 and by whom z
There bave been three Inscriptions on il ut
different times; 1. Those of Thutmes III,
1900 b. @. 2. Those of Ramses H., three
centuries later. He was the Ses0strs Of He
rodotus, who rcigned GO years aud was great
king 0. Usoekon l., 933 B. c., son of the
Shishak of the Bible, who conquered Jerusa-
lem. He simply put his name and titles on
The earliest Inscriptions run down the middle
Of the obelisk the next are on the right and
left of the former, and Usoekon's on the out
si'le Of the border line. Chose who vist,ihe
obelsk would do we'll to remember this.) The
Inscriptions are simply laudatory Of these
kings.
v. Who have seen It? All is not here,
after all, the charm of the matter TO the lover
of history and of the race ? That Moses gazed
upon, and read its first inscription to Il king
who was placed above God in his titles, we
cannot doubt. Born Is. @. 157l--say thirty
years after the obelisk was reared was at
the court of Pharoah, in this very city, from
his childhood mp; was g learned in all the
wisdom Of tive Egyptians, and would thoro-
ugbly learn the history OF the two red shafts
must have seen them as frequently as New
Yorker sees the franklin statue in Park Row.
Perhaps he was present as boy Mt their cree
tion. The leader Of the Exodus, and Aaron.
his helper, must have called them up to mind
when, IN an unknown wilderness seeking for
she keys to the Promised Land, they dreamed
over their boyhood days near the Temple
lplaza.
Then the long list Of men whom the weSld
have called great, even though many were
wicked, and whose faces we should like to see
mirrored from this obelsk IL II could but pic
ture them that cruel Pharoah, whose down
fall Miriam sang The early heroes of Troy !;
. the kings of Israel who journeyed thiher :
Cyrus the Great Canbyses Xerxes Darius
the Great Alexander Plate; Scion; Julius
aud Augustus nsar /; Pompey Herod Con-
staniine, and the long line Of visitors 10 Egypt
since. not excepting Napoleon I. The earth's
greatest have seen this stone 10, its native
land. Aud what sinii we say 10 the sugges-
tion that Joseph aud Mary, with the Infant in
their arms may have stood before this very
shaft at Alexandria, as one OF the wonders of
their day, aud. like us, could not read the in-
scriptions because not in their familiar Cali
lean tongue?
4 But there is no occasion for imagination
Facts are sufficient to make this one of the
most interesting Of wonders among the works
of mans erection which has ever been brought
to this Western continent. -Somsrsst Gazette.
young woman applied at the relief bureau
In Galveston, the other day, with paper
} containing the following 's'TlIis unfortu-
pate woman is the only daughter Of an old and