The Osceola times., 1881-03-19
'ln the eighth year
OF Auru,tus t.y>ab
Barbanls, perfect ...
OfEFypt, caused Ihis oh,'t'A '
be- placed hcrt,
poutms being nVhi.ctl

The mate of what may now boz called
the American ohcii,k was thrown down
by an earthquake. and tlrmany ccuiurie'
Law half buried in the sand. II now
adorns the Thames embankmeut. l.on-
don. Ours stood erect until taken down
by Commander Gorin.e. il is the true
"Cleopatus Needle though the royal
lady whose charms disturbed the k'u9h
world had been dead six years when lys
removal to Alexandra occurred IL
weighs 2l9l tons, and is go feet inches
high. Its London sister weighs $50 tons,
and is - feet 6 inches high. The mate
rial Is the red granite from the quarnr-
of Svcno in Upper Egypt The in-rIip-
lions II hears-thu>c uu two sides are
nearly ohlteated-arc attributed io
RamCse- H., who lived POO years after
ThOmcs. The largest and finest ob'llsS
evtant is probably ythatinthcpiazza OF st.
John Tatcran. Rome. which weighs about
80 tons. and is los feet Z inches lllen.
Constantine intended it for his new cap
ita on the Bosphuru-, and about $50 \.
-. it wa. brought a. far rs Alexandra,
from whence his successor, Constautlu',
had it taken to Rome and erected u the
Circus Maximns After dc-rribinI the
voyage. and removal from the ship tu
the spot selected for it, the historian,
Ammianu- Marccllinus, say:
AN that now remained 10 be done was
to set it upright, which they hardly cX-
pcttcd to accomplish. Large beams Of
wood were planted upright and raised 90
a dangerous altitude, resembling a forest
of machinery. To these were attached
long, thick ropes, which, from their
weight and tension, appeared as So many
slender threads and yeiled the sky as
with close netting. To these ropes the
mountainous mass Of granite, covered
with it, profnsion of hicr0glyphirS, was
attached, and being gradually raised mp
into the air, and for some time actually
suspended, was at last poised upon the
base prepared for il by the cXcrtious of
many thousands of men. \ bUzcn
sphcre. covered with plates of gold, was
placed upon tine top, which, soon after
damaged by lightning and consequently
taken away, was replaced hy figure Of a
flame. also made Of brass. covered with
gold leaf and carved to resemble blaz-
ing fire.
But in historical value the American
obeisK is inferior 60 none, and the heart
must be dull indeed which docs not
quicken in the presence Of this venerable
monument. There was no Greece or
Rome wken it Was born. and Gree.e and
Rome have come and gone, and the
obplisk still survives. Nations now the
most civilized and cultured were then
buried in far deeper and darker barbar-
ism than the Indians We are hWrying
toward the Pacific. The proudest capi-
tails Of Europe to-day. if then they exist
cd at all. were litIlc collection of mud
huts. inhabited hy h1llnaked slyJges
The hemisphere whose commercial me-
tropolis it now uu,cs was mot SO much
as known tp Europe until 1000 years
after our obelisA slluted the WOrshipcrs
at the Temple Of the sun. Christianity
il young compared 10 this seulptured
granite. which Abraham ami Moses may
have gazcd upon, and which has ont
lasted the ancient faith that reared it-a
faith then thought to be eternal The
religion, the philosophy, the politics and
the art 10 which IL once belonged are
now the puzzle Of scholars and antigua
rians; vet here is the obelisk worm in
deed. by the assaults uf time, but still as
firm and strong as when it left the hands
of the wOrkmen Of SyCnc. How strange,
how sadly suggestive, that q bit of carved
stone has so much more Immortality in
it than the noblcst products Of the i'm
mortal intellect! Our obelisk has Wit
messed the rise and fall Of the mightest
empires earth has seen. Has it crossed
10000 miles of ocean TO witness the
marvellous growth the glorious .consuu-
nation and the hnal decay Of the great
est republic earth has seen2 II has stood
by the death-beds Of Egypt, Assyria,
Persia. Greece and Rome. Who dare-
b say it will not stand by ours?