San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-09-07
Egyptian History.
BY EUGENE LAWRENCE.

countries, because il is probably tn
oldest. We borrow from it nearly al
our arts and sciences, and have onl.
improved upon what the Egyptian
taught us. Our alphabet and the art o
writing came from the banks OF tn
Nile. II was carried to Phenicia, ther
to Greece and Rome, and then to Eu
rope and America. The Egyptians in
vented the lever, by which all engines
are moved, and electricity and steam
made useful. Egyptian glass-makers
gold-smiths, painters, weavers, builders
and stone.cutters, miners, gardeners
and even poets and historians, have
taught the arts to Western nations
Moses studied in the Egyptian colleges
and Joseph and his father looked upon
its Pyramids and temples with wonder
The land OF Egypt is deposit OF
Maud brought down by the floods OF the
Nile from the mountains OF Middle
Africa. Every year the river overfiowf
its banks, and renews the fertility OF
the soil by new deposit, and these
regular foundations have been so pro-
vided for by embankments and canals
as to be seldom dangerous. The Nile
scarcely ever sweeps away the focks
and harvests of the farmers, like the
Mississippi. 1t would be well If the
Mississippi could be made as useful as
the Nile.
This fiat land of mud rests on rocks
and sand. On each side of it is de-
sert, bare, hot, and sitting. A desert
divides it from Asia. 1t is isolated from
the world, and here for several thou
sand years the Egyptian Pharaohs ruled
over an obedient people, and these peo-
pie invented and practiced those useful
arts which they were afterwards to teach
to others. The first King Of Egypt is
suppose to have been Menes; he reign
ed about 5000 B. G. Thirty.one dynas-
ties or families of Kings follow Menes,
and the Egyptian kingdom had lasted
more than two thousand five hundred
years when it was conquered by Alex
ander the Great. The Assyrians, Per-
slams, and even the Philippians, had
conquered it before, but had been dri-
ven out by the rising OF the people.
For two thousand years the Egyptians
we're free and united. The Oldest
modern kingdom counts scarcely eight
hundred years, and our own govern
ment nearly one hundred.
The Egyptians were dark-colored
race, and came probably from Asia.
They lived alone upon the banks OF
he Nile, shut out from the world. All
Europe was then a wilderness filed with
Wild beasts and a few savage men. Ali
vas waste and desolate. The savage
people who surrounded Egypt were
ike our American Indians, ignorant
md treacherous. Had they been able
hey would have broken in upon the
Industrious Egyptians, sacked and
'urned their cities, and robbed them of
II they possessed. They would have
estroyed temples and palaces, houses
nd gardens, ships factories, and left us
,ithout any of the Egyptian inventions
nd improvements. But fortunately
he deserts and the sea for two thou
and years at least kept the savages
way. The country grew rich and
ourishing; the banks of the Nile were ,
ned with fine farms as fertile as those s
Kansas and Dakota. The wheat was s
Ill and white. The gardens of Egypt {
reduced beans, onions, cabbages, and i
ere filed with flowers. Countless
WINS and cities sprang up along the =
lie. Some of them were aslarge, per- ]
aps, as Chicago or New York. The q
Oh lands swarmed with people. The '
miles of the Egyptians lived in COM
'rtable houses; the children were 9
sually taught in the temples to read L
Id write; all we're taught to work; q
ley were we'll dressed and very neat;
i'd when Joseph governed the land +
it'll discretion and good sense, there C
as no part of the Western world that v
uld equal the intelligence and civiliz- '
ion of Egypt. It's cities, temples, o
.laces, farms, and gardens were the il