The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-25

as red syenlte, green basalt and black
granite! The marvellous delicacy, notwith-
standing the hardness of the material, COM
mands the highest admiration, whether we see
it in statues, in sarcophagi. or in obelisks. The
technical skill displayed in rendering the hard
est substances plant to the sculptor's tool shows
that the early artists and artisans of Egypt
were only the heirs of artists and artisans that
had gone before them for centuries. They were
the descendants of ''Tubal Cain, an instructor of
artifcers in brass and iron,' and they were akin
to the descendants of Jubal, who ''was the father
Of all such as handle the harp and organ" The
revelations in Egypt are remarkable. The
finest specimens of sculpture in the museum at
Cairo are far older than the obelisk at Helipolis.
and they are superior in finish, in beauty and in
naturalness to those of a thousand years later.
The finest sculptured temple is not that of
Denderah, on which Greek and Roman gold was
lavished. Ptolemy II began this temple, which
is the most unruined of all Egyptian temples,
Lot 100 b. c., and it was INTELLECTUALLY finished
under Tiberius, but the sculptures
were not completed and the dedication did not
take place unit. in the reign of Nero. The great
Champolion says that as to the sculptures,
which so profusely decorate this temple, they are
very inferior to those of 1900 years preceding.
Art had really declined instead of having ad-
vanced. Butthe general effect of the architecture.
though heavy, is very imposing. 1t was in this
temple that there were found the famous carved
tablets of the signs of the Zodiac which were
transferred to the Louvre in Paris in 1922, and
which the pre-Bob lngersolls proclaimed to be
ACL ~ bJlou II DLU SOb W Ii Olh6
Therefore. such was their logic, the Bible Was
all wrong as to dates, facts. etc. But when
Francois Champollion. of France; Roselinl, OF
Italy; Lepsius, of Germany, and Birch, of Eng.
land, the most learned men in hyrogly phics land
some of them skeptics), brought their knowledge
to bear on the subject they read and published
to the world that the temple of Denderah was
not begun until a short time before julius
Caesar was born. and that the ornamental parts
(f which this Zodiacal table was one) were not
finished until thirty years after the crucifixion
of our Savior. Comment is unnecessary.
But must leave antiquity and come down to
the nineteenth century. When the jungle fowl
Of Java was first domesticated, and became the
plain barn-yard fowl. known as the chicken, l
don't know, but it must have been very early. So
1t was with many other birds. But it is to the
honor Of our century that the biggest existing
bird in the world is reared just as we would raise
chickens. In thirty minutes after leaving the
obelisk of Heliopolis we entered, by a somewhat
labyrinthian route, the ostrich farm. l had
often seen ostriches in menageries and zoolog-
ical gardens, but to look upon four hundred of
these gigantic birds stalking about behind high
fences; to see them in groups OF ten, twenty, or
fifty; to see SOM of them. especially the males.
s~trutting around like dudes, who thought that
they only had to look at the modestly- plumed
hen ostriches to mash" them-all this was a
sight not easily to be forgotten. l am told that
this ostrich farm is the enterprise of a French
company, and that they have made money by
it. And why nots / will answer the question a
little further on.
The male ostrich is naked clear up to his great
hams, and even they are denuded of feathers;
only the long, black, dropping plumage falls
over them to hide their nakedness.
They look as if they had very rose
colored tights on. Then come the feathers clear
up to the point where the long snake and-camel-
like neck joins the body. The neck, like the
legs. is naked and intensely rosy, as il the
ostrich-rooster drank something stronger than
water. The ostrich rooster, rs far as his plumage
is concerned, seems in deepest mourning, so
ospy d sss a tso all Prince ths feathers" Of Wales lex,
feathers" those beautifully white by nature,
plumes that cost at wholesale in Egypt 81 each,
while the gray ones (of the females) cost from
ten cents to twenty-five cents each.) They are
these gray plumes that are blanched by a chem
ical process, and they are often sold as the genu-
inc Prince of Wales" The hen ostriches are a
little lower in height than the ROSTERS, and they
seem like modest maidens in gray or in half
mourning. Again, they have LOT that rudy.
whisky-nose color on their thighs and necks, and
are in every way a remarkable contrast to the
dudish males. These last are like the bipeds of
their quality in the human species-they seem
so full of conceit that if a hen ostrich merely
looks friendly toward him he thinks that she ad-
mires his legs. his neck. his plumage. and can't
live without devotion to him. So with the human
dude-a girl can't show him the least friendship
but the fellow imagines that the girl is head and
shoulders in love with him, so that young ladies
who would like friendship with young men find
that too often the young chaps cannot under
stand it, and fancy they are the objects of ad-
miration and love instead of reasonable friend
ship. Hence it is that it frequently happens
that the girls have to be cold and stiff to young
men. But comparisons between dudes and
ostriches ARE odorous."
After looking at the great globes of ostrich
eggs Matched by artificial heat, and at the little
ostriches, from those who have just burst the
shell to those half grown, I make inquiries as to
the profit of the big birds. | have no right to
tell the particular dividends of the Egyptian
ostrich farm, but the following facts will show
that there is a demand for all the
ostrich feathers that can be raised,
and that ostrich farming pays better than
ostrich hunting. In 1883 there were imported into
Great Britain feathers and bird skins
which amounted to a sum considerably over
$40, 600, 900. Of. 500, 600 of bird-skins, one-sixth
were humming-birds, and the remainder were
those of parrots, sun-birds, orioles, king fishers,
birds of paradise, tanagers, etc. But the sum
total of those bird skins only amounted to $775,-
600; whereas the ornamental feathers from the
backs of ostriches, rheas (South American os-
trichesl emus 1.-THE Australian ostrich), egrets,
iungle-cocks and peacocks brought more than
SO, 225. 900 in Great Britain alone. of which more
than nine-tenths were from the regular ostrich.
The determination of some of the smaller birds
is threatened; and the ostrich a few years ago it
was found would soon become as extinct as the
dodo. Twenty years ago the demand for ostrich
plumes was almost entirely supplied from South
Africa. and it was done by pursuing and killing
the wild birds. But it was found that the os-
trich would breed in captivity. and that more
eggs were Matched artifcially than by the moth
er bird, and, still more important. that the feath-
ers could be plucked without killing the ostrich.
What was the RESULT In 1867 by killing the wild
bird in South Africa just $3.50, 900 worth of feath-
ers were obtained in 365 days. Then domestica-
ton began, and in 1875 it took just 365 days in
South Africa to produce 81, 800. 900 worth of plu-
mage, and the birds were ready to go on and
produce another crop. In 1883, sixteen years
after the new departure in the ostrich-feather
business, the result was 81, 500. 900 for South AT
RIGA alone. In 1SS3-S4 ostrich raising was begun
in Algeria and Egypt, and also in California.
The above figures show that ostrich farming
pays. j. c. FLETCHER.
RecOllections of "Dixie."
Communication in st. Louis Post Dispatch.
Ii appears that Gilmore has been playing
/ LkD.u.aM .AlaA- 49,