Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-07-17
TO BE SEEN IN EGYPT.
IMMORTAL SIGNATURES UNDER THE
SPhINx'S LEFT EAR.

lWmOn Al StlNA UHES ONOEh ne
SPhINx'S LEFT EAR.
Colonel Mason, of Chicago, Finds the
Names of Napoleon, Wellington, Dis
raeli, Grant and q Host of Others, Top
ped by an Illustrious Americans.
"My s~ojourn in Europe" says Colonel
Edward G. Mason, president of the Chicago
Historical society, twas wholly delightful.
The climate is salubrious, the scenery is
bewilderingly novel, and the natives are
politely attentive. When l went to that
part of the world my health was failing.
For several years I had worked hard, and
my nerves had suffered a particularly Sc
we're strain in that famous debate in which,
as president of the Historical society, I was
compelled to engage with Hiram Atwater,
of Kaskaskia, relative to the exact location
of Pierre Menard's barn prior to the June
rise in the Mississippi in 1874. I had been
in Cairo but a week when I felt fully re-
stored, in corpore ct in mente. I return to
Chicago splendidly equipped to grapple
with the brilliant sophistries of Norton, the
artful heresies of Head, the cold pessimism
OF MacVeagh, and such other specious per-
suasions as that talented coterie with
which l am won't to associate may choose
to bring to bear upon me.
"That object in all Egygt which most en-
gagged my attention was the sphinx. I Wis
tied it a number of times, and each time
regarded it with absorbing interest. NV
companion at such times was the vener-
able sheik. Kamir-el-Abdul, a man of pro-
found learning, and 1 never wearied of the
"reminiscences with which he beguiled the
tedium of the journey to and from the
pyramids.
Il shall never forget my first visit to the
sphinx. Starting from Cairo before day
light, we reached our destination just as
the solar orb issuing from the glowing east
cast upon that mighty stretch of sand the
rosy flood of his gracious benediction. The
sullen head and massive shoulders of the
beast woman doomed up threateningly be-
fore us, the p~itilessness of forty centuries of
desolate loneliness lay like a shadow on the
ruthless face and over the cruel eyes; here
at last l found the master expression Of
utter hopelessness. Observing my unwont-
ed s~eriousness-for I was indeed awed by
the solemnity, the grandeur, and the awful
ness of this spectacle-the good sheik
sought to dissipate the gathering clouds of
sadness by relating certain entertaining
bits of historical information.
talking WITH A sHEIK.
Here, light of the western world
quoth he, for he always employed the or
nate metaphors of the orient when he ad-
dressed me; here the years meet and speak
with one another. Monarchs of all ages
have come hither to m with this
mighty monument to the genius of the
dead; hither come artisans to wonder at
the work of an art they know not of, and
hither repair the sage, the poet and the
philosopher to ruminate in the shadow of
this pile upon the awful mysteries of hui
man life
eyes said 1, the spot is pregnant of
the most solemn associations. It was here
that, as l remember to have read in nv
geography, Bonaparte encouraged his SOL
diery to battle by reminding them that
from yonder pyramids forty centuries
looked down upon Them
"'Napoleon inscribed his name IDOL the
sphinx at that time said the good sheik.
Take your spyglass and you will see the
name cut upon the neck of the sphinx, just
below the ear there. Below it appears, in
Turkish, the name of the great sultan, Alb
dul Hamed, while to the right, upon the
cheek, you will see the name of Button,
the naturalist
AAOu eAA AoNO Va II 6PA4AA 6C0ul6
to be covered with Names said I, contem-
plating the mammoth through my glass.
"It is even 80, pearl of the prairies,' said
he. For many years the great men of all
nations and tribes have delighted to cut
their names into this deathless monument;
even your people come hither to do that
honorable office, as you shall see if you
sweep your glass to the left and right and
up and down the surface of that SCARED
face
II did as the good sheik suggested, and
a Thousand noble names were presented to
my enraptured vision by the aid of my
glass. Among my own countrymen Bay
ard Taylor, Franklin, Burr, Prescott,
Beecher, Grant, Longfellow, Emerson
yes, and a hundred others, representing
our craftsmanship, our theology, our lit
e%rature, our arts and our sciences, had en-
graved their proud names upon this his
toric, this solemn, this imperishable tablet.
E. o THEN ALI.
And the great geniuses of other nations
had been there too. I beheld with I'M
feigned delight the immortal names of
Wellington, of Cuvier, of Goethe, of Ca
YOUR, of Kossuth, of Dumas, of Disraeli, of
Shopenhauer, of Heine, of Byron, of Scott,
of Burton, of Browning, and of other noble
GASAO AAoPAASu LIZ "1OA IL
describable feelings, my bosom heaved
with conflicting emotions, and l seemed to
commune with the invisible spirits of those
who in this human life had borne those
names.
"'Would the star of the west choose to
set himself amid that g~alaxy?' inquired
the sheik, Kamir-el-Abdul, interrupting
my delicious reverie. i have brought with
me a chisel and a maui, and yonder Arabs
will provide us with a rope ladder, where
by the summit of the sphinx can easily be
reached
Il thanked the good sheik for the sug.
g~estion. With what pride should 1 return
to my native land and announce to my
compatriots that my name was high in this
roster of immortals! With what feelings
of delight should posterity gather on these
blistering sands and rivet their eyes upon
the imperishable name of e. G. Mason in
big capital lettersl Kamir-el-Abdul sig
nailed to the Arabs, and they approached.
I was eager for action. My whole frame
quivered with excitement.
NsR,rt ctou 3r,,otb T "A po<bor-ao-o-