The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-11-04

hurdredth cen hry The earthquake
that rocks this world to pieces will not
stop our influence for good or evil You
modestly say That is true in regard to
the great workers for good or evil, and
n gigantic geniuses, MItonian or Tai
leyrandian. but not of me. fcr l live and
work on small scale"
My hearers, remember tnxt those
who built the pyramids we're osmmon
workmen. Not one of them could lift
those great stones. 1t took dozen OF
them to lift one stone, and others Just
welded trowel, clicking it ON the h I'D
edge, or smoothing the mortar between
the layers. One hundred thousand men
toiled on those sublime elevations II
one Of those granite blocks that l INST
touch with my feet on this December
morning in 1889, as the two Arabs pull
me and the two other Arabs push me,
could speak out and tell its history it
would say: 1.-THE place of my nativity
was down in the great stone quarry Of
Mokattam or Assawan. Then they be-
gan to bore at my sides. and
then to drive down great iron
wedges, crushing against me till the
whole quarry quaked and Numbered,
then l was pried out with crow bars
and levers, scores of men putting their
weight on the leverage. Then chains
were put around me and was hoisted
with wheels that groaned under the
weight, and many workmen had their
hands on the cranks and turned until
their muscles on their arms stood out
in ridges and the sweat rolled from
their dusky foreheads. Then l was
drawn by long teams of oxen, yoke af-
ter yoke, yoke after yoke. Then I was
put on an inclined plane and hauled
upward, and how many iron tools and
how many beasts of burden were en-
ployed to get me to this place no one
can tell Then / had to be measured,
and squared and comprised, and fitted
in before l was left here to do my ST.
lent work of thousands of years. God
only knows how many hands were
busted in getting me from my geologi-
cal cradle in the quarry to this en-
thronemen. of innumerable ages" My
hearers, that is the autobiography of one
block of tho pyramid. Cheops didn't
build the pyramid. Some boss mason
in the world twilight didn't build the
pyramid One hundred Thousand men
built it and perhaps from first to last
two hundred thousand men. So with
the pyramids now rising, pyramids Of
evil or pyramids of good The pyramid
of drunkenness rising ever since the
time when Noah got drunk on wine,
although there was at his time such a
superabundance of water. All the sa.
loonists of the ages adding their layers
of ale casks and wine pitchers and rum
jugs until the pyramid overshadows the
great Sahara desert of desolated homes
and broken hearts, and destroyed etern
tiles. And as the pyramid still
rises, layers Of human skulls piled
on top of human skulls and
other mountains of human bones
to whiten the peaks reaching into
the heavens, hundreds of thousands
Of people are building that pyramid
Sc. with the pyramid of righteousness.
Multitudes of hands are toiling on the
steps-hands infantile, hands octoge
marian, masculine hands, female hands
strong hands, weak hands. Some clang
ing trowel. some pulling rope, some
measuring the sides. Layers of psalm
books on top of layers of sermons
Layers of prayers on top of layers O
holy sacrifice. And hundreds of thou
sands coming down to sleep their las
sleep, but other hundreds of thousand.
going up to take their places, and the
pyramids will continue to rise unit
the millennial morning gilds the com
pleted works, and the toilers on thes,
heights shall take off their aprons ant
throw down their trowels, crying, "It
is finished ="
Further, carrying out the idea Of m,
text the pyramid is sign and a wit
ness that big tombstones are not tn
best way of keeping ones self affection
ately remembered. This pyramid an
the sixty.nine other pyramids sill
standing were built for sepulchers. al
this great pile Of granite and limeston
by which we stand to-day, to cover tn
memory of a dead king. 1t was tn
great Westminster Abbey Of the an
clients. Some say that Cheops was tn
king who built this pyramid, but it /.
uncertain Who was Chcops, anyhow
All that the world knows about hin
could be told in few sentences. TIL,
only thing certain is that he was ba
and that he shut up the temples Q
worship and that he was hated SO tina
J the Egyptians were glad when he wa
dead. This pyramid of rock seven hun
dred and forty feet each side of tn,
square base and four hundred and fift
feet high wins for him no respect. If
bone of his arm or foot had been foun
in the sarcophagus beneath the pyrami
it would have excited no more veners
, ton than the skeleton of a came
: bleaching on the Libyan desert; yea
| less veneration. for when l saw the cal
I cass Of camel by the roadside on tn
way to Memphis, I said to myself
"Poor thing, l wonder of what
, died"
We say nothing against the marhl
t or the bronze of the metropolis. LIE
all that sculpture and forescence an
arborescence can do for the places G
: the dead be done, if means will allo,
, it. But If after one is dead there /
: nothing left to remind the world of hir
a but some pieces of stone. there is bu
= little use Some of the finest monr
t ments are over people who amounted I
n nothing while they lived. while some