The Newtown bee., 1895-04-05

] it except it's size and it's antiquity; bu , think what these two things mean. Tn , pyramid is 4S0 feet high, each one of it l four sides is 760 feet long. it's base cover
 an are of 13 acres; and it has been sait that if all it's stones were placed ina row
 they would form a stone wall five fee } high extending entirely around the is ! land of Great Britain. But this does no \ tell it all The pyramid was once mncf greater than it is now; it is indeed 2 great mass in ruiDs. Five hundred years ago the Arabs took layer after layer o1 | it's great stones to build their temples
 and their mosqHes. Then think,stoo, o1
 it's age. Before Moses was trained up 1T I the courts of Pharaoh, before Joseph was sold by his brethren to The Ishmaelites l these great works were reared by the hand of man Indeed the Pyramid is the 1 only work this side the creations of the Omnipotent, that could with reverent voice say, Before Abraham was, lam. ! I shall never forget that Tide toward 1 evening along the most perfect of roads,
 shaded on either side by l0cut trees. some eight miles or more bey ond the city 1 of Cairo; and I shall never forget the 1 first sight of those huge smenua1ents oi I stone and the thoughts that rose within l me then. # # # E s& # If some foolish person years ago had
 not thought of climbing the pyramid, no I one would have dreamed of doings0 rash | and tolsome thing; but, since some ! body once accomplished this feat, all sue-
 ceeding tourists, like ducks, have been following in the line. Five Arabs sur rounded me and assured ne of their abil- l ity to get me to the top and down again, | from their representation you would say almost as easily as rolling off a log. Af- ter the mighty confusion ef voices, with out which the Arab never attempts any, thing, we started. The sheik of the,pyr- l amid preceded, to point out the way; ap Arab seized me by either arm; another followed to give "bnost" up the very steep places; and boy brought up the rear, carrying an earthen jug of water for refreshment ; by the way. And at what pace we went you would have supposed some one was dying at the top, and our presence was demanded there in the
 LEAST POSSIBLE TIME. @,
 ] had no sooner reached one stone than
 my pullers were on the tier three or four
 feet above, jerking my arms almost from
 their sockets in the enGeavor to rush me
 on without wasting moment of time.
 had been forewarned of this proceeding
 by carefully reading my Baedeker, and
 so l let go at my pushers and pullers the mean: ''For mercy's sake, hold oD, or
 you will get no baeksheesh.' In the
 periods of resting my conductors would
 assure me how much they thought of noe,
 how they liked me better than any other
 gentleman they had guided to the sum-
 init that day; and then they added, sotto
 voce, "You make us satis fled when we
 reach the top" At other times the old
 chief brought various trinkets rom his
 pockets, which he affirmed were found in
 the tombs of the .Pharaohs, and which,
 because he thought so much of me, he would sell at half price. Just about
 when my head was beginning to swell
 with pride because I had made so favor able an impression on these humble sons of the desert, I learned that this adula- tion was part of their stock in trade
 which they dispensed in copious measure to every traveller. When, true to the American spirit, I began to doubt wheth- CT these coins and gew gaws had ever sec any of Pharaoh's tombs, the sheik,
 his feelings evidently deeply wounded, said: ssI been to Mecca; I never told 3 lie in my life.'' Ah. here was the shade of George Washington right before me 1 yielded to the spell and bought the gen uine coins
 FROM THE PHARAOH's ToMBs. It is a wonderful sight that greets the eye from the top of the great Pyramid Of Cheops; probably there is no sight just like it anywhere else in the world. Here you get full conception of what the River Nile means to the land of Egypt. 1 Away to the west, stretching on to thei horizons verge, is the vast sea of sand, 8 l wilderness of desolation, an empire of l sterility. 8 universe of death; and at l your feet, along the banks of the Nile, it l a valley of freshness and fertility and bloom such as is seldom seen. The line between these regions of life and death | is almost as sharply defined as if it were cut with a knife. You could easily stand l with your feet pressing the richest soil | and throw an apple into soil where no | kind of vegetation could grow. The val l ley of the Nile is said to be so fertile that l ifiyou SOW corn in the evening you can l have corn on the cob next morning for 1 breakfast, and if you plant ten-penny nail one day, the Lext day you will find | a crowbar!
 The Sphinx stands only short dis tance from the great Pyramid. It's | form is familiar to every schooIboy | It's head is that of man, and it's body l that of lion. It was hewn out of the | natural rock with some addition of arti- | ficial masonary. The face is now sadly | mutilated and disfgured; but, when originally cut it was said to be of the most delicate lines. Some conception | may be had of it's size from the state l ment that tall man standing on the | top of one ear could not reach to the l crown of the head. Once the winds of | the desert had piled the Sands up to the neck, but now the whole figure is exca- | vated down to the paws of the lion. The Sphinx is undoubtedly the most an cient work of man which to-day re- mains.
 THE SPHINX IS NOT AFRAID OF TIME, but Time is afraid of the Sphinx Soli- tary and desOlate 1t sits amid the ruined waste. Empires rise and fall, thrones are lifted up and overthrown; men of genius stir the currents of thought and action for time and, like bubbles on the waters surface, pass away; Herod- otus looks upon the Spbinx's silent form to-day, and Napoleon thunders with his battalions tomorrow almost beneath it's shadow; but the Sphinx sits there, calm, unmovable, and, when the archapgel's trump proclaims the end of Time, it will be watching for the dawn of the eternal day. You cannot laugh atsthe Sphinx.
 And now we are in the Holy Land. 1 Busy have the days been and filled with 1 memories of the long ago. The finger of black superstition has done much to defile the holy places; but hills and val leys and seas are God 8 work, ,fhey are not mans, and they stillEspeak eloquent