The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-03-16

or the funny men of this town, and |
laughed all the evening through at him
and his piece. We saw another funny
piece the same evening, called High
Life Below Stairs" which preceded the
innocent Abroad" and both were un-
commonly fine and funny.
ON another evening we went to the
Imperial Institute to a concert, and saw
the lovely women with diamonds and
lorgnetteS again, besides hearing
| charming concert. The Royal Hun
garian band played after the concert
was over and we stayed to hear it, and
arrived home quite late and tired.
In the British Museum.
Yesterday Miss Radical took me down
| to the British museum, where we spent
a very interesting half day. 1t is such
an immense. storehouse. of treasures
that one can do very little of it at
| time, so that l am going down to It
again and again, until l have
| seen it all. We first did the
Egyptian rooms, where they keep
all the old sphinxes and Egyptian
gods and goddesses. Gracious! how
ugly and interesting they are! There
were stone sarcophagi and statues of
the old Egyptian Pharoahs and their
queens, and curious old bird-headed
and lion-headed gods from the ruined
temples at Thebes and those other old
cities that were interesting in the ex-
| treme. The obelisks and old pillars
| from these temples, all inscribed with
the curious Egyptian hieroglyphics, are
wonderfully massive and heavy, and
must have cost millions of dollars to
transport to this institution. We saw
the statute of Rameses II, the Pharoah
Of the Exodus, in which l was much in
terested, and also the famous Rosetta
stone. which is mounted on granite
pedestal and is under glass, a precau-
ton against the ubiquitous relic hunt
ing nuisance. This was by far the most
interesting thing in the Egyptian room
as it was by means of this stone, you
remember, which is inscribed in three
different ancient languages, that the
reading of the hitherto untranslatable
Egyptian hieroglyphics was made pos
sible, and which unlocked to us per-
feet treasure house of history, most of
which would have been completely lost
to the world and some of which would
have remained merely conjecture for
ever, had 1t not been for the discovering
of this wonderful stone. 1t is very
ragged and jagged looking, much of it
having been broken off during the
thousands of years of its existence, ana
! is of a very dark, Slate-like stone. The
| inscriptions on it are, however, as fine
and as clear as they were ages ago, and
! the contrast between the three Ian
| most Interesting tO see.
Among Assyriau Relics.
We went from the Egyptian to the
| Assyrian room, where we walked past
miles of the most wonderful old bas-
rcliefs, which have been brought here
from the old eXcavated cities of that
ancient kingdom. They are, as every
thing else of these times We're, of stone,
and the stories cut in them by means of
| these pictures are most interesting.
| The battles of the different nations, the
! feasts and sacrifices are all vividly de-
| lineated here by means of these ever
| lasting drawings in stone, and are as
| good as reading twenty medieval his
| tories. They had no knowledge, what
ever, of perspective, and it was most
curious to see the figures which they
] meant u represent dS III NllS uisNiiiNN'
right above those in the foreground,
and just as large. the pictures being
made exactly as the lines of words are
printed in book, and all you have to
do IL to fancy that the bottom line of
| the page is the foreground, the line
next above II you must suppose farther
back, and so one to the top of the page
where the top line, which is in just as
large type as the bottom line, is sup
| posed to be way, way back in the back
ground. I'm afraid that isn't q very
clear illustration, though.
Well to get on. we went through all
| this and saw pieces of rusty and crusty
old copper implements which were used
long ago. and what was left of them
were. upon excavation, sent to this
museum, where they lie under glass,
and are all but dust, they are SO old.
We Went through the Grecian and
Roman rooms (ancienu where we saw
some of the old. old statues which had
been eXcavated and sent here from
ancient Greece and Rome. There We're
beautiful Nenuscs and wonderful Apol-
los and cold white marble gods and god
desses. There We're several artists in
these rooms, copying some of the beau
ties Of the place. and in the next room,
where we saw the famous Elgin mar
bes. were model of the Acropolls at
Athens, and several fine figures from
some old Greek temples, and there was
an old rugged looking marble column
from the temple of Diana at Ephesus,
which you know was one of the seven
wonders of the world.
Beautiful and Intricate Mosaies.
We passed from here up broad
staircase where Were mounted several
pieces of the old Italian mosaic works
in the walls, They were most wonder
fully beautiful and of intricate design
and lovely coloring, and l admired
them long time. They We're all eX-
humed from old buried villas. We went
upstairs into other Egyptian rooms.
and had the pleasure of walking past
and seeing mummy after mummy, chief
among which was Cleopatra'S own per-
sonal and genuine mummy. which. with
her coffin. or sarcophagus, Is preserved
here under glass. These collins, of
which there are many here, are very
gaily painted inside and out, In geo
metrical figures, and the way In which
these colors have withstood the raw
ages OF time is n marvel indeed. The
mummies were fine. All of them are
wrapped up in their bandages, which
are brown with age and some of them,
with the mummies inside them, are
crumblng to dust. There are few
with all except the very inside wrap
pings off of them, and these show the
outlines of the poor, hungry-looking
old skull and the bare bones of the
body most plainly. Others again, are
wrapped up In their complete num-
my, costume, with the heads and
faces gilded, or with picture of the