The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-07-31

u Is not fairy tale that am going
20 tell you, remarks q contributor to
the Philadelphia Times, though ! de
take you far away to the orient, the
land of the lotos flower, the lapd of
The pyramids, ofsthe obelisl1s, and the
Nile. but q story true in word and fact.
1t is the story of key, before which
vast treasure houses, impenetrable for
ages. opened their doors And when
the portals were thrown wide the
searchers gazed upon vistas containing
riches OF which their widest imagin-
ings had never dreamed.
! It Is not kew of gold, though its
value is more than It's weight In that
| precious metal, nor Is IL shaped like a
/ key at all And the wealth Il nm
| locked is not only for its finders, but for
| all that desire to psrtake of IL, for all
posterity, for you and for me. speak
of the Rosetta stone, which IL now In
the British museum.
Many years ago Ptolemy Epiphenes,
king Of Egypt, paid the arrears of tax
es and other debts of the priesthood of
Egypt, and in thanks and to show their
respect for his consideration the priest
hood, at a synod held In Memphis,
passed A decree commemorating It.
The decree was cut into stone, as that
was the mode of preserving the record
of historical events. This happened
about one hundred and ninety-four
years before the Christian era.
You must know that the Egyptians
had different mode of writing from
ours. They used hieroglyphics, or pic
ture writing, and this, after great re-
/ - l4r,1-.w.1 a. H.. H..
written interpretations OF sounds.
That a record of Epiphenes' deed
might not be lost the Egyptians had
the decree written in three different
languages-the hieroglyphic, the de-
motto and the Greek. This was done
as precaution, because, as the eoun-
try had many dialects, a language
. once in use was likely TO die out in
e time. So by making this trilingual
! copy of the event, each a translation
of the other, IL was likely TO be pre-
:. served.
Y Years passed and the dust of ages
e buried from view the stone which was
..s destined to play so important part in
% throwing a light upon the shadowy
conception of modern thinkers regard
ing the past life and manners and Gus
toms OF the EgypLlanS-
This Is the origin Of the Rosetta
e stone, but no one in the modern world
: knew of its existence until the time OF
~ Napoleon. He carried his couquering
arms all over Europe, and, not content
with his victories there, he invaded
=, Egypt, where he fought the brilliant
IS Egyptian campaign.
e, While stationed near Rosetta, in
* lower Egypt, some of the soldiers with
the French engineer. NJ. Boussard
found, while excavating in the his
ry torical soil, block of stone of black
II, basalt about three and one-half feet in
length and little more than two anC
one-half feet in width. On it they saw
strange and unintelligible writings ol
It's drawings. 1t was the Rosetta stone
On On so called from the name of the plac,
where 1t was found, but they did no
dream how precious their discover
would prove.
y And IL was not until about fifteeI
N. years had pass cd that even one wort
was translated DIR. Young in ISL
made out the word Ptolemy, and he i
was that discove red that the writing
a, a., was phonetic, and not ideographic. a
lin had been supposed. But the key ha,
I'd not yet done its work. for, like Alad
B. din and his lamp, the talisman had no
. yet been conquered.
DIR. Young, continuing in his re
search, deciphered the word Berenic
IN among the pictorial writings on tn
al frescoes at Karnak. But it is to Cham
pollion that most of the credit is due
IL for he continued the research unre
n mittingly, and finally his lsbors wer
ct crowned with victory. The TRANSLATION
~ of the Rosetta stone was completed
n that Is to say, 20 far as the stone itsel
VI is complete, for one part Of 1t
ld broken off.
1t was not an easy task to conquer
but one we'll worth the attempt. an
honor will ever rebound to the me
that undertook and succeeded in oper
ing up the broad field that glows wit
II. glorious deeds and vast achievement
and that for ages baf1ed the wisest