The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-01
Special to the Globe.


of thirty feet of the apex, the materials
of which, along with the casing stones
that covered the outside Of the whole
pyramid, having been used in building
the beautiful old mosque Of Sultan Has
san in Cairo. There was a slight breeze,
such as always seems to haunt similar
heights, which was very refreshing.
The view, when 1 recovered sufficient
ly from my exhaustion to look around
and enjoy it, was most extensive.
could see about fifty miles of the shin
ing course Of the Nile southwards The
banks of the river, a short way from
the waters edge, were covered with
luXuriant grass and occasional palm
groves; and beyond this margin of YER
dure was a wide waste of gray barren
sand extending up to the pale lime
stone cliffs on both sides. The line of
green and gray kept quite distinct, and,
by contrast, how deliciously vivid was
that green. The desert and the river,
the destroyer and the restorer, seemed
to meet along that boundary in NOR
tai strife. and you could not but feel
the unique grandeur of the Nile, which
for more than a thousand miles, alone,
without a single tributary or a drop
of rain to swell it's waters, bravely
oVercame the absorption of the thirsty
sand and the evaporation of the burn
ing atmosphere and spread all along its
margin a veil of rich vegetable life
over what seemed the whitened ashes
of a fire-destroyed world.
That mysterious south had a strange
fascination for me. I gazed with all
my soul in my eyes, as if to penetrate
the haze of the horizon and behold
the hOary wrinkled brow of Egypt"
in which the worlds earliest wisdom
was conceived. How delightful, 1
thought, it would be to sail up those
majestic waters, which have left upon
all the fields Of human knowledge the
rich deposits of their overflow for so
many ages, and trace upon this most
venerable of rivers the stream of time
itself to the sources of human life,
past temples that have Outlasted the
gods to whom they were dedicated. But
L turned away my eyes from the too
aIluring prospects and gazed north
wards, where the landscape was like
panther's skin, dotted with tawny ele-
waited sandbanks, portions of the old
sea bottom projecting above the allu-
vial deposits of the river and occupied
by the mud villages of the people and
by the shapeless ruins Of the distant
past, which of late have yielded up so
many precious secrets to the explorer.
Rising out Of the desert were the spec
terlike pyramids Of Dashour and SAX
karah, the gigantic gTaYestones. the
vast cemetery of the vanished city of
Memphis. To the left, on the opposite
side of the river, Cairo, with its brown
and pink houses and slender white
minarets spreads itself out at the base
of the Mokattam hills, which, like
prisms, took out Of the sky it's hidden
hues OF pale gold and purple. Between
the desert and the river, at the foot
Of the pyramid, was the famous battle
field which received it's name from its
situation. And over all the wide view.
so hoary in its antiquity so full of
changes and revolutions, brooded the
eternal youthfulness of the blue sky.
For one brief moment l seemed to for
get the bowling Arabs around me and
10 lose myself in a golden dream of the
past
But the platform itself upon which
stood at last attracted my attention.
Il had an interest of its own Many
visitors seemed to regard monuments
20 whose antiquity the duration of an
empire is but few years as existing
solely for the purpose of enabling
them to carve their ignoble names
upon them. I never saw such a vast
NUMBER OF names anywhere, done with
Every kind of lettering ana every kind
ot instrument. There was not q
blank space the size of an inch left
anywhere. 1t was a palimpsest of
stone, for one name often superseded
ana obliterated another. Every block
VAS marked with an initial or the
'ulI name of persons belonging to al
most every nation and language under
heaven. British names are conspicu-
)us and some of the names which we
mould not have expected to see here
There were also American names
carved in rugged, bold fashion in the
most conspicuous places. But imfta-
lion is infectious in such a place, and
one who would not for the world des-
ecrate tree growing in some famous
shrine of pilgrimage in his own coun-
:ry by carving his name upon it, and
would call 1t vulgar ambition to as
sociate his own individuality in this
manner with some public monument
at home, is tempted by the exhileration
Of the spot and by the example of so
many others worthy of respect to
make the hoary pyramid a mere Wis
TORS book
The common practice would not mat
ter so much in the case of a tree, for
the living structure, by its own growth,
obliterates, in a few years, the name
carved upon it's bark. But the stone
OF the monument unfortunately re-
tains the record in such a climate. and
hands down the name of Smith and
Brown cut on the marble on which
Greek chisel has carved its immortal
conception with patient impartiality.
And yet there is something touching
in this instinct that induces so many
to associate their names with great
and enduring structures. 1t is closely
connected with the universal desire
for immortality. For none of us would
willingly resign this pleasing anxious
being of ours prey to dumb forget
fulness.
A certain Lord Brook, an obscure
nobleman, wished to transmit his mem
ory to future ages. The only way
In which he could do this was to have
his name associated with some great
man whom the generations would re-
member He therefore gave directions
that upon his tombstone should be
inscribed the words: THE Friend of
Sir Philip Sydney" In a similar man
ner by assOciating their names with
d monument that has commanded the
reverence of ages and that will out
last almost all the other works of man,
the persons who inscribed them de-
sired to share in a similar remem-
bfance by their fellow creatures. It
was this same instinct that led the
builder Of the pyramid to construct
1t. and the crowd of names on the
summit have only followed his exam
pie.
But. besides the names of visitors,
noticed some other marks on the sum-