The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-08-05
broken loom are mute witnesses 81 the
sDNAsinR Of humAT Akilf

passing OF human skill.
III shallow cave or wall mp room
YOU mAys find the occupants OF these de-
serted chambers, the farmer or artisan
of that lOng-past day. The dead have
small hands and feet, their knees are
Ma,Sn, aR g Y reposs N oa sse seso
hair Of auburn, chestnut or black, no
less than the pale skin and east of fea-
tUre, Ilifferentiates them from their red
Indian brother. About them lie the flu
neral ca jete' and the jars which held
the three days provis ions for the soul
on IS s May to slipaa,Pp'n
Of our own Southwest, the only place
where the phase Of existence which eth-5
fnologists define as middle barharism'
may today be studied, are absolutely
without protection from the hand Of the
vandal. The visitor to Pompeii today is.
unpleasantly cognizant Of the Jealous
guide who dogs his footsteps Not a
fragment OF marble or mosaic, not bit
of stone from the lava payements, may
be appropriated. & At the Musee BAr-
bonico he will see all the articles. small
md great, which the bygone civilization
of these cities (Herculaneum and POM
peii) has yielded up to discovery. They
are national property. .$ #se .@ B.
There are localities in Europe, rich in
buried treasures of the storicd past,
where ardent archaeologists by the score
are rejoiced to dig and to explore with
the understanding that all they find is to
country-not to the discoverer. The joy
Of exploring and finding is supposed to be
adequate reward. Egypt protects her
mummies and the numberless objects
which surround them in their rocky
tombs. Even the 'unutterable Turk
guards his antiquities. The attitude Of
h mt h
cautious and grasping, but some protec-
ton of this kind is an absolute necessity.
# we would not permit the hotsaIn and
jetsam of the past to glide forever from
the grasp Of the Twentieth century.
has heretofore neglected to cast over her
historical treasure-house the aegis Of her
protection. :. ~
'The actual condition of things is an
palling, as civilization creeps nearer this
territory of ancient interest. The gal
liant swain takes his best girl on a pic
bowl or. stone axe, which are possibly
broken in transit, or forgotten, or taken
home to the parlor shelf. The cowboys
!! select fine, large Jars of prehistoric make
and setting them in row beguile their
| Sunday leisure by peppering them with
shot. in lieu Of the tin cans which serve
as targets on ranches nearer town sites.
1hC ACAlC-ANueCA Jugs CuT1OS WHICH uc
| does not catalogue. and which he sep
arates from their environment without
record, making them thus valueless to
science, and barriers them for groceries
at the nearest center store or sells them
piecemeal to the infrequent tourist. The
honest farmer carts away the walls from
ditch. '-1
| "Worst Of all is the fendish treasure
hunter. He it is who fondly imagies that
a treasure of gold and silver is hidden
under Aztec ruins The fact that the
use of metals was absolutely unknown
to the neolithic aborigines of our South.
not. He it is who undermines watch.
tower and estufa; whose blasting pow.
der wrecked the two gigantic stone lions
of the Potrero de los Idolos; and near
the Rito de los Frijoles he has blasted
into fragments row equal in length tt
a modern block of tiny pre-Columbia1
cliff homes, whose neat stone walls and
| well-preserved mortar and plaster had biz
defiance to the centuries.
Public interest and indignation are al
last aroused, and we see the small be
ginning which we trust will end in the
protection and preservation of all that is
left of the pre-Columbian antiquities OF
the Southwest. In California a band Of
earnest workers under the leadership Of
Charles F.. Lummis are rescuing the
ruined Indian mission churches, so Ions
given. over to desolation and decay. II
Arizona, when some iconoclast attempted
to remove the foundations of Montezu
mas castle in the Verdi valley, thu
sheriff was promptly sent to arrest hin
on the charge of defacing public build
ings."
Under the leadership of Mrs. McClur,
the committee of women has considered
beginning with the Mesa Verdi, Skeleton
of plateau, honey -combed with canyons
lying about forty miles from Durango
Col, where in the side canyons O.
the Mancoss are to be found from 3O(
to 400 cliff dwellings. Here are the stu
"brownstone front''-the finest specimen,