Arizona republican., 1899-03-31

levels, etc. The fact remains that they did do it and did it well.
 The question is frequently asked. what became of these prehistoric peo- pie? This question is put in many forms and many means of destruction are offered in answer, such as famine, disease, earthquake, eXtermination by war etc. None of these calamities are necessary to answer the question. In the first place they are not gone. The present pueblo people are rem nants of the vast population that in habited Arizona, embracing probably the longest period of mans existence on the earth. They have disappeared in obedience to the laws of evolution just as the Latin races are now disap- bearing.
 These laws of development, decay and final extinction affect all alike. None escape. It is the same with the human as it is with the molusk, whose fossil remains we find in the rocks We have stated that the ancient AriZoni ans were a civilized people. This statement requires some qualification, otherwise we might be misunderstood. There is no doubt but that there has always existed some barbarous and un- civilized people on this continent The people under discussion were the civi- lized ones. They were very ancient and belonged to or were contemporane- ous with the Maya civilization that eX- isted in Yucatan. The relics are so similar that relationship between the two cannot be doubted. While we do not find the extensive cities, canals, Statuary, etc, we do find identicaliy the same religious symbols.
 When this Maya civilization four ished no one pretends as yet to fix date. Six hundred years before Christ the Egyptian priest told Solon that it had been nine thousand years since it's destruction. The palatial buildings, large cities, the Statuary, the libraries found at the time of the conquest, A. D. 1419 to 1421, and destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores would seem to indicate that they were literary. The statuary, much of which remains to- day, shows a high state of art. The remains of parks, geological and bot anical gardens shows them to have been a people of great refinement. Of this wonderful civilization Arizona formed part. Even today gone may witness ceremonies among our pueblo people that carries one back to those days of dim and distant antiquity.
 The inscriptions on the rocks and cliffs generally known as hieroglyphics
  meaning of many of these are known, others are being deciphered and some day 1t may be possible to read the his | tory of people whose past is now al- most a blank Many of these charac- | ters, when examined and compared | with the ancient Egyptian are found | to be ident:eally the same; others are | compounded by adding several together | and still others are peculiar to them | selves, being unlike characters used | by any other people.
 The study of archaeology is intensely | interesting to students in this branch | of science, and in deciphering these characters, the decorations on pottery and the carved charms and amulets of bone, shell and stone, and in the study of the designs of buildings, tenn pies and earth works he finds his keen est pleasure. These open up the aven- ues to the greater fields of religious sociology and daily habits of life.
 It is this wonderful field of unwrit- ten, undeciphered literature that the Antiquarian association asked the Twentieth legislature to protect for the coming generations and which they refused to do because the present generation wishes to make all the money 1t can out of the sale of such articles as have market value. Even the rocks bearing these records are be- ing broken up and used in walls. Such a state of things exists almost in the shadow of enc of our greatest educa- tional institution
 A It is frequently said that the prehis- hric Americans were ignorant saw
 es. This is not true. They have left
 kritten history which in our ignOr-
 we are unable to read.
 ere is scarcely an article used by
 he pattern of which cannot be
 cated in any good collection of
 storic relics. They anticipated us
 most every article of wearing ap-
 articles of household use and
 other things that 1 omit for want
 ace
 submit the following letter from
 of the foremost teachers i'll Ari-
 The letter fully explains itself
 shows the great advantage to be
 ed from broader and deeper edu-
 Pn than is now given:
 Tempe, ATiz., March g, 1899.
 Ny Dear Dr. Miller: I have just parned that the legislature has refused Db pass the bill which provided for the of the antiquities of Ari- l5na
 I canot help writing to you to ex- press my regret. We hear great deal today about patriotism. We have hoisted a flag over every school house and have draped our walls with the na- Lional colors. We keep the children singing national anthems and memorizing patriotic verse. 1 have no objection to any part of this, but l have never believed it to be the best way to make patriots. "A child loves 7 1is fathers house because he knows it. Every tree, every fence, every build ng is part of the family history. The ,hild will show you his favoTite nook, 1 he tree that mother planted or the { path that father cut. As ma he will {; 'eturn to kiss with tears the tI%e made l