The Topeka state journal., 1899-04-11
s. Barnum
Dry Goods and
Carpet Co.
OIO Kansas Avenue.
DAM OVER THE NILE.
} Kansas Avenue.

[London Cor. Philadelphia Times1
Less than $50 miles northwest from
Mt. Sinai, to which the Lord descended
in a fire and said, Remember the Sab
bath day and keep it holy" Queen Vic
toria's third son. the Duke of Con-
naught. few Sundays ago laid the
mortar on the foundation stone for the
greatest work Egypt has seen since the
Pyramids were built.
The structure thus begun is the dam
across the Nile at Assouan, and is to
be the biggest thing of the kind in the
world. 1t will bring to the land of the
Pharaohs the greatest change it has
known since Moses, Graded in the
waters of this same old Nile, led the
children of Israel out of this same old
Egypt.
Comparatively little has been said
about the wonderful work now going on
at AssOuan as fast as 5000 wOrkmen
and an army of engineers can push it,
because the scene of operations is so
far away from the newspapers. 1t is
800 miles south from Alexandria and
twenty-fOur hours journey by rail from
Cairo. Hence it has not been generally
realized that the purpose of this dam
is to turn $500 square miles of Egypt
a district more than half the size of the
state of Connecticut-from desert into
a garden so fertile that three crops a
year can be raised on it. Egypts pro-
ductive capacity will be increased one
fourth, and it is said that her output of
raw sugar will be at least doubled.
There is one feature of this vast en-
terprise that will break the heart of the
archaeOlOgiSt and cause the tourist to
weep. John Bull made a few caustic
comments on American lack of poetry
and sentiment when it became appar-
ent that the diversion of great Quanti
ties of water from above Niagara falls
for the manufacture of electricity to
turn all the wheels in the neighbOrhood
might interfere with the beauty of the
cataract to which all the world and his
wife go on their wedding journey. What
then shall be said of John Bull and his
dam on the Nile, for, in spite of all
equivocatiOns. it seems to be certain
that this practical enterprise is going
to spoil the ruins of the temple of Phllae,
which stand on a tiny island in the
river, just above the dam and within
sight of it.
There was such hue and cry at first
about the impending doom of this little
garden spot of Egypt's ancient gods
that the engineers looked around a sec
ond time for some other location for the
dam. but there was no other place
where nature had done so much to save
expenses as on the present site, and so
the matter was compromised by plan
ming to make the dam seven feet lower
than had been originally intended. APP
parently the only result will be that the
precious old ruins will not be quite so
far under water. as they otherwise
would have been, which, no doubt, is
highly gratifying.
The Philae temples are said to be the
finest existing specimens of ancient
Egypt's sacred places, and besides, was
not Osiris, best and greatest of Egypt's
gods, buried there? The priests in the
temple of Isis, who was the wife of
Osiris and also the Venus of Egypt,
said he was, and were not disturbed
because he was also buried in other
places, for he was slain by his brother
Set, cut in pieces, thrown into the Nile
and afterwards brought to life again by
the loving care of Isis. Having as
sumed the privilege of dying once more.
it reasonably follows that he is entitled
to more than one burial place.
The chief of the Philae remains is the
Great Temple of Isis, built between 222