Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-06-08


the throne; the widow of the great
king, and one who admired all his
acts. No place then existing was
grand enough, or good enough, for the
body of the king. and so this queen Of
fered premiums for designs Of tomb.
Many plans came to the Office of the
man who had been made chief archi-
tect, but none was accepted. Again
the plans came in, and they were
grander, but none suited the queen.
''Then a plan came in different from
all that had come before. 1t was a
building, and yet not a building. The
four corners were set at the four points
of the compass, and the massive walls
of stone ran to point at the top and
made the Pyramid we see today. In
the depth of this great house was the
place for the king, faced with marble
and alabaster and stone stairs, and be-
low was another chamber, grand in its
simplicity, for the queen. And this
was the one chosen.
Then came the question of the
architect, for the architect was to be
the superintendent of construction. A
slave, bent with age, wrinkled and
gray, and tottering, came. All his life
he had spent on this design. But there
was no son in this old mans house to
carry on the work, and the slave was
too aged and feeble to begin. So it
came about that the chief architect of
the queen was told to construct the
Pyramid according to the designs of
the Hebrew.
Years were spent in quarrying the
stone for the walls and chambers of
the tomb. The queen died and the de-
- !, z1 = -
for he was much honored and enriched
by royalty. A new overseer was set
on the work and the slaves came to
live in tents and huts on the bank of
the Nile beside the city of Gizeh. Then
the work began. Taskmasters were
set over the men and these men were
told off to dig the foundation to the
rock below the sands and to toll with
the stone like oxen, from the great
quarries up the Nile to the fiat boats
on the waters of the river, and others
swarmed across the lowlands of the
| valley tugging at the same great stones
of the walls until at last the whole
country seemed filled with slaves.
Many, many years were consumed
in the building of the tomb, nor were
any alive at the finishing who saw the
beginning either as a babe or q grown
man. Many taskmasters came and
went and each one was harder upon
the slaves than the man who had gone
before. Year by year the Hebrews
toiled, bending their necks to the ropes
and lifting the great weights, with
their bare feet pattering through the
streets of the city while they silently
and sullenly answered the masters.
AT last the carver came and put his
| inscriptions in the solid stone and told
his story of the great king and of the
queen, his consort; stories that have
lived on the marble in the chambers of
the king and queen to this day.
"AII was done The whole pyramid
was faced from the sand of the desert
| to the apex with marble, pure and
white, cut from the quarries of the
cataracts and noated in nat boats down
| the Nile until the whole shown far
across the desert and all the people
| were pleased The body OF the king
was lifted from its temporary resting
place and put In q marble cof1n on q
pedestal in the kings chamber and the
queens body was placed IN stone cof-
| I'm on a pedestal in the queens cham
Der and all was closed up and sealed
with the great seal of the kingdom
Years and years passed by. The
slaves grew stronger In number. At