The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-02-21

of scale, a giant himself, summoned
/ this giant from out of the solid rock
as nature had put it there. Such men
| who not alone gave beauty and finish
| TO heads OF this gigantic size, but could
with barbaric tools, without model or
/ pointer hew them out alb initio from
the natural rock, were the Angeles of
their day.
The head of the Sphinx before the
beard had fallen off and the royal asp
on top of the royal head-dress had dis
appeared, measured from tip to
tip thirty feet. almost the hight of
the ceiling in this gallery.
In the otherwise vacant space in
the foreground to the right, 1 have put
a group of figures TO balance my com
position. l could have chosen
Arabs performing one of the
chief duties of faithful Moslems,
praying 'Ka liza ha illallah.' (Allah
is greaD, and (Mahomet is his pro-
pheD, which would have made an in
teresting and picturesque embellish-
ment but would have detracted from
the interest of the great Art Landmarks
of Civilization which IL was my aim
to portray, give the impress force
which they convey and bring to those
who may not have the opportunity to
see them III reality. a faithful, realistic
and artistic reproduction on canvas.
The group which l have put in is
an accurate portrayal of my first in
terview with the Sphinx. l made sew
eral sketches from different points and
found that directly in front and lit
tie to the right of the Sphinx
the best and most satisfactory
view from an artistic standpoint
is obtained.
Natures Grand Sights.
There are many sights in nature
which for their beauty and grandeur
take away ones breath when a first
view IS had. | remember well when,
many years ago, travelling from Paris
to Switzerland 1 beheld for the first
time in my life the 'Berner Oberland'
with its magnificent snow-clad Alps
as we passed over the Jura-chain. 1t
was perfect day. At our feet lay the
placid lake of Neufchatel. In the mid
die distance the foothills of the Bern
and Thua. then in the background the
Wetterhcrn, the Eiger, the Moench and
the Jungfrau rose majestically in opal
escent color high up to the sky, and so
tender were the tints of the blushed
snow, their eternal mantel. so
delicate the shadow depths of
the rugged ravine scarcely deeper in
tone than the blue sky itself in which
they appeared to be suspended that the
~
mirage than solid ice and rock, leaping
waterfalls, meandering glacier stream,
dusky depths of forest of fire and YER
dant meadow on terra firma.
The Great Pyramid with it's mys-
tic fabulous monster companion, in
other ways, of marvellous interest, does
not present such an appearance, nor is
1t the exquisite display of colors such
as one sees from the Rivierce di
a hlf
Monaco of the distant Mount Rosa
and Mount Blanc with the indiscrib-
able blue of the Mediterranean Sea,
in the foreground, or the mimi
table colouring of the Bay
of Corinth viewed from the
sunMnit of Olonos with the islands of
Ithaka and zante in the distance.
The sunlit golden sand of the Libyan
Desert is soft in color and fades into
purple hues near the horizon The
shadows are deep, the reflections
through the dry, clear atmosphere of
the deep blue sky above gives them the
transparence of the lustrous thing of
the Mosque Omar, and it would be
difficult to find anywhere else just
such an effect as seen here, but it is
not the poetic and magic dream of the
'Berner Oberland' seen from Juras'
brow. 1t is the overwhelming effect
of the unexpected bulk of the Great
Pyramid towering over ones head
as one ascends the plateau
from the Nile valley that makes
one pause is wonder of the great labor
required to build such a huge pile when
one thinks that the stone, brought from
a great distance, some of the blocks
weighing more than fifty tons, would
make a wall two hundred and fifty
miles long and ten feet high. It's base
is 1853 feet long in each direction, and
its hight was originally 4S2 feet. It
was the highest building in the world
before the Eiffel Tower in Paris was
built. One hundred thousand men toiled
for twenty years to construct 1t. In
the interior about 200 feet from the
base is the Kings chamber rooted with
enormous slabs of granite 1872 feet in
length, weighing 60 tons. To move
single one of these up to the plateau on
polished and creased causeway and
then to the additional hight
of this chamber, required about
from nine hundred to a thousand men
harnessed in four rows and worked
under the lash like ordinary cattle.
That the progress was slow and pain
fuily laborious one can readily per-
ceive.
is the fellah of to-day, who is an
Industrious laborer in his own fields,
more content than his enslaved ances-
tor? One must judge by his belief in
that all the comforts and luxuries we
now enjoy will be counterbalanced by
torments hereafter.