The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1902-10-03
LIES TOLD BY HISTORY.
Babylon Was n Small City of Mud
Hovels and Colossus of Rhodes
Smaller Than Liberty

Just as, some 80 years back, Signor
Florelli uncovered for US the ruins of
Pompeii, thereby enabling US to form
very excellent idea of the appearance
of a Roman town of the first century
of the Christian era, so, during the
three years past, have the Germans
been uncovering ancient Ba bylon, says
Stray Stories.
The results have been, though scien-
tifically interesting, somewhat disap-
pointing, for the city has proved to be
by no means either so magnificent or
so extensive as popular imagination
has already pictured it.
Indeed, DR.. Koldwey, who is in charge
of the excavations, asserts positively
that the famous walls were certainly
not more than eight miles in circum-
ference.
Nor is this all. For not only was the
city comparatively Insignificant as re-
CARDS size, but even it's Wanted splen-
dor and wealth Of architectural detail
could, the doctor declares, have had no
real existence. Sun dried mud bricks
constituted the only building material
available, and large or imposing edi
fees could not possibly have been con-
structed by their aid alone.
In reality the explorers have con-
WINGED themselves, by actual measure
ment, that not even in NebuchaGnez-
zar's royal palace was there single
private apartment which would be
considered large enough nowadays for
1oI rse
room was the banqueting hall. where
in occurred the "Mene, Meme, Tekel
Upharsin" incident, and this was bare
ly so feet long. The houses of the
common people were mere novels. So
persisted a cherished illusion.
1t is probably the same with not
few of the semimythical wonders of
olden times. The famous Colossus of
Rhodes, for instance, which has given
a d-"colossal"-to the English
language, and which was esteemed one
of the seven wonders of the world,
if standing to-day would be quite
dwarfed by the gigantic statue of Lib
erty erected at the entrance to New
York harbor.
The temple tomb erected by Queen
Artemisa of Halicarnassus to the mem
of her husband, Mausolus, was certain
ly inferior, at all events in point of
mere size, to many similar modern
structures. Yet it, like the Rhodes
statue. has given a word-"mausole-
unto our language, and was &C
counted one of the wonders of the an
,ient world.
The schoolboy of the last generation
used to picture the Great Harry, the
famous battleship of Henry Wis
reign, as only trifle inferior ia size to
the Great Eastern; and the schoolboy
Of to-day doubtless conjures up vi
sion of something between an ocean
liner and a modern ironclad.
AS matter of fact, she was more
like an overgrown Chinese junk, was so
unwieldy that thrice within year she
came near to capsizing in calm wealth
er, and she certainly did not exceed
LOCO tons burden. Her total cost was
$4,000, sum which, even allowing
for the difference in the value of
money, would now be deemed altogeth-
er inadequate for the building and
equipment of one of the smallest of
cruisers.
True, we moderns have never built
Great Pyramid; but that is because
this unitarian age has no use for great
pyramids. An infinitely more stuPen-
ious work is, however, being under
taken at this present jmoment in the
incient land of the Pharaohs.
The new Nile reservoir involves the |
construction of two gigantic dams |
across the river, the one at Assouan |
and the other at Assiout, and which |
will, when completed, add millions of
acres to the area now available for !
cultivation.
Sixteen thousand men are busy at |
his titanic task, and it win absorb all |
heir energies for period of five |
5ears. By the time they have finished
{ is estimated that they will have han |
Led thrice as much material as is con- |
aimed in the whole of the 75-odd pyra |
nids. big and little, of which Egypt |
,oastc.
Biographies printed not more than |
years ago declare Picking to be a |
anger and more popuioLs city than |
london. We know now that its alleged
plendor Is myth, that its size Is |