The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-10-14

iOIS lEeTeCN, stepped from ESypC INTO
Europe. The great palace of Minos-the
original of the labyrinth of the myths
remooeled upon still earlier royal dwell
ings which go back more than 1000 years
before cur era. So that civilization
reached the easternmost island Of Europe
long ago. and after 5000 years native
of the westernmost island has revealed
the facts with spade. 1t almost seems
shame that some of these priceless and
unique finds of his should not find home
In the British museum: but, remember
ing the permanent disgrace which at
taches to our possession of the ElE~3
marbles-sna:ched by Lord Elgin from
the parthenon-we may say it is right
that these things should find a home in
Crete But 1t ought certainly to be called
the Evans museum.
Last winter the Royal academy gave an
exhibition of what it called odd Masters"
at Burlington house. In an odd room, by
way of a side show, they arranged some
Of DR.. Evans finds at knossos There.
If they had known it, was the Oldest
master of them all, Daedalus. the founder
of fine art. There is nothing in Egyptian
or Babylonian art to correspond with the
work Of Daedalus Frescoes were there,
showing King llinos' female toreados.
clad with very little else than extremely
tight corsets and literally applied cos
metics-for tight lac.ng and rougeing. as
these prove We're customs inoculated N
European civilization in Its cradle, mar
Velously cut canoes. equal to the work
done thousands of years later; delicately
chased jars: statuettes of running boys
and flying birds-these We're some of the
artistic treasures. Then there was a
plan of Mino's palace. showing the san
itary arrangements conceived by Daeda-
lus, and better than anything we had in
thiS country until few years ago. Yet
an odd paragraph here and there was all
the notice the professional art critics took
OF the most interesting exhibition that
has been seen everywhere for years
since then DIR. Evans has been lecturing
at the Royal institution on the clay
| archives which he found at Knossos
no" he finds time to do everything !
know not. He has been hampered not
| only by the weather but by the lack of
funds. while a German professor, work
ing at things thousand years younger
IN Greece. is literally supported by the
German government. Our own govern
ment has not given DR.. Evans twopence
to help discoveries which have remade
| ancient history
We'll, 1t appears that the letters were
evolved on Cretan soil from the pictur-
esque writing imported from Egypt. If
you nave never done so think What the
| letter means today. Excepting, perhaps.
the wheel. ii Is easily the most Important
invention in history. So we owe the let
ters to Crete. The Chinese gave us an
! instance OF what this means. Every one
knows that they have made no progress
for ages. How can they, with an alpha-
| bet which consists of 4S 900 pictures and
takes lifetime to begin to learn? With
letters anything is possible. Today the
Chnaman paints two strokes or legs to
| represent man. and besides them an
| oblong figure ID represent mouth !;
| thereby he means "a man who stands
| hui Ia 10
proved. have Il European history alone of
1000 years. yet one-fourth of mankind
| Still writes in pict es today
spent long time studying the muscles
and veins of the Cretan forearm of GOO
years ago, as shown in some of DR.. Ev-
ans wonderful photographs Their ar
rangement is identical to the smallest de-
tail with that of the surface veins and
| muscles in the arm that writes these
words These statuettes continue, in my
opinion, the oldest exact anatomical rec
ords in the world. and my study of them
leads to the conclusion that in 1000 years
there has been no change in even the
| minute details of the forearm of man
In other words evolution, so far as it at
fects the body. has stopped The last
| great step was taken when man became
upright and could use the fore limbs upon
which his ancestors had walked for writ
ing, fiddle playing, invention and all the
other numberless uses to which we put
our hands. But the oldest anatomical evil
dence we possess, or are likely to nos
sess. proves that physical evolution has
stopped. and doubtless we shall lose our
teeth and nails. and may develop other
things II occasion needs. but the final
step has really been taken. The "sur-
vival of the tittest" in years to come will
mean the survival of the mentally and
morally tttest. Crete and Dr. Evans a.
any rate, have supplied us with presum-
tive evidence that no physical change Of
any real moment has occurred in the hui
man form during the past 1900 years
rms is perhaps the most unlikely of all
the wonderful discoveries of which Dr.
Evans had only an inkling when he first
pushed spade into that island hill.