Barbour County index., 1904-11-09
MoNoLITHs OF THE WORLD
Lofty Shafts Of Stone Erected in Va
rious Countries Which Are Sur
rounded with Mystery.

Among the greatest mysteries in tn.
mystery of human history on earth the
monoliths that stand in various parts
Df the globe have always been chief.
says the Chicago Chronicle.
These strange stone monuments, gen.
orally rude with hardly any sculpture,
out wonderfully large in size, are scat
tered everywhere. The most famous Of
them are the cromlechs, such as those
in Stonehenge in England. Others are
found in the western part of France in
the northern part Of Germany as lar
as the Oder river, in Denmark and in
Sweden
Northern Africa, Madagascar and
Asia, from Mount Sinai and the Cau-
casus to India, all have some here and
there.
Lately they have been discovered even
IN Siberia. There are several places IN
Japan where such stones stand.
Others have been found in North and
South America Among the most Won
derful and mysterious of them all are
the vast, almost terrifying. stones, rude
ly sculptured, that have been found on
lonely Easter island in the Pacific ocean
The mystery as to what these stones
meant was not the only puzzle The
greatest puzzle was how primitive peo-
pie without knowledge Of engineering
and without known appliances could
have moved and erected such giant
blocks, some of which weigh as much as
2oO tons. In many districts where the
great memorials stand there are nc
stones of such size to be found in the
earth. Consequently they must have
been transported from places long dis
tances away.
For many generations. ever since men
nave spent any time in thinking over
these matters, scientists have puzzled
their heads over the monoliths in vain
Whether they classed them as all BEING
he same, or whether they divided them
into different classes, they remained
the same riddle
Lately, however, there has been a sys-
lematic study of all the monolith me-
MORALS of the world, and as result
novel theory has been advanced.
1t is that one race-that of the Phoeni-
cians-erected all these monuments.
Of course, If this is correct it means
that history will have to be revised for
it would show that the Phoenicians once
knew all about the whole globe, and that
they had visited America and Asia long
before modern days.
The first thing that led to the assump-
ton that the Phoenicians had raised
the monuments was the observation of
NJ. Levistre, French archaeologist,
that almost all the monoliths were to
be found near the mouths of great rivers
or along their courses. This pointed to
a people that used ships
Now the Celts were never strong on
the water. Their boats were primitive.
being made mostly of wicker work COW
cred with hides, and they were unable
to move any distance from land in these
clumsy and unseaworthy contrivances.
Consequently, when the question arose
as to what race was advanced in navi-
cation in that early time when these
monuments were put up. the answer nat
urally came that the only race known
to be race of sailors and merchants
then was the race Of Phoenicians.
And if they were the Phoenicians, how
did they come to reach America? They
had colonies on the islands of the west
arn Mediterranean and even in the is
lands of the Atlantic ocean. as history
proves. It is not hard to imagine that
they may have found their way to Amer
ca.
Some archaeologists are even willing
to believe that they reached America by
way of the lost Atlantis, that legendary
continent that is now sunken somewhere
n the Atlantic ocean, if it ever existed.
At any rate. the theory that the Phoe-
nicianS were the erectCrs Of the mono
iths of the world, to commemorate dis
coveries or for religious purposes. has
gained strength through the recent dis
:overy OF great upright stone near the
River Loire, which has Phoenicisn
words engraved deeply on it. Trans
lated, these words say: "On this spot
was slain our brave comrade"
In San Luis. in Bolivia. is one of these
stones. which has on it the engraving
Of foot print and snake with it's head
'aised. The foot print is a well-known
Phoenician symbol of death, and is
found on many stones that cover ancient
Phoenician burial sites. And the snake
with head raised is another ecknowl
edged Phoenician emblem It signifies
march forward. Exactly the same
symbols as those On the South American
stone have been found on a stone ip
central France.