The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-09-16

evef.suat6. * ha- had nc effect ~.
bringing the monarch aEi ne oe.so;.
closer together. and the severe defeats
which the Russian arms ave already
sustained canno fail TO exert a power
full influence in dissipating the glamour
,about the throne. and lesSening the
lslavish awe OF the great ~personages Of
the army, navy and the court. whom
the commo people now see TO be only
mortals, after all. and mortals Of very
common mould I do not see anything
ito justify the prediction which has
been made Of the speedy Transforms
ton Of Russia into a republic like
France Russia Is moi ready for &C
lradical a change. and such a revolution
would leave h country worse OF than
it ls today; but pure autocracy-the
lone man power-is doomed in the i'm
mense empire % the Slav.
A recent issue OF the Philadelphia
Record contains an interesting ccouE
lof the ANTIQUARIAN researches of Prof
lPetrie at Nansha, near Cairo.
ION the border Of the desert. OF which
the following are extracts:
Here II vas that he unearthed thu
vast buildings Of a temple which had
lbeen reconstructed five lime on the
lsame spot; at dates ranging from $500
lB. G. to A D. $50. n examples ara
Jul view OIL every pcTlOu. COIkcSlIuR VI
lencased tables, carved stones and car
Iitals OF pillars.
The greatest prize. however, Is q
small ~statuette OF pure gold. repre-
isenting the ram-headed god Herscnif.
with the finest moulding of muscles
and finish Of details. 1t first appeared
tas a gold speck in a cuttin. where II
found gold coins of the reign Of an
Egyptian queen. and many other GU
rios Of enhancing interest"
Reading the description of the vast
ruins. covering a whole district, elo-
iquent in their very desOlation of the
marvellous architecture of ages long
lpast. one recalls the fervid apostrophe
lof Phillips:
Il appeal to history! Tell me, thou
reverend c~hronicler. of the grave. "a
lall the illusions of ambition realized,
Jean all the wealth of an universal COM
Imerce, can all the achievements of sue
I~cessful heroism, or all the establish
lments Of this worlds wisdom, secur
Ito empire the permanency of it's pos
sessions? Alas. Troy thought so once;
Iyet the land of Persia ives only IN
lsong. Thebes thought SO once; yet her
hundred gates have and ne
ltombs are but as the dust they were
dinly intended to commemorate! So
;thought PALMYRA. the 'Tadmar of the
Iwiiderness'-where is she? So thought
the countries of Demosthenes and the
l~SpartanS; yet Leonidas is trampied
by the timiC slave, and Athens is in
Isulted by the servile. mindless cnervat-
led Ottoman! In his hurried march.
Thine has but looked upOn their imag-
lined immortality, and all their vanities
from the palace to the tomb, have.
with their ruins, erased the very inn
lpressionS of his footsteps"
Nrfrl. this - hnn,1 bat -oala~-
Icholy picture of the emptiness of hu-
jman ambition. the nothingness of hu-
man achievement!
1.-The spider hath woven its web in her
palaces,
And the owl hath SUM it's watch note
in the towers of Afrasiab."
Where are Tyre and Sidon. the great.
lopulent marts Of ancient wealth and
Icommercialism? The sad sea waves
Hap the sands of their desolate, desert
led ports, and seem to ask, Where are
lmy ships? Where are my ships ?"- as
1.-THE Roman emperor asked of his de-
Ifeated general, "Varus, Varus, wheEs
lare my ~legions?" Alas! alasi VIVA:
lis man, that thou art mindful OF him
lof the son of man that thou ~visitest
Ihim?"
No more interesting relic has beer
lrescued from the crumbling treasure
houses of antiquity, since Legrand
ldelved amid remains of great Nineveh
THAN this golden statue of the strang-
lest deity of the strangest system OF
mythology that ever unclaimed the i'm
iagination and challenged the faith of
imam. 1t was to find the shrine of this
Iram-headed H~erschiff, centuries before,
THAT the King SesoStriS sent two arm
led expeditions to explore the Businesses
LOT tho "nIInfninS ~,
l-Abyssinia, which claims to be
lone Of the first of the ma
ltions Of the earth to embrace the re-
Iligion of Jesus Christ. The Egyptian
monarch, a lineal descendent Of Sci
Twas moved by jealousy to put forth
1.-THE power Of his arm to discover and
Ioverturn the temple of the strange god.
I'VE find a remarkable parallel to tniq
lin the ambition which inspired the
youthful c~onquerer, Alexander Thu
IGreat to go in quest of the temple OF
Jupiter Ammon, somewhere in the
wastes of Africa, of the tribes lfvina
lalong the Nile.
There is an old, trite adage, a teeth.
worn saw that truth is stranger
THAN fiction" Some of the worlds mis-
tory Is stranger than aught in ths
pages of romance, stranger than any
thing that the most vivid fancy, The
tmost exuberant imagination could
lfabricate to tax the credulity of man
THE Jupiter Tonans of Mount Olympus
1.-THE central reigning god of the deitie:
lof Roman mythology, was the son o
lSaturn and Rhea. who rebelled againsI
his father, forcing Saturn to surrender
Ito him the dominion of the earth
(which he shared with his brothers
igiving the ocean to Neptune and haI
Ito Pluto. But Jupiter Ammon. who's,
temple on the sands of Libya fired tn,
imagination of the great Alexander
Twas the e of the Greeks. the Am.
lmon of the Egyptians. He was a NOR
ltal, deified after death, one of the son!
lof Noah-none other than Ham. tn.
ip~rogenitor of the despised negro. In,
I"hewer of WOOD and drawer of water
flor successive centuries of civilization
This Is history and it is wonderful
lenough, but the miraculous part is =
lcome which will explai nmy discursive
mess under this cad
The reader will bear in mind tn L
the inscription on the statuette .
lHerschiff recently found in the ruin.
Inear Cairo. have a date of 700 B. c
In 1491 B. c., 791 years before that, Sc