The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-06-03

learned to demand English pounds
sterling or American dollars. That is.
they name their first prices in sOVeT-
eigns and dollars and then gradually
work down to piasters. l saw a native
trying TO sell a scarab to a tourist His
first price was CT, equivalent TO $50.
After a half hour of haggIing he had
cut it to Z piasteTs. or s. cents, and the
deal was contaminated.
The old city Of Thebes was q large
end hUstling metropolis, surrounded by
Z. high wall of a hundred gates. with
countless regiments of soldiers march
ing out to conquer distant lands and
bring back slaves in little patches of
$4,000 or so. This was along about 1000
b G. The city began TO lose some of
its Importance d few centuries before
the Christian era and dWindled in size
until twenty years ago it was a mere
village of hUtS nesting in the shade of
the great temples. Then the tourist
travel set in very heavily, and today
Luxor is a hustling city with large
hotels and fancy shops and a general
air of prosperity The magnificent tenn
pie of LUXOR is in the very heart of the
new city. The rambling temple Of
Karnak is a short donkey ride to the
north and across the river. some three
miles to the west. there are more tenn
pies and shattered statues and the
wonderful tombs Of the kings. In olden
days there was a broad avenue leading
north to kaTHak and thence west to the
valley in the desert where the kings
were buried, and this boulevard was
guarded on either side, for the entire
distance. by huge TecUmbent Sphinxes
carved out of granite. Can you i'm
agine a double row Of gigantic figures
cTOuched on each side of the street
and about twenty feet apart all the
way up Broadway to Central Park and
then through the Park to Riverside
Drive and uD the drive to the distant
sUburbs2 If so, you will understand
to what an extent these old rulers
went in for sphinxes. Luxor cost
nothing and time did not count for any
thing and if a king wished to build an
avenue of sphinxes leading to his pri-
vate temple or tomb all he had to do
was to give the word.
As soon as a king mounted the throne
he began making his funeral prepara-
tons, and ordered the entire staff of
stone cutters to chisel out hierOgIyphs
explaining that he was great and good
and lust. and that he never took off
his hat to any one except the gods, and
then not ordinary picayune gods, but
only those of the very first magnitude.
According 70 the hierogIyphs. every
king that ruled in Egypt was as wise
as Solomon. as brilliant In military
strategy as Napoleon, and as hard on
the evildoer as our own beloved II. r.
This unanimous Outpouring of eulogy
is largely explained by the fact that ev-
cry memorial in honor of a ruler was
erected and supervised by that ruler
himself. It's a fact, Of all the count
less temples and oDelisks and godIike
granite figures and feStaI tOmbs cham
bers remaining in Egypt to testify to
the majesty and splendOr of the an
cient dynasties, every one vas built I'M
der the personal supervisor of the
man who gets all of the glory out of
the inscriptions. The succeeding gen
Grafton never got up subscription lists
10 build monuments TO statesmen or
military commanders. The dutiful and
loving son never ordered a memorial in
honor OF his illUstTiOus father. He was
too busy carving his own biography on
the sandstone and depicting himself as
pursuing the enemy or taking after
noon tea with naughty three headed
gods.
In old Egypt every king was his own
press aageut- These rulers could have
written some dandy 'perSC nal recollec-
tons for the magazines, because they
remembered all the incidents that
brought them to the centre of the stage
with the calcium turned on, and wisely
forgot all details calculated to injure
their standing with posteTity.
You take Ramese5 the Great. He is
regarded as perhaps the king pin of all
the rulers during Egypt's long period OF
national splendor Have you ever heard