Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-03

| umn OF polished granite as big around AZ
the boiler of railroad locornotiy. ana a.
| high as ten-story fiat. II consists Of on
SOLD block of stone. standing straiCn. m
| on pedestal. 1t was dug out OF the GUAR.
ries OF Assouan far up the Nile valley and
was brought down the river on RATS ana
ilfted In some way or other to It's rres.n,
| position An evidence of it's mod, m origin
Is now to be seen in the excavations which
| the antiquarians are making about the
| pedestal During the past fcV months
they have been digging IN the earth FAR he
| low Its foundation and have taken out sev-
eral massive stone sphinxes TIE ads OF
some of which are still wrapped IN cloths I'm
order TO protect them from injury until
they can be taken to the museums oc this
city and Cairo. shall send home photo
graph which have just made OF one or
| these sphinXes.
They date back TO the old Alexandria and
were chiseled out several hundred years
before Joseph and Mary took the little baby
Jesus on an ass across the desert into this
valley of the Nile that he might not he
killed by Herod the King
1t was S32 years before Christ was born
that this city was founded by Alexander the
Great. and venture that il then had more
people than it has today. 1t was not only
great commercial port. but was center OF
learning, religion and art. 1t Is said to
have had the grandest library of antiquity
Its manuscripts numbered 100000 and ar
lists and students came here from every
where to study. At the time OF the Caesars
III
| taken by the Arabs. along about Gal AID,
1t had 1900 palaces. 400 public baths. 400
places of amusement and l2.o0 gardens.
When Alexander the Great founded il he
brought in colony of Jews. AMI at the
| time the Mohammedans came the Jewish
quarter had forty thousand.
scraped Bones With Oyster Shells.
1t was at Alexandria that St. Mark first
preached Christianity to the Egyptians. and
later on the city became one OF the Chris
tian centers of the world. 1t was there that
Hypatia lived, and It was there that the
Christian monks led by Peter the aader
tore her from her chariot as she was about
to go into heather temple to worship and
massacred her. They scraped her flesh
from her bones with oyster shells, and then
tore her limb from limb.
1t was here in Alexandria that Cleopatra
corrupted Caesar and later brought
Marc Antony to a suicidal grave. There
are carvings of Cleopatra still to be seen on
some of the Egyptian temples far up the
Niie, and have a photograph OF one which
is still In good preservation in the Temple
of Denderah. Its features are Greek rather
than Egyptian and she was Greek by her
ancestry rather than a Simon-pure daugh-
ter of the Nile. She was not noted for her
beauty. but she had such a wonderful
charm OF manner, sweetness OF voice and
brilliancy of intellect that she was able to
frt with and captivate the greatest men OF
her time.
Cleopatra's first Roman love was Julius
Caesar who had come to Alexandria to
settle the claims of herself and brother to
the throne of Egypt. Her father. who was
one Of the Ptolemies, had left his throne at
his death TO herself and younger brother
and according to custom the two were to
marry and reign together. One OF the
brothers. guardians, however, had de-
throned Cleopatra; he had banished her
and she was not in Egypt when Caesar
came. 1t is not known whether 1t was at
Caesars request or not, but the story goes
that she made her way back secretly to
Alexandria, and was carried inside a bed
tick on the back of servant to Caesars
apartments and thus presented to the
mighty Roman. She so delighted him that
he put her back upon the throne, and
when he left for Rome some time later
he took her along and kept her there for
a year or SO. When Caesar was murdered,
Cleopatra who had returned to Egypt,
| made conquest of Marc Antony and she
| remained his sweetheart from that time
up to- the day when he committed suicide
upon the report that she had killed herself.
This was after Antony had been conquered
by Octavanus, his brother-in. law; and 1t
is said that Cleopatra tried to capture the
heart of Octavianus, before she herself
committed suicide by putting the poisonous
asp to her breast.
FRANK @. CARPENTER