The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-21
LONGS FOR HOME.
Judge TheOdOsius Botkin Writes
of His Travels.
Expects to Come to Topeka
Next Fall.
SEEN MUCH OF WORLD
Marvels at the Customs of the
Ancients.
SEEN MUCH OF WORLD
Is Now American Consul at
Campbellt0n, New Brunswick.


From the American consulate at
Campbellton, New Brunswick, Judge
Theodosius Botkin formerly of Kansas.
now in the American diplomatic service.
has written most entertaining letter
to his old wartime friend. P. H Coney,
of this city.
Judge Botkin was 'in" on much of
the strenuous history of Kansas He
presided over district court in western
Kansas with a rifle at his side, he was
the star performer of an impeachment
trial before the state senate, he was
accused of responsibility for the Sam
Woods murder, and was the center of
things in southwestern Kansas when
might meant right. He also served a
term in the legislature.
His letter to P. H Coney says in part:
Say, Pat, dog my CATS if 1 would
not like to drop in on a lot of old timers
some evening at the Copeland and find
each chair filled, and all at home once
more. That would be for myself one of
the most enjoyable reunions, to meet
those old tried and true friends, and re-
call a whole lot of ancient history, but
better yet to recall those of the old
timers who have gone to higher and
serener lives beyond the tomb. Grand
y.
haps I may have an opportunity next
fall to spend day or so in Topeka In
that case 1 shall want a big barrel of
bright red paint freshly mixed for the
old town will get it sure. and we'll all
about thirty Of uS-take a supper to-
getler, and bid the stranger go chase
himself while we will revel in the pleas
ures of the auld lang syne.
Since l last visited Topeka I have
seen much Of the world, and of it's glor-
les and shams, much of it's ancient as
well as present splendors, and these old
frost-bitten feet have trod the quaint
streets of Gibraltar and the boulevardS
and gardens of Naples, and have stood
in the long buried reception rooms and
council chambers of the senators of
ancient Rome, who built their pleasure
houses at Pompeii I have stood in awe
before the crum bled affairs of their old
gods, who were powerless to save. I
have climbed on the trfumphal arches
of Nero and Caligula, and seen the cells
where the gladiators and lions were
kept and fed. and the arena where
despairing thousands of early Chris
tians were sacrificed. / have gazed on
the island beach where Gree and her
siren sisters lived the unhappy COM
panions of the wandering Ulysses TO
their doom. have trod the hot sands
of Egypt along that old highway where
marched the conqueriflg legions of that
y
turned civilization whose monuments
and mechanical arts are today the SUI
premest wonder and admiration of ar
tisans. have climbed the sides of old
Cheops, and gazed in rapture up and
down the valley Of the Nile, and tried
to count the monuments and pyramids
in sight from that one point. I have
stood for an hour on top of the old
Roman mud-brick wall in front of the
Sphinx, and gazed into that most mar
vellouS face that ever art ch1Sled from
granite. I have threaded the narrow
aisles of the Royal Egyptian museum,
and gazed with astonishment upon the
thousand different things collected
there as evidence of the almost unbe-
Iievable heights of that old civilization
that was hoary with age when Joseph
was a babe. I have gazed on a thou
sand wonders of land and sea, and on
those green island gems that stud the
Mozambique channel Volcanoes, active
and extinct. Beds of ancient rivers
which have been waterless for thou
sands of years. Peoples whose habits
of thought, dress and manner, and
whose food and manner of preparing
and eating it. are the same today they
were in the days of Abraham. The
same old camel and the same old
droop-horned COW are pulling the same
old wooden stick pillow, the same old
nanny goats are coming in nightly to
and the same women wear the same
yelled faces they did in the days of
Baalam. Fish are still cooked on the
same old fiat stone, heated in a fire of
camel chip, and the same old goat skin
of water hangs at the side of the same
old servant CT the same old Arab chief,
who carries the same old staff wears
the same old gown and head dress, be-
girt with the same old rope, and his
feet protected with the same old san
dals.
Ancient Works of Art
IT have seen the works of art of a
of Persia, whose ancestors, perhaps ten
thousand years ago made the same
things, no better and no worse, deco
rated them in the same way, and sold
them for the same price in dried fish
and lentils that they doy today. An
English officer showed me two ash cups,
really intended for spices or comfits.
At first glance they seem quite COM
monplace. But hold one of them up
where the light from lamp or the
sun will strike them, and then look.
The light of course, is reflected from
the surface, but if you were to take
the evidence of appearances as your
criterion, that light is reflected from
a great depth as from the bottom of a
we'll During all those thousands Of
years the secret of mixing that paint
and varnish has been transmitted from
father to son, and none other in the
world has ever known the secret.
81 have seen the fre-wOrshippers at
their orgies; the Fetch worshipper and
his snake skin, dried lizard, toad or