The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-05-16
ADANA IS LAND
OF MASSACRES
Country Swept By Fire And
SWord For Centuries
ST. PAUpS OLD HOME
Ever Since Days of Alexander and
Pompey 1t Has Been District of
Destruction-Some An
cient Ruins.
From the New York Post.

From the New York Post.
There is nothing like personal familiar
ity with locality to arouse a real interest
In news concerning 1t even if that news
be of so startling a character as to merit
the name of a massacre. Poor Adana!
There was a time when knew its broad
wheat fields, silvery streams, luxuriant
gardens and the wild mountains that hem
the fertile valley in, for 1 went there in
a smart corvette and fetched away a
marble sarcophagus that had held the re-
mains of a Roman princess for 1000 years
and more before it came to be a show
piece in the New York Metropolitan mu-
scum. Now I venture the assertion that
not one person in 10000 who has read the
late startling dispatches ever heard the
pretty name before or knows whether it
belongs to town or a district or where
to locate it except as indefinitely some
where In the Sultans Asiatic dominion.
In fact, the general tenor of the dis
patches where the name is found indis-
criminately classed with Aleppo, Beirut,
Damascus, ETC., gives the natural impress
sion that 1t is somewhere in Syria. Ii old
st. Paul were alive he would surely pour
out the Walls of his ready wrath upon
any one who dared to call him a Syrian
for he was a Cilician, and the Roman
province of Cilicia of his day is the
vilayet of Adana today.
Off to the northeast of the island of Cy-
prus, just after the mainland makes a
sharp bend from running north along the
Syrian coast to west along that of Asia
Minor, lies this, the finest natural granary
of the whole Mediterranean coast and its
three principal towns of Mersina, Tarsus
and Adana lie almost in line completely
through Its center Riding and camping
out on the banks of the Cydnus our care
free band heard from the native story tell
ers traditions innumerable of the fair land
that is so unfortunately located as to have
been the battle-ground of nations since the
dawn of history. The name of the myth
ical Sardanapalus Is claimed as that of
the founder of every town and village.
Within its boundaries Alexander the Great
won the most famous of his victories
Pompey the Great reached the pinnacle of
his fame here when his legions captured
the province for Rome, scarcely thirty
years before st. Paul was born. Then
the Arabian Moslems swept up and across
1t from the east; the savage Armenians
from the mountains in the north devast-
ated 1t. The Christian Emperor, Baldwin
Of Constantinople, brought fire and sword
from the west; Greeks and Venetians
harried the coast from the south, and so
down the centuries the little province,
simply from being a military key to sur
rounding people, was kept in poverty and
desolation until great Haroun al Raschid
gave 1t the new name of Adana and
brought peace and plenty to the land
A Consular Agent
There was wealthy native of Tarsus
named Aldo Dabbas. who for many years
had prospered under the protection of an
appointment as consular agent of tho
United States, and 1t so came about that
in one of his fields was unearthed fine
marble sarcophagus, which as mark
of appreciation, he made a gift to the
United States, with only the proviso that
some one should be sent to take it. And
so it came about that the Shenandoah
was ordered to the eastward to pick it
up, and in due time let go it's anchor
in the snug harbor of Mersina
1t was a grand opportunity for old
Aldo. beyond his dreams, to have a
man-of-war as ocular proof of his i'm
portance, and he made the most of it in
the best of ways, for not only were his
house and gardens placed at our disposi-
ton, but at the first mention to him of
the interest that was most natural to
see the backgrounds of Alexander he
equipped a complete camp, even to
detachment of Turkish infantry, to take
us throughout the province Over the
camp fire at night the stories were told
that, true or false, brought to our ears
the famous names whose victories and de-
feats had alike brought only misery to
a peaceful people. OF all those names so
often heard, one only, Haroun at Ras-
child, our Arabian Nights hero, was called
blessed. 1t seems queer that two of the
greatest names of Christianity and of
Islam should find their common ground
here of unaloyed respect.
All through the rolling plain and in the
foothills of the Taurus were in this time
of thirty odd years ago fine fields of grain,
orchards and luxuriant gardens, and all
that should make a people happy and well
to do but the war storms of nearly 5000
years have stamped an indelible mark on
the people. Poor Adanai One more mas
sacre is but drop in the stream.
Ancient Ruins.
Just beyond Mersina and on the sea
beach are the ruins of two old cities that
gave our men a grand scope for the exer-
else of anna teur archaeological research.
Julieopolis, named for Pompey's wife, the
daughter of Julius Caesar, and Pompeopo-
lis. which was an altered name for the an
Client seaport of Soils. The old breakwater
that formed the original harbor was traced
out in the sand by making soundings and
It's outer edge was found to be fully 200
feet inboSrd from the present sea-water
line. The perfect pillars of an old temple
were standing and the men captured one
of the capitals complete and uninjured,
by sending line over the top of the pillar
by a kite, and so rigging means to climb
the pillar, pry up the capital and lower 1t
to the ground carefully. 1t is my impress
sion that that work of art is now in the
Smithsonian institution at Washington.
AS for the sarcophagus the secret of its
soul will never be betrayed for it bears
no inscription was anything recovered
from it. Probably whatever it contained
was stolen by the laborers who unearthed
It, It's bulky eleven tons was hoisted to
our quarterback. the beautiful sculptures
carefully boarded in and the last home of
a countrywoman of Saint Paul, like him
Roman came on its long voyage to
rest in a country unheard of and unsus-
pected when 1t was created.