Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-17
Antiquarian Society
Bv Frederic j. Haskin

| listen attentively." The declaration is
made that it's working parts are com
pletely out of sight, enclosed in an
attractive mahogany case and that
they neither move nor give any other
sign when they are in use; that these
working parts consist of a coil and a
disk of sheet iron.
Many of the papers of the society
relate to early colonial times in New
| England They are published in bien
NAL volumes, beginning with 1S49 and
running to the present. These volumes
which also give a record of the an
nual transactions of the society. arc
not of extensive circulation, but are
priced possessions of the libraries which
have complete sets of them 1t ia a
strange fact that the greater number ne
the books of the library of the So
clety did npt come from the members
| them selves, but are the donations of
those who are not members.
The society co-operates with the An
tlquarian society of Philadelphia and
with other institutions. Together thew
have rendered great service to the ma
t1on in saving the trash of yesterday.
which has become the treasure of to-
day. Along with the Archeological
societies, the Anthropological associa-
ton, and other institutions for record.
ing our past, they are doing much to
insure the handing down of posterity
of facts which might otherwise be only
shadowy traditions.
While the most of the work of the
antiquarian societies of the United
States has been in the direction of pre-
serving to the future the intimate sto
ries of the beginning of American his
tory, they also have been interested in
archaeological research at home and
abroad. 1t is interesting to note that
the present worldwide interest in ar
theological research had it's real be-
ginning in part in the indefatigable
labors of an American citizen. Count
Cesnola, who was an Italian by birth.
but who came to America and served
with distinction in the federal army
during the Civil war, was appointed
consul to Cyprus in 1865 He was in
spired with the idea that this island
was the door between Europe and Asia.
and that it must be full of relics of the
nations of the past.
He soon devoted his entire energies
to investigation starting at Chittim of
the Old Testament times. Within a
year he found the sites of three other
old cities-"Sea- born Salamis," Golgos
and Idalium. At Chittim he found
that the graves had been plundered
probably during one of the early cru
sades. He found temple dedicated
to Demeter, and next to it a tomb
which contained 600 gold coins of Alex
ander and his father, Philip of Mace
don. At Kurium he found a wonder
full lot of treasures of incalculable his
torical value, including the official seal
of Thotmes III of Egypt, who con-
quered Cyprus 5000 years ago. There
were more than 1900 articles, more than
half of which were gold, in a series of
vaults. The whole archaeological
world tried to secure the treasures
found by Cesnola, the British museum
in particular bidding large sums for
them, but he was loyal to the country
of his adoption and those relics are
now to be seen in the New York Mu-
suem of Natural History and Art.
From that day to the present the
United States, youngest among the
principal nations Of the world, has
taken a leading part in all the anti
quarian and archaeological movements of
the day. Her scientists are assisting
in locating the buried cities of the
Nile and the Assyrian and Babylonish
empires. Pompeii and Rome are like
wise yielding up the treasures of
twenty and forty centuries ago, much
of the work being done by the tireless
picks and shovels of American anti
quarians and psychologists.
To excavate the site of the great tenn
pie at Memphis will require an annual
expenditure OF $4,000 for at least if
teen years. There is no definite ac
count of the total cost of archaeological
and antiquarian work, but it runs into
the millions every year. The Carnegie
institution and the Smithsonian are
both lending a hand in these explora-
tions, and many of the leading uni
versities have parties in the field.
1t is through the antiquarian and the
archeologist that the world gets it's
most intimate pictures of the life and
times before the Christian era. AS the
student of geology finds layer upon lay
er and stratum upon stratum, each tell
ing it's own story of different age and
a diverse period, so the archeologist
sometimes discovers city built upon
city. In some of the ancient places a
half dozen cities have been razed by
war, their ruins covered over and an
other city planted above. A Carthage
may have been destroyed and a plow
driven over every foot of its site, but
human nature has been so much the
same in every age that the city site
selected by one generation and one race
often appealed to those who came after
them. The earthquake in Sicily re-
vealed buried cities under the habita-
tions of hundreds of thousands of peo-
pie who were totally unconscious that
they were living upon the ruins of a de-
parted race.
Tomorrow-scientific Accounting.