Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-05-08

z y
d,lred long after parchment and paper
have rotted to dust. You may sea
them In the British Musaurl--even the
leted in Its envelope Of baked clay.
WHERE DANIEL STOOD.
Our guide called us back through, tho
centuries to the palace where Daniel
interpreted the dream of Nebucnna-
nezzar and Darius commanded him 10
be cast into the den OF. lions, and where
| 15es Tho mover. re igned--i1lnde a
feast to, 1000 OF his lords and, drunk
Wine, and saw the fatal writing on tina
wall. We Went to the temple OF the I'M
known god and of the god OF war ana
medicine, and to the shrine of Istar-
the Babylonion Venus--where saw,
lieroflotus, every woman must sit once
IN her. time and give herself to a strang-
er. We explored the Greek theater ana
the outer and inner walls OF the ctty
and learned that the father of historv
had given rein to his fancy and added
threefold to their circumference we
saw the bones OF Parthian ana Grea,s
OF Mongol and Turk and Persian-sbo
men who came out OF the north ana
broke the images of her gods and laid
the virgin daughter of Babylon low in
the dust
And at dusk; as we walked in thn
shadow of this desolation. there came
out of the ruins q fox. Tor a second
he stood and looked at us, and then
stole silently away and was lost, ana
we knew that the words OF the prophet
We're true: '@Thc wild beasts OF tho
desert shall lie there; and thine house
shall be full of dolefrl creatures. ana
owls shall dwell there and satyrs SHAH
dance there { s4i
The Arabian, as Isaiah fnretold, does
not pitch his tent in Babylon but lie
has built for himself a Village of Baby
lontan bricks on the bank of the Eli,
pirates. Until tho Germans came,
these men were robbers. and the pleas
ant elderly chief who is overseeing the
cutting and trslnsplanting Of a date
palm was q noted highway HI will
tell you how he made his victims
climb q tree, and ther, shot them, and
buried them to enrich the soil. In, these
days they are laborers, and carry
baskets of earth fol. q few pence, AS
we passed the Village a child saluted
the doctor, with all the gravity or age.
He was asking for work. and went
away content when told TO wait till
his beard grew. l fancy would much
rather be q robber, but even the child
before their time.
Many things we saw in BABYLON which
imagination and the learning of the
good doctor clothed in the rainent3 of
romance. And not the least romantic
OF them all were these German archeo-
logists--these patient monks Of learn
ing who toll In the burning sun all day
rakfns in the dust heaps, and at night
labor over plans and cuneiform inscrip-
lions. No sensational discovery draws
the eyes of the world 60 them; nor are
they permitted to fill the museums
Of their own country with their mod
est finds. Hamdey Boy claims the
greater part for his museum III Con-
stantinople, and the sultan keeps n
Jealous pasha on the spot, to \ see his
orders nbeyed. Yet the doctor ana lis
|athree companions have consultations.
|*Theyi know the. Importance of tlieir
work, which Is to preserve an archi-
tectural record of a famous city whose
remnants once exposed dissolve in the
flood of rain and leave not a wreck be-.
hind. If they live in solitudes from
which the Euphrates shrinlls more and
more every year. hey live o simple and
strenuous life. i can recall few. pleas
ures greater than to dine at their
table, to listen to the scholarly enthu-
sinsm of the expeditions leader, and
TO see him feeding with bread the le-
giOn OF cats that answer his call out
Of the darkness. Wildand NANCY they
are. for they, too. are Under the curse
of Jeremiah.-yNilli Maxwell in the
London Daily Mail.