The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1911-10-28

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((,MNAI1ONS
Across Asia Mlnor-The Bagdad Rail
way Growlng-AneIent Cities OF
Great AnatoIian Plain viii One Day
Blossom With Modern Civilization.
Rv WILLIS T. ELLIS.

Tarsus, Asia Minor.-The main high
ways of history run across Asia Minor.
This has been the route for uncOunted
centuries of the armies OF conquest,
and the peaceful caravans of trade,
journeying from Asia to Europe or
from Europe to Asia. Here are the
footprints Of Cyrus and Darius. Nebu-
chadnezzar and Alexander the Great.
the Caesars, the Crusaders, the Turks
and the Arabs, and such distinguished
Individual travellers as the Apostle
Paul
He who goes on foot or wheel today
will find himself travelling the iden-
teal route built by the Romans. and
crossing old Roman bridges. AS he
notes the sites of battles or camps. he
will be able to see in the conflguration
OF the ground why they were so
chosen. The trip have just made Is
a wonderful commentary upon the
books we studied in school and upon
the history of the early Christian
church.
Here are the ruins of many OF the
great cities of classic literature, the
Seven Churches Of ASIA" to which
the familiar passages in the Apoca-
lypse were addressed; and the other
cities which gave Paul and his COM
panions a sample Of mob law or else
worshipped them as Gods.
The Ancient East Still Survives.
The country is still pretty much as
1t has been for millenniums. The cities
are now hidden under the debris OF
ages, and tie thriving commerce of
that older day has disappeared along
with the marching legions. But the
wayside wells are identical with those
at which the thirsty soldiers used to
drink. The khans are built of mud
and straw, and are after the same type
as we're known to the travellers before
Christ; indeed they cannot be very
different from that primitive khan In
Bethlehem wherein was born the
worlds Conqueror.
The dust from passing caravans en-.
grimes the traveller The soft-fOOted
camels who now come swaying along
with serpent necks, are laden with
cans of American kerosene. The bull
lock carts with their primitive solid
wooden wheels, bear material for the
construction of the Bagdad railway. A
bent stick still serves for a plow
Agriculture is largely by hand. and
the threshing floors Of scripture are q
frequent sight. Picturesquely clad ma
tives move slowly along on donkeys
I saw one young mother and child
whose bearded husband and father
had stopped at a brook to give them
drink, who suggested strikingly the
picture Of the Flight into Egypt
Where the Glory Has Departed.
The ancient productiveness OF thif
Anatolian plain, when the hills were
covered with trees and there was plen
ty of water, is apparent at glance
Much of it resem bles the west in part!
OF the United States and Canada. 1t!
ancient glory may be restored at AM
time that an efficient government pro
vides for afforestration and irrigation
Perhaps the cities Of antiquity will
rise again. Sardis, where Croesu'
made his name a synonym for riches
is now a heap of ruins wherein an ex
petition from Princeton University Il
digging.
Ancient Philadelphia, is now callet
Aleshir and one may see the compare
lively new village through ruine'
arch in the old wall. An excellent min
eral water, which was known and use'
long before the Christian era, will, ii
the new day that may dawn for thi