The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-11-11
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
g=-=zz-lHIs is one of the oldest and
IA = most frequently quoted
sNJl stories in literature Paint
4l ers and poets and noyelists
and descriptive writer's have
all done their utmost to re-
produce the dramatic scene IN ths
ancient court of Babylon, when mys-
tic hand upon the wall wrote the doom
of a kingdom. And yet the last Word
has not been said. So true TO me IN
all its larger meanings is this graphic
episode that weighed in the balance
and found wanting is one or the com
monest illusions of cultivated speech-
No artistic reproduction of the scene
has ever made the facts so real 20 me
as my own recent visit to Babylon
ssSic transit gloria mundf'-"So passes
the glory of the world'-rny mind kept
repeating, as I stood on the very spot
in the palace Of Nebuchadnezzar Where
rested the throne of Belshazzar, son OF
Nabonidus. the usurper to the throne
The German archaeologistS at BABYLON
have excavated the palace ana tne
throne room. Pointing me to an al
cove or recess at one side of the great
room, my German friend SAID, mere
is where stood the throne of Belshaz-
gar and II was opposite that ne saw
the handwriting on the wall. now al
is ruin. Even the name of Belsnazzar
does not remain upon any or the Dflcks
although there are thousands inscribed
with the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar. II
is wonderful spot IN Whlch 10 muse
upon the transformers or earthiy
glory Yonder by the temple or Mar
duk stood the Tower of Babel, man s
vain effort to outWit God. Along the
sacred way leading past the temple OF
Isthar, great triumphal PROFESSIONS
passed Now the archaeologists have
~ conieet11re who was who among
gods and kings on this highway OF
earthly glory.
a Drama Well Staged.
The episode of the handwriting on
the wall came amid psychological sur
roundings and at the psychological
moment. It was the climax of the
kingdom of Babylon Persia was at
the city's gate. Defiant King Belshaz-
Ear held B. great carnival or opulence
and luxury to which he invited MS
generals and leading men. All that
the extravaganza and fiorid taste of the
East could devise to please the senses
was there in abundance. 1t was pleas
ure to the point of safety
To stimulate the jadedness of the
oyer-indulged appetites of the drunken
revellers the king had brought into
the banqueting room the vessels from
the temple of the God of the Jews at
Jerusalem. There, they praised the null |
titudinous gods of Babylonia In con
trast with the one God called JenoVah. |
IT was as if the mad carousers would |
defy this unknown God. He accepted
the challenge.
Romance Under Ground.
There are aspects of the story that
are difficult for the scholar Some day
we may dig up a further chapter upon
It All over Babylonia the Arabs are !
finding cuneiform tablets reclt1ng ms
tory, and the seals which all men were
Obliged to carry as a signature AS
svriologists are able to read these w no ;
knows but that we may one day ma
tie seal of Daniel? Perhaps it is one
of those which I have in my possession /
at the moment This Is the aIlurlns
0ossibility about the romantic discov-
cries that are being made in Baby
lonia-
cod has stored away in the safe de-
posit vault of mother EARTH beneath d
1erfectlv dry climate, these records
which should lie idle for thousands OF
years until, in a fullness of time Wh1cn |
seems now to be coming they snoulo
be brought to the light to attest the
truth of the sacred Scriptures. Wise
men have learned not to be positive IN /
saving that anything is untrue IN :
Scripture. when there is possibility
of Confederation from these vaults OF /
history so long and wonderfully sealeu'
Shocking the SuperstitiOus-
A superstitious people were these
Bebylonians- They were peculiaL e
susceptible to omens and portents 50
when into the midst of the grandeur OF
the great feast was projected a spectral
hand, writing unknown OAi0@1 60 0A~
11non the wall there was a consterna-
fion which sobered the drunken and
the abandoned. Out of nowhere It had |
come. Before their dazed eyes it traced
upon the wall its message
IF Jehovah wished to write warm /
ing upon the hearts of men he could |
not do it better than here Babylon, |
he Il remembered. was the capital of
the known world. That throne room, |
the center of the palace which was the
r1ft
the hub of the universe than any spot
we can point to at the present day
Whatever happened here would pc re /
ported to the uttermost confines OF the
existing civilization. The warning OF
the bandueting hall would be IN the
possession of all Babylon within few
hours. 1t was timely and appro-
pirate place for the admenitlon or an
outraged jehovah
The king was panic stricken. Like I
a modern European monarch who fled /
from his capital at the first outbreak
of revolution, Belshazzar did not show
himself the self-possessed heir OF royal
character. He was overwhelmed by /
the handwriting upon the wall. The
goet Heine has depicted the scene
amid which Belshazzar found himself; |
s'The yelling laughter was hushed. and t
was still as death in the royal hall.
And see! And seel on the white wall
high
The form of hand went slowly by.
And wrote, and wrote. on the broad !
wall white,
Letters of fire, and vanished in night /
A Woman to the Rescue.
Like the seif-respecting queen /
Vashti, in the story of Esther, the real
queen mother OF Babylon was absent I
from these carousals. 1t lay beneath /
her queenly dignity to countenance
such dissipation by her presence.
Womanlike, when trouble befeu. her
first thought was to help. The news of /
The stranea horror that had come to |