The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-25

From the Kansas City Times.
 Why, all the Saints and Stages who dis
 cuss'd
 Of the two Worlds so learnedly, are
 thrust
 Like foolish prophets forth; their Words
 to Scorn
 Are scattered, and their Mouths are
 stopped with Dust.
 CO wrote Omar Khayyam, Persia's
 pagan astronomer-poet, 800 years o ago, but his words are not scattered and his fame has attracted an American traveller, A. V. Williams Jackson. pro- lessor of Indo-Iranian languages in Co., lumba university, to make a pilgrimage to the ancient city of Nishapur, 100 miles east of Constantinople, where the poets dust lies entombed. Professor Jackson has written a book Prom Con stantinople to the Home of Omar Khay- yam." which is published in fine taste, with many illustrations, by the Macmillan company, price $3.50. His description of Omars tomb and it's surrounding is here given:
 ''We turned to the left as did Niazami of samarkand 800 years ago, and ap- of him who gave expression in quatrain poetry to Persia's freest thought.
 "The grave of Omar was the only ob- ject of interest to us. The sarcophagus stands beneath the central one of three arched recesses. A couple of terraced brick steps lead up to the flooring where it rests. The oblong tomb is a simple case made of brick and cement. the poets remains reposing beneath; and there is no inscription to tell whose bones are in tered below. Everyone knows that it is Omar's grave. Vandal scribblers Hound in Persia as in every other land) have desecrated it with random scrawls, and have also scratched their names upon the brown motar of the adjoining walls, thus disclosing the white cement underneath. A stick of wood, a stone and some frag- ments of shards profaned the top of the sarcophagus when we saw it. There was nothing else I was tempted to lay my copy of the Rubaiyat upon it, but for the fact that knew the little book would promptly be carried off and sold to the first possible purchaser.
 NO rose tree can now shed its petals upon the poets tomb, as was once the case in fulflment of what had been, as tradition tells us, the dearest wish of his heart. Nevertheless, as pr. D. Dennison Ross rightly observes, Tt Is quite prob- able that the poets tomb is, or at least was, annually covered both by rose leaves and by fruit blossoms;' and l may add that the garden today is so rich in roses as almost to make one in love with death as Shelley said of Keats burial place.
 "It is to be regretted that some of Omar's admirers in the Occident do not provide suitable inscription on the spot to show the renown he enjoys in the west. However, the site where he rests, like the tombs of Hafz and sa'di of shiraz, 's pre- served from forgetfulness by the fbesle which 1t adjoins. In this respect i iA pot like that of the great epic poet, F.rdanai which is practically forgotten anlH tlie ruins of Tusf It Is safe to predict aprs~ over. that Omar's growing fame if sss. rope and America will bring othef rii- grims to his grave.
 "We had paid our obeisance, ar1 tue word was now return As we galeNed off along the broad road leading ba x ip the town, I scattered some rose ax l by the way in order that the pasii to oNar's teYfslf, if not the grave itself. iasgrt 1 bo ttevf h the roses he loved i retefa wing Nishapur that night 'sle sSlas t) taste draught fror1 2