The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1911-08-31
How l Became an
Archaeologist
BY ARNOLD L. TINKAM
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.

Wnen was q boy ana studied Latx
read stories about ancient Rome thai
gave me an unconquerable desire tc
see the Eternal City. wished to visi,
the chasm, or at least the place where
1t was, into which Quintus Curtius
1eaped on horseback, the remaining pill
lars OF the temple erected to the two
| beautiful strangers. Castor and Pol
lux, who watered their horses in the
forum after the battle Of Lake Regillus
and the bridge that Horatius defended
so valiantly. There was no prospect
Of my ever visiting Italy, for l had
not the means even to take me to col.
lege.
But I was a good deal Of dreamer,
and, my fancy getting fixed on my OBJ.
ject, couldn't turn 1t upon anything
else. The only practical result was a
resolve to save up," as children put
1t, with view to getting enough mon
ey to take me to Rome, keep me there
long enough TO get a hurried view of
what I wished to see ana bring me
back to America.
By the time was eighteen years
old had acquired this amount. sup
pose I should have spent 1t in starting
me upon college education, but did
not / bought secondi class ticket on
q ship crossing the Atlantic and pro-
eeeding through the Mediterranean to
Naples. I remained at Naples long
enough to visit Pompsii, then went BY
rail to Rome
At first was disappointed In getting
into q modern commercial city, but
wlser struck some OF the landmarks
Of ancient Rome-the Pantheon, the
arches of Constantine and Titus, the
Coliseum was not long in forgetting
the modern In my rapture over the an
Gent. When / had exhausted Rome
itself Z was seized with desire to
visit it's environs. / had read of the
Campagsa as 1t was when' covered
with farms and villas.
But by. the time / had seen Rome It
self my money was all gone. / hadn't
enough even to buy return trip ticket
to America. / was stranded In for
eign couBtry. What could r do?
What did do? followed the genius
Of archae Geology that was strong within
me. Reading q notice in newspaper
that an excavating party was to make
a search for the ruins Of certain villa
some fifty miles from the city, / hired
myself as digger to the archaeologist
In charge, went with him and dug with
the rest. In his reading he had hit
upon a description OF the site. but
could only confirm his views by bur-
rowing in the ground. In other words.
he must hunt for that for which he
was looking.
We dug three days, at the end OF
which time my employer gave up the
search. During this time put In my
spade here and there on my own &C
count. with no result. When the par
ty went back to Rome asked for my
pay, a few Ira, and they returned
without me- i had seen a stone pro-
jecting froma the soil at some distance
from where we were digging that seem
ed to me TO- have been artifcially shap-
ed, and I wished to investigate 1t.
AS soon as the party were gone I
began to dig about this stone. found
that 1t rested on another. to which It
was fixed by mortar. This In turn
rested on another. Then came to a.
wall followed the wall for q dozen
feet and came to an angle. The top,
OF the wall was Ave or six feet from.
the surface, and I was not likely to.
Ind anything OF value at less depth.
I dug an day, and 40 the evening was.
coming on, some ten feet below the.
surface. my spade struck something
hard. ! shuddered, for by this time, L
knew that I was liable TO ruin treas
use. These villas were ornamentsd
with statues-some OF them yesy beam
t1fui- and every rear they are found
I had With me scoop and, throwing
down my spade. began to dig about
the hard substance with the smallar
implement. It was round. In q few
minutes uncovered marble head
Had discovered mine OF mex
haustible gold could not have been
more delighted. scooped away
enough earth 70 tell me that had
found q statue. But II was By this
time too late to look any further.
threw back the loose earth, marked
the spot with a stake and hurried
away from the fever stricken Cam
pagna that might not be caught there
after nightfall
The next morning went TO the ar
chaeologist who had conducted the
search and told him OF my find. It
would have been Illegal for me to re-
move the statue myself, and pre-
ferred to proceed under his superin-
tendence. He was as much delighted
1t my luck as was myself. We start
ed at once for the hole had dug,
removed the loose earth and exposed
the marble. We could tell nothing
about It except that the face was very
beautiful.
We dug about the statue till we
could see that it was the figure OF
woman, the drapery being ancient Ro-