The Cairo bulletin., 1911-05-11
How | Became an
Archaeologist
BY ARNOLD |. TNKAM
Copyright by American Press Asso-
ciation, 1911


the chasm, or at least the place where
! 1t was, into which Quintus Curtius
ieaped 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 had
not the means even to take me 10 col
lege.
But was good deal of dreamer,
4 and, my fancy getting fixed on my OBJ
| Ject, | couldn't turn it upon anything
| else. The only practical result was
resolve to save up" as children put
It, with n view to getting enough mon
ey to take me to Rome, keep me there
long enough to get hurried view Of
what | wished to see and bring me
back to America sftg
BY the time l was eighteen years
old had acquired this amount. sup
pose | should have spent 1t In starting
me upon a college education but / did
| not / bought a second class ticket on
ship crossing the Atlantic and pro-
ceeding through the Mediterranean to
Naples. / remained at Naples long
enough to visit Pompeii, then went by
rail to Rome.
AT first was disappointed in getting
Into a modern commercial city, but
when struck some of the landmarks
Of ancient Rorne-the Pantheon. the
arches Of Constantine and Titus. the
Coliseum was not long in forgetting
the modern in my rapture over the an
Client. When | had, exhausted Rome
itself I was seized with u desire to
visit its enyirons. n had read Of the
Campagna rs 1t was when covered
with farms and villas.
But by the time I had seen Rome It.
self my money was all gone. / hadn't
enough even to buy return trip ticket
to America. ! was stranded In a for
eign country. What could | do?
What did do? / followed the genius
of archaeology that was strong within
me. Reading notice In a newspaper
that an excavating party was to make
a search for the,ruins of certain villa
some fifty miles, from the city, l hired
myself as digger to the archaeologist
In charge, went with him and dug with
the rest. In his reading he had hit
upon 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. Duringtthis time put in my'
spade here and There on my own &C.
count, with no result. When the par
ty went back to Rome l asked for my
pay, a few Slira, and they returned
without me. had seen a stone pro-
jecting fromsthe soil at some distance
from where'we were digging that seem
ed to me to have been artificiaIly shap-
ed, and wished to investigate it.
AS soon as the party were gone |
began to dig nbous this stone. found
that 1t restedAon another, to which it
was fixed byt mortar This In turn
rested on ano ther. Then | came to IL
wall. l followed the wall for dozen
feet and camel to an angle. The top
Of the wall was, five or six feet from
the surface, and was not likely to
find anything Of value at less depth.
l dug all day, and as the evening was
coming on, someAten feet below the
surface, my spade struck something
hard. I ,;hudderedA for by this time
knew that I was liable to ruin a treas
ure. These villas Swere ornamented
with statnes some of1them very beau
tiful-aml every year 'they are found.
| had witlFne scoop and, throwing
down my spFkle, began to dig about
the hard substance with the smaller
Implement. 1t, was round. In few
minutes Y unc0eredla marble head
Had u discovered "a mine of mex
gold l could not have been
more delighted. ,scooped away
enough earth to telfsme that had
found asstatue. Butt it was by this
time tooaate to look any further.
threw back the loosen earth, marked !
the spots with n stake and hurried |
away from the fever stricken Cam
pagna that might notibe caught there |
after nigh.fall. pettr
The next(morning Invent to the ar
chaeologist who hadt conducted the
search andHtold him 'of my find. 1t
would havesbeenl illegal for me to re- !
move the Astatue Smyseif, and l pre-
ferred to sproceeds under his superin-
tendence. ! He was,as much delighted
at my luckaas i wasamyself. We start
ed at once for thet hole l had dug,
removed the 1oose ,earth and exposed
the marble. We could tell nothing
about 1t exceptthatt the face was very
beautiful.
We dug about thet statue till we
could see that 1t was lthe figure of q
woman. the drapery being ancient Ro'
man.
The archaeologist J before leaving
left wordRfor workmen to
follow, and when they arrived the
statue twas removed. Ut proved to be
Of great value. | had lstruck the site
Of the villa for which we had searched,
and other articles were found In 1t,