Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-11-24
CHeNAkNG
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Tower of Babel ls Again In Use
Mesopotamla's Reclamation-SIr
William WiIlcock's Great Project
Now In Course of Realization.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

Babylon. the greatest
uresent project of civilization, and
certainly the most romantic, the
reclamation of Mesopotamia, is
now In course of actual realization.
During the time Of my sojourn in
Mesopotamia the papers providing for
the construction Of these vast irri-
CATION works were signed by the Turk
fish government and Sir John Jackson.
the distinguished British engineer, to
whom the carrying on to completion of
the imperial project of Sir william
Willcocks has been entrusted. Sir
John has left one of his consulting en-
gineers In charge at Bagdad. and the
other men of his staff are either al
ready here or on the way. The mag
nificent conception of Sir William
Willcocks, to give back to civilization
the fertile land between the Tigris
and the Euphrates, which was the
birthplace of history, and the home
Of teeming millions of people. is no
longer a dream.
So dramatic an event as the rehab-
ilitation of this once-fertile land, now
become a desert. is found to be full Of
startling aspects. Not the least of
these | discovered when I came to
Babylon and saw that what the arch
biologists are agreed upon as the re-
mains of the Tower OF Babel is now
practically a hole In the ground; and
when ! went out to the Hindia Bar
rage, where the Willcocks engineers
are at work, saw the bricks from the
Tower Of Babel being ground up into
powder to make cement for the foun-
dations Of the new barrage. There is
q measure Of fitness In this ancient
tower Of deliverance being used to
help save the land from its thirsty
aridity. Lest anybody accuse Sir VIII
liam Of being an iconoclast, it may be
said that the bricks were taken from
their original site 30 years ago by the
Turkish government, which tried to
build dam that would send the wa
ters OF the Euphrates once more past
Babylon, or, what meant more to It,
past the modern town of Hillah.
Making the Garden Of Eden Bloom.
Sir William Willcocks, Ike all arch
aelogists and students of the Bible,
locates the Garden of Eden In the
Tisris- Euphrstes delta. Sir William
fixes the site at point west of Hit.
the famous springs from which both
antiquity and modern times secured
vast supplies of bitumen. These smok-
Ing and forbidding regions are said by
some to have given the ancients their
figure Of the angels with the flaming
swords at the gates of the garden.
No doubt is entertained by the arch
aeologists that It was in this region
that civilization had its birth. Here
were the great empires of antiquity.
From beneath the drifted dust and
sitting mud of Mesopotamia the schol-
srs with spades are digging up the
wonderful stories of Babylon, Niffur,
Tello, Ninevah and Asshur, while
other tells" or mounds. such as mark
the site OF Ur Of the Chaldees, the city
OF Abraham's ancestors. await the
coming of archaeological expeditions.
The Garden Made Desert.
AS every traveller in this part Of the
world has remarked. the Moslem is
not a builder. but a waster. The
statement is commonly made concern
ing the Arab, but II is equally true
OF the Turk II seems as II the ia
talism and physical excuses of Mo
hammedanism cut the nerve of initIa-
i've and endeavor Certainly the fol-
lowers of the Prophet found this re-
sion garden; but they have made It
desert. ] have travelled over a con-
siderable part of Mesopotamia. by
kelek horse. wagon, donkey, small |
boat and afoot. Everywhere the same |
Story Is repeated. 1t is all poverty.
ruin and desolation. The Arabs live
IN the same black tents that Solomon
sang about or else in miserable mud |
novels. They have none of the con-
veniences Of civilization. Life is a |
nand-tomouth existence. The appli-
ances Of agriculture are primitive be-
yond belief-a small triangular i
shovel. little hoe about the size and
shape Of an adze. and a sharpened
suek for pillow.
on'y small strip of territory. lying
a'one the rivers, or the few subsidiary
eaaais that remain. is cultivated. Wa
yer y raised by the "cherit." leather
sucket let down to the stream. and
nAa'eo up BY oxen. donkeys, camels
~ COWS. The process is cumbersome
expensive and inadequate. In a few
places place oil engines and pumps made in
:. S'''air and America, have displaced
me cumbersome cherit, and II seems
'nesi'abie that they should become
general In the new day that Is dawn
ing Tor MesopotemIa.
back Of these cultivated areas Hes
.ne hesopotamia desert have
easefseo sections OF 1t where NOT a
s s.aat bigger than the camel thorn
,S. Oe seen. 1t looks quite as desc.
!, 49, IS tne sandy Arabian desert 70
s"s ~es' Of the Euphrates. Yet II is
s's's loet good gray earth friabIe
ra s p,oouetiye' needing only water to
, ,.'-ns y pour forth crops to enrich the
ne s' As's OF civilization and to deliver
az. present population from dire nov.
.'v. And the water is sim available
w.. 's NY as y was when this region
wn me rather Of the Nile dams Sir
. ".lnan WilIeocks. who has Also h "a
work II 1,s experience in irrigation