Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-04-26

or pass from the city into the desert and stand
amid the tombs of the Khalifs; whether you are
IN Upper Egypt, on the banks of the Nile or at
the gate of one of the gigantic temples of the
Pharaohs; whether you make an expedition to the
oasis and pass through sheer desert wilderness
of bstered white rocks and avalanches of sand
you are hardly out of che presence of the
sublime and the beautiful.
From careless. cosmopolitan Alexandria, to
whose skirts the spirit of romance still clings,
because she took the torch of civilization from the
dying hand of Athens. and Abukir where the
thunder of the surf on Nelson's Island browns
the tom-toms of the East 1t is a far cry to Abu
Smbel and it's rock-hewn osirids. And every
traveller viii have his own love on that long pas
sage of the Nile Some may lnger in the twin
cities of the delta. Damietta, the Venice of Egypt
and Rosetta, who for so many centuries secreted
the stone which has been the key to Egypt's an
Client language Others will dwell in Cairo to
trace the byways of the City of Saladin or lay
their homage at the feet of the Sphinx that hinge
survival of an unimagnable civilization. To some
the roses of the Fayyum will send their perfumes,
and some may lnger in the halls of Karnak. con-
tent to listen to the tamarisks whispering In the
Court Of Shishak. where the solitary lotus column
spread its petals to catch the silver radiance Of
an Egyptian moon. Thebes will enslave the
minds OF some. and many will choose to iinger on
the Isle of Philae, among the broken temples OF
the Home of Love, whose colonnades rising but
a few feet above the water are like bed OF
lotus flowers floating upon the Nile. T. too have
loved all these; these the graces which the
Daughter of the Nile unveils to every oasser-by.
Yet it is not these which give nostalgia, but the
little intimate touches of the Orient-the birds
singing in the silence of Mahomets holy houses
the fragrance of the berseem waited across the
white Pyramid Road
1t is a land of mystery and omeps whose
very birds possess archaic grace that you
think of Egypt For that strip of land hem
med In by deserts and the western hills OF
Thebes. you are never far from the shining pres
ence of the Nile. the sacred stream of untold gen
erations. And it is of Eternity that you think.
and Immortality. Was it not for Eternity that the
ancient Egyptians lived? Even now the air OF
Egypt breathes passion of Immortality: the
Pyramids are vast apepal to it: the rock-bound
tombs Of Thebes are brands burnt into the bosom
of the earth by men who reckoned life as step
ping stone to Eternity of such small Importance
that ii well spent in the hewng of one tomb.
1t is curious that the heirs of these people should
be so careless of the morrow that they are laid
to rest in the sand beneath a little headstone,
for when the Tombs of the Mamelukes set with
studied grace. like jewels on the edge Of the des-
ert have vanished. the Tombs of the Kings will
still be untouched by the years II there is any
truth in the legend OF the Kha the heaven OF
Mahomet must be q more accessible goal than
the fields of Ialu. with their meadows of SWEEP
Expresses