The Washington herald., 1914-04-09
THE PYRAMIDS.
ny EMORY ). HAYNES.

|
What comment on historic greatness that one in
dvidual stranger from century so late should light,
turn the leaf of Egypt with Il don't like it, But Is
my right to say it, if any one asks me how liked
Egypt. 1t ought to be said for Egypt however that
am not good traveller. Touring to me is rksome
The personal Inconvenience the fatigue the imperti
nence of temples and pyramids which say 'If you wan
to come where am" do not make travel at
tractive. | have hundred more comforts at home
and read But this disposition on my part would
explain about everything | might say about Egypt.
The scorching heat Of the trip TO the pyramids is
exasperating. Arrived beneath the Sphynx one is
in poetic frame of mind. painting of the pyramids
hung the library wall by friend, impresses me
more for am COOL reverent, thoughtful before the
painting All the books about the pyramids are within
easy reach Few people have the vital enthusiasm to
surmount the infinite annoyance and light up into rev.
cries those desolate sands. Have we come all this
distance and with such labor simply TO look or these
old stones:
But IT is when you away, and under the white,
blazing light, you pausng for the backward look
You expect behold again these solemn shapes
Millions of human eyes have bid them good-by and
sunk into the of oblivion One shrinks back from
the sea of oblivion and clings to these aged stones
to prevent sinking. Here things that do grow
Here are structures by man that conquer time.
There is thrill in their victory that is most exciting
You did put your hands these stones alongside mil
lions of hands that piled them and have since caressed
them The pyramids standing there SO moveless, are
the proof of mans immortality. Even the work of his
hands cannot be pulled down. You also are man.
You sit facing backward on your dromedary, and
cling by the eyes those eternal human things And
when last the red but family reveal them
and now they are mere specks upon the horizon the
old sadness returns. These human things will remain
But myself cannot remain. ! pass and fade away.
Then, too, the proud tyrant who whipped these
armies of humble workers in this unspeakable toll.
He is as nameess the slaves. Together they are
part of this sand this dust that rises clouds Every
man working here had name by which some one
knew him Every pornd here lifted was made posi-
bic by one living heart Nerves nerves think of all
the nerves that quvered when the courses were
showed, twisted finally settled plumb and the over
seer pronounced it right.
The same sunsets and in the sweat of the day men
lay down to sleep. The sunrise and men were
awakened to a useless toll. There were among them
the youth that loved maid the father that loved his
children the old whose sons did part of his task
to spare him. Here was the slave who worked when
he was half sick. Here men killed on the job"
and buried. Where:
Here the air vocal with great hum OF human
voices, but no whistle of the steam engine no throb
Of the gasoline engine Human life unaided probably
aid If all AT any there was never found so much
as derrick piece of rusty machinery left here
II a great construction company had the contract
TO pull down the Pyramids to make way for a sky
would do it in few months. But no one
wants this land. Away there to the westward and
southwark stretches the desert that desoaton of The
globe 1t is because of the other man that land be-
comes real estate. Yonder is no other man. and |
therefore,, no Broadway nor Fifth avenue corners |
abulously valuable
One cannot deny the attraction of the desert 800
niles of to the shores OF the Atlantic The mind
returns to this uninhabable wilderness
seen from the top OF Cheops the pyramid 40 feet
ligh. There is great and intelligent nation to re-
leem the Egyptian desert as America has done with
Ter deserts in the West.
On farm herd of COWS will run down. getting /
and fewer in numbers till it is scarce shadow
If its former valve and size. Precisely so these once
mighty Egyptians once rulers of the civilized world
Dnce master OF all learning how utterly conemp
ible. The blood is thinned to water. The heritage
# mind has failed 1t is nothing to be an Egyptian
cow. VIII the time come when it is nothing to
'e American?
Today, however. there is immense distance from
he pyramids to the white-domed capitol at Washing
on, or Grants Tomb, or Lower Broadway in New
FORK. To return to this republic is inspiring Egypt
S but grave.