El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-08-29

TO be carried great distances over a
very irregular country II IS DeIeEeu
thaI they were lowered down the noun
ANS by chocks and wedges anu men
dragged the rest Of the way Dy nun
ureds Of men over roads made Tor the
purpose, which were covered with sea-
weed Being rolled on an incIlneo
plane to the top of PLATFORM lhey
were set up.
Easter Island Has 800 Giants.
There are in all sos stone giants on
Easter Island. The largest is IN the
workshop, unfinished, and is 20 Ieet IN
He-SnL What il was that put STOP
70 this remarkable business OF SOUP
lure, nobody knows, but il is supposed
thaI fierce war broke out wnlch re-
suited IN wlping out most OF the poPu-
Latloh, the e1Tigies being mcidehtdLiy
thrown down from the platforms
Until very recently the huge granite
columns which support the TOOLS OF the
llorlh- west, and south entrances OF the
treasury building at Washington were
the largest single blocks Of hewn stone
IN the United States They Welgn So
Tons apiece, and. quarrled IN Maine,
were fetched to the capital by water
anu drawn through the streets by
teams Of p horses To cut them,
transport them. and place them in
posltlon was considered an enormous
task, even with all the advantages Of
nouefn engineering science But
some or the ancient Egyptian obelisks
Welghed 800 tons, or nearly eight
times as much
The columns or pillars OF the ca
tneqral OF st John the Divine, In New
1ork CITY, are to weigh 100 tons apiece
VI granite, Quarried at Vinal Haven
(Me.), they viii be thirty-two in num-
per and each of them will be "a feet
iOng ana feet in diameter. But their
individual weight will be only about
Wo-thIrds that Of Cleopatra's Needle,
IA Al Han= #amm De- IL
which was fetched from Egypt on a
raft many years ago.
me remains Of the most ancient
peoples attest that greater and more
endurable labor and art have been ex-
pen0ed on the construction OF tombs
Tor the dead than in the building Of
abodes for living. Columns such as
tnose which dignity a cathedral are
by origin upright stones surrounding
sacred enclosure. The worship OF
stones is very ancient In early times
the Greeks bowed down in Ephesus be- |
fore shapeless stone (prObably a me-
teorite) which later on was replaced
BY beautiful statue representing
Origin of the ObeIisl.
The obelisk originated in a narrow
geographical area skirting the Nile
Later on it was adopted throughout
the world as a form of commemorative
or mortuary monument There is to-
limitations Of it are not found. It was
copied by the Greeks and Romans. IS
peclally the latter, and has been ad-
mlred from earliest times. Our own
washington monument is vastly The
largest obelisk ever set up; but OF I
course II is not a mOnolith.
The ancient Egyptian obelisks were /
an OF them mOnOliths. or single stones. ]
some were adorned with pictures and /
inscriptions, others not The obelisk
OF the Piazza del Minerva 1t Rome is /
carried on the backs Of stone elephants
originally, supporting the corners Of /
-Ieopatra's Needle (now in Central /
Sark) were bronze crabs. In Egvpt the i
lbellsks commonly stood in pairs he /
ore the gates and temples. Thev com
nemorated deeds Of the rulers whose 4
'artouches they bear, the inscriptions
IN them being mostly invocatfons and
sranolloquent reference to the mighty !
leeds OF the mOnarchs in question.
me significance of the stone giants |
S much the same as that Of obelisks-
n either case the idea in view being 10 |
lonor the dead and propitiate the /
pirit Of the departed. It is because OF
ne fundamental religious thought be-
ilnd them that such memorials have
aimed such wide popularity as NOR
uary tributes among most OF the
lVlllzed and some Of the savage races
Z mankind