Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-07-28
WHEN NEBUCHADNEzzAR ATE GRASS
Men Were as Modern as We But They Lacked Laborsave
DevicesInvention Has Given the World Time Think
What Spade Disclosed.
BY B. K. LITTLE

WITH the shooting match now going
w forward on the other side, the average
citizen here, going about his business with
the single -heartedness 80 necessary to good
business, would probably think 1t worse
than foolhardy to say that there is a more
terrible instrument of destruction than the
bullet. But there is such instrument
all the same Men Of blunt speech are FOND
Of calling It a spade And the spade 1t is.
Put spade in the hands of an archeolo-
gist and it will turn up matter to frighten
any man who likes to believe that we are
plodding right along toward the millennium.
Not long ago the archeologists broke Into
some ancient Egyptian tombs. What they
found there is Inclined to be entertaining
till you think OF what 1t all means. little
later other psychologists hit upon the re-
mains of what might be called the Mime
apolis of old man Belshazzar In other
words, It was the great grain centre OF
Babylon. Among It's few enduring relics the
diggers with the spade found contracts that
differ from ours of today chiefly In the sim
pie particular of being baked on a brick
There were also receipts for goods delivered,
for wages paid all in neat brick form, like
ice cream, except a little more lasting. But
there were relics still more entertaining, too.
The archeologist's spade has brought up
evidence that in those roaring old days when
Nebuchadnezzar went out on a vegetarian
diet there were oil monopoies, and trade
unions, and strikes and lockouts Think of
i'll Belshazzars attorney general probably
had Standard Oil suit his hands He
may have had a William Jennings Bryan
blessing him behind his back.
Gold Follies of the Ancients
-.
spade, that yacht racing was a popular sport
among those Egyptians whose prosperity
could stand the racket. The ladies painted
their faces The man about town blew in at
his club. And for all that their bodies and
their brains long centuries ago blew away
as dust we have their imperishable Jewels,
their brick contracts, their gold follies to tell
us more truthfully what they were than they
themselves could OF would have told us face
to face.
This is what the archeologist's spade has
raised from the ancient dead-that those
people differed from us in the merest minor
details. They slept in brick beds instead of
brass ones. Their love letters were delivered
in wheelbarrow. And there the differences
end. At that point the similaritles begin
In little museum in Paris you may find
some ancient relics with vivid interest for
the thoughtful man. Among them Is the
little machinery of mystery once manipu-
lated by an Egyptian priestess. She used to
make stone idols wink their eyes and belch
fire and perform other terrifying antics to
alarm the superstitious. For years she must
have fooled her willing dupes; but after
many centuries the truth about her was out.
Her cunning deceits were laid bare at last
Who knows what that priestess was herselfY
In all likelihood she was a clever woman
and pretty besides. Largely a cynic, per-
haps, though he'amay have gone about her
work as If 1t were recognized and Iegiti-
mate form of business even with something
of a high IDEAL To her 1t may have been |
part of her political philosophy, a necessary
means of keeping the people under control I