The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-19
By PHILIP H. PATCHEN

| fighting it's way in most picturesque but vicious war, a war where troopers and horses fight Turk and Arab where. when not combating with the treacherous currents of the overflown
 Tigris and Euphrates rivers. soldiers oie or thirst on the desert. It is onl,
 little war by the side of half dozen
 of the great conflicts in the west, bul
 for hardship and suffering no troops
 In Europe or at the Dardanelles are suffering more than those British ana indlan troops who are slowly winning to the empire what is called Mesopo-
 tamia. which the Turks held since 1888 British troops areeencamped in the Garden of Eden. They are piercing what was Assyria and Babylonia, tc
 the ruins of the city of Babylon. tc Bagdad, the land of Haroun- Al -Ras- enid. Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor They are drowning and starving of thirst in the birthplace of civilization
 where culture passed it's zenith 4oOo years ago.
 might never have been but for Baby lonia. Science in nearly all its
 branches, began there And then, with the rise and fall of one world empire after another. civilization rather lef, those regions and peoples. Now it is being brought back again, at the point of the British bayonet and Indian lance
 War is no new thing in Mesopotamia and the Persian gulf The Tigris and Euphrates for thousands of years have been stained with blood The desert sands have been drenched with it. Chaldeans and Assyrians, Babylonians ana Medes and Persians. Greeks and Romans have fought and died there, in some cases almost to extermination. dreat mounds give merely sugges-
 tlon or the glory that was. The Turk lsh forces have followed the very trail or the Ten Thousand Greeks. The
 mound which is all that is left of the
 rover or Babel may yet be used as turkish rampant to stem the ad vance of the Anglo-Indian forces.
 Gone though the magnificence of old may be, Mesopotamia is still empire stuff. Politically it is of prime import ance to Great Britain; it is essential chat the Turk be driven out, for these are regions marked by Germany for German expansion to the Persian gulf Where will run the Bagdad railway, which is considered menace to India.
 victory will give protection to the great o.. fields across the border in Persia, Whence comes the fuel for the oil burning British navy of the future which will rule the waves for Britan- ma, so that the Britons never. never small be slaves. Mesopotamia's vast ex- panses will be made to bloom again by a modern system of irrigation. which probably will never be so complete or so efficient as the wondrous works of the ancients, marvels of magnitude and engineering skill that they were. Desert VIII become garden once more and again the description of Herodotus may apply-"and the grain commonly re- turned two hundredfold to the sower.'
 Nimrod, the mighty hunter, founded Babylon 1900 years ago. From there. 300 years later. to escape the harsh rule Of the race of Cush. the Semites emigrated northward. From Chaldea Abraham ascended the Euphrates and went into Canaan. Later the Assyrians also left Chaldea, founding great cities in the middle Tigris, and so grew as nation that they turned and smote the Chaldeans. conquering them and holding them in servitude for six brief centuries. The Assyrian empire reached to the Mediterranean. This was the land {of Nebuchadnezzar, from here went Aoi SSc e to capture JefuSdfem ERypt was overrun and after siege of IS years Tyre was captured and--"Israel el Is scattered sheep; first the King of Assyria hath devoured him, and last this Nebu. King of Babylonia, hath broken his bones," which is more or less what is happening to the Turk in those regions at the moment
 Wondrous war it was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Darius, Cyrus, c q Ro nj Do1 rr&a fought. to kill and kill they did with bow and arrow, mace, sword and bat tleax
 No indirect fire then, with shrapnel bursting from an invisible gun. but with everything close up. with the finish hand-to-hand. When Asshur- Bani-Pal went to war he rode in chariot clad in magnificent robes and surrounded by a great group of fan bearers parasol bear CTS and men with bows, quivers and maces. With these there was his per sonal body guard consisting of foot spearmen, each with long spear, great shield and protected by scale ar nor and pointed helmet Thus the great King set forth for battle. Following his personal retinue came horse archers. dressed in coats of mail, leather brooches and jack boots. All around stretch the army-a forest of spears and weapons of destruction-helmets shields and bat tleaxes shining in the hot sun. There were as many different types of soldiers then as there are now. The warriors were on foot, mounted and in chariots; there were heavy archers with helmet and ar nor carrying their bows across their shoulders. with quivers of arrows slung on their backs. There were light arch CTS, with embroidered ilead bands and short tunics, bare of arms. limbs and feet. There were spearmen. who car ried wicker shields of great size for de- fense, but which could be, If necessary, in this amphibious country, joined to- gether and made into boats. There were troops of singers. nave and axe bearers. Then followed battering rams. scaling ladders and baggage carts and last of all. carefully kept out of sight, the Kings wives who followed him wherever he went. The King travelled in luxury. His soldiers bore with them a massive throne upon which he would sit when receiving