The Caldwell watchman. (Columbia, La.) 1885-1946, 1916-12-29

w. cation he had in hand
49, 10 his wife he made LITTLE hen
scratches and scrawls that great
scholars tell US read: beloved light
ol mines eyes: Thy extravagances are hevond MI
!he patience of man. Behold, thy slave is return
'ls Wllhout the shekels thou so brazenly hast de-
hlahded. Ever thy devoted husband"
W. 10 slave overSeer who had wttingv or
uhWlttlnsly done him in some household deal he
S'Slused IN not haste: 1T is with sorrow that thv
H'ul'"its Is borne upon III. consciousness. Thou
mast cheated me in scales and in price D.
thee, thou art not worth three bekas a week -
which is probably what slaves food cost then
Ihs according to May Bosnian writing in the
New York Sun. She continues:
At all events, the great wealth of tablet records
dug up IN MesOpotamia in recent years and
cleaned and deciphered sh avs so many little ia
miliar, intimate touches Id such an abundance
OF letter writing on all Subjects under the sun
that the possibility of the existence of epstolary
guides then must be borne upon our conscious
ness too.
An interesting lot of deciphering of such tablets
is being accomplished by Dr. Stephen Langdon
VINO came in September fram Oxford England, to
be curator of the Babyonian division of the Uni
Versty OF pennsylvania museum in Philadelphia
He is young man still, but he is the only man
living who has seen and handled all the thousands
OF tablets unearthed by University of Pennsyl-
vania museum expeditions above the city Of Nip
pur both those retained by the authorities at Con-
-~stan ffh6ple and those sent to Philadelphia.
There are only about Is men in the world who
can read Sumeran and Babyonian characters,
and he is of them. Thanks to the war, which
has left Oxford dull, dead spot, America has
cured him for one year. He will decipher many
as possible of the thousands of tablets that have
been cleaned at the University of Pennsylvania
museum, will publish translatiOns of all important
ones, later, and will classify and catalogue
the collection, stupendOus task.
In $500 B. C. papyrus and paper for writing
were unknown Men scratched with a pointed
steel instrument called stylus on unbaked red
clay tablets of various sizes, mostly about the
size shane and thickness of small book. They
wrote on both Sides and then if they were not
through continued on another tablet. The analogy
of these tablets to sheets Of paper is not hard to
comprehend Sometimes tale stops IN the MD
die and the next tablet on which 1t was continued
is never found. or is found years later
In the temples scribes were busy copying ola
pieces of literature to hand down TO posterltv'
lust as later monks spent their days ana theil
nights copying labOriousy ana preserving olu
e books for the archives of the monastery. Inc
work of the omanuenses was placed on shelves Ill
q rbrorv-neat little rows and piles OF clay DOCKS
Men digging 5000 years later nave 1ouhe the'n
and other men have spent their h'es III s'u'sin
them that they might tell us what the '"oie's say
The hooks cover wide field and comprise ou 'a
epics, religious hymns dictionaries scieli a,l
namnhlets The old Babylonlah anu ouin.l ."l
temnles were also great lnduslilai 'o'' 49,,
agricnltnrol and stock-raising centers' ana .heS
various interests ,,.
Millions of tablets have been lou,u , a,onr;aae
'"ie VI CO. , moments. divorce DEGREES; wills;
onoi't, for irnnmerable things from JeWelrv anu
n,an,s drosses TO human chattels. lieie I'll ,
49, t;r,o,-oonars slips of the temple "oiNe', 'li,
,,I;r occounts Doctor Langdoh HAS iou'
+ho+ ono hg banking house dld ou'iiie'' "
city of Babylon for 6oo se"i' .oo, found
rbo areat hulk of the tablets nave oevn ivoi IN
Inv q - tho ancient temple ol INppu. -
, VI ue This temple was both rens'o ~,
lazy rd college designed primarily ~. .n
'1i''ei 80 priests but the range Vi 'eA'DooA'
euu'",,o toro shows that instruction pes"' a. :.
-, stage and continued th'ouSn oollooe
and o,rommar grades to the ,d 70 tbeo.
$50 &c Rabvlonians concelVeu ~ 90" hich or.
1901 o,osses The textbooks sno" osorh1onooS
aar - intellectually. lndeeu Wv horoo oqoin
of those neople to us OF TO-DAY n ontinuitv of
the unchangeableness Of the s''"'
civilization, so calleu. found roneot.
po,,., exercise books have peen a Tbov were
os, ~ this and in other coee, n,,t made Of wet
1iI,o nrosept-day school, si"'e' ,,od On them with
clav and the little feliow n,o' q mistake blotted
q STYLUS and wien ~
it out with his tnuliO' Of the textbooks aston
The quality and range ete oi sf abound they
isn one Books 5sn Tr table up to 24oo ant
n' nas do SPsods: ale, fooas
in their heads pVe' volume used in the study 1le
ses az; s ss. % d: :. Us; the f' a