New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1916-10-13

day owes much of its religion to
the B%abylonians, for he says: "The
Old Testament is fairly saturated
with Babylonian culture, and even
when we reach the time and days
OF the New Testament we have not
yet passed beyond the SPHERE of
Babylonian influence"
Babylonia and Assyria with their
teeming millions, were considerably
less in area than New Mexico. To-
gethcr they covered $4,000 square
miles, Like New Mexico the coun-
try was arid and irrigation was prac-
ticed. In fact, the B~abylonian irri-
CATION code very much resembles the
irrigation laws of New Mexico. 1t
was B~abylonia that was the home
Of cultivated cereals whence wheat
and barley were disseminated
throughout the ancient world" As
in New Mexico also. clay was a COM
mon building material and to that
fact is owing in part, the disappear
ancc Of the great cities Of the an
cicnt Baby,onia and .Assyria, and
anomalous as this may seem, also
their preservation. Says DR., Jas
.troW:
Adobe Palaces and Temples
"Clay being the only building ma
tcrial for houses. palaces and tenn
pies remember the Old Palace, the
mission churches, the Indian pueblos
and Spanish P'azaS OF New MeXico)
in the south, and the prevailing one
in the north, it is easy to imagine
what must have happened during the
two thousand years that elapsed be-
tween the desertion of the Baby
'onian and Assyrian cities and the ef-
fort to rccovcr their remains. Gust
what happened to the prehistoric
community and cliff ruins in New
Mcxico that the School of American
Archaeology is eXcayating.) The
buildings tumbled into shapeless
ruins, and the winds sweeping the
sands across the plains completed
the destruction, and hid even the de-
bris from view, OF the once flourish
ing cities, one saw only huge shape
less mounds. Gust as one sees them
yet nature, in thus covering up the
work of man, proved to be a merci-
full destroyer. But for the mounds
which formed over the sites of an
cient cities, the records OF the past
would have been entirely swept
away or ruthlessly destroyed"
Land Grants in Babylon
II is q fascinating, an astounding
story, that the excavation Of these
mounds has revealed and DR.. las
trow knows how to tell it. Many
a bible incident attacked by the
higher critics, is verified by these
discoveries and on every side are
laid bare the evidences Of a mar
velous art and advancement. How
modern it sounds, even to a TWEEN
Century lawyer, when DR.. Jas
says: "The business docum-
day occurrences, sale and hire of
rem and sale of houses. loans
and receipts, contracts for work, re-
ports Of business agents, marriage
divorces, last ~testaments and terms
IF adoption, suits of all kinds and
he decision of judges. and so on
through the entire gamut of the re-
lords one might find in the legal
archives Of any municipality of the
day" He also tells of the
inds Of Some remarkable bound
recording grants of lands
o royal officials" or in other words,
he much discussed New Mexico land
and their origin some three
thousand years g among the
3%abylonianS. New Mexicans wrcst-
ing with the drainage problem in
he Pccos and Rio Grandc valleys,
viii be interested to learn that in
he Babylonian excavations. there
ave been found "a series of drain
ines laid in vaulted tunnels show
ng that at an early period a sys-
for drainage had been devised"
The Original Muckraker ,
The political rcformer and the
nuckrakcr, will read with deep SYM
.athv and understanding the story
+ Urukapina who in $500 B. c. used
his efforts to rescue the v|arious
1asscs Of the population-he names
.oatmen, shccpherders, fishermen
nd farmers-from the ruling class,
lto whose clutches they had fallen. 4
his class had profitcd by the gen
raj prosperity and formed a power !
nj commercial organization which
vercised a pressure on the land. y
,rNkaelna goes So lar as TO accuse {
ne priests or rohb,nP the 1armer OF
ne trult OF his labors, OF imposing
E.horb!tent taxes on the t'Snermen, c
I taking nrl.hes ana OF thwartIne
lS'lce IN the1r capaclty as the con-
ontrollerS OF the courts OF laW. OruK, 5
DuS an end to this shameful +
ate OF affairs by sweeping the cor |
army or o~iflc'alS out OF oll,ce :
ny. setting up a oody OF laws \
cot. atlng the taxes ana teeS' pro- !