Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-09-08

~ nonsense has been written
~ about the spell of Egypt.
=. Cheapened by exaggeratiOn,
vulgarized by familiarity, it has be-
come for many picture post card
spell, pinned against the mind like the
posters at a railway terminus. The
moment Alexandria Is reached, this
huge post card hangs across the
heavens, blazing In an over-cOlored
sunset, composed theatrically of tenn
pie, pyramid, palm trees by the shin
ing Nile, and the inevitable Sphinx.
And the mOnstrOsity Of it paralyzes
the mind. Its strident shout deafens
the Imagination. Memory escapes with
difficulty from the insistent, gross ad-
vertisement. The post card and the
poster smotf r sight. writes AlgernOn
Blackwood, IA Country Life.
Behind this glare and glitter there
hides, however, another delicate yet
potent thing that is somehow nameless
not acknowledged by all, perhaps be-
cause so curiOusly elusive yet surely
felt by all because it is so true; in
tensely vital, certainiys~since 1t thus
survives the suffOcation Of it's vile ex-
aggregation. For the ordinary tourist
yields to 1t, and not alone the exca-
vator and archeologist; the latter, in
deed, who live long in the country,
cease to be aware Of it as an outside
influence, having changed insensibly in
thought and feeling till they have be-
come it; 1t is in their blood. An ef-
feet is wrought subtly upon the mind
that does not pass away. Having
once "gOne down into Egypt" you are
never quite the same again. Certain
values have curiously changed, per-
spective has altered, emotions have
shifted their specific gravity, some at
titude to life, in a word, been empha-
sized, and another, as it were, oblit-
Grated. The spell works underground,
and, being not properly comprehensi-
BILE, Is nameless. Moreover, 1t is the
casual visitor, unburdened by anti
quarian and historical knowledge, who
may best estimate its power-the tour
ist who knows merely what he has
cleaned, for instance, from reading
over Baedeker's general synopsis on
the voyage. He is aware Of this float
ing power everywhere, yet unable to
fix 1t to definite cause. 1t remains at
large, evasive, singularly fascinating.
Creates Blur In the Mind.
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thought and memory, and work spell
upon the Imagination of any but the
hopelessly inanimate. Greece, India,
Japan, Ireland or the Channel islands
leave their mark and imprint-whence
the educational value of travel-psy-
chology-but from these the traveller
brings back feelings and memories he
can evoke at will and label. He re-
turns from Egypt with a marvellous
blur. All, in differing terms, report q
similar thing. From the first few
months in Egypt, saturated maybe
with overmuch, the mind recalls with
Notwithstanding. There comes to
its summons a colossal medley that
half stupeAes; vast reaches of yellow
sand drenched In a sunlight that
stings; dim, solemn aisles Of granite
silence; stupendous monoliths that
stare unblinking at the sun: the shin
ing river, licking softly at the lips of
a murderous desert and an enormous
night sky literally drowned in stars. A
score of temples melt down into q
single monster; the Nile spreads
everywhere; great pyramids float
across the sky like clouds; palms
rustic in midair; and from caverned
leagues of subterranean gloom there
issues a roar of voices, thunderous yet
muffied, that seem to utter the hero
glyphics of a forgotten tongue. The
entire mental horizon, oddly lifted,
brims with this procession of gigantic
things, then empties again without q
word of explanation. leaving litter of
big adjectives chasing one another
chaotically-chief among them "mys-
terious," "unchanging." formidable" /"
terrific ~ But the single. bigger men,
ory that should link all these together
intelligibly hides from sight the emo
ton too deep for specific recognition,
too vast, somehow, for articulate re-
covery.
The Acropolis, the wonders Of Japan
and India, the mind can grasp-or
thinks SO; but this composite enormity
Of Ramesseum, Serapeum, Karnak,
Cheops, Sphinx. with a hundred tenn
Piles and q thousand miles of sand, II
knows Il cannot. The mind Ii q blank.