Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-03-23

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hundred inhabitants. and it's buildings
are all of mud bricks. like the Babylon
of old.
Hard by are the ruins of Nebuchad- |
nezzar's palace, and the houses of the |
German archaeologists, who have been
at work eXcavating the ruins for many
years. Before the war there were |
dozen German scholars living regu- |
larly at Babylon, together with the
Arao workmen encamped outside the |
walls of their compound. The head of
the community was the famous DR.. |
kaldeway. whose hospitality has been |
extended to the few Americans who |
nave penetrated into that remote cor
ner of the world. Judging from the |
guest book which DIR. Kaldeway kept, |
should say that there are probably |
not score of persons in all America
VINO have pressed foot on the very
prlcks of the floor of NebuchadnezZar's
throne room, as the Germans have
laid it bare.
The Kaiser's Stake in Babylon
Germany had more than scholarly |
interest in Babylon. The expenses of |
the work, amounting, DR.. Kaldeway
told me, to 100000 a year, were met
by the German government. The
kaisers personal interest in the Baby
lon project is famous. Not only was it
a research work that appealed to the
imagination, but it was also a stake"
IN this wonderful region to which the
imperial German ambitions were di-
rected. The members of DIR. Kalde-
ways staff were all German officers.
and that their activities were not ex-
clusively archaeological has been DEM
onstrated by the early success of the
Turco-Teutonic expedition. They ac-
complished what the British, long
dominant in this region, had believed
impossible.
Now Babylon is practically a suburb
n % dn1 1af Tool 1xr foil
the fortunes of that metropolis of
Mesopotamia. When the city of the
caliphs fell to General Maudes forces.
and the Turks were chased from all
the outlying positions, Babylon was
one of the first points to be cleared.
Your unsentimental British officer was
not unmindful of the romance of cap
turing the city which had fallen to
Cyrus the Great and to Alexander the
Great, and which has had peculiar
position in all the histories of an
tiquity. AS a German center it was
important that it should not be left in
the enemys hands.
In the Footsteps of Abraham
Bible students best understand the
dispatches from Mesopotamia, for
other persons, for the most part, have
only the haziest notions as to the To-
cation of Mesopotamia itself, not to
speak of its detailed points. Interest
in the present retreat of the Turkish
German forces is enhanced by the fact
that they are operating within strictly
Bible lands, and their course is almost
identical with that followed by Abra-
ham, when he followed the voice that
called him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
Kut-e -el-Amara is on the edge of ancient
Ur. The Chaldeans are still living
there. Among the Christian leaders
hung by the Turks when they took
Bagdad were eminent men of the Chal- |
Il .f-tf 4 Il of hn
toric eastern churches which has
borne witness to its faith. despite all
prosecutions. in this famous region.
When Abraham went to Haran, he
followed the Tigris river, just as the |
Turks are doing. They have the ad-
vantage of hundred miles of the !
Bagdad railway, which has been built |
northward from the city, the name of
which it bears, to old Samarra, the |
place famous religiously as the tomb |
of the tenth Imam, the mahdi whose |
return is expected by Moslems. 1t |
was because of the pilgrimages that |
this section of the railroad was COM |
pleted without waiting for the rest. |
The mosque which covers the tomb of
the tenth Imam is one of the most
beautiful in the world, externally. No
Christian has ever been permitted to
enter it's sacred precincts, and few
westerners have ever seen its walls.
The route of Abraham, and of the
fleeing army, passes old Ninevah,
across the river from which is the city !
of Mosul, where the army is likely to
make q stand. This is a walled city, |
the capital of a vilayet A battle be- |
meath the ruined walls of Ninevah |
would be in consonance with the char |
acter of this war. which has so Won !
derfully linked the old and the new,
the past and the present. the East aud |
the West. All that is alive in Ninevah |
to-day is a little village over the re- |
puted tomb of Jonah, and still bear |
ing that prophets name.
Fighting by Rebecca'S Well
If defeated at Mosul, the Turks and |
Germans will make their next stand at |
another point of scriptural interest, |
Ras ell Ain. which is the old Haran, |
where Abraham dwelt before going to /
Canaan; and where he sent his stew !
ard to get a wife for Isaac. Here |
Rebecca's we'll may still be seen. Docs |
it not seem like a journey into the |
realms of the remote lands of mystery |
to contemplate a battle of modern |
troops where Rebecca watered the |
sheep?
Here at Ras ell Ain great stores of
military supplies are accumulated, |
since Ras eI Ain is the terminus of /
the construction of the Bagdad rail- I
way Preparations have long been |
made for a defense here, should it be-
come necessary. This is the point |
where the Russian army will strike, If |
it gets down from Bitlis, through |
Diarbekir.
Jerusalem and Armageddon
OF even greater interest, from the |
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