Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1917-04-14

has fallen once more. and this time
/ 20 the troops of Great Britain. De
spite all the attention that is being
given to Bagdad-and some Of the re
cent articles are amazingly inaccurate
that city Of the ealiphs does not have
anything like the hold upon public
attention that old Babylon possesses.
In history, prophecy, imagTy, song and
I story, Babylon occupies a unique posi-
tion, and its passing into the control of
the British is noteworthy.
! Literally, the British have taken
Babylon. There are really two Baby
Ions. One is the Babylon Of today, and
the other is the Babylon Of the time of
Nebuehadnezzar. The former is the
town of Hillah. situated within the con,
fines Of old Babylon, and famous for its
dates. | have eaten dates in many parts
of Mcsopotamia, but these of Hillah
are the best of all. The town is small,
with only a few hundred inhabitants
and its buildings are all of mud bricks,
like the Babylon of old.
Hard by are the ruins of Nebuehad.
nezzar's palace, and the houses of the
German arehaeologists who have been
at work exeavating the ruins FOR many
years. Before the war there were doz
en- German scholars living regularly al
Babylon, together with the Arab work
men encamped outside the walls OF
their compound. The head of the com
immunity was the famous DIR. Kaldeway
whose hospitality has been extended tC
the few Americans who have penetrated
into that corner of the world Judging
: from the guest book which DIR. Kalde
way kept, | should say that there ar,
. probably not more than score of per
sons in all America who have presset
foot on the very bricks of the floor o.
; NebuchadnezZar s throne room, as tn,
Germans have laid it bare.
Kaiser's Stake in Babylon.
Germany had more than scrolarh
interest in Babylon. The expenses O
the work, amounting us DR.. kaldcwa
told me, to $4,000 year were met b,
the German government. The kaiser
personal interest in the Babylon projec
,, is famous. Not only was it researcl
! work that appealed to the imagination
but it was also "stake' in this won
derful region to which the imperial Ger
man government ambitions were direct
i ed. The melnbers of DR.. Kaldewar
staff were all German officers and tina
their activities were not exclusive
archaeological has been demonstrated b
! the early successes of the TureoTeutoI
= ic expedition. They accomplished wha
y the British long dominant in this regio
J had believed impossible.
I, Now Babylon is practically a suhur
J of Bagdad, 1t automatically follow
II Mesopotmia. When the city of ii
Caliphs fell 10 General Maude S force
and the Turks were chased from the
outlaying positions Babylon was on
of the first points to be cleared. You
unsentimentaI British officer was ne
II unmindful of the romance of capturin
: the city which had fallen to Cyrus til
Il Great and Alexander the Grea
s and which has had peculiar positio
in all the histories of antiquity. As
l. German center it was important tht
= it should not be left in the enemy
hands.
In Footsteps Of Abraham.
Bible students best understand Il
dispatches from Mesopotamia, for 9th,
u persons for the most part, have on
the haziest notions as to the loeatiC
ie of Mesopotamia itseIf, not to speak
i1 its detailed points. Interest in the pre-
al ent retreat of the Turkish-Germa 10
y ces is enhanced by the fact that tn,
. . are operating strictly within Bib
/ lands, and their course is almost Idle
~ tical with that followed by Abraham
~ when he followed the voice that call
- him out of Ur of the Chaldees. Kut
nc Amara is on the edge of ancient |
o, The Chaldeans are still living thel
III Among the Christian leaders hung
" " the Turks when they took Bagdad we
nc eminent men of the Chaldean Christi
's' church, one of the historic caste
OF churches which has borne witness TO
faith, despite al prosecutions IN Il
famous region.
When Abraham went to Haran,
"a followed the Tigris river, just as I
III Turks are doing. They have the {
~ vantage of hundred miles of
oo Bagdad railway which has been hu
! ~ northward from the city the name
ny which it bears, to old Samarra,
~ place famous religiously as the tol
no !, Of the tenth Imam, the mahdi whit
NJ return is expected by Moslems.
~ was because of the pilgrimages that t
ou section of the railroad was eomplet
F.e without waiting for the rest. The M
10 que which covers the tomb Of the tel
Imam is one of the most beautiful
the world, externally. No Christian
ever been permitted to enter its sacl
vi v, precinct, and few westerners have 81
~ its walls.
Use The routs of Abraham and of
~ fleeing army passes old Ninevah, acr
lgs the river from which is the city
fs' Mosul, where the army is likely to mi
70 stand. This is the walled city, Q
- the capital Of a vilyet A battle
meath the ruined walls of Ninevah wo
be in consonance with the eharac
= of this war, which has so wonderful
x linked the old and the new, the past {
x the present, the east and the west,
X that is alive in Ninevah today is a
x tie village over the reputed tomb
X Jonah, and still bearing that propht
X name.
X Fighting by Rebecca's Well
X If defeated at Mosul, the Turks |
!. Germans will make their next stand
another point Of scriptural inter
: Res al Ain, which is in old Haran, wh
j Abraham dwelt before going ON to
: naan; and where he sent his steward
!. get "a wife for Isaac. Here Rebees
r we'll mav still be seen Does il