The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1921-09-11

"They We're widely, although thin
", spread over Europe, and the de-
velopment of their flint tools and i'm
plements is everywhere so uniform as
to show that the various stages in the
evolution of their culture in different
places was essentially contemporary.
During the immense period Of time
when they were the only human be-
ings in Europe, the climate changed
from warm temperate to glacial, and
the fauna changed in like fashion,
one set of beasts supplanting another.
They hunted all these creatures, but
especially the horses, oxen and rein
deer.
"The most profound change in the
racial (not cultural) history Of west
ern Europe was the sudden and total
supplanting of these savages, lower
than any existing human type, by
the tall, finely built Gro Magnon race
of hunters, who in intelligence evil
IDENTIFY ranked high as compared with
all but the very foremost of modern
peoples, and who belonged to the
same species of man that we do"
Up to the advent of these Gro
Magnons all so-caled knowledge
concerning the evolution and prog
ress of man is a matter of conjec-
ture, based on the unearthing in
Java, Central Europe and England
of fragments of skeletons. On these
bones science has tried to build the
story of man. With that high regard
for truth and that adherence to abb
solute fact which characterizes true
science, her votaries have at every
step cautioned us to accept nothing
as final. There is every reason to
believe, however, that the last-named
race of hunters were immigrants into
western Europe; that they entered
that region only $4,000 or 10000 years
ago.
We have positive evidence, in draw
ings and paintings on the walls Of
certain caves in France, of their ar
tistics ability. These works in them
selves presuppose a measure of skill
in the making and use of tools, and
they are Of such merit as to make
easy the belief they were men worthy
to sire an ascending race. There Is
also reason to believe one or more
Asiatic races may have reached Cen
trail Europe during this period, and
that for a time the Cro-Magnons in
Southern Europe may have been as
ISOLATED with a people akin to the
negro pigmies of present-day Africa.
Finally the Cro-MagnOns succumb-
ed to that resistless tide of chance
which seems intent upon periodic up
roofing of human effort, to be follow
ed by four or five incoming vital
streams which probably had their
rise in Asia. From this it may be
seen our family tree is more or less
a tangled mass of entirely separate
branches, with so little really known
nc ia its roots or even its main trunk
as to leave us largely in the dark
Yet no subject could more appeal to
the imagination than this of know
ing whence we came. That is why
the announcement of few days ago
Of great American expedition 70
Asia to carry out a search for the
oldest man has occasioned no end oil
comment and speculation.
AS we have already Inferred the
hest scientific thought Of the day
trends in the direction that Asia was
The earliest home of the human race
and there is a feeling-it can hardly
40 called more than that-that what
,ver light may be thrown upon man
,rigin may come from that Central
Asia plateau north of the Him
llayas. 49,,
To search there for the possible
.vistenco Of such light is the aim
# an expedition organized in New
York under the auspices OF the
American Museum Of Natural History
he American Asiatie Association and
he magazine, Asia. This expedition
headed by Roy Chapman Andrews
Who was the leader Of two previous
investigations in that part Of the
gorld. is financed by the museum
arpely for the purpose Of paving the
,av for the important work now to
e undertaken.
Ina little-known and seldom-visited
eetion Of China. Mr. Andrews and
is associates will spend five years
eeking an answer to that most puz-
ling Of all unanswered queries
Where did man originate? This viii
onstitute the most persistent search
ct made for the cradle Of humanity