The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1921-06-23

No one can charge the former ruler of
Abyssinia with not trying to modernize
his country. Though he was compelled
by the nature of his subjects to rule with
the sword and rifle, still he augmented
these with such modern Appliances that
came from the distance to aid him. Tele-
phones connected him with the remote
places of his empire. He entertained his
court with photograph music and even
issued royal edicts on the little cylinders,
which were transported to the villages of
his empire by messengers, and there re-
produced that the populace might hear the
orders of its king in his own voice.
King Menelek was a Woodworking
monarch He arose at or 4 o'clock in
tant parts. And, though he formed a
cabinet modelled after those of European
countries, he assumed most of the respon-
sibilities of government himself. But he
worked under tremendous handicap. 1t
is said he could not write, and there were
no words in his language to convey a
definite idea of great distance, so he could
have but little conception of the immense
world which existed outside his own small
empire.
Though he failed in his attempt to
bring Abyssinia to the high level of its
distant European neighbors, he laid sub
stantial foundation for the efforts of the
daughter who succeeded him. Now Abys-
sinia, the Ethiopia of Bible times, where
biblical and modern civilization clasp
hands over the centuries, is rapidly as
suming the ways of the Occident
Its history and its former ruler become
of particular interest at this time by rea-
son of the recent arrival in this country
of an official mission from Abyssinia's
ruler. Oscar T. Crosby, former Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury of the United
States, who visited King Menelek in his
mud-plastered palace years ago, has de-
scribed the monarch as he then found
him in bulletin of the National Geogra-
phic Society. Mr.. Crosby says:
"Menelek was Emperor of the Abys-
sinians by virtue of having conquered a
great many difficulties, most of which
yielded only to the sword or rifle. His
father was of a kingly family that pro-
fesses to trace its ancestry to a union be-
tween Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Our accepted authorities in respect to
Solomon do not mention this particular
amour, but that may have been merely
overlooked by time.
Following the well-established custom,
l had with me few gifts to present to
his majesty, who had sent me goats, bread,
and tel. Two large volumes, with illus
trations of scenes of our own country of
its cities, mountains, waterfalls, etc., /
offered in the hope of making known the
land of the free. Through the excellent
Interpretation of young Abyssinian at.
tached to the British agency, endeayored
to explain the geographical relations of
the United States to the rest of the world,
but l am quite sure that l did not make
a brilliant success. The difference in
time between New York, which / men
toned as being our biggest city, and Adds
Abeda seemed to interest his majesty very
much.
"Menelek seemed to have some appre-
citation of the magnitude of the Brooklyn
Bridge and of the Capitol, yet the absence
in his own language of any defined mea-
sure of distance left me doubtful as to
whether, in spite of his unceasing efforts
to understand things American, he was
really able to mentally interpret such great
dimensions. He never saw house larger
than his own, unless possibly the neglected
ruins of considerable building erected
by the Portuguese about 800 years ago in
Gondar, once Abyssinian's capital.
GAS the Abyssinian is unable to make
ANYTHING save the rOunnd hut the roval