Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-11
Geographic News
Bulletins By the
National Geographic Society
Hotels BY Product

Hotels BY Product
Introducing Croesus-godfather
oil the modern hotel N patron saint
OF the travelling salesman!
These are new roles assigned to
the erstwhile richest man in the
world in a bulletin from the WASH
ington. d. c.. headquarters of the
National Geographic Society.
The discovery of thirty gold
pieces from Croesus' mint. which
were part of the first series of gold
CONS ever struck off. recalls one of
a number of heritages which civili-
cation owes to buried Sardis," say
! the bulletin.
Gold Oils World Trade
These new-found coins and a few
other pieces already in museums sig
nalize the Lydian inception OF the
gold basis for world trade-an in
strumentality which lu%bricates inter-
national to this day.
The hotel. or the humble Inn
which was its forerunner, was not
possible until some standardized and
compact medium of exchange was
available. Therefore it is not sur
prising that historians generally
agree hat the first inns, where
board and lodging might be had
for payment of regular fees. were
established in Lydia.
Before hat time caravanserai
were known. But they were evil
dences of eastern hospitality, set up
at points where constant applica-
tons for entertainment grew our
densome. and were maintained as q
sort of cooperative guest room, or
modern municipal lodging house.
Cattle Cumbersome Money
Now it followed further that
when a man might be assured con-
venient abode when he travelled,
and he could close a business deal
with a pocketfull of gold rather than
a herd of cattle, that the trading
radius of the ancient world suddenly
expanded. Men began to travel for
pleasure as well as for business, in
TACT the Greeks already had VEN
tured forth for historic and
Tor discovery Thus it, would
seem that not only the trade
representative but the tourist and
the geographer w Croesus consid-
cradle gratitude.
The modern mar can hardly APP
p~rehend. without an effort of his
imagination. how great a boon it
was to the ancients of the sixth CEN
tcry. B. c.. merely to visit another
city. Important events were taking
place. 1t was the time Of Buddha
and C~onfucius, of Scion and Cyrus,
as we'll as Croesus. yet any high
school boy of today can know more
about what was going on in the
world then than any one living at
that time possibly could have
known.
THE casual traveller was un-
known. The stranger was always
fE a rod and HE 1;F- T.
traders with caravans, sailors with
their cargoes, high officials with
stately r%etinues of few beggars and
religious pilgrims-these were the
only travellers of that time.
Digging for History
despite these marked steps to-
ward culture. Lydia has remained
only a flash in the pan OF history.
Until explorers recently began Dig
g.ng in the dust of the land hat now
is a Greek mandate on the Aegean
shores of Asia Minor nearly all~we
knew of Lydia was the rambling but
%coiorful story of Herodotus. And
some of what we did know, it now
~transpires. was wrong. The tale of
Scion, when asked by Croesus to
ha me the happiest man in the world
cid not reply that Croesus was the
man. as the monarch expected, but
mentioned instead some humble and
dutiful citizens Of Athens. may per-
sist for its moral but has been ruled
out of history.
"Lydiais wealth is thought to have
heen u to various minerals and
principally to her trade. Her capital
Safdls, was set on a hill whose ruins
even now betoken an imposing dig
nifty. The site Is sixty miles north
east of SMYRNA, which. in the
Height of Sardis' power. was a Ly-
dian city,"