Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-25
QUARRELS THWART
CARTER IN WORK
t. Fortune of Great Gems
Finders Delays Recov-
cry OF Treasure.
lyBY JOHN l.. BALDERSTON,

nUxOR, December 25.-The worlds
MOST famous gems have been dogged
By misfortune and death. SO the gem
Of all discoyery-that Aladdin's cave
cdne true, the tomb of Tut-ankh'
Ahnen-has brought in its train bitter
ness, QuarrelS without ceaSfng, loss In
stead of gain.
n do not refer to the superstition
that connects Lord Carnarvon's death
with the violated mummy, but to hard
prosaic facts, sordid and ugly and I'm.
fit for repetition as many of them are.
Howard Carter, whose work is ad
nlftted TO be excellent even by his
enemies, may finish his task in three
oF four years, or there may be more
captions.
tAs things stand now, there is no
be1Y connected intimately with Tut
ankh-Amen but has some personal
cause to regret it.
The pity of all this is that the world
may take decades to realize what a
wonderful gift has come to it-no less
than the restoration after 33 centuries
OF the perfect flower of one of the
greatest of all vanished ciyilizatio
~ the very moment of Its perfection.
certainly few people who have not
been In Egypt and seen the small part
oC these treasures that can vet he
seen realize " nat lillS ulStoN cry
means. And they cannot be blamed.
Getting the News
First, three years ago we had t&t-
gid, incompetent accounts of the great
End. a desperate attempt to preserve
q monopoly of the news. a silly Scram-
bio at the tomb for trivial items that
were spread all over the globe, until
swift reaction came and the very
name of Tut-ankh-Amen bored people,
or stood for chicanery, eXaggeration
and piffiing nonsense.
A second stage was reached when
the Egyptians and Mr.. Carter quar-
reled-the government seized the
tomb and cut the gordian knot about
who should have the news by decree
ing that there should be no news.
For two years Mr.. Carter has
worked on in silence, broken only by
three inadequate and unskillful gov
eminent bulletins.
Three years have gone by since Mr..
Carter and Lord Carnarvou broke the
seals of the outer door and entered
the tomb. In the Cairo Museum, in
case after case, are shown scores of
treasures, almost all from the ante
chamber. Around two whole sides of
the museum they run, yet not d tenth
ot what was in that tomb is yet on
view. l have spent hours studying
What now can be seen, and l have
come to feel that this most wonderful,
single, artistic, cultural, historical rev.
elatlon of our time is not yet appre-
ciated by the world. because of the
disgraceful brawls that have taken
place from the beginning and because
of the absurd observation of the
Egyptian Government at the present
time.
Fad of Rare Beauty
Certainly no one who now comes TO
Egypt and stands before these mu-
scum cases can be in any doubt as
to what this discovery means. I am
no art critic, but l do record the
simple fact that one of the Tut -ankh-
Amen vases in Cairo is. for me, the
most beautiful object that l have ever
seen. 1t was found between two of
the golden shrines in the burial
chamber: it left the tomb after all
wise authority had forbidden the de-
scriptfon of any object found. Its
photograph has appeared once, but NJ.
iaCau has told me that no more such
photographs are to be allowed and
today in Cairo a dozen guards keep
watch and ward to see that no cam
cras appear and that nothing is
sketched. My pet treasure is. typical
", neither caJalogued nor described:
Il is a triple lotiform lamp in alabas-
ter, symbolizinG the Theban triad;
alone of art works in the tomb it does
not bear the Kings name: its in
credible perfection Of line, unique,
think, in the world, must have been
ever so slightly spoiled by any mark
Ang on the white surface, and so the
artist seems to have felt. I refuse to
try to describe the lamp.
Then there is more snowy wonder,
alone worth the trip to Egypt, also
brought out since the ban on news,
also once photographed but now
guarded against such proclamation, a
lamp of semi-translucent calcite ap-
parently transparent. But when the
lamp Is filled with oil and lit, a por-
trait in colours Of the bow king, with
his girl queen standing before him,
appears within the calcite. Two cups
"f calcite, the inner one bearing the
picture. appear to have been turned
and fitted one within the other, but
so marvelously has this been done,
II it was indeed the method, that 1
am told miscroscope does not reveal
the joints.
Artwork Is Sensational.
iodihCo ny hSuISS SyHlDOllZlnS
union and eternity, this is surely the
most sensational art work of its kind
In existence. The museum authorities
have placed 1t where the sun does not
fall upon it, so that the figures can
be seen only for a short time each
day. dimly, when a ray of sunshine
pe1etrates the abominably lighted
,-ellery.
had not intended to attempt the
description of objects. Such a task
would be endless. | wish merely to
say enough to show that. in the effect
produced on any beholder whom 1
have met by the works from the tomb
now shown, the Tut-ankh-Amen find
has not been overrated, but every
where moderated.
This was caused first by the dis
gust at the disgraceful quarrels that
aged: but much more by the inability
Of descriptions or photographs to do
Justice to treasures many Of which
depend for their effect on inlay worl,
in brilliant color. There is a shaft of
one of the royal chariots, entirely in.
trusted with tens of thousands of in
aid bits of colored glass and stones,
with f1neness that any modern Ia pi-
Diary would be proud to produce on a
small brooch.
Work Only Half Done
All this has led up to the statement
of fact that think few people real
ize.. After all the fuss of the first
year, the golden shrines remained.
Tbau HiSToa pf1ad tho CARGO