Evening star., 1928-12-30
BY RALPH v. d. MAGoFFIN.

! every tourist follows the dictum,
! i wait and see the Colosseum by
moonlight All those visitors
! who, touristwise, have not unfortunately
| fitted, do go down to see the Colosseum
| by moonlight. The guides then spread
| their sayings over Rome. About 80 per
| cent of all the tourists, be they from
France, Germany, England or America,
! all say, or are said to have said, "Yes,
the Colosseum is weirdly beautiful, but
| how much more wonderful it would all
! be if only they had the same moon here
that we have at home!" That is the
| true spirit, at all events. of what is
! known popularity as the patriotic brag."
| Many are the stories that are current
! of what Americans travelling abroad
! have said in exuberant praise OF things
| in this country. Perhaps the best one.
with reverse English is that told OF
the German professor of geology who
visited this country some years ago. He
was shown many things and had them
explained to him fulsomely. But when
| he walked out from El Tovar 20 the edge
| of the Grand Canyon, he lost his power
| of expression for time. When he could
speak, he said well, here is something
| that not even an American can
exaggerate."
| OIdSSAS OohCu 0ChSAoA
Now we do not brag any more about
| our things than foreigners do about
theirs. 1t is only that most of us can
not talk in his own language on equal
terms with a foreigner. But those who
can say that he talks just as much
about money as we do, the only diff
ference being that he talks of 1t in
smaller denominations. He stresses the
scenery of his own country more than
we ours, and when it comes to COM
ment on the superior cultural, historic
and artistic glories which his country
possesses over that of any other, then,
really, we cannot hold candle to him.
| Perhaps there is one stage more than
| others, however, from which we have
allowed ourselves to be backed off
the boards" That is the stage on
which archaeology has played its part.
There is a reason for it. We came into
the field of scientific archaeology GEN.
turies later than did certain of the
European countries. Besides that, the
| ancient dead were much more nun1er-
Gus in India, Mesopotanlia and the
! Mediterranean area than they were
| over here, and having had there more
or less continued population more Of
| the ancient monuments and artifacts
| remained there than here.
But the most pertinent fact Is that
| the peoples who now live on the same
! sites or in the same general localities
| claim to be, as they in some part are,
| the descendants of the earlier peoples
| and the heirs of their civilizations. We
| do not claim to be either the de-
scendants or the heirs of Western
| Hemisphere autochthons, because we
| do not yet know whether there were
nf Azfon Mound.
| builder or Indian aborigines. There
| fore we have not an equal amount at
| stake, and we have not had to de-
| fend atrocities, inhumanities, or even
| the peculiarities of our local forebearS.
Begin to Study Indians.
We have begun, however, to realize
| that there are in this Western Heni-
sphere antiquities of civilizations that
| go back centuries farther than We had
| ever supposed. It seems to have been
| the Germans who first walked us up to
the fact. 1t was nearly rs years ago
that their professors and students of
antiquity began to study the American
| Indian.
The splendid example of Indian
! basketry pottery, weapons, artifactS
| and Skeletal remains which the Ger
mans obtained in this country and
| took back to Berlin and other places
gave. to Germany museum of Amer
| ican archaeology better than anything
| there was here It took years of hard
work before the scientists of the Smith
sonian Institution forged ahead with
| the collection which outranked all
| others.
American archaeology began here. as
| might be expected, gradually. acci-
! dentally, fortuitously. Our early COL
onists tried rather to avoid the Indian
| But, as the red man diminished IN
| numbers before the white man. he
gained more than proportionately in
sentiment; or, to put it badly, as the
Indian gave up taking the scalp lock,
/ he gained halo. Arrow heads, as they
| were ploughed up, became the nucleus
of thousands of private collections,
many of which have now been concen-
| trated in local museums.
Specimens in Many States.
The mounds and earthworks in South
| Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio. Wisconsin
and Minnesota became objects of arche-
| illogical and historical study and the
| thousands of bone, flint, shell. pearl,
| red sandstone, copper and pollSned
stone artifacts of useful or ornamental
STYLE were collected, compared, tabu-
| lated, published and localized.
| The pot holes i'll the rocks OF the
| Susquehanna. the marks on the walls
of caves in the OZarkS, the burlals IN
| the mounds of Southern Illinois. the
| serpentine and other animal shapes of
| low mounds in hundreds of Midwestern
| localities came in for their share OF
private, then local, then popular IN
| tereSt.
The Spaniard overran Mexico and
| Peru before we we're ready to start west
| of the Alleghenies He seized all the
gold in sight. and even made long
marches up into New Mexico and there.
abouts hunting for the tabled gold OF
worse off than Goethe, who walked IN
| Rome, over the ancient Forum, without
knowing it.
The Spaniard not only did not know
| he was marching over the graves and
| monuments of bygone civilization, but
| he did not care. But now, we have
| begun to know it, and We care great
deal. 1t might easily be forgiven If we
began to talk much bigger" than We
| do about the splendid remains of the
early inhabitants of this hemisphere.
Rich Finds in Mexico.
There is plenty of room for pride In
the fine pyramids, the wonderful deco
rative relief carvings, the artistic beauty
of the turquoise mosaics; in the per-
feet naturalism of carved animal forms
and the meticulous skill of the work
men who made thousands Of miniature
gods and figurines in clay, stone and
gold with which the culture sites OF
the pre-Aztec Mayas In Yucatan and
Guatemala abound.
Here the fine work of late by Morley,
Morris and others under the Carnegie
Institution of Washington should come
in for more than need of praise. The
four great tones issued few weeks ago
by the government of Mexico as its
contribution to the twenty-third In