The Washington times., 1936-02-07
Human Side of News
By Edwin C. Hill

" Ns AGtk
} storm and was turned to a pill
lar Of salt. Well, there are pill
lars of salt enough on the plain,
and the Dead Sea is one great
pool Of birthstone.
And now the flying man has
visioned down through the wa
tiers one or another Of those
ruined cities.
LOST CITY
Those adventures of science,
they who dig and delve in the
debris of time, everlastingly curl.
Gus about the past doings Of us
little human creatures-the ar.
Observation-Disclosures fresh evil
dence in Egypt and in what was
! ancient Assyria Of the authen-
ITCHY of Holy Writ.
They explore again. with fresh
admiration, the Lost City Of
Petra. Lost no more, but aban-
doned and deserted Of men, given
over to- the balloons and the Ian.
gurs-and to the ghosts Of a gor-
geous past. That was q day Of
which the Arabian Nights" is the
mirror, when Arabia was the cen.
ter Of the world culture-a garden,
a paradise, instead Of the partial
desert it Is today.
That was 2j centuries ago, when
Europe was a dark forest, inhab-
tied by Savages who worShipped
strange-shaped gods of stone and
sometimes dined upon each other.
It was then that Petra flouriShed
and grew great. 1t was located in
the widest mountains Of the mid.
die Of a barren wilderness in the
land Of Edom, south of the Dead
Sea.
HIDDEN ENTRANCE
Unless one knows the country
well, one can not find it, for the
main entrance is just a crack in
the mountain wall. Only the
Stream Of Moses, the same stream
the prophet brought forth with
his miraculous rod, betrays the
entrance, for the rivulet suddenly
turns from the open valley and
strikes into the mountain wall.
One follows the stream and
finds himself at the bottom of q
tremendous split in the rock,
overhung on either. side by black
precipiceS 300 feet high that shut
out the sky and the sun. No wind
StirS, no flower blooms, a world
petrified and deserted 80 cen.
turieS ago.
Gloomier and gloomier it grows,
darker and more sinister. And
then We turn a corner in the
canyon and behold q miracle of
light and lovelineSS, a temple
tomb, carved from the coral red
rock, lifting its radiant and ex-
quiSite face high up the towering
cliff.
The facade, $50 feet high and
100 feet across, is adorned with the
most beautiful carvings-gar-
lands and flowers, angels and
oddesses-standing forth in deli
cate relief all IN the solid rock.
One can imagine the king re-
turning, borne on his litter of gold,
and stopping, speechlessy before
the miraculous mauSoleum. $50
beautiful in form and color that
whosoever looked upon it should
fall in love with it and remember
it to the end of his days" He
made q sacrifice to the gods of
the architect who had conceived
it, and decreed that no more rock
tombS should ever be built. It
became the city'S crowning glory.
PINK AND SILVER
For the mobiles, envious of their
rulers overtowering monument
a monument so completely OBJ
Scuring their own-plotted against
him and murdered him. He alone
had known the secret charm that
held in thrall the djinnS who had
carved his wonder city out of the
solid rock. When the last heart.
beat of their master had ceased,
the djinns found themselves free.
These terrible spirits burst the
bonds that had bound them, and
with a single magic word en-
chanted the whole of the glorious
rock city they had helped to build.
Indeed, they must have, else
this pink and silver drama beck
oning in the moonlight would
have been in ruins two thousand
years ago. Not in q lifetime could
one forget the enchanted coral
temple, alone and beautiful in
the moonlight. the lost, forgot
ten, wonder city in the limitless
Arabian Desert.
copyright, 1885. by King Features
,' Syndicate, Inc.)