The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1937-02-05

like an angry lion, otis
all right for you young
people to work up a romantic glow
over archaeology; 1 don't suppose
ject if you couldn't. But the fact is
it's a job of hard work and routine
is simply Illusion"
We protested at this. After all, when
you are in your early twenties and
the search for the remote past has
aroused your imagination, you don't
want to be told that it is a job like
another; you resent the unappetizing
you by a man like Harvey. We all
thought of Harvey a. a sort of pala-
din of archaeology. a pioneer, one of
the heroes. OF course, each of us was
secretly convinced that in his place
we should have done better; we all
knew more. in a sense, than he did;
but he had made more actual field
about, and we treated his words with
a respect touching on W It wa a
little hard to be told by this par
ticular man that u chosen way Of
life, our quest-for that is the way
most of us thought of twas routine
mixed with Illusion. Fortunately, we
knew better, and said so.
Harvey listened to our protests for
a while. The old man was outwardly
when the only comment he could
make or them was a good-natured
but family malicious smile.
What a muddle-headed lot you
are!" he said finally, pulling at his
white beard. "All that talk about
deserts and mountains and strange
peoples and the mystery of the past!
Sometimes I think that if I had writ
ten down all the nonsense talked by
have made a fortune just by publish
ing it. I suppose it's in the nature
of the Job to encourage crazy notions;
when a man gets a pick and shovel
and starts to dig up what he thinks
are ancient pots his mind gets on its
high horse and away it goes. . . In
corrigible romanticists, you all are.
stayed at home; perhaps there wouldn't
be any archaeology. I don't know that
the world would be such a great deal
poorer if there weren't"
Thus, by n shocking heresy after
another, the old gentleman was led
to talk of. Helen Of Mycenae and her
strangely un-Homeric story. BY this
time he was full of conversational
gear, the announcements and anec-
NooSc Ao!AAA6 oSCA oA1C d1IOCIIcI, anu
nothing less than an earthquake could
have stopped him.
We're in for it," we whispered to
each other in the shadows of the
palm trees. HE must tell it or perish.
Let's hope for the BEST"
AS If to make foolish Harvey's
fierce denial of the romantic glow"
the round, red moon crept over the
tops of the palms and cast its most
mysterious light upon the white plain
Of sand that lay between us and the
Nile. Down there the great river was
set in darkness on both sides, the
darkness Of the lush narrow valley;
but we were above the valley, in the
desert where the Theban kings made
their tombS, and it really take a Har-
vey to proclaim, in such a scene, that
archaeology was only a job like n
other. We repleniShed our drinks and
prepared to listen to him.
You fellows Harvey said) remind
me of all those German professors
I used to know at Mycenae. They were
so full of romantic notions that they
honestly weren't fit to be let loose
on an innocent world. What they did
to u Helen of Mycenae was, or
might have been, something appal-
ling to any sane Imagination. For
the good of your souls, I really think
I ought to tell you about it.
This happened a good many years
ago, mind you, so you are not to go
and fix it on to anybody now known
to you. Some Of you have been to
Mycenae. You know the sort of thing