Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1911 — Page 3

SOLVE MYSTERY OF THE PYRAMIDS

IT slumbered for 37 centuries before the coming of Christ —the Great Pyramid of Cheops, or Khu- . fu. It still stands there, eight miles from Cairo, defying time, the elements and the vandals, all working together, barely able to stretch its skin. Egyptologists worked at it; Napoleon fought one of his splendid battles in its shadow. an American, Dow Covington, has brought out the latest word from its mysterious depths; he has almost solved its secret /Mr, Covington has cleared every* passage that can be found. He has made it possible for visitors to reach the mysterious subterranean chamber within its shaft, which goes as far down as the level of the Nile in 2170 B. C. Best of all, he has cleared the single remaining course just above the sands of the desert and revealed to the world that its outer sheath was of pure white limestone, which nobody i knew before, because the great mass of stone had been used as a common quarry for thousands of years. The limestone sheathing makes a mosque in Egypt today. When the tomb of Cheops was first reared it was as white as a marble mansion of our times. But it is not so now.

Few of us can realize what thirtyseven centuries before Christ really means. That is 5,611 years ago. The technical work of those' days was marvelous. The masonry is absolutely unrivaled —there is nothtng better in all the world today. Monuments and , palaces have come and have gone a hundred times since the great pyramid was built. They, have perished; it remains. For twenty years 100,000 men toiled at the stones. They built their great pile facing exactly north and south. They chose a base of nearly a seventh of a mile, 761 feet, to be exact. This was a plot covering nearly IS acres. There were 210 perfect courses of stone, almost invisibly joined, of Mokattem limestone blocks. At an angle of a little more than fifty-one degrees its four sides swept up, tapering to the pointed apex, 431 feet above the ground. In it were 85,000,000 cubic feet of stone, put up by people who. had no modern machinery. There are about 2,300,000 individual blocks. Treated for centuries as a public quarry, all its outer stones and facings have been taken to Cairo and elsewhere, chiefly for mosque construction. The antiquaries never knew about this outside sheath until Mr. Covington of America came there with permission from the British government to make his explorations. Mr. Covington began his work nine years' ago, making his camp in the shadow of the great pyramid. He started where the Caliph Mamoun left off in 818 A. D., nearly 1,100 years ago. It was Mamoun who forced the first passage into the stern depths of the monster of stone, but after he found it nothing. more was done for cen(turies. Whole generations came and went before anything was learned of the mystery. First of all the American searcher cleared away all the Then he started at the descending or entrance passage, just below its granite plugs, and found the mysterious chamber below the ground-burrowed out of the living rock beneath the mighty pile above —“The stones of darkness and the shadow of death.” What this chamber was for is not yet known. The passage leading to it may now be used 19 cautious visitors. It Is 350 feet long and through the natural rock slopes down not -half an inch out of plumb. When he got to the bottom of this chamber Mr. Covington realised that there was more to do. He found a well shaft, 192 feet long, piled up with twenty feet of debris. When this was cleared away there stinted a current of strong, fresh air. It swept down the entrance passage, up the well shaft, thence down the deeeendlng passage out by the forced passage made by Mr. Mamoun. Immediately the temperature dropped 2 degrees. When Mr. Covington cleared the debris from the lower end of the king's chamber south sir channel. 174 feet inng, he reduced the temperature again, c The ordinary man may but visit the great pyramid—or any of the others, for that matter. Unless he have authority from the British government,

which has Sir Gaston Maspero as its director general of antiques, no man is allowed to touch a single pebble, mudh less explore. But Mr. Covington did such good work at the beginning that he has been authorized to clear away the sixty-nine feet of debris which obstructs the upper and outer end of the channel which leads to the great chamber of the king—the great Cheops, or Khufu, himself. Then for the first time in history the interior of this wonder of the world will be free from all obstructions. Beneath the great King’s chamber, in the heart of the pyramid, is the queen’s chamber. Mr. Covington is now* at work trying to find the interior ends of the 300-foot air channels. The inner extremities of these were discovered by an Englishman, Weyman Dixon, in 1872. Masons today build no more beautifully than did those ancient men who toiled 5,600 years ago. They have left their own monument in the queen’s chamber, which, apparently, was never üßed. It is superbly finished and jointed; yet, oddly enough, the entrance to this superb tomb was covered and concealed. Possibly it was Intended for Martitefe, Khufu’s queen, but she survived him and married his brother Chephren, who built the second pyramid in the Threat group which stands today as a perpetual monument just outside Cairo. The great king’s chamber, 35 feet by 17 by 19, is wrought in polished granite. Just one hundred perfect blocks in five courses compose its walls. Nine granite slabs form its ceiling and the floor of the low granite chamber above. The second chamber’s ceiling forms the floor of a third chamber, and so on up to the fifth, which is the topmost, each one rising over the great one intended for the dead king. Like the queen’s chamber, this top one is roofed with an arch of heavy limestone slabs. On one tof those slabs there still stays in living paint Khufu’s quarry mark, or official seal —two birds and a snake, surmounted by a round dot Of the mysteries, he has found Mr. Covingston has just spoken, and espetially above the grand gallery, 155 fedt long and 28 feet high, by which the king’s chamber was reached. “I consider this the moßt mysterious part of this mighty miracle in stone/’ said be, “because if the pyramid were intended only as a tomb there was practically no use for this elaborate grand gallery, with its strange and remarkable features, except perhaps to temporarily accommodate the granite plugs which still close the lower end of the ascending passage, but which I find fit too tightly to have been Blld into position. At an angle of about twenty-six degrees eight minutes it dopes up for 155 feet, its height 28 feet, and its width above the ramps nearly seven feet Its great sides are clearly marked by seven overlapping layers of stone, while it is roofed by thirty-six slabs. Bordering the third overlapping layer is a finely finished narrow groove extending right round the gallery; it is but one of several remarkable and Inexplicable features which distinguish this part of the structure. • , "A twenty-inch ramp borders each side of the gallery, extending right up to the great step, which is yard high. Bach ramp contalngrjMtn-ty-eight rampholes, over nearlyptffa* which, for some strange and Y/t unknown reason, shallow holes Info been chiseled out, and a neat ck4eflttlng stone let In. “As most pyramidists are much perplexed by this feature and have advanced theories I myst venture mine. It is just possible that the places chiseled out originally contained inscriptions, which the king for some reason desired to obliterate. It became necessary then to remove—to chisel out — the disfigured parts caused by theobllteratlon and replace them by a closefitting let-in stone. “In 1905 I discovered on the twentysixth course of the south Hank a similar let-in stone, to the reverse side of which still adhered buff-colored cement It had doubless become detached from the face of a falling casing stoni. Clearly incised In the dressed surface was the fall tenth part of an 18-incb. diameter circle. It was the only known Inscribed stone ever found on the great pyramid. 1 would judge it had been let Into a south flank casing stone at a place from which another Inscription had been for some reason chiseled out”

MARRY TOO YOUNG

New York Judge Declares War on Hasty Marriages. Declares Mating of Children Is Sin Against Humanity and Should Be'. Stepped at Once by New Laws. New York. —“It is a recognised fact that at least 75 per cent of the hasty marriages made between young people result unhappily. Nearly 5(1 per cent end in the divorce courts and more would If such a course could be afforded.” Judge R. C. Cornell of the domestic relations court has not only been making a study of the cases of young married people who come before him but has been waging war against hasty marriages. “It is getting so nowadays," said the judge, “that a boy of 19 may marry a girl of 16 and the authorities are none the wiser until about a year afterward, when the young couple, tired of playing ‘keeping house/ come to this court for aid. “This condition of affairs is not only a reflection on the parents and their laxity in caring for their children, but it is also a disgrace to the city government, and. I bfelieve that unless it is stopped the city will be so overrun with families, poor and discontented, that it will be the laughing stock of the country. "There Is a remedy for this, and one that should be put in force. In the first place no marriage should be made between young people unless their ages are attested by some relative or a guardian. This may seem a little matter but it is an important one, as any one who sits in this court will realize. There is a great difference in the girl of 16 and of 18 or 20. The girl of 16 is nothing more than a child and it is a sin to let these marriages go on. Many marriages are taking place between children of 18 and 19 who lie to get marriage licenses.

“The parents or guardians should be made to swear to the ages, and understanding what an oath means, should be duly impressed with the consequences if they commit perjury. “In many such cases the marriage would not be made if its com tern plation were made public. Those d iterested in the good of the young, people would prevent it But the secrecy that is possible now makes rash" and hasty marriages of mere children easy. It would be an excellent, thing if a law was passed making it necessary for the contemplated manage to be published a month in advance of the time of the wedding. “Such a law would guard the children in two ways. It would make possible the Interference of the parent or guardian if the marriage was ill-advised and it would also give the foolish children a month in which to think over the situation.”

DUTY ON OLD DECK OF CARDS

German Customs Offices Find DogEared Pack In Traveler’s* Bult-" case—Things Made Warm.

London.—Americans who have returned here from a trip to Germany are of opinion that the inspectors of the New York custom house can take lessons in making travelers uncomfortable from their brethren in Germany. Jacob Heilborn, jvho has Just returned from a trijjfto the Fatherland, tells of a trying experience. Not content to accept his declaration that he had nothing dutiable, the Inspectors emptied out his suit esses and made things very warm for him when they came across a dog-eared pack of playing cards. ' . Heilborn told them be had carried the pack for years, as it is his custom when he cannot find p. congenial companion upon whom to unload bis fund of good stories to play solitaire.

King Pleads for Ex-Wife

Former Crown Princess of Baxony Wants to Spend Reet of Her Days With Aged Mother.

Lindaa, Bavaria.—King Frederick Augustus of Saxony has Just applied for permission for his former wife—who ejpped with his son's tutor some ten years ago while she was crown princess—to spend the remainder of her days in penitence with her mother, the dowager grand duchess of Tuscany. After the elopement the crown princess was discarded by her husband and forced to assume the title of countess of Mohtignoso. Then a Saxon court decreed a divorce, which the pope had refused to grant. Subsequently the countess married an Italian pianist named ToselU, from whom she soon became estranged and whom she now seeks to divorce. Having nowhere else to g<* she wishes to live with her aged mother, whose home is In this place. .As it is a Bavarian town. Signora Toseili conld only live here by permission of the regent, and that would only be ■ranted on the application of the king of Saxony. It does not appear, what Influence was brought to bear on King Frederick Augustus, but it is likely that it did not require much persuasion to Induce him to apply fdr this favor to the woman who is the mother of his six children, and in the eyes of the church of Rome is still his wife.

SEEMS TO OVERCOME GRAVITATION

NEW YORK.—Edward S. Farrow, an engineer and inventor of this city, seems to have found a way to overcome, in part jit least, the force of gravitation. His invention Is based on the intensification of Hertzian wives. It has been learned that by doing this, a parallel and corresponding intensification occurs with the vertical force which controls gravitation. Thus buoyancy is added to an object held to earth or propelled toward it by gravitation. Discovered by Mr. Farrow and sponsored by himself and Gen. George O. Eaton, the device might be called the apex of a pyramid that has been building slowly for twenty-five years. In its completion, scientific subjects such as wave motion, aeronautics, wireless telegraphy, and the discovery of Hertzian waves have all played a part. Nor was the discovery made by a purely scientific theorist. Rather is Mr. Farrow a practical man, a native of Maryland Just turned his fifty-sixth year, a graduate of Baltimore City college and West Point, for eight years chief of scouts on the northwestern frontier and a consulting engineer, inventor and author. The bent of his mind is Indicated by such inventions as his combination shelter tent, in use by the army and serving as both a shelter and a cover for a soldier’s kit, and a military small arm combining the Springfield and the Blake mechanisms and the subject of some twenty patents. The army engineers are investigating his latest and most remarkable invention.

TRIP MAKES CAT ILL

Mascot of Dubuque Can’t Stand Fresh Water Waves. Work of Repairing War Vessel Be Hastened to Bhorten Misery of Famous Feline —Was on Battleship Oregon.

Chicago.—‘‘Blue” arrived in Chicago late the other night Blue is just a cat He never won a ribbon at a cat show, yet hsi is one of the most famous felines in the world. Any one who has been in the American navy since Spanish ships furnished targetß for Dewey at Manila bay knows what a prize Blue is. In fgct, superstitious tars attribute American success in that episode largely to Blue. This famous cat was brought to Chicago aboard the United States gunboat Dubuque. The Dubuque will relieve the Nashville as a training ship for the naval reservea The Nashville is to be overhauled before the crew of the Dubuque takes charge. The work is to be done faster than any similar amount of labor was ever performed in the American navy. Why? ' Because Blue .is sick. This Is the first time in his long life that he has been on fresh water. The changed motion is too much for him. Sailors

although another la queen of Saxony. With much difficulty the king arranged for an Interview with ninety-year-old Regent Lultpold, who now, feeble and senile, happens to be in Llndau. The desired permission was granted and the former crown princess of Saxony will soon enter on a new chapter In her adventurous career, this time as a private individual in a small and quiet town not far from where she once swayed a European court.

Kisses Worth the Price.

Elisabeth. N. J.—Kisses at 913.35 per are rather expensive. This is what Dominick Pugllese of Roselle thought after facing Judge Roosa in court and paying that sum on a charge of disorderly conduct committed when he seised Miss Margaret Hudson, daughter of J. & Hudson, and placed' an ardent kiaa on her lips. "I will give you flO, Judge." said Pugllese. “and no more." The judge was determined, however, having passed the age of romance, and the fine was upheld. “It was worth it, anyway,** said the osqnlator.

Asks for Bip Sun.

Berlin.—be city council will shortly be Invited to sanction a loan of 990,000,000, the money being required for developments already approved in the way of gas. water and canalisation, underground railway, street improvements and so on.

on the Dubuque would be everlastingly disgraced if Blue gave up his ninth life on fresh water. Work that ordinarily would take^' 'month will be accomplished in three weeks. Blue was mascot on the Marietta, pilot ship for the battleship Oregon in Its famous trip around the Horn in 1898. Later Blue was transferred to the Oregon because he was a good omen. The men of the Dubuque obtained him from the battleship Georgia. He is 15 years old. "Bill” is the regular mascot of tho Dubuque. He is a small black goat and comes from Little Corn Island, off the coast of Nicaragua. He was picked up last summer when the Dubuque was patrolling the Nicaraguan coast during the last revolution. Bill weighs less than 20 pounds. He knows every bugle call on the ship. Two weeks ago he hurt a leg in jumping. The men took him fo~the surgeon when the sick call blew. Now he goes at the regular time of his own accord. The Dubuque is the first regularly manned vessel .’ of war to pass on through the Canadian docks since tho war of 1812. Only after three months of correspondence with the Canadian government was the ship allowed to pass, and then only after the guns had been unmounted. The ship made the trip from Porthmouth, N. H. t in 1C daya u is officered by CapL K. C. B. Morgan, Lieut. E, P. Finney, Lieut. F. M. Robinson. Ensign W. B. Cothran, Midshipman C. A. Lucas, Midshipman D. J. F. Friedell, Assistant Surgeon C. W. Smith and Assistant Paymaster W. R. Van Buren. In the contrast to the Nashville with its war color the Dubuque is painted white and moored off the foot of Monroe street, looks like a large yacht Its displacement is about 150 tons less than that of the Nashville.

“HELLO” GIRL HAD LISTENED

Charming Army Woman, With Apart* menta in Fashionable House, Loses Woman FrlsncL •—r New York. —Until recently a charming army woman, who lives in one of the fashionable apartment houses not far from the Army and Nkvy dub, was the best of friends with the operator at the telephone switchboard downstairs. Now all this Is changed. Over the telephone an acquaintance was telling the army woman of some recent Washington happenlhgs. “Better leave the rest of the story until I see you," she suggests when the conversation drifted Into detaila “1 am afraid the telephone girl Is listening to what you say," she cautioned a little later in the sfbry. “You had better be careful.” Still the conversation was unbroken. “Really," broke In the army vr man a little later, “I feel that I must tell you that f am sure the girl at the telephone board Is listening and you must stop.” When the army woman next went down stairs the young woman at the telephone desk declined to answer the cheerful “good evening.”

What the Mothers Thought

I"" In the surge of people at the tea given for the girl who was about to be married the mother of the bride-elect and the mother of the bridegroom found themselves in a cozy corner and settled down together with their plates Of salad and cups of tea. ; *Tve been so busy,” befan the mother of the bride, “since the engagement was announced that I’ve' scarcely seen you! Nobody knows what it means to get a daughter ready, to be married! I almost envy you!” “I don’t know why,” said the mother of the bridegroom sh slightly injured< tones. “Just because I don’t have to embroider a pile of table linen and match samples is no sign I’ve nothing to do! Why, John is at me every minute about hosiery and the latest ideas in haberdashery and whether mahogany is preferable to mission—” “Well, as to that,” interrupted, the bride’s mother,, “I think he ought to take Gertrude’s advice, since it is to be her furniture! ” “I suppose,” said John’s mother, “that he naturally thinks I know best, having had more experience than Gertrude! When I was a girl I was taught useful things about cooking and sewing and marketing instead of passing my<tlme at bridge and running about!”

sfWell,” said the bride’s mother, ”1 have tried to bring up "Gertrude with ideas about mere domestic details, and I must say that I expected she’d marry s man who could take care of her properly! What the child is going to do with only one servant l don’t know! —- “Oh, she’s cheerful enough about it, but to think of her having to answer the doorbell herself is just dreadful — especially when she needn’t’have done It! I don’t like to boast, but you'reIn the family now, and I win say that Gertrude could have married a man worth half a million If she had any sense—that is, of course, John is all right and I like him.” The bridegroom’s mother set down her teacup. “I want to telL you now,” site said heatedly, “that Gertrude Is a mighty lucky young woman to get Jehn! Any girl might thank her stars if he chose her for a wife! There isn’t a better looking, smarter boy in the whole United States. As for his disposition—well, many's the time I’ve said to His father, ‘Henry, we’ll never raise that child, for he’s toqt sweet tempered!’ I used to cry about it sometimes! Maybe it’s a good thing that he has such a wonderful disposition, since he’s marrying Gertrude, for these modern girls that have- been spoiled are hard to get along with.” “Gertrude bard to get along with!” cried her mother. “Well, if you knew how she has to humor John and give in to him you’d think the shoe was on the other foot! My child has a perfectly angelic nature! I’ve said to her many and many a time, ‘Gertrude, whatever*,you do, don’t be a doormat! It’s all right at first, but I’m not going to see you a downtrodden, abused, neglected, suffering wife!’ “My heart aches for her when f consider all that she will have to give up that she has been accustofiasd to! Gertrude is delicate and it’s going to be a great hardship for her to get up at eight o’clock for breakfast” “Hardship!” echoed John’s mother, indignantly. “Wen, aU I’ve got to say is that any girl ‘who Isn’t glad and thankful that she’s got John to eat breakfast with is—is—” — : ——-±- “Why on earth my poor misguided child ever wanted to marry into your family is beyond me!” cried the bride’s mdther. “When she had a dozen other chances it seems as though she must have been blihd or hypnotized! She’s John's -superior in every way, though, of course, he has done surprisingly well, considering all the adverse infftsences with which he has always been surrounded. I don’t suppose he’ll ever appreciate all Gertrude is sacrificing is marrying him Gertrude U the sweetest, prettiest—” “There were a half dozen other girls crazy about John,” said bis mother. “And he could have married any girl he wanted, and I told him so, and it seems queer that he should have picked out <me the least suited to him. Gertrude is a very nice girl, I know, but she isn’t calculated to understand the noble qualities of John’s character. And he is so generous he’ll bury his disappointment and act as if he was perfectly happy! But his mother will see through it all, poor boy!" “There they are now,” said the bride’s mother. “Poor Gertrude J- She looks so foolishly —happy!” “My poor boy!” murmured John’s mother, craning her neck. “He does seem absurdly cheerful!”

Tribute to American Wine.

“Plastering" wine is so old it was told of by Pliny. Sherry raisers say sherry must be plastered to be sherry. Two pounds of dry plaster of parts (sulphate of lime) is sprinklsd on the mashed grapes as soon as. they are trodden out by big, web-foot peasants, men and women, of stginy Spain. Good grape juice of California may not become the mighty matter In history that tha wines of the Medit* terranean have—California lacks Horace and Omar to sing of thsm—nevertheless, ours are the real stuff and as good as any.—New York Press. ■

Marrying for Love.

“I married for love and disappoint ed my father bitterly “ “I know how It la. 1 disappointed my creditors.” {