Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1919 — STANDS DESOLATE IN DESERT [ARTICLE]

STANDS DESOLATE IN DESERT

Once Splendid City of Ctesiphon, Now Heap of Ruins, Peopled by Creatures of the Wild. A few miles'south of Bagdad on the banks of the Tigris are the ruins of a once great city—the Ctesiphon of history and romance. In the ancient days splendid palaces rose beside the sleepy Tigris waters; gorgeous warriors drove their chariots through the city’s broad, straight streets; visitors from every land came to Ctesiphon to wonder at the splendor of the Parthian kings. Now the glory apd pomp are gone. The palaces of the great kings have crumbled into dust and only the walls of the white palace stand bleak and bare against the hot Persian sky. The city has surrendered to the wild and the banquet halls of Chosroes the Great are the nightly haunts of desert creatures. The hush of the desert seems to wrap the crumbling ruins in a still-blanket of silence. The old river slips quietly by on its way to join the Euphrates and the sea. Even the desert winds seem to hush their walling cry over the ruins of the past. It is a place of silence —the grave of a city and a people. Only the vaulted hall of Chosroes has withstood the ravages of the ages. Its great walls still stand stark and grim, defying man and time. The Arabs claim the spirit of the king revisits the scene of his grandeur and holds a ghostly court among its ruins. No longer do stately barges float down the Tigris and stop at Ctesiphon. The casual sightseer or archeologist are the only visitors. The tiny donkeys of the Arab guides replace the war horses of the olden days. A little farther up the Tigris ancient Bagdad flourishes and lives. Ctesiphon was despoiled to adorn her conqueror.