1
r
I
Fi
Early Roman Art Uncovered
nur Anrii'u ftmf npuunti who
T3 I were working In th vineyards of
I Prlnc lirnmp Attlerl. nrtf the
Porta dl H.in Pxolo In 1VO, dis
covered. In a subterranean pas-
sg" built about fifty-four feet below the
level of the high find to cist in., fifteen mar
ble statue, several of which were reeng
nlre.i sn r-iple of the group which a'lorned
the temple of Ap-'Mo Sosimus at Rome
anI referred to both by Horace and Pliny
as the work i f either pf-opri r Praxiteles.
This group, originally exhibited In so:ne
temple of Asia Minor, probably the Fnr
P'(lon in 'j;i'-l'i, Is knov.n to bnve been
oroucht to Rome by 't,us Posius, the
frr'.,l f JI. irk Antony. ."o ttar of t if
or'Ki'i.il pr dip hn:j i vi r I'oti fount. The
afatie ?oinpt'3ln(r th" rrntp r'.p:" e:it !
the ifl -'or) of N'lub" Ir- on.-l'.t i'
si ...vsfti. I 'Ofe. feaiw JP4-i I r mm
I saagas- - - 1 -ffl'---J-iar
Nilp i f. ;
I i" A ,,.,.?,..... .,?-, l, .:j'.:-,..-:-;''i' ill v,' 1- V N- 1
STATX Or ASOBl!ti foUJVD SiOf-Tt; JN J907, AND OWNCD
JBV GCORGti JUG?, ASS14TAHT PnCCTOH 'iW JViC SANVA COMMSeClLC
t1os beauty and number of her children,
Mplslng- her less fortunate sister Latona,
ifiio had but two, Apollo and' Diana, and
J. t.imH in .ten hn Anollrt kills nil
Kber ions and Diana her daughters.'
f inroniini c Trnnrtiii (Ha I. an ths
rat'stues numbered at least fifteen, and might
h'jivs numbered even twenty or twenty-two
lklf the figures of Apollo, the two Sagtttarll.
rm Pndmoiut and nurses were included.
Prince Altlerl sold the statues found In
hjs vineyard to Cardinal Ferdlnando de
Life and
(Copyright, 1907, by Frank O. Carpenter.)
iTRVCTtA. Desert of Sahara. May .
Bl (Special Correspondence to The
I Ron tI nin nt Pilule ra the Purls
or the Sahara. This oasis lies
ITS miles south of the Mediter
ranean sea, In the midst of the desert. At
one side of it great sand dunes roll on and
on until they are lostr In the yellow horlson.
On the other are the well worn stones of
the Oued, or dry river, Biskra, which be
comes a flood during the ihort rainy part
of the year, but which la now so oarehed
under this African sun that it would blls-
tar your bare foet to cross it.
Biskra is situated on a low plateau, a
little mors than 300 feet abovi the river.
V To the north of It is the mighty wall of
the Atlas mountains, which here rise a
thousand feet higher than Mount Wash-
Ington. In this African sun tliev ara now
' of a pats yellow, the color of the lime toni
Of whlA they are made. A H'tL '-r
tbey will turn to a haay blue, changing aa
the aun drops to primrose i.ij i , .. i..J
. then dying out through a dark purple Into
the night.
Biskra Is an Island in this mighty sea
of th Sahara. The mountain wall Is a
part of the shors of that sea and th great
cliffs rise almost straight up over it. If
one had a glass and would cast his ey
along those mountains he would find a
break at the right, known as the Gorgs
or Kantura. It la there that a river has
burst through the wall, forming a golden
gte to this greatest desert on earth. One
comei right out of the mountains Into tha
desert and as he does so goes through the
little ousts of Kantura, which serves, aa
it were, as the green key to that great
golden duor.
Garde of Allab.
Blikra has beeu rather voluptuously de
scribed in the novel called "The Garden of
Allah." I'ndcr another name it ts mada
the chb f seeno of tlat ftory and all of its
surroundings are pninled In more or less
, glowing coiora. They are, as a rule, great'y
overdrawn and the t.ilo itself has a mawk
Q i"!i, sensual senllnientu.lty which leuves a
b.id tasto In one's mouth. According to it,
' the De.irt of Sahara Is the Garden ot
Allah and 1 NWia Its capital. It Is tha
P' European wild watte of Knd which can
t o f I;' nnd I'om'uruib'y reached br
l:rbp'ana and every wltitrr touriU and
. A atth set-ken by the thousands come hern
lJ if. vr ttw railroad Vcn the French have
built. l.aie hotels bnve been erected for
flu ni and ur. can live cre comfortably
t from two to fivr Cul.nr dny. Tliera
ore a. together a half a dosen " snd.
In addition, a ias!:-.o snU theater. ' va
nil IIWtjv.-l u ...... . . nnu iimiimia
wtilll tho casino Mr-ullly runs Its rouleita
and roiige t nilr tables, so that the place
m'Elit be called thu Moats Carlo of th
banara ci wall.
Horse aud a in el Hares.
Th season begins in November ar.d last
un'll May. It is' at Us liveliest in Feb.
risry. at th time of the rairs. whea
horses, donkeys and camels tnke part. At
that tlm there ar long distance camel
rvicM run by Arabs on mshsrls or fast rac
ing camels, which can mak twelve or 11
teen mile an hour. .These camels ar
tall and loan that they seem to be all legs,
Tbey have saddles with high support In
front and behind, and th rider bob up
Medici for about 1.8.V Roman srcurtl or
d 'IIbis. and they were placed In the V :1V
Medici nt Trlnlta del Monti. In 1T79 th
Otar:d Duke Pletro I.eorldo of Tuscany
hnd them removed to Florence and b i!t
the in-railed Hr.ll of Ninbe. In the L'"P.z!
gallery fur their reception.
The statue are only part of the copl
nnd probably wre made hot direct from
the- ori-lnil group, fur Rime do r.i t be
lo:g to the Hijlij.t and have merely lieci
uipplje l to i.iake the number. Tic P la.
ocu" nid on" of JCh tie's ions aie at the
Ixnivre. while two dti?ht-rs of Niot.e
fr mi anotlvr kt o:o sre at the Vi.t'cii!
mii 'in.. A 'iv Mm- i: 11!- !". re m Par, .1:1
.t.afhb. riiu ' in.-ur. d. the hi-.ms and head
of th,. Kr.e-I'jiv; p n of .Vi.i'" lk !:
i II '1 I lor.e-ii. ' Is r! 'i-e M i:-l ;h
.'! T.'fc-r-- Mit-re la !. ot, of :r.
sons lyln on the rrqund. gt!U another
of the kntellnz sons la at the Capitol mu-
seum. Koine. It Is not decided whether
the. statues belonged to the same erouu
and whether they formed a pedimehtal or
merelv a seml-eircular arrancement.
During the recent building operations in
Rome, entailing the pui'.lnnt up rf old stroets
and the razing to the ground of old historic
houses, some workmen engaged In laying
the foundations of a modern building on
the supposed site of the Hortl Sallustlanl,
Nature as
and down with a seesaw corresponding to
the ticking of your watch. The starting
point is supposed to be the oasis of Tou
gourt, which Is 210 miles away, and a
fairly good ramrl oupht to cover the
ground in less than a day.
The horse races are with Arabian stock
and tho riders are Arabs, who In their
skill might even rival President Roosevelt,
and who delight In cross country going,
jumping everything on the way.
In French Uiskra.
The city of Biskra Is composed of two
towns. One Is known as French Biskra
and the other Old Biskra. The former
contains about 900 Europeans and two or
three times that many natives, while the
latter Is altogether native and ts num
bered more by the number of palm trees
It owm than by the number .of ill in
habitant!. It Is comprised In six little
mud villages scattered throughout planta
tions which support about 150,000 date
trees.
The French town Is surrounded by walls
and entered by gates. It has several wide
streets, ths chief of which Is the Rue
Bertha, which runs from th railroad sta-
V - J Al.;'v :
7,
V
i
t
4 ,
t
SO
4 i
TWO MEN Of SIDI
I : ! M 1 VLJM I tit " I i !
fllscovered In a specially conatructed crypt,
or cellar nearly thirty feet belpw the etreat
level a mnfble statue representing a Nlo-
bede or one of Nlobe'i daughter!. . . .-
Tho statue Is of Grecian marble warmly
toned from the effeot of dampness, but .
otherwise 4n perfect condition and with-
out a blemish, excepting the finger tips of
the right hand. The Nlobeda is represented
in a kneeling posture. Just struck by one
of Diana's arrows, while she presses the
folds of her chiton, which has slipped off
Found in
tlon past the public gardens and on out
toward the oasis of Old niskra, which ts
two miles off; and upon it Is a street car
line over which one can ride the whole of
that distance for 2 cents. Another car
line will take him to the hot springs three
and a half miles away for the same
money, and this is far down In the Desert
of Sahara, In the very backwoods of the
globe. The 2-cent rate is made without
tickets, and It Is less than half the nickel
which we pay at home.
I shall send this letter to the United
States fur a 5-t-ent postage stamp, and I
can telegraph from here across the Med
iterranean to Paris for less than you can
send a message from New York to Chi
cago. My cab rides cost me 30 cents a
trip or 50 cents an hour, and if I prefer to
move about on a camel the rate will be
about II per day.
When I take a Turkish bath In the
t'nited States I have to pay 1, with 25 or
60 cents extra for fees. I had a Moorish
bath here today for 20 cents in a bathtns
establishment which would be considered
fine In any American city, and this In
cluded a thorough massage and a cup of
delicious Turkish coffee at the close. Ths
i a. ' i A a
I:
OKBA-
FRENCH
THE OMATIA StTXDAY BEE: MAY
on Supposed Site
her shoulders, to stanch the flow of blood
from her wound. x
The modelling of the figure ts bold, but
perfect . and graceful, -the Intention, of the
sculptor evidently being thnt or rumillng
his conception of the stricken, Nlobode
sunk on- one knee. In the act of seeking
safety from the arrows of Diana. Tho
nudo parts of the figure are beautifully
modeled.
The general impression among archaeolo-
gists Is that this rcently found statue Is
the Social Capital
men who bathed me were brawny Arabs,
They were as yellow as gold, naked to
the waist and they spent something like
an hour on the Job. I do not by that
mean to say thut It took that much time
to get off the dirt; but the hour was
used up tn massage and other extras.
Biskra was a famous bathing place In the
days of the Romans. It had a Roman
name which meant baths, and which prob
ably referred to the hot sulphur springs
outside the city.
With the French Soldiers,
i
Biskra Is under military government. It
is the chief station of the eastern Sahara
and It is called the Territoire de Corti
mandement. One sees French soldiers
everywhere, and there are French officers
nt the hotels and on the streets. They
are fine looking and far different from our
ordinary Idea of the French army. They
are straight, broad-shouldered, bronse
faced men, who - have seen fighting with
these tribes of the desert, and show it.
Some of the officers hava the appearance
of dudes, and they, are noted for their
polltenris, ' but no one dares to presume
upon their weakness.
The territory of Biskra Is about aa large
yKJ VA
. ' '. i . '. . '
. era: : ;
y : t VaV -r
SOLDIERS ARB MET EVERYWHERE
12 "1907.
one of the figure? composlna the group
or NU,bedes In Florence, and the similarity
of subject can be seen at a glance. Hut
it has been suggested that while the Floren-
tine statuea havrf all the charcterlstlcs of
faithful reproductions from Greek orlgl-
nals, this one appears to possess all the
true features of renl . Hellenistic sculpture,
It is a well-established fact that no trace
has ever been found of the original group
which adorned the temple
Bosianus while the site of
of Apollo
the Hortl
as the state of Ohio, and It has a popula
tion of less than 100,000, all told. The na
tives live In a number of oases scattered
here and there over the desert. Biskra
itself is commanded by a major, assisted
by a captain, three lieutenants and a mili
tary Interpreter. In the other oases thera
are captains, lieutenants and Interpreters.
The town has electric lights and It has
schools for both French and Arabs. It
has a negro quarter as well.
The French city la made up of flat
roofed white hoiiran cf one or two stories
Many of the roofs have walls about them,
and the women and children play on the
roofs in the evening and the people often
sleep there at night.
I wish I could take a walk with you
through' one of these Sahara towns. Even
in French Biskara the scenes would seem
strange There are Moors who sit right out
in the street, or upon the sidewalks, upon
mats which they have laid down for the
purpose, and play dominoes. They have
little tables about aa high as a footstool,
and thus sitting, with their hare fert un
der them, they will move the blocks for an
hour or more without saying a word. Many
of th players are gray-bearded and gray-
I . m. f.
GIRLS OF OLD BI8KERA
of Sallusf
' srtlltistlMnl. whore this cro ip ts s u.poseO
to hive been hl'IU n. has never been ex
actly located.
The beautiful enrdrrs known ns the Tlorti
'.ji'.mlanl. rxcavHted by Prof. I-Riniasil be
;v. c.i 1.1 ;ti:d ISX yielded B rich nrrline-
. ...;:i l.nrvest ;md pavr an app-c:.lntato
'.Jin hi vl.at n Ron'r.n pnroen must have
boon In the palmy days of the empire.
There la evety rtason to hcUt v ti nt whe-i
tl: i xnct locality of the Hortl Fallii-c.lanl
Is foiifid 4he yield In r.talues will be ipilte
as Important an that collected from the
Hortl Kamlnnl. The biipporlt lor, that the
Nloliede recently uncaflbcd 1 longed to tho
Hortl S-ullUHttanl may tliercforo be d:s
carded. 'I'he process of idontldcntlon of any statue,
especially In the cane of on isolated dln"ov
ory. wlun one example cannot be compared
with another, ts extremely dltticult. nnd nl
thotirrh the sub.icct reptrfented by a statu'?
can generally be ascertained nt first blush,
nt 111 the views of archaeoloclsts are liable
to modification, and unmet lines to serl ius
revolution. This can be said with more
reason In the rnso of Rome, where the re
production of Greek ntntues waa encouraged
at. J where the rage for works of art of
every sort contributed to the spoliation of
Grecian ten-pies of many statues, which
wete set up in the palacca and public places
of Home. . Thus, for lnrtnnce. a statue of
Apollo, by Scopas, was broiiRht by Octavlus
after his victory at Antlum nnd placed In
the' temple on the Palatine hill, while Sylla
despoiled Athens and Olympla, and Verres,
as Cicero accused, him. took many works
, of art from Sicily and Asia Minor.
Nero Is said to have ndorned his golden
house with no less than 500 statues brought
from Delphi, and in the baths of Titus,
still in existence; (they were built on tho
ground .of the house and gardens of Mae-
cenas), many vuluablo original Greek
statuea have been discovered. It is not
improbable, therefore, that the Niobede In
question may bo either an original Greek
work or a copy of great excellence and in-
of Desert
headed, but age does not seem to affect
their love for the game.
Some Bible Characters.
K very where I go here I meet the charac
ters of the scriptures. As I write these
notes I can see in one group arv old Abra
ham with the aged Sarah bestde him and
his buxom Hagar behind. That little baby
In Hagar's arms might have been young
Inhmuel, and I observe that Abraham looks
upon him with love. At the snme time
6arnh seems to be jealous, and glares at
both baby and mother out of the tall of her
eye.
That Moor coming down the street might
be Joseph, the friend of King Pharaoh.
Observe his costly raiment of tine silk and
wool; he walks with a strut and is evi
dently a man of authority.
On that donkey trotting toward us Is an
old man whom one might easily imagine
to be Balaam, and lo! the donkey stops
and opens his mouth and brays. His mes
sage, however, we do not understand, for
he has not the power of sitecch as had the
asa of the scriptures. And so I might go
on, finding a character at evertep which
would correspond to one In the jJible. This
Is th simon-pur orient, where th na-
JiR. CA-iWTEJi IN BACKGROUND.
f r .
' - U r- - 1
SI ,
s Garden
estimable ns reliable evidence rf fire Greek
sei:lptute. Hut apart from all considera
tions about the ultimate Identification of
this statute from a historic or archaeolog
ical standpoint, the fart remains that It Is
undeniably one of the most perfect speci
mens of chic le art. The discovery of thin
statue, which had evidently been carefully
concealed by It? rwner, will very .
likely reoorn the discussion about ths rea
sons whlcl. determined the concealment
of works of art. Installers of which are fre
quently met with during excavations In
P.ome. The most plausible explanation ap
pears to be found in the barbaric invasions,
but these Invasions were ns a rule sudden.
The sark of tho city was Invariably fol
lowed by 11 fire, which undoubtedly dam
aged the architectonic sculpture of tem
ples and pnlacet". but it is unlikely that
the barbarians carried away marble stat
ues as part of their sn ill. The terror of
barb'uic. Invasions can explain the conceal
ment of precious piet.ils, and ulmi to uoma
extent of bronz" statues, but certainly not
of marble ones.
It seems more likely that such statues
were hidden in order to escape the fanat
ical rage of the Christian Iconoclasts. Th
history of this pnod of transition from
paganism to Christianity Is obscure, but
that paganism did not die out without a
long struggle may bo gathered from the
study of the legal measures taken agulnst
It. The harshness of a law proves the fre
quency of the crime it is Intended to represu
and the dlfllculty encountered In such re
pression. We know that some imperial
decrees ordered the confiscation of houiea
where Incense hud been burned befor
idols, and that statues repressing the old
gods were destroyed. It is not difficult to
connect the burial of statues with the re-
liglous transformation of Rome whioh
began under Ccnstantlne. The skilful
lection of such hiding places and the cars
bestowed in building vaults or galleries for
the reception of the burled statutes tend
to show that their owners intended that
the concenlment should be a permanent
one.
of Sahara
tlve are about the same today as thejr
were three or four or more thousand year
since. They are all Mohammedans and
believe only In Allah and the prophet
How the Oasis la Watered.
But let us go out to the oasis and visit
the people who live under the palm tree.
We drive along the Rue Bertha by wall
of yellow mud Inclosing date trees which
rise high above them and are loaded with
ripe yellow fruit. The walls are as high
as my head, and on their top dried thorn
bushes have been set (n while the mud wsa
still wet, protecting the fruit liRe so much
broken glass.
The gates to these gardens are rude door
of palm wood, and the only other opening
are through drains seen here and there
where the water flows in or out. Thl
oasis is fed by springs from the River
Biskra, which is dry the greater pert of
the year. Wells have tapped the spring
and there Is a flow of several thousand
gallons a minute. The water is somewhat
alkaline, but it puts the sugar Into th
datB and the sun Is so hot that the fruit
Is delicious. According to the Arabs, to
make good dates th head of the tree
must be In the burning sun the greater
part of the year. The thermometer here,
even in midwinter, never falls below to,
and the climate seems Just right, although
It is not so at Kantara, which Is thirty or
forty inllei farther north. Mnkra is an
nually producing something like 10,000,000
pounds of dates, enough to furnish a hand
ful to every boy In the Tnlted State and
leave some to spare.
As we ride on Into the oosls wis can see
men picking the dates, or rathe cutting
them off. They are It enormous bunches
and a good tree will produce on the aver
age about U'O pounds annually. The fruit
is not good until It Is dead ripe, t bit into
some green datco today and they puckered
my mouth like unfrosted peialmmuns.
la Old niskra.
I have nlready written of th oases of
Figulg and Tarla. Biskra is somewhat th
same. Its area is about that of an Ohio
township, and It Is altogether about sis
miles In length, it Is divided up into little
fields of garden patches, each of which I
surrounded by these mud walls of sun
dried bricks There are no pavements. The
treeti are dirt roadi, with here and there
a wide Irrigation stream running through
and with bridge of palm wood crossing It
at Intervals of every few feet.
There are villages scattered throughout
the oasis. Each of these Is entered by a
low gate made of mud bricks and palm
and tills gate is always closed at night.
The houses ar mostly mean mud hut
with flat roofs. There is some rain here,
and the water runs from the roof through
popes which extend out into th street,
giving one a douche on the turban or
down the neck of one's gown.
I understand that the water supply I
comparatively scanty; that water right
are sold In perpetuity and that there ar
also leases at so much per year, and even
at so much per hour. Not long ago on
paid fJOO for a perpetual stream half an
inch wide and as deep is th rainfall
would itarrT and JSoO for a stream of four
Inches. Where the water Is let out by th
hour so often per week an Arab watch-
(Continued on Fag Four.)