Show S new weva life at old nineveh american Amerl can machinery and enterprise have penetrated to the remotest city in turkish klah empire by WILLIAM T ELLIS turkey in asia american reapers readers running over the ruins bulna of nineveh that is ia the striking lymp torn which I 1 have to report from this city itself ancient across the rivet from arom the capital of world dominion during the height of assyrian assyria s power these theae paradoxes of progress may be round aund all along the tigris river as prophecy of the not distant day when this now somnolent region once the center of the world will have been wakened to the modern civilization illch Is the most powerful of all the conquerors that have swept over the earth the very day I 1 arrived hero 25 chi cago reapers readers came also alao to augment the pioneer six already hero the city seems quite aroused over agri cultural machinery and I 1 was en treated to urge american to send catalogues cataloguer catal if not salesmen tal esmen as well as a goodly supply of duplicate parts for your oriental la 11 rather hard bard on machinery and ho he bas baa no faculty in improvising makeshifts or repairs after an acel dent and he is a long way from base these chicago reapers readers came new york to liverpool trans shipped to port said thence up tip the ter gulf and the tigris river to bagdad and then on the backs of camels for the twelve day houi joui ney to this place soon the he hum of amerl can machinery will be headd over yer the palaces and temples and streets of old nineveh which is now nom all farm land even jonah could not have prophesied this an lee ice machine and allah the llie morning after my kelck or taft raft tied up above the bridge of boats which links with the ru una ins of nineveh and yunas prophet jonah the name of a tomb a mosque and a village amid the ru ins I 1 was visited by an american providence R 1 I who saw the american flag flying above my te tent nt since the now new regime lie he has re turned to this his old home bringing various improvements for this un touched section of the orient the most marvelous in tho tha rsvp ivoa t of the natives Is an ice making machine which is surely needed since a sum mer temperature of degrees Is common in tho the ignorant and ami moslems look askance at this interference with the ways of allah according to their reasoning if allah ahad wanted lt to be cool lie he would have made it so ansh insh allah it Is goda will is the phrase that paralyzes progress and destroys an american s temper as tile the natives thus tay say all their laziness lazine gs I 1 bang ing and general on oil the loid in tn bil allah stood seriously in the way of this ice fee machine but even it had to stand bland abide when tin an Amer american loan saw elcar clear of 20 a ton in plain algat next an Ameil can soda gatei ahei atei fountain will follow the ice machine mach lue tor ottomans are arc very fond of drinks and the prophet forbids alcohol al though the use of intoxicants la Is on the nerease nr rease amborg moslems in summer the wealthier classes in pay three cents a pound for snow brought brom the mountains packed in where muslin gets its name aside bioni being generally consid wed the hobt inaccessible of all the cities in the turkish empire and apart from its long lone and romantic his tory Alo s chief link with popular interest la is the fact that from its name la in derived the word muslin that article haung originated here like most turkish cities its glory lies chiefly in the past it las no manufactures fac tures at present although it exports largely of wool hides and gall nuts nuta for tanning it was interesting to learn that much of the wool of the fat tailed sheep which I 1 have been watching day after day along the river la Is consigned to a philadelphia firm the hides also find their way in laige quantities entItles lu to america A governors appeal tho the last of the valls vails of the old regi me governs this and I 1 found him more of a young turk than some that boast the title ills ilia integrity and public spirit Is the subject of gen eral cral comment although a narlan I 1 found the vall vail an animated friend of reform when he pushed his tei fez to the bick of hta his bald head in the manner imaginable and talked with hands and eyes and lips about the need of better transports tran tion there was no doubting tits his sincerity lie spoke of the desirability of having an american railway come through because he said eald the americans push whatever they undertake and do not play politics with their bubl ness concessions the americans are waking us all up I 1 wish I 1 could travel to that wonderful new west but you see eca how far we are from everywhere now if airships were running I 1 offered to forward tits his order to america for an airship for immediate delivery which idea quite upset him lie ile appealed to mo me directly to place the case cage of this fertile country des tined again to be the center of a gibat 0 1 I I 1 0 4 ow 4 au i I 1 ashhur now being excavated by the german government grain grow growing ing region before american business men the need for everything modern Is apparent the market la Is a virgin one the people are predis posed to american gaies all about are opportunities coal and oil abound practically unworked As to the latter statement Is evidence which thrusts itself upon the meio layman it if a Ne western stern Perin pennsyl syl vanla man could see the crude petro leum which has exuded fron the earth floating on tile the sultane of the tigris he would hive a serious attack of oil fever at one spot not far from hero here I 1 visited the oil wells wella which ar an operated after a fashion they sire are not nob oil wells at all but oil lakes from which both gas and oil flow without digging ten retorts made of scrap iron mud and old standard oil tins were distilling the crude petroleum at the rate of one standard oil tin per day to a retort it Is so ao poorly done dona that the output can be sold only to the arabs kurds burds and cruses all the by products are of counce courbe wasted at Shyr gat a short distance down the river the germans have for seven years been conducting excavations on the site of arbhur the oldest of As syrias capitals they find that pitch was commonly used and asphalt these excavations by bytheway the way are ex both in what they have found and in the thoroughness with which they aie being carried on six germans are in charge of the work which Is maintained by the mu and the german government at a cot cost of 20 a year the entire city including palaces and temples and fortifications Is being laid bare some of the buildings uncovered date back thirty alve hundred years before christ are as recent as the year A D one section which the excavators excava tors call their heir pompeii the life of the community most inter es tingly the streets the shops and the residences have been laid bare after being burled buried from to years ears one curious discovery la Is the ancient mode of burial the dead were encased in clay or store angl ng in the case of the wealthy and in harthern ear thern jars in the case of the poor and burled buried a few feet under the floor of the living rooms of the dwelling houses in some borne cases elaborate mausoleums have been unearthed a few inches below the floors german deot deletion lou to science Is car crying on oil this great work but the la in explicable policy of turkey velch re bently for example permitted a price less ass assyrian alan marble bull at Ni ninevah nevall to to bo broken up tip for lime will not at al low any of the results of the ecca patois to be taken to berlin enery brick of value every fri inscription scrip ever statue c under clinder or other find auit be boxed up tip for shipment to constantinople C copyright op right 1311 1911 b joseph n B bowles |