Show new life at old nineveh american machinery and enterprise have penetrated to the remotest city in turkish empire by WILLIAM T ELLIS turkey in asia american readers reapers running over the ruins of nineveh that la tho striking symptom which I 1 have to report from this city itself ancient across abo river from the capital of world dominion during the height of As syrias power these paradoxes of progress may bo found all along the tigris river as prophecy of the not distant day when this now somnolent region once the center ot the world will have been awakened to the modern civilization which Is the most powerful ot all the conquerors that have swept over the earth the very day I 1 arrived here 25 chicago readers reapers came also to augment the pioneer six already here the city seems quite aroused over agri cultural machinery and I 1 was entreated to urge american manlutac jurers to send cataloguer catalogues catal if not salesmen as well as a goodly supply ot duplicate parts tor your oriental la rather hard on machinery and he i hat no faculty in improvising makeshifts or repairs after an accident and he Is a long way from base these chicago readers reapers came from new york to liverpool trans shipped to port said thence up the persian gulf and the tigris river to dagdag and then on the backs of camels tor the twelve day journey to this place soon the hum of american machinery will be heard over the palaces and temples and streets of old nineveh which Is now all farm land even jonah could not have prophesied this an ice machine and allah the morning after my or raft tied up above the bridge of boata which links with the ru ins of nineveh and tunis prophet jonah the name of a tomb a mosque and a village amid the ru ins I 1 was visited by an american from providence R I 1 who saw the american flag flying above my tent since the new regime he has re turned to this his old home bringing various improvements for this m touched section of the orient the most marvelous in the eyes of the natives Is an ice making machine which Is surely needed since a sum mer temperature of degrees Is common in the ignorant and fanatical moslems look askance at this interference with the ways of allah according to their reasoning it allah had wanted it to be cool he would have made it BO ansh insh allah it Is gods will Is the phrase that paralyzes progress and destroys an american s temper as the natives thus lay all their lying and general cussedness cues edness on the lord ansh insh allah stood seriously in the way of this aco machine but even it had to stand aside when an american saw clear profits of 20 a ton in plain bight next an american soda water fountain will follow the ice machine tor ottomans are very fond of drinks and the prophet forbids alcohol al though the use of intoxicants Is on the increase among moslems in summer the wealthier classes in pay three cents a pound for snow brought from the mountains packed in straw where muslin gets its name aside from being generally conald cred the most inaccessible of all tha cities in the turkish empire and apart from its long and romantic his tory s chief link with popular interest Is the tact that from its name Is derived the word muslin that article having originated here like most turkish cities its glory lies chiefly in the past it has no manufactures fac tures at present although it ex ports largely ot wool hides and gall nuts for tanning it was interesting to learn tha much ot the wool of the fat tailed sheep which I 1 have been watching day after day along the river la consigned to a philadelphia firm the hides also find their way in large quantities to america the fanaticism of the city Is famous although it was a pleasant sur palco to find natives speaking grate fully ot the memory of dr williams father of dr talcott williams of phil adelph la who lived here many years ago before this mission station of the american board was abandoned As a rule moslems hereabouts have scant courtesy for christians they say allah made both heaven and hell eo both must be filled and that la the reason tor christians another local proverb has it fire must have sticks and hell must have christians despite this prevailing sentiment the more intelligent citizens confess that regardless of the theological problems the admission involves the christian nations have been great ly blessed by allah and it behooves turkey to learn modern ways from them there are only from six to a dozen europeans or americans pass this way in a whole year so it seems strange to find such a general awak enang among public men to the advantages ot twentieth century civilization there are no native born americans here and only the one returned emigrant whom I 1 have mentioned but there has beato an inevitable reflex influence from the people who have A gone to america to live only thus can I 1 account for the extraordinary ogue ot things merican and the demand for american imports A governors appeal tho last of the vails of tho old mcgl me governs this and I 1 found him more of a young turk than some that toast the title his integrity and public spirit la the subject of gen eral comment although a septuagenarian I 1 found the vail an animated friend of reform when bo pushed his fez to the back of his bald head in the manner imaginable and talked with hands and eyes and lips about the need of better transportation there was no doubting his sincerity ho spoke of the desirability of having an american railway come through because h said the amer leans push whatever they undertake and dp not play politics with their business concessions the amerl cans are waking ua all up I 1 wish I 1 could travel to that wonderful new west but you see how tar we are from everywhere now it airships were running I 1 offered to forward hla order to america for an airship tor immediate delivery which idea quite upset him he appealed to me directly to place the case of this fertile country des tined again to be the center of a great grain growing region before american business men the need tor everything modern Is apparent the market la a virgin one the people aro predisposed to american wares all about are opportunities coal and oil abound practically unworked As to the latter statement there Is evidence which thrusts itself upon the years one discovery 13 IDS ancient node of burial tho dead were encased in clay or store sarcophagi in the case of the wealthy and in carthern jars in the case of the poor and burled a few feet under the floor of the rooms of the dwelling houses in some cases elaborate mausoleums have been unearthed a few inches below the HOOTS german devotion to science Is carrying on this great work but the inexplicable policy of turkey which recently for example permitted a priceless assyrian marble bull at ninevah to be broken up for lime will not allow any ot the results of the ecca gators work to be taken to berlin every brick of value every inscription every statue cylinder or other find must be boxed up for shipment to constantinople the germans must pay the salary of an army officer or commissioner who stands guard over their work to see that nothing Is mado oft with surreptitiously the germans of course make copies of all the inscriptions script ions and drawings and photographs of all the plans in none ot which are the turks apparently at all interested making the arab work an unexpected light upon the changes that are taking place in tho immemorial east was revealed at Sh ergat the inscriptions show that 6 years ago the arabs from the adjoining desert were accustomed to raid the settled communities even as they have been doing ever since this Is the headquarters of the fierce and famous shammar arabs and the day I 1 was in I 1 baw a military expedition tion of men infantry arall ashhur now being excavated by the german government mere layman it a western pennsyl vanla man could see the crude petroleum which has exuded from the earth floating on the surface of the tigris he would have a serious attack of oil fever at one spot not far from here I 1 visited the oil wells which aa a a operated after a fashion they are not 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 BO poorly done that the output can be sold only to the arabs burds kurds and cruses all the byproducts are of course wasted let here la a seemingly unlimited supply of oil as well as 0 natural gas coal and asphalt A hint from the ancients the mention of asphalt suggests a particular which shows how clearly civilization has retrograded in these parts of the numerous sources of bitumen and asphalt in this region turkey and the araba have made no use yet I 1 myself have seen it used in the buildings and pavements of tha As syrians of 4 years ago we ehnow that the spade has revealed its use in tho tower of babel and the niblo records thai noah pitched the ark yet for hundreds of years the samo bounces of supply have been al lowed to go to waste at a short distance down the river the germans have lor seven years been conducting excavations on the site ot ashhur the oldest of As syrias capitals they find that pitch was commonly used and asphalt these excavations by the way are ex both in what they have found and in the thoroughness with which they are being carried on alx germans are in charge of the work which la maintained by the mu and the german government at a cost of 20 a year the entire city including palaces and and fortifications Is being laid bare some of the buildings uncovered date back thirty five hundred yeara before christ others are as recent as the beir A D one section the excavators excava tors call their pompeii shows the life of the community most inter the streets the chops aaa the residences have been laid bare after being burled from to lery and cavalry all well equipped and uniformed going off to put the tear of the young turk government into these independent marauders it Is the intention of the cabinet I 1 enow to break tho independent power of all these arabs as it has already done in the case of the notorious ibraham pasha and of the cruses how well they have already succeeded in instilling respect for law and order la evident from the tact that I 1 like all other recent travelers over this region which once was considered so dangerous have been in po wise molested I 1 have not bad occasion to point my at anything bigger than a goose or a pelican and it may be worthy of remark that this tigris region Is a paradise pigeons ducks geese heron crane pelican partridge pheasant and other fowl unknown to me by name abound la unlimited quantities to return to the arabs the germans have put a large force of them sometimes as many as to work on the excavations the best of them make as much as 25 cents a day athla Is a great advance tor your noble arab like the red indian whom ha in so many ways resembles does not like work he will shoot and steal and talk but work la for women these arabs who have taken to pick and shovel and dirt basket are despised by their kinsmen of aba desert true they are a poor lot an appalling percentage of them being afflicted with syphilis which they call the foreigners disease none the less they ara working and this Is news indeed a sign of abo awakening of tho oldest people copyright b joseph B te |