Two Miles from the White House--Rich Find in Archaeology-Where the Savages Made Arrows and Hatchets-Washington Paved with the Red Man's Relics.

[Special Washington Letter.]

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CCORDING to recent finds of the bureau of ethnology, of which Major J. W. Powell'is the head, the political capital of the United States is on the very spot where stood the industrial

and art

capital of the Atlantic coast aborigines. It is announced that within easy distance of the dome of the capitol are the remains of the ancient workshop, and that the city of Washington is paved with the art relics of a race absolutely unknown to our people, who occupied and deserted the place in the dim and misty past. In the vicinity of the city rude stone implements are found in great numbers. So thoroughly scattered throughout the Potomac valley are they that they are brought in with every load of gravel from the creek beds, and the laborer breaking stone for our streets each year passes thousands of them under his hammer. These curious relics have at all times attracted considerable attention from archæologists, but it is only recently that they have received careful study. Of late Professor W. H. Holmes, the archæologist of the bureau of ethnology, has given them his undivided attention, and he has been led to a number of important conclusions.

Within a mile of the city limits a quarry workshop of these early stone workers has been unearthed and can be seen to-day almost exactly as it was left by this prehistoric people. This is one of the most fertile fields for archæological research to be found anywhere in this country This workshop of the

WHERE RELICS ARE FOUND.

specimens of this early work have been preserved for further study and speculation. Recently a Star reporter accompanied Professor Holmes to the scene of his labors.

Arrived at the bridge over Piney Branch out Fourteenth street, one is already within the limits of the implement-bearing area, and the rude objects may be picked up on all hands, in the lanes that lead up through the forest-skirted farm in the beds of all the streams and upon all the slopes including an area three-fourths of a mile square.

The committee of research under Professor Holmes was particularly concerned with a portion of this area on the north side of the creek and lying just west of Fourteenth street road. Here the plateau faces rise to 100 feet above the creek bed and 200 feet above tidewater. The slopes are precipituous, but generally even and regular, and are covered with forest, much of which is primeval.

Upon these steep slopes the primative people found the material used in implement making, and here they worked until a mass of refuse of astonishing magnitude was accumulated, and which is found not only upon the slopes but in the masses of gravel at the base of the slopes and in the flood

planes of the valley even down to Rock creek and for an unknown distance along its

course.

So far as is known the first discovery of implements upon this particular site was made by Dr. DeLancy Gill, who at that time, 1887, was Mr. Holmes' assistant in the illustrations division of the geological survey, and is now in charge of that work.

Professor Holmes, after visiting the place everal times, made a systematic search for the old workshop and quarry, last month. He determined the location of the old quarry and excavated a trench which cut a section directly across the line followed by the ancient workman in his labors. He was rewarded by finding a little below the surface beds of the half-finished and rejected implements thrown aside by the workmen. It would appear that in seeking suitable boul

had been entirely penetrated and the ancient workmen had stood upon the surface of the mica schist nine feet below the surface, and had there shaped his rude stone tools. At the seventy-ninth foot they encountered the face of the Potomac boulder bed, a wall of Ovoid quartzites This was the quarry face

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of the ancient miner. Facing a wall like this he was in a position to supply the whole ancient world with the raw material for one of its most important arts.

The magnitude of the work accomplished by the ancient miners will be realized when it is stated that the section made by Mr. Holmes crossed a belt of worked material fifty feet wide and on an average about six feet deep, and that this belt extends horizontally along the bluff for an unknown distance, probably a half mile in length.

From a trench three feet wide and fifty feet long cut through the artificial deposits of this slope have been obtained 3,000 worked stones, all exhibiting design, and over a thousand cubic feet of material have been examined and shifted, all or nearly all of which consisted of fragments from his hammer.

LOCATING THE OLD QUARRY. ders from which to form their implements they worked over a large part of the slope and that millions of worked stones and broken fragments now occupy the site.

In cutting the section from below the first positive evidence of ancient excavation was encountered at about the thirty-fifth foot and at the fortieth foot this work had reached five feet in depth beneath the present surface. At the fiftieth foot it had reached five and a half feet and at the sixtieth foot it was six feet deep and had penetrated the slope gravels to within one foot of the underlying mica schist. At the seventieth foot the gravels

HOW THE IMPLEMENTS WERE MADE

Professor Holmes showed the reporter how, in all probability, the ancient workman proceeded with his task.

Taking up two boulders and adjusting them to the hands, the first step was to strike the edge of one against that of the other at the proper angle to detach a flake; the second step and the third were the same, and so on

There have been collected from this one small spot fully 1,000 "turtle backs" of the two forms, a greater number than has been found heretofore in the whole Potomac province. And why? There can be, Mr. Holmes says, but one answer: This spot is the great workshop and these things are the failures. Out of 1,400 specimens that have been examined carefully there were only twelve that approached anywhere near perfection. The conclusion to be derived from a consideration of these figures is that all perfect specimens, and they alone, have been carried away as being the entire product of the shop. The heaps remaining are composed of the rejected and defective materials.

The rough fashioning of the boulders at the quarry was only the first part of the workman's task. It is more than likely that

those specimens that seemeu suitable for further working were taken back to their villages and homes to be completed at their lei

sure.

When asked by the reporter as to the age and race to which these workmen belonged, Professor Holmes said that if the evidence is not decidedly in favor of great age, the natural conclusion is that the race concerned is the Red Indian, for he is well known to us as an actual occupant of the region. If, on the contrary, the evidence favors great age, we shall be warranted in advocating the existence of a people distinct from the Indian and belonging to another and earlier stage of culture.

An examination of the quarry shop refuse makes it apparent that the period of occupation was very long. The accumulations of worked material are of enormous extent and remarkable thickness; their great degree of compactness is also a notable feature. A fine chestnut fully a century old stands upon the surface of a bed of refuse which is filled with artificial remains to a depth not even penetrated by the strongest roots, but the age of a tree, or of many generations of trees, will not carry us back beyond the age of the Indian.

Professor Holmes thought there was no evidence to carry the history of man in this place back beyond the age of the Indian, and a number of things conspire to confine it to that period.

There is no evidence of a cultural kind that points significantly to another race. Mining and quarrying are well-known accomplishments of the red man, and we have here on Rock creek and near at hand soapstone quarries that no one would think of attributing to any other people.

Considering these facts Mr. Holmes believes it would be unwise to seek in haste to supersede him by any unidentified or unknown race.

This opinion of Professor Holmes accords with the conclusion recently expressed by Major Powell, in the Forum, that the "Mound Builders" were none other than the red Indian, and that no art remains on this continent point to the existence here of any more cultured or civilized race than the red man of our recent history. At this the "Mound Builders" as a distinct people vanish, as does the claim that the Aztecs or Toltecons ever came further northward than Yucatan and Mexico, where their ruins are found. FRANK CARPENERR

ANCIENT EGYPT.

A Wilkes-Barre Audience has the Highly Intellectual Feast of a Lecture by a Distinguished Englishwoman.

Miss Amelia B. Edwards, the famous Egyptologist, lectured, March 11, before a large audience in Music Hall. The ladies of the Relief Corps, under whose auspices she came, certainly reserved their finest attraction for the close of their very successful course. The distinguished lady was introduced by Rev. Henry L. Jones. She carried her left arm in a sling, she having fallen and broken her wrist a few nights ago while attending a reception at Columbus, O. Miss Edwards is evidently timid about receptions now, for she accepted the hospitality of Mrs. Charles Parrish's handsome home on the sole condition that there be no reception. Miss Edwards is an English woman sixty years and her dark hair, which she wears pompadour, is turning gray. She has a highly intellectual cast of countenance and possesses an excellent voice. She has distinguished herself no less in the world of art and letters than in scientific explorations. As a novelist she has had admirers the world over and as a student of buried Egypt she has won numerous degrees from colleges in England and America. She began a course of 100 lectures in America in November last.

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The first half of the lecture is devoted to subject matter on the literature and religion of Egypt, which she reads from manuscript by the aid of curiously protected candles. In the second half the hall is darkened and the audience enjoy superb reproductions of Egyptian tablets and writings as shown by the stereopticon. Egyptian drawing was certainly pretty rank, from a modern standpoint, and Miss Edwards was more frank than most enthusiasts-she made no secret of drawing the long bow in the matter of interpretation, and she extracted a good bit of humor from its grotesqueness.

The speaker began by showing that the earliest nations had no literature. When the only writing material was stone there were necessarily few productions other than inscriptions and State documents. Literature Was the fruit of leisure. It was only when papyrus, then parchment and finally paper came into use that literature as a career or recreation became possible-the former two for Greek and Roman literature, paper for the Renaissance. Literature grows out of peace, not out of war. Egypt had no struggle for exist

ence at the outset of its career. It was strongly fortified by nature and it was not until she had passed through 13 dynasties and had been ruled by 200 kings that she was first invaded by a foreign foe. They were a pastoral and peaceful people, content with enjoying this world and preparing for the next. It was enough to cultivate the paternal acres, to meditate on morals and religion and to prepare a tomb for one's mummy. He loved, too. to record his meditations.

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How early papyrus was used we do not know. But it was used as early as the third dynasty, four thousand years before Christ. The oldest is in Paris, but we have an inscription on stone, 200 years earlier, in the second dynasty. But cut inscriptions are scarcely ture, nor are obelisks and triumphal arches. Literature is what can be stored in a library-books, clay cylinders or papyrus rolls. The Egyptians were the first to write books. Their literature-which was of most varied character-grew, flourished and decayed. It embraced moral and educational treatises, state papers, geometry, medicine, magic, heroics, love essays, hymns, dirges, rituals and prayers. Some of these are as old as the great pyramid, others are as recent as the time when Egypt had fallen so low as to become a Roman province. Between these two extremes was a period of five thousand years. We possess only the scattered wrecks. Yet so small a proportion exceeds in mere bulk all that remains from the literature of Greece. Their poetry had no rhyme or meter, but had rhythm and was largely cadence and the style was most capricious, the changes from dialogue to des cription being unmarked. Miss Edwards read several translations of the thrilling epic poetry describing the battles fought by Kameses and also recited a fragment in the original language of the Egyptians, its cadences being most peculiar. The effort won great applause.

Speaking of the scientific literature the speaker said it possessed no value to us moderns. We smile at their fanciful speculations, though we wonder when we see how near they come to grasping great truths which came as great discoveries to later ages. They understood much of astronomy. One inscription describes how the earth navigates the celestial ocean as do the planets, and another mentions that the earth revolves.

The Egyptians, kings included, made a profound study of medicine, and there are five medical papyri extant, one comprising 110 pages, and dating back to 1500 B. C. Doctors dared not be original. They must follow the beaten path. To experiment and to lose the patient meant death penalty for the doctor. Their materia medica comprised the most revolting ingredients, and

though medicine to-day is bad enough, we ought to congratulate ourselves that we moderns escaped the doctors of Memphis and Thebes.

Miss Edwards said that some of Esop's fables and such fairy tales as Cinderella, Sinbad, the Sailor, and Ali Babi and the Forty Thieves, were all anticipated in the literature of Egypt. She gave a stanza of a paraphrase of a threshing chant, 1650 B. C.: Hie along, oxen, faster and faster; The straw for yourselves, the grain for your master.

As to the religion of Egypt, it was so complicated as to be imperfectly understood. Every new tomb opened reveals something which adds to the complexity and overturns previous accepted conclusions. There was not one religion but a whole family of religions. It springs from most ancient stock and ramifles in all directions. It included monotheism, polytheism, pantheism. But these were not revolutionary, one succeeding the other-the Egyptian somehow contrived to believe them all. The speaker did not believe the theory of Dr. Brugsch and other learned Egyptologists that the religion was homogeneous, and that it represented only varying aspects of one fundamental truth. She believed that the people of Egypt were like our American Indians-divided into tribes or clans. As one of our aboriginal tribes had a bear for its totem, another a wolf, another a fox, and so on, so one clan of Egypt had a crocodile, another a vulture, another a jackal, another a bull, and so on. There must have been long ages of preparation because at the date of our oldest inscription the Egyptians had an alphabet and a complete grammar.

Did they ever rise to the worship of one God? Yes, but not monotheism pure and simple like ours. It was based on the polytheism of earlier ages. There was unity and universality for each local deity, but they never agreed to abolish their pantheon in favor of one deity. But they were the first people in history to teach the immortality of the soul. Man was a microcosm -made up of body, soul, spirit, name, shadow and kah, which the lecturer suggested stood for physical life. A reunion of all these parts was an essential in the life to come. Hence the care of preserving the body as a mummy.

With them none need hope for a happy hereafter unless he led a pure and holy life. He must have clean hands, a clean heart and a right conscience if he hoped to stand before Osiris. The Egyptians had many childish fancies, but in the matter of such cardinal virtues as truth, justice and purity they would not have much to learn from us of the 19th century.

Honor to Whom Honor is Due. [Communicated.]

The worthy descendants of our Connecticut ancestors here in Wyoming ought to feel complimented when they see that persons who have no claim to this proud distinction, (or rather some not overwell informed newspaper man is claiming it for them) that they are descended from that hardy and adventurous stock. The following from the Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer as to the genealogy of the Scrantons is a case in point. In speaking of Miss Scranton the correspondent says:

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"Her father belongs to the celebrated Scrantons of Connecticut, who established themselves in that section of Pennsylvania embraced within the region claimed by the province Connecticut under her original charter, and on a tract of land which to-day is the site of that populous industrial center which bears the family name of the Scrantons."

All this is very pretty and would be important if true. Not that it is an intentional desire to deprive the honorable family of Scranton from sharing some of the glory of our pioneer Connecticut families, but such not being the fact, the facts are mentioned merely to show that the descendants of the early settlers should have a pride of birth of some value, when they find others whose ancestors had no part in our early trials and hardships of pioneer life appropriating to themselves some of the distinction to which they are not justly entitled. If we are not mistaken the name does not appear among the early settlers of Wyoming. The land spoken of as being the patrimony of that family was originally the property of the Slocums, of Wilkes-Barre, Ebenezer, the pioneer in that portion of the Lackawanna Valley, being a brother of Frances Slocum, the "Lost Sister of Wyoming." The Scrantons never saw the Lackawanna Valley until some time along in the forties.

Two Old ) adies.

Mrs. Hannah Abbott, widow of John Abbott, who resides in this city, celebrated her 92d birthday on February 7. Her mind is still clear and active. She is a daughter of Cornelius Courtright and was born in Plains. She is perhaps the oldest person in Wilkes-Barre who was born in Wyoming Valley.

Mrs. Mary Searl, of Plains will, if she lives, soon reach her 90th birthday. She has been quite weak for some months.- WilkesBarre Telephone.