Life — April 19, 1923 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* LIFE =: An Egyptian Episode The Facts as I Found Them Over and Under the Hot Sands HE other day my friend Hugh Baline, Curator of Mammals in the Fogg Mu- seum, said to me, “Traprock, how is it that the recent exhuma- tion of this Tut- e ankh-Amen crowds the murder news back among the cereal ads, while your discovery twenty years ago got no more than a nod from the public press?” I smiled tolerantly. “Politics, my boy; international politics.” Baline looked mystified. He is wonderful on whales, but all else is dim to him. “Let me explain,” I continued. “Twenty years ago, when I dug up Dimitrino, the first of the Pharaohs, I was indignant at the treatment I received. Your own museum people acknowledged my report with a curt ‘Yours rec’d & contents noted.’ But I have lived since then. Consequently I can but smile at the present noise. The public, bless you, cares nothing for mummies. But England is at work. Can’t you see her game?” Plainly he couldn't, so I went on. “Listen. There are two main as- pects. The first is political. Consider Egypt. Here we have an ancient country awakening to new power, with ardent hopes of independence. Is England going to repeat the tragic, suppressive methods which she tried in Ireland? On the con- trary, her idea is to jolly the Egypt- ians, to play them up, put them on By Walter E. Traprock the front page. Every column of that space is paid for by Bonar Law’s personal check.” My guest looked incredulous. “The second aspect is financial. This touches the United States vital- ly. You have read of the incalculable value of the treasure discov- ered? You doubtless also know that Howard Carter, who has done the actual digging—no, he is no relation to the liver-pills | Carters—is an American? Isn’t this all plainly a subtle ef- fort on England’s part to pay off the British debt in beads and but- tons? With the rate of exchange fixed by the British government, one blue bead equals $20,000 and so on. Then, if we kick, they will say: ‘Why your own man, Carter, put the value on the chips.’ ” I saw that Baline was foundering, so I shifted to the clearer ground of facts. “What annoys me exceedingly is the stupid way Carter broke into “Showing the king catching scarabs.” the tomb. He actually demolished the wall, thus destroying several chap- ters of the story of Tut’s life, which was written on the inside. It was exactly like taking a priceless old book and tearing out a handful of pages. I am astound. ed that the New York Times permitted such a thing.” “But how coul they get in otherwise?” asked my friend. “Very — simp] . just as I did, by bur- rowing. Never sliall I forget my sensations when, with my men, I set out toward our great find. This was years ago; Thebes then con- sisted of a single thebe and a few out-houses. Reaching the ground, we immediately set to work and were soon underground, boring along like excited moles. The grave ques- tion in my mind was: would we come up in the tomb or would we miss it and emerge on the far side? Then came the terrif- ic moment when, in the total black- ness, I snapped on my patent cigar lighter, for we had no electric flashlights. For a wonder it worked. “We stood, awe-struck, in the tomb of Dimitrino—the First! “Flinders Petrie makes a great (Continued on page 31) “Reaching the ground we immediately set to work.” comicbooks.com