The San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 83, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 11, 1926 Page: 74 of 98
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RfTR C ! A
EVERY one who has read knows of
the “glory that once was Rome” and
some have heard of the great city
of Carthage on the African shores of the
Mediterranean Sea.
Few however save a scholar here and
there realize that in what is now known
as Algeria Rome founded no less than
four great cities which have only of late
years been brought back to view through
the power of the excavator’s spade. They
are Timgad Dougga Zaghouan and
Jemila.
A few travelers had seen the remains
of Timgad but the desert sands had so
swept over the other cities that it seemed
hardly worth while for the sightseer to
go inland. When however. Count de
Prorok began his work of exploration at
Carthage he determined to go deeper into
the desert and find what remained of
other great Roman settlements and with
most interesting and valuable results. We
are beginning to see now the deep policy
of Rome in establishing these cities large-
ly as settlements for their retired soldiers
who were thus given a real reason for
activity and at the same time
kept too busy to make any
trouble for the home govern-
ment.
Thus a double purpose was
served by the opening of these
new settlements which soon be-
came great centres of architec-
tural beauty adorned with some
of the finest statuary of that
period. They flourished and
spread just so long as Rome stood
solidly upon her seven hills but i
when the Vandals overran Rome
they made their way to Africa
also and taking possession of
the four great cities preserved
them entire for many years. But
the Vandal government lacked
the power of Imperial Rome and
soon one after the other these
cities fell before the attacks of
the Berbers first and of the
Byzantines afterward.
According to the records. Tim-
gad was so highly prized by Van-
dals and Berbers alike that they
formed an alliance to guard it
against the Turkish foe and only
in the sixth century did the
enemy succeed in driving them
out and destroying the city with
flame and violence.
Even after the barbarians had
done their worst much of the
original grandeur in buildings
and statues remained and this it
is that is being revivified for the
eyes of the twentieth century
through the latest discoveries.
The glory that once was Rome
is being proved more clearly day I
by day as the explorers bring to
view more and more of the
newly-discovered ruins of four
cities of Imperial Rome scattered
across northern Africa.
The classical writers told little of any
place save Carthage but we are awaken-
ing now to a better understanding of the
way in which Rome spread her influence
through the cities founded across the
Mediterranean as the result of the new
finds.
It was in the opening years of the sec-
ond Christian century that the Emperor
Trajan granted the time-expired veterans
of the famous Third Augustan Legion
the privilege of founding a new city
called Timgad in what is now Algeria.
The soldiers of Lambessa built the mighty
AWzard st Makin w Money He Loses Wfe After Wife
ALGVSTLS P. .MIXCHEW oil oper-
ator of Denver. Colo. and Dallas.
Tex. has been so successful in busi-
ness that he is rated among the wealthiest
men in the Southwest.
But his quest for marital happiness has
been correspondingly unsucc< -sful. In
fact as a lover and a husband he appears
to be a complete flop.
His third wife who was the beautiful
Hazel Pankey of Carthage Tex. daugh-
ter of one of Texas’s most widely known
cattle barons has just sued for divorce
in the Dallas courts complaining. “His
conduct is such that I cannot live with
him any longer.” They were married less
than a year ago.
The divorce suit came almost on the
heels of the arrest in Denver of two men
who were plotting to kidnap Minchew's
daughter by his second wife and within
a few weeks of the date on which Min-
chew was scheduled to go to trial in
Dallas on a charge of assault to kill glov-
ing out of a pistol duel with the second
husband of his second wife.
Minchew’s first venture in matrimony
bleu up w ith a bang in Denver in Novem-
ber 1920 when he attacked and severely
beat William Mahoney a dancing master
whom he accused of undue familiaritv
with Mrs. Mattie Minchew. While stiil
waiting trial on a charge of a-sau)t pre-
ferred bv Mahone'" Minchew asked for
and obtained a divorce hum Mrs. M n-
chew in spite of a cross-complaint filed
by her in which she accused him of im-
proper conduct and nam'd Miss Carmen
Murke prominent in Denver society ami
the daughter of a wealthy pioneer family.
In May 1921 just after he had re-
ceived his final decree of divorce. Min-
chew was secretly married to Miss Murke
and the couple established a home in
Dallas.
Three months later while on a visit to
Denver Minchew was arrested on a charge
of assaulting Roy E. Mellish a broker.
“He smiled at my wife.” Minchew
pleaded in extenuation when arraigned in
6
Entrance Into the Eorum of Jemila With Its The New Forum as Discovered at Jemila Not Very Ear Ruins of the Magnificent Roman Temple at
Massive Stone Arch. from the Site of Ancient Carthage in Africa. Dougga Algeria.
walls and great structures as they fought
the savage Berbers ever alert to drive
out invaders.
But the trained Roman soldiers had no
great difficulty in protecting themselves
building first the stone ramparts which
originally enclosed a space of hut 387
yards by 351. This area they divided into
eleven streets running East and West and
as many running North and South. The
city was bisect'd by a great paved road
Decumanus Maximus running from East
to West the northern part having its own
imposing highway the Cardo which led
court. A firn-
of $2O was as-
sessed against
him. He paid
and returned to
T- xas.
On March 16.
1024. his first
wife f iled suit
against his second «ifc in
the Denver district court
charging alienation of his
affections and demanding
? 100000 damages and less
than ten days lat< r Min-
chew was arrested by Fed-
eral authorities at Dallas
on a charge of violating the
Mann White Slave Act. Arilla Dameron
a Texas girl was held as a witness
against him.
That was the beginning of the end of
his second venture in matrimony and in-
Panorama of the Extensive Roman Ruins Showing the
Forum Triumphal Arch and Surrounding Temples
at Timgad in Algeria.
to the colonnaded square of the Forum.
Here was a great basilica from which
justice was dispensed and here too the
Curia or municipal building all closely
imitating Rome in miniature. South of
the Forum lay the splendid theatre built
of marble and porphyry in which the
games of Rome found their counterpart.
It was only after the soldiers had
driven the Berbers far away and com-
pelled their respect that the majestic
Capitol was erected modelled after the
one in Rome but outside the walls of the
original town. The city spread rapidly as
cidentally the beginning of a series of
developments that kept Minchew on the
front page of all the newspapers in the
Southwest for a protracted period.
Mrs. Minchcw No. 2 left their palatial
<C> IW tn Weekly Ine. Grvtl UrH«»o BlzhU
its position became assured and the fame
of the Third Legion drew other retired
veterans to settle there.
Many artists from all parts of the world
had formed the Third Legion and they
put forth all their varied talents to make
this new home a worthy child of the
imperial city. Lucius Munatus Gallus had
been their commander and the wise plan-
ning of the city as well as its artistic
construction owed much to his great
leadership. He made it as it has been
termed a “ftwel of architecture” im-
proving oh the Roman models where he
Augustus P. Min*
chew His Second
Wife and the Kid*
naped Minchew
Child.
home in Dallas early in July and returned
to the home of her parents in Denver
taking her baby daughter Carmen Phyllis
with her. In the early morning of July
31 Minchcw drove up to the Murke home
could through the aid of the Greek arti-
sans whom he gathered to aid him.
The costly Numidian marble was near
by and all that was needed was the skilled
hands of artists of that time. Aiming at
imperial favor he encouraged the best of
sculptors to do their utmost in adorning
his city that he might point to it as his
supreme achievement.
The fame of the city spread as if by
magic and soldiers retiring from the ser-
vice hastened hither with wives and chil-
dren eager to invest their savings in this
new Roman city. Thousands of traders
in a taxicab. Everybody inwthc house
was still abed. So were all the fashion-
able neighbors. When Herman Roesner
grandfather of Mrs. Minchew opened the
door in response to his summons. Minchew
pushed the startled old man violently into
a corner and rushed up the stairs to the
second floor.
Before anyone else was aware of his
presence he had snatched his little daugh-
ter from her crib with one hand grabbed
up her clothes with the other and was
out and away.
uuu aim ay'll*.
Grandpa Roesner in nightgown and
slippers followed him into the street
shouting for help but he might as well
have been shouting at the moon.
Minchew got as far as Colorado Springs
—seventy-five miles South of Denver—-
with the child. There he was arrested and
brought back to Denver. The courts de-
cided he could not be held for kidnaping
because the child was his own hut a de-
pendtmey action instituted in the juve-
nile court resulted in the little one being
given into the temporary custody of her
great-grandparents—and Minchew went
back to Texas empty-handed.
Shortly thereafter Mrs. Minchew No. 2
sued for divorce. On December X 1924
she was granted a decree but the follow-
ing day .Minchew’s attorneys went into
court and had it set aside on the plea that
his wife had taken advantage of his ab-
sence from the city. Three days later the
case was heard ag£in and again Mrs.
Minchew was awarded a decree. Custody
of the little daughter was divided between
the couple.
Early in 1925 Mrs. Minchew No. 2 was
married to Stanley G. Smith Jr. Dallas
manager for a big Eastern piano com-
pany and Minchew not to be outdone
took to himself his third wife—the pretty
Hazel Pankey who now declares he is too
mean to live with.
By way of keeping the pot boiling Mrs.
Martha idurke mother of Mrs. Minchew
No. 2 filed suit in the Denver district
court against Minchew on May 21 1925
demanding $28500. As grounds for the
action Mrs. Murke charged that Min-
chew conspired with Mrs. Minchew No. 1
visioned the endless opportunities for ef
ploiting the trade that was sure to malt
its way through the gap in the Atl
mountains from the Sahara and the
South and almost as if by magic the cit|
increased in population and area.
One of the most eminent characters j
Timgad was Marcus Plotius Faustu
called Sertius who had been bred in th|
city and after winning Roman knighthod
and a Roman wife returned to Timga
and accepted the position of priest. H
it was who devoted the savings of a lift
time to the building of a beautiful basii
ica set in a fountain-court
by porticoes and dedicated as a marke
place. Here life surged luxuriously wit
refreshment rooms and drinking bars ft
the merchants and their customers ii
creasing the prosperity of the city as h
made trading easy for large and sma
dealers.
The retired officers vied with one at
other in offering statues to the gods an
the imperial family thus proving the
devotion to the empire. And in 535 th
Byzantine general Solomon defeated th
army of the Vandals and Bel
bers and hurled death upon th
soon-to-be-forgotten city whos
ruins now are the astonishmer
of every visitor. It is hard t
imagine the heights to whic
Roman art had risen in that fai
off land.
But there are other notabl
ruins left by Roman colonizer
which have been brought to ligh'
within the last year. Count d
Prorok who has startled th
world with the notable discov
eries made by him at Carthage
was not content with this fiel
of exploration but has gone t
other sites not too far away an'
found unexpected proofs of th.
wide extent of Roman
tion in Algeria.
Here are the remains of tr.
New Forum as he calls it a!
Jemila and the entrance to thii
is abundant evidence of the mag
nificent scale upon which it wa!
built.
He has found too that then
was a Roman town at Dougga
for the magnificent Roman tern
pie now in ruins must once hav<
been visited and supported bt
thousands of eager worshipers.
It was near Carthage too tha
the great aqueduct of Zaghouai
was discovered built by Hadriar
to bring spring water from th<
mountains of Tunis for supply-
ing the inhabitants of the city
with the best possible water
Here lies further evidence of the
spread of the Roman building
genius even across the sea into
UVIVOO VIIV QV<* llll’l
the wilds of Africa.
More and more are we learning as the
spades of the excavators dig into new
sites that the empire of Rome was wider
than had been suspected and that the foot
of the Roman was planted solidly wher-
ever it once trod. It was necessary only
to find a likely spot for a Roman colony
to spring up with temples theatres and
forums that served as centres of Roman
influence even in Africa. This may
explain why Rome was the great power
that she proved herself for so many cen-
turies.
in the filing of the alienation suit against
Mrs. Minchew No. 2 and tried to extort
a large sum of money from her (Mrs.
Murke) in consideration of having the
alienation suit withdrawn.
The next chapter in the much-muddled
affair of Mr. Minchew was written at Dal-
las September 29 1925 when Minchew
in the course of an alleged attempt to
steal his little daughter from the Smith
home engaged in a pistol duel with Smith.
Neither Minchew or Smith was hit but a
stray bullet from Minchew’s weapon
struck Mrs. Noden Taylor a neighbor of
the Smiths and for that Minchew must 1
stand trial on a charge of assault to kill.
Denver police have been unable to con-
nect Minchew with the latest plot to kid-
nap Carmen Phyllis Minchow although
Tommy O’Grady an ex-convict confessed
leader in the affair came here from Dal r
las and admits police say that he is acT
quainted with Minchew.
The plot had all the elements of a movie!
thriller. O’Grady rented an apartment'
two doors removed from the Murke home
where Mr. and Mrs. Smith and the child
were visiting. After equipping himself
with a coil of stout rope and a vial of j
acid he went in quest of accomplices to
help him carry out his designs.
In front of a downtown employment
agency he picked up an acquaintance with
a trio of youths who were out of work
and offered them employment as members
of an oil-well drilling crew he said he was
recruiting. To one of them Earl Miller
he divulged his real intentions which ac-
cording to Miller's subsequent confession
including the robbery of the Smiths their
disfigurement with acid and the kidnaping
of the baby.
Miller said a promise of $15000 as his
reward caused him to agree to help but
twenty-four hours before the time set for
action he developed a case of cold feet
and revealed the real state of affairs to
the other two lads. They informed the
police who raided the apartment and
jailed O’Grady and Miller.
O’Grady while admitting intent to kid-
nap the child denied he had planned to
injure her mother and stepfather.
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The San Antonio Light (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 46, No. 83, Ed. 1 Sunday, April 11, 1926, newspaper, April 11, 1926; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1593143/m1/74/: accessed June 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .