Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-11-30

sentiment, hero worship, or foolish imaai-
nation, still cannot resist an extreme
reverence for the spot because Christie
pher Columbus probably stood here, Ger
tsinly all of the Moorish Kings from
gratiied Yusef to weeping Boabdii, Fer.
ninand and Isabella, Cardinal Ximines,
Charles 9th that monstrosity of a traducer
and despoiler, Phillip II and son crazy Jane
and Phillip the handsome, Charles III, the
Duke of Wellington in 1911. Marshall
Soult in 1919, the Prince of Wales in
1859, and often times our own loved and
most gifted prose writer, Washington
Irving, who as with the hand of az angel
has woven into standard literature those
delightful imageries of his own mind, and
| the facts of history dressed in garb OF
| language which has made the Alhambra
additionally famous where ever English
literature has acceptance. This was one
of Irving's favorite resorts, and have in
marked and we'll worn edition of the
ALEXANDRA, which Irving himself
presented to the hotel named to
his honor. I have just finished read
ing that chapter headed Panorama from
the Town of Camares," and lifting my
eyes am almost startled by the wide
spread and diversified lap of nature below
u.s. This view from the Tower has often
been pronounced without rival of like
nature in all the world. Certainly it very
far transcends anything we ever saw.
We are facing the south, and to our left
lifting their snow capped summit like a
white cloud in the blue sky, the Sierra
Nevada, the delight of Grenada, lies peace
fully sparkling, bathed in an atmosphere
one might think to have been clarified by
the express favor of the Almighty, so that
the picture might not be wanting in a
single element of perfection. Thirteen
thousand feet above the sea level, one
monster jagged ridge is capped ty cloud
darker than the snow. The outline is OF
most delicsts and graceful proportions.
I should call it sky picture to enrapture
the sense of poor dwelling earth fettered
man. Directly about us the Alhambr
"that belt of battlements, studded with
square tower. struggling round the whole
brow of the hill, is the outer boundary OF
the fortress. Some of the tower, you may
perceive, are in ruins, and their massive
fragments buried among vines, fig trees,
and aloes." The walls built of slightly
Redeemed brick enclose a plateau 1910
feet long and 600 feet wide. To our front
and base is Granada with it's 100000
souls, (one-eigthth its population at the
close of the 10Th century It's present
streets crooked and narrow, many of them
raced gardens, gushing fountains, gildcd
church domes, minarets and towering
steeples attest that it's original founders
were Oriental, Rising from verdure-
clad terrace, close by, an old Roman ruin
stands the most venerable, but not the
most decrepid of mans workings about
Granada. must leave Irving TO tell of
the vega which stretches far away TO the
mountains base: See to the south at
the foot of those mountains line of arid
bills, down which long train of males is
slowly moving. Here was the closing scene
of the Moslem domination. From the
summit of one of those hills the unfortu-
nate Boabdil east back bis last look upon
Granada, and gave vent to the agony of
bis soul 1t is the spot famous ia song
and story, "The last sigh of the Moor"
Further this way these arid hills slope
down to the Vega from which be had inst
emerged blooming wilderness of grove
and garden, and teeming orchard, with
the Xeuil winding through its silver links
and feeding innumerable rills, which CON
Quoted through ancient Moorish channels
maintain the landscape in perpetual YER
dure. Here were the beloved bowers and
gardens, and rural pavilions, for which
the unfortunate Moors fought with so
much desperate vslor. Behold in the very
center of this eventful plain,a place which
in a manner links the history of the Old
World with that of the New. Yon line
of walls and towers cleaning in the
morning SUP, is the city of Santa F.. l.
was to these walls Columbus was called
back by that heroic Queen, aud within
them the treaty was concluded which led
to the di ecovery of the Western World"
Not even the pen of an Irving can do
Justice to a description of the scene from
the Tower of Comares Let us como b ack
to the Tower itself. Here it was that
Cardinal Mendoza first boisted he Chris
tian flag, crying aloud "Granada is taken !
Granada i taken !" And here hangs an
old bell green with years of corroding.
On the I'd of Jsnuary each year the an
niversary of Granada's capture there is 8
grand assembly of the maidens of Grsna-
under the romantic delusion that a charm
in the ringing insures marriage ere the
close of the year. 1t seems that marriage
is quite as much the aim of womaply ex.
istence here among the Spanish senoritas
as with our American eirls. Joseph our
guide informs US that to bis certain kaow
ledge an old maid of seventy summers has
not failed to ring that bell each successive
January these past two and twenty years
and yet she sighs without mate. We
cannot advise our young lady friends to
make the pilgrimage to Granada as the
Moors do to Mecca, lesst of all is it need
full that Golden Hair should ring the
Tower of Comsres bell. IND.
GEoRGIA.-There is good deal of
muddle in politics in Georgia. Governor
Bullock having resigned Mr.. Comfy, presi-
dent of the Senate, became governor &C.
cording to the constitution. When the
legislature met the Senate elected one
Trammell in the place of Comfy, and in
sisted that he should have the place.
Falling in this, the Legislature which is