Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-03-25

A HUNDRED miles from Delhi, at Agra,
rises one of the fairest monuments of
selfish love and of a cruel promise. The
beautiful and beloved wife of Shah
Jehan, the mightiest of earthly kings,
died in 1851, nor could the wealth of In
dla or the.power of an absolute ruler save
the life of the being most dear to the
Grand Mogul the fair Moon taj-i-mahal.
AS she died she uttered the request that
her husband would provide for her
suitable monument. Thoughtless and
full of the common vanities of life she
scarcely reflected that the execution of
her wish must be paid for from the poor
earnings of the mothers and daughters
Of Hindostan; that tears would be shed
in thousands of cottages; that children
would be pinched and starved and the
aged harassed and disheartened to pro-
vide for the cost of her marvellous tomb
Too seldom, indeed, do any of us look to
the result of our actions, Or are more
careful than the dying Queen to limit
our wishes by a philanthropic rule. In
his passionate grief Shah Jehan pressed
on the building Of a mausoleum to his
consOrt with barbaric indifference to
the sufferings of his people. Twenty
thousand laborers, it is said, were en-
ployed upon the work for twenty years.
All India groaned with toll and taxation
The Tai Mahal, for so the tomb is called,
rose at last to wonderful perfection.
It is the most beautiful and the richest
of all the testimonials of selfish affec-
ton to it's lost object, the finest archi-
tectural device of sorrow, love and
death. A garden, as is usual in most
Oriental palaces and tombs, sur
rounds the spot where sleeps the
Eastern Queen; the cypress waves, the
orange, the lemon, the banyan and the
palm spread their foliage around; foun-
tains play along every avenue, and glitter
in the air; and all the charms of Shiraz
and Cashmere are said to be initiated if
not surpassed in the gardens of Tai Ma
hal. In the midst of the solemn beauty
of the natural decorations in front of the
great gate, and looking down upon the
sacred Jumna, springs up the mausoleum
iIoCi1. II VI IudIDle,
one minaret at each corner of wonderful
loneliness, and the central shrine
crowned with it's glittering crescent 300
feet high, are wrought into that rare per-
lection of form and decoration which to
only Hindoo craftsmen could attain The
marble, the gold, the precious stones are
melted into fruits and flowers and woven
into designs that surpass the labors of the
pencil or the dreams of poetry Yet it
is within, beneath the central minaret,
in chamber richer and grander than
royal palace ever knew, that the
Oriental fancy finds it's chief display.
The marble-latticed windows lend
pensive light, the floors are sown with
jewels, and the cenotaph of the fair and
feeble mortal for whom all this wasteful
toll was given rises like an apparition of
beauty behind the lace-work of marble
screen. Yet in all this rich effect of
Oriental fancy one misses perhaps the
stronger traits of Western genius. A
single figure on the mausoleum of Hall
carnassus, cloven by the powerful chisel
of Scopas, must surpass it all, and all the
wealth and power of Shah Jehan could
not awake the immortal fire that CLOVIS
in the friezes of Phidias.-Eugene Law-
renee, IN Harper's Magazaa,e for March.