The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-08-27
THE ALHAMBRABY MOON
LIGHT.

But the supreme spell Of the Al
hambrA reserves itself for moonlig ht.
When the Madonna's lamp shone
bright in the ingul6ng shadows of the
Tower OF Justice, while its upper
half was cased IN steely radience, we
passed in by Chsrles's Palace, where
the moon, shining through the rOofe s
top, made row OF smsller moons in the
circular upper windows of the dark
gray wall. In the Court of the Pond
the gourd-like umbellstion at the
north end spsrkled in diamond lustre
beneath quivering rays, and the
Tower of Comares behind il repeated
itself in the gray-green water, with 9
twinkle of ars around its reversed
summit. This image, dropped into
the liquid depth, has dwslt there
ever since its original was reared DUt
somehow ideal zed itself into picture
Of the towers primitive perfection.
The coldness of the moonlight on the
soft cream. colored plaster 10 this
warm, Silly air is peculiarly impress
sive. Absolutely DO sound is heard
but dripping water. Never did /
waik Trough q proiounder, more
ghost-like silence than that which
eddied in Lindsraxs'1 garden around
the fountain, IS il incurred in silvery
monotones of neglected grief. The
moon glare, coming through the lope'y
arches. shaped cleaning cuirssses on
the ground. or struck the outthrust
branches sof citran- trees, aud seemed
to drip from them again in q dazzle
OF snowy FIRE; and when | discovered
my two companions looking oat IN
expectedly from q pointed win
dow, they were so pale ia the brilli-
snce that played over them that for g
moment l essily iancied them white
stOled s2psritions from the past
The ing shadows Of the towers were
thrown far out over the sleeping city
at the hill's foot 90 We looked from the
Queens Peinador, where the black
trees of the shaggy ascent towards US
in swift lines or serpeOtine ceilings as
If to grssp a, US. Far down. the city
caKed its squares OF hammered silver
dusked over by the dead gray Of 40
rejecting roofs. Bot within the Hall
of Ambassadors reiRned a gloom like
that OF the grave. Cleans of sharp
radiance lay in the deep embrasures
without penetrating, and at one the
intricscies of upeu-woIk above the
arch were mapped in clear figures oil
light on g space of jst-black hlor
Another was filed nearly to the top
by the blue, weirdIy luminous image
of q mountain across the valley.
Through ali these openings, Ith 1ugbi,
the spirits of the departed could find
entrance as easily as the footless night
breeze. l wonder if the people who
lived in this labyrinth OF art ever
smiled2 In the palpitstiag dusk robed
men aud yelled women seemed to
seal by with a rustic no louder than
that OF their actual movement ia life;
silk hsngings hung floating from the
walls; scented lamps shed their beams
at moments through the obscurity
and saw the CLEAN of enamelled
swords, the shine of bronze candle
sticks, the blur of colOred vases in
the corners, the kasidas OF which
poetry-loving monsrchs turned the
pages. But in such q pace l cru d
not imagine laughter. felt inclined
to PROSTATE myself in the darkness
before / know not what power of by
gone yet eveT-pTesent things-a hall.
tangitl lie essence that expressed only
the solemnity OF life and the present
ment Of change. --Harper's Ndgaz-
zine.