The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1888-07-20
THE MoouLs. CAPITAL.
Graphic Description OF Delhi. the Msrs
FRmous of India.s Cities.


Famous of India.s Cities
Americans visit countries. cities and
battlefields in Europe sacred to them
because their forefathers lived and died
there or because these were the cradles
dyed in blood in the name of free
dom or for religious cause In Rome
they live over world of history and
see legions Of long-dcad heroes march,
ing before them. In Greece they watch
genius chiseling breathing forms from
cold marble and listen to undy ing song
flowing from the lips of the muses. Ii
India had a written history as had
Rome and Greece, aud had rs grateful
pos:erity as they had. then would mil
lions visit the twenty-mile square In
whose center | now sit, and would
revel In mighty past compared to
which the past of Rome and Athens In
as decade to century. Here for
thousands of years history has been
acted. but never written. Acted not
centuries ago with a vast vacuity to
follow. but acted continuously as the
ages have marched slowly along. Not
two hundred yards from where / am
writing thirty years ago deed was
done more heroic than was the stand
of Leonidas at Thermopyle. The muir
derous mutineers seemed safer behind
Delhi's iinpregnabie wall A breach
must be made. but how AMI by whom7
Two brave soldiers with nine follow
ers offered to blow up massive gate
With bags of powder they ran to IL
under CALLING fire. knowing well that
If they escaped the bullets they must
be buried under the ruins they hoped
to make. One by one they fell A
single man reached the arch. applied
the torch. the breach was made Delhi
was won. and the mutiny, which was
one of the most cruel recorded in the
annals of war. was virtually ended 4
plain slab leaning against the gate
gives the names OF those heroes. A
national anthem should carry their
fame down through undying time.
Here within a small circui. the
mighty Moguls ruled two hundred
years ago. and had. during several Gen.
turies. made this their capital of q
mighty empire. the center of an art aII
their own-an art so full of fancy and
dreamy splendor that even Aladdin's
lamp could find nothing to surpass its
creations. Under the ruins of the pal
aces. mosques, tombs and forts OF the
Moguls, lay the ruins of cities destroyed
by them. and out of whose seulptured
walls and temples they found materials
for their own superb edifices- Still
lower down were the relics of yet older
cities. Layer upon layer in stratifed
debris is the work Of the enslsved mil
lions. who have lived. toiled in misery
for thousands of years. and died. only
to make room for other slaves yet To
follow.
Here one sees a relocated English
soldier 6uartered in the colonnaded
cloister of an old mosque erected half
century ago. ScuIptured stones cut by
hands of Hindoo worshipers over 2.0o0
years ago are built into the walls of the
Mohsmmedan temple. The Brahmiu
temple. part of whose cloisters be-
came the corridors of the conquering
Mohammedan. had for its found ations
some structure vet far older. for at one
of these places. piercing through all.
stands the most unique monument in
the worid-a wrought-iron pillar nearly
foot and half in diameter and over
forty feet high-how much higher. or
rather longer. no one knows. for an ex-
cavation nearly thirty feet deep failed
TO reach its foundation. and at this
depth of excavation it was yet so firm
below that it could not be shaken. This
strange pillow is not hollow. but Is
solid shaft of malleable iron. and is
claimed by the natives to have It's
foundation on the center of the world
Garter H. Harrison. in Ct6cdgo Nail