Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-07
HISTORIC SCENES In SPAIN.
Mrs. Sherwood Writes of Cordova,
Granada and Seville.
A DREAM OF PERFECT BEAUTY.
Magnificent Moorish Temples and the
Charms of the Famous Aihambra
The Infant Monarch-An
Inspiration for Painters.
Scenes of Ideal LONELINESS.

the most admirable monuments ts OF mans
genius on the earth, says Mrs. M. e.
w. Sherwood, writing from Seville to
the New York World. We endeavored
to take drive around Cordova, but the
roads have not been paved since the
Moor, so IL was necessarily short. The
once powerful city has dwindled to
dead and alive town of $4,000 people,
who still, however, have that air of de-
cayed gentility which all Spaniards
keep, and their houses are pretty
Moorish buildings among most lovely
gardens. We went to see the old bridge,
dating from the times Of Augustus, re-
constructed by the Arabs, and the ruined
old walls, the debris Of statues and bas-
reliefs, the inscriptions in honor OF the
emperors. the gray old vestlbules, the
fairy-like balconies over which the
handsome Andalusians lean with flow
ers in their beautiful hair. 1t was all a
dream, and Tom Moore, with his foolish
ballads OF the Guadalquivir (the river
flowing at our feet), came up, with the
eternal rhyme and the twanging OF the
guitar. Such are the confusions in ones
archaeology in Cordova
We came on to Granada the next
afternoon. 1t is appropriate that the
mosque OF Cordova and the miracle OF
the Alhambra, though twenty-four
hours from everywhere else, should be
within five hours Of each other. The
sensuous dream of luxury on earth,
which the followers of the Prophet were
to continue in heaven, could have no
grander exploitation than the Alham-
bra.
We had a delightful journey. The
Wild flowers and the orange groves kept
us company, and the old Spanish towns
grew more quaint and old, the stones
graver, and the Sierra Nevada began to
show us the snow; an outline not unlike
Mount Blanc from Geneva rose on the
ROSY horizon 1t became q vision Of un-
earthly grandeur and beauty. When
tho evening fell a moon, not yet quite
full, helped to prolong the picture.
AS we entered Granada the beggars
and cabdrivers, the spanish outcries
and the groans Of the donkeys nearly
deafened us. Soon, however, we were
driving by moonlight through the beau
tiful elm forest planted by the Duke of
Wellington in 1872, and the nightin-
gales were bursting their throats to
give US the most delicate poultice for
our wounded ears. DR.. Holmes says:
And silence like a poultice came
TO heal the wounds of sound.
1t is proclamation to compare the ex-
ouisite and heart-breaking note of tie
nightingale to poultice, but it was in
finitely soothing. This forest was a
surprise to me. Why did nobody ever
tell me that we drove through forest
2 to the Alhambra?
We alighted at this comfortable
house, where we can breakfast on a
balcony overlooking garden, where
from one window we look into the for
est and from another over bank of
yellow roses, toward the Sierra Nevada.
We never wish to go away. The AL
hambra, approached through magni-
ficent horseshoe arches, and opening Its
wonderful fountains, gardens and fairy
like columns upon one. is at flrst dis
appointment, because it is being re-
stored, and there is an air of newness
about the Court Of the Lions.
GLoRIEs OF THE ALHAMBRA.
b But to go often, to go clone, to read,
think, mediate there; to mount its
over "Tales of the Albambra" there;
it grows and it grows, until 1t becomes
(. the Palace of the Heart.
The superb Hall of the Ambassadors,
where Ferdinand and Isabella received
Columbus. was the first majesty which
overwhelmed me; then the Court Of the
Lions; what a labyrinth OF arches,
earved embroiderles; what indetinable
elegance, what inimitable delicacy,
what u prodigious richness! and some
thing so airy, so undulating, like n cur
tain of lace, which breath could blow
away; which has stood 700 years, de-
lightful confusion, graceful disorder,
''the majesty of II royal palace and the
gayety Of kiosk, an extravaganza, a
delight, living grace, n folly, a fancy,
the dream of an angel, the rosy visions
of first love, something too evanescent
to describe-such is the effect of the
Alhambra.
The long Arabic Inscriptions on
the walls are most grace u.
had book which pretended
to translate them, and copy OF the
Koran, sold at Granada, but / could not
make them out, and feel as Artemus
Ward did about Chaucer. "Mr. c.,
IS said he, "Mr. G. was IL smart man, man
of talent, but he was the poorest spellei
lever met"
Somebody was a poor speller-eithel
nv book or the Koran, or the sculptor
] cannot read Arabic yet, more's the
pity. But why regret anything but the
shortness of life and the flight OF time
when looking at these floating ribbons
the howery inches, arabesques, stars
the delicate infinity of the ever-recur
ring polygonal checkered KALEIDOSCOPE
patterns, the stalactitles and pendulOu
pruces OF the ceilings, the dewdrops IL
broidered with thousand tlOwersI Th
fairy-,ike columns advance and disap
pear. Looking upward one sees the re
plica of the court below in q palace higl
in the air. Ha! from behind thos
grated windows the dark-eyed houri
looked and sighed perhaps for freedom
We mounted high tower to tn
dressing room Of the Sultana. From
this immense height the unhapp
mother of Boabdil let down her littl
boy in scarf, tying all her shawls "a
a gether, to save him from the revenge
full hate of her rival. The room still !
rich with a subtle perfume. Further o
we see gloomy perspective. 1t
where mad woman was incarcerated
They say II you whisper in the ear {
one OF the lions one can hear what yo
say from the mouth OF another Quit
an oral love letter might thus be spoken
An old gray hon, yet not less
A lion In his feebleness
One thing is left him still TO guard.
He guards II well by day or night,
With these great paws OF granite gray; I;
In the strong shelter of his breast.
No man shall servo him yet with scorn