Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-09-18
The AlhanlbTa.

Four or five buildings there are the
world over, and four or five only, winch
stand for consummate perfection IN the
stvle TO which they belong. Like the Par
thenon in Grecian architecture and the
Tai Mahal among the MOslem buildings OF
Uindnst an, the Alhambra has no equal IN
its class and kind, and It's injury by fire
robs the earth of one of the Jewels on It's
zone.' &C.,
The group oflow, red-tiled roofs. the high
est lower than a fOur-stOry house, which
stand on the hill above Grenada could be
placed on half of Washington Square, and
the hill upon which they stand Is scarcely
four times the area of any OF our smaller
squares. This Moslem palace has fame /;
but it has no front; II Is entered
by low door through blank
wall, the rooms and courts open planless,
from one to another. and each is simplicity
itself in form and outline. But their
proportion is unequalled, and the plaster
tracery with which their walls are covered
has been for four centuries the despair
and the delight of all who beheld 1t from
the DAYS of Charles v, who DESTROYED a
part TO build a palace never finished TO
those of Washington Irving, who made 1t
known TO English-speaking man, and
loved of Americans as the site of the first
tribute of our letters TO the appreciation
Of beauty for It's own sake.
This is all: Six or eight red, barn-liko
roofs. as many square or oblong rooms
covering the space and span of dozen
city lots, no material but plaster and "a
little plush marble, roots of timber, now
fiat and now vaulted, no span OF size,
most of the windows plain, square. beaded
openings. no genius of construction, no
splendOr of design, no majestic stretch
or reaching arch. Yet it stands. the
worlds wonder, lowered only with
beauty, every square foot of its
succeed wall crowded with the low re-
lief of fretted ornament which all men since
have initiated and no man has equalled.
Over every yard of interior surface Is
spread, an inch or two deep, this low, in
tricate fretted pattern III plaster, once
bright in primary colcrs. now faded TO q
golden glow, repeating everywhere Arabic
sentences, il is of little moment what. so
that the eve can follow these marvellous,
flmy patterns, and rejoice, line 10y line,
curve by curve. pattern by pattern, space
by space, III its ineXpressible beauty.
1t Is a small thing 10 say that eartn has
not its equal when no city holds hall or
palace which admits comparison. Timber
rooted, with wood here and there IN its
construction and open to many perlls, II
has been left. with true Spanish indliler-
ence, without the slightest protec-
ton against fre. The spot where the
fire originated-not the first in its
history-is occupied by the families
of the guard at its entrance and
opens upon the gallery over the pool or
"birket,S hence Bcrca. through which the
remainder of the palace Is gained. What
ever the damage. great or small, the injury
will be irreparable. Restoration in the
Alhambra has never restored. The cum
ming of finger and the touch of hand which
wove its filmv maryels passed from earth
with its builders. The world has better
uses to-day for head and hand; it has
never had more beautiful, nor viii have.