Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-12-31

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And as the morning light got brighter
and brighter, and in my dream mis-
| took the bells at station for a church
bell hanging in minaret, where Mo-
hammedan priest had mumbled his call
to prayer, [ seemed to hear a chant,
whether by human or angelic voices in
my dream could not tell, but it was a
chant about ''peace and good will to
men, And as the speed of the rail train
slackes1ed the motion Of the car became
SO easy as we rolled along the track that
it seemed to me that all the distress
and controversy and jolting and wars of
the world had ceased, and in my dream
| thought we had come to the time
when ''the ransomed of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads, and
sorrow and signing shall flee away"
The City of Amber.
Halt here at what you have never
seen before, a depopulated city, the city
Of Amber, India.
The strange fact is that ruler aban-
doned his palaces at Amber and moved
to Jaipur, and all the inhabitants of
the city followed. Except here and there
house i'll Amber occupied by her
NIT, the city is as silent a population
as Pompeii or Herculaneum, but those
cities were emptied by volcanic disaster,
while this city of Amber was vacated
because Prince Joy Singh was told by a
Hindoo priest that no city should be in
habited more than 1000 years, and so
the ruler ITO years ago moved out him
self, and all his people moved with him.
You visit Amber on the back Of an
elephant. Permission obtained for your
visit the day before at Jaipur, an ele-
plant is in waiting for you about six
miles out to take you up the sleeps to
Amber. You pass through the awfully
quiet streets, all the feet that trod them
in the days of their activity having
gone on the long journey and the voices
of business and gayety that sounded
amid these abodes having long ago ut
tered their last syllable. You pass by
lake covering 500 acres, where the ra-
jahs used to sail ia their pleasure boats,
but alligators now have full possession,
and you come to the abandoned palace,
which is an enchanEnent. No more pic
turesque place was ever chosen for the
residence of monarch. The fortress
the palace looks down upon a lake This
monarchial abode may have had attrac-
tiOns when it was the homo of royalty
which have vanished, but antiquity and
the silence of many years and opportu-
nifty to tread where once you would not
have been permitted to tread may be an
addition quite equal to the subtraction.
An Abandoned City
will not go far into a description OF
braZen doorway after brazen doorway,
and carved room after carved room, and
lead you under embellished ceiling aft
er embellished ceiling, and through halls
precious stoned into wider halls precious
stoned. Why tire out your imagination
with the particulars when you may sum
up all by saying that on the slopes of |
that hill of India are pavilions deeply |
dyed, tasseled and arched; the fire of |
colored gardens cooled Ivy the snow of |
white architecture; bathrooms that re-
fresh before your feet touch tsteir mar
BILE; birds in arabesque so Ictural 20 |
life that while you cannot hear their |
voices you imagine you see the futter
of their wings as you are passing; stone
ware translucent; walls pictLred with |
hunting scene, and triumphsi process
sion and jousting party; rCG9ns that
were called "alcove of ligDt," and
"court of honor, and ''hall of victory"
marble, white and black, like mixture
of morning and night; alabaster and lac
quer work and mother of pS%rl. All
that architecture and sculYi ere and
painting and horticulture can do when
they put their genius together was done
here in ages past, and much of their
work still stands to absorb and entrance
arch@ologist and sightseer.
But what solemn and stupendous
thing is an abandoned city, While
many Of the peoples of earth have no
roof for their head here is a whole city
of roofs rejected. The sand Of the desert
was sufficient excuse for the disappear
ance of Heliopolis, and the waters of
the Mediterranean SEA for the engulf-
ment of Tyre, and the lava of Mount
Vesuvius for the obliteration of Hercu-
laneum, but for the sake of nothing but
a superstitious whim the city of Amber
is abandoned forever. Oh wondrous H.
dial The city Of Amber is only one Of
the marvels which compel the uplifted
hand of surprise from the day you enter
India until you leave it. It's fora is SO
famboyant, its fauna so monstrous and
savage, its ruins so suggestive, its idol
airy SO horrible, its degradation SO sick
ening, its mineralogy so brilliant, its
splendors SO uplifting, it's architecture
so old, SO grand, so educational, so null
tipotent, that India will not be fully |
until science has made
it's last experiment, and exploration has
ended it's last journey, and the library
Of the worlds literature has closed its
last door, and Christianity has made its
last achievement, and the clock of time
b 40 ctr,1cl- tic last ho1r