The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1895-01-12

and Puniab it's Jasper, and Persia its
amethyst, and Thibet its turquoise, and
Lanka its sapphire, and Yemen its agate,
and Punah its diamonds: and blood
stones, and sardonyX, and ch~alccdony,
and moss agates are as common a.
though they were pebbles. You find
one spray of vine beset with eighty,
and another with 100 stones. Twenty
thousand men were twenty years in
building it, and, although the labor was
slave labor, and not paid for, the build
ing cost what would be about $50, OO0,-
900 of our American money. Some OF
the jewels have been been picked out
OF the walls by icOnoclasts or conquer
orS, and substitutes of less value have
taken their places; but the vines, the
traceries, the arabesques, the span
drels, the entablatures are SO wondrous
that you feel like dating the rest of
your life from the day You first saw
them. In letters of black marble the
whole of the Koran is spelled out in
and OF this august pile. The king
sleeps in the tomb beside the queen,
although he intended to build a palace
as black as this was white On the op-
posite side of the river for himself to
sleep in. Indeed, the foundation of
such q metropolis of black marble Is
still there. and from the white to the
black temple Of the dead u bridge was
to cross; but the son dethroned him
and imprisoned him, and it Is wonder
full that the king had any place at all
in which to be buried.
We had heard of the wonderful reso-
of this Tai, and so l tried 1t. ]
suppose there are more sleeping echoes
in that building waiting to be awak.
ened by the human voice than in any
building ever constructed. uttered one
word, and there seemed descending in
visible choirs in full chant. and there
was q reverberation that kept on long
after one would have expected 1t to
cease. When q line of q hymn was
sung there were replying, rolling, ris-
ing, falling, Intervening sounds that
seemed modulated by beings seraphic.
There were aerial sopranos and bassos.
commingling. 1t was like an anti
phonal of Heaven. But there are four
or five Tai Mahals. 1t has one
appearance at sunrise, another at
noon. another at sunset, and an
other by moonlight. Indeed, the
silver trowcl of the moon, and the
golden trowel Of the sunlight, and the
leaden trOwel of the storm build and
rebuild the glory. so that it eve
seems twice alike. 1t has all moods, all
compilations, all grandeurs. From tho
top of the Tai, which is $50 feet high,
springs a spire so feet higher, and that
Is enameled gold. What an anthem In
eternal rhythm! I shall see nothing to
equal it until I see the Great White
Throne, and on it Him from whose face
Tai is the pride Of India, and especially
of Mohammedanism.
But l thought while looking at that
palace for the dead, all this construct
ed to cover q handful of dust, but even
that handful has probably gone from
the mausoleum. How much better it
would have been to expend $50, 900, 900,
which the Tai Mahal cost, for the liv.
ing. What asylums 1t might have built
for the sick, what houses for the home
less! BY all possible mean let us keep
the memory Of departed loved n
fresh In mind, and let there be an ap-
propriate head stone or monument in
the cemetery, but there Is q dividing
ton and wicked e~xtravagance. The
Tai Mahal has its uses as an archi-
tectural achievement, eclipsing all
other architecture, but as n memorial of
q departed wife md mother 1t ex.
presses no more than the plainest slab
in many a country graveyard. The
best monument we can any OF US have
built for US when we are gone IL In the
memory of those whose sorrows we
have alleviated, In the wounds We
have healed, in the kindnesses we have
done, In the ignorance we have enlight-
ened, in the recreant we have re-
claimed, in the souls we have saved!
But I promised to show you not only q
tomb of India, but q unique heather
temple, and 1t is q temple underground.
With miners candle we had see some
thing Of the under side Of Australia, 90
at Gimpie; and with guides torch We
had seen ut different times something
of the uuderside Of America, as In
Mammoth cave; but we are now to en-
ter one Of the sacred cellars of India,
commonly called the Elephanta caves.
We had II all to ourselves, the steam
yacht that was to take us about fifteen
miles over the harbor Of Bombay, and
between enchanted islands, and along
shores whose curves and gulchos
and pictured rocks gradually pre-
pared the mind for appreciation
Of the most unique spectacle In
India. After an hours cutting through
the water we came to the long pier
reaching from the island called Ele-
phanta. 1t Is an island small of girth,
but 600 feet high. 1t declines into the
marshes of mangrove. But the whole
island is one tsngle of foliage and
verdure. We stepped out of the boat
amid enough natives to afford all the
help we needed for landing and guild
ance.
And now we come near the famous
temple hewn from rock Of porphyry
at least 800 years ago. On either side
of the chief temple is q chapel, these
cut out of the same stone. So vast was
the undertaking and to the Hindoo was
SO great the human impossibility that
they say the gods scooped out this
structure from the rock, and carved the
pillars, and hewed its shape into 81.
gantic idols and dedicated it to all the
grandeurs. We climb many stone steps
before we get to the gateways. The
entrance to this temple has sculptured
doorkcepers leaning on s~cuiptured
devils. How strange! But ! have seen
doorkeepers of churches and auditori-
ums who seemed to be leaning ON the
demons of bad ventilation and asphxyia.
In these Elephanta v everything
is on a Samsoniau and Titaniau scale.
With chisels that were dropped from
nerveless hands at least eight centuries
ago, the forms Of the gods Brahma, and
Xishnu and silva Were cut into the