Milford chronicle., 1895-01-04


from the Delhi station and rolled out
} through the city now living over the vaster
cities buried under this ancient capital,
cities under cities, and our travelling serv-
ant had unrolled our bed, which consisted
of rug and two blankets and a pillow,
and as we were worn out with the sight
seeing of the day and were roughly tossed
on that uneven Indian railway, l soon fell
into a troubled sleep, in which l saw and
heard in confused way tho scenes and
sounds of the mutiny Of 1857 which at
Delhi we had been recounting, and now
the rattle of the train seemed To turn hRo
the rattle of musketry, and now the light
at the top of the car deluded me with the
idea Of a burning city, and then the loud
thump Of the railroad brake was in dream
mistaken for a booming battery, and the
voices at the different stations made me
think l heard the loud cheer of the British
at the taking Of the Cashmere gate, and
as we rolled over bridges the battles before
Delhi seemed going on, and as we went
through dark tunnels I seemed to see the
tomb Of Humayun in which the king Of
Delhi was hidden, and in my dreams /
saw Lieutenant Kenny o. the artillery
/ throwing shells which were handed him,
/ their fuses burning and Campbell and
/ Reid and Hope Grant covered with blood,
| and Nicholson falling while rallying on
the wall his wayering troops And / saw
dead regiment fallen across dead regiment
and heard the ratapun Of hoofs of Hodg-
son S horse, and the dash of the Bengal
artillery, and the storming by the immor-
tai fourth column, and the rougher the
Indian railway became and the darker the.
night grew the more the scenes that had
been studying at Delhi came on me like
an incubus.
But the morning began to look through
the window Of our joltng rail car, and the
sunlight poured in ON my pillow, and in
my dreams l saw the bright colors of the
English flag hoisted over Delhi, where the
green banner of the Moslem had waved
and the voices of the wounded and dying
seemed to be exchanged for the voices that
welcomed soldiers home again. And as the
morning light got brighter and brighter,
and in my dream ! mistooS the bells at
station for "a church bell hanging in a
minaret where a Mohammedan priest had
mumbled his call to prayer, l seemed to
hear a chant, whether by human or an /
eelic voices in my dream I could not tell,
but it was a chant about peace and good /
will to men. And as the speed of the /
rail train slacl1ened the motion of the car
became so easy as we rolled along the track .
that it seemed to me that all the distress 4
and controversy and jolJing and wars of /
the world had ceased, and in my dream l /
thought we had come to the time when .
1.-THE pansomed of the Lord shall return .
and come to Zion, with songs and ever
lasting joy upon their heads, and sorrow
and signing shall fec away"
The City of Amber.
Halt here at what you have never seen
before-a depopulated city, the city of Am
Der, India.
The strange fact is that a ruler aban-
doned his palaces at Amber and moved to
Jaipur, and all the inhabitants Of the
city followed Except here and there a
house in Amber occupied by hermit, tho
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 inhabited more than
,0O0 years, and so the ruler, l70 years
ago, moved out himself, and all his peo-
pie moved with him.
You visit Amber on the back of an
elephant Permission obtained for your
visit the day before at Jaipur, an ele-
phant is in waiting for you about six
miles out to take you up the sleeps to Am
ber You pass through the awfully quiet
streets, all the feet that tTod 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 uttered their last sylla-
BILE. You pass by a lake covering 500
acres where the rajahs used to sail in
their pleasure boats, but alligators now
have full possession, and you come to the
MI fa-
ment NOlnore picturesque place was ever
chosen for the residence of a monarch.
The fortress above looks down upon this
palace, and the palace looks down upon q
lake. This monarchial abode may have
had attractions when it was the home of
royalty, which have vanished, but antiqui
ty and the silence of many years and OPP
to tread where once you would
not have been permitted to tread may be
an addition quite equal TO the subtraction
The Last Hour.
will not 80 into description of
brazcn doorway after brazen doorway and
carved room after carved room and lead
you under enibcllished ceiling after EN-
ceiling and through halls pre-
cious stoned into wider halls precious
stoned Why tire out your imagination
with tho particulars when you may sum
up all by say ing that on the slopes OF I
that hill of India are pavilOns deeplj
dyed, ta5seled and archcd; the fire of col
o1ed gardens cooled by the snow Of whit, {
bathrooms that refresh be {
fore your feet touch their marble, birds IL
arabtsques SO natural to life that whilc I
you cannot hear their voices you imagine '
you see the nttter of their wings as you {
are passing; stonewaro translucent, walls
Hf
nmphal procession and iousting par I
'ooms that were called "alcove of light" {
md court of honor and hall Of vic (
ory;" marble, white and black, like c
mixture Of morning and light alabaster {
md lacquer work and mother of pearl j
N that architecture and sculpture and J.
painting and horticulture can do when t
hey pat their genius together was done
zero in ages past, and much of their work I
till stands to absorb and entrance arch t
eologist and sightseer. G
But what solemn and stupendous t
hing is 40 abandoned city While many {
Il the peoples Of earth have no roof for 2
heir heads, here is whole city Of roofs
elected. The sand Of the desert was sufli
iient excuse for the Disappearance Of He
iopolis, and the waters Of the Mediterra- O
lean sea Tor the enguImenU OF tyre, anu
he lava Of Mount Vesuvins for the oblit y
ration Of Ieroulaneum, but for the sake d
# nothing but q superstitious whim the L
ity Of Amber is abandoned forever. Oh b
1ndial The city Of Amber is a
,nly one Of the marvela which compel the
Inlifted hand Of surprise from the day you
inter India until you leave It, Its fora
s so flambeyant, its fauna so monstrous
md savage, it's ruins so suggestive, its
dolatry so horrible, its degradation so
ickening, its mineraiogy so brilliant, its q
plendors so uplifting, its architecture so
Id, so grand, so educational, so multipo-
ent that India will not be fully compre-
lended until science has made It's last ex- a
t