The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-01-11

The Tai has 10 great arohed win.
dows, four at each corner; also at each
of tho four corners of the Tai stands a
minayet 1877 feet high; also at each side
Of this building is splendid mosque Of
red sandstone. Two hundred and fifty
years has the Tai stood, and yet not q
wall is cracked, nor mosaic loosened,
nor an ,aroh. sagged, nor panel dulled.
Tho storms of 900 winters have not
marred nor the heats Of $50 summers
disintegrated marble. There Ia no
story of age written by MOSES ON its
white surface. Montaz, the queen, was
beautiful, and Shah Jehan, the king,
here proposed to let all the centuries of
time know it. She was married at 20
years Of age and died at 80. Her life
ended as another life began. As the rose
bloomed the rosebush persisted.
differing with Jewels.
To adorn this dormitory of the dead,
at the command of the king, Bagdad
sent to this building its comedian and
Ceylon its lapis lazuli, and Punjab its
jasper, and Persia its amethyst, and
Tibet its turquoise, and Lanka its sap
phire, and Yemen its agate, and Puma
Its diamonds and blood stones and sar-
donyx and chalcedony and moss agates
are as common as though they were peb-
bles. You find one spray of vine beset
with 80 and another with 100 stones
Twenty thousand men were 30 years in
building it, and although the labor was
slave labor, and not paid for, the build
ing cost what would be about $50, 900,
900 of our American money. Some Of
wall by iconoclasts or conquerors, and
substitutes of less value have taken their
places, but the vines, the traceries, the
arabesques, the spandrels, the entabla-
lures are SO wondrous that you feel like
dating the rest of your lifefrom the day
you first saw them, In letters of black
marble the whole of tho Koran is spelled
out in and on this august pile The king
sleeps in the tomb beside the queehi al.
though he intended to build palace as
black as this was white on the opposite
side of the river for himself to sleep in.
Indeed the foundation of such necrop-
oils of black marble is still there, and
from the white to the black temple of
the dead bridge was to cross, but the
son dethroned him and imprisoned him,
and it is wonderful that the king had
any place at all in which to be buried.
upon the two tombs, there is trellis
work of marble, marble cut SO delicate
ly thin that the sun shines through it as
easily as through glass. Look the world
over and find so much translucency,
canopies, traceries, lace work, embroid
cries of stone.
We had heard of the wonderful reso
nance Of this Tai and so | tried it.
suppose there are more sleeping echoes
in that building waiting to be Weakened
by the human voice than in any build
ing ever constructed. uttered one word
and there seemed descending invisible
choirs in full chant, and there was re
verberation that kept on long after ont
would have expected it to cease. Wher
a line of a hymn was sung, there were
replying, rolling, rising, falling, inter
weaving sounds that seemed modulate(
by beings seraphic. There were aeria
sopranos and bassos. soft, high, deep
tremulous, emotional, commingling. 1
was like an antiphonal of heaven. Blu
there are four or five Tai Mahals. 1t ha
one appearance at sunrise, another a
noon, another at sunset and another b.
moonlight. Indeed the silver trowel O
the moon, and the golden trowel of tn
sunlight, and the leaden trowel of tn
storm build and rebuild the glory, s.
that it never seems twice alike. 1t ha
all moods, all compilations, all gran
deurs. From the top Of the TAI, whica
is $50 feet high, springs spire 80 fee
higher, and that is enameled gold. Wha
an anthem in eternal rhythm Lyric
and elegies In marble. Soulptured ho
sauna. Masonry as of supernatural
hands. Mighty doxology in stone
shall see nothing to equal it till I Sc
the great white throne, and on it hin
from whose face the earth and heaven
flee away.
The Pride Of India.
The Tai is the pride Of India, and es
pecially of Mohammedanism An Eng
lish officer at the fortress told us tina
when during the general mutiny in 1856
the Mohammedans proposed insurrectio
at Agra the English government Anne
the guns of the fort at the Tai and said
"You make Instruction, and that sam
day we will blow your Tai to atoms
and that threat ended the disposition fo
mutiny at Agra.
But thought while looking at tina
palace for the dead all this constructe
to cover handful Of dust, but even tina
handful has probably gone from tn
mausoleum How much better it woul
have been to expend $50, 600 900, whic
the Tai Mahal cost, for the living Wha
asylums it might have built for the SICK
what houses for the homelessl What i'm
provement our century has made upo
other centuries in lifting in honor of tn
departed memorial churches, memoris
hospitals, memorial reading rooms, mt
mortal observatories. By all possibl
means let US keep the memory of d.
parted loved ones fresh In mind and Il
there be an appropriate headstone {
monument in the cemetery, but there
dividing line between reasonable con
memoration and wicked extravaganza,
The TAI Mahal has it's uses as an arch
tccturai achievement, eclipsing all otht
architecture, but as a memorial of a d.
partc3 wife and msther it expresses 4
more ti,an the plainest slab in mary
I country graveyard. The best monumei
| we can any Of Us have built for us whe
! 10 aTs conc is In tho memory of tho;
, whose sorrows we have alleviated,
J Tie ,snds we have healed, in the kin(
, nc-s.. ;a have done, in the ignorant
/ we have enlightened, in the recreant "
J have reclaimed, in the sous We la,
; saved Sach q monument is built ont
, material pore lasting than marble {
/ bronze and will stand amid the eterni
splehdors is,ng after the Tai Mahal {
India shall have gone down in the ruiz
OF world of which it was the :cst'is,
IaSSzzlzSts
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