The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1895-01-10

there was reverbration that kept on long
after one would have expected IL TO cease.
When q line OF hymn was sung, there were
replying, rolling rising, falling, interview
ing sounds that seemed moiulated by be-
ings seraphic. There were aerial sopranos
and bassos. sofr. high. deep, tremulous,
emotional, comminelinv. II was like an an
tiphonal of heaven. Butthere are four or
five Tai Mahals. II has one appearance at
sunrise. another Mt noon. another at sunset
and another by moonlight. Indeed the
silver trowel OF the moon. and the golden
trowel OF the sunlight. and the leoden
trowel OF the storm build and rebuild the
elory, 50 tha: 1t never seems twice alike.
At has all moods, all compiexions, all gran
deu-s. From the top OF the Tai, which Is
$50 feet high, springs spiro thirty fee,
higher, md that Is enameled eoid. What
nm anthem in eternal rhythm! Lyrics snG
elegies In marble Scuipturei hOs9bua.
Masonry as OF supernatural hands. Mighty
doxology in stone. I shall sec Lothin9 to
equal IL Till / see the grent white throne
and on II Him from whose face the earth and
heavens flee away.
The Tai is the pride OF India and ospec'-
ally OF Mohammedansm An English on
Ger at the fortress told US that when during
the general mutiny In 1857 tho Mohamme-
dans proposed instruction at Agra the Eng
ltsh Government aimed the guns OF the fort
at che Tai and said, "You make insurrection, =,
and that same day we will blow your Tai to
atoms, and that threat ended the disposition
for mutiny NJ AGRA.
But thought while looking ut that palace
for tho dead all this constructed TO cover n
handful NJ dust, but even that handful has
probably gone from the mausoleum. How
much better II would have been to expend
SG0. 900 900, which the TAI Mahal cost, for the
living. What asylums It might have built
for the SICK what houses for thn homeless
....N L.
upon other centuries in lifting in honor OF
the departed memorial churches, memorial
hospitals, memorial reading rooms, me-
mortal otservatories. By possible means
let us keep the memory OF departed loved
ones fresh In mind. and lot there bo an ap-
propriate heatstons or monument in the
cemetery, but there Ia dividing line be-
tween reasonable commcmoration and
wicked extravt tgance. The Tai Mahal has
its usB as an architectural achievement.
eclipsing all other architecture. but ms n me-
mortal OF a departed wife and mother IL ex-
presses no more than tho pataest slab In
many a country graveyard. The best monu-
ncnt we can any OF us have built for us
when we are gone IL In the memory OF those
whose sorrows we nave allevated. in the
wounds we have healed. In the kindnesses
We have done, in she ignorance we have en-
lightened, In .he recreant we have reclaimed,
in the souls we have saved. Such monu =
ment IL built out OF mlterial more lasting
than marble or bronz9 and will stand amid
the eternal spleniors long after the Tai Ma
hal OF India shall have gone down in the
ruins OF n world OF which It was the costiicst
adornment. But l promised TO show YOU
not only tomb OF India, but unique
heathen temple, and II Is temple under
ground
With miners candle we had seen somo-
thing OF the underside OF Australia, rs NJ Glm-
MI ue tuifh ,,,,tI tI.f. ha1
different times something OF the underside
of America, rs In Mammoth cave. but We are
now to enter one OF the sacred cellars of
India, commonly called the Elephanta caves.
We had IL all to ourselves, the steam yacht
that was 10 take us about flIteen miles over
the harbor OF Bombay aud between enchant-
ed islands, and along shores whose curves
and gulches and pictured rocks gradually
prepared the mind for appreciation of the
most unique spectnclein India. The mori-
ing had been full of thunder and lightning
and deluge, but the atmospheric agitations
had ceased, and the cloudy ruins OF the
storm were piled up in the heavens. huge
es0agS and dSs;s,y purpse enough TO make
the skies us grandly picturesque as the
earthly scenery amid which We moved.
After an hours cuttin; through the water
We came TO the long pier reachng from the
island called Elephanta. 1t Is an island small
OF girtn, but GOO .eet high. IL declines into
the marshes OF mangrove. But the whole
island Is one tangle OF foliage and veriure :
convolvulus creeping the ground; MOSES
climbing the rocks vines sleevlng the long
arms o'Oi" trees red nowert here aud
In the wovls. like incen liary's torch trying
TO set the groves on flre-cactus and acacia
vying rs 10 which can most charm the be-
holder tropical bird meeting particoored
butterfly In junglcs planted the same sum
mer the world was born. We stepped out OF
the boat amid enough natives to afford all
the help we needed for landing and cuid.
anc'. You can be carried by coolies IN an
easy chair, or you can walk, II you are
blessed with two stout limps, which the
psalmiSt evidently lacked, or he would not
have so deprecated them when he said /:
THE Lord takoth no pleasuoe in the legs OF
man." We pass "a up some stone Steps,
and between the walls We saw awaiting Us
cobra. one OF those SNAKES which gree, the
traveller olttimes in India. Two tthe guides
left the cobra dead by tne waysde. They
must have been MohammsiAns, for Hindoos
never kill that sacred reptile.
And now we coma near the famous temp'n
hewn from one rock OF porphyry Al least so