The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-01-04

-LueSe SldOS lCT uiIuSei1 WulAc hHGGtlHSs
The erection of this building required
! 5000 laborers for six years. 1t is on q
plateau of rock; has four towers rising
/ far into the heavens; three greet gate
! ways inviting the world to come in and
honor the memory of the prophet of
many wives; Is domes, with spires gold
| tipped, and six minarets. What
built up immensely of white marble
and red sandstone? We descend the 40
marble steps by which we assembled
and took another look at this wonder
of the world.
AS l thought what brain the archi-
! tect must have had who first built that
mosque in his own imagination, and as
1 thought what an opulent ruler that
must have been who gave the order for
such vastness and symmetry, was re-
minded of that which perfectly ex-
planned all. The architect who plan
ned this was the same man who plan
ned the Taj-namely. Austin de Bor-
deau-and the king who ordered the
mosque constructed was the king who
ordered the Taj-namely, Shah Jehan.
AS this grand mogul ordered built the
1 "
he built the Tai at Agra, he here or
dered built the most splendid palace
of worship for the living at Delhi. See
here what sculpture and architecture
can accomplish. They link together
the centuries. They successfully defy
time. Two hundred and eighty years
ago Austin de Bordeau and Shah Jehan
quit this life. but their work lives and
bids fair to stand until the continents
crack open, and hemispheres go down.
and this planet showers other worlds
with its ashes.
| rejoice in all these big buildings,
whether dedicated to Mohammed OF
Brahma or Buddha or Confucius or 10
rooster. because as st. Sophia at Con-
stantinople was Christian church
changed into mosque and will yet be
changed back again. so all the mosques
and temples of superstition and sin will
vet be turned into churches. When
India and Ceylon and China and Japan
are ransomed as we all believe they
will be. their religious structures will
all be converted into Christian asylums
and Christian schools and Christian Ii
braries and Christian churches. Built
at the expense of superstition and sin,
they will yet be dedicated to the Lord
Almighty. Here endeth the third
lesson.
As that night we took the railroad
train from the Delhi station and rolled
out through the city now living over
the vaster cities buried under this an
cient capital. cities under cities, and
our travelling servant had unrolled our
bed. which consisted of 4 rug and two
blankets and pillow, and as we were
worn out with the sightseeing of the
day. and were roughly tossed on that
uneven Indian railway. | soon fell into
a troubled sleep, in which l saw and
heard in a confused way the scenes and
sounds of the mutinv of 1857, which at
Delhi we had been recounting. and now
the rattle of the train seemed to turn
into the rattle of musketry, and now
the light at the top of the car deluded
me with the idea of n burning city,
and then the loud thump of the rail-
road brake was in dream mistaken for
a booming battery. "nd tie 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 battle be-
fore Delhi seemed going on. and as we
went through dark tunnels l seemed
to see the tomb of Humayun in
which the king of Delhi
was hidden. and in my dreams L
saw Lieut.. Kenny o: the artillery
throwing shells which were hand
ed to him. their fuses burning, and
Campbell and Reid and Hope Grant
covered with blood, and Nicholson
falling while rallying on the wall his
wavering troops. and | saw dead reGi-
ment fall across dead regiment, and
heard the rataplan of the hoofs of
Hodgson's horse, and the dash of the
Bengal artillery, and the storming by
the immortal fourth column, and the
rougher the Indian railway became
and the darker the night grew the
more the scenes that | had been study
ing at Delhi came on me like an incu-
bus But the morning began to look
through the window of our jolting rail
car, and the sunlight poured in on my
pillow, and in my dreams | 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 well
coined soldiers home again.
And as the morning light got bright
er and brighter. and in my dream L
mistool the bells at n station for a
church bell hanging in a minaret,
where a Mohammedan priest had num-
bled his call to prayer, l seemed to
hear chant. whether by human or an
gelic 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 slackened the
motion of the car became so easy as we
rolled along the track that it seemed
to me that all the distress and contro-
versy 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 everlast-
ing JOY upon their heads and sorrow
and signing shall flee away"
The Pleasing Gala.