Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-01-18

| Portuguese Moormen, Dutch, English,
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STYLES of salaam. The most interesting
thing on earth is the human race, and
specimens of all branches Of it confront
You in Ceylon. The island Of the pres
ent is a quiet and inconspicuous affair
compared with what it once was. The
dead cities of Ceylon were larger and
more imposing than are the living cities
! On this island are dead New Yorks and
dead Pekings and dead Edinburghs and
dead Londons. Ever and anon at the
stroke of the archaologist's hammer the
tomb Of some great municipality flies
open, and there are other buried cities
that will yet respond to the explorers
pickax
The Pompeii and Herculaneum un-
aerneath Italy are small compared with
the Pompeiis and Herculaneums under
meath Ceylon. Yonder is an exhumed
city which was founded 500 years be-
fore Christ. standing in pomp and splen-
dor for 1, 200 years. Stairways up which
90 men might pass side by side. Carved
pillars, some Of them fallen, some Of
them aslant, some Of them erect. Phid-
Eases and Christopher Wrens never heard
of here performed the Inaryels of sculp-
ture and architecture. Aisles through
which royal professions marched. Arch
es under which kings were carried. City
with reservoir 20 miles in circumfer-
ence. Extemporized lakes that did their
cooling and refreshing for l2 centuries.
Ruins more suggestive than Melrose and
Kenilworth. Ceylonian Karnaks and
] Luxors.
Ruins retaining much Of grandeur,
though wars bombarded them, and time
put his chisel on every block, and, more
than all, vegetation put its anchors and
prizes and wrenches in all the creyices.
Dagobas, or places where relics Of saints
or dieties are kept-dagobas 400 feet
high and their fallen material burying
precious things, for tho sight Of which
modern curiosity has digged and blasted
in vain. Procession of elephants in i'm
itation, wrought into lustrous marble.
Troops Of horses in full run. Shrines,
chapels, cathedrals wrecked on the noun
tain side. Stairs Of moonstone. Ex-
quisite scrolls rolling up more mysteries
than will ever be unrolled. Over 10
square miles the ruins Of one city strewn-
Thronerooms on which at different
times sat 165 kings, reigning in author
ity they inherited Walls that witness
ed coronations, assassinations, subjuga-
tions, triumphs. Affairs at which mil
lions bowed ages before the orchestras
celestial woke the shepherds with mid
night overture.
The Life of Cities.
When Lieutenant Skinner in 1882
discovered the site Of some Of these
cities, he found congregated in them un-
disturbed Assem- blages Of leopards por-
cupines, famingoes and pelicans; rep
tiles summing themselves on the altars,
prima donnas rendering ornithological
chant from deserted music halls. One
! king restored much Of the grandeur,
rebuilt /, 500 residences, but ruin soon
resumed its scepter But all is down.
the spires down, the pillars down, the
tablets down, the glory Of splendid arches
down. What killed those cities? Who
slew the New York and London Of the
year 500 3. c.? Was it unhealthed with
a host Of plaques? Was it foreign ar
mics laying seige? Was it whole gen.
erations weakened by their own vices:
Mystery sits amid the monoliths and
brickdust, finger on lip in eternal ST.
lence, while the centuries guess and guess
in vain. We simply know that genius
planned those cities, and immense pop
ulations inhabited them. An eminent
writer estimates that pile of bricks in
one ruin of Ceylon would be enough to
build wall ten feet high from Edin-
burgh to London. Sixteen hundred pill
lars with carved capitals are standing
sentinel for ten miles.
You can judge somewhat Of the size
of the cities by the reservoirs that were
required to slack their thirst, judging
the size Of the city from the size Of the
cup out of which it drank. Cities crowd
ed with inhabitants-not like American
or English cities, but packed together
as only barbaric tribes can pack them.
But their knell was sounded, their light
went out. Giant trees are the only royal
family now occupying those palaces.
The growl of wild beasts where once
the guffaw of wassail ascended. Anuraj-
ahpura and Pollonarna will never be re-
builded. Let all the living cities Of the
earth take warming Cities are human,
having time to be born and time 10
die. No more certainly have they a
cradle than grave. A last judgment
is appointed for individuals, but cities
have their last judgment in this world.
They bless, they curse, they worship,
they blaspheme, they suffer, they are re-
warded, they are overthrown.
Something to Ponder over.
Preposterousl says some one, to think
that any of our American or European
cities which have stood co long can ever
come through vice to extinction. But
New York and London have not stood
as long as those Ceylonese cities stood.
Where is the throne outside Of Ceylon
on which I65 successive kings reigned
for lifetime. Cities and nations that
have lived far longer than our present
cities or nation have been sepulchered-
Let all the great municipalities Of this
and other lands ponder. 1t is as true
now as when the psalmist wrote it and
as true of cities and nations as of indi-
viduals, 1.-THE Lord knoweth the way
Of the righteous, but the way Of the un-
godly shall perish.
Iau1h and Grow Fat.