The free press., 1895-01-17
We had heard of the wonderful resonance,

Scending invisible cholr5 In Iuil cndn', an"
there was reverbration that kept on long
after one would have expected 1t to cease
When a line OF hymn was sung, there Were
replying, rolling rising, falling, interweav-
| ing sounds that seemed modulated by be-
| ings seraphic. There were aerial soprano;
| and bassos, soft. high, deep, tremulous
| emotional, commingling. 1t was ike an an
tiphonal OF heaven. Butthere are four or
five Tai Mahas. 1t has one appearance a,
sunrise, another at noon, another at sunse'
and another by moonlight. Indeed the
silver trowel of the moon, and the golden
trowel of the sunlight. and the leaden
trowel OF the storm build and rebuild the
glory, so that it never seems twice alike
1t has all moods, all compilations, all gran
deurs. From the top OF the Tai, which Il
$50 feet high, springs spire thirty 1ee'
higher, and that is enameled goio. VIVA,
an anthem in eternal rhythm! Lyrics and
elegies in marble. Sculptured hosanna.
Masonry as of supernatural hands. Mighty
doxology in stone. shall see nothing to
equal it till I see the great white throne
and on it Him from whose face the earth and
heavens flee away.
The Tai is the pride of, India, and especl-
ally of Mohammedanism. An English ofll-
Ger at the fortress told us that when during
the general mutiny in 1857 the Mohamme-
dams proposed insurrection at Agra the Eng
lish Government aimed the guns of the fort
at the 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 at Agra.
But 1 thought while looking at that palace
for the dead all this constructed to cover a
handful of dust, but even that handful has
probably gone from the mausoleum. How
much better it would have been to expend
$50 ,000, 900, which the Tai Mahal cost, for the
living What asylums it might have built
for the sick, what houses for the homeless
What improvement our century has made
upon other centuries in lifting in honor o
the departed memorial churches, memorial
hospitals, memorial reading rooms. me-
mortal observatorles. By all possible means
let us keep the memory Of departed loved
ones fresh in mind. and let there be an ap-
proprate headstone or monument in the
cemetery, but there is a dividing line be-
tween reasonable commemoration and
wicked extravaganza. The Tai Mahal has
its uses as an architectural achievement.
eclipsing all other architecture, but as Il me-
mortal OF a departed wife and mother it eX-
presses no more than the plainest slab in
many country graveyard. The best monu-
ment we can any of us have built Tor us
when we are gone is in the memory of those
whose sorrows we have alleviated, in the
wounds we have healed, in the kindnesses
we have done, in the Ignorance we have en-
lghtened, in he recreant we have reclaimed,
in the souls we have saved. Such monu-
ment is built out of material more lasting
than marble or bronze and will stand amid
the eternal splendors long after the Tai Ma
bal of India shall have gone down in the
ruins of world of which it was the costliest
adornment. But l promised to show you
not only tomb OF India, but unique
heather temple, and it is a temple under
ground
With miners candle we had seen some
thing of the underside of Australia, as at Gin
pie, as with guides torch we had seen at
different times something of the underside
of America, as in Mammoth cave. but We are
now to enter one of the sacred cellars of
India. commonly called the Eephanta caves.
We had it all to ourselves, the steam yacht
that was to take us about fifteen miles over
the harbor OF Bombay and between enchant-
ed islands, and along shores whose curves
and gulches and pictured rocks gradually
prepared the mind for appreciation of the
most unique spectacle in India. The morn
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
enough and darkly purple enough to make
the skies as grnndly picturesque as the
earthly scenery amid which we moved.
After an hours cutting through the water
we came to the long pier reaching from the
island called Eephanta. 1t is an island small
of girrh, but 600 feet high. 1t declines into
the marshes of mangrove. But the whole
island is one tangle of foliage and verdure:
convolvulus creeping the ground; MOSES
climbing the rocks vines sleeving the long
arms of the trees ;red flowers here and there
in the woods. like incendiary's torch trying
to set the groves on flre-cactus and acacia
vying as to which can most charm the be-
holder tropical bird meeting particolored
butterfly in jungles 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 guild
ance. You can be carried by coolies in an
easy chair, or you can walk, If you are
blessed with two stout limbs, which the
psalmist evidently lacked, or he would not
have so deprecated them when he said:
1.-The Lord taketh no pleasuoe in the legs of
a man." We passed up some stone steps,
and between the walls we saw awaiting us Il
COBRA one of those snakes which greet the
traveller oIttimes in India. Two of the guides
left the cobra dead by the wayside. They
must have been Mohammedans, for Hindoos
never kill that sacred reptile.
And now we come near the famous temple
hewn from one rock of porphyry at least 800
years ago. On either side of the chief tenn
Pile is chapel, these cut out of the same
stone. So vast was the undertaking and to
the Hindoo was so great the human impossi-
bility that they say the gods scooped out
this structure from the rock and carved the
pillars and hewed its shape into gigantic
idols and dedicated it to all the grandeurs.
We climb many stone steps before we get to
the gateways. The entrance to this temple
has sculptured doorkeepers leaning on
sculptured devils. How strange But l
have seen doorkeepers of churches and audi
toriums who seemed to be leaning on the
demons of bad ventilation and asphyxta.
Doorkeepers ought to be leaning on the
angels OF health and comfort and life. All
the sections and janitors Of the earth who
have spoiled sermons and lectures and pois-
oned the lungs Of audiences by lnef1iciency
ought TO visit this cave of Elephanta and be-
ware of what these doorkeepers are doing,
when instead OF leaning on the angelic they
lean on the demoniac.
In these Elephanta caves everything is on
a Samsonian and Titanian scale. With CHS
els that were dropped from nerveless hands
at least eight centuries ago, the forms of the
gods Brahma and Vishnu and silva were cut
into the everlasting rock. silva is here rep
resented by figure sixteen ieet nine inches
high, one-hall man and one-halt woman.
Run line from the center OF the forehead
straight to the floor of the rock, and you d-
vide this idol into masculine and feminine.
Admired us this idol is by many, it was to me