The Newtown bee., 1895-03-22
NUMBER l2.

T
 thatl See down therel Isn't thaI
 gra nd?' Yes, it was ssdown there,' fol
 hundreds and hundreds of feet below was foaming torrent tumbling and pouring through deep gorge; and up
 there was height-the train ran Sd
 close to it's base that we could not see
 the top. In the distance of few miles
 we whizzed through F tunnels, and the
 water rushing down the dark sides sug- gested to us that we were piercing into
 the bowels of the earth.
 Often when an old New Englander has
 been for years resident of ..the wild
 and woolly West" he comes back to his native heather and, espying the first stone-wall, exclaims, "Home, sweet home 1' There is no such sugges- ton in Spain for one with fond memories of the New England hills. There are walls, once in a while you see them, but they are not stone walls; they are mostly walls of cacti-think of it l- and they are all along the railroad track. Then Yankee misses his New England forests, those miles along rough roads where you have only the company of trees in Spain, that is, in the part we passed through; but they grow in little ciumps or stand in rows in beautiful orchards. If 1 am not mistaken, the editor-in-chief of THE BEE has a slight fondness for olives I am glad to relieve any disturbance of mind he may have by assuring him that there are enough olives growing in Spain this very month to SUD- ply his astronomical apparatus for the rest Of his natural life. Indeed, where all the olives that are raised in Spain go IS an enigma that 1 cannot solve. In our run of 70 miles from Malaga to Granada hnn a1 0f nrs One of the ministers in our compartment assured, us that he had just eaten his ''three," and so there would be no lack in the demand for all the olives Spain could produce in the future. Then there are almond trees-they are all in blossom now and immense date palms, and great orange groves. We sampled the native oranges in Malaga; and hereafter when the street venaer in America utters his old cry, "Here you go! ? oranges for quarter! All sweet!" I'll not believe him; for
 NEVER TASTED SWEET ORANGES BEFORE.
 At in the afternoon our train reached Granada; and we were at once hurried 8 il in carriages to the Alhambra, for the time for sightseeing was getting short. As usual, all the population of the place were out to see the American tourists. They probably never saw such & sight before. and probably never will again; for 1 doubt if so large party of sight seers ever repeat this expedition. My Appleton's guide-bo states that Gran ada has population of 100000. This gives the wrong impression, and I blame my guide-book for that; Granada may have population of 100000, but 75,OO0 of them are beggars. That we escaped Ehn hands of fbasp Hitfi+ac nd and JebusItes who beset us behind and before and poured upon us an enfilading fire with their cries of ''Mureta," which still sound in my ears, count one of the happy deliverances which kind Proyi- dence granted us.
 The Alhambra is situated on a lofty plateau overlooking the town of Granada. It is reached by road winding up a steep hillside lined on either side with trees and paTterres of aromatic shrubs. The Alhambra! do you think I can de- <cribe it? An, no; it took a Washington Irving with bewitching style that flow d out into all the graces of diction to do that. The Alhambra is not thing to be exactly described; it is poem to be re- cited, song to be sung, dream to carry away into realms of meditation and re- pose. There is one idea of the Alhambra which l had, and which I therefore imagine most other strangers have, which idea is wrong. The Alhambra is not single building; it is great collection of irregular buildings. The walls encl0s- ing these buildings are nearly half 6 mile long and one eighth of a mile wide; and in these walls watch. towers are set, for that is what the Alhambra originally was, it was fortification of the Moors. The Alhambra was begun in the year 1922 and took about 100 years in building. WHEN YOU LOOK AT ITS GRACEFUL NINA
 REFS
 and towers, its beautiful colonnades, it's domes that entrance you, its fountains that still play; when you stand captivct- ed by the wealth of color and tintiDg, the stucco work so delicate in design. so wonderful in it's conception when the guides tell you that much of that work represents lost art that cannot be re- produced to-day-you long to know something about this marvellous people, the Moors, who suddenly rise into such prominence, whose armies swept all be- fore them, whose work stands even now the despair of the great artists of the world, the people who once threatened to be masters of world-embraeing en- pire, but who suddenly fell from their position of glory and are now counted among the obscure nations of mankind. Afterwards we see the descendants of these builders of the Alhambra in the streets of Algiers. The trace of power and strength is still visible in their fea- rures; but it is power in ruins, it is strength in decay. It is the old, old Story which tells the decadeIce of the nations, how Babylon fell from her glory and how Rome ceased to be mistress of the world. They gave themselves over to profiigacy and all manner of defile- ment; they forgot the fact that right eousness becometh an individual; that ruin must be the end ever of that race or people whose God is not the Lord.
 The Court of the Lions is called the pearl of the Alhambra. It is in the centre of the palace. The court is pav- ed with colored tiles; and in it's midst is a fountain, the basin made of oriental alabaster and supported on the backs of 12 lIon-like creatures, from which the court receives its name. Above the arches Supheld by the slender marble columns of the colonnade are small escutcheons, enamelled blue and gold, each bearing an Arabic motto, which is said to be read 'sNo eonqueror but God Every one finds in this great pile some hall or chamber that proves peculiarly ehoi niins " nm thS sSicStiou is iat Sca9 a matter Of taste. I found especial de- | light in the Hall of Repose. In this room | the Moorish princesses and ladies of rank gathered after the bath and leisurely sip | ped chocolate or tea, while band dis c0ursed sweet music in the galleries above. The colors in the frescoes of this room have been retouched, so as to rep
 resent as nearly as may be the original. THE EFFECT IS BEAUTIFUL.
 Standing there, you are carried back in
 thought into the days of old brave, ar.
 moved knights and ladies fair and the
 music of revelry-all these come about
 as with the entertainment of delightful
 dream. There is one thought that comes
 to your mind at every footstep through
 these halls; it is this {: what if these | yIo rH.k