Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-01-17

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peninsula of Ceylon. The Spauldings,
the Howlands, the Doctors Poor, the
Saunders and others just as good and
strong have been fighting back mon
sters of superstition and cruelty great
err than any that ever swung the tusk
or roared in the iungies.
But passing up and down the streets
of Ceylon you find all styles of people
within five minutes: Afghans, Kaffirs,
Portuguese, Moormen, Dutch, English,
Scotch, Irish, American; all classes,
all dialects, all manners and customs,
all styles of salaam. The most inter-
esting thing on earth is the human
race, and specimens Of all braches of it
confront you in Ceylon. The island of
the present is quiet and incon-
spicuous 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 Yorlxs, and dead Pekins,
and dead Edinburghs, and dead Lon
dons. 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 pick
AK. The Pompeii and Herculaneum
underneath Italy are small COM
pared with the Pompeiis and Hercula-
nouns underneath Ceylon. Yonder is
an exhumed city which was founded
500 years before Christ, standing in
pomp and splendor for / 200 years.
Stairways up which fifty men might
pass side by side. Carved pillars, some
| of them fallen, some of them aslant,
some of them erect. Phidiases and
Christopher Wrens never heard of here
performed the marvels of sculpture
and architecture Aisles through
| which royal professions marched.
Arches under which kings were car
ried. City with reservoir twenty miles
in circumference. EXtemporized lakes
that did their cooling and refreshing
for twelve centuries. Ruins more sug-
gestive 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 crevices. Dago-
bas, or palaces where relics of saints
or deities are kept. Dagobas four
hundred feet high, and their fallen
material burying precious things for
the sight of which modern curiosity
has digged and blasted IN vain Pro.
cession of elephants in imitation,
wrought into lustrous marble. Troops
of hor es in full run. Shrines, chap.
els, cathedrals wrecked ON the noun.
tain side. Stairs of moon stone. Ex-
quisite scrolls rolling up more myster.
les than will ever be unrolled. Over
sixteen square miles, the ruins of one
city strewn. Throne rooms on which
at different times sat 165 kings, reign
ing in authority they inherited. Walls
that witnessed coronations, assassina-
tions, subiugations, triumphs. Affairs
at which millions bowed ages before
the orchestras celestial woke the
shepherds with midnight overture.
When Lieut.. Skinner, in 1892, dis
covered the site of some of these cities,
he found congregated. in them undis-
turbed assemblages of leopards, porcu-
pines, famingoes and pelicans; reptiles
summing themselves on the affairs;
prima donnas rendering ornithological
chant from deserted music halls. One
king restored much of the grandeur;
rebuilt 800 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 b. c.? Was it I'M
healthed with a host of plaques? Was
it foreign armies laying siege? Was it
| whole generations weakened by their
own vices? Mystery sits amid the
monoliths and brick dust. Finger on
| lip in eternal silence while the CEN
turtles guess and guess in vain. We
simply know that genius planned
those cities An eminent writer esti-
mates that pile of bricks in one ruin
of Ceylon would be enough to
build wall ten feet high from Edin-
burgh to London; 1000 pillars with
carved capitals are standing sentinel
for ten miles. You can judge some
what of the size of the cities by the
reservoirs that were required to Stake
their thirst; judging the size of the city
from the size of the cup out of which
it drank. Cities crowded with inhabi-
tants; not like American or English
cities, but packed together as only bar
barrie 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 assembled. Anur-
adhapura and Pollonara will never be
rebuilded. Let all the living cities of
the earth take warning. Cities are
human, having time to be born and
time to die. No more certainly have
they a cradle than a 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 rewarded they are
overthrown.
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