Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-01-19
j. II. MILLER & SONS.

heath Ceyim. Wonder is an exhuned
city which was founded 500 years be-
fore Christ, standing in romp and splen-
dor for 200 years. Stairways up which
so men might pass side by side. Carved
pillars, some of them fallen, some Of
them aslant, some of them erect. Phill-
Eases and Christopher Wrens never heard
CT hero performed the inarvels Of sealp-
ture and architecture. Aisles Though
which royal professions marched Arch
es under which kings were carried. City
with reservoir 20 miles in cigoumfer-
enee. Extemporized lakes that did their
cooling and refreshing for IL centuries.
Rims more suggestive than Melrose and
KenilwoIth. Ceyloniaa Karnaks and
Luxors.
Ruins retaining much Of grandeur,
though wars boHlbarded them, and time
put his chisel on every block, and, more
than all, vegetation put its anchors and
prizes and wrenehes in all the crevices.
Dagobas, or places where relics Of saints
or dieties are kept--tlagobas 400 feet
high and their fallen material buTying
precious thiags, for the 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. TX.
quisito scrolls rolling up more mysteries
than viii ever be unrollcd Over I6
square miles the ruins Of one city strown.
Thronerooms on which at different
times sat lG5 kings, reigning in author
ity they Inherited Walls that witness
ed coronations, assassinations, subjuga
tons, triumphs. Affairs at which mil.
liens 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 I'M
disturbed assemblages Of leopards, por-
cupines, fiamingoes and pelicans, rep
tiles 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 archie.
down. What killed those cities? Who
slew the New York and London of the
year 500 e. c.? Was it nnhealthed with
a host Of plagpcs? Was it foreign ar
mics laying seige? Was it whole gen,
erations weakened by their own vices!
Mystery sits amid the monoliths ant
brickdUst. finger On lip in eternal 81
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 a 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 standin
sentinel for ten miles
You can judge somewhat Of the size
OF the cities by the reservoirs that wer.
required to slack their thirst, judgin.
the size of the city from tho size of the
cup out of which it drank Cities crowd
ed with i!ihabitai.ts-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 erowl Of wild beasts where oree
the guffaT OF wassail assembled. Anuraj
ahpura and Pollonarna will never be re-
bailded. Let all the living cities of the
earth take warning. Cities are human,
having time to be born and a time to
die. No more certainly have they a
cradle than grave. !. a last Judgment
is appointed for individuals, hut cities
have their last Judgment in this world.
They bless, they curse, they worship,
they blaspheme, they suffer, they arc re-
warded, they are overthrown.
Something TO Ponder Over.
Preposterousl says some one, to think
that any of cur American or European
cities which have stood so long can ever
come through vice to extinction. But
New York and London have not stood
as long as those Ceyloncse cities stood.
Where is the throne outside of Ceylon
on which 1865 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, The Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the I'M