Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-01-07

1Cs nrSG nGIfo, OF mdSOH P1uinO iiH0
measured its first wall, or architects
compass swept it's first circle.
The Tai has Is great arched win
dows, four at each corner; also at each
Of the four corners of the Tag stands a
minaret 1877 feet high; also at each side
of this building is splendid mosque of
red sandstone. Two hundred and fifty
years has the TAI stood, and yet not
wall is cracked, nor mosaic loosened,
nor an arch sagged. nor panel dulled.
The storms Of $50 winters have not
marred nor the heats of 900 summers
disintegrated a marble. There is no
story of age written by MOSES on its
white surface. Montaz, the queen, was
beautiful, and Shah Jehan, the king,
here proposed to let all the centuries of
time know it, She was married at 20
years of age and died at 20. Her life
ended as another life began. AS the rose
bloomed the rosebush persisted.
G1itterins With Jewels.
To adorn this dormitory of the dead,
at the command of the king, Bagdad
sent to this building it's comedian and
CeylOn it's lapis lazuli, and Punjab its
jasper, and Persia its amethyst, and
Tibet it's turquoise, and Lanka its sap
phire, and Yemen it's agate, and Puma
it's diamonds and blood stones and sar-
donyx and chalcedony and moss agates
are as common as though they were peb-
bles You find one spray of vine beset
with 80 and another with 100 stones.
Twenty thousand men were 20 years in
building it, and although the labor was
slave labor, and not paid for, the build
ing cost what would be about $50, 0OO,-
900 of our American money. Some OF
the jewels have been picked out of the
wall by icOnOclasts Or cOnquerOrs, and
substitutes of less value have taken their
places, but the vines, the traceries, the
arabesques the spandrels, the entabla-
lures are SO wondrous that you feel like
dating the rest of your life from the day
you first saw them. In letters of black
marble the whole of tho Koran is spelled
out in and on this august pile. The king
sleeps in the tomb beside the queen, al
though he intended to build palace as
black as this was white on the opposite
side of the river for himself to sleep in
Indeed the foundation of such a necrop-
oils of black marble is still there, and
from the white to the black temple Of
the dead bridge was to cross, but tho !
son dethroned him and imprisoned him,
and it is wonderful that the king he.
any place at all in which to be burin.
Instead of windows to let in tho lght
upon the two tombs, there is q GEMS
work of marble, marble cut SO dt1care-
~ thin that the sun shines throgh IL as
easily as through glass. Look ne world
over and find SO much trsislucency,
canopies, traceries, lace weH' embrold-
cries of stone.
We had heard of the -onder1ul reso-
nance of this Tai, andso erled 1t. 1
suppose there are NOR, sleeping echoes
in that building waj4ng to be Weakened
nv the human yoicl than in any build
ing ever constructd. uttered one word,
and there SCENE, descending invisible
cboirs in fnl can't, and there was re-
verberation TIT kept on long after one
wonld have &pected it to cease. When
q line of alymn was sung, there were
ren1vine SLING, rising, falling, inter-
weaving unds that seemed modulated
nv boiss seraphic There were aerial
sonrays and bassos soft, high, deep,
tren,lous, emotional, commingling. 1t
wadike an antiphonal of heaven. But
the are four or five Tai Mahals. 1t has
re appearance at sunrise, another at
loon, another at sunset and another by
Indeed the silver trowel Of
he moon, and the golden trowel of the
unlight, and the leaden trowel of the
torn build and rebuild the glory, so
hat it never seems twice alike 1t has
Ill moods, all compilations, all gran
leurs From the top of the Tai, which
S $50 feet high, springs a spire 80 feet
higher, and that is enameled gold. What
N anthe.n in eternal rhythm! Lyrics
nd elegies in marble. Sculptured no
anna. Masonry as of supernatural
lands. Mighty doxology in stone. I
hall see nothing to equal it till I see
he great white throne, and on it him
rom whose face the earth and heavens .
lee away.
The Pride of India.
The TAI is the pride Of India, and es-
ecially of Mohammedanism. An Eng
sh officer at the fortress told us that
7hen during the general mutiny i'll 1857
ne Mohammedans proposed insurrection
t Agra the English government aimed
ne guns Of the fort at the Tai and said,
You make instruction, and that same
ay we will blow your Tai to atoms,' q
nd that threat ended the disposition for
lutiny at Agra. =
But I thought while looking at that
alace for the dead all this constructed
cover handful of dust, but even that
andful has probably gone from the q
ausoleum. How much better it would
ave been to expend $50, 900, 900, which >
le TAI Mahal COST for the living. What =
'ylums it might have built for the sick, a
hat houses for the homeless! What i'm
'ovement our century has made upon =,
her centuries in lifting in honor of the u
3parted memorial churches. memorial =