Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-01-25

and blasted In vain. Procession OF ele-
plants In imitation, wrought into lustrous
marble. Troops of horses in full run.
Shrines, chapels, cathedrals wrecked on the
mountain side. Stairs of moonstone. Ex-
quisite scrolls rolling up more mysteries
than will ever be unrolled. Over sixteen
square miles the ruins of one city streWn.
Tnronerooms on which at different times sat
165 kings, reslgning In authority they IN
herited. Walls that witnessed coronations,
assassinations, subiugations, triumphs. Al
tars at which millions bowed ages before the
orchestras celestial woke the sheperds with
midnight overture.
When Lieutenant Skinner in 1882 discoy-
cred the site Of some of these cities, he foun
congregated In them undisturbed assem-
blages OF leopards, porcupines, hamingoes
and pelicans; reptiles summing themselves
on the affairs, prima donnas rendering
pathological chant from deserted music
halls One king restored much OF the grand
eur, rebuilt 1900 residences, but ruin soon
resumed its scepter. But all is down-tne
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. CT Was
il uuhealthed with host OF plagues1 was
It foreign armies laying seige? Was it whole
generations weakened by their own vicesF
Mystery sits amid the monollths and brick
dust, finger on lip in eternal silence, while
the centuries guess and guess In vain. We
simply know that genius planned those
cities, and immense populations inhabited
them. An eminent writer estimates that a
pile Of bricks In one ruin OF Ceylon would be
enough to build n wall ten feet high rom
Edinburgh to London. Sixteeo hundred
nfllars with carved capitals are standing
sentinel for ten miles.
You can Judge somewhat Of the size oil the
cities by the reservoirs that vera required
to slack their thirst Judging the size OF the
city from the SIZE of the cup out OF which II
drank. Cities crowded with inhabitants
not like American or English cities, put
packed together as only barbaric tribes eau
pack them. But their knell was soundeu,
their light went out. Giant trees are the
only royal family row occupying those
palaces. The growl of wild beasts wnere
once the guffaw of wassail assembled. Anuraj-
ahpura and Pollonarna will never be re-
builded. Let all the living cities OF the
earth take warning. Cities are human, hav-
ing time to be born and time to die. NO
more certainly have they u cradle than a
grave. A last judgment IS appointed for IN
dividuals. but cities have their. last ludg-
ment in this world. They bless, they curse,
they worship, they blaspheme. they suner,
they are rewarded, they are overthrow;
Preposterous says some one, to think
that any OF our American or European cities
which have stood so long can ever come
through vice 10 extinction. But new torN
and London have not stood as long as NOSE
Csvlonese cities stood. Where Is the throne
outside of Ceylon on which 165 successive
kings reigne1 for lifetime. Cities and ma
tjons that have lived far longer than our
present cities or nation have been sepuI..
chered. Let all the great municipalities OF
this and other lands ponder. 1t is as true
now as when the psalmist wrote 1t and as
true of cities and nations as OF indlyldulls,
"The Lord knoweth the way oil the rign,,
teous, but the way CT the ungoily snail
perish"