The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-03-25

that the two or tnfee IeNoHs'l uN Vi'ii9 which have been made differ from each other as widely as though they were creations of fancy,
 It is long step both in time and dis tance from the Mausoeum to the All hambra, but just as love tor the deau | inspired the former, so the latter rose as the monument of love for the living. Reproduced in art thousand times, so that every chamber has become tamll- far to the ordinary reader, described in | literature quite as often, immortalized by genius of Washington Irving, it has attained fame equalled by no other palace on the earth.
 | This marvellous creation of Moorish l fancy is situated In what was in its | time one of the strongest and largest 1 fortresses in the world Capable of containing an army of forty thousand men, it was at once the admiration Of the Moors and the dread of the Span iards. The Moors called it the Maiden l Fortress, and had a superstition that when it fell the Moorish power In spain would come to an end. The belief was justified by the event, for Kal-al-Ham- rah, the Red Castle, was the last Moor
 ish stronghold to surrender to the l Spaniards, it being given up the year l before the discovery of America, and | the eight centuries of constant war be- 1 tween the Moors and the Spaniards
 were brought to close. The dainty palace within the walls of the huge for l tress was the work of Ibn- -Ahmar,
 and was inspired by his love for his I wife. Teleika was her name, some say Zeleika, and others give her various appellations, so she have had more names than one, but. no matter what i was her name, she found life Tn the I great fortress rather dull and to please her Ibn- el-Ahmar began the el- egant palace as home for her and a refuge for himself from the cares of
 business and the fatigues of war. It proved too long and expensive an un- 1 dertaking for his life and pocketbook, but his son and grandson each were bountifully supplied with wives, whom they were anxious to please, so it was continued by the one and finished by the other in 1914, over sixty years from l the time when its foundations were laid.
 The Escurial, or, in the formal Span- ish diction, Fl Real Sitio de San Loren 70 el Real del Escorial, the official name of the royal palace of the kings of Spain, was built for the monastery, but according to Spanish story, was partly diverted from its original pur- pose by it's builder, Philip H., when l that redoubtable monarch stood with his army in front of the French array at St. Quentin, on August 10, 1857, the l French force was so imposing that the majesty of Spain felt the necessity of l little assistance On consulting his | confessor, he found that the day was the feast of St. Lawrence, and at once
 registered VOW that if victory perched on the Spanish banners he would build in honor of St Lawrence the most splendid monastery in the world.
 What assistance was rendered by St.
 Lawrence the records do not state but
 the Spaniards won the day, and Philip
 at once began preparations to fulfill his | VOW. The emblem of St. Lawrence is the gridiron on which he suffered, and
 by whimsical concert of Philip or his
 architects the buildings of the monas-
 tery were made to assume that form,
 seventeen ranges Of houses crossing the
 court to represent the bars. The mon-
 astery was established, with churches
 chapter houses, refectories and all com
 plete, when some one suggested that
 the gridiron had no handle. A grid iron without a handle was not to be
 thought of for moment, and the fur
 ther suggestion was made that the
 handle be composed of tier of build
 ings suited for q royal residence. The hint was taken, and the handle of the
 grfdiron. four hundred and sixty feet
 long, was built as a palace for the Spanish kings. Twelve years before
 the day of St Quentin, Philip had lost
 by death his beautiful queen, the In,
 fanta Maria, daughter of John III ot
 Portugal Devotedly attached to thu
 charming young girl, the marriage was of very different sort from the state
 alliance afterwards contracted witt Mary of England and the palace anc : churches were made memorial tt ; Queen Maria. There was no forma
 dedication to this effect, but according l to the stories told by his contempora
 ries, the thought was in the king. . mind, and often later in life he retired
 from the hustle oflMadrid to the state
 ly palace monastery. twenty-five mile!
 distant, to bemoan the loss of his onl, love.
 I There was touch of vanity in tht
 erection of the famous Tai Mahal , which was built at Agra by Shah Jehar , as mausoleum for himself and his ia , vorite wife, Moor Mahal. 1t is one o
 the fairy creations of the architecture
 which combine strength and solidit!
 with an appearance of extreme light
 ness and insubstantiality Traveller say it looks as though made of soal l bubbles, so very fragile does it seem l and yet no masonry is more solid l , occupied the labors of twenty thousan;
 men for twenty-two years. and cos over four million dollars. Both within f and without it Is decorated with mosa : ics of precious and semi-precieu
 stones, and it Is said that the whol
 Koran is written on it's interior walls il this costly fashion. An irregular octa s gon, one hundred feet in diameter am ,, two hundred high, it's white marbl l walls gleam through the dark ever S green foliage of tropical cline am = shine over the waters of the river lilS 5 those of a house built by the genii . Shah Jehan and Moor Mahal sleep sid l by side in massive marble sarcophas t in the crypt, and as the building is nov q | lyppf l1rl hV the Indian OOVprnnpnt