The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-09


 everywhere you hear his name. You say to a tall young Egyptian; How big you are growing, Hassani
 He answers: Come back next year, my gentleman, and I shall be like Rameses the Great
 Or you ask of the boatman who rows you: How can you pull all day against the current of the Nile?" And he smiles and lifting his brown arm. he says to you: Look! am strong as Rameses the Great"
 And what MT. Hichens so aptly illus trates may be paraphrased in a little reference to this section of America, where you hear but one name and see everywhere the traces of one influence alone.
 MT. Vanderbilt may not have all the tastes of Rameses, but of course he must have a similar love of splendor to have built so magnificent a chateau and surrounded 1t with Italian gardens and where they leave off to have lakes at the foot of his terraces and fill them with lotus flowers
 You cannot help wondering how the inside of the chateau must look you finger in the Italian gardens, and if they have lotus columns and play on flutes and cymbals. But l could not for get MT. Hiohen's Egypt that l had been reading that morning when, a few hours later, l found myself on the edge of the Italian gardens surrounding Biltmore house. and was told to my great sur prise that I might wander through them. But you cannot go alone in those gardens because everything is too vivid and too intense; too shining and sensate and because your carriage Is waiting for you at the entrance gate and the gardeners are too near. And you remember all that the driver told you about Rameses n f1U ho and of how many people work on the estate, and you know that as soon you leave the gardens your loqua cious driver will pick up the thread of his story while you may be thinking of the lovely gardens and how they would look at twilight, when the gardeners were not there and you did not hear how restless were the hoofs of the horses
 Even the man who drives you through the estate talks constantly of Ramescs, of the number of his horses, of the peo- pie he entertains at Bltmore house, of his varied industries on the estate.
 He tells you that there are 800 rooms in the chateau; that Rameses lives there nine months in the year; of his innumer- able equipages; of the splendor of Bilt- more house. He knows of 1t because he has worked for Rameses.
 There had been from 400 to 800 people employed on the estate he tells you, and that Rameses owns more than 100000 acres, and is continually enarging the estate, and he stops the carriage and lets you look toward Ramesess hunting lodge 20 miles away and the chateau mirrowed in the lake at the foot of his terraces. He will ruin entire afternoon for you if you permit it.
 He insists upon taking you to the in- dustries. You arrive at one of them only to find yourself feeling like Cook tour ist. with a dozen driving parties going alo9t looking at Berkshires and Guerra seys
 We beat him over the head and make him take us back to the Italian gar dens
 But" he says i've cannot go back that way. We have got to keep going.''
 Did Rameses say that?' ask.
 He has become accustomed to us by this time and smiles
 It is barbarous to have Italian gardens and only open them from 12 to or 4. we tell him, and we finally succeed in break ing his iron will and have own way about seeing Rameses' gardens.
 The entrance to them ornate with it's carvings in which the lions head is the emblem, possibly selected from the Van derbiit crest, is duplicated here and there through the estate There are two i'm posing gateways, the first swinging in-
 
 rectly opposite you again see the Leo em- blem cut in the stone pillars marking the entrance
 The chateau bursts upon you quite un- expe ctcdly, and you are directly in front of 1t before you realize it. To get so near a view of it is quite infrequent, as the private drive is ordinarily guarded Its facade, richly ornate, Is worth study inf for it's carvings and might have been brought bodily from an old-world castle.
 The chateau looks out upon wide and lovely garden over which green has been prodigally showered, but a prim garden with little lake in the center, and the trees at side of the driveway. But as you go further you will see a real garden wall of song and story, over which the vines are clinging and at in- tervals are little arches, wne-covered as if they grew out of the wall. These shut in the Italian gardens, set about with small lakes and with much orna- mentation in the way of marble statuary. Beyond the gardens is the famous prom enade leading to the stone pergola and below which flows the Swanannoa.
 But it is all Ramesese You are not permitted to enjoy it without being re- minded by some one who knows the cost of it, or who knew the country be- fore Rameses decided to live here and dig away mountains for his chateau and his hunting lodge. If you want to believe the chateau is ancient some one tells you that he owned the ground upon which it was built. You cannot dream about it and imagine stories because 1t is not old enough for. romantic tales. And you have to accept what the village folk say and listen to the tales of your cabman.
 But they are wonderful enough to be mentioned in little journal of summer rambling, if you want to remember how much money Rameses spends every year. And, too, they inspire the little folk who hear of Rameses into be- lieving anything wonderful about his personality.
 Was MT. Vanderbilt at church to- day?" asked an observant child of his mother the other day, as they were leaving the Church of All Souls in Biltmore village.
 T do not know, dear" said the moth CT. T do not suppose we would have known it even if he had been there"
 Well" said the child, q did not see any one who looked like lords and high priests and things"
 And this exaggerated idea of per- sonality is expressed in many ways. You cannot escape 1t nor should you wish to, because 1t Is essentially part of the whole place, from the little English looking village with its wida plaza, It's quaint cottages overgrown in ivy, the small windows of the little houses, all curtained attractively, the idea of perfect housekeeping that 1t