The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

decorated. Those sovereigns might well look down
with supercilious contempt on the dwellings of the
rulers of Germany, France, and England, which
were scarcely better than stables,--chimneyless,
windowless, with a hole in the roof for the smoke
to escape, like the wigwams of certain Indians. The
Spanish Mohammedans had brought with them all
the luxuries and prodigalities of Asia. Their
residences stood forth against the clear blue sky, or
were embosomed in the woods. They had polished
marble balconies, overhanging orange-gardens;
courts with cascades of water; shady retreats
provocative of slumber in the heat of the day;
retiring-rooms vaulted with stained glass, speckled
with gold, over which streams of water were made
to gush; the floors and walls were of exquisite
mosaic. Here, a fountain of quicksilver shot up in a
glistening spray, the glittering particles falling with
a tranquil sound like fairy bells; there, apartments
into which cool air was drawn from the flower
gardens, in summer by means of ventilating towers,
and in winter through earthen pipes, or caleducts,
imbedded in the walls-- the hypocaust, in the vaults
below, breathing forth volumes of warmed and
81