Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1894 — A SINGULAR TOWER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A SINGULAR TOWER.

What It Commemorate* No One Beema t Know. At Sarnath, a few miles from Bengal, India, are many interesting ruins, and this fact has led many to believe that Benares was originally built there. As early as 399 A. D. the place was visited by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims, and it then presented an architectural picture of great magnificence. It was here that Sakya Muni, the founder of Buddhism, entered upon his mission. Rising

out of the ruins is a remarkable tower 93 feet in diameter, 110 feet above the surrounding ruins, and 128 feet above the surrounding plain. What it commemorates no one seems to know, but it is probable that it is in some way related to Buddhism.

Queen Victoria is seventy-five years old, and has been a Queen fiftyseven years. The old lady has had a comparatively uneventful but a very happy and contented life. If she lives three years longer she will have broken the record of throne-holding. In a domestic way she has done her duty. She has three sons four daughters, twelve grandsons, twenty granddaughters, and no end of great grandsons and granddaughters. The succession is not in danger. She has been a model of the domestic virtues, and a ruler without reproach. She married for love herself, though since that time she has been an inveterate matchmaker for material and poetical reasons. No age since the Elizabethan has redounded more to the glory of Great Britain than the Victorian. It is no wonder therefore that all England celebrated the good old lady’s birthday with enthusiasm, and that the world over there were cordial wishes for many happy returns of the day.

TOWER OF INDIA.