Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1839-01-15
From the Louisville Literary News Letter.
THE MISSISSIPPI.
BY EDMUND FLAGG.

BY EDMUND FLAGG.
g But thou, exulting and Astounding river!
Making thy waves a blessing as they flow
Through banks whose beauty would endure
forever,
Could man but leave thy bright creation SO"
Il is surely no misnomer that this giant
stream has been styled the " eternal riv-
er"--the " terrible Mississippi; )" for we
may find none other, embodying so many
elements of the fearful and the sublime.
In the wild ice-lakes of the far frozen
north, amid solitude broken only by tho
shril clang of the myriad water flows, is
Its home. Gushing out from It's fountains,
clear as the air-bell, it sparkles over the
white pebly sand.bed and breaking over
ter, II raKCS up us TIIuTCstTC TIIurCTi 10 TITg
distant deep. Rolling on ward through
the shades Of magnificent forests, and
hOary, castellated cliffs, and beautiful
meadows, its volume is swollen as it ad.
vances, until it receives 10 its bosom t,i-
but0ry-a rival-a conqueror, which has
roarned three thousand miles for the meet
ing they meet, and its original features
are lost forever. Its beauty is merged in
slblimity- Pouring along in its deep bed
the heaped.up waters of streams, which
drain the broadcast valley on the globe
sweeping onward IN boiling mass, furi-
our, turbid, always dangerous.-tesring a.
way from time to time its deep banks, with
their giant callonades of living verdure,
and then, with the stern despotism of a
conquerer, throwing them aside again,
governed by no principle but its own law.
less will-the dark majesty of its features
summon up an emotion of the sublime,
which deies contrast or parallel. And
then, when we think of its far lonely
course -iOurneying onward in proud
dread, solitary grandeur through forest:
dusk with the lapse Of centuries-pour
ing out the ice aud SHOWS Of arctic lands
through every temperature of cline, til
at last It heaves free its mighty bosom be
meath the line-we are forced to yield vi
ourselves in uncontrolled admiration 0
its gloomy magnifcence. And its dark
mysterious history, too,-those fearful
scenes of which it has alone been the wit
ness-the venerable tombs Of a race de
departed, which shadow its waters-th
savage tribes that yet roam its forests
the germs of civilization luxuriating upol
its borders, and the deep solitudes, untrod
den BY man, through which it rolls, al
conspire to throng tie fancy. Century OF
cent1ry, and cycle upon cycle, have roll
ed away wave after wave las swept tn,
broad fields Of the old world-a. hundre,
generations have arisen from the cradle
and hOurlshed in their freshness, and with
cred IN the tomb /; and the Pharoahs. an,
tie Ptolemies, Caesars, and the Caips
have Numbered over the nations and ar
passed away and here, amid these terri
be s0litndes, in the stern majesty Of lone
liu6ss, and power, and pride, have role
onward, these deep waters to their des
tihyl
sWho gave You your invulnerable life
YOuT strength, your speed, your fury, and you
GoBi iei the torrents, like a shout of nation,
Answer
There IS, perhaps, no stream which pre-
senls a greater variety Of feature than tn
Mi39lt4lpplj or Phenomena OF deeper IN
terest, whether we regard the soil, produc
tons, and climate of It's valley, its individ
al character, and that Of its tributaries. q
the routine Gifts scenery and course. TIL,
continents Of this vast stream are numer
Qua and each one brings in tribute q
the soil through which It has roamed.--
The Missouri pouIs out its waters heavily
chafg8d with the mari of the Rocky Noun
tains, the saffron sands of the yellow
Some, and the chalk Of the White River
che Ohio holds 10 its foods the vegetabl,
mould OF the Aileghanics, and the Arkan.
sas and Red Rivers bring in the deem
dv,d rlluvion Of their banks. Eachtrib
uiS nsinqlss the spoils Of its native hill
with he general food. And yet after IT'D,
Contributions Of so many streams, the Re
markobIe fact is observed, thatits breadll
and volume seem rather diminished thar
ihcd above the embouchure of %,
M fiesn hundred miles from th,
Metean GuIt. Il IS broader than at New
tindian name b the erals of 81 An
thouy