American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-08-11
TFor the American Republican
A SKETCH BY RAMBLER.
HARPER's FERRY, Aug. 5, |

HARPER S FERRY, aug. D, 1916.
Magnicently grand as America is unver-
sally acknowledged to be in scenery of the most
imposing and beautiful description; rich as she
is in the essentials that constitute the true
beauty of Nature; mountains, majestic in their
height; rivers, broad and deep; lakes of I'M
known DEPTH mirrors of the almighty Niagara,
whose laundering is the bass in creations music;
forests unbroken in their stiffness; praires,
decked with flowers innumerable, painted in all
the varied hues of Heaven, yet even here are
to be found some favored spots, where it would
seem that Nature paused to mingle and group
her beauties into one. | have rambled amid
the perfumed praries of the west; gazed upon
the expansive bosom of the Atlantic; roved
among the sunny groves Of the South, and
sported on the highlands of the North but
never until now have gazed upon a landscape
of such surprising loneliness, a scene replete
with beauty. Standing upon the elevated posi-
ton from whence he contemplated its magnfi-
cence, approaching the emotions that rose with
in his bosom, adopt his language and exclam
at is worth q voyage across the Atlantic" |
allude to one, now no more, TO one emphat-
cally great; to one who, scorning the blood
stained path to fame, held aloft his mighty
shield, and sped with one resistless bound to
Fame's high pillared dome, graved upon its
adamantine form the Declaration of American
independence, a beacon light to the world, bear
ing upon its every line the impress of mighty
genius, ard TIE indomitabe courage of a spirit
dauntless as it was free Here, where Thomas
Jefferson stood, Rambler stands, and would
had he the power, fill every heart with the
throbbings of his own.
Come up with me; the rock on which stand
has defied the storm of ages, and will not totter
GOO IL is paruad with
aspirants to fame, that would be great and
may. Beware the brink; one false step, and
destruction would be inevitable. Here, sit be-
side me, and admire the work of omnipotence!
See yonder towering mountain, clothed from
its base to the summit in the green mantle of
spring, that barrier has been crushed by Deity.
Behold the chasm, and the huge rocks that
hang impending from the precipice on either
side, threatening vengeance on the foe that
swept away their buwarks. To the right the
Shenandoah comes to meet the Potomac, that
is rushing from the left MiHgling into one,
they glide swiftly through the mouRtain pass,
rpplng forth their notes of Joy to him who set
their waters free. Hark It's the echo of the
boatman's horn, and see yon deeply laden
barge, bearing the fruits of the soil, gliding
sweetly along on the unruffied bosom of the
Canal; and, rushing along its brink, behold that
huge iron monster, instinct, as it were, with
life, advancing with frightful velocity along its
iron-bound path, goaded to madness by the
flames that rage within him. List to that shrill
| piercing shrek issuing from his nostril-it is
the rejoicing cry of an element, escaping from
the shackles that triumphant art had fettered
around it. Man may bend the elements to an
acknowledgment of his power-it is but an ad-
mission of their own superior might. Let US
ascend the hill, in the rear of the rock. How
soemnly impressive, how calm, and still is all
around, above; and the silence beneath startles
the beating heart with its stiffness. No whis-
per; no breathing, nothing but quetness reigns
here-it is the resting place of the dead.
would not ask more fitting place upon the
bosom of my mother earth than this to rest
my weared head upon, and take my dreamess
slumber. The last parting glance of yonder
glorious orb would rest upon my grave, and
his rising beam dispel the darkness that rested
on it Tread lightly. Oh, do not pluck that
rose-a mothers hand hath placed it here, an
emblem Of the bright fair creature that rests be-
meath its dropping petals. Sacred be the flow
ers that bloom above the dead Perchance,
when the stars are smiling on them, and the
night winds stir their leaves, the spirits of the
dead come forth from those grassy mounds, to
cIothe afresh the lily, repaint the rose, and re-
new their fragrance.
| Touch n 1t tler flowers still let them bloom,
Difusng fragrance round their tomb.