New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-03-08

array of fashion and beauty that gIorihes theyo
in midsummer. The streets are abandoned BY
the tedious hackmeh, and the Guide TO the.
Falls no longer eomnends his useless garrulity
to every new arrival The Indian curiosity
shops no longer open gide their doors to the
.staking I'M Of the unsophisticated reprpseata-
tsves OF the human race that pay exorbitant
prices for the genuine haDdiwork of hypothet-
zeal princeses and nnromantic forest maidens.
The trees no longer shelter the beblanketed
daughters Of the Tuscatoras, plying industrious
needles and talking in hoarse putterals to syu-
pathizing pale faces. The humb1g sights no
longer stand with open eyes and insatiate
maws, quick to see and eager to .snsp up the
reluctant ssquarters' of the novelty seeker.
nor do the groves and the river banks, the ferry
mouse and the bridge re-eeho with the quick
steps Of those who pass from Trenton to NJ
agara, and from this To Montreal or Nahant--
tne ever active wanderers Of fashien, driven
they know not whistler, by power they know
not what But over oil presides the genius OF
desoiatIon, and the long silence Is made oaly
more intense by the ceaseless voice Of the cata
ract and its unheeded utterance day and uivht.
few visitors only see Magara in winter
Stimulated by desire. to look upon the afchi-
lecture Of ice, built by the weird and yiewless
fingers Of the mist, we went to the Falls day
or two since. The trip wefl repays the time
and trouble. It is always we'll 70 ~ Niseara,
aud most of all in winter, to contrast it's stern
and e-bound features with the gsntler aspect
| it bears in the mifder season Of the year. It
mas its summer and its winter type, and each
differs from the other as much as its noon and
midnight appearance. And it's effect is much
enhanced by tbs intense solitude that. prevails,
IN contrast with the ever present summer crowd
Il of visitors.
At the bridge, the gate keeper is busy with
the manufacture Of canes You pass on to
Goat Island, and the curiosity and lemonade
shop that fronts the road, shows a thin cloud Of
smoke above Its chimney to indicate the presence
! Of life. Perhaps maker Of euriosities looks
4 stealthily cut and then plies his busy craft
You cross the Island, striking the shore Just
below the island known asthes g Three sisters
An ice bridge binds them all to the shore, and
| ielicate frost work loads the branches Of the
l tnick evergreens. Above the stream, hundreds
Of sea gulls are cutting the air in every diree-
| ton, now poised far above the water, and NOW
| quietly dipping upon its surface. IS
| The horse shoe looks cold and stern, and
mingled with its waters there pours over its
| brink constant shower Of broken ice. The
Itower is accessible, but it is covered with ice,
and just beneath it from the gorge below, rises
| up huge iceberg, almost to the top of the
| Fall. You stand there and look down upon the
| river. The lower shore of either bank is piled
ap with the broken ice gradually extending out
into the stream, till just below the American
Fall both sides unite. and then for Hile.doan
4 IuO IlfCf lb 10 uHS uugS 6Dlu H6lu OIL Ice, COM
| posed OF cakes and fragments, piled upin end
less confusion. presenting every possible shape
and cenented by the falling spray and dashing
| water 1t is a sublime spectacle to stand and
| look down upon this immoEable mass. Not tau
| thousand men could stir it, but the mild breath
| Of few hours may relax its closely wrought
/ materials, may weaken its entire structure and
| give IL an easy prey to the turbulent waters,
that now struggle In vain to destroy it, 1t
stands thefe frozen into ridges and deep valleys,
i ridges rising forty feet above the water and
wales sinking deep into its surface-left just as
the wild play of the left ia great con
i sealed convulsion. A path leads directly acress
it from the foot Of the ferry case, and hundreds
4 use it as highway daily. But it is difficult
walking, owing to the inequalities Of the sur-
face, and the many windings Of the path.
/ AT Luna Island fine view is had, but OBJ
tanned at some risk of sliding into an unknown
4 future, and turning up rs an accident in the
/ gulf below. The frost has performed its most
i perfect work at the American Fall The banks
are sheeted with ice. Ice loads the trees and
hangs over the falling water, far down the
abyss in sharp points. In front of the Fall,
three or four hills of ice formed of the spray and
"A broken water, tower up to half its height, They
Il are Jagged and broken up on the side next the
water, and smooth and rounded on the off side.
From the,top of these look is had into the
very heart of the fall, that lis only obtainable
under these circumstances friend at the
Falls who had clambered up there, speaks of
4 it in glowing terms. He stood midway up the
Fall Below him gulf of water angry as
Phlegethon and dense with spray. Directly
| over his head is the water pouring down, and
1 apparently leapipg forward to everwhelm him
On the Canada side you get the full panorama
of the American side. This too is deserted.
The curiosity shop and museum at Table Rock,
| are heavy with ice, and the meurners for Mar
tha Rugg have left her untimely place of de-
struction; have folded up the cotton monuments
with its elegiac inscription, and haveexoha anged
their elemosynary bewailment of her piteous
fate, for right merry spending of the fund
derived from the fearful visitors, who listen to
| their plaintipe narrative all the summer Alas,
poor human nature No accident at Niagara
go awful, that it has not been turned Of account,
by the insatiate denizens of that ilk, who thrive
upon death and make money out Of calamity.
| These fellows will have to contract for another
e fatal accident with all the attendant deplo-
able circumstances, for those old ones are most
ly g run into the ground t g
II So much for Niagara in winter. "A pen de-
serlption gives one no idea of the wondrous
beauties that invest that place at this season.
If Summer crowds Niagara with visitors, Win
ter should dono less. Its lessons are more i'm
pressive from the very solitude of the place
The ice bridge and the ice formations may last
month and they may be broken up in q few
days. But any thawing weather will despoil
them of their delicate outlines and detraot from
their beauty and elegance.
/ ROMANCE AND REALITY. Mr.. Bunce, an in
struetive writer upon antiquity, lifts the veil
which romantic writers have thrown over some
of their heroines. He Says: :.aOur notions Of a
charming woman are terribly shocked when we
hear of Cleopatra, even in the presence Of 0cta-
vus, flying at one Of her slaves, and tearing his
face with her nails. do not know if we are
more or less shocked at this than at hearing
how the philosophical Cato, before proceeding
to mediate with Plato on the Immortality of the
soul, gave his attendant q blow on the mouth
because he had considerably removed the sword, j,
fearing that his master was about to do himself
a mischief But the ideas of different ages and
countries are very dssimilar in matters OF this
kind. Even in fctioDs, where the writer has il
in his power to make all his great people decor
Gus and amiable, we find in the Arabian Nights
Entertainments, the most accomplished ladies
doing as Cleopatra did Badoura, the charm
ing Princess of China, seizes the nurse by the
hair of her head and beats her till her face is
covered with Blood. But even in Cleopatra's
days, it is gratifying to learn that Ovid, in that
book of Art of Love-, which is devoted to
instructing the fair sex how to make themselves
agreeable, expresses his repulsion to woman
who loses her temper and beats a,d scratches
her male servant. There was Lucrezia Con
a paI ~ +ba Six