Butte record. (Bidwell, Butte County, Cal.) 1853-1858, 1857-06-06
A Dreanl,

tlon, out SUBJECT TO my own, ana only
my own, volltion. l felt I could &C
where | desired, and as rapidly as
pleased. l hesitated to move, for il
appeared to me that, having determin-
ed my course, | could not thereafter
change. North occurred to me, and
instantly | stepped towards the polar
star. My strides were leagues in length
and more rapid than a 'two-forty
blood. | walked high in the air.
Mountains covered with snow, yolca>
noes into whose craters | could look
an endless depth torrents, lakes, vast
seas, were under my rapid-moving feet.
| saw, in the unimaginable profundity
OF the crater, an ocean-surging fire
Every wave was crested with foam as
white as the foam of the sea, bnt it
was foam of liquid FIRE 1t was white
lightning, flashing necessarily from the
bottomless sea of hell. At will stood
still, and gazed into this special gehen-
ma, surprising that una gined by any
mortal mind. By degrees | saw dark
spots on the sea of fire. As quick as
thought, they elongated into human
forms, and long columns of moving fl
cures swept like marshalled batalions
towards some unseen point. | still
gaz d, and the ocean of fire became
field of FURNISHED gold, and the foamy
crests were banks of pearls and rocks
OF diamond the figures were of human
shape, moving over the golden fields.
| saw a palace in the plain of gold; 1T
rose 10 my feet, and they rested on the
parapet OF one of its towers. | was in
the very key o. the celest al arch, ard
the foundations of the palace were in
the centre of the earth. | must 90
down its stairway. | commenced The
infinite descent. For long years des
cend d, ever winding, ever going down.
At length | mt a person | had known
ages age. She was clad in robe OF
lee, bespangled with stars Of crystal
gold. She stretched out her hand to
lead me through ii togtuous hall, dsmly
lighted with earryatides, holding in
their hands thigh bones covered with
PHOSPHORUS for torches. | took her
proffered hand, and my own burned as
if touched by the flaming cinders of
a furnace, but it was the burning of
frost My hands became mar
BILE in hers, and they seemed like
weights attached to my arms. / at
tempted to pull til IN away. but my
right hand parted from my wrist, and
in hers, and the stump of the
arm dangled by my side like the neck
of dead swan over the shoulder of
returning hunter.
where do you lead me, H,lda? Is
there no end to these ever turning
balls =
'Yes,' she answered, with a frozen
smile, which cracked her frost-covered
features of alab Ser like pine boughs
loaded with snow in mid-winter. i
am leading thee to my chamber, there
we will rest
But do you live in this silent, de-
serted tower, whose head is in heaven
and whose feet are in he'll p
Silent did you say? Lisien!'
| heard the scream of the wind
sounding as when it c,mes from the
north, in starry night, over the glis
tening stepp@s Of ice in Siberia The
roar of the torrents, the howl of beasts,
the clang OF arms. and the din of m II
tial music commingled with the singing
Of young girls, whose voices were as
soft as the zephyr in summer
'lherc is na stillnes here, thou vast
deaf before
% God, let me be deaf now = and
ms auily all was still as the unoccu-
pied space beyond the domain OF mat
ter.
sHilda,' said I, 'end this horrid jour
ney. My very bones are crumbling to
dust in this eternal FROST
Enter said she, as she pushed open
a door of crystal We were in sa-
loon hundred feet high, and thous-
and fest in length and breath From
the dome above US, hung a chanlaller
of amethyst, with five hund- ed burn
ers. Every burner was n ked child.
lighted at the head, burn ng with
lambent fame, which fell down to the
knees, and then blazed up in white and
frozen. but brilliant flame, to the very
dome of the lofty hall | could see
through the double garments of fame,
and through the very bodies OF the
burning children. There was the blood
pouring in aud out OF the palpi'atln
neart; the lungs were rising and fal-
ling in undulatIng motion. the chill
dren even gaped with fatigue, and wlp-
ed their burning eyes with their chub-
by fis,s of FIRE
'Hllda, are these the candles by
which YOU sleep? | see yonder couch
aud wardrobe
Yes, friend this is my boudoir. Re-
pose your wearied form on those pills
of eusnious ,
| reclined with scream that echoed
and re-cchoed the lifetime of Il human
being, though but IA lnom Mt of the
ime of thst eternal chronology. The
cushions We're a thousand times colder
than ice, but yielding as the down oi
dove. | sank in them out OF sight.
My heart never throbbed again, my
my lungs, which went down IN tina
scream of agony, heaved no more, mA
eyes were froze motienless IN then