Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1860-01-12
NIAGARA NOTES.

NIAGARA NOTES.
Only few detached thoughts and scat
tered fancies s'-diyecto m,embra ofthoughts
that go to make up the total experience Of
seeing Niagara-things that occurred to me
there-musings that persistently refuse all
connected form.
The mysterious disappointment that op.
presses the heart when we find ourselves
first in.the living presence of the Falls, is
like the pang a mother feels whenher long.
absent boy returns home. She has loved q
memory-oherished a constant image
while her absent son grows to be new be.
ing. She greets him on his return with 9
kiss, but must turn away to hide the start.
ing tear. She greets manlier form than
she parted from some years ago-he is
handsomer, taller, maturer, better, manlier
in all things; but the mothers. hear. suffers
to realize that she does not meet her bog.
Her reason rejoices in the change-in the
improvement-but her maternal heart will
be pardoned the tear she drops to the mem.
ory of her boy. So, the ideal Niagara is
not the one we find there : and though We
find grander, nobler, more majestic won
der, it still is not the one we have hugged
so long in our hearts-it is not the boy
Niagara, that is fading forever from ourim'
agination, and causes that mysterious gloom
of spirit thataeverybody experiences on first
seeing Niagara.
1 was at Niagara on Sunday. Nature
seemed sending up her. voice in devotion,
murmuring 80 ceaselessly, go solemnly, and
so prsyerfully!, Nature seemed at prayer.
There was genuine worship in the feeling
no cant, no whine, no Pharisee there.
Again Niagara would seem an eternal
anthem of a deathless human love; love,
ideal, life-deep, and holy as angel worship.
In martial mood, one sees in the ascen-
ding spray that rises without intermission
from the shock Of waters, the smoke of
battle-of battle never-ending and glori-
ous in its agony. ~
Once, the darkness of nature and of the
soul were around me, and caught glimpses
of the soaring shades, when words like
these rang through the vaults of memory !:
sAnd there arose a smoke out of the pit
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth
up. for ever and ever. And again they
said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for
ever and ever The roar of waters SEEM
ed repeating, 'For ever and ever The
hell of waters hissed, 'Smoke-for ever
and ever And the Demon shrieked,
sSmoke-despair- ation--loneliness
for ever and ever = =
There is, as one stands upon the giddy
brink, wild perverseness that dares one to
plunge in-to float out beyond hope, where
screaming affection can snatch one back no
more-out, to where there is no return.
All infinite thoughts rush in as VIC gaze
on the Fall-lnnnlte nope, despair, revenge,
eternity, God, love. ~
The Rapids above the Fall look as if they
were taking running start so as to have a
good jump.
There is no misapthropy there. All the
feelings range above it.,
:, One wonders at finding almost no Indian
legends in this locality. The Red Man
has left no story that dates back to the time
when human eye first fell on Niagara, and
the wondering soul of an immortal first bow
ed before its majesty, and human lips first
shaped the sounds that now suggest to thel