Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-10-21
Flying Trip to the Falls.

u mhJOIitJ VI Ouo Aho OhS Saoo 'S'AHeN
and as editors are expected to tell every
thing, it becomes incumbent to tell the
story of one of the greatest events of
modern times to those Of our party who
had never seen the sublime and constant
miracle Of niagara. An expedition,
having been planned by Col A. A.
Barnes, the general agent of the Mem
phis and Charleston railroad, the party
set out under his superintendent, on
the Adam Jacobs, and arrived at st.
Louis on Sunday morning, the 10th ult,
with one of the pleasantest possible
steamboat trips to that point Nothing
was wanting which was in the power Of
kindness to supply on the part of the
very gentlemanly officers of that safe and
comfortable boat, for which we are in
debted to the liberalty of the Memphis
and St. Louis packet company AS we
had few hours to spare at'St Louis we
rode out to Shaw's garden, aud there
saw the greatest paradise of fruits and
flowers, arbors, foliage and shady walks
on the continent, the result of private
taste and munifcence 1t is worth a
trip to St. Louis to see the hospitable old
gentleman in his lovely home. Though
he pointed to his last resting place, a
roohess building of rough stone, with
windows grated with iron bars, and a
creeping vine OF evergreen in the center
ground--and told some of the ladies
of our party he was "old enough to be
their grand papa" yet all were charmed
and 10th to leave the hospitable old man
in his fairy home. If he had been only
younger we know not the effect on some
one of our Memphis and fernando
bellies. But time flies, and ours was
short; and we were driven to fly too
from the charming garden to the gratuit-
GUS and sumptuous dinner Of the South
ern Hotel, and thence for Chicago,
for which place we left at four in
the evening, and arrived at the Sher-
man House early next morning,
without more fatigue on the sump.
tuous cars of the Chicago, Alton
and St. Louis railroad than is re-
quired to tell the story. And so we ran,
remaining over at Chicago and again
faring sumptuously a couple of days
and reaching Niagara by way of the AL
ton, Michigan Central and Great Yves
tern railroads, crossing at Detroit
through Canada without being conscious
ofany appreciable fatigue, discomfort or
want of moments sleep or rest Such
is the comfort of this route, and such
the improvement of the nineteenth cen
tury. We "put girdle round about the
earth in forty minutes" ard behold, it is
a dream.
In moment crossing the superb sus'
pension bridge, we are in the stunning
roar of the tremendous rapids and falls,
where the pure rain water is lashed into
white foam, which remains for two hun
dred yards below the falls, where whole
logs are torn into fragments and float
f ne splinters on emerging from the or
deal, and where the seven hued rainbow
smiles and bushes eternal as the sun
light. To describe the Omnipotent en-
ergy is impossible. Think of sheet OF
water containing the whole current OF
great river, which, after rolling and
tumbling hundred feet downward over
inuumerable rocks, hurrying couple o'
miles to its final leap, suddenly falls
perpendicularly one hundred and sixty
feet, and breaks and burns its globules
into milk and spray, warning with the
resisting rocks beneath. And think o.
standing under this mighty sheet o.
water, mute, astounded, insignificant
atom, and looking upward from the
seething cauldron beneath, through Its
foam and binding steam, and spray
and triple rainbows, on the golden arch
of heaven-from nature up to nature
God 1t matches the greatest convul-
sions of nature, the ferceness of the
lightning, the dizzying shock of the
earthquake, and the roar of the thunder
while ineffable light looks down upon it.
and the beholder surveys the perfection
of the sublime grandeur and beauty.
One would think such presence a'
this would make all men unsor'
did, liberal and devotional, But
the Yankee tailor has settled here
thinking it "a good place to sponge
coat" and the nutmeg vendors and
peddlers find it a good place to shark
You are shaved and Aeeced on every
hand, from the tavern-keeper to the
meanest door-keeper, hackman and
waiter, first one side, and then another
on all sides. These fellows make every
thing pay. They have erected many
rude and tottering towers and stairways
commanding all the best views, and you
pay for the use of these half nuisances
from two dollars at the Gave Of the
Winds" and one dollar ninety cent?
at the site Of the liable Rock" to one
dollar or 8 half to the whirlpool, the
lower rapids and the suspension bridge
and can spend twenty dollars a day very
conveniently helping these guardians oi