New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-12-04

the high rocks with bosterous pleasure. The fore
pround-a more desired prospect to the generals
Struggling ugly building expeetant of many break
fast parties whose appanage of sheds has room for
all the kings horses and all the kings men. Most of
them seemed to have arrived before us, and when
Elizabeth's train dlsmounted and swept
through the parlors 1.-THE Court advances or
glides OF sweeps but does MT walk, it found
o very esplanade of verandah at the
back as large as the platform OF King Hamlets
castle at Elsnore, crowded with people,
The exercises pertaining to this solemnity of the
Cliff House consist in sitting this verandah to look
at the seals till breakfast is ready. eating this break
fast as if twere the last earthly symposium and tear
ing back to town Immediately after as fast as steed
can take YOU So we sat down duly. Ahundred yards
out to sea rises boldly and alone broad, Jagged,
slippery broken hump OF dark rock, with smaller
hump OF two reaching out like prongs. 1t looks as
high az o sloop's mast, and thrice rs wide as that
sloOp's hull. but proud OF not knowing us cubic
contents, because have been told 80 often. The
sea gives il no rest. but beats and beats against
it, and booms in its clefts with sound
of terror. Lying on the lodges OF this
rock struggling up the broken sides, lifting strange
hateful heads and flabby chests above the water to
founder out on the shoulder Of the rising wave
threatening each other in horrible, short nartic-
late, barking speech, bask and complain the seals
the sea lions as they are called They like huge
mud turtles in the way their short, wide ugly, car
tilagnous paddles of legs set on their big bodies
They are like COWS in the numbering awkwardness
of their notion They are like reptiles in their cling
ing and winding They are like human idiots in the
matching of their little santng heads TO their over
rownunder-organized bodies They are like coarser
buffalo in their hairy hides when dry and Ike
velvet otter in their shining fur when wet They night
without dignity because they so gnobe III notion
and attitude. They play without gamesomeness De-
cause they are such lOutish blubber and bulk They
laugh without mirtb, and moan without pathos ana
scream without energy. Even with thelr young
their care and tenderness seem dreadful trayesty
of n relation permitted only to higher orders. No
living creature ever made me so wholly miserable
as they did They seemed TO have tried in so many
ways TO be q and 10 have so utterly failed III
all. 1t was such dreadful exhibition OF arrested
DEVELOPMENT. 1t was such hcartless cruelty on the
part of Nature to put them in those bodies. She IS
ptess enough to human creatures often, but never
knew before how sardonic her blacklist mood can be.
If she meant to teach us how repulsiye if we could
but see it, is an arrested moral development. what
deformty is the soul that fails to grow in all drec-
tons it was not the less mercless 10 the wretched
example. IsuppOse our failures are always needed
by the better man who is 10 profit by Them whether
he be our better self or a later conner But 0, the
bitterness of the faurcsl Moral Mantalinis: Life
is a demniton grind"
They say that these seals have beautiful eyes,
hope they have, poor things. In the tales OF en-
chantment, it is always the beautiful eyes that
reveal the wronged soul; and in the seals they no
doubt prophesy birdofparadSn existence in the
next spheIe-Or, better sill; human. III ~ sald
too that they are wonderfully intelligent and Gun,
ming; but hope they not, because they must All
then find out az some time how ugly they are, ana
bear broken heart thenceiorih ,l drath hgais w.
The seal-world is a very fashionable circle no doubt
as they reckon these things, for the creatures are so
inane, and do the same thing over ana over WIN snch
idiotic persistency. They founder up their rock To
lie in the sun awhile and bark and quarrel. and
when they are dry they lumber down again to prieh
heavily into the sea on the crest OF some lncomng
wave and there they eat and swim ana dilit tlll
they are minded to try the rock once more-and that
is life, day in and day ont.
They are SO depressing that breakfast IL most
cheerful diversion. People always very merry
over breakfast at the Gill House and dare say u ~
the reaction from the seals Our table might have
been transported bodily from Nevada, was M Ike
that remembered proiuseness, except that OF eourse
we had Observation-Disclosures offered with the AR
Apollo when hc passed tho Muses. honey from
Hymettus. hen we rode home across the beach,
the waves breaking over our horses feet This
Pacific seems vaster rhan tho Atlantic somehow. 10
is oppressve-so illimitable. SO eternal, that the
pctty things Of Time about which ono Is engaged
look trivial and incOngruOus and since ono must le
concerned will Fall fashions and salads while in
tins tabernacle, tue tOnltt ~ NllItihAUI. fhP
pose the feeling comes because tie other shores
of the Pacific are so shad0wy 10 us. We know The
very walking-suit and kitchen table that the Liver
pool ma ron pOsscsscs. hut the ways Of Chlcadado
and Loves Young Dream IN Loo ChOO are less real
than Puck's fantasies.
Turning from the beach road and winding
east, we came suddenly the lovclicst view
of San Francisco | have seen IL Bagdad
again something finer; all light. and arlness. aud
grace; the Bay brilliant in tile sun, and iarOii hills
so heavenly purple and tender and reckoning that
not To 20 to them seemed injury and m0rOseness.
wish could hope 10 declare the supernal beauty at
these verlnrcless nights Bat our familiar speech IL
so saturated and cOlored with familiar experiences
that il does not reflect these unique aud unlmagined
scenes. Thus if / say purple hills" goa SEQ that sIi,
perb and silent state in which the CatSkils and
FrancOnias and Allrghanies often sit arraycd. But
see q vail haze nay the very substance itself OF
the TRANSPORTED nights. Of such bloom and tender
ness and purity of such conscious but unharmed
beauty of such appealing and infantilc sOftuesS that
it has no like save in the light that never was on
or land.
We came back from the Cliff House with the cx-
pected feeling that the loss Of it's breakfasts would
give California civilization pause, Ia hear that We
sail for Oregon in two days. The intervening hours
are "A horror of packing aud sightseeing IN which my
views of California society, once, ! tater myself,
extremely pli0sophic and valuable. become 50
fused that postpone their consideration to calmer
moment J." q. Z.
UTAH.