Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-10-14
NO. 244.
THE VISITORS BOOK AT NIAGARA.

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THE VISITORS BOOK AT NIAGARA.
Perhaps the Falls of Niagara, the most
magnificent cataract, or series of cataracts
In the world, are annually visited by
greater multitudes than any other single
object of natural beauty and grandure that
attracts the curiosity Of the human race.
Greater crowds may distribute themselves
annually in the mountains and lakes of
Switzerland, but these crowds do not all
converge to one point rs at Niagara. The
Falls are so beautiful, that not even the
hustle and swarm of fifty thousand peo-
pie, noisy, pompous, silly, vulgar and
ignorant as the immense majority Of them
be, can detract very materially from the
delight of a visit. My present purpose is
not SO much with Niagara itsef as with
its visitors. and more especially with such
visitors as do take the trouble to write in
the Album or Visitors Book ss gae
| AT THE TABLE ROCK. ..;g.s.
King David, the Psalmist, said in his
haste that all men We're liars, and a Scott
ish clergyman preaching on the text, de-
clared that if David had lived in his par
ish he might have said it at his leisure. II
this worthy minister had been at Niagara
Falls, and passed few hours looking over
the Visitors Book, he might, without
great injustice, have varied the phraseolo-
gy, and said, either at hast or at leisure,
that all men were fools. rasi, III. f-a.
BarbarOus tribes amuse themselves by
making marks or drawings on their naked
bodies and taking pride in thus tattooing
themselves, that all their small world may
see and admire. Members of, civilized
communities instead of writing upon their
bodies, strive to attract the attention Of
larger circle by scribbling upon walls, q
cutting their names and initials on trees,
and when travelling at home or abroad,
in writing their names and reflections in
hotel books. @44s
1t has been said that the horse is q very
respectable animal, but that he has the un-
happy fatility Of making more or less of .
blackguard of everybody who has much
to do with him. In like manner it may
be said of Niagara, one of the grandest
objects in nature, that it has the unhappy
fatality of making fools of nine-tenths Of
the people who go into spoken or written
raptures about it. Such a mass Of mani
ties, platitudes, conceits, affections, i'm
pertinences. sillinesses, mouldy jokes and
absurd profoundities, with here and there
gleam of good sense and good feeling,
is possibly not to be found in equal quanti-
ty in any library beneath the moon, as
that which exists in the possession1of the
worthy Canadian who has established the
Museum at the Falls, and has for more
than quarter of century provided visi-
tors with books, and pen and ink, to re-
cord their names and their observations.
The following is selection of some of
the best and some of the worst OF these
entries. Wise people, whether lovers or
not, keep their private emotions sacred,
but fools of both sexes love to babble and
to scribble. 4s
THE FIRST LOVER Eug1 2
thus records his experience: ll4s D.
On Table Rock We did embrace. sgs.
And then we stood both face to face;
The moon was up, the wind was high,
f looked at she, and she at /. h .sr
Language failed him after this effort,
and he could say no more. The next
gentleman must have had difference
with his lady-love. At all events he eases
his mind by the profound refection:g eoo
Great is the mystery of Niagara's waters,
But more mysterious still are some mems daught-
ers.
Another swain, deeply enamoured, but
MORE OF A WAC
than poet, writes from his heart, and
with daring rhyme;
seeing
Is that OF seeing Niagara. s4.-t ..
A disconsolate one, Tilted, perhaps, or
it may be divorced, records her. sorrows
in prose. II have come," she says, ito
Niagara too late. Five years ago was
creature of enthusiasm, poetry and devo-
ton. Now l am feelingless, heartless,
soulless. The once gushing fountain of
youthful emotion have been broken up BY
the whitening blast of adversely. The
flowers OF my life are blighted. and all
is dull-all is tame. laugh at Niagara
What care for the thunder of its waters
Great God, now should have enjoyed
this sight once % The signature to this
outburst of disappointment is "Bit," to
which some critic of the sterner sex has
appended this comment, "Yes, bit with
affection ~
A happy lover enters what he perhaps
thought very original remark: How
lonely and desolate the life of man would
be without womanm To this critic, who
signs himself "Quilp," appends the query,
"wHAT HAS WOMAN TO DO
with the Falls ?'' A third tourist, signing
hiuuself Crank" replies, "lf woman has
not to do with the Falls, | should like to
know who has. She made the first Fall
herself. The next is evidently the produc-
tion oh much later period in married
life than the moon of honey:
Once a time, with naught to do at home,
My wife and determined We would roam;
But to decide upon the route
Admitted much domestic doubt.
If said east she said twas best
That We should travel to the west;
SO after many arguments and brawls,
She brought me aolens volens to the Falls.
The thunderous roar of the waters is so
luod. when heard from either the Table
Rock. OF from the Tower on Goat Island,
that silence, if not imposed by the majesty
of the scene, is rendered necessary. by
the difficulty of making oneself heard
above the din of waters. This fact. Of
course, does not escape the notice of the
amiable cynics who like to make HARM
less jest upon the ladies. One OF them
writes.