Connecticut western news., 1872-10-18
AMID THE ALPS.

r. AMID THE ALPS.
 "By the way, Rawdon, what became o1 that meerschaum of yours 2" I asked him, as we sat one night over the campfire.
 "What meerschaum ?'' ..a -. ... .
 '"The one you bought of the old Ger man general at Holstein. I secured its twin.''
 '1 may answer your question by bk- tug what became of yours" returned Rawdon, putting out the smoke.
 ''Mine That pipe of mine did vast amount of travelling, if you care to know, It looked with its fiery eye askance at the pyramids; dipped with me along the serpent bordered waters of the Nile burned>its small pile of incense along the storied Rhine. It yearned pensively and dropped an ash by the ashes of Hercu- laneum and Pompeii. It wended it's way past the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean. ltlowered about Mecca and Medina, and at last, when in poetic mood, by the Cas- plan, immortalized by Moore's liquid verse-my lips relaxed their hold and my pipe fell into the sea.n
 "Quite history" remarked Rawdon. "Mine committed suicide" .- rt-...
 Larco laughed.
 "Truth," said Rawdon. s.As stood on London Bridge, my heretofore faithful pipe leaped from my lips into the Thames. A clear case of voluntary suicide"
 "You had quite an adventure after l left the party, Fitzhugh wrote me-"
 Had ? Let me see: it was soon after you left the party that we made the as- cent-I attempted it, rather-of Mont Blanc ?" @'--
 eYes, that was what Fitzhugh spoke Of in his letter. What about it all ?" .-
 "One can hardly hope to do justice to any thing which one tells of Switzerland" |" began Rawdon, after pause of thought. 1.-The country must be seen to be appre- ciated, and it must be seen by an artist eye and appreciated by a soul endowed with deep religious sense of the miracles which God alone could create, to get the faintest conception of it's wild, wonder full, and magnificent scenery. So sudden and varied are the changes which the eye beholds, that it seems more like a fairy land floating in the unreal mirage of a dream than like anything real"
 "Aye."
 'The great height and magnitude of the mountains, glistening with eternal snow the awful chasms opening between them the bolt upright precipices; the dark raviDes, with here and there shadowed pool or lake, and the fertile valleys bloom ing in luxuriance, combine to make a picture of rare excellence, and of unsur- passed wondrous beauty"
 "Welfl go on, Rawdon." ...
 "Seen on cloudless day, the sparkling glaciers, piled up and pointed in rare and fantastic form, dazzling the eye and fill ing the soul with wonder. Here snow white city lifts it's spires and glistening pinnacles in frozen silence, like mighty petrifaction. There, huge columns, like leaning towers of marble, catch the suns glare on their polished surfaces. Agaln, one sees groups of marvellous statuary- figures standing, leaning, anything and seemingly in death like repose."
 "But about your adventure, Rawdon ?''
 'It was not much of an adventure" he retorted. "We had passed the winter at Geneva, small few of us, finding it pos sessed among It's citizens many of the most learned and scientific men of Europe. From this place the view of the Alps is unsurpassed. Toward Spring, parties of travellers going through the place made us restless, and we also started. As our party moved on toward the hamlet where we were intending to tarry few days and await propitious time for ascending Mont Blanc, 1 was so unfortunate as to get mounted on the most treacherous steed in the lot. Never did Pegasus throw his rider with less warning thar my beast of horse threw me. I escaped with, as l thought, the trifing injury O sprained wrist. But I got deceived 1T 1 judging that sprained wrist was but { trife, for my hand began to swell ani grow discolored, as for. my thumb, ii might as we'll have been pine knot, fol all the feeling there was in it twas mJ right hand, too. The rest waited severa days for me to make the ascent with them but finding that my hand mended so slow ! ly, they grew impatient, and went o1 without me. It did not much matter, fol parties were coming up every week ol two, and I should not lack company The tediousness of my stay at the inn wa very, much frightened by the kind atten tions of my hosts, daughter, pretty Jenni, Dessonnard." ,. .,--> ,.. ..
 Rawdon paused. '....... .
 "l became impatient Of the delay" ht continued, 'just as you, Larco, are getting impatient because don't talk quicker No sooner did cautious people suggest tn, fmpracticability of my attempting tn, ascent at all, urging as objections tn, dangerous season of the year, and tn, inconvenient stiffness of my wrist, that made up my mind to risk the undertakin, at all hazards. This unhappy trait o character lies dormant, or is active, il every nature" g.. >sge.JJ .-G..t5?s -.,.~. 'What do you mean about the danger ous season 2" g.., .,f .......-....,. .: -.
 "Well, I was detained by the Hines longer than you think for, ,Larco; tn summer and the season were alike over That wound of mine had complication that you'd not care to hear about e "T had no idea of that. Go on."
 s'The arrival in the hamlet one nigh of a famous naturalist and several of m countrgmen, accompanied by the note sl guides, Coutet and Devoriassond, decide me to no longer postpone the enterprise My host and the doctor argued against in vain. Vel and the new party-re mained out late one evening viewing tn ! beautiful scenery by moonlight, Mysti