The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-04-13
The sPLEND0R OF THE WEST.
SWITZERLAND AND ITALY WITHIN OUR OWN
BoRDERs-GLoRIEs or TIE YELLOWSTONE.


ers-every step brings new revelation oi
this republics wealth aud beauty. We as
people, are regarded by the critics Of the
messy overgrown and cabined nations OF
Continental Europe as given TO exaSgerauon.
The special intellectual foible of the Amer.
icaus,o says the London Spectator, lis their
admiration for the graudiUse." Yet we can
not write the plain discoveries recorded III
the Herald without seeming to the foreign
mind to indU ge in graudiose rhetoric. Ev>
cry day seems to bring forth new wonder
and the time is coming quickly when the
tides Of health desiring aud wonder seeking
travel will he from Europe TO America.
Why, for instance, should we so to Swiiz
erland TO see the mountains, or To- Iceland
fer geysers? Thirty years ago the attraction
OF America to the foreign mind was Niagara
Falls. Now we have attractions which di~
miuish Niagara into an ordinary exhibition.
The = Semitic which the nation has made
q park. the Rocky MOuuta ard their sim
guiar parks. the canyons Of the Colorado,
the Ddles Of the Columbia, the z ant tiees.
the lake country Of Upper Minnesota. the
c untry of the Yellowstone, with their beau
ty, their spleudor, their extraordinary ard
sometimes terrible manifestations Of nature,
form a series Of attractions possessed by no
other nation in the world When that fa>
nous ciy-item reporter, Charles Dickens,
came here over thirty years ago, he was
taken in state to see a Missouri prairie. He
made an elaborate record of the disappoint>
ment C u,,d him and his failure to see any
thing to compare with the glen of Glencoe,
III Scotland. The thought that our fathers
were so ignorant of their own country us to
sgard prairie its rarest attraction is not
"Iihout humor, aud we can we'll pardon the
absence Of any enthusiasm on the occasion
/ the stately visit, and the desire of Mr.
Dickens to kill the tediousness Of the Journey
by champagne and comic songs. But we
really had little more than prairie aud some
long, narrow, muddy, uninters ting rivers to
show to the foreigner thirty years ago The
West was an unknown land to us There
was nothing but 'desolatiou" beyond the
MiSsisSippi and as to the Pac fic, the Mexi~
cans aud Spanisrds were in possession, and
We had not fought our war for II xas and
California AS have said, why go to
Switzerland to see the Alps? There is no
exhilaration Of air OF beauty IF scenery in
the Alpine regions that we have not 10 Col
orado. Within three or, by easy stages, four
days from Gew York the traveller 6uds him
self stepping from luxurious palace Car into
Denver, and from Denver sweeps a view that
has no parallel in the world. Mountains and
peaks, with every conceivable variety of
color and beauty, stretching for a hundred
miles north and south, their tops covered
With perpetual snow. The mountain parks
invite him for a summers holiday. If he
would hunt. there are deer en- the mountains
aud bufaloes on the plains. and no angry
Bergh 10 modest or make afraid If he has
scieutific tastes. the rocks will tell him a geo
logical story; the quartz formations will
speak Of the hidden riches Cf the earth; the
fora will be full of profit and instruction
The air is pure and iie-giViDs, and acts upon
the nerves like champagne. Far beyond
Switzerland, far beyond the Tl rol or the
Ii highlands, or the Lake country. or Norway,
Colorado stands to~day inviting the tired cit
izea to come aud End rest and health in the
midsummer months.
Colorado is scarcely a new story, AMI We
make this alusion MS a hint to those of our
readers who are wondering where to 90 in
the summer. But here we have really a
new story, told to us by General Phil Sheri>
dan, who sent out an expedition to see, and
" hose report Is in print. A few days since the
Senate passed bill setting apart as a public
park, to the uses of the people f the United
States forever. what we are 10 the habit of
calling the Yellowstone country" The
passage Of the act was wise, for as we read
the reports published by General Sheridan.
we find an aggregation Of curiosities and nat
ural pheno:nena 10 this proposed park that
has no parallel in the wcrld. AS we peruse
the precise and cod and formal words Of
these official reports we feel the glow and
color OF the Arabian Nights, or the legends
sf the Oriental nation. Those of our enthu-
siasts who care to found a Few religion upon
defined principles Of eterUal damnation will
welcome the Yellowstone discoveries. For
here are what We call Sulphur Mountains. -
with marvellous deposits of birthstone the
earth covered with boiling springs, caverns
ct pure crysta'izad sulphur. the air dense
with the fumes Of su'pLu e ted hydro. en- -
There was one spriUg having regular pull
sat'ous IKE an engine, giving off large guam
tries Of steam, which would issue forth with
the roar of hurricane a steam volcano in /
reality; width Geep vibrations in the subter-
ranean caverus far away beneath the bills. -
What an opportunity for powerful preach
er to Iuculcats the doctrines Of eternal pun
lshmeLt. the vengeance of angry God aud |
and the sure reward of all sins Now that
the movement (, wards secession and evan-
geical reformation is seen IN many Of our
churches, here is an opportunity for an ex-
o'us as marked that of Joseph Miller or ,
Brigham Youth.
Then we pass to scenes which have no |
theological associations. Why do We 60 to
tbS lNaluc 10 SCI lHt Itctllt Il OHOS'6 OF the i
castled crag Of DrachenfelS ? Here are tur-
rets Of granite and feldspar and castles Of
basaltic rock, lifted high into the air for hun /
dreds of feet. carved with sursr hand and ,
clearer eye than ever fashioned church or
stronghold. One. for instance. which is thus
described ''Turret or tower, one hundred .
and twenty feet in circumference broken |
aud crumbling masses of rock. suggesting
battlemented turet; the whole stI ucture
graceful in proportions and details resem~
bling an old castle somew hat in ruins, even
to the portfolios. made by small apertures in
turret and base" Then we have pyramids
of basaltic columns, massive and vast as
those of Egypt. says the writer. and of many
colcrs. mainly of deep red .tint from the
salts of iron, but not unfrequently Of deli>
cate gray. saffron, light gamboge. pink and .
green aud the ashes Of roses. Then We have
cascades and rocky gorges ard caverns-
The cascades especially One fall one hum
ureG and fifteen fat annibar fhraa brn